How does knowledge circulate in a regulatory network ? : Observing a European Platform of Regulatory Authorities meeting

Multi-level networks of regulatory authorities are considered as vectors of knowledge circulation, norm diffusion, and regulatory coordination. However, this is often assumed without empirical scrutiny of the concrete “micro-dynamics” between individual participants in networks, which remain a “black box” for analysts. This paper is mainly based on direct observation and informal interviews conducted during a meeting of the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities in charge of regulation of the broadcasting sector. It seeks to elucidate what deliberation, socialization, and learning, considered as devices typical of “soft” governance modes, mean as concrete social practices within a network

Post-poetics Culture, or, Pre-conscious Ferocity

Natural ferocity dominates part of human society. Based on its spontaneous-instinc­tive needs and desires, it triggers off individual praxes and behaviors. Ideological definitions are collectively consecrated, forming ethic and mental orders. Accord­ing to this, mimesis causes knowledge and catharsis regulates conscious behavior. The social function of theatre art in the classic Hellenic era differs radically from that of modern post-dramatic poetics in the sense that, whereas ancient dramas and games educated the members of polis to act publicly, as citizens, post-poetics culture encourages the reasonable beings to live individually, reviving their pre-conscious ferocity

European land settlement and development in Latin America: the evolution of an idea from Interwar to the early Post-WWII years

This article examines the birth and evolution of the idea of land settlement as a way to combine and resolve two issues diachronically considered problematic: on the one hand, the underdevelopment in Latin America due to a certain extent to the lack of labour force that could exploit the immense lands available; on the other hand, the overpopulation in Europe accompanied by volatile problems such as unemployment, particularly in critical times such as between and after the two World Wars. Based on archival material retrieved from the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington D.C., the Archives of the FDR Presidential Library and Museum in New York, the Archives of the IOM Office in Athens and the São Paulo State Archive, we attempt to provide a genealogy of this idea since the Interwar period and the ways in which it has materialised by governments and international organisations, namely the ILO and the ICEM

Lower levels of clientelism in Portuguese politics explain why Portugal handled austerity better than Greece during the crisis

Greece and Portugal were two of the worst hit countries by the Eurozone crisis, yet the domestic political reaction within each state was notably different. While in Greece there were difficulties agreeing to austerity policies and the party system underwent substantial change; Portuguese parties negotiated a broad political consensus over reforms and the mainstream parties largely retained their support base. Alexandre Afonso, Sotirios Zartaloudis and Yannis Papadopoulos argue that the key reason for this difference relates to the varying levels of clientelism in each country, where political ‘patrons’ provide goods or services to their backers in return for political support. They write that the fact Portugal had lower levels of clientelism before the crisis ensured that Portuguese parties were more capable of backing austerity policies without alienating their supporters

K. Featherstone, D.K. Katsoudas, Political Change in Greece. Before and after the Colonels, Londres, Croom Helm, 1987, 301 p.

La recherche politologique sur la Grèce a souvent été handicapée par ce que l'on peut appeler un certain `fétichisme des particularités' : les rares fois où le cas grec était pris en compte, c'était au mieux en tant que cas atypique, qui posait de nombreux obstacles épistémologiques, notamment en ce qui concerne le transfert de concepts de la science politique “ occidentale ”. A cet égard, ce livre mérite d'être salué comme une tentative sérieuse pour évaluer “ comment  [le processus de changement] s'est manifesté dans différents secteurs du système politique ” (p. 11). Par “ changement ” on entend alors “ la manière dont la politique grecque s'est développée depuis la chute de la dictature des colonels en juillet 1974, et dans quelle mesure cette transition a été modelée à la fois par l'expérience de la junte et par l'ère de régime parlementaire avant 1967 ” (p. 1)

The challenge of transnational private governance: evaluating authorization, representation and accountability

The shift of regulatory activities to the international level is clearly visible in the increasing number of intergovernmental organizations and sector-specific “regimes,” or in the progress of supranational political integration above all in Europe. But one can also think of a less visible shift that has led to the explosion of transnational regulation outside the intergovernmental realm. This shift takes various forms, including publicprivate ventures or informal modes of cooperation between public actors (Pauwelyn et al. 2012). It is to the study of an increasingly important particular aspect of transnational regulation outside the intergovernmental sphere that this programmatic note is devoted: 2 regulation by non-state actors, such as NGOs and firms, which are two of the three poles of Abbott and Snidal’s (2009) “governance triangle” (the third pole obviously being the state, or more generally public institutions). Such a development is emblematic of “a remarkable period of institutional innovation in transnational governance” (Hale & Held 2010) (...)

Bilan critique de la littérature sur le clientélisme en Grèce

Cet article ne prend en compte que les textes publiés. Par ailleurs, les textes écrits en grec ne sont pas mentionnés, car ils sont innaccessibles à de trop nombreux chercheurs qui ne maîtrisent pas cette langue. Enfin, la prise en compte des textes comparatifs, dans laquelle la Grèce est citée comme un cas parmi d'autres n'est pas exhaustive. Il est significatif concernant la relative pauvreté de la littérature sur le clientélisme en Grèce qu'il n'y ait pas de contribution grecque dans un ouvrage classique comme celui édité par Gellner et Waterbury où figurent des travaux sur l'Italie, la Turquie ou même Malte