Democratic Spirit Research Articles

Language and Society in Post-Communist Europe. Selected Papers from the Fifth World Congress of Central and East European Studies, Warsaw, 1995 by J. A. s> Dunn Ronald J. Hill (review)

Reviews Dunn, J. A. (ed.). Language andSociety in Post-Communist Europe. Selected Papers from theFifth WorldCongress of Central andEast European Studies,Warsaw, 1995. General editor, Ronald J. Hill. Macmillan, Basingstoke and London and St Martin's Press, New York, I999. xi + I77 pp. Notes. Indexes. ?40?00? THEsix chaptersof thisbook byJ. A. Dunn, LudmilaFerm,V. M. Mokienko, Wolf Moskovich, Boris Norman and Lara Ryazanova-Clarke offer original and telling insights into the changing Russian language. The articles of Alexander Krouglov and Seppo Lallukkarecall that languages other than Russianare involvedin change, while those of Stang&-Zhirovova's (on French loan-words)and Wulfhild Ziel's (on the work of Potebnja),while less central to the topic, are interestingand, in Ziel'scase, erudite. Dunn shows how the Russian language has been transformedin the postSoviet period by the disintegration of the Soviet political language and by Westernization, especially in the fields of economics, politics and social activity. The language has been infiltrated,not only by loans and slang, but by archaisms,wordplay and puns, while the principlesof politicalcorrectness are applied in a limited fashion only, as the language has struggledto borrow or createthe terminologyof a Western-typesociety. Ferm considers the development of political metaphor in the post-Soviet period, distinguishingmetaphorsthat have been used in a political sense only post I985 (especially those involving schvatka'skirmish' and probuksovka 'stalling'), metaphors with new referents, and completely new metaphors, manybasedon thehumanorganismanditsdiseases,and(perhapssymbolizing transitionto a new society)on transport. Mokienko detects a democratic spirit of spontaneity in contemporary Russian, in contrast to Soviet purism. Russian has not been alone in experiencing an influxof Americanisms,in fact the internationalizationof the language has been going on for centuries. Present change involves the resurrectionor re-evaluationof obsolete words and phrases,while neologisms have invadedthemassmedia. Linguisticnormsareimperilled,but 'pessimistic forecasts which place the present-day Russian language "on the brink of disaster"have no linguisticfoundation'(p. 82). Moskovich describes the language of nationalistic groupings in Russia, much of it anti-semitic,with calquing from Nazi German (bezzidizm 'absence of Jews') and some survivals from Soviet propaganda (siono-nacisty 'ZionoNazis '). One device isto useHebrew words,anotherinvolvesword-play,while rusaki,rusiciand nasi'our people' are used as stylistically-loadedvariants to russkie and non-Russians are termed cernye 'blacks', nerus''non-Russians' or zapadency (fromWesternUkraine). Norman'spaper on language games in contemporaryRussiandistinguishes a number of categories:unusualword formations(tennisizacija 'tennisization'), metaphors (jascik'box, TV set'), ellipses, and condensed sentences (vockax i v nedoumenii 'in glasses and in bewilderment'). Language play is portrayed as REVIEWS 309 typical of periods of upheaval, when language can be transformed -even if the world cannot. Ryazanova-Clarke defines a new genre: Western-style persuasive advertising , examining the subtleties of pronominal usage, rhetorical questions, imperatives (more regularly used than in the West: Reguljarno mojtegolovu 'Wash your hair regularly'), ellipses (Komplektes"e$ prakticnee'The set is even more practical'), informal and vernacular forms and aphorisms and repetitions. Ryazanova-Clarke concludes that the genre 'has created a new configuration of semantic resources' (p. I32). Krouglov depicts Soviet Russian as a tool designed to maintain power in the Republics, with linguistic norms imposed by the CPSU. By the I970S to the I98os Ukrainian had degenerated into 'the language of the "lower" strata of the population' (p. 38). Now attempts are being made to return to preSoviet times, and neologisms based on native roots are commoner in Ukrainian than in Russian. Lallukka's analysis of the status of Komi-Permiak epitomizes the fate of minority languages in the FSU, with Komi-Permiak relegated to colloquial registers. By the I980s Komi-Permiak had ceased to be a language of school instruction, and many parents favoured Russian as the language of social advance, while a society for the promotion of Komi-Permiak has been less than well supported in the I99os. Nadia Stang-Zhirovova examines the use of French loan-words in the language of Russian immigrants in Francophone Belgium. Most affected is the spoken language of the educated middle and upper class (Ja zvonila im, no u nichrepondeur automatique [for Russian avtootvetcik] 'I rang them but they have an answerphone'). The collection concludes with Ziel's piece on the fundamental question of the relationship between language...

Transforming California: A Political History of Land Use and Development

The author argues that the transformation of nature in order to enhance economic development lies at the heart of much of California's late-20th century history. Stephanie Pincetl sees the state on a path of environmental degradation and gripped by cynicism about government. She describes how government land-use decisions affect people's quality of life and people's interactions with each other and with their environment. The author emphasizes the political reforms of the Progressive era, demonstrating how those reforms concentrated political power in the hands of economic elites (because these people were deemed the most capable decision-makers at the time) and established the contemporary balance of power and system of governance. Mindful of that system's failures, Pincetl offers an alternative vision for the renewal of the democratic spirit and process in California and for a reconciliation with nature.

The First Liberal Democrat: Locke's Popular Government

This article discusses the democratic side of Locke's political thought, which is generally not appreciated. How is it that Lockean constitutionalism is also “popular government,” institutions, that is, but institutions considerably informed by a democratic spirit? The answer involves Locke's three characteristic innovations in institution-planning: “civil” government, a supreme “legislative” power coupled with a responsible executive, and,inter alia, a vigilant “majority”—a party or movement of the people with authority to elect to government and to rebel against any non-popular government. While Locke does raise up a powerful executive, he also makes it dependent as a rule on a rather democratic legislative. What Locke wishes to induce over time is something like parliamentary government, with the executive vested in a cabinet and the whole more or less responsible to the people in his sense, especially to a majority.To what extent are liberal democracies democratic? That question guides this reconsideration of the first and fundamental plan for liberal government, that of John Locke. I shall argue that Locke's plans are more democratic, and more radical too, than is generally believed. True, important parts of Locke's teaching correspond to undemocratic features with which we are now quite familiar. Liberal democracies have more or less capitalist economies in which wealth and big corporations are protected, they are moved not only by public opinion but also by liberal opinion-leaders of one stripe or another, they are governed not by the people in assembly but by constitutional governments.

Public Service: Our New Mission

democratic but too many Americans do not participate in public life. Social scientists have documented a decline in voting, attendance community meetings, and involvement in voluntary activities. In addition, peoples' interest in public issues, their ability to argue for their beliefs, and their respect for differences in cultural groups are in question. Higher can contribute to civic engagement, but many universities have de-emphasized their civic mission. Whereas universities once promoted education for democracy or for society, today it is hard to find top administrators consistently committed to this purpose or faculty members who consider it central to their work. Among America's institutions of higher education, research universities are strategically situated for civic engagement. Many early universities helped build the new nation. They were later joined by institutions whose leaders expressed strong social values. Charles Eliot of Harvard University, for example, wrote that at bottom, most of the American institutions of higher are filled with the democratic spirit. Other leaders argued that the route to a civil society went through the universities. It would be just as mistaken to conclude that these individual expressions became institutional behaviors, as it would to ignore that some universities practiced racial and religious discrimination. But the ideas were expressed nonetheless. Those early universities have developed into institutions with immense resources. Modern research universities have faculty members with credentials in academic disciplines and professional fields such as business and economic development, and engineering, health and human services that have great potential for problem solving and program planning. And they have large libraries, laboratories, and telecommunications facilities. They are more than educational institutions; they are also major employers, providers and consumers of goods and services, and powerful social and economic units, whose decisions affect communities regardless of the level of community involvement in knowledge development. In the process of expanding, the universities transformed themselves from civic institutions into powerful research engines, which gave rise to major changes in their objectives and operations. The professionalization of the academic disciplines, the drive for Cold War supremacy and national security, and other factors caused the institutions to expand. As they did, they also became the target of public officials, business leaders, and other critics who have charged that much classroom teaching in universities does not develop civic competencies, that much research does not serve community needs, and that universities themselves have lost' their sense of civic purpose. Today's college students want to provide direct community service, such as serving meals in a homeless shelter, but few aspire to leadership roles, such as organizing homeless people for more affordable housing. Nor are most students prepared to argue their beliefs about low-income housing policies for the nation. Indeed, studies show that the interest of entering undergraduate students in public causes is an all-time low, and that their interest actually decreases during the college years. Faculty members are ideally positioned to renew the civic mission of higher education, but many believe that the civic Barry Checkoway is professor of social work and

Pakistan in 1999: Back to Square One

Pakistan enters the new millennium with the military in command of the polity at a time when military rule has gone out of fashion and is no longer viewed as a harbinger of change. However, the elected government displaced by the military was devoid of a democratic spirit. The October 1999 coup may have averted the imminent collapse of the state but it is difficult to predict whether the military regime can develop enduring solutions to Pakistan's acute socioeconomic and political problems. Uncertainty about Pakistan's political future will persist well into the 21st century.

Third voice: Vox populi vox dei?

Third Voice, a new companion service allows users to place annotations on any Web page they visit. These notes can afford an opportunity for netizens to use Third Voice to express their own views about content and communicate with each other. Advocates proclaim that this could this bring a rebirth of the democratic spirit of the Net, but Third Voice has proven to be very controversial. In its first few months it has mostly produced spam, graffiti, hyperlinks to pornographic sites and flame wars. Moreover, those who create the Web presentations that form the core of the new Internet resent a technology that, in effect, allows the audience to paint mustaches on their masterpieces. We argue that the controversy is beside the point. Third Voice or similar browser companions, such as Gooey, are unlikely to amount to much because they require initiative on the part of users. The future of the Internet does not lie in recovering its more egalitarian and participatory past. It has become a mass medium used mostly by relatively passive consumers, and as such major content providers will dominate it.

Making the connection: Desktop publishing, professional writing, and pro bono publico

Designing desktop publishing courses around a model of service familiar In the U.S.—the pro bono publico tradition of professional gratis service—would broaden students’ professional horizons in addition to meeting growing demands for service learning. Such courses would mate volunteerism with the democratic spirit of desktop publishing, a technological platform that provides a means for unrepresented voices to be heard and read. One community project is outlined.

Learning about power and success: Young urban adolescents interpret TV culture

Using media education and cultural studies perspectives, I analyze ethnographic data gathered among diverse twelve and thirteen‐year‐olds who live in New York City. Three case studies show that individual interpretations of favorite TV figures, understood in relation to lived experiences, indicate tacit learning about dialectical issues of identity and social power relations. The dynamics of this learning challenges media educators to account for and address students’ actual cultural experiences of identity and social power in association with their media experiences. In addition, these young people's TV interpretations point to their learning about participation in corporate media culture via the system of image and message construction—a powerful means of success in the United States. Thus media educators must confront their students’ dreams and expectations about succeeding in capitalist terms, while encouraging their criticisms in a democratic spirit.

Eucharist, Theology and Discipleship

The author begins by describing the qualities of Eucharistic celebration in functioning Australian Eucharistic communities. He then summarises the eucharistic theology of Josef Ratzinger, who provides a well-argued basis for criticising these qualities. Because discipleship is expressed in local situations, we should expect to find the life of the local communities taken into the celebration of the Eucharist. Within the acceptance of Apostolic proclamation and office, we should also expect to find a democratic and demotic spirit because these express the shape of discipleship in Australia, and so may not improperly be called the gift of Australia to the universal church.

The frontier in books

U 'nique among contemporary Western nations, the American national identity was created from present and living memory, unlike the English m o d e m national identity, which was created out of distant memories from an era m a n y centuries past. The English visions, wh ich hea rkened back to Anglo-Saxon England and the mythical Arthurian realms, were mediated by a small group of scholars who alone could unders tand the ancient languages. The books those scholars wrote were then read by a narrow circle of educated people who reinterpreted the ancient histories and myths for the general public, and in time the sense of what medieval England had been and how it related to the present began to work its way into the popular conception of English history. By the eighteenth century, the average Englishman was fully conscious of his Anglo-Saxon heritage that dist inguished him from all other peoples and endowed him with an innate strength of character and democratic spirit. These modern Anglo-Saxons looked to the past wi th pride and to the future with a certainty in their own moral superiority and thus the righteousness of British imperial dominion. In America, which also shared in this Anglo-Saxon heritage, there was no need for scholarly mediation or a hearkening to the distant past, as the general reader could read about the frontier even as he or she experienced it firsthand. The first at tempt to make sense of the new land was made by the Puritans, who for the most part rejected the wilderness and its inhabitants. William Bradford, in Of Plymouth Plantation, explained the Puritans' v iew of the new land:

Mr. Polk's Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War.

Mr. Polk's Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War. By Richard Bruce Winders. (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1997. Pp. xvi, 284. Illustrations. Paper, $17.95.) Texas A&M Press has recently issued Richard Bruce Winder's 1997 study of America's Mexican War army in paperback. In Mr. Polk's Army, the author deals with two main topics: the partisan politics of military appointment and the democratic spirit of the American troops led by James K. Polk's many appointees. Winders is clearly most interested in the relationship between partisan politics and the officer selections of the Polk administration. The author reminds us early that the secretary of war, William Marcy, had previously gained national notice with an 1832 Senate speech vigorously asserting that the victor belong the spoils (16). The book then proceeds to develop in great detail the evidence for a similar emphasis upon partisan advantage in the 1846-1848 officer corps. Once he has built his case for Democratic leadership of the officer corps, Winders makes a more impressionistic case for democratic spirit among the enlisted men. This is clearly the topic Winders most enjoyed researching. His narrative quickens and his examples sparkle as he draws upon both major and minor campaigns from Texas to California to illustrate common behavioral features of the enlisted soldier. Concentrating upon recruitment, training, and camp life, the book argues for an egalitarian spirit in everything from discipline to costume. Combat, which might serve as a test of such ideals as courage, loyalty, and initiative is, however, largely ignored. Winders's army is no monolith. Both regulars and volunteers fought in the war, and the author makes a clear and lucid explanation of the background and organization of each group. He points out that the war benefited each in quite separate ways. For the regulars, the war allowed a purge of many tired, overage generals and the recruitment and training of more motivated enlisted men. For the volunteers, many of whom never saw battle, the war offered an initial burst of excitement that often yielded to boredom and indiscipline. Winders's army is also transitional. In detailing its weaponry, dress, organization, drill, and tactics, he portrays an institution abandoning the memories of the War of 1812 era for a more fluid, industrial, and irregular style that will look fairly familiar to Civil War buffs. But no such transition appears in such matters as diet, camp sanitation, and medical expertise, and the author offers a case that the Mexican War may, proportionate to numbers committed, have been the deadliest of America's wars. If Polk raised a winning army, he raised it at a high price. Contemporary perceptions of ethnicity often color our view of the war, particularly with regard to the role played by Irish immigrants. Winders acknowledges such issues as the American treatment of the Irish deserters who were punished for joining Mexico's San Patricio battalion. …

Property Owning and Democracy-Do the Twain Ever Meet?

ABSTRACT Starting from the Conservative assertion that home ownership fosters politically active and virtuous citizens, this paper examines two lines of argument in housing theory; (a) Jim Kemeny's thesis that owner occupation is closely linked to increasing privatism, i.e. a growth in lifestyles centred around the home and privacy rather than the workplace or the public affairs in a society, and (b) Peter Saunders' thesis that home owners will organise and mobilise politically in defence of their property interests if and when various government agencies threaten to remove their tax subsidies. To test these propositions empirically, data on the effects of the rapid and comprehensive dismantling of tax privileges to Swedish home owners in the 1980s and early 1990s are confronted with data on political interest, participation and knowledge as well as civic trust and responsibility from the Swedish election surveys of 1979, 1985 and 1991. Contrary to Conservative beliefs, home owners do not stand out as 'democratic examples'; with the exception of political knowledge and party membership, they are no more 'civil' or 'democratic' than other citizens. There is also not much to support Kemeny's 'privatism' or Saunders' 'reaction-to-threat' theses. Although home owners in Sweden saw their tax privileges diminishing rapidly during the 1980s and early 1990s, they do not show the distinctive patterns of change in democratic orientation and spirit predicted by these two housing theorists. To allow for an even more conclusive test of Kemeny's 'privatism' thesis, however, one must overcome the mismatch of income definitions in housing statistics and election survey data.

Traditions religieuses et modernité: le choc des éthiques autour du projet Grande-Baleine

The example of Quebecois society in Canada enables us to explore the relationships of opposition and identity established between traditional and post-traditional societies, and the way in which each views nature and exploits its resources. This article begins by pointing out that Quebec has not been considered a traditional society since 1960. Next, the connections that can be made between the religious mentality prevalent before 1960 and respect for nature are examined. These connections are then compared to those found in Amerindian traditions, and contrasted with the connections that can be observed when the state begins to play a unifying role in a society formerly organized around the Church. The focus of the article is a case study of a conflict between the state and native Americans—the controversy surrounding plans to build a giant hydroelectric complex on the Great Whale River in Northern Quebec. Despite years of often bitter debate between the Quebecois and Native societies, there is a possible framework for cooperation and agreement. The basis for such an agreement would be an awareness of the interdependence of these two societies. If the Amerindian and Quebecois peoples would work together to achieve their goals, they would be able to form a new social whole, characterized by practical rationality and a democratic spirit. These characteristics would identify the new social entity as a truly modern society.

Integrated local health systems in Central America

This paper describes a few Central American experiences related to the development of integrated, participatory health care systems. Theory and analytic method center on the tensions inherent in the dichotomies of professional/popular, center/periphery and biomedical/traditional. Using a framework rooted in the World Health Organization's 1978 call for ‘health for all’ based on community-oriented primary care, this paper concludes that the underlying conditions necessary for truly integrated local health systems have not yet developed. Except for the cases of Costa Rica during 1978–1982 and Nicaragua during 1979–1990, the political will to create and support such systems has not existed. Perhaps more importantly, the cultural milieu in which Central Americans interact with their society fosters an individualistic, commercial, and paternalistic citizen/society relationship rather than the cooperative, community-oriented and democratic spirit needed for successful development of integrated local health systems. Nevertheless, there are a number of positive examples from which we can learn, and a growing tradition of citizen participation which may lead toward appropriate, sustainable, and truly integrated local health systems.

Presidential address our feminist future: Women affirming sexuality research in the late twentieth century

Building upon Vern Bullough's historical study of the feminist foremothers of sexology, my presidential plenary, originally presented at the November 1995 meeting of The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, examines contemporary feminist research. Here I provide an inclusive definition of feminist sexology, give a brief overview of late 20th century feminist sexual scholars’ contributions and insights, and cite my undergraduates’ expectations for feminist science in the 21st century. Ending in the democratic spirit of my plenary, which involved the audience in an animated discussion, I conclude by asking you, the reader, to draw conclusions about the current status and likely future of feminist sexology.

Astrology, Video, and the Democratic Spirit: Reading the Symbolic Politics of Thailand

Thai politics has traditionally been analysed in terms of a struggle between civilians and the military and between elite bureaucrats and the masses. Other approaches have focused on the growing middle class as the motivating force, to the fact that is, that businessmen now want political power to match their economic power. This essay looks at Thai culture in an international context in order to understand Thai politics and to refigure the relationship between the spirit of democracy and the power of the military. This symbolic analysis of Thai politics shifts the focus of analysis from the physical power of the military and the material products of economic development to the media, popular culture, language, and other symbolic forces which were crucial to the prodemocracy movement of May 1992 and the resulting political reforms.

In Mermoriam: Joseph N. Riddel 1931-1991

IN MEMORIAM Joseph N. Riddel 1931-1991 This issue of the Arizona Quarterly pays homage to Joe Riddel and celebrates his continuing influence among those who were privileged to have known him. A contributor, member of the Editorial Advisory Board, and generous friend of the Quarterly, Joe is missed by those ofus who have been touched by his vitality and generosity and influenced by his pioneering efforts in the theorizing of the study ofAmerican literature. My own memories ofJoe, those traces of his presence—his look, his body, above all his voice—inevitably take shape against the background of a particular time and place, and I want briefly to celebrate a personal side of his career by recalling a moment from the past. I first met Joe in 1965 when, in his role as Director of Junior Recruiting for the English department at suny Buffalo, he interviewed me for an assistant professor position. The mid-sixties were heady years in the profession particularly at Buffalo where Joe along with Albert Cook and Norman Holland was building an iconoclastic and exciting department. In 1966 and 1967 Joe recruited at least twenty-five assistant professors to join a department that included, among others, John Barth, Leslie Fiedler, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, C. L. Barber, Dorothy Van Ghent, Angus Fletcher, Herbert Schneidau, Gale Carrithers, Marcus Klein, and René Girard. It was a wonderfully diverse and energetic department and an especially hospitable one to junior faculty who not only shared full voting privileges and a two-course teaching load with the senior faculty (a practice virtually unheard of at the time) but who, thanks to the efforts of Joe, were immediately integrated into the social and intellectual life of the department. Joe's home and office were open to junior faculty, and he was always ready to exchange ideas, offer advice, read manuscripts, write letters of recommendation, and discuss the fortunes of the Buffalo Bills. For me as for a number of other assistant professors and graduate In Memoriam students Joe came to represent the spirit of the Buffalo English department of the late sixties and early seventies, a democratic spirit of generosity , intellectual diversity and vitality that crossed traditional boundaries of rank and disciplines. That spirit remains for me a professional ideal, a sign that the personal can in fact inform and energize the institutional. The editors of the Arizona Quarterly wish to thank the contributors to this issue, old friends and colleagues, who have joined in paying homage to Joe, an extraordinary critic, teacher, and, above all, a loyal friend. Edgar A. Dryden ...

Refiguring the Hero. From Peasant to Noble in Lope de Vega and Calderón (review)

REVIEWS Fox, Dian. Refiguring the Hero. From Peasant to Noble in Lope de Vega and Calderón. University Park: The Pennsylvania State UP, 1991. 242 pp. In Refiguring the Hero Dian Fox challenges what has been one of the most basic concepts of comedia criticism among recent generations of Hispanists. With a grounding in seventeenth-century notions of the ideal hero, she provides close re-readings of canonical plays and questions the critical tendency to see peasant protagonists as heroic. Fox demonstrates how Noël Salomon and several post-Civil War Spanish and AngloAmerican critics in the last fifty years have tended to judge peasant characters by "modern" standards and have over-emphasized those aspects with which they can identify—namely those elements they see as evidence of democratic values. Fox argues that the seventeenth-century Spanish public, immersed in the traditions of classical and Renaissance erudition, of medieval epic poetry and in Counter-Reformation and antiMachiavellian ideology, had different expectations for its heroes. Desirable hero figures of the time, she suggests, would demonstrate spiritual strength and personal growth in moments of crisis and they would have, preferably, noble blood. Fox holds that the peasant as a heroic figure fell outside this set of values, as did violent revenge for a perceived personal affront. She establishes this point after providing a thorough discussion of concepts of the hero and an excellent survey of Spanish literary figures up to the seventeenth century in the introductory chapters of her book. Based on what Fox considers to be the period's ideals of heroism, she then analizes Lope's and Calderón's best known "peasant plays" and vulgo-types and produces several interesting commentaries and conclusions . She sees, for example, that Lope's Peribáñez does not qualify as a hero since his actions are emotional and opportunistic rather than the result of ethical conflict resolutions. Similarly, his wife Casilda is found to 310 Reviews311 exhibit a lack of conscience with regard to her cousin Inés's needs or to the death of Don Fadrique. In her examination ofEl villano en su rincón, Fox shows that Juan Labrador hails from a countryside as "blighted and pretentious as the court" and is possessed by a "hermetic cowardice" (76, 170). Ironically, among Lope's supposed peasant heroes, the only characters Fox finds worthy of hero status are Ñuño and Sancho in El mayor alcalde, el rey—both of whom are actually of noble blood. The two seem to be evidence of Lope's arbitrista-like vision in which the best inhabitants of the countryside would be "productive hidalgos" (88). Among those who are true peasants, the people of Fuenteovejuna come closest to ranking as heroes without quite reaching that status in Fox's judgement. Despite their "modest dignity," they are "ruled by passion" and "mak(e) the wrong choice" (138, 136). If Fox sees in Lope an ability to identify with the common people without creating heroic underclass characters, her investigation of Calderón produces even fewer possible candidates for hero status. The rebel soldier, like the rest of the vulgo in La vida es sueño, is considered powerful but unprincipled. The title character in Luis Pérez is also made ineligible because his reformation is merely that of a picaresque character . Even Calderón's Pedro Crespo falls short of true hero status because he is a "shrewd calculator" exercising a "hidden agenda" of revenge (165, 161). In short, the plays and characters most signaled by critics as upholding peasant dignity or demonstrating the democratic spirit of seventeenth -century Spanish public and similar tendencies in two major playwrights have been inaccurately or insufficiently studied according to Fox. The main theoretical points on which her study is based are that "each successive period seems to see in [a text] a mirror of its own values " and that in the case of comedia heroes we must first look at their seventeenth-century context (181). In this regard we can see that Fox's book is situated at a crossroads between a post-structuralist emphasis on readers and a more traditional, formalistic approach to literary history that concentrates on structures and ideal...

L'Eglise orthodoxe et la diaspora hellénique

Today the Greek diaspora is located mainly in English-speaking countries in both northern and southern hemispheres. The Greek Orthodox Church is a central institution of this diaspora, at all parochial and diocesan levels, and also on the world scale with its patriarchates, especially the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. In the face of a rapid anarchic growth of independent communities at the beginning of the 20th century, the Ecumenical Patriarchate established two strong archdioceses, one in New York and another in Sydney. In Europe in the 1960s, while the number of migrants was on the rise particularly in Germany and England, seven autonomous metropolitan units, located in different capitals, were created by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Africa has its own patriarch of Alexandria, with 13 metropolites heading Churches which are more and more Africanized. The Orthodox Church, which was already the core institution for the Christians during the Ottoman Empire, has maintained its Byzantine structures through the centuries. A repressive environment has anchored Orthodoxy deep within Greek identity. With its strong bureaucratic structure at the diocese-archdiocese level, Orthodoxy has a layered confederal organization of self-governed parishes on the one hand and autonomous or autocephalous Churches on the other. It usually compromises with the democratic spirit of the communities, but can be challenged by them. These community structures are another main component of the Greek identity coming from a pre-Christian stratum, the ancient city-state. These two models of political organization continue to compete within the diaspora even though the first model is now predominant.

Thailand in 1992: In Search of a Democratic Order

The year 1992 saw an exciting and violent political change in Thailand, which resulted in the end of military rule and the dawn of a democratic spirit. After holding power for only a year, the military had to withdraw from politics in the face of mass protests, widespread public disaffection and intervention by the king. A democratic government was reinstated and a new mood was on the rise, marking a significant step in Thai political development.