Download or read book The Microstates of Europe written by P. Christiaan Klieger and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2012-11-29 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The seven microstates of Europe, i.e. Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Malta, San Marino, Sovereign Order of St. John, and Vatican City are remarkable not only for their size, but their persistence. Most have been around for centuries, while much larger empires have come and gone. Despite the great events of the last two millennia, these countries have come into existence and have managed to steer a course away from incorporation within their larger neighbors. Why is this? Rather than being an exercise in triviality, the study in The Microstates of Europe: Designer Nations in a Post-Modern World of the histories of these tiny states may provide insight into tenaciousness of national aspirations and ethnic solidarity that are everywhere evident. Modernist studies tend to view the microstates as illogical anomalies destined to disappear under the crush of social progress. However, these states are anything but marginal—in fact, they are among the richest states in the world. This book examines the phenomenon from structural history and anthropological perspectives. It is not a grand history of petite places—rather, it is an “ethnographic anthology” of a few places in Europe that should not logically exist. The Microstates of Europe is a post-modern critique of the trends of globalism, and it examines the counter-trend of increasing nationalism, particularism, and cultural relativism. Rather than being eclectic exceptions, the microstates may demonstrate the survival of extremely long enduring mechanisms of collective boundary maintenance that are most likely present in many communities throughout the world.
Download or read book Secrets of the Seven Smallest States of Europe written by Thomas M. Eccardt and published by Hippocrene Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This unique book examines the history, culture, and inner workings of the seven smallest independent countries in Europe. These are among the oldest states on the continent and, despite their diversity, they have much in common. Most have relatively high per capita incomes and life expectancies, and relatively low unemployment. This narrative presents the unique issues that confront small countries, including maintaining their independence, economic viability, preserving their native languages, and sustaining their governments. The second part of the book describes each microstate in turn, showing how each one has met these challenges and adapted over time. These concise and engaging chapters contain cultural information on subjects including the arts, gastronomy, and popular tourist sites."--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Tourism in European Microstates and Dependencies written by Dallen J. Timothy and published by CABI. This book was released on 2020-11-06 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tourism in European Microstates and Dependencies carefully examines the nuances and realities associated with tourism, social and economic development, geography, and geopolitics of Europe's smallest microstates and dependencies. Through case study-based material, the book covers the smallest states of Europe, the European dependencies inside Europe, and other unique territorial anomalies and unrecognized de facto states. It looks at how, besides small size and economy of scale, one of the characteristics that connects these unique states and territories is their dependence on tourism, or their desire to develop it, for their socio-economic well-being.
Download or read book Fragmentation and the International Relations of Micro states written by Jorri Duursma and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-10-31 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a time when nearly all armed conflicts are related to self-determination, and frequently to claims for secession, this meticulous study examines the legal issues at stake in the light of the existence of European micro-States: Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, Andorra and the Vatican City. Jorri Duursma makes a thorough analysis of the true origins, meaning and faults of the modern right of self-determination, asking fundamental questions: What constitutes a people with a right to self-determination? How small a people has this right? Who are allowed to secede? What is a state according to international law? Jorri Duursma's book provides an up-to-date and informed account of these important issues which also draws on recent experiences in Eastern Europe and Yugoslavia. It is the first book to provide a thorough international legal account of the European micro-states, and develops a novel approach to the problems of fragmentation.
Download or read book Politics and Democracy in Microstates written by Wouter Veenendaal and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are small states statistically more likely to have a democratic political system? By addressing this question from a qualitative and comparative methodological angle, this book analyses the effects of a small population size on political competition and participation. By comparing the four microstates of San Marino (Europe), St. Kitts and Nevis (Caribbean), Seychelles (Africa), and Palau (Oceania), it provides fresh and stimulating insight, concluding that the political dynamics of microstates are not as democratic as commonly believed. Instead, it is found in all four cases that smallness results in personalistic politics, dominance of the political executive, patron-client relations between citizens and politicians, and the circumvention of formal political institutions. In addition, the book suggests that the study of formal institutions provides an incomplete image of microstate democracy and that informal characteristics of politics in microstates also need to be explored in order to better explain the influence of smallness on democracy. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of democracy, democratization, regional and decentralization studies and comparative politics.
Download or read book Small States and International Security written by Clive Archer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-14 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explains what ‘small’ states are and explores their current security challenges, in general terms and through specific examples. It reflects the shift from traditional security definitions emphasizing defence and armaments, to new security concerns such as economic, societal and environmental security where institutional cooperation looms larger. These complex issues, linked with traditional power relations and new types of actors, need to be tackled with due regard to democracy and good governance. Key policy challenges for small states are examined and applied in the regional case studies. The book deals mainly with the current experience and recent past of such states but also offers insights for their future policies. Although many of the states covered are European, the study also includes African, Caribbean and Asian small states. Their particular interest and relevance is outlined, as is the connection between their security challenges and their smallness. Policy lessons for other states are then sought. The book is the first in-depth, multi-continent study of security as an aspect of small state governance today. It is novel in placing the security dilemmas of small states in the context of wider ideas on international and institutional change, and in dealing with non-European states and regions.
Download or read book Small States in International Relations written by Christine Ingebritsen and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Smaller nations have a special place in the international system, with a striking capacity to defy the expectations of most observers and many prominent theories of international relations. This volume of classic essays highlights the ability of small states to counter power with superior commitment, to rely on tightly knit domestic institutions with a shared "ideology of social partnership," and to set agendas as "norm entrepreneurs." The volume is organized around themes such as how and why small states defy expectations of realist approaches to the study of power; the agenda-setting capacity of smaller powers in international society and in regional governance structures such as the European Union; and how small states and representatives from these societies play the role of norm entrepreneurs in world politics -- from the promotion of sustainable solutions to innovative humanitarian programs and policies..
Download or read book Europe in Autumn written by Dave Hutchinson and published by Solaris. This book was released on 2014-01-29 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Handbook on the Politics of Small States written by Godfrey Baldacchinoel and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2020-03-28 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comprehensive and timely, this Handbook identifies the key characteristics, challenges and opportunities involved in the politics of small states across the globe today. Acknowledging the historical legacies behind these states, the chapters unpack the costs and benefits of different political models for small states.
Download or read book Andorra and the European Union written by Michael Emerson and published by CEPS. This book was released on 2007 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Small States in Europe written by Robert Steinmetz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The effects of recent institutional change within the European Union on small states have often been overlooked. This book offers an accessible, coherent and informative analysis of contemporary and future foreign policy challenges facing small states in Europe. Leading experts analyze the experiences of a number of small states including the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Iceland, Austria and Switzerland. Each account, written to a common template, explores the challenges and opportunities faced by each state as a consequence of EU integration, and how their behaviour regarding EU integration has been characterized. In particular, the contributors emphasize the importance of power politics, institutional dynamics and lessons of the past. Innovative and sophisticated, the study draws on the relational understanding of small states to emphasize the implications of institutional change at the European level for the smaller states and to explain how the foreign and European policies of small states in the region are affected by the European Union.
Download or read book Foreign Affairs and the EU Constitution written by Robert Schütze and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-16 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of essays that surveys the development and structure of the European Union's constitutional regime for foreign affairs.
Download or read book Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains written by Alex Oehler and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-12-16 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains brings together new ethnographic insights from the mountains of Southern Siberia and Mongolia. Contributors to this edited collection examine Indigenous ideas of what it means to make a home alongside animals and spirits in changing alpine and subalpine environments. Set in the Eastern Saian Mountain Region of South Central Siberia and northern Mongolia, this book covers an area famous for its claim as the birthplace of Eurasian reindeer domestication. Going beyond reindeer, the contributors explore the less known roles of yaks, horses, wolves, fish, as well as spirits of place and many other sentient beings, all of which co-constitute local notions of “home places.” The contributors extend their analysis beyond conventional categories of wild and tame in a region that is increasingly hostile toward its own inhabitants due to global efforts to create protected nature reserves. Using ethnographic nuance, the contributors highlight the many connections between humans and other species, stressing the networks of relationships that transcend idioms of dominance or mutualism. This book is recommended for students and scholars of anthropology, environmental studies, and Asian studies.
Download or read book Party System Closure written by Fernando Casal Bértoa and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Party System Closure maps trends in interparty relations in Europe from 1848 until 2019. It investigates how the length of democratic experience, the institutionalization of individual parties, the fragmentation of parliaments, and the support for anti-establishment parties, shape the degree of institutionalization of party systems. The analyses presented answer the questions of whether predictability in partisan interactions is necessary for the survival of democratic regimes and whether it improves or undermines the quality of democracy. The developments of party politics at the elite level are contrasted with the dynamics of voting behaviour. The comparisons of distinct historical periods and of macro-regions provide a comprehensive picture of the European history of party competition and cooperation. The empirical overview presented in the book is based on a novel conceptual framework and features party composition data of more than a thousand European governments. Party systems are analysed in terms of poles and blocs, and the degree of closure and of polarization is related to a new party system typology. The book demonstrates that information collected from partisan interactions at the time of government formation can reveal changes that characterise the party system as a whole. The empirical results confirm that the Cold War period (1945-1989) was exceptionally stable, while the post-Berlin-Wall era shows signs of disintegration, although more at the level of voters than at the level of elites. After three decades of democratic politics in Europe (1990-2019), the West and the South are looking increasingly like the East, especially in terms of the level of party de-institutionalization. The West and the South are becoming more polarised than the East, but in terms of parliamentary fragmentation, the party systems of the South and the East are converging, while the West is diverging from the rest with its increasingly high number of parties. As far as our central concept, party system closure, is concerned, thanks to the gradual process of stabilization in the East, and the recent de-institutionalization in the West and South, the regional differences are declining. Comparative Politics is a series for researchers, teachers, and students of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.ecprnet.eu. The series is edited by Susan Scarrow, Chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Houston, and Jonathan Slapin, Professor of Political Institutions and European Politics, Department of Political Science, University of Zurich.
Download or read book In Pursuit of Impact written by Nadia Ferrara and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Pursuit of Impact pushes researchers and policymakers to reflect, rethink, and reconnect with their purpose to support the greater good by developing meaningful public policies. Through a multidisciplinary lens, Nadia Ferrara, draws on research, clinical, and policy experience to show how we can engage in learning, and building more effective relationships to better support the development of responsive policies. Ferrara offers a refreshing analysis while integrating a new approach to understanding trauma and resilience that places a humanizing emphasis on the power of narratives and storytelling. Revisiting the theories of pioneer thinkers and showing the relevance of their work is the necessary rethinking required to support the shift towards an evidence-informed policy development process. Ferrara highlights the fact that people, and their own lived realities, are defined by trauma and resilience and are engaged in the development of public policy and are affected by implemented policies. This book is recommended for scholars and practitioners in the fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, political sciences, clinical psychiatry, and philosophy.
Download or read book Road Scars written by Robert Matej Bednar and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-07-21 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the ubiquity of automobility, the reality of automotive death is hidden from everyday view. There are accident blackspots all over the roads that we use and go past every day but the people that have died there or been injured are not marked, unless by homemade shrines and personal memorialization. Nowhere on the planet is this practice as densely actioned as in the United States. Road Scars is a highly visual scholarly monograph about how roadside car crash shrines place the collective trauma of living in a car culture in the everyday landscapes of automobility. Roadside shrines—or road trauma shrines—are vernacular memorial assemblages built by private individuals at sites where family and friends have died in automobile accidents, either while driving cars or motorcycles or being hit by cars as pedestrians, bicyclists, or motorcyclists. Prevalent for decades in Latin America and in the American Southwest, roadside car crash shrines are now present throughout the U.S. and around the world. Some are simply small white crosses, almost silent markers of places of traumatic death. Others are elaborate collections of objects, texts, and materials from all over the map culturally and physically, all significantly brought together not in the home or in a cemetery but on the roadside, in drivable public space—a space where private individuals perform private identities alongside each other in public, and where these private mobilities sometimes collide with one another in traumatic ways that are negotiated in roadside shrines. This book touches on something many of us have seen, but few have explored intellectually.
Download or read book Krav Maga and the Making of Modern Israel written by Andrea Molle and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-03-04 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the profound interplay of martial arts, combative, and self-defense disciplines with nationalism and ethno-religious politics through the analysis of Zionism, the birth of the State of Israel, antisemitism, and the life of the contemporary Jewish Diaspora in the United States. It connects martial arts studies and political science, spearheading the new field of political hoplology. Focusing on the complex formative process of national communities, their growth, resilience, and consequences for the individuals, Krav Maga and the Making of Modern Israel presents the unique case of Krav Maga (literally hand to hand combat), a self-defense system developed between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which is now considered a staple of Israeli culture and a prime self-defense practice. Through its chapters, the book provides strong evidence supporting the idea that physical violence is indeed needed as a unifying experience to allow national communities to emerge and thrive. Furthermore, it examines the growing importance of violence for modern democratic societies and suggests the existence of a “gladiatorial effect,” or the need for a certain level of violence to exist to maintain a harmonious, stable, and cooperative society.
