Direkte Demokratie und Sprachminderheiten in der Schweiz und in Sudtirol - Ein Vergleich = Direct democracy and minority language in Switzerland and South Tyrol - a comparison. EDAP 2/2010
Do procedures of direct democracy involve fundamental dangers with regard to social, ethno-linguistic and religious minorities? Is there even a conflict between popular decision-making by initiative and referendum and the requirement of interethnic consociational democratic procedures? The article focuses on the existing tension and supposed contradictions between procedures of direct democracy (initiative and referendum) and the protection of rights and interests of minorities in multilingual areas. Drawing upon some recent examples of such kind in four Swiss bi- or multilingual cantons and in South Tyrol the author compares these experiences and discusses the crucial issue whether such a conflict can be solved and which special precautions should be established when it comes to apply direct democracy in multilingual areas. Eventually he presents a new approach about how civil rights to direct political participation, enshrined in Italy's constitution and South Tyrol's autonomy statute, could be brought into concordance with the need to respect the equality of fundamental rights of linguistic groups within a multilingual polity, which is currently debated in South Tyrol's politics.
The paradox of federal bicameralism
Although still regarded by many as an essential feature of a truly federal government, the institution of the federal chamber appears to be experiencing a deep crisis. In all but two cases, in fact, federal chambers have shown over the decades an uncontrollable tendency towards centralization, to the limit that they now seem indistinguishable from regular, national chambers. The article assesses this problem from three perspectives. 1. A theoretical analysis of the concept of regional representation reveals that the origins of such a crisis lie in an intrinsic flaw of the institutional model upon which the chambers are based. 2. An historical analysis of the birth of federal chambers, and particularly of their archetype, the US Senate, shows that such a flaw is due to the misinterpretation of two features of the latter – equal representation and indirect election – which have been regarded as serving to provide true regional representatives, when their original rationale was in fact the protection from the risk of factionalism. 3. Finally, an analysis of the impact of political parties on federalism and on federal chambers shows that a possible solution for their crisis lies in using them as instruments for the decentralization and destructurization of the party system.
Capturing Crime in the Antipodes: Colonist Cultural Representation of Indigeneity
This chapter adopts a Southern criminological lens, which allows the authors to explore how colonialism has been constructed and depicted in museums within both regional and urban Australia. By studying spatial and historical silences in Australian museums, this chapter offers a consistent frame to chronologically chart Anglo-Australian depictions of Indigeneity, imperialism and violence wielded by the state. As this chapter will argue, museums can often reflect Westernized (white) conceptualizations about Indigeneity and the state violence involved in colonization, which actively re-enforces popular views and influences sociopolitical visions of identity, the state and justice.