(1996). The historical lessons of human rights: In search of a new approach. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 498-503.

This article defends three basic premises. First, the same conditions and forces favorable to revolution may serve to impede efforts at post-revolutionary consolidation. Second, one can assess prospects for consolidation based on the capacity of prospective hegemonic parties to achieve several interrelated objectives: developing a shared worldview among disparate segments of the population, delivering social and economic goods, and establishing order. Third, while democratization is a home-grown process, it may require particular forms of limited intervention to offset anti-democratic forces. The (...) goal of this article is to provide an analytical framework that informs the ongoing debates over democratic transitions while suggesting where and how external engagement may influence the transition process. (shrink)

In 2019, protests in the streets of Algeria and Sudan, Lebanon and Iraq brought back the fragrance of the Jasmine revolution. Can the pendulum swing back towards democracy and human rights in the M...

The argument that sectarian conflicts in the Arab Middle East have been persistent since time immemorial is erroneous. While these views may seem compelling with the rise of ISIL, they are in fact very dangerous: they downgrade Islamic societies to primordial, selective and static features. I will argue for a different set of propositions. First, violence is not unique to Islamic societies. Extreme illiberal ideologies prevailed in Christian Europe both during the Thirty Years War and during the fascist interwar period. (...) Second, Islamist belligerence was partly a response to the ill-effects of globalization, just as European fascist movements were exacerbated by the advance of industrial capitalism in Europe. Third, post-Second World War human rights efforts may inform new paths beyond the tragedies that continue to plague the Middle East. (shrink)

(1996). Latvia in search of a social policy model. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 652-658.

La 4e de couverture indique : "Avec l'accélération de la mondialisation, une opinion qui aurait, jusqu'il y a peu, été taxée d'incongruité, semble avoir gagné le statut d'évidence : le système étatique mondial serait menacé et appellerait à une profonde redéfinition des attributs, des structures et du rôle traditionnellement dévolus aux Etats. Malgré un échiquier géopolitique modifié, où les frontières s'évanouissent et où les cultures et les traditions nationales s'amalgament jusqu'à l'extinction, il faut cependant reconnaître que la mondialisation n'est pas (...) venue à bout des Etats, des sociétés qui les composent et des divers problèmes que crée la cohabitation au sein de leurs institutions traditionnelles. Bien au contraire, la mondialisation a souvent contribué à enclencher en série des situations qui se répercutent sur les plans social et étatique. Dans toutes ces situations, c'est aux Etats, à leur gouvernement et à la société entière qu'il appartient de restaurer, voire de réinventer, la trame des communautés politiques. Non pas en érigeant des barrages à la mondialisation, mais en contribuant à la création des institutions d'une gouvernance globale juste et efficace. Rassemblant des collaborateurs de l'Europe, du Québec, du Canada anglais et des Etats-Unis, ce livre questionne, sous des angles différents, la pertinence théorique de la notion de communauté politique lorsqu'il s'agit de penser le pluralisme résultant de l'immigration internationale. II pose aussi un regard critique sur le rôle que cette notion joue dans les approches courantes des phénomènes liés à la diversité. Car plusieurs questions se posent maintenant, dont celle, au premier chef, de la capacité des appareils d'Etats contemporains de cimenter des communautés politiques dans un contexte de mobilité spatiale accrue et de transnationalisme croissant.". (shrink)

Dans l’opinion publique, la mondialisation a ouvert les vannes de l’immigration internationale, les migrants circulant désormais aussi facilement que les capitaux et les marchandises. En phase avec cette représentation relevant du sens commun, le domaine de la migration internationale tend à subir l’influence des théories de la mobilité qui jouissent d’un véritable effet de mode. Cette pensée emprunte à des courants d’idées privilégiant l’effacement des frontières. Le concept de « mobilité » repose sur deux visions contradictoires. La première suppose que (...) les populations se déplacent à travers les frontières pour vendre et négocier leurs « capital social », là où les avantages économiques et sociaux sont les plus grands. La seconde considère que les obstacles à la mobilité sont la cause de nouvelles inégalités et de nouvelles hiérarchies dans le système mondial. Critiques de ces visions, certains spécialistes de l’immigration internationale estiment que les facteurs historico-structurels à l’œuvre dans les pays d’émigration et d’immigration ont une plus grande pertinence explicative que le recours à la question de la circulation. (shrink)

(1996). Socialism and the “political question”. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 532-537.

(1996). Rhetorical problems of emergent democracy: Political change and political discourse in Poland. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 568-574.

(1996). Public opinion and democratic culture: The French revolution. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 175-180.

(1996). The contribution of communist states to the proscription of racist speech. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 801-811.

In three experiments involving 104 children and 86 adults we investigated the extent to which harm brought about by physical contact is judged to be worse than harm caused by impersonal, no-contact actions. In Experiment 1, Italian monolingual children aged 4 to 6 were asked to indicate whether they would prioritize saving five persons through contact over saving three persons without contact with both courses of action involving harm to a single victim. A preference for saving more persons did not (...) emerge until the age of 6 years. By contrast, in Experiment 2, children with a Slovenian-Italian linguistic and cultural background judged that to save five with contact was preferable even at the age of 4 and 5 years. In Experiment 3, Slovenian-Italian adults were also significantly more likely than Italian-only speakers to advocate using contact, although in a direct comparison, both groups prioritized saving five over three persons, regardless of the means. Moral diversity is discussed in terms of cultural and linguistic constraints that may serve to mediate the use of considerations of contact in an intuitive moral psychology. (shrink)

(1996). Stereotype discourse in Israel. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 680-688.

(1997). Super‐paradigms, art, and science: Romanticism and the birth of social science. The European Legacy: Vol. 2, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, pp. 749-754.

(1996). The concept of Carolingian Europe in the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 727-733.

(1996). National identity: A variable concept. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 445-452.

(1996). Integration and disintegration trends in European economic development. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 474-478.