[From the introduction]; This thesis has three interlocking aims. The first is to examine the extension in recent decades of feminist theory to International Relations. The second is to consider the challenge of some leading non-Western feminist thinkers to key assumptions about International Relations made by Western thinkers. The third objective is to consider the implications of feminist theory for political practice. This is achieved through an examination of the recent attempt by the United States to implement a female emancipation project based on Western universal values, in Afghanistan.

In the Introduction [Chapter 1] I first introduce the concept of 'nation' by stressing its 'fuzziness', and by reviewing Western and non-western interpretations of its definition. I then briefly review some pertinent events in Laos' recent history. I next explain the reasons for my choice of a certain terminology. In a third section, I introduce and justify my methodology. In Chapter Two, I introduce and discuss the theoretical framework and studies on Lao nationalism. I first look at the theories of nationalism put forward by Gellner, Anderson and Smith, three of the most influential thinkers on the subject, and note the limits of their theories with respect to my study. I then extend my discussion to theories of nationalism and ethnicity, and I argue that these propose a framework that is too constrained to explain the complexity of my research. I therefore suggest some other conceptual notions that may encompass the multiple outcomes of my study. Finally, I discuss studies that have dealt with the concepts of nation, nationalism and ethnicity in modern Laos, and show how my work may contribute to the fostering of research in this field. In Chapter Three, I review the historical relationships between the non-ethnic Lao people and the political authorities from the pre-modern period up to the proclamation of the Lao PDR in 1975. I focus in particular on three historical periods: pre-modern Laos (until the French colonisation), French rule (1893-1954) and the French and American Wars (1945-1974). Each period corresponds with a specific pattern of relationships between the non-ethnic Lao people and the political authority. Above all, I insist that the French and American Wars changed the role of the non-ethnic Lao populations socially, politically and historically. From the periphery where they were symbolically and administratively confined, the participation of some of their members in the wars exposed these individuals to socialisation and politicisation processes. From that point onwards, the nationalist discourse would have to include multi-ethnicity in its rhetoric. In Chapter Four, I analyse ethnic classifications in contemporary Laos, with a brief review of previous policies. I first look at the ideologies that have influenced the Lao ethnic classification, namely, those of the former Soviet Union, China and Vietnam. Through an analysis of the construction of the latest official census (August 2000), I suggest a close relationship between ethnic categorisation and the nationalist discourse. I conclude with a study of Kaysone Phomvihane's guidelines on the concept of the nation in Laos. In Chapter Five, I question the Majority's ethnicity. I first argue that the constitution of a national identity in post-socialist Laos is being conducted through a dual process of exclusion and inclusion, involving a politics of Minority/Majority representation and a dichotomy between Tradition and Modernity. I extend my discussion to the nationalist discourse's search for particularism, through a politics of cultural discipline and a new approach to the narrative of the national history. At the same time, I suggest that the new form of nation, more centred on a spiritual principle, i.e. Buddhism, also originates in popular will, namely, the ethnic Lao population's. In Chapter Six, I reverse the perspective and disclose the voices of those being represented. I focus my analysis on a few members of ethnic minorities who hold, or have held, a position of authority. More precisely, I analyse their interpretations of the past through their narratives. I point out their pattern, logic and coherence, but also their discontinuities, omissions and exaggerations. All these characteristics are constitutive of these individuals' identity. Experience, however, is never monolithic. Experience structures narratives, which, in turn, structure experience, while all interpretations and expressions are historically, politically and institutionally situated. I therefore show that narratives also can change under new historical and political conditions. In Chapter Seven, I reflect on the issues of ethnicity and identity. I first study the ambiguities of the ethnicities of the individuals discussed in Chapter Six, caught in between the official categorisation, the Majority's ethnicity and their own perception of their ethnic identity. I then analyse what I call the crisis of identity induced by social, economic, political and institutional changes during the post-socialist era. The social and political identity of these educated members of ethnic minority groups is being challenged. Finally, I conclude with a specific case of instrumentalist ethnicity, which might prefigure the awakening of new identities in post-socialist Laos.

Despite the impression of stability and placidity which is conveyed by the virtually uninterrupted Liberal monopoly of its parliamentary representation between 1846 and 1886, Glasgow presents a useful case study of the interaction of political ideas and behaviour with socio-economic movements and institutions in mid-Victorian Britain especially as it was the second largest city. Class was not the basis of political allegiance, and indeed relations between the social classes were generally harmonious. Nevertheless, the economic foundations of the city were transformed after about 1860 with the decline of the textile industry and the rise of heavy engineering, shipbuilding and metal manufacturing sectors, and this shift created important social changes. As a rule, too, economic interests groups were not politically homogeneous, but there is evidence that religious issues provided a significant, (though not definitive), factor in shaping political allegiances. The Glasgow Liberal party consisted of three broad strands: the Whigs, the Dissenting Radicals and the working-class Lib-Labs. Each espoused distinctive facets of Liberalism: the upper-class Whigs, the historic traditions of reform; the more middle-class Radicals, an evangelical interest in temperance, disestablishment and social regeneration based on Christian principles; the Lib-Labs, the political, social and intellectual elevation of the common man. Yet while there was no monolithic unity here, there were wide areas of shared doctrine - free trade and, above all, the commitment to constitutional and political advance - which acted to bind them closely together. Thus, while important social changes occurred to produce alterations in the relative strength of the factions, any fissiparous tendencies could be contained within the framework of common ideals. The Conservatives put no emphasis on such social or economic issues as social reform or tariff reform, but rather appealed to the strong ultra-Protestant sentiments prevalent in Glasgow. This was typified by the party's semi-official liaison with the Orange Order. In addition the Tories also began in this era to establish themselves as the patriotic party. Neither party organisation was active in dealing with technical matters like registration, but each played a different role in promoting their party's prospects. As befitted a minority party, the Conservative Association strove to sustain the spirits of the converted and to propagandise others. The Liberal body in contrast served as a vehicle whereby the various factions sought to secure control over the choice of candidates or to win endorsement for their sectional credos. Hence a powerful caucus emerged, manipulating the mass Liberal movement in order to legitimise the demands of faction. Before 1886, the solidarity of the two major parties left the sizeable Irish element unable to deploy its voting power in order to wring concessions from either. The difficulties of the Irish nationalists were further compounded by a series of obstacles encountered both within their own community and amongst non-Irish Glaswegians. Socialism, too, was powerless, for it only attracted a handful of lower-middle-class young intellectuals, who failed to dent the massive loyalty displayed by the working-classes to Liberalism. At the time, the Home Rule split of 1886 did not appear an irreparable breach and only in retrospect did it take on the semblance of finality. It was not the culmination of a long succession of policy divergences among Liberals leading inevitably to a rupture, nor did it create a class-based realignment of politics. The issue was argued between protagonists as a genuine disagreement over the principles of Liberalism, and only very gradually did the position adopted by the Liberal Unionists harden into one of permanent opposition to the Gladstonian Liberal party, before which there were numerous re-conversions to the latter. However, the mould in which mid-Victorian politics in Glasgow had been set was shattered.

The Scottish Reform Act of 1832 and the Scottish Municipal Reform Act of 1833 destroyed the domination of the Tory party over Edinburgh politics. The champions of reform, the Edinburgh Whig lawyers, emerged as the triumphant new political leaders of the new, overwhelmingly liberal electorate. But by the late 1830s a large number of middle class electors had grown critical of the Whigs. Some radicals resented the domination of a legal clique over the constituency and attacked the Whig government for its slowness in dealing with outstanding grievances, such as the corn laws and the desire for further franchise reform. Another dissident group were the Dissenters who called for the abolition of the state church relationship and the annuity tax (the Edinburgh property tax maintaining the Established Church clergy). The Non-Intrusionist (later Free Church) movement was strong in Edinburgh and from 1840 onwards increasingly hostile to the Whigs. In 1847 an alliance fashioned out of these three disgruntied groups by the Dissenter leader, Duncan McLaren, achieved the humiliating defeat of the Whig candidate, T.B. Macaulay. The Liberal party that emerged out of this election was aiming at the complete overthrow of the Edinburgh Wnigs, but due principally to the inability of the Dissenters and Free Churchmen to reconcile their ideological differences over voluntaryism and their jealous rivalry for control of the Liberal party, the alliance collapsed in 1852. In the election of that year, Macaulay was triumphantly re-elected and McLaren was defeated. Although the latter's attempts to replace the Whig oligarchy with a broadly based Liberal party of alienated sectarians and middle class radicals failed in 1852, McLaren's efforts can be seen as one of the earliest and most significant attempts to create the basis of the Gladstonian Liberal party. This thesis describes in detail the local socioeconomic, religious and political circumstances which crucially affected McLaren's activities, while trying to isolate those aspects of Edinburgh politics which reflect national political developments in early Victorian Britain. I have used the terms Tory and Conservative interchangeably in this thesis since in newspapers, private letters and public speeches both terms were used interchangeably throughout the early Victorian period. The use of the term liberal in the 19th century was subject to much variation. Many Whigs styled themselves Liberals after 1832, but in Edinburgh at least, this change was never very popular and most journalists and letter writers continued to speak of the Whigs as Whigs, especially after McLaren's coalition of Dissenters and middle class radicals began to term themselves Liberals. Since this group did have a separate party structure and a self-conscious sense of independence from the Whig oligarchy, I have used the term Liberal for McLaren's party and not for the Whig party. Confusion may be avoided by pointing out here that the Whig party structure was called the Liberal Aggregate Committee, but functioned very much for Whiggish purposes. When the terms liberal and conservative are used without capitalization, they are used in an ideological rather than party sense. This is particularly relevant when discussing the Whigs among whom were politicians with conservative and liberal attitudes towards further reform after 1832; these differences are dealt with in Chapter Two below.

This study examines the evolution of the political process in the Ulster county of Monaghan during the period 1868-1883. Considerable attention has been given to the social, economic and geographic features from the end of the sixteenth century. In addition, a survey of the parliamentary representation of Monaghan from the Act of Union to the general election of 1865 has been undertaken. This extended treatment of the socioeconomic and political background is regarded as essential to a clear appreciation of political behaviour at constituency level in the later nineteenth century. The period 1865-1883 saw a most significant change in the parliamentary representation of the county. Monaghan had always been regarded as a stronghold of Irish Conservatism, albeit with occasional Whig interludes. In 1865 one of the seats was captured from the Tories by a member of the local Liberal ascendancy. Our period, then, opened with the representation of Monaghan split between the two major British parties. The 'Disestablishment Election' of 1868 saw the Conservatives regain control of the county's second seat. Thereafter that party's hegemony was threatened first by the conservative constitutional nationalism of the Home Government Association and later, in 1880, by the Ulster Liberals. Advocating strong tenant right principles, the Liberal party nominees defeated both Conservative members. The result appeared to be a vindication of non-sectarian class politics. The key to victory had been held by a relatively small number of Liberal Presbyterian tenant farmers. In 1883 one of the M. Ps. resigned, and the ensuing byelection pitted a local Liberal Presbyterian against a Conservative and Tim Healy, the nominee of Charles Stewart Parnell and the Irish National Party. The result saw a narrow victory for the Nationalist candidate over his Conservative counterpart with the Liberal receiving an embarrassingly small vote. The massive decline in the Liberal vote between the contests of 1880 and 1883 looks anomalous. However, it is argued here that the 1880 result reflected an anti-Conservative rather than a pro-Liberal vote on the part of the Catholics. In other words, the sectarian nature of politics in Monaghan which had been such a prominent feature of the county had not been interrupted. The thesis narrates the story of Irish politics during this most formative period, and relates it to a local study. By so doing it illustrates the strongly sectarian dimension to Irish politics. In the late nineteenth century few, if any, public issues could be fully divorced from the religious factor. The rhetorical expression of political ideals might appear nonsectarian at Westminster, but in the Monaghan region their true nature was indicated by the manner in which the population reacted to them. Thus the real significance of the political activities of the representatives of the two traditions can often by more fully appreciated when related to constituency level. Monaghan occupied a peripheral position on the borders of Ulster. Its population was around 75% Catholic during the second half of the nineteenth century. This means that Monaghan offers an illuminating example of the interaction of Protestant Ulster and Catholic Ireland. The activities of the county's Protestant and Catholic populations, its Orangemen and its Fenians, its various groups of clergy, its Protestant landlords and its Catholic Bishop, all constituted the political life of 'the county of the little hills'. Today Monaghan's geographic position places it in the front line of an assault upon Northern Ireland. Once again the people of the county are strategically placed in relation to national and sectarian confrontations on the island - plus ca change plus la reste meme.

This thesis is situated at the intersection of feminist political theory, identity politics and moral philosophy. Its broader aim is to show the positive consequences of returning the self and its inner activity to the ethical domain for feminist identity politics. To this end, it brings feminist identity politics into dialogue with contemporary developments in virtue ethics, in particular Christine Swanton’s pluralistic virtue ethics. As its starting point, it takes issue with the tendency to reduce the complexity of identity to issues of category. The first part of the thesis problematises this tendency and argues for a reconsideration of the question of identity politics by shifting the focus away from identity per se and towards a more complex picture of the self that is reflective of the constitutive relation between the self and identifications, commitments and values. The work of the post-modern feminists Wendy Brown and Judith Butlers are read as proposing just such a shift away from the identitarian engagement of identity politics of ‘who am I?’ towards a more ethically imbued engagement that centres a complex self with inner depths. Part Two of the thesis extends this reconceptualisation of the problematic of identity politics and elaborates on what it could mean to undertake such a shift and how such a project could be conceived. Drawing on both Michael Sandel’s and Michel Foucault’s formulations of the self, identity and its relation to the good, the thesis develops the argument that the problematic of identity politics, articulated in ethical language, enables the formulation of an argument for giving an account of the good life and that this entails developing a subject imbued with a full inner life. Part Three of the thesis argues that contemporary work in virtue ethics offers the best way to take this project forward, suggesting that it represents a positive development in conceptions of the self and that a complex picture of the person emerges that provides the basis for a richer approach to the ethical concerns raised in identity politics. The thesis concludes by illustrating the potential value of taking those feminist insights into the constructed nature of identity into dialogue with a pluralistic virtue ethical account of the self and suggests that this approach provides new opportunities for understanding and discussing the collective dimension of identity politics in situations of diversity and inequality.

No description available.

This thesis deals with the origin and development of the preventive detention legislation in Bangladesh, studying its necessity, relevance and desirability based on the judicial decisions. This study shows that the preventive detention legislation in Bangladesh runs contrary to the doctrines of fundamental rights; and the prejudicial acts for future commission of which are the basis for preventive detention are categorically included in the existing penal laws and can be dealt with more efficiently. The study investigates the preventive detention legislation and its impact over the fundamental rights of the citizens analyzing the judicial decisions in Bangladesh. Four aspects are considerered in this thesis. Firstly, it studies all the preventive detention legislation, Consititutions, and relevant statutes since their inception during the British period in the Indian sub-continent which have been carried through Pakistan till today. Secondly it investigates executive decisions to reflect the usage of the preventive detention legislation and views of the courts in this regard. Thirdly it analyses the definition and concept of 'subjective satisfaction of the executive authority and 'objective satisfaction of the Court' which has been the key factor detaining individuals. And fourthly, it provides an empirical study of the available number of cases from the Register of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh to draw a scenario of preventive detention cases, decisions for and against the preventive detention orders made by the Executive authority in Bangladesh.

Peru has long had to contend with a lack of national and political integration. Yet its APRA party is the oldest mass-based reformist party in the region, and its mission has historically been to integrate the nation. The APRA, since its inception, aroused more political hostility than any other force in Peru, and consequently was repressed, even outlawed, for decades. Years of repression and clandestinity contributed to a lack of doctrinal clarity and undemocratic tendencies within the party, which were to affect its capacity to govern. The nature of the party, and the difficulty of its task, are the subject of this thesis. Despite the existence of democratic institutions, large sectors of the population exist outside of formal legal, political, and economic systems; there is a gap between state and society. Successful democratic reform would incorporate these marginalized sectors. When the APRA came to power in 1985, it proposed to do so by focusing on the needs of the poorest. Expectations were high for the new government, in part because of its popular young leader, Alan Garcia, and in part because a decade of economic and social crisis had discredited both the military and the right as alternatives, resulting in unprecedented consensus for reform. Once it attained power, the APRA managed, for the first two years, to maintain support that was unique to reformist efforts in Peru. A sudden shift in strategy to confrontational rhetoric and authoritarian tactics destroyed the fragile consensus necessary for democratic reform. The politics of reform became the politics of polarization: a "winner take all" style debate in which cooperation and compromise were impossible. The outcome was policy stagnation, a surge of reaction from extremes of the left and the right, and severe strain on the political system. The APRA party, rather than playing the role of the strong centre acted as a catalyst to the polarization process. In large part due to decades of sectarian and authoritarian strains that the party's 1980's renovation had not eliminated, it was virtually powerless in the face of increasingly erratic behaviour on the part of its leader. This thesis examines the evolution of the APRA from the time of the 1968 military "revolution" through the party's first three years in power. It explores the formulation and initial success of the consensus it built, the reasons for its breakdown, and the fate of the poor during that process. The difficult context in which the party had to operate will also be addressed. Finally, it attempts to contribute to the understanding of the challenges faced by reformers in Peru in particular and more generally by developing democracies.

A dialogue between established International Relations theory and global governance literature may promote a novel synthetic framework for understanding the "Global War on Terrorism" (GWOT). The author wishes to explore and develop a new security studies perspective which will restate and reinterpret George W. Bush's GWOT. The argument promoted here centres around the claim that in its GWOT the USA has engaged in the creation of an under-researched form of global governance, hegemonic governance, by which the hegemon persuades and coerces states across the globe to cooperate in the battle against sub-state terrorism. This requires a new understanding of global governance, as usually the main strand of global governance literature theorises and describes global governance as heterarchic, with equal partners interacting to order their common affairs (Miura 2004; McGrew 2000).1 The main purpose of this study is to challenge this particular assertion.[From author's introduction].