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ID:
091011
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Publication |
2009.
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Summary/Abstract |
This study examines the changes in public discourse and state policy towards beggars and vagrants during the reign of Abd lhamid II (1876-1908) and the early years of the Second Constitutional Period (1908-1914). During the Hamidian period, although the educated public's concern and anxiety towards the idle poor increased, government action towards the urban poor remained limited. The constitutional regime of the post-1908 period provided the police with new legislative tools to control beggars and vagrants and the government launched a campaign against the urban idle poor. Despite these steps, however, the government fell short in its attempt at regulating the idle poor.
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2 |
ID:
091004
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Publication |
2009.
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Summary/Abstract |
The article examines the Israeli leadership's attempts to explain and justify the harsh outcomes of deployment of force on behalf of the state. It analyzes Commemoration Day Letters sent by representatives of the State of Israel to the families of soldiers killed in action from 1952 onwards, focusing on significant changes in the relation between the individual and the collective. The major turning point is expressed in Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's letters from the mid-1980s, in which the sanctity of life appears as an ideal guiding the state's political establishment. Applying Roman Jakobson's model of communication, the article claims that this turning point marks a shift from a collective, story-oriented approach in which the national narrative was offered as consolation for the loss to a communication-oriented approach, in which those undersigning the letters are presented as personal communicators rather than national narrators. Against the background of problems of legitimacy embedded in this approach, the article analyzes how recent letters refrain from taking either an individualistic or a collective standpoint.
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3 |
ID:
091009
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Publication |
2009.
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Summary/Abstract |
This article examines the policy of the Armenian political parties in Lebanon in light of the Taif agreement in 1989 that ended the Lebanese civil war and granted the Armenian community more political rights. The Armenian parties (Dashnak, Hunchak and Ramgavar) in the post-Taif period were obliged to abandon the policy of positive neutrality that they adopted from 1975 to 1989, and took sides with various Lebanese parties to protect the communal interests that the consociational structure of the state had allowed them. However, the Armenian parties were not united over the goal of maintaining the Armenian bloc inside parliament. As they chose different policies to pursue communal interests they took sides with the ruling majority and the anti-government opposition. The Armenians were criticized by some Christian politicians for their partisanship and were expected to maintain their traditional neutrality in Lebanese politics. It is very likely that the Armenians will return to their neutral policy and support the President and the government once their group rights are protected.
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4 |
ID:
091006
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Publication |
2009.
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Summary/Abstract |
This article describes and explains the relationships between religion and government in contemporary Saudi Arabia. It discusses the extent to which religion is practically involved in politics and governance by examining the mechanisms of domination, the actual relationships between religious scholars ('ulama') and rulers (umara'), and the means by which authority is actually implemented. The current Saudi regime, I would suggest, is best described as a theo-monarchy, that draws power from longstanding religio-cultural norms. In this context, Wahhabi Islam seems to authorize a distinctive government paradigm, one not yet recognized by the relevant Islamic literature
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5 |
ID:
091005
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Publication |
2009.
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Summary/Abstract |
This article introduces the story of Yusuf al-Marzuk (1895-1957), a Kuwaiti merchant who created a thriving network in the Arabian/Persian Gulf and India. This network was part of the vast, undocumented activities of Kuwaiti merchants. They were uncovered by rare British reports. Yusuf's economic power enabled him to participate in the struggle of Kuwaiti elites to achieve political power vis- -vis the Kuwaiti rulers, the Sabah family. This article demonstrates the importance of the trading networks with respect to the economic and political developments that shaped the region before the relatively well researched oil period.
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6 |
ID:
091013
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Publication |
2009.
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Summary/Abstract |
The Europeanization reforms in Turkey are partly designed to bring about the demilitarization of Turkish politics. However, up to now reforms have not been free from the military's impact. The democracy game is still played in a field whose borders have been delimited by the Turkish armed forces (TAF) and its interpretation of Kemalism. Even when the boundaries of these borders were extended, it was more due to the TAF's self-restraint, motivated by the prospect of membership in the EU, rather than the restrictive impact of institutional reforms. Under these circumstances, the future of Europeanization and thus the demilitarization of Turkish politics is likely to be shaped by whether reforms will reach the issues and prerogatives that the military has carefully guarded and whether the EU will offer the state a credible prospect for membership.
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7 |
ID:
091015
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Publication |
2009.
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Summary/Abstract |
The article focuses on the imam-hatip (prayer leader/preacher) schools, explaining Kemalist education reforms, documenting when, why and how the imam-hatip schools were established, measuring the changing popularity of these schools and evaluating whether the schools constitute a threat to the principle of secularism. Graduates of the imam-hatip schools have formed new generations of Islamists demanding the Islamization of the state, not recognizing the secularist regime and supporting Islamist FMEparties. This article illustrates the relationship between Kemalism and pro-Islamic public education.
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8 |
ID:
091010
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Publication |
2009.
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Summary/Abstract |
This article is mainly about the everyday workings of the Green Card Scheme in Turkey, which is a social assistance mechanism providing free health care services to the poor. Through a scrutiny of interactions around the Green Card Scheme in the city of Ad?yaman in south-eastern Turkey, the article explores how the categories of state and citizenship substantiated at the local level by means of various discourses and practices and in the process of citizens' encounters with the Green Card bureaucracy.
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