Dangerous Alliances: Civil Society, the Media and Democratic Transition in North Africa
* Acknowledgements * Preface by Clovis Demers * Introduction * Part 1: The Public Arena in the Maghreb: Convergences and Divergences * Setting the Stage * 1. Tunisia: The Domination of Plato's Cave * The Tunisian Transition to Democracy Did Not Take Place * 'I am the State' * A Police State * A Legal System in Captivity * Alternation in Office Impossible * 2. Tunisia: The Submission to Plato's Cave * Tunisian Civil Society before Its Collapse * The Fatal Alliance * The Destruction of Al-Nahdha * The Undermining of the Tunisian League for Human Rights * 3. Tunisia: Locking Up Plato's Cave * Disadvantaged Media * How the Tunisian Media Were Neutralized * Survival Strategies * The Happy Agenda * Relations with the Foreign Press * Banning International Human Rights Monitoring * 4. Algeria: The Children of Jocasta * The Birth of Civil Society * The Oedipus Temptation * The Unfinished Business of Remaking the Public Arena * The Press and Its Role in Political Developments * Between Open Dissidence and 'Moderate' Opposition: Prospects for a Rebirth * 5. Morocco: The Slow Ascent of Sisyphus * The Amaoui Affair * A Long Pluralistic Tradition * A Moroccan Model for the Construction of a Civil Society * Facilitating Factors and Obstacles * 6. Conclusion: The Public Political Arena in the Maghreb * Part 2: The Aftermath of Dangerous Alliances: Transformations and Continuities in the Political Arena * Between Cries and Whispers * 7. Happy Tunisia: The Authorized Account * A Dream for Tourists and Foreign Investors * The Security Mania * The Show Democracy: Arguments and Techniques of Stage-Setting * The Quest for International Approval * Propaganda Achievements * 8. The International Press and the Algerian Guardians of Democracy * The Rhetoric of Objectivity * How the International Press Took Sides in the Algerian Conflict * The Rebuilding of a Pluralistic Public Forum by the International Press * 9. Tunisian Dissident Information Networks * Unarmed Prophets * In European Circles * Internal Dissidence * Discrediting Dissidents * The State of Tunisian Dissidence * 10. Islam: Dismantling a Clich' * Propositions: * 1. Religion is a Marginal Theme in the Press * 2. Islam is not the Explanation for Everything * 3. Culturally, Islam is also a Product of Maghreb's Political Systems * 11. Freedom or Tyranny? Perspectives in the Maghreb * Algeria * Tunisia * 12. Toward a Sociology of Citizenship in a Globalizing World * A Political Systems Model * The Classical Democratic Model * A Dynamic Conflictual Model of Democracy * Democratic Transitions are Reversible * The International Media's Connivance with Dictatorships * Reversing the Spiral of Silence * Bibliography * Index
Studying Africa : A guide to the sources
Studying Africa is an introduction to the basic handbooks and standard works on contemporary Africa. The first part of the book is a guide to searching for literature and facts within the field of ...
Analysis: The Agenda 2007 Proposals: Evolution or Revolution?
On 10 February 2004 the Commission published its proposal for the financial perspective 2007-2013. A week later it adopted the third report on economic and social cohesion. These two documents form the basis of the so-called ‘Agenda 2007 reforms’. They will be the greatest challenge for the enlarged EU after the intergovernmental conference, since they will determine the financial basis for EU policy-making until the middle of the next decade. The Agenda 2007 proposals certainly hint at courageous reforms, because they place a previously unheard-of emphasis on performance and quality. Under the proposals, structural operations should generate value for money, and the funds should focus on projects which generate added value at a European level. Overall the Commission’s proposals point in the right direction, because they balance, on the one hand, solidarity for the new Member States and weak regions in the old Member States with, on the other hand, investments in future tasks. Moreover, they constitute a paradigm shift. For the first time, the Common Agricultural Policy will not be the dominant expenditure category. Now it is up to the Member States to examine the proposals politically and find a compromise between sometimes very divergent interests. It is to be hoped that, during the debate over expenditure limits and division of funds, national interests do not outweigh European interests.