scholarly journals THE POLITICS OF REGIONALISM AND FEDERATION IN EAST AFRICA, 1958–1964

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 519-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRIS VAUGHAN
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
World History ◽  
Nation State ◽  
National Politics ◽  
East African ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractRecent scholarship discussing the ‘federal moment’ in world history after 1945 has re-examined alternatives to the nation-state in the years of decolonization, arguing against any inevitable transition from empire to nation. This article focuses on the case of East Africa, where federation seemed an attractive and likely prospect by 1963, yet never came to pass. Here, the politics of federation should be understood as a constitutive part of the contested nation-state-making process, rather than a viable alternative to it. For the leaders who initiated the politics of federation in the 1960s, regional unity promised the further centralization of power and a means of defeating ‘tribalist’ opposition. For their opponents, federation was seized on as a means of promoting the autonomy of provinces or kingdoms within a larger federal unit. Ultimately, regionalist aspiration was inseparable from national politics, and negotiations among the leaders of East African states demanded the definition of national interests which divided states rather than united them. Such conclusions suggest that historians of the federal moment might more productively focus on the functions of federalist discourse in the making of nation-states rather than debating the viability of federalist projects.

1 Reconfiguring the national constellation

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL ZÜRN ◽  
STEPHAN LEIBFRIED
Keyword(s):  
Golden Age ◽  
The State ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The 19Th Century

The influence of the state on the trajectory of human lives is more comprehensive and sustained than that of any other organizational construct. We provide a definition of the modern nation-state in four intersecting dimensions – resources, law, legitimacy, and welfare – and review the history and status of each dimension, focusing on the fusion of nation and state in the 19th century, and the development of the ‘national constellation’ of institutions in the 20th. We then assess the fate of the nation-state after the Second World War and, with western OECD countries as our sample, track the rise and decline of its Golden Age through its prime in the 1960s and early 1970s. Finally, we identify the challenges confronting the nation-state of the 21st century, and use the analyses in the following eight essays to produce some working hypotheses about its current and future trajectory – namely, that the changes over the past 40 years are not merely creases in the fabric of the nation-state, but rather an unravelling of the finely woven national constellation of its Golden Age. Nor does there appear to be any standard, interwoven development of its four dimensions on the horizon. However, although an era of structural uncertainty awaits us, it is not uniformly chaotic. Rather, we see structured, but asymmetric change in the make-up of the state, with divergent transformations in each of its four dimensions. In general, nation-states are clinging to tax revenues and monopolies on the use of force, such that the resource dimension may change slowly if at all; the rule of law appears to be moving consistently into the international arena; the welfare dimension is headed in every direction, with privatization, internationalization, supra-nationalization, and defence of the national status quo, occurring at various rates for healthcare, pensions, public utilities, consumer protection, etc. in different countries. How, and whether, the democratic legitimacy of political processes will be ensured in such an incongruent, if not incoherent and paradoxical state is still unclear.

Electronic Governance

2011 ◽  
pp. 629-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Finger
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Financial Economic ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Definition Of

Two parallel evolutions are currently challenging the functioning and the legitimation of the traditional nation-state: globalization and the rapid development of the information and communication technologies (ICTs). Both come together in the new concept of “electronic governance” or “e-governance.” Indeed, globalization in all its forms (i.e., financial, economic, cultural, technological, and ecological globalizations) is increasingly putting pressure upon the nation-state. Collective problems, such as climate change or organized crime, can no longer be solved by nation-states only, let alone by one single nation-state. In fact, such problems require not only the supra-national approaches and institutions, but also the involvement of non-state actors, in particular of civil society and the private sector. Simultaneously, the ICTs are gradually penetrating all realms and all levels of society, and as such increasingly affect both production processes and state-society transactions. If “governance” can be defined as the growing involvement of non-state actors into collective problem-solving at all levels of society (i.e., from the local to the global levels) (e.g., Finger, 2004; Mayntz, 1999), “e-governance” then means the active usage of the ICTs for such collective problem solving. In this article we want to both offer an understanding what e-governance is and could be and outline of the different dimensions and forces which currently lead up to e-governance practices. Consequently, our article is structured as follows: in a first section, we will present and critically discuss the state of the literature on e-governance. In a second section, then, we will show how governance and the ICTs are currently coming together, and subsequently propose a definition of electronic governance.Two parallel evolutions are currently challenging the functioning and the legitimation of the traditional nation-state: globalization and the rapid development of the information and communication technologies (ICTs). Both come together in the new concept of “electronic governance” or “e-governance.” Indeed, globalization in all its forms (i.e., financial, economic, cultural, technological, and ecological globalizations) is increasingly putting pressure upon the nation-state. Collective problems, such as climate change or organized crime, can no longer be solved by nation-states only, let alone by one single nation-state. In fact, such problems require not only the supra-national approaches and institutions, but also the involvement of non-state actors, in particular of civil society and the private sector. Simultaneously, the ICTs are gradually penetrating all realms and all levels of society, and as such increasingly affect both production processes and state-society transactions. If “governance” can be defined as the growing involvement of non-state actors into collective problem-solving at all levels of society (i.e., from the local to the global levels) (e.g., Finger, 2004; Mayntz, 1999), “e-governance” then means the active usage of the ICTs for such collective problem solving. In this article we want to both offer an understanding what e-governance is and could be and outline of the different dimensions and forces which currently lead up to e-governance practices. Consequently, our article is structured as follows: in a first section, we will present and critically discuss the state of the literature on e-governance. In a second section, then, we will show how governance and the ICTs are currently coming together, and subsequently propose a definition of electronic governance.

scholarly journals Integrating the cosmopolitan and the local – The curricular construction of citizens in Luxembourg in the long 19th century

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 165-182
Author(s):  
Catherina Schreiber
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Education System ◽  
Social Differentiation ◽  
Regional Differentiation ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Public ◽  
School Based ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The 19Th Century

During the 19th century new forms of government emerged, understanding themselves explicitly as nation-states. The new definition of the state had to include its members by defining them as citizens, a definition which included both equalizing and differentiating aspects. The education system fulfilled a key role in educating these future citizens. While the principal setting was not a national, I intend to show how this national logic shaped constructions of various types of nation-state citizens made through the public school based on empirical evidence from the Luxembourgian curriculum. In an exemplifying way, the motivation behind the respective changes and continuities will be uncovered concerning social differentiation in secondary education and a strong regional differentiation in the homebound lower branches of education.http://dx.doi.org/10.15572/ENCO2015.11

Excluded Uses: Indigenous Rights to Water

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Cosens
Keyword(s):  
Water Resource ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Nation State ◽  
European Contact ◽  
Terra Nullius ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right

Indigenous rights to water follow diverse trajectories across the globe. In Asia and Africa even the concept of indigeneity is questioned and peoples with ancient histories connected to place are defined by ethnicity as opposed to sovereign or place-based rights, although many seek to change that. In South America indigenous voices are rising. In the parts of the globe colonized by European settlement, the definition of these rights has been in a continual state of transition as social norms evolve and indigenous capacity to assert rights grow. From the point of European contact, these rights have been contested. They have evolved primarily through judicial rulings by the highest court in the relevant nation-state. For those nation-states that do address whether indigenous rights to land and water exist, the approach has ranged from the 18th- and 19th-century doctrines of terra nullius (the land (and resources) belonged to no one) to a recognized right of “use and occupancy” that could be usurped under the doctrine of “discovery” by the conquering power. In the 20th and 21st centuries the evolution of the recognition of indigenous rights remains uneven, reflecting the values, judicial doctrine, and degree to which the contested water resource is already developed in the relevant nation-state. Thus, indigenous rights to water range from the recognition of cultural and spiritual rights that would have been in existence at the time of European contact, to inclusion of subsistence rights, rights sufficient for economic development, rights for homeland purposes, and rights as guardian for a water resource. At the forefront in this process of recognition is the right of indigenous peoples as sovereign to control, allocate, develop and protect their own water resources. This aspirational goal is reflected in the effort to create a common global understanding of the rights of indigenous peoples through declaration and definition of the right of self-determination articulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The History of Islam in East Africa

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicitas Becker
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Minority Status ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
East African ◽  
Nation States ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
The Government

The history of Islam in East Africa stretches back to around 1000 CE. Until the mid-20th century, it remained largely confined to the coast and closely bound up with the history of the Swahili towns situated on it. The Swahili language remains central to many East African Muslims, hence the occasionally heard phrase, “Swahili Islam.” East African Muslims are mostly Shafiites and some belong to Sufi orders, especially Qadiriyya and Shadhiliyya. Since c. 1850, Islam, with many variations in ritual, has become the religion of speakers of a multitude of languages across the region, second only to Christianity. The region’s independent nation-states initially promised equality for all religions within a secular order. Since c. 1990, though, the minority status of East African Muslims has fed into a multitude of grievances related to the region’s economic and political impasses. This situation has led to growing movements of Islamic preaching and activism, supported by increased contacts with congregations elsewhere in the Indian Ocean. At times, they have influenced electoral politics, especially in Zanzibar, where Islamic activism resonates with fear of marginalization by the mainland. In Kenya, Somali-influenced Islamist terrorists committed a series of atrocities in the 2010s. East African governments, in turn, have been proactive in tracking and disrupting such networks, and in Kenya, the government engaged in targeted assassination. Nevertheless, peaceful coexistence between Muslims and adherents of other religions remains the norm in East Africa, and its dynamics are often poorly understood.

scholarly journals Politics and historical revisionism: Flows of relativizaton of collaborationism and normalization of „Ravna Gora antifascism“

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 133-177
Author(s):  
Safet Bandžović ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Socialist Revolution ◽  
National Politics ◽  
National Interests ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Historical Revisionism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

At the end of the 20th century, the perception of peoples and states on their own past changed profoundly in the Balkans as well, with major geopolitical changes. Its processing and instrumentalization are encouraged by the complex permeation of the global relationship between national and ideological forces and local ruling interests. Every political and ideological victory, "must find its legitimate stronghold in the past." The disintegration of the ideological paradigm and the Yugoslav state union was accompanied by a balancing of the past from the outside, in accordance with the interests of the time and dominant politics, the accelerated construction of new national identities, the outbreak of a "civil war between different memories", the reversal of consciousness. These processes in the post-Yugoslav countries, in "transitional historiography", along with the new "reduction of totality", led to "retraditionalization", to the problematic waves of historical revisionism especially related to the Second World War, the correction of the so-called historical injustices, normalization of collaborationism, nationalization and relativization of the notion of anti-fascism. National historiographies in these countries have made a turn from the former glorification of the People's Liberation Movement (NOP) to its relativization, as part of the general trend of radical "re-nationalization". None of them carried out such a "thorough confrontation with the anti-fascism" of the NOP as Serbia. Numerous historians, with the participation of parascientific formations, give legitimacy to constructions of devaluing the anti-fascist legacy and rehabilitating Quisling forces. The falsification of history has also led to the relativization of their responsibility at the expense of those who have in part confirmed themselves as anti-fascists. Revanchist historiography imposes alternative truths. There is a real consensus on the definition of "good" nationalism, which for many is "elementary patriotism". Various nationalist currents are portrayed as anti-fascist. The collaborationist forces defeated in 1945 became "misunderstood victims of historical destiny." Their actions are placed in the context of their anti-communism, promoted in reasonable national politics. Derogating from anti-fascism also led to "anti-anti-fascism". He relativizes the crimes of fascists and collaborators, re-evaluates victims and executioners. It is not common practice for "historical truths" to be written in parliaments and promulgated by law, as has happened in Serbia. Courts and parliaments cannot valorize someone’s historical role. Historical science can do that. Revisionism is based on selective forgetting and the construction of a "desirable history", it is "a reworking of the past carried by clear or covert intentions to justify narrower national or political goals." The obvious expression is "political culture in a society, that is, it speaks of the dominant political value orientations in it". Judicial rehabilitation is understood as an ideological and political measure of revision of history. A distinction should be made between the individual rehabilitation of innocent victims of persecution by the authorities after 1945 and a light revision of history. The political and ideological aspects of rehabilitation, with the support of the media and the pseudo-legal mechanism, include manipulating a number of topics to delegitimize the system that changed social, economic, political and national relations after 1945 - characteristic of monarchist Yugoslavia. In revisionist historiography, communists are treated as opponents of Serbian national interests ("red devils"), intruders in national history, and the socialist revolution as an excess. With the adoption of certain laws and the application of a whole arsenal of rhetorical means and concealment of a number of historical facts, the notion of Draža Mihailović's Chetnik movement in Ravna Gora was especially reworked, neglecting and relativizing his criminal practice, to make this "new anti-fascist" side a desirable "pre-communist ancestor". "authorities. This collaborationist movement is also relieved through anti-communism, it is marked as patriotic and anti-totalitarian. His rehabilitation in Serbia has multiple meanings and consequences in its social life, but also in regional relations.

National interests and foreign policy: A conceptual framework for analysis and decision-making

1976 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 246-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald E. Nuechterlein
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
International Politics ◽  
National Interest ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Foreign Ministers

The term “national interest” has been used by statesmen and scholars since the founding of nation-states to describe the aspirations and goals of sovereign entities in the international arena. Today foreign ministers, military strategists and academicians discuss the vital interests of their countries in ways suggesting that everyone understands precisely what they mean and will draw correct inferences from their use of the term. Nothing could be further from reality. In truth, the study of international politics as well as the art of diplomacy suffer from widespread ambiguity about the meaning of national interest, with the result that some scholars have proposed that the concept be abandoned and replaced by some other phrase. To my mind, this would be an abdication of the scholar's responsibility because, whether we like it or not, the term national interest is so deeply ingrained in the literature of international relations and diplomatic language that it is unlikely to be dismissed from our vocabulary simply because some scholars find it useless. Were we to attempt to substitute some new phrase, we would likely find even less consensus and could become engaged in yet another round of jargon-creation. A better alternative, I suggest, is to strive for a more precise definition of national interest and then provide a conceptual framework in which serious discussion of foreign policy and international politics can become more fruitful. That is the purpose of this paper.

scholarly journals What’s New About Muslim Ismaili Transnationalism? Comparing Business Practices in British East Africa, Colonial Mozambique and Contemporary Angola

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Salvaterra Trovão ◽  
Filomena Batoréu
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
East African ◽  
Potential Conflict ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Nation States ◽  
History Of ◽  
Postcolonial Africa ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The way in which the history of colonialism might link up with the formation of postcolonial migrant identities remains insufficiently examined. Through a comparison between transnational business practices of Khoja Ismaili Muslim settled in the British and Portuguese colonial territories of East Africa and in contemporary Angola, the present paper aims to discuss the impact of colonial experiences in the configuration of postcolonial business cultures. Articulating several guiding empirical questions, we will attempt to show that the continuing centrality of the nation-states in which Ismaili transnational economic activities are embedded, the notion of a disadvantageous network closure, concomitant with the importance of face-to-face contacts, the mutual trust and understanding sustained through personal relations, and the tendency for national loyalty to prevail over religious belonging (whenever any potential conflict between the two exists) constitute crucial dimensions of an accumulated colonial knowledge which is significant in the analysis of the Ismaili competitive advantage in postcolonial Africa. This argument will be developed on the basis of a multi-sited ethnographic research. The U.K. and Portugal emerged as a strategic passage for our encounters with East African Ismailis from former British and Portuguese colonial territories. The current Angolan context, absent from the available literature, was selected as a postcolonial term of comparison.

The Shirazi Civilisation and its Impact on the East African Coast

Utafiti ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-256
Author(s):  
Newton Kahumbi Maina
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
East African ◽  
Gulf Region ◽  
East African Coast ◽  
Persian Language ◽  
Persian Architecture ◽  
Nation States ◽  
African Coast ◽  
The Persian Gulf ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The relations between Iran and East Africa are captured well by depicting the impact of the Shirazi (Persian) civilisation on the East African coast. But some influential scholars claim that historians tend to dismiss or trivialise the role played by the Shirazis in East Africa. The demonstrable impact of Shirazi civilisation in East Africa is evident in the expansion of trade between the East African coast and the Persian Gulf region with the expansion of Islam. The Persian language has bequeathed to the Kiswahili language many lexicons that are presently still accessible in the region. Persian poets influenced Kiswahili literature through their classic works. The influence of Persian architecture is seen in Shirazi building styles throughout cities including Zanzibar, Kilwa and Manda. Thus Shirazis brought Persian traditions and customs to East Africa, and some Shirazis intermarried with the Arabs and local communities. As compiled here from other sources, there is enough enduring historical evidence to demonstrate incontrovertibly the impact of the Shirazis in social, economic and political aspects of East African life. This legacy arguably justifies greater contemporary cooperation between East African nation states and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

scholarly journals Devices of comic in the work of the 20th century English-speaking Ugandan poets

2019 ◽  
pp. 140-144
Author(s):  
Natal'ya S. Frolova
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Poetry ◽  
East African ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Made In

Poetry of the Ugandans are analysed in an article in the context of the use of devices of comic in the East African English-language poetry. The critical-realistic and enlightener tendencies that were eagerly apprehended by most East African authors in the 1960s have not allowed them going beyond the direct criticism of damning poetry to this day as well, although point-by-point attempts to use humour and satire when contemplating socio-political issues, do occur throughout the sixty-year existence of East Africa English-language poetry. The dilogy by Okot p’Bitek, Timothy Wangusa and Taban Lo Liyong are clear examples of such attempts made in Uganda literature. At the same time, the three authors use fundamentally different techniques of comic, when portraying modern reality, both purely African and universal human.

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