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 Nigel Copsey of the University of Teesside (UK).
Book Notes
Sébastien Fath, Militants de la Bible aux États-Unis, Paris: autrement, 2004, 222 pp., EUR 19.00, ISBN 2-7467-0535-4 (pbk). Josef Braml, Amerika, Gott und die Welt, Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2005, 147 pp., EUR 14.90, ISBN 3-88221-854-1 (pbk). Anatol Lieven, America Right or Wrong, London: Harper Collins, 2004, 274 pp., USD 15.95, ISBN 0 00 716456 4 (pbk). Reviewed by Hans-Georg Betz (Nyon, Switzerland) The day after George W. Bush’s re-election as president of the United States in November 2004, the British daily newspaper The Daily Mirror commented on the event with a provocative headline prominently displayed across the paper’s front page: “How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?” The Daily Mirror was hardly the only major European newspaper to ask that question. The majority of Europeans, surveys show, have generally had a negative view of Bush and his administration and have genuinely been puzzled about how he ever managed to get elected president. The three books under review provide important, albeit only partial answers to this question. All of them are dealing with the growing influence of the “Christian Right” not only in the Republican Party, but, via the Grand Old Party (GOP), on American politics in general. Fath’s study of evangelicals and Christian fundamentalists (which are not necessarily the same) in the southern parts of the country (the so-called Bible Belt) serves as a useful introduction to the subject. After a brief overview of the history of southern Christianity and its impact on southern politics, the author offers an excellent analysis of the social environment, in which southern Christianity is embedded, the importance of the media in promoting the faith, and the main characteristics of the evangelical “doctrine.” Finally, the author provides a very useful typology of the various strands of evangelical Christianity in the Bible Belt.
Josef Braml’s short essay is primarily concerned with the political impact of the Christian Right on American politics since the end of the Clinton administration. In his view the links between the Christian Right and the GOP represent a “marriage of convenience” – both sides need each other. The Christian Right view the GOP as a means to realize its agenda of what one American observer recently called “moral regulation,” the GOP sees the Christian Right as a means to mobilize the “people of faith” who traditionally preferred not to get involved in politics. Braml’s main focus, however, is on the political impact of the Christian Right on American domestic and particularly foreign policy. He shows how with the Bush administration, policy is increasingly infused with, if not informed by, moral positions, for example, with respect to abortion and the state of Israel. In the final part of the essay, Braml discusses the implications of these developments in American politics on transatlantic relations – a concern, which is increasingly also raised by American-based observers, such as Anatol Lieven, a longtime resident in America originally from the UK. Lieven’s book provides a detailed and often critical assessment of American cultural identity and its impact on American foreign policy. Lieven’s analysis is informed by the thesis that American political culture is an amalgam of two contradictory features. One, which he characterizes as “civic nationalism” (the American Creed), which embraces the principles of liberty, democracy, individualism and the rule of law; the other, its antithesis, a chauvinistic, closed, and often paranoid nationalism, which considers the United States beleaguered and constantly threatened by a hostile world. In Lieven’s view, the latter strand has its roots in what he calls the “embittered heartland” – particularly the South, but also parts of the Mid-West. The core of Lieven’s analysis is the two chapters in the middle of the book, in which he discusses the rise of the embittered heartland to political prominence since the beginning of the Bush presidency. These chapters are among the best in explaining what happened in 2000 and 2004. Like Braml, Lieven devotes some space to the central importance of the state of Israel in shaping American foreign policy. He suggests that what has happened for a variety of reasons (among them the influence of “Christian Zionists” who believe that the second coming of Christ can only occur after the Temple in Jerusalem has been rebuilt) is a fusion of American and Israeli nationalisms, to the detriment of the United States. Not surprisingly, this part of the book has provoked most controversy in the United States. The growing influence of militant fundamentalist (in the American sense of a return to the text) Christianity on American domestic politics and foreign affairs should not be underestimated. Despite the fact that recent events, such as the disaster over the nomination of Harriet Miers – a born-again Christian – to fill a seat on the Supreme Court have shown the marriage of convenience between GOP and Christian Right is rather tenuous and full of pitfalls, the Christian Right has conquered a central position in the American political space. Those studying the radical right in Europe from a comparative perspective might find it useful to take a look across the Atlantic. They might be surprised how “moderate” and “reasonable” a Blocher, Hagen, Haider, and even Le Pen is compared to some of the leading figures on the American Christian
Right, who, more often than not, have the ear of the president – at least as long as the born-again GW Bush is in office.
Angelica Fenner and Eric D. Weitz (eds) Fascism and Neofascism. Critical Writings on the Radical Right in Europe, New York & Basingstoke: PalgraveMacmillan, 2004, 286 pp., GBP 40.00, ISBN: 1-4039-6659-1 (hbk). Reviewed by Nigel Copsey (University of Teesside) This interdisciplinary volume examines both historical fascism and contemporary rightwing extremism across a range of countries and from a variety of perspectives. The editors of Fascism and Neofascism believe that to understand fascism in both its classical and contemporary forms, new modes of inquiry from cultural studies should engage in dialogue with more traditional ways of viewing fascism. To their credit, the editors have gathered together a diverse set of contributors, with chapters by cultural theorists sitting alongside chapters penned by historians and social scientists. Whilst commendable in its objectives, since the editors have not set any chapter-by-chapter methodological parameters, it is the reader who must decide on the overall value of such an eclectic approach. Editorial control is deliberately loose. In fact they offer no definition of fascism or neofascism, content instead ‘to let our various contributors work with their individual understandings’ (p.9.). This volume features fifteen chapters. The theme of fascist aesthetics dominates the introductory contributions with Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will and the Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution that celebrated the tenth anniversary of the March on Rome, subjected to critical readings. There are chapters on Danish volunteers for the Waffen SS and a reinterpretation of the sexual politics of Nazism before the historical focus moves to the post-war era. Here we find work on extremism and violence. Prowe restates his position that today’s anti-foreigner violence is far removed from interwar fascism but as David Carroll argues in his contribution, extremist nationalist ideologies, whether historic or contemporary, are grounded in and dependent on the ‘fiction of race’. The particularities of the Romanian context of fascism are explored before the next three chapters continue the theme of extremism and violence. There are studies of extreme right-wing youth networks in Germany, the relationship between ethnic nationalism and football hooliganism in pre-civil war Yugoslavia and a chapter on how racist groups justify violence in Scandinavia. Three chapters are devoted to the extreme right in France. Worthy of note here is the claim by one contributor (Franklin Hugh Adler) that the Mégret/Le Pen split was due to a decline in the political saliency of the immigration issue. The final chapter returns us to the field of cultural studies with a critical reading of Frieder Schlaich’s 1999 film Otomo - a docudrama about the fatal shooting of a Liberian asylum seeker in Stuttgart. Whilst one doubts that the objectives
of interdisciplinary dialogue are fully met, there is still much in this volume that readers of e-Extreme will find both innovative and engaging.
Tom Gallagher, Theft of a Nation. Romania since Communism, London: Hurst & Company, 2005, 428 pp., GBP 17.50, ISBN 1-85065-716-5 (pbk). Reviewed by Petr Kopecký (University of Leiden) Romania rarely makes good headlines in Western press and electronic media. Since the 1989 transition, marked by violence and the execution of the communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife in a hastily arranged trial, the country has been plagued by numerous problems. It has struggled to counter the enormous economic decline following the collapse of the communist regime and its highly inefficient economy. Romania also failed to create stable institutions of democracy and standards of government based on the rule of law which meant that, at least until the mid-1990s, it was considered a reform laggard among the post-communist countries. Yet, it joined the NATO in 2004 and is currently negotiating the conditions of full entry to the EU, expected to take place in 2007. Tom Gallagher’s interesting and well-written book sets out to explain why the country acquired a status of reform straggler. The focus of the book is very much on the postcommunist period, basically up to and including the return of the Party of Romanian Social Democracy to power in 2001. Indeed, nine out of eleven chapters deal with various post-1989 periods. However, given the author’s emphasis on the legacies of both the communist dictatorship and the unstable regimes before the WWII as an integral part of explanations for Romania’s current problems, the book also contains two useful historical chapters that set the post-transition developments in context. Gallagher argues that behind Romania’s problems lie perpetual predatory behaviour of domestic political elites coupled with the lack of popular pressures for reform. He argues that virtually all major policy changes which have lately improved democratic governance in the country originate from outside pressures, most notably from the EU, often only partially implemented by reluctant domestic actors. The book will undoubtedly be of interest to students of Romanian politics, and in the problems of post-communism in general. The Theft of a Nation lacks a broader theoretical focus, and makes only passing references to other countries, both Eastern European and from other democratizing regions. But because of the depth of its coverage, useful references and biographies, the book will undoubtedly be also of great value to comparativists, particularly students of democratization.
Florian Hartleb, Rechts- und Linkspopulismus. Eine Fallstudie anhand von Schillpartei und PDS, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2004, 361pp., EUR 36.90, ISBN 3-531-14281-X (pbk). Reviewed by Monika Pruetzel-Thomas (Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge) Since the late 1960s the politics of protest have become an established factor in most western European party systems, manifesting itself in new social movements and a multitude of small new parties. Many of these pursue an anti-establishment agenda with a populist appeal. Given the high number of floating voters today, small parties matter, even if only as a disruptive force. This has led to an abundance of academic literature dedicated to these often short-lived organisations and the theoretical questions they pose. Within this literature, Florian Hartleb’s book is a methodical attempt to refine the conceptual tools at hand to analyse these parties. It represents a well-researched discussion of a number of questions of interest to scholars of Political Science: • • • •
What is the real meaning of the term ‘populism’ when used to describe a political party? How can this concept be operationalised? Can the concept of populism be applied to both right- and left-leaning parties? Can it be applied to the specific case studies of the Schill Party and the PDS?
In an attempt to define the label ‘populism’ not just as a method or strategy of communication but to link the concept to policy issues, Hartleb suggests eight general criteria which define both right- and leftwing populist parties. He then proposes a further five or six policy criteria to distinguish between the political left and right. Not surprisingly, he comes to the conclusion that the parties in both his case studies conform to the majority of his populism criteria. What is missing though is an evaluation of the relative status or importance of the individual criteria. The reader is not really told which of his criteria constitute a necessary and/or sufficient condition. The book is closely based on Hartleb’s PhD thesis and would clearly have benefited from some further editing. Because the laborious thesis structure has been kept, the book is unnecessarily lengthy and repetitive. The author could have argued his case more elegantly and succinctly in 200 pages, rather than the present 361. However, on the plus side the book is written in clear and accessible German which is so rare in German academic literature.
John Keane, Violence and Democracy, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004, 213 pp., USD 23.99, ISBN 0-521-54544-7 (pbk). Reviewed by Leonard Weinberg (University of Nevada)
This volume offers reflections on the relationship between violence and democracy by an important contemporary philosopher. The author argues that violence is not inherent in the human condition. In fact, civil society and democracy relegate violence to the realm of the “contingent”, meaning it occurs (who could deny), but there is no causal requirement for its occurrence. Civil society and democracy provide various well-known mechanisms by which violence is rendered unnecessary or superfluous. On the other hand, the author goes on, by their very openness and pluralism civil societies create opportunities for the expression of violence by among others criminal psychopaths and by those who fail to get what they want and feel humiliated as a result. The author concludes by stipulating ten rules, e.g. “… resist the drift towards ‘law and order’ strategies…” (p. 175), that would mitigate the threat of politically motivated violence. Overall, the argument is compelling but the evidence mustered in support of it is almost exclusively anecdotal.
Daniel Ross, Violent Democracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, 183 pp., USD 26.99, ISBN: 0-521-60310-2 (pbk). Reviewed by Manus I. Midlarsky (Rutgers University) This book is a striking meditation on democracy, or more precisely the violence that is presumed to lie at its heart. Violent acts are claimed to be necessary for the founding of a democracy, because without them a people cannot will itself into existence and be sovereign. Daniel Ross emphasizes two democracies, Australia and the United States, the former to critique the exclusion of “illegal aliens” from the Australian mainland, and the latter in the use of Guantanamo as an internment site for “enemy combatants”. Here, Ross draws limited parallels between Auschwitz and Guantanamo citing the extra-legal nature of both facilities, and the ability of the respective political leaders to dictate the terms of their usage. The author sees a robust conservative tradition lying at the root of Guantanamo’s current status; even the American decision to invade Iraq is attributed to this source. Winston Churchill, Leo Strauss, Allan Bloom, and Paul Wolfowitz understood the virtue of democracy not so much as an intrinsic good, but as a much-preferred alternative to the exterminatory intentions of virulently anti-democratic leaders like Adolf Hitler or Saddam Hussein. The last three thinkers named above had been heavily influenced by the memory of the Holocaust. Thus, the invasion of Iraq became justified by the past or present misdeeds of vicious genocidal dictators who deserved to be removed by violence, if necessary. Inevitably, in a discursive analysis without systematic empirics there are problems. For one, the United States was not established as a sovereign entity de novo, but in the
Declaration of Independence’s demand for restoration of the right to representation of Englishmen, now located in a new home. The parallels between Auschwitz and Guantanamo are overdrawn. Yet the arguments of this book whether right, wrong, or indifferent, make the reader think, and that alone is worth the price of admission.
Kurt Schock, Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in Nondemocracies, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005, 228 pp., USD 19.95, ISBN: 0-8166-4193-5 (pbk). Reviewed by William A. Callahan (University of Manchester) Kurt Schock has written a very interesting book in Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in Nondemocracies. Most studies of nonviolent social movements concentrate on examples from Euro-America, and assume that such methods only work in democratic or benign regimes. Through this detailed study Schock shows how nonviolent action can be seen as a method for social and political change more generally. Rather than concentrating on the characteristics of state power to understand the success and failure of social revolutions, this book makes theoretically-informed comparative study of the characteristics of nonviolent challenges to oppressive state power. After an informative introduction, the first part of the book argues that beginning with the Iranian revolution in 1978, the modus operandi of political challenge has shifted from Maoist-inspired ‘people’s war’ to ‘people power’ movements that use non-violence as pragmatic method of social protest. The second part of the book uses the case studies to argue that to be successful a nonviolent challenge must 1) be able to withstand repression, and 2) be able to undermine state power. The best way to do this is through tactical and organizational strategies that are not limited to these special cases, but can be modular for other struggles: decentered organizations and multicentered spaces of resistance. Importantly, Schock does not just examine case studies of successful transition to more democratic politics. He also considers important failures of nonviolent social movements: China (1989) and Burma (1988). Rather than concluding that the democratic movements failed because the states were too powerful, Schock carefully analyzes how the social movements also made important mistakes. He concludes that in both cases, the non-violent social movements were not resilient in the face of state repression because they lacked a coherent and decentralized umbrella organization. The movements also failed because they lacked significant leverage against the state both internally (an absence of elite division) and externally (no significant source of international pressure). The book concludes with a consideration of trajectories of unarmed insurrections. Drawing on the six case studies and other relevant literature, Schock draws six general
lessons from his study that underline the utility of 1) clear and limited goals, 2) oppositional consciousness and temporary organizations, 3) multiple channels of resistance, 4) multiple methods of nonviolent action, 5) multiple spaces and places of resistance, 6) communication and reference politics. In so doing, Schock sets a new agenda for research on social and political change, and adds an activist element to studies of non-violent action. In general, Unarmed Insurrections fills an important gap in existing literature that either makes much broader theoretical statements or concentrates more narrowly on countrystudies. The main weakness in the book is the absence of a robust theoretical consideration of ‘oppositional consciousness’ and ‘decentering’ – if they are important enough to be key points in the six lessons, then they deserve more detailed discussion. Kurt Schock’s Unarmed Insurrections is an excellent book that will be useful for research as well as teaching upper-level undergraduate and MA courses in comparative politics, political and social change, global studies, and Asian politics.
Alan Sykes The Radical Right in Britain, Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005, 184 pp., GBP 17.99, ISBN: 0-333-69331-0 (pbk). Reviewed by Janet Dack (University of Teesside) Sykes’ survey of the attitudes of the British radical right ranges, in roughly chronological order, from the social imperialists of the late nineteenth century, through the inter-war fascists and post-war Nazi apologists, to the variable fortunes of the British National Party in the early years of the twenty-first century. While Sykes relies heavily on secondary sources, and most of the historical ground has been covered in more detail in other publications, The Radical Right in Britain is a pioneering attempt to trace the development of this hydra-like phenomenon from its beginnings to the present day. The value of this introductory text is threefold. Firstly, Sykes suggests a definition of the term ‘radical right’ that, although broad, will prompt further discussion. Specifically, he describes the radical right as ‘hyper-nationalist’, elitist, purposive in terms of its quest for social regeneration and the restoration of the values of a mythical past, and organicist in its perception of the individual as part of a greater whole. These are familiar concepts to those struggling with definitions of fascism. Secondly, in the course of the six major chapters sketching the historical background, he makes clear the context of the various elements that he considers constitute the radical right. Finally, Sykes identifies most of the continuities of attitude and policy that run through the various organisations of the radical right, despite the changing political and social circumstances in which they operated. A minor quibble is that for a book discussing so many individuals and organisations the index is less than comprehensive. Nevertheless, readers unfamiliar with the radical
aspects of the right in British politics will find this book informative and, hopefully, will be encouraged to read further.