Suchergebnisse

This article examines the interplay of political identity, territory, and institutional change in Belgium. Political mobilization has gradually reshaped the territorial constitution of political institutions, and with it, group identities. Politicians have chosen to abandon a unitary state structure and instead establish a federation of Regions and Communities, both of which are territorially delimited but have different functions. As contention over language policy and language-use assessment has grown, Belgians have decided to favor territoriality over language use in matters of governance. This decision has not been without significant effects on identity-based politics. The analysis presented here shows how group mobilization can alter the institutional and territorial structures of group interaction and that these structural changes affect future options available to groups.

This article examines the interplay of political identity, territory, & institutional change in Belgium. Political mobilization has gradually reshaped the territorial constitution of political institutions, & with it, group identities. Politicians have chosen to abandon a unitary state structure & instead establish a federation of regions & communities, both of which are territorially delimited but have different functions. As contention over language policy & language-use assessment has grown, Belgians have decided to favor territoriality over language use in matters of governance. This decision has not been without significant effects on identity-based politics. The analysis presented here shows how group mobilization can alter the institutional & territorial structures of group interaction & contends that these structural changes affect future options available to groups. 2 Maps, 31 References. Adapted from the source document.

A core characteristic of world politics is the presence of communal conflict over ideas of national identity, inextricably bound to ideas of cultural identity. Increasingly, foreign policy decision‐makers realize the importance of considering cultural factors in their calculations of how peoples will define the "self" that seeks "determination." Although a collective's culture changes over time (through interaction with others and in response to external events), scholars and policy analysts sometimes treat identities as static, monolithic, and derived from cultures that rarely change. This leads policymakers to underestimate the extent to which culture influences and can be influenced by foreign policy. This paper integrates work in political science and psychology into a content analysis–based method for examining three major ways in which culture impinges on communal conflict. The utility of the approach is demonstrated with a case study of the Northern Ireland conflict from 1984 to 1986, which shows how the rhetoric of the competing nationalist/Catholic leaders (John Hume and Gerry Adams) was the site of debate over group culture, how differences in the rhetoric reflected different cultures of the conflict, and how the conflict has been affected by the foreign policy decisions of other actors.