Speaking European: Conditionality, Public Attitudes and Pro-European Party Rhetoric in the Western Balkans
FOLLOWING THE 2004 AND 2007 EASTWARD EXPANSIONS of the European Union (EU), scholars are focusing increased attention on the question of EU integration and conditionality in the Western Balkans (Vachudova 2005). A growing number of studies not only contribute to the existing body of more generalised work on conditionality, but also close critical gaps in knowledge about the EU integration process in the region. Another fruitful development in this expanding literature is its increasing tendency to treat conditionality as a cross-level issue which takes into account both international and domestic factors. While these studies break new ground by focusing more closely on how domestic and international political factors shape national leaders’ and governments’ interests, an important area which remains largely unexplored is the interlinked issues of party change and intra-party politics. Popular and academic accounts of Croatian and Serbian reactions to conditionality in the aftermath of their respective 2000 ‘revolutions’ tend to ‘black box’ parties, treating them as unitary rational actors which respond to external stimuli in a manner which maximises the parties’ chances of attaining or maintaining office (Pond 2006; Fisher 2006; Peskin 2008). Although this theoretical tool is often justified in describing the everyday working of a party under ‘normal’ conditions, it fails to address the issue of party change—specifically with regard to the transformation of EU-sceptic and anti-EU parties. Considering that
Judicial Globalization, Europeanization and (G)localization: Evidence from the Balkans
Over the last decades, academic interest in judicial globalization and judicial reforms has increased. The literature has gone through three distinctive waves of research. One part of this literature examines judicial reforms from a top-down perspective, revealing the origins and evolution of European/international prescriptions related to rule of law consolidation. By looking at the motivations and actions on the ground, another strand of the existing research examines the effects of these prescriptions at the domestic level. In addition, in recent years, a more reflexive and critical approach to judicial reforms has emerged, questioning not only the modest outcomes of these reforms but also the limitations of the international rule of law community in promoting them. This introductory article reviews this growing body of studies, highlighting the main findings and pointing out new avenues for research. In its final section, it provides an overview of the lines of reasoning and the content of this special issue. Overall, it endeavors to shed more light on judicial reforms in the region and to promote this research agenda, which implies to examine the complex relationship between judicial globalization, Europeanization and glo c alization.
The mark of sexual preference in the interpretation of texts: preface to a homosexual reading.
Since reading is an interaction or confrontation between the reader and the text-an interaction that depends upon the background and perspectives of the reader as well as on the text being read-we can assume that the dynamics of sexuality and sexual object choice will influence how readers ascribe meaning to literary texts. In fact, although other aspects of our identities come into play when we read, sexual identity is unique and central because of the role that it plays in the creation of subjectivity. Specifically, male homosexuality informs and structures the reading of texts. But what does it be a homosexual reader or to effectuate a homosexual reading of a particular text?