*** Revue d'Allemagne et des pays de langue allemande. Société d'études allemandes (Institut d'études politiques, 47 av. de la Forêt-Noire, F-67082 Strasbourg. Tel: (33-3) 68858718 - Email: cweeda@unistra.fr). January-June 2015, No. 47, 247 pp, €29. Annual subscription: €52 (France) or €56 (elsewhere).
This issue of this Strasbourg review contains two special reports, the first on a page of history, namely the transition from Napoleonic Europe to restoration Europe viewed from the Germanic point of view; the second much more of the moment in that is focuses on federal Germany, which is now the 'de facto leader of Europe.' Hence, as Prof. Sylvain Schirmann explains in the introduction., it is useful - and a matter of urgency - for scientists to examine Germany's place in Europe, as it is a model for some and a picture of ugliness for others.
The first contribution is by Prof. Christian Lequesne, who takes a sounding of the country in the light of the power it is acquiring in Europe and the reactions to it both in Germany and elsewhere, particularly in France. This professor at Sciences Po Paris discerns two limits to German success along with a shortfall. The first limit confirms the growing recrimination in many European Union countries of the widespread idea in a number of politicians' and Germans' heads that if European countries want to make progress in their reforms, then they should imitate the German model. Prof. Lequesne says they are right to complain, explaining that every European country has its own historical trajectory, which never provides the right conditions for reception of an identical public policy in another territory. The second limit sees populist Germany leading to a rot even on the fringes of the traditional parties and pitting a virtuous and hard-working Northern Europe against a spendthrift, lazy Southern Europe, which is not an exclusively German evil in this period when a populism of the rich, opposed to any fiscal transfer to less favoured territories, has become a general development in Europe. This justifies those who feel that Berlin cannot be the only capital to set the tone in Europe, and a European executive that is fully concerned about the interests of everyone in Europe is urgently required before the people's divorce is decreed. The shortfall discerned by Christian Lequesne concerns Germany's lack of commitment to the world's security, which is explained by the country's history but is nevertheless problematic these days. Commenting later on future European prospects, Prof. Lequesne says that Angela Merkel's Germany is giving way to the intergovernmentalist temptation, which is simply a method that allows European politicians to assert to doubling public opinion that they haven't given up defence of national sovereignty. This deserved to be written, especially by a French writer, because if one takes a close look, one way or another, defence of national sovereignty will probably lead to destruction of the European Union…
Prof. Lequesne also observes that since it has been found that the use of some models from the study of physics has failed to turn the economy into an exact science, and therefore no expert can scientifically prove that the German model of balancing public finances is the only model that will allow European economies to return to growth. Political scientist Yann-Sven Rittelmeyer carefully unravels the German dilemma relating tot he necessary reform of eurozone governance. The reforms are necessary, indispensable even, according to this researcher attached to the Centre d'Etude de la Vie Politique at Université Libre de Bruxelles in order to escape from a deep crisis in the European project. In a Europe described as having become disorganised and having insufficient democratic legitimacy following the emergency solutions introduced without transparency, citizen disaffection has reached a peak, to the extent that research into the concept of disintegration is beginning to mushroom within the scientific community. Will this all lead to the emergence of a European economic government, the introduction of a budget of the eurozone and for the eurozone to have an assembly that can give it democratic backing? Perhaps, but the shape and operational details of all this are currently in limbo, confirming the statement by philosopher Jean-Marc Ferry that failure of the European project may well be the result of 'political apathy' rather than misplaced ambitions and utopias.
Alongside these corrosive assessments, there are articles on the sustainability of the German model as viewed by the country's economic operators, the European integration role played by political foundations and German trade unions, politics in the East under the strain of the Ukrainian crisis and, in articles written in German, on cross-border cooperation and the tricky development of European foreign policy under the strain of Russia's infringements of international law. Fascinating research from start to finish! Michel Theys
*** UWE GERBER: Fundamentalismen in Europa, Streit um die Deutungshoheit in Religion, Politik, Ökonomie und Medien. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, P.O. 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ), Email "Theologisch-Philosophische Beiträge zu Gegenwartsfragen," 2014, 154 pp, €19.95. ISBN 978-3-631-65778-2.
Uwe Gerber attempts in this book to trace the genesis of the various fundamentalisms that have appeared in Europe or elsewhere in terms of philosophy, psychology and history. He really tries to include absolutely all types of fundamentalism - along with the well-known political and religious fundamentalisms, he also covers more subtle fundamentalist phenomena, such as those wreaking havoc in the business world in the presence of an all-powerful market or the omnipotence of capital, or fundamentalist phenomena in the world of media and communications. The author finally suggests non-violent ways to deal with fundamentalisms, nipping them in the bud in order to protect the democratic freedoms acquired by modern society. (GLe)
*** KLAUS SCHROEDER, MONIKA DEUTZ-SCHROEDER: Gegen Staat und Kapital - für die Revolution!Linksextremismus in Deutschland - eine empirische Studie. Peter Lang (see above). "Studien des Forschungsverbundes SED-Staat an der Freien Universität Berlin" series. 2015, 653 pp, €29.95.ISBN 978-3-631-66283-0.
This book provides a detailed picture of left-wing extremism in Germany, distinguishing between left-wing extremists and radicals. All the other nuances that can clothe far-left concepts also come under the spotlight. The authors look at the definition (s) of extremism, left extremism, and consider in detail the components of far left ideas. Movements that make use of violence are also clearly identified and analysed. The authors utilise and take advantage of opinion polls in Germany, demonstrating that some ideas characteristic of the far left are more widely held than one might think. Finally, the author's detailed arguments are supported by interviews with former members of the far-left. (GLe)
*** NIKOLAOS DEMERTZIS, NIKOLAOS GEORGARAKIS (Eds.): Le portrait politique de la Grèce. La crise et la déconstruction de la politique. Éditions Gutemberg (37 rue Didotou, GR-10680 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3642003 - Fax: 3642030 - Email: info@dardanosnet.gr). 2015, 656 pp, €38. ISBN 978-960-01-1698-4.
In Greece, the crisis of recent years has accentuated social inequalities, poverty and the disintegration of what was already a largely deficient social welfare network. Social consensus has splintered, as has the social and economic model and most reference systems. In this book, Nikos Demertzis, professor of political communication and political sociology of communication and the media at Athens University, and Nicholas C. Georgarakis, researcher art the National Research Centre and lecturer at the Public Administration Department of Athens Pantheon University, explain that the crisis broke out: a) in an economy that had long been characterised by increased wealth without development and an economic elite essentially based on a State-employer relying on borrowing from overseas; b) an inefficient civil service; c) in a country that had long been experiencing the symptoms of political intolerance; d) in a fragmented society of individual interests and networks of privileges. The researchers explain that it will not be easy to ensure that the political system strikes a new balance based on a new social contract. They analyse the various causes of this dilapidation, particularly the consequences of the crisis in the political domain, the first being the dynamic that led to collapse of the traditional two-party system, which has led along other things to the emergence of new voting preferences. (AKa)
*** FLOCEL SABATE, LUIS ADAO DA FONSECA (Eds.): Catalonia and Portugal. The Iberian Peninsula from the Periphery. Peter Lang (see above). "Identities / Identités / Identidades" series, No. 5. 2015, 529 pp, €105.20. ISBN 978-3-0343-1650-7.
The European Science Foundation has launched a research programme with the aim of revealing and understanding the roots of the different regional identities present in Europe. This book reports on the proceedings of a scientific meeting organised in the Catalan city of Lleida in June 2012 on the regions of the Iberian peninsula known as 'peripheral,' namely Portugal and Catalonia. As Catalonia is causing concerns in Madrid at the moment, this book edited by professors of medieval history at the Universities of Lleida and Porto is perfectly of the moment for understanding Catalonia's current demands. The twenty-one essays collected together in the book provide an affirmation of the Catalan and Portuguese territorial identities from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, from the Muslim conquest of north-eastern Spain to the assertion of Catalan nationalism via, on the other side, the advent of a Portuguese crown and state. (MT)
*** EDWIGE NAULT: L'avortement en Irlande: 1983-2013. Dimensions religieuses, socioculturelles, politiques et européenne. Peter Lang (see above). "Studies in Franco-Irish Relations" series, No. 7. 2015, 267 pp, €56.95. ISBN 978-3-631-65654-9.
Emerging from a doctoral thesis defended last year at Lille 3 University, this book invites readers to delve into a search and an explanation for the reason why the Irish Republic is a special case when it comes to its abortion policy, which is the opposite of those in place elsewhere. Poland, Malta and Hungary also have a prohibitive abortion policy, but Ireland is the only one in the European Union to have written the right of the unborn child into the constitution out of absolute respect for the doctrine dictated by the Catholic Church. In her work, Edwige Nault provides an original angle for approaching the debate about abortion in Ireland from 1983, when the eighth pro-life amendment was written into the constitution, to 2013, when the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 was voted in, that allows the interruption of pregnancies when the life of the mother is in danger, including from the risk of suicide. Above all, she studies abortion as a useful way of observing the secularisation process at play for individuals on the one hand, and the state on the other. The concept of secularisation, a theoretical framework that underlies this book, operates in a three-pronged manner: a) at the individual level, in the light of relative changes in beliefs, in terms of practice and then the attitude of religious believers to their Church being reflected in an individualisation of belief b) at the level of how the institutional framework functions, in the light of the concept of secularism; and c) the cultural aspect, which shows that society is less and less characterised by religious ideas. Hence the secularisation process can only be understood in each society's historical and cultural context, which Edwige Nault does using the question of abortion, with the aim of explaining this Irish blockage by verifying her hypothesis that abortion represents a bastion of resistance to secularisation. Her resolutely comparative approach also shows how the influence of Catholic ethics on abortion sets the Irish state at odds with Europe, which is staunchly non-religious and sometimes also leaves Dublin at the mercy of rulings of the European Court of Justice. (MT)
*** GÁBOR SOÓS: Local Government Institutionalization in Hungary. Peter Lang (see above). 2015, 214 pp, €39.95. ISBN 978-3-631-65734-8
Researcher at the Political Science Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Science, Gábor Soós explores in this book the factors that influence the possibility for a political formation to take root and institutionalise itself at local level. He focuses his research on the case of Hungary, a new democracy with a fragmented system of local government which, in his opinion, can be revealing for the region of Central and Eastern Europe in its entirety. His research enables him to show that the degree of a party's institutionalisation at local level depends on both the electoral system and the functional size, stability and average age of the population in question. His main conclusion is that national parties, particularly those represented in parliament, are more sustainable than civic organisations acting as local political formations. (PBo)