Political Aid Research Articles

영화 [실미도]의 이데올로기와 리얼리티에 대한 비판적 고찰

Silmido [실미도 2003] captures the covered historical reality and describes the spectacular training process of the special army stationed at Silmido in vivid detail. As a result, a fictional space is turned into a reality film. The film shows ideological inconsistency of the critical view about the fascism of government authority and at the same time the political aid about government authority. The film creates dramatic and friendly effect through melodramatic and emotional exaggeration called sinpa about historical events to produce the pleasure of assimilation based on the trust of the audience. Here, individual assimilation is subjectivity achieved through the general sympathy coming from the tragic national discourse. Silmido appeals to the imaginary community not in a logical but in an emotional way. The spectacular action and realistic images are supported by national tragedy divided into the South Korea and the North Korea, and integrated sentimentalism to amplify the tragedy. Silmido tries to strengthen the tragic situation caused by the division ideology through this sentimentalism called sinpa. In contrast to the brutality of the relentless military regime, the sacrifice of good-hearted Silmido force members is heroically portrayed.

Public Law Litigation: Lessons and Questions

The practice of using courts to foster social change, once confined to the USA, has emerged as a worldwide phenomenon. Foreign practice reflects indigenous forms but faces criticisms similar to that in the USA: that it is ineffective, antidemocratic, and counterproductive. The essay meets these criticisms, first, by recasting US public law litigation as a form of politics that challenges the status quo by forging alliances, changing discursive frames, and disciplining private and public decision making. Looking abroad, the essay emphasizes public law litigation as a meditative institution that facilitates political action and aids in regulatory enforcement where administrative mechanisms are weak or regulation requires ongoing elaboration. Finally, the essay suggests that criticisms of public law litigation tend to neglect three factors: the actual and not assumed comparative advantages of different institutional actors, the role of temporal conditions in affecting social change, and the ubiquity of complex, not dichotomous, relations.

Trends in Democracy Assistance: What Has Europe Been Doing?

Abstract: European governments are spending more on political aid and democratization in particular. The ways in which this money is being spent have evolved. This has corrected many shortcomings of previous European democracy-promotion policies but also leaves many doubts about the effectiveness of this funding. In particular, it remains uncertain how pertinent the strong European focus on governance and social policies is to broad, systemic-level political change. Some contours of a “European” approach to democracy exist, but significant differences remain between the policies of different member states, and simplistic differentiation from US policies should be resisted.

Changes of the ODA Politics and Liberal Democratic Party's Aid Strategy in the 1990s of Japan

Changes of the ODA Politics and Liberal Democratic Party's Aid Strategy in the 1990s of Japan

The AIDS Pandemic - The Collision of Epidemiology with Political CorrectnessThe AIDS Pandemic - The Collision of Epidemiology with Political Correctness

There have been many different theories about AIDS, and James Chin returns to an old one - the assertion that AIDS is not a threat to the heterosexual population.

Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation in Nigeria: Drawing Lessons from the Democratic Experience in India

Newfound ‘consensus’ that has emerged in the form of the acceptance of the concepts of ‘democratization’ or ‘governance’ is about the minimalist form of liberal democracy under the auspices of the contemporary political aid industry. With the label of democracy getting detached from the content of the concept, even the ‘home-grown’ non-democratic regimes in Africa have appropriated the term. As for Nigeria, weakened both by political decay and economic crisis, ‘democratic transition’ was more of an obligation than a choice for the political class of Nigeria. The recent democratic openings, however, have failed to reconcile, if not aggravated its ethnic, linguistic, regional, religious and cultural differences. Nigeria today is in desperate need of democratic solutions and consolidation while facing a serious crisis in the form of an overall absence, deterioration or breakdown of social, economic and political institutions of governance; the safeguard of human security; a dependent political economy of oil; and the dereliction of physical infrastructure. Lessons from the relatively successful experiences of Indian democracy can be instructive, as India, like Nigeria, not only lacked all the ingredients that make liberal democracy a success at the time of decolonization, but to an extent also faces similar challenges even now.

Rashomon in Jerusalem: Mapping the Israeli Negotiators' Positions on the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process, 1993-2001

To understand the complexities and dilemmas of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict this paper maps the divergent Israeli positions along the route of the “Oslo” peace process of 1993–2001, including the negotiations at Camp David (July 2000), and Taba (January 2001). This paper is based upon a qualitative content analysis of 20 in-depth interviews conducted in 2002 and 2003 at the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a broad range of Israeli negotiators, including senior politicians, foreign ministry officials, senior military officers, former members of the security services, and political aides. This paper tackles the question of how Israelis who were directly involved in the peace process now evaluate it, offering a portrait of how sharply at odds were the various perceptions of what happened and who was responsible for the ultimate failure.

Political aide sails into top job at maritime institute

Finance adviser winds up in science slot after scandal.

A Legal Analysis of Human Rights Clauses in the European Union's Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements

This article offers a legal analysis of the human rights clauses in the European Union's Euro-Mediterranean association agreements. These clauses entitle either party to the agreement to take 'appropriate measures', including suspending the agreement, in the event that the other party fails to comply with specified human rights norms. It describes the political role of these human rights clauses, and examines their scope and operation, including an assessment of the types of 'appropriate measures' that can be taken in response to human rights violations. In particular, the study questions whether, in addition to 'negative' sanctions, the human rights clauses in the Euro-Mediterranean association agreements can provide a basis for 'positive' human rights policies, involving political dialogue and financial aid.

The Politics of AIDS: Engaging Conservative Activists

Twenty years into one of the worst health disasters in human history the AIDS pandemic continues to grow exponentially outstripping prevention efforts and treatment programs; every day it kills 8000 people and infects 13700 more. Although the United States provides fully half the foreign aid aimed at the pandemic the total has been woefully inadequate to check its spread or stop the deaths--until now. Thanks to recent activism by conservative political and religious groups AIDS has finally started to gain foreign policy attention commensurate with its substantive importance. Prodded by its conservative evangelical base the Bush administration has pushed AIDS to the forefront of its international agenda backing record increases in U.S. assistance for AIDS treatment abroad and beginning to address issues such as sex trafficking and the dangers of HIV transmission from unsafe injections and blood transfusions. The future of U.S. global AIDS policy will be complicated however because the conservative groups interested in the issue have different tactical priorities than their liberal counterparts and the broader medical establishment. They have traditionally been hostile to some important AIDS- prevention strategies such as comprehensive sex education and condom distribution and they are much more enthusiastic than others about policies such as the promotion of abstinence. Now that the United States is finally stepping up its efforts to tackle the crisis it would be tragic if their impact were dissipated because of ideological differences between constituencies that are vital to the struggle against AIDS. The time has come therefore for all interested in AIDS policy to unite behind a comprehensive strategy to combat the pandemic one based on the most effective practices in both prevention and treatment. The tens possibly hundreds of millions at risk deserve no less. (excerpt)

Mainstreaming the social dimension into the overseas development administration: a partial history

AbstractWritten by the first Chief Social Development Adviser of the Overseas Development Administration (now called the Department for International Development), this article describes when, why and how an understanding of the social dimension became mainstreamed into the policy and practice of the British aid programme. Exploring the growth within the context of the changing political aid environment of the final quarter of the last century, the history of social development within the British aid programmes is described from its origins in the mid‐1970s up to 1997. It asks how it was that a new specialist group of social analysts was established as part of the agency's bureaucratic machinery and compares this with the World Bank's experience. The article concludes by briefly considering the challenges facing social development expertise following 1997. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Influence of policy measures on the competitiveness of the sugar industry in the Czech Republic

The sugar industry in the Czech Republic is one of the branches of food production that since the end of nineties has been strongly protected by agricultural policy. Here, we will deal with the question how the Czech agricultural policy affected the competitiveness of the sugar industry during transformation. From the analysis, it can be derived that not only agricultural measures but also organisational changes inside the enterprises, as well as modernisation and increasing capacity of plants  that all took place before the enforced political aid, supported the stabilisation of sugar beet farming and the sugar industry in the Czech Republic and its competitiveness in the national market.

The World Jewish Congress: Influence Without Power

As a non-governmental entity, the World Jewish Congress is active in the global politics of the Jewish people, maintaining a broad network of relations with bodies and governments in all parts of the world. This network assists the Congress in its activities of providing material, political and cultural aid to Jewish communities throughout the world. The present article focuses on this entity in an attempt to answer the question: What is the degree of influence of non-national organisations in the global political arena, in an era in which the governmental unit, namely the sovereign state, is the chief actor? This examination of the World Jewish Congress' ability to act in the global Jewish political arena concentrates on three issues which represent three areas of activity on the organisation's agenda: reparations, endangered Jewry and the Waldheim affair.

Political Culture, Religion, and the Confederate Battle Flag Debate in Alabama

The American South is beset by a series of widespread and vitriolic debates over the meaning of symbols associated with the short-lived Confederate States of America (1861-1865). The largest proportion of these controversies pertains to the Confederate Battle Flag and the contrasting understanding of the flag's meaning by both black and white southerners. The purpose of this article is to examine the debate over the flying of the Confederate Battle Flag in the chambers of the Alabama House of Representatives. After analyzing a 1999 vote by legislators on the issue, the controversy is considered in the context of the South's traditionalistic political culture and historic adherence to conservative Protestantism. The article concludes that both political culture and religion aid in an understanding of the passionate condemnations and defenses of the Confederate Battle Flag.

SCAPEGOATS IN POST-WORLD WAR I HUNGARIAN POLITICAL THOUGHT

Studying the history of twentieth-century Eastern and Central European political thought, one often comes across a basic stereotype that is common to both liberals and conservatives, communists and Fascists, nationalists and cosmopolitans, as well as to the ideologists of ruling and oppositional parties of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Croats, Serbs, and Slovenians. When they are trying to explain the defeats, losses, failures, and sufferings of their respective nations in the course of the centuries, they often make an attempt at blaming influential personalities, smaller or larger social groups (layers, classes) or even non-personal factors (such as ideologies, traditions, or prejudices). Whether these explanations take the form of detailed analyses, or very superficial argumentation, or even merely occasional cursory remarks, the result is often the same: the identification of a scapegoat. This paper will make an attempt at examining the peculiarities of Eastern and Central European scapegoating on the basis of a case study of one of the greatest national tragedies in Hungarian history: the collapse of the Hungarian state in the aftermath of World War I, which entailed the loss of two thirds of the countryis territory and about forty percent of the Hungarian ethnic population. The justification for the choice of this topic lies not only in my own historical interests but also in several more current experiences. Since the iannus mirabilisi of 1989 and for the first time after many decades (or even centuries) most of the peoples of the region can indeed try to enjoy self-determination and sovereignty. However, the scope of action for these small nations is limited by numerous external and internal factors, and they will experience many more failures than they might have expected. Declining living standards, widespread corruption, the lack of substantial economic and political (or sometimes even moral, not to speak of military) aid from the iWesti and the lack of a true, promising vision of the future make one ponder about the causes of these problems. All too often clear-cut, monocausal explanations are being demanded. Furthermore, social cohesion must also be strengthened and, as we shall see in a minute, both needs can be satisfied with the help of scapegoats. In difficult, critical situations

Aiding democracy? Donors and civil society in South Africa

During the 1990s the North has increasingly used a new tool, political aid, to influence its relations with the South. More commonly known as 'democracy assistance', political aid is targeted at governmental structures such as parliament, the judiciary and local government, as well as civil society organisations, with the aim of strengthening the institutions and culture of liberal democracy. However, despite its increasing deployment, the shape and extent of foreign political aid in individual countries in the South remain largely undocumented. This article shows the importance of political aid in South Africa since the pivotal elections of 1994. It then critically examines the role assigned to civil society by donors within the 'democratisation' process. Unlike most writers on the new political aid regime, who are often both its chroniclers and mandarins, this author questions the emancipatory potential of the kind of democracy being 'helped along' by democracy assistance.

Promoting Democratic Governance in the South

Arising from a survey of critical literature, three questions are posed concerning the linkage of development aid to the promotion of democratic governance. Is democracy promotion by Northern governments restricted to a narrow, procedural version? Is a ‘Western’ model of democracy imposed? Are programmes part of a wider neo‐liberal hegemonic project of global domination? Investigation is through a comparative examination of the political aid programmes of four official donors, the governments of Sweden, the UK and the US, plus the European Union. Analysis explores two main dimensions: the major recipient countries and the main beneficiary sectors to which political aid is directed. Findings are threefold. First, some emphasis on electoral assistance was confirmed, yet fairly substantial support was provided to other dimensions of democratic development, including civil society organisations, though the latter lacked focus and overall coherence. Second, each bilateral donor tends to promote and universalis...

Can financial aid promote regional peace agreements? The case of the Arab‐Israeli conflict1

This article deals with the question of whether the western world, for example, the European Union, is able to efficiently link the allocation of financial aid with the alteration of the recipient's foreign policy. The case study chosen is the Arab‐Israeli conflict. Is it possible to buy peace between Israel and its neighbours?1 Factors influencing the chance of promoting regional peace agreements are examined. Special emphasis is placed upon the dependence of the recipient upon external financial aid, which is defined as a special variant of rent income. Furthermore, the structure of the conflict as well as the ability of the rent‐donating government to verify the policy of the recipient is taken into consideration. The main empirical findings are that, in comparison to Israel, the chance of altering the foreign policy of the Arab actors with the help of financial aid is much higher. However, despite similarities between Jordan, the PLO and Syria, structural differences among the Arab actors exist. Although all Arab parties involved in the Arab‐Israeli conflict are dependent upon external sources of income in general, in the Syrian case the dependence upon outside political aid is significantly lower than in the case of Jordan and the PLO. Thus, although the donation of financial aid played a major role in convincing the PLO and Jordan to alter their policies towards Israel, the chance to repeat this outcome is much lower in the Syrian‐Israeli case.

Civil society and the political economy of foreign aid in Uganda

The interface between the extension of foreign political aid, the growth of civil society and political and economic development in Uganda presents interesting dilemmas in terms of theory and praxis. This article examines the phenomenal expansion of civil society activity in Uganda ‐ barely a decade ago considered the ‘sick man’ of Africa. It argues that while such a development is welcome, it must be considered in particular against the backdrop of open political activity crystallized in the operation of President Yoweri Museveni's ‘no‐party’ National Resistance Movement (NRM) government. The implications of the considerable support extended by the foreign donor community to an experiment with questionable democratic content are examined, along with the nature and character of sectors of civil society and the relationship (particularly in the context of a country like Uganda) of civil society to political society.

Die geheime Westpolitik der SED, 1960-1970: Von der gesamtdeutschen Orientierung zur sozialistischen Nation

The documents published in this edition furnish proof of many hitherto only suspected facts. Moreover, they present numerous unknown opinions of leading politicians, as well as information on imminent political issues. Topics discussed include contradictions between the SED and the CPSU, political and financial aid for the Social Democrats' election campaigns, the overwhelming influence of the USA and the Soviet Union on German-German relations, the desolate economic situation of the GDR even in those years and characterizations of Social Democrats by the SED.