This section includes book notes of 150-300 words as well as some book reviews of 600-900 words on books of particular interest to the members of our group. If you have either suggestions for books you would like to review or see reviewed (including recent books of your own), please contact Cas Mudde.
Gianpaolo Baiocchi (ed.), Radicals in Power: the Workers ' Party (PT) and Experiments in Urban Democracy in Brazil, London and New York: Zed, 2003, 254 pp., GBP 14.95/USD 22.50, ISBN 1-84277-173-6 (pbk) / GBP 49.95/65.00, ISBN 184277-172-8 (hbk). Reviewed by Wendy Hunter (University of Texas at Austin) The Workers’ Party has become a leading political contender in Brazil. PT mayors govern an impressive array of Brazil’s cities, the party now commands the single largest bloc in Congress, and in 2002 the PT captured presidential office for the first time. Given the many odds it faced, how did the PT arrive at this point? The answer to this question may be found in Gianpaolo Baiocchi's edited volume. One recurring theme concerns the party's ability to reach out beyond trade unions, include broader social sectors, and provide for good governance in Brazil's municipalities. The "modo petista de governar" that the book describes so well consists of clean, efficient, and participatory government, complete with innovative and redistributive social programs, such as micro-credit schemes and the bolsa escola, an income subsidy for lower income families who keep their children enrolled in school. The volume contains an interesting variety of PT experiences in power. Refreshing is its effort to go beyond the highly studied cases of the center-south, such as Porto Alegre and São Paulo, and include less well known but important experiences like the PT administration in Belém, and the PT's state government in EspíritoSanto and the Federal District. The volume is more even-handed than many works on the PT. Various chapters point not only to the PT's successes but also to its challenges and failures in power. The first and last chapter by Gaianpalo Baiocchi, together with Rachel Meneguello's commentary, provide an excellent unifying framework for the book. They provide important insights on the past evolution of the PT, while offering suggestions as to how the party might develop in the future.
Catherine Besteman (ed.), Violence: A Reader, New York, Palgrave, 2002, 322 pp., USD 60.00, ISBN 0-333-94775-4 (hbk) / USD 20.00, ISBN 0-333-94776-2 (pbk). Reviewed by Amentahru Wahlrab (Denver University) Violence: A Reader serves as a wrenching yet insightful prequel to Manfred B. Steger and Nancy S. Lind’s 1999 collection of essays entitled Violence and its Alternatives. Besteman’s edited volume combines excerpts from classic texts as well as more recent scholarship within the fields of Anthropology and Sociology. The reader is
organized into themes; additionally, Besteman includes an introduction and conclusion which draw connections between the themes of the book and globalization. “Violence and the State” includes six chapters that cover the problem of state violence as legitimate violence, violence as the antithesis of power, the uses of terror, and the holocaust as an inescapable result of modernity. “Political violence” offers five chapters addressing terrorism, cultural roots of violence, passion and martyrdom, gender and nationalism, and rape as a war crime. Together these chapters raise important questions about individual and collective violence from a broad array of cases. “The normalization of violence” discusses self perpetuating “cultures” of violence, how Palestinian youths redefined Israeli beatings as “rights of passage,” and how Mozambicans fought against war itself by “removing violence” from those who suffered and fought in the war. These anthropological/ethnographical essays discuss (in somewhat horrific detail) violence by the state and towards the state but the nuances of gender, religion, history, culture, and psychology make these essays salient in today’s international political climate. For those looking for a general theory of violence, this collection offers more description than theory. However, reading these stories, reflections, and analyses tears at one’s mind, heart, and soul--and I for one find the tension valuable. Although the majority of the articles are anthropological studies, they each focus on political violence issues that would be valuable in an array of advanced undergraduate or graduate seminars dealing with conflict resolution, nonviolence, or the problems of cycles of violence.
Igor V. Domaradskij and Wendy Orent, Biowarrior: Inside the Soviet/Russian Biological War Machine, Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2003, USD 28.00, ISBN 1-59102-093-X (hbk). Reviewed by Ian M. Cuthbertson (World Policy Institute) This is the memoir of one of the multitudes of scientists and technicians who helped research, develop and produce the former Soviet Union’s vast BW stockpile. Starting in 1970, Domaradskij worked in the Soviet Union’s top-secret research and development program to produce offensive biological weapons, an extensive effort that continued unabated despite the disarmament provisions of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. As a member of the Soviet Union’s sprawling military-industrial-scientific complex, Domaradskij actively participated in efforts to design and manufacture a wide range of new types of offensive biological weapons. The book is a detailed description of how in the Soviet Union, progress in any type of serious, advanced scientific research, routinely played second fiddle to both politics and personal ambition. What emerges from his description of the operation of Biopreparat, as the overall BW program was known, is that it was a poorly organized arrangement of competing research centers, with funding and prestige being constantly fought over by rival groupings of bureaucrats and military end-users, all allied with greedy and ambitious researchers. The result, Domaradskij claims, was not the efficient, horizontally and
vertically integrated Biowar program of Western imagination, but rather a technologically backwards, disjointed, parochial network of semi-feudal satraps motivated by selfish institutional interests, not national security needs. This institutional chaos is all the more frightening because it is by no means clear who from this dyspeptic network is currently responsible for preventing the proliferation of the extensive range of biological weapons Biopreparat developed and produced. With much of Russia’s weapons stockpile still seemingly up for sale to the highest bidder, and with the remnants of Biopreparat’s biological weapons programs still in existence today, the threat of such biological weapons falling into the hands of terrorists becomes all too obvious.
Tom Gallagher, The Balkans after the Cold War. From Tyranny to Tragedy, London and New York: Routledge, 2003, 256 pp., GBP 60.00, ISBN: 0415-27763-9 (hbk). Reviewed by Panayote Dimitras (Greek Helsinki Monitor) If one wonders why Western leaders should also have been tried by the Hague Tribunal for aiding and abetting in war crimes committed by the prosecuted former Yugoslav leaders, this book makes a very convincing case. Between 1991-97, the EU led by the UK, and the USA, supported in the Balkans reigning intolerant leaders, perceived as 'typical' representatives of their population. The latter, in turn, were thought to be fighting each other because of the revival of “ancient ethnic hatreds.” This attitude was the result not simply of Realpolitik, but also and perhaps mainly of an admiration for the Serbs and their leaders, Radovan Karadzic and Slobodan Milosevic. A long list of such quotes by the likes of US Secretary of State Warren Christopher and his UK counterpart as well as the BBC is offered. The author points out that the international community was disinclined to promote its own professed liberal ideas, since it did not support the minority forces in each Balkan country committed to a multiethnic existence. It did not even back an internationally recognized state like Bosnia; instead, it legitimized its enforced partition in the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement. The West's support of authoritarian nationalist leaders in Albania, Bulgaria and Romania in the mid-1990s is also briefly presented in this book, which should be read by all policy-makers as, to some extent, the attitude of the international community has not changed much. This is why, in recent elections, it is possible for unrepentant backers of Milosevic and Vojislav Seselj to score very well in Serbia, while mildly reformed Franjo Tudjman heirs and Ion Iliescu himself are back in power in Croatiaand Romania, and Sali Berisha may well return to power in Albania.
Ludger Mees, Nationalism, Violence and Democracy. The Basque Clash of Identities. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003, 223 pp., GBP 50.00, ISBN 1-4039-0265-8 (hbk).
Reviewed by José A. Olmeda (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid) Ludger Mees is one of the main experts on the history of Basque nationalism. After reading his book, I had mixed emotions -- perhaps due to his wishful yet mistaken expectation about the ending of ethnic violence by the apparent peace process in 19992000. The book begins with a brief summary of the history of Basque nationalism since the nineteenth century and analyzes its development and coming to power during the transition and consolidation of democracy in Spain. The author pays close attention to the Basque nationalist political side of the conflict, including the subordinates of ETA, but not to the terrorist dimension. Neither has he analyzed the mix of Basque identities with sociological data. Thus the title is a bit tricky when considering thethe contents of the book. As a result the reader arrives at the final pages, when Mees critiques several social science theories about what he calls “Basque violence,” with a scarce background to test the soundness of his assertions. The book ends with a wish list of suggestions to terminate the conflict. Mees cannot conceal the clear bias in favour of Basque nationalism throughout the text. Minor mistakes, like attributing the concept of political opportunity structure toTilly for example, show not too much experience in the management of social science concepts. Here lies the main weakness of the book, his methodology. Meestraces the process of development of Basque nationalism in isolation from its terrorist branch. This overlooks the fact that the symbiosis between the political and the terrorist branches of Basque nationalism is the key of the conflict. Moreover, the lack of civilian control over its terrorist branch is one of the main political failures of Basque nationalism.
Roger D. Petersen, Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002, 298 pp., GBP 18.95/USD 25.00, ISBN 0-521-00774-7 (pbk) / GBP 50.00/USD 70.00, ISBN 0-521-80986-X (hbk). Reviewed by Roumiana Chukova (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) Understanding Ethnic Violence is an extensive and ingenious research examining the intricate nature of the ethnic relations in Eastern Europe during the 20th century. It represents an effort to show that the essential role of emotions in ethnic violence can be captured systematically. In addition, one of the main contributions is the focus on a peculiar methodological approach that intertwines detailed theoretical analysis and overseeing conflict practice. The book encompasses two main parts: theory and empirical comparison. The first has been developed in four stories (chapters) or models: Fear, Hatred, Resentment and Rage. The central topic is the explanation why individual human beings commit acts, some time brutal and humiliating, against those of a different ethnic and religious status. The second chapter outlines the main theoretical features of an emotion-based approach to concrete Eastern European ethnic conflict situations. According to
Petersen, resentment was prevalent in nearly all ethnic violent acts in Eastern European countries of the 20th century. He examines several distinct periods of Eastern European ethnic conflict, seeking to shed light on the micro-mechanisms involved in producing the homogenization of the region. The second comparative part consists of six chapters that tackle the violence and the discrimination in the Baltic region (1905), the chaotic situations in the War period (193945), the complicated ethnic problems between Poles and Russians, Lithuanian and Jews, Ukrainians and Poles, Czechs and Slovaks, Serbs, Croatians and Muslims, etc… It is the author’s assumption that the basis of the bloody conflicts in former Yugoslavia lay in a history, not a mythology, filled with mass expulsions. Petersen also provides practical recommendations for the prevention of further ethnic clashes in the region: education, reevaluation of historical hatred, and reduction of local military potentials.
Book Reviews Aaron Gillette, Racial Theories in Fascist Italy, London; New York: Routledge, 2002, 248 pp., GBP 65.00, ISBN 0-4152-5292-X (hbk). Reviewed by Alessandro Campi (University of Perugia) Unlike German National Socialism, Italian fascism did not have racist roots. If Hitlerism, ever since its appearance, was indissoluble from anti-Semitism and from vindications about the superiority of the Arian race, Italian fascism got its ideological lymph from nationalism, revolutionary syndicalism, the fighting myth, and the revolutionary maximalism typical of the Italian Risorgimento tradition. Racism, as well as anti-Semitism, represented a later input, given by Mussolini and the fascist regime for political and instrumental reasons. That doesn’t mean, as Aaron Gillette’s book shows very well, that in Italy racist ideology, developed at its core in scientific circles, and didn’t undergo a very long gestation process, dating back to the end of the 19th Century. During this time, when scientific positivism had a wide diffusion, the perception of ethnic differences among Italian regions promoted the origin of a nationalist ideology that emphasized the identity and tradition of the Italian descent, even in circles that are culturally limited. Nevertheless, the use of terms like ‘Latin race,’ ‘Italian descent,’ ‘Mediterranean people,’ or ‘Roman race’ by nationalist and first-time fascists (especially Mussolini) alike did not yet represent – unlike the author’ theory – the evolution of a true racist ideology: it is rather a political and rhetorical refrain and reflects an organic and culturally autarchic vision of the national community. Racism entered the regime’s cultural politics and fascism’s political action full force only starting from the early 1930s. It then, after the adjustment phase following his rise to power, became the ideological and propagandistic instrument through which Mussolini wanted to give concrete shape to his project of the ‘new man’ and to his idea of a hierarchic society, based on the refusal of the bourgeois spirit, on military values, and on the enhancement of the ‘Roman myth.’ In this context, we need to assess the
development of a true racist theory carried out by important members of the Italian scientific community. One of the main merits of this book is that it proves that the main inputs given to the ‘race myth’ – both in its ‘Mediterranean’ and ‘Nordic’ form – are to be traced back to researches and works by scientists, and not to the regime ideologists (with the exception of Julius Evola): biologists, hygienists, geneticist, demographists, and anthropologists. The latter group divided in two factions – supporters of Arian-German racism and supporters of Mediterranean racism – that fought each other until the end, trying to influence Mussolini’s choices. In reality, the main influence was the one directly impressed by the racial politics of the Third Reich, as reflected in Italy in November 1938 with the anti-Semitic legislation approved at that time, within the framework of a regime now fully on its way to totalitarianism.
Joseph, Ammu and Kalpana Sharma (eds.), Terror, Counter-Terror: Women Speak Out, London: Zed, 2003, 284 pp., GBP 45.00/USD 65.00, ISBN 1-84277-352-6 (hbk) / GBP 14.95/USD 22.50, ISBN 1-84277-353-4 (pbk). Reviewed by Asha Hans (Utkal University, India) This edited volume is an addition to the growing feminist literature on conflict. The editors are well known feminist journalists, who have put together an anthology, which includes not only feminist theory and analysis but also women’s history of the struggle against conflict, terrorism and counter-terrorism. In the context of terror its broad based interpretation explores issues of aggressive masculinity, national security, displacement, ethnic nationalism and religious fundamentalism. The writings are a response to the 9/11 attacks, but are not confined to the US. (Rubina Saigol, for instance, sees 9/11 as a continuity and not as if history began on that day.) The volume provides a broad spectrum of terrorism as we move from Rosalind P. Petchesky’s linking of terrorism with global capitalism to Vandana Shiva’s interpretation of bio-terrorism, which takes into account the killing of people through the high cost of medicines. Barbara Ehrenreich further provides an understanding of fundamentalist misogyny of the Taliban that has created a masculinity crisis, which she asserts, is also found in Orthodox Jewish and Christian Fundamentalism. There is therefore little difference between the masculine politics of militarism and the hidden politics of terrorism. Both consider human life and its abuse as small issues in the causes they promote. In a militarized patriarchal world, women are merely post boxes, writes Dubravka Ugresic, by which we send messages to each other. The civilians killed in countering terrorism are today written off as ‘collateral damage,’ a vocabulary challenged by Rohini Hensman. She argues that in the context of September 11, this term could be used for Americans killed, and, however outrageous it may sound, its similarity to the American killings of Afghans creates a comparison, which we cannot ignore. In a plea for understanding, while Martha Nussbaum speaks of inclusive compassionate patriotism, Susan Sontag, Madeline Bunting and Sunera Thobani challenge the stereotyping of the actions of war, dichotomized as good and bad. Sunera Thobani interprets America’s new war as increasing violence
against women, and exhibiting the American nation as vengeful and bloodthirsty. Those who criticize US action, she asserts, have been challenged even by the press who chillingly exemplify these persons (including Noam Chomsky) as unimportant and equivalent to “a substitute weather forecaster on TV who has more influence than them.” In this world of terror author after author maintains that the world has been forced to give up its democratic tolerances. KalpanaSharma regrets the fact that after 9/11, the word democracy has lost its original meaning and no longer denotes freedom and individual rights any more. The volume, which includes prose and poetry, also looks at women’s movement from Women in Black to Rigoberta Menchu’s open letter to President Bush. All of us wait, like Nilofer Pazira, for the changes that will come, and a day when war will only be an obsolete vocabulary in the dictionary of history. Terror, Counter-Terror: Women Speak Out is timely and provides an extensive view of terror. Its swift response to 9/11 perhaps accounts for its suffering from a lack of deeper analyses. This is made up by the strength of women’s voices against a war unable to cope with the new changes brought about by terror on a global scale.