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State Apparatus (state + apparatus)
Selected AbstractsReading and Writing the Stasi File: on the Uses and Abuses of The File as (auto)biographyGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 4 2003Alison Lewis The opening of the Stasi files in 1992, made possible by the Stasi Documents Legislation, was an important symbolic act of reconciliation between victims and perpetrators. For victims, reading their file provided a means of re-appropriating stolen aspects of their lives and rewriting their life histories. This article argues that the Stasi file itself can be viewed as a form of hostile biography, authored by an oppressive state apparatus, that constituted in GDR times an all-powerful written ,technology of power'. The analogy of secret police files to literary genres enables us to pose a number of questions about the current uses to which the files are being put by victims and perpetrators. Are victims and perpetrators making similar use of their Stasi file in the writing of their autobiographies? What happens when the secret police file is removed from its original bureaucratic context and ,regime of truth' and starts to circulate as literary artefact in new contexts, for instance, as part of victims' and perpetrators' autobiographies? How is the value of the Stasi file now being judged? Is the file being used principally in the services of truth and reconciliation, as originally intended in the legislation, or does it now circulate in ,regimes of value' that place a higher premium on accounts of perpetrators, as can be witnessed in the publication of the fictitious ,autobiography' of the notorious secret police informer, Sascha Anderson? [source] The rise and fall of social partnership in postsocialist Europe: the Commonwealth of Independent StatesINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 6 2006Vadim Borisov ABSTRACT Traditional trade unions throughout the postsocialist world embraced ,social partnership' as a means to secure their institutional survival in a radically changed economic and political environment. The commitment of national governments to social partnership ebbed and flowed through the 1990s, but it was confirmed, at least rhetorically, in Central and Eastern Europe by the prospect and requirements of accession to the European Union. This article explores the fate of social partnership in the ,other half' of Europe, the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, where social dialogue has largely been abandoned and trade unions alternatively marginalised or subordinated to the state apparatus. [source] The Game of Electoral Fraud and the Ousting of Authoritarian RuleAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2010Beatriz Magaloni How can autocrats be restrained from rigging elections when they hold a huge military advantage over their opponents? This article suggests that even when opposition parties have no military capacity to win a revolt, opposition unity and a consequent threat of massive civil disobedience can compel autocrats to hold clean elections and leave office by triggering splits within the state apparatus and the defection of the armed forces. Opposition unity can be elite-driven, when parties unite prior to elections to endorse a common presidential candidate, or voter-driven, when elites stand divided at the polls and voters spontaneously rebel against fraud. Moreover, the article identifies some conditions under which autocrats will tie their hands willingly not to commit fraud by delegating power to an independent electoral commission. The article develops these ideas through a formal game and the discussion of various case studies. [source] Disciplining Society through the City: The Genesis of City Planning in Brazil and Argentina (1894,1945)BULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH, Issue 2 2003Joel Outtes This paper looks at the genesis of a discourse on urbanismo (city planning) in Brazil and Argentina between 1894 and 1945 using the ideas of Michel Foucault on discipline and his concept of bio,power. The demographic pattern of the major cities in both countries from 1890 onwards and the renewals of the centres of these cities are also discussed. Other sections are dedicated to the plans proposed for the same cities in the 1920s and to urban representations, such as ideas about social reform, the role of hygiene as a point of departure for planning, and the relationship of ideas on Taylorism (scientific management) and the city. The paper also discusses the planners opposition to elections, when they claimed that they were the only ones qualified to deal with urban problems and therefore they should be employed in the state apparatus. Other concerns of the paper are the use of planning as an element of nation building and ideas defining eugenics (race ,betterment') as an important aspect of city planning. I conclude by arguing that, if implemented, city planning was a way of creating an industrial culture, disciplining society through the city, although the industrial proletariat has never made up the majority of the population in Brazil or Argentina. Even if many aspects of the plans proposed for both countries were not implemented, the discourse of planners can be seen as a will to discipline society through the city. This discipline would affect the freedom of movement of human bodies, and is therefore approached through Foucault's concepts of bio,power and discipline [source] | ||||||||||