Political Asymmetries Research Articles

Perspectives for German-Polish Relations in the EU-27

In recent years the seemingly firm historical ties between Warsaw and Berlin have become increasingly strained. This results from a growing political asymmetry between the two countries. Germany moved into a semi-hegemonial position under the conditions of the triple crisis of banking, economy and sovereign debt in the eurozone. Consequently, German chancellor Angela Merkel was in a strong enough position to implement ordoliberal reforms of the eurozone’s governance architecture, which were promoted as an approach without alternatives. Merkel maintained her uncompromising stance during the migration crisis in the summer of 2015, when she demanded implementation of compulsory migrant distribution quotas across the EU. Poland and the Visegrád countries had initially strongly supported German leadership in resolving the eurozone crisis. The alienation from Germany’s European agenda however became significant under the conditions of the migration crisis. Here the firm opposition of Poland and the rest of the Visegrád Group towards Germany’s preferences shows a strategic mismatch between the EU’s liberal core, which is spearheaded by Germany, and the concept of the “illiberal” state, which Poland has embraced under the PiS government. The willingness to resolve these differences will be crucial in determining the future shape of Polish-German relations.

Estudo dos discursos e dos moldes de cooperação técnico-militar e técnico-policial entre Portugal, Brasil e Angola

O presente artigo é resultado de uma pesquisa mais ampla, de natureza qualitativa, sobre a cooperação técnico-militar e técnico-policial entre Portugal, Brasil e Angola. O objetivo é analisar a situação atual da cooperação com base em fonte bibliográfica e documental. Em particular, pretende-se descrever e examinar os discursos formulados em torno da cooperação por atores ligados aos segmentos diplomático, ao planejamento estratégico e técnico-operacional. Em seguida, ressaltam-se os pontos fortes, os pontos fracos, as oportunidades e as ameaças apresentadas pela referida cooperação. Os resultados mostram que apesar das divergências verificadas nos discursos, os atores salientam que a cooperação existente pode ser reforçada sobretudo nas áreas da formação policial e em economia da defesa. Além disso, apontam como ponto forte da cooperação a partilha de uma língua comum; como ponto fraco as assimetrias políticas, financeiras e científicas dos países envolvidos; como oportunidade, a participação conjunta em operações humanitárias sob a égide das Nações Unidas e, por fim, como ameaça, a subvalorização dos objetivos coletivos em favor dos objetivos individuais.

Translating the Untranslatable: Walter Benjamin and Homi Bhabha

Since Homi Bhabha introduced the notion of “cultural translation” in the penultimate chapter of his Location of Culture, translation no longer implies the overcoming of existing differences between cultures. In his peculiar interpretation, it becomes a process that initiates cultural differences in the same way as life, for instance, incessantly diversifies its creatures. As these differences follow from translation, rather than precede it, cultures are conceived as hybrid and in-between rather than pure and autonomous entities. It is this characteristics of cultures that, in Bhabha’s understanding, renders them untranslatable. A culture cannot assimilate into another culture without maintaining its internal difference and it cannot liberate itself from another culture without having embodied this culture’s trace. In the final analysis, his idea of “cultural translation desacralizes the … assumptions of cultural supremacy” by undoing the asymmetry between languages that for long centuries accompanied the Western practice of translation. The thesis that I want to propose is that, in this context, Bhabha’s engagement of the notion of untranslatability, introduced by Walter Benjamin in his 1923 essay “The Task of the Translator,” acquires a special significance. It establishes a clandestine “elective affinity” between the two thinkers who, doomed to cope with the traumatic constellations of their respectively post-imperial and postcolonial age, attempt to disengage these ages’ political asymmetries.

Struggles over foreign films and film culture in wartime colonial Seoul (1937–1941)

ABSTRACTAfter the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937), the Japanese government restricted the importation of foreign films into Japan and its colonies. Wartime regulations influenced not just film trade between Japan and the Western countries, but also brought about further changes with regard to distribution and exhibition in colonial Korea. Seoul, the capital of colonial Korea, enjoyed the largest concentration of movie theatres on the Korean peninsula. As a local market of the Japanese empire, theatres in Seoul were directly affected by the changing dynamics of war. The unstable situation of the distribution and screening of foreign films continued until the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941 when commerce between Hollywood and Japan collapsed completely. This essay examines how imperial Japan controlled film imports and its impact on the screening of foreign films in colonial Seoul during wartime, while also discussing the complexities of wartime film culture as well as political and economic asymmetries affecting colonial Korea and mainland Japan.

THE VIETNAM PIETA: SHAPING THE MEMORY OF SOUTH KOREA’S PARTICIPATION IN THE VIETNAM WAR

Conceived to commemorate the victims of South Korea’s participation in the Vietnam War, the statue of the Vietnam Pieta invites us to question who shapes the memory of this neglected facet of the conflict. The present article analyzes the various actors involved in this contentious process in and across both countries, starting with the South Korean activists behind the statue’s making and the movement for recognizing the crimes committed by their army. Examining these activists’ advocacy work since the late 1990s, the article argues that they are triply situated in the fight over remembering South Korea’s intervention in Vietnam. Truth advocates first appear in a position of privilege and leadership vis-à-vis Vietnamese victims of South Korean military wrongdoings, which raises the issue of the material and political asymmetries at stake in the construction of memory. Simultaneously, the same advocates occupy a position of marginality vis-à-vis the dominant public discourse held on the war by Hanoi and Seoul, whose common interest lies in deepening their mutually beneficial but unequal economic partnership. Thirdly, the memory of the conflict pits truth activists against another group within their own civil society: veterans’ organizations aggressively denying all war crimes accusations. Ultimately, remembering the war is not the object of a bilateral dispute between the South Korean and Vietnamese states, but rather a site of domestic tensions within South Korea itself.

Asymmetries and opportunities: Power and inequality in Fairtrade wine global production networks

Fairtrade is changing. The hegemonic certified system, governed by Fairtrade International, has seen some high‐profile withdrawals by major processors and retailers in recent months, which is leading to both proponents and critics questioning who, and what, the system is for. While the certified system has seen increasing conventionalisation, there remains at its core a mission to make trade fair, empower those marginalised in global trade and foster sustainable livelihoods. Taking a global production network (GPN) framework supports a critical exploration of the market, social and political asymmetries of this international system of production and distribution. Drawing on empirical evidence from the wine industry, this paper uses a production‐space perspective to critically reflect on some of the key relations within Fairtrade GPNs. While there are many positive impacts, particularly in social development, producers have experienced a conventionalisation of supply chains, a lack of contextual responsiveness and limited engagement with the global system. These indicate a continuation of power asymmetries that are intersecting, multiscalar and evolving. Although these are from wine industry case studies, anecdotal evidence suggests that they are not uncommon experiences and even a hint of unfair, disempowering and unsustainable trading practices negatively impacts both these producers’ livelihoods and the reputation of the Fairtrade system as a whole. Nonetheless, there remains significant producer buy‐in indicating that the ideals of Fairtrade retain currency. This therefore presents a critical opportunity for Fairtrade to actively address the market, social and political inequalities that persist in its GPNs and re‐establish itself as a leader in the ethical marketplace.

Moral and religious convictions: Are they the same or different things?

People often assume that moral and religious convictions are functionally the same thing. But are they? We report on 19 studies (N = 12,284) that tested whether people’s perceptions that their attitudes are reflections of their moral and religious convictions across 30 different issues were functionally the same (the equivalence hypothesis) or different constructs (the distinct constructs hypothesis), and whether the relationship between these constructs was conditional on political orientation (the political asymmetry hypothesis). Seven of these studies (N = 5,561, and 22 issues) also had data that allowed us to test whether moral and religious conviction are only closely related for those who are more rather than less religious (the secularization hypothesis), and a narrower form of the political asymmetry and secularization hypotheses, that is, that people’s moral and religious convictions may be tightly connected constructs only for religious conservatives. Meta-analytic tests of each of these hypotheses yielded weak support for the secularization hypothesis, no support for the equivalence or political asymmetry hypotheses, and the strongest support for the distinct constructs hypothesis.

IDEOLOGICAL COMPONENT OF CONTENT AS AN OBJECT OF LINGUISTIC EXPERTISE OF POLITICAL TEXT

The article discusses procedures of linguistic expertise of political text aimed at revealing and assessing its ideological impact. The empirical material includes the debut address of the US 45-th president at the 72 UNO session in September this year and response reactions to it in the global press. This speech is qualified as a perfect sample of conflict generating discourse in political communication. The research is based on linguacultural approach to ideological content as a variety of cultural information in conjunction with componential, contextual and discursive methods. The author substantiates a three-level model of expertise: the level of textual linguistic elements; the categorical level based on cultural modality responsible for the exposition of the categories of the linguacultural paradigm and those of linguapolitics; the discursive level of a text viewed as a product of linguapolitical modeling of reality. The linguistic expertise of texts reveals the role of ideological connotations which reflect cultural axiological assessment of world events in the mind of a political discourse subject. The categorical level of analysis brings to light conditions of discursive functioning with reference to categories of Us/Them, precedence, political power, political asymmetry and inequality in intercultural space. The level of discursive organization of a text proves the importance of ideological values of American linguaculture in linguapolitical modelling of world relations pursuing the posttruth politics when covering current urgent issues, evaluating events of the past and giving prognostic views of the future.

Die Zukunft der europäischen Wirtschaftsintegration

After more than seven years of fiscal austerity and neoliberal structural reforms, the fundamental imbalances that led to the Eurozone crisis have remained unresolved and the project of European integration as such appears to be in the deepest crisis it has experienced so far. This has prompted the dominant forces in the EU to at least partially reconsider their present crisis management strategies, envisioning deeper integration towards a “Genuine Economic and Monetary Union” and outlining different future scenarios for the EU. While especially the Five President’s Report does acknowledge fundamental construction problems and crisis tendencies of the Economic and Monetary Union, the strategies to address them either fall tremendously short of this diagnosis or lack assertiveness. We argue that this inability to confront these crisis tendencies results from the growing economic and political asymmetry in the axis between France and Germany as the principal mechanism of compromise which undergirded previous cycles of European economic integration. At the bottom of this paralysis lies a gradual shift in the dominant internationalization patterns of the German political economy within the European division of labor: away from Southern Europe and France and towards Eastern Europe and the Emerging Markets.

Not the same for everyone: Community views of Mexico's payment for environmental services programmes

SUMMARYConservation policies have often been designed and implemented assuming that targeted communities are socially and politically homogeneous. Payment for environmental services (PES) programmes have often overlooked intra-community differences, which affect the understanding of implementation requirements and access to benefits, thus underestimating their effects on the programme's legitimacy and impacts. We explore how the views of local communities about the socio-environmental performance and dynamics of Mexico's PES differ within forest communities, considering two groups: local community authorities and the remaining beneficiaries in two different PES programmes. Informed by a nationwide survey, we constructed 35 indicators and found significant differences between these groups for 10 indicators. Local community authorities concentrated knowledge and information, relations with outside actors and control over benefit distribution. We found that community authorities and beneficiaries diverged in their views about the extent to which PES knowledge is shared across community members, how related implementation decisions are pursued and the fairness of benefit distribution, which we argue suggests this is a form of ‘elite capture’ favoured by PES design and implementation. Efforts should be invested in ensuring that PES programme benefits are equitably distributed in order to avoid widening pre-existing social and political asymmetries.

Hermes, the Leviathan and the Grand Narrative of New Institutional Economics: The Quest for Development in the Eighteenth-Century Kingdom of Naples

Hermes, the Leviathan and the Grand Narrative of New Institutional Economics: The Quest for Development in the Eighteenth-Century Kingdom of Naples The scholarly tradition of New Institutional Economics has tended to explain the «rise of the West» and global inequalities through models distinguishing virtuous institutional paths, which grant property rights and the enforcement of contracts, to non-virtuous ones of which Mediterranean absolutist monarchies are considered to be paradigmatic examples. This essay retraces the emergence of this grand narrative, examining its Anglo-centric leanings and its use of the concept of «absolutism ». By reviewing historiographical studies dealing with the question of southern Italy's economic decline during the early modern age, and by investigating the reforms enacted during the eighteenth century in the Kingdom of Naples in order to create economically efficient institutions, it challenges dichotomous images opposing predatory absolutist states to development-enhancing institutional models dominated by merchants and entrepreneurs. Through an archive-based analysis of the reforms of the judicial and the customs system, it argues that economic and political power asymmetries amongst different states deeply affect the attempts at institutional reform within individual states.

Media practices and the challenge of political asymmetries

In contemporary democracies, the establishment of a public space which is more open and accessible to disadvantaged groups, popular movements and communities is a major challenge. The media are both part of the problem and the solution. On the one hand, they strengthen or even produce divisions and the fragmentation of the public space. On the other, their use by social movements and civil society can establish connections between different social groups, include marginalized populations and regain the public nature of certain issues. Similarly, even if the use of digital resources overcomes obstacles that complicate participation in public debate, all the asymmetries do not disappear with the use of Internet, for instance.

Political Asymmetry and Systems of Information and Social Organization: A Characterization

This article aims to develop a taxonomy and a further definition of the concept of political asymmetry for operationalization into social science research inquiry. On the one hand the article accou...

What future for the Global Aid for Trade Initiative? Towards an assessment of its achievements and limitations

As with any form of contemporary global governance, the impact of the global Aid for Trade Initiative (2006) has been mixed. However, to dismiss it as a failure would be premature. The co‐ordination system established was based on best‐practice techniques of governance in a diverse non‐hierarchical environment, such as the international development community. This form of co‐operation cannot overcome global economic and political asymmetries, but it can be effective in several respects. In particular, the Initiative led to increased funding for AfT and kick‐started a range of initiatives and technical advances; while the monitoring process has evolved significantly to give voice to new actors and issues. Although the future of the AfT Initiative is uncertain, its achievements merit careful consideration.

Latin American countries and the establishment of the multilateral trading system: the Havana Conference (1947-1948)

ABSTRACT This article proposes to study the participation of Latin American delegations during the Havana Conference, which negotiated and approved the Charter of International Trade Organization (ITO), including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), in 1947-1948. It shows that the prevalent understanding of Latin American countries was that the Havana negotiations would be the outcome of their existing political and material power asymmetries in relation to the industrialized countries. They believed that their fragile economies should face the strong economies of the industrialized countries by economic planning and import substitution, already in place in several Latin American countries since the 1930s and the 1940s. The article also shows that the construction of the post-World War II international trade regime was in fact characterized by strong material and political inequalities, which undermined Latin American countries abilities to negotiate.

Mitigating systemic dangers: the role of connectivity inducers in a deliberative system

ABSTRACTThis article seeks to critically discuss the notion of deliberative systems, attempting to contribute to the strengthening of the concept through a less laudatory perspective. Initially, it challenges the current use of deliberative systems as a panacea against any critique of deliberation. It argues that the concept in itself opens new dilemmas to deliberative theorists and practitioners. The article argues that the idea of deliberative systems may (1) create political asymmetries; (2) increase decision makers’ discretionary powers; and (3) neglect the incompatibility of very different discursive dynamics. The article, then, argues that these criticisms may be partially remedied through the strengthening of connections between discursive arenas, and discusses the role that three types of actors may play to induce connectivity in deliberative processes: (1) bureaucrats; (2) the media; (3) activists.

Theory of Political Asymmetry and the Distortion of the Communicational Process of Production of Norms. A case study on the norm of Development at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund

Theory of Political Asymmetry and the Distortion of the Communicational Process of Production of Norms. A case study on the norm of Development at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund

Finlandization and the Peaceful Development of China

The rise of China has sparked new type of geopolitical considerations and a debate in East Asian security studies. The neighboring countries of China can soon find themselves in a similar geopolitical situation as Finland found itself after the Second World War: there was a great power in the vicinity and the balancing force of this giant was far away. Since we do not have empirical experience of East Asia's future, we will have to use empirical cases that seem similar to the one East Asia is heading at. Finland's experience is one of such cases and it is a case that has been well theorized to allow distilling of lessons from this case to cases that might be similar from the point of view of power politics. This article will use the Finnish experience as a tool for the analysis of the possible futures of the emerging political asymmetry in East Asia. This will be done by analytically and conceptually investigating the dimensions of asymmetry identified in the relationship between Finland and the Soviet Union, by empirically seeking lessons from the Finnish experience and by comparatively applying the lessons to the East Asian context.

Regional Trust, Liabilities of Foreignness and the Location Decision of Multinational Firms in Europe

When investing in a foreign country, multinational enterprises face social, political and organizational information asymmetries. This liability of foreignness (LOF) introduces additional costs, threaten profitability and deter foreign direct investments. In this study we investigate if certain regions are better able to mitigate these liabilities, and therefore attract more greenfield investments. We identify regional trust, defined as the society average for interpersonal trust per region, as potential mediator of the LOF. Using European cross-sectional data from 2003-2011 on the number of cross-border greenfield investments and the regional level of trust, we confirm that the level of regional trust positively affects the number of investments that a region receives. The effect of regional trust is sizable (factor 1.65 and above per one unit increase in regional trust). Firms with a higher probability of facing a LOF (operationalized by geographic, institutional and genetic distance between the home and host country) more often locate in regions with a higher level of trust. We show that this result is robust against endogeneity.

Instrument Choice, Carbon Emissions, and Information

This Article examines the consequences of a previously unrecognized difference between pollutant cap-and-trade schemes and pollution taxes. Implementation of cap-and-trade relies on a forecast of future emissions, while implementation of a pollution tax does not. Realistic policy designs using either regulatory instrument almost always involve a phase-in over time to avoid economic disruption. Cap-and-trade accomplishes this phase-in via a limit on emissions that falls gradually below the forecast of future pollutant emissions. Emissions taxation accomplishes the same via a gradually increasing levy on pollution. Because of the administrative complexity of establishing an emissions trading market, cap-and-trade programs typically require between three and five years lead time before imposing obligations on emitters. In this Article, I present new evidence showing that forecast error over this timeframe for United States energy- related carbon dioxide emissions from the Department of Energy’s energy model—the model used for policy design by Congress and EPA—is biased and imprecise to such a degree as to make its use impractical. The forecasted emissions are insufficiently accurate to allow for creation of a reliable or predictable market signal to incentivize emission reductions. By contrast, carbon taxes, because they do not depend upon a baseline emissions forecast, create a relatively clear level of policy stringency. This difference matters because policies that end up weaker than intended face low odds for strengthening, while those that end up stronger than intended are likely to be weakened. The political asymmetry combined with actual model forecast errors leads to bias in favor of suboptimal, weak, policies for cap-and-trade. This is a serious concern if, as is usually the case, a cap is set based on political bargaining rather than on an optimal balancing of abatement costs and avoided climate damage. By contrast, the same model bias would lead to more environmentally effective than forecast carbon taxes but without the political consequences created by price volatility, were such programs to be implemented in the United States. Thus, while theory tells us that cap-and-trade and carbon taxes can be equivalent, imperfect information leads to suboptimal environmental performance of emissions trading, relative to carbon taxation policies. Policymakers should weigh these practical, information-related concerns when considering approaches to controlling emissions of greenhouse gases.