First Year In Office Research Articles

Interview with Leonel Fernández, President of the Dominican Republic

Issues 89 INTERVIEW WITH LEONEL DOMINICAN REPUBLIC John C. Bersia FERNANDEZ, PRESIDENT OF THE Universityo f Central Florida, Orlando Leonel Fernundez took ofice as President of the Dominican Republic on August 16,2004. He recently discussed his administration 'spriorities and ambitions with John C. Bersia, who serves as Special Assistant to the President for Global Perspectives and is University Professor at the University of Central Florida. Question: Couldyou summarizethe mainproblemsfacingthe Dominican Republic today? Leonel FernBndez: Three problems, I would say. First of all, macroeconomic stability. Second, violence and organized crime. Third, electric power. Q: What was the top priority for your first 100days in office? A: The top priority had to do with stabilizing the exchange rate regime. The Dominican currency experienced a deep devaluation. That created economic turmoil, because we had high interest rates, high inflation and a high exchange rate regime. But if you lower the exchange rate regime and appreciate the currency, all the other variables will be put in place. I think we were successful during the first 100 days in bringing down the exchange rate, stabilizing it, and then reducing inflation and interest rates. Q: For your first year in office, what do you hope to accomplish vis-a-visthe issues you outlinedin the first question? A: Our main goal is to stabilize the economy, guarantee economic growth, create new jobs and encourage dynamism within the economy that can make it operational. At the same time, working with the electric power industry, we will try to solve all the problems with outages and blackouts, and create new investment for the industry. Then, I wish to have a national plan to combat violence and crime. 90 The Latin Americanist Spring 2005 Q: In the current world, where neo-liberalism is the most universal paradigm, what does it mean to be the head of a party from the “left” in government? A: Nowadays in government, efficiency and transparency should be emphasized. Those issues have very little to do with ideology. Fiscal deficits are neither to the right nor to the left. It’s about efficiency. You have efficient conservative parties in government. And you have efficient center-left parties in government. As well, you have inefficient parties from both groups in government. Again, efficiency is key, along with transparency and integrity. What we’re trying to do in the Dominican Republic are three basic things: strengthen democratic institutions; have sustained economic growth; and promote social justice. If we can accomplish those goals, the country can move forward. Q: The fear of electoral fraud and political violence surrounding last year’s election did not materialize. How would you explain the apparent “new” period of democracy in the Dominican Republic? A: Violence did not occur because there was a landslide. My predecessor was really trying to have a Plan B, in order to stay in power. The basic problem had to do with institutional weakness . We had an electoral board that was not impartial. That is why I say we need to strengthen democratic institutions. We need to create institutions that are credible and that will have people’s confidence. Q: In what ways do the economic and political situations in the Dominican Republic differ from when you were president before? A: In economic terms, there was a downturn during the 20002004 period. In my previous administration, there was an economic boom. Secondly, we were trying to build, strengthen and deepen democratic institutions. My predecessor weakened those institutions. So the country made a negative turn in the past several years, and now we’re trying to make it bounce back. Q: New constitutional courts in Latin America, for example in Costa Rica and Colombia, have been increasingly active in the governance of those countries. Will you continue your previous efforts to end corruption and breathe new life into the Dominican Republic’s judicial system? Issues 91 A: Very much. I think the judicial system in the Dominican Republic has improved during the past eight years since I was elected to office the first time. It’s still insufficient, and there are some changes pending. But if you compare what we have now with what we had then, we have...

Source Material:New Presidents and Network News: Covering the First Year in Office of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush03

Content analysis of ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news programs during the first years of the presidencies of Ronald Reagan (1981), Bill Clinton (1993), and George W. Bush (2001) revealed a heavy focus on the executive branch rather than the legislative and judicial branches. The negative tone of network news coverage was very similar across the three presidents and their administrations. Coverage of presidents in their first year in office consistently was far more substantial than campaign coverage of presidential candidates, where issues of the campaign “horse race” trump matters of substance. Network news coverage of George W. Bush after the 2001 attacks was more positive in tone when compared to coverage before September 11, even though the amount of coverage of Bush personally fell after the attacks. Network news coverage of the rest of the Bush administration increased after September 11, but it turned more negative in tone during the final months of 2001.

State >Legitimacy and the (In)significance of Democracy in Post‐Communist Russia

A few apocalyptic predictions of a post‐communist ‘maelstrom’ notwithstanding,1 the break‐up of the USSR was initially greeted by optimistic assessments of the prospects for democracy in the ‘new R...

CHALLENGING CANADA'S NUCLEAR COMMITMENTS: AN ANALYSIS OF DEFENCE DISCOURSE

FOR INDIVIDUALS INTERESTED in the historical development of Canadian defence policy, the 1987 White Paper on Defence, Challenge and Commitment: A Defence Policy for Canada, continues to generate a remarkable amount of discussion. For many commentators, this policy initiative signalled a decisive turning point in debates about Canada's national defence, namely by advocating a massive increase in military spending - including the purchase of a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines - just at the time when the Cold War had finally begun to thaw. In an article published in this journal, for example, Michaud (1998: 112) points out that this policy 'offers several elements of interest: it comes on the eve of the collapse of the Eastern Block countries; it is in total conflict with policies expressed in other Canadian White Papers; and it could be related to strong electoral commitments, revealing a troubling partisan aspect.' In examining the role played by different actors involved in the decisionmaking process, Michaud offers fresh insights into how these complex interactions may be best accounted for in terms of different policy making models. In choosing in the end to elaborate upon Lemieux's (1989) theory of the structuration of power, he provides a useful approach to bureaucratic politics for future investigations into the contending forces underpinning the formulation of this particular policy framework.1 In this article, it is my intention to approach the 1987 Defence White Paper from a different angle altogether, albeit in way which I hope will help to establish a complementary line of inquiry. That is to say, where Michaud (1998) accentuates the need to understand the imperatives of defence policy making at the level of individuals within institutions, I want to propose that the 1987 White Paper be viewed on its own terms as a cultural text. Accordingly, I shall endeavour to discern the textual strategies through which this document's authors articulate certain preferred ways to speak the realities of 'Canadian security in the nuclear age' as they chose to define them at the time. Of primary concern, as I intend to show, is the need to examine the mode of address or authorial voice of this document precisely as it initiates a series of rhetorical devices to first render problematic, and then undermine, alternative interpretive positions as being 'outside of the defence policy consensus'. More specifically, I shall argue, its aim is to invoke a certain 'common sense of nuclearism' (Allan 1996) as being consistent with 'Canadian values and traditions'. Of challenge and commitment The Progressive Conservative Party, having promised over the course of its successful 1984 election campaign to restore national pride in the armed forces, prepared to chart a new direction in defence policy immediately upon taking office in September of that year. Pointing to the recent 'failure' of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's 'peace initiative' to bring about 'tangible results', officials in the new Mulroney Government moved quickly to declare their resolve to enhance Canada's role in international affairs through a massive re-equipping of the country's 'long suffering' Armed Forces. Work began almost at once to draft policy recommendations for the 'reinvigoration' of the military, principally through the means of a defence review and a foreign policy review (the latter would not lead to a White Paper, but did produce a Green Paper the following Spring, to be followed by a Special Joint Committee report in June 1986). Also within the first year of office, a decision was made to reassign the traditional colours to the uniforms of personnel in the three services. Moreover, officials claimed that, due to the federal spending deficit, the defence budget would not be increased to the level pledged during the election campaign. Next, the Mulroney Government reaffirmed Canada's commitment to both the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (nato) and the North American Aerospace Defence Command (negotiations with the United States to 'modernise' norad were concluded in March 1985), and then pushed forward the reequipment programs initiated by their Liberal predecessors. …

The Berlusconi Government’s Economic Policy during the First Year of Office

During 2002, total employment in Italy rose by 1.4 percent compared with the previous year, while GDP increased by 0.4 percent. Figures for the other European countries were very different, however: a growth of 0.7 percent in GDP was accompanied by only a slight rise in total employment of 0.3 percent. The peculiarity of the Italian economy from this point of view could be seen, paradoxically, as a change from a phase during which growth in GDP failed to generate additional employment (1996–1998) to one in which the stagnation of production did not prevent the continued growth in employment that had previously been triggered. Moreover, the additional employment created in 2001 was less precarious than it had been before. That is, the newly employed included a higher percentage of full-time workers than had been the case in previous years: 92 percent of the newly employed in 2001 were full-time employees, compared with 96 percent in 2002.

The Contemporary Presidency: The Permanence of the “Permanent Campaign”: George W. Bush's Public Presidency

Early American presidents largely avoided engaging in public appeals or spectacles, embracing ct nonpkbiscitary conception of the institution. However, the contemporary presidency, sur‐roundedby a vast army of pollsters, publicrelations specialists, and press assistants, sometimes more closely resembks a vigorous electoral campaign than that quaint institution. President Clinton so exuberantly embraced the public role that scholars have begun to question whether the line between campaigning and governing might have become so blurred as to now constitute a “permanent campaign.” When President George W. Bush largely evaded the spotlight during the 2000 election aftermath and conducted an understated and quasi‐private transition to power, it seemed that the rhetorical presidency had returned to its modern equilibrium. However, Bush's extensive travel and speech making during his fir sty ear in office suggest instead that public expectations and strategic calculations mandate that the permanent campaign is now a permanent feature of the American presidency.

The Education of Chen Shui-bian: Taiwan's experience of divided government

From its founding, Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party emphasized the role of the president. It advocated a variety of measures aimed at strengthening the presidency, including direct presidential elections. However, it was only when a DPP politician was elected president in 2000 that the party discovered just how weak Taiwan's president is. During his first year in office, President Chen Shui-bian repeatedly found himself stymied by an intransigent and uncooperative legislature. The conflict between the presidential office and the legislature climaxed in a confrontation over the executive's decision to cancel construction of Taiwan's fourth nuclear power plant. In the wake of the decision, some legislators attempted to recall Chen from office. In the second year of his presidency, Chen was more effective in working within the constraints of a divided government. Despite the difficulties its leaders faced in managing a divided government, however, the DPP has not changed its position in favor of presidentialism.

Projecting Presidential Personas on the Radio: An Addendum on the Bushes

In our recent exploration of the personality, stylistic, and substantive dimensions of Ronald Reagan's and Bill Clinton's Saturday rooming radio broadcasts (Sigelman and Whissell 2002), we ignored Reagan's immediate successor and Clinton's immediate predecessor, George H. W. Bush, because we mistakenly believed that Bush had not followed Reagan's lead in addressing the nation via radio on Saturday mornings. Our error came to light in the very same issue of Presidential Studies Quarterly in which our study appeared. Writing about Reagan's broadcasts, Rowland and Jones (2002) noted that all three of his successors, including the first President Bush, had carried on his practice of Saturday morning radio broadcasts. As we subsequently determined, after delivering no such broadcasts during his first two years in office, Bush spoke to the nation via radio on seventeen Saturday mornings during the last two years of his term. Here we correct our oversight by augmenting our original results to encompass the first President Bush's Saturday radio addresses. Moreover, because the second President Bush has carried on with Reagan's and Clinton's practice of delivering Saturday radio addresses every week rather than only occasionally as his father did, we include data from his first year in office as well. Data and Method With the addition of George H. W. Bush's 17 Saturday morning broadcasts and the first 51 of George W. Bush's, we present results for 734 addresses (including 326 by Reagan and 340 by Clinton). (1) We employ the same measures as in our original analysis. Personality. As we did for Reagan and Clinton, we derived two indicators of the personalities that the two Bushes projected in their broadcasts by applying Whissell's (1994) Dictionary of Affect in Language (DAL) computer program to machine-readable versions of their broadcasts. The higher the score on one of these scales, the greater the preponderance of positive over negative language (positivity) or of active over passive language (activity). Style. Two of our four stylistic measures gauge garrulousness: the total number of words in a broadcast and the mean length of the sentences. To tap plainspokenness, we used the DAL program to score the broadcasts in terms of reliance on common words on a scale ranging from 0 (if the president relied exclusively on rare words like exegesis) to 17,000 (if the president did nothing but repeat the word the over and over). Again using the DAL program, we scored broadcasts for the preponderance of highly concrete language over highly abstract language (concreteness). Substance. We distinguished between four possible foci of a broadcast: domestic issues, international issues, a combination of domestic and international issues, and special occasions (typically civil or religious holidays). Results Table 1 shows the proportion or mean for each president on each measure just described, and Table 2 expands our original multivariate analysis to include all four presidents. Because we reported the results for Reagan and Clinton in considerable detail in our original study, we focus here primarily on Bush pere and fils. Notwithstanding some differences between them, the rhetorical similarity of the two Bushes stands out clearly in these data. Both used their Saturday morning broadcasts primarily to talk about domestic issues, though after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the younger Bush began to devote a larger portion of his broadcasts to international affairs. Perhaps reflecting discomfort in front of the microphone, both kept their broadcasts short. Both recited scripts composed of relatively brief, simple sentences. And the scores that one Bush registered on the concreteness, activity, and positivity scales all fell close to the other Bush's scores. Not only did the two Bushes display similar rhetorical profiles in their Saturday morning broadcasts but, no less strikingly, their profiles also contrasted sharply with those of Presidents Reagan and Clinton. …

Coming of Age the Department of Education

The Duke University Education Leadership Summit in February 2002 provided an opportunity to view evolution of U.S. Department of Education through eyes of those who have served as secretaries of education. In this special section, five of participating secretaries reflect on chief issues of their respective tenures. THE SIGNING of Leave No Child Behind Act of 2001 by President George W. Bush on 8 January 2002 was a defining moment for -- and perhaps grandest achievement of -- U.S. Department of Education in its 29-year history. It signified a clear shift from department's early role as data keeper and dispenser of student-aid funds to its emergent role as leading education policy maker and reformer. This Kappan special section traces evolution of department through its leaders and their policies. The occasion for this special section was Duke University Education Leadership Summit, held in Durham, North Carolina, on 20 February 2002 and attended by current secretary of education and every living former secretary of education (though Shirley Hufstedler, first secretary, became ill immediately prior to meeting and could be there only in spirit and written text). The Education Leadership Summit celebrated 150th anniversary of training of teachers at Duke University. The secretaries engaged in three hours of lively debate, moderated by former governor of North Carolina, James Hunt, Jr. -- a noted education policy maker in his own right. The debate had Republicans sometimes sounding like Democrats (and vice versa); however, no clear consensus on education policy emerged, save for agreement on fact that department is playing a strong leadership role these days in shaping education of children at local level. As D. T. Stallings makes clear in his brief history of department, each of seven secretaries of education contributed to its current stature and influence in policy-making arena. Essays by five of six surviving secretaries (William Bennett chose not to contribute) describe for Kappan readers key issues during that secretary's tenure and lay out a vision for future of education. In concluding article of this special section, former Gov. Hunt weaves together major themes identified by secretaries and issues a call for further reform. THE LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND ACT The Leave No Child Behind Act, which reauthorizes Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, was in making for more than a year and has been called the most far-reaching reform of nation's public education system since creation of Department of Education in 1979.1 Passage of bill required heavy lobbying and bipartisan support that found Secretary Rod Paige and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) strange bedfellows. Had it not been eclipsed by terrorist attacks of September 11, passage of this bill would have represented most newsworthy event of President Bush's first year in office. The Leave No Child Behind Act increased education budget by 20% over that of previous year. The major goals of bill included closing achievement gap for disadvantaged students, improving teacher preparation and rewards, and instituting closely monitored accountability systems for students, teachers, and schools. For first time ever, states will be required to establish academic standards and to test students annually in grades 3 through 8. A LOOK BACKWARD The idea of a federal Department of Education had been around for a while, but it took a confluence of threats from detractors of public education to cause President Jimmy Carter to establish department as a Cabinet-level agency in 1979. He chose a noneducator and federal court judge, Shirley Hufstedler, to head new department. …

Schröder's Economic Reforms: The End of Reformstau?

During his first term, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder accomplished Germany's most dramatic tax and pension reforms in decades, overcoming both a disastrous first year in office and the tendency of the German system of government to produce Reformstau (reform gridlock). Schröder's success in passing these reforms resulted from his gaining greater control of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and his government, his skill in negotiating with Bundesrat politicians, and the Christian Democratic Union's (CDU's) weakness. Nonetheless, the electorate's key economic concern has been reducing unemployment and the strategies that enabled Schröder's earlier reforms are unlikely to work on labour market policy.

Somalia: alternative scenarios for political reconstruction

Somalia, which for most of the 1990s lacked most of the institutions of a central state, is gradually being recomposed. However, there is no consensus on how it is to be rebuilt. A new provisional government in Mogadishu seems to aim for the restoration of a centralized state. In other parts of the former country, such as in Puntland and Somaliland, there are other views of reconstruction. The views of the main international actors will be crucial in deciding the outcomes of these various initiatives. FOR OVER A YEAR, SOMALIA HAS AGAIN HAD A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT and parliament and by virtue of that possibly the renewed beginnings of a central state but not everyone is equally pleased with it. In August 2000, almost ten years after the fall of the Syad Barre regime and the 'stateless' period which followed the complete collapse and fragmentation of the erstwhile Somali state system, a new interim president, Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, was installed in Mogadishu, followed in October by the appointment of an interim premier, Ali Khalif Galaydh, who was charged with the formation of a transitional cabinet of national reconciliation. Galaydh's 84-member cabinet was to last only 13 months, however, as it was toppled in a vote of no confidence in the interim parliament on 28 October 2001. Following this, President Abdiqassim began with the formation of a new government, trying to include factions that had hitherto remained unrepresented. During its first year in office, the transitional government manifested itself publicly mainly through calls for national unity and reconciliation, to be achieved either through 'dialogue' or 'by force'. At the same time it was reported to have been receiving substantial gifts and loans from Saudi Arabia which other reports say landed largely in the wrong ministerial hands' and to have been actively engaged in the purchase of arms, especially from Ukraine. Meanwhile, internal conflicts continued and even increased in gravity during 2001. Among other things, various rounds of skirmishes within and outside the parliament have been noted. The issue is that neither the provisional government nor the parliament has been recognized by a number of important political groups and stakeholders. The author works at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague. An earlier Dutch version of this article appeared in Internationale Spectator 55, 4 (April 2001). 1. Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), 29 June 2001. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, news releases.

Putin's first year in office: the new regime's uniqueness in Russian history

The author analyzes Putin's first year in office by comparing it to the last fifteen regimes in Russian history. Putin shares many common features with the leaders of the past. He belongs to the group of leaders who were not so concerned about the progress of society as in removing the threat to the existing political order. He is also among those who moved toward authoritarianism in their first year. As all new regimes in the 20th centuries, Putin used democratic ideology for the legitimization of his rule, though he almost immediately began to curtail the fledgling democracy in Russia. While Putin's regime was similar to the previous regimes in some respects, it was very different in others. First of all, no ruler rose to power from such a politically obscure position. Putin came to power with far less experience than his fourteen predecessors. The circumstances under which Putin came to power have no precedent in recent history. Another uniqueness of Putin's first year in office was the extent to which various elements of the old regime were preserved. The author dwells on Putin's first year with special attention. As a predictor of the future, it suggests that Russian society under Putin will remain essentially the same as it was shaped by 1995.

Overcoming apartheid's legacy: The ascendancy of neoliberalism in South Africa's anti-poverty strategy

Poverty in South Africa is intertwined with a host of social and economic issues. The burden of poverty is exacerbated by limited access to basic services, poor housing, limited employment opportunities and inadequate infrastructure, which are an outcome of the terrible legacies of apartheid. During its first year in office, the ANC-dominated government officially endorsed a policy of 'growth from redistribution', whereby a strong state and a strong market were expected to serve as vehicles for generating growth and reducing poverty and inequality. By 1996, however, the government had embraced a standard neoliberal strategy as a central piece of its anti-poverty strategy. This article examines the potential contradictions between what appears to be on the surface progressive social policy on the one hand, and on the other, the implementation of aggressive neoliberal strategies of privatisation, liberalisation and deficit reduction to stimulate the economy and create jobs. This heavy reliance on market-led solutions is a high risk strategy, since there exists no example internationally where neoliberal adjustment of the sort championed by President Thabo Mbeki and Finance Minister Trevor Manual has produced a socially progressive outcome, especially in a country like South Africa, which is marked by extreme disparity and poverty.

The First Year in Office: Strategies and Tactics for Success

The First Year in Office: Strategies and Tactics for Success

Reluctant Europeans: Britain and European integration, 1945-1998

During the past fifty years few issues in British politics have generated such heated controversy as Britain's approach to European integration. Why has Europe had such an explosive impact on British politics? What impelled British policymakers to embrace a European destiny and why did they take such a cautious approach? These are some of the key issues addressed inThe Reluctant Europeans. This new study draws upon recently available source material providing a clear chronological account and covering events right up to Blair's first year in office and the launch of the Euro.

Psychologist-legislator: Reflection on the first year in office.

Psychologist-legislator: Reflection on the first year in office.

Psychologist-legislator: Reflection on the first year in office.

Psychologist-legislator: Reflection on the first year in office.

Catholic Responses to the Crisis of Everyday Life in Lima, Peru

Since the end of the 1980s, Peru has undergone a dramatic political and economic transformation. The failure of traditional political par ties to solve the country's deepening economic crisis and political vio lence led Peruvians, especially poor Peruvians, to turn to a former university rector and political unknown, Alberto Fujimori, in what some saw as a last desperate attempt to stave off total breakdown. In 1990, Fujimori took over the reins of government in the context of hyper-inflation and a growing threat from the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrilla movement. In his first year of office, Fujimori implemented a draconian shock therapy program, despite having cam paigned against such policies during the elections. Like his counter parts elsewhere in the region, Fujimori jumped on the global bandwagon of neo-liberal economic reforms.1 Feeling increasingly frustrated by political opposition parties in the legislature, Fujimori shut down the Congress in April 1992 and suspended the constitution in a coup d'etat that undermined the country's fragile democratic tran

Federalist or Friends of Adams: The Marshall Court and Party Politics

At the end of his first year in office, President Thomas Jefferson complained bitterly to a political supporter that “the Federalists have retired into the judiciary as a stronghold.” “There,” he feared, “the remains of federalism are to be preserved . . . and from that battery all the works of republicanism are to be beaten down and erased.”Jefferson to John Dickinson, December 19, 1801, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Andrew A. Lipscomb (Washington, D.C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1903), 10:302. See Jefferson to Joel Barlow, March 14, 1801, Writings of Jefferson, 10:223. Jefferson's chief lieutenant in the Senate, William Branch Giles, had six months earlier informed his commander that “[t]he Revolution [Republican success in 1800] is incomplete so long as that strong fortress [the Judiciary] is in possession of the enemy.” Giles to Jefferson, June 1, 1801, quoted in Albert J. Beveridge, The Life of John Marshall (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919), 3:22. See James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson, March 3, 1801, The Writings of James Monroe, ed. Stanislaus Murray Hamilton (New York: HMS Press, 1969), 3:263–64; Charles Warren, The Supreme Court in United States History (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1947), 1:192–94. Subsequent Democratic-Republican political efforts to oust the Federalists from this high ground by impeaching hostile justices, appointing friendlier justices, and publicly pressuring the Marshall Court apparently failed. “After twenty years' confirmation of the federated system by the voice of the nation, declared through the medium of elections,” Jefferson bemoaned in 1819, “the judiciary on every occasion [is] still driving us into consolidation.”Jefferson to Judge Spencer Roane, September 6, 1819, Writings of Jefferson, 15:212. See Jefferson to James Bowdoin, April 2, 1807, Writings of Jefferson, 11:186; Jefferson to Caesar Rodney, September 25, 1810, Writings of Jefferson, 12:245; Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, September 27, 1810, Writings of Jefferson, 12:425; Jefferson to James Madison, October 15, 1810, The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison 1776–1826, ed. James Morton Smith (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1995) 3:1646–47. The sage of Monticello in his last years repeatedly warned his correspondents that “those who formerly usurped the name of federalists” were “almost to a man . . . in possession of [the judicial] branch of the government.”Jefferson to Robert Garnett, February 14, 1824, Writings of Jefferson, 16:14. See Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, August 2, 1823, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1905), 12:299–300; Jefferson to Samuel Smith, August 2, 1823, Works of Jefferson, 12:301; Jefferson to William Johnson, March 4, 1823, Works of Jefferson, 12:279; Jefferson to Henry Dearborn, October 31, 1822, Works of Jefferson, 12:264–65. Other Old Republicans voiced similar concerns. See “Somers,” “Examination of the Opinion of the Supreme Court in the case of Cohens vs. the State of Virginia,” Richmond Enquirer, May 15, 1821; Spencer Roane, “‘Hampden’ Essays,” John Marshall's Defense of McCulloch v. Maryland, ed. Gerald Gunther (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969), 151. See also, Henry J. Abraham, Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 87; George Lee Haskins and Herbert A. Johnson, Foundations of Power: John Marshall, 1801–1815 (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1981), 312–13; G. Edward White, The Marshall Court and Cultural Change 1815–1835 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 774–77.

National Government and the Cultural Public Sphere

This article introduces the concept of the cultural public sphere to examine public debate around national government policy in the cultural field when the nation-state is said to be of diminishing significance. The election of New Labour in Britain and the cultural politics of its first six months in office are taken as a case study. A distinction is made between cultural policy proper and cultural policy as display. New Labour is especially notable for its symbolic politics and manipulation of cultural policy as display, much more so than its program for cultural policy proper, which remained little developed during the first year of office. The New Labour project is nothing less than a redefinition of Britishness — largely reduced, however, to the ‘rebranding’ of Britain as a ‘Young Nation’ or ‘Cool Britannia’, in the wake of Thatcherism's lengthy period of ‘regressive modernisation’. The May 1997 general election itself, the death and funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales and intense controversy over the New Millennium Experience all occurred within the first six months of Labour government. The article analyses the relations between these events and concludes that the New Labour project, symbolised by the Millennium Dome, articulates a national hubris that reproduces Britain's historical problem of coming to terms with its declining significance in the world. New Labour's virtual politics and its adherence to an accentuated public relations and marketing model of politics are at odds with the democratic principles of the public sphere in general, illustrated in the article by the particular operations and limitations of the cultural public sphere.