The theory and concept of multi-level governance (MLG) is a fairly recent one, emerging from the deepening integration of the European Union in the early 1990s and the development of free trade agreements around the world. MLG enlarges the traditional approaches, namely those of neo-institutionalism and multinational federalism, by offering a better understanding of the role of the state, regions and provinces. The book analyses the changes that have taken place as well as those that might take place in the future.
As the first exporter of cultural goods and services, the United States has long held that such products should be treated like any other merchandise and be liberalized. On the other hand, for countries such as France and Canada who are concerned about the impact of economic globalization and the digital revolution on their cultural identity, cultural products should be exempted from economic liberalization or subject to a cultural exception. conflicting views and interests between states as to the treatment of cultural products in international economic law lie at the hearth of the trade and culture debate. These differences have led to serious tensions over the liberalization of cultural services within the World Trade Organization, as well as to a Convention within UNESCO to recognize the economic and cultural character of cultural products and the states’ right to pursue cultural policies. With most states still not keen on liberalizing the cultural sector and the stalemate in the Doha Round, the United States has turned to preferential trade agreements to secure its policy preferences on the treatment of cultural products. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the US government has concluded eleven trade agreements grouping sixteen countries and has been involved in three sets of plurilateral negotiations, with major implications for the evolution of the trade and culture debate.
This Handbook provides the most comprehensive overview of the role of electoral advertising on television and new forms of advertising in countries from all parts of the world currently available. Thematic chapters address advertising effects, negative ads, the perspective of practitioners and gender role. Country chapters summarize research on issues including political and electoral systems; history of ads; the content of ads; reception and effects of ads; regulation of political advertising on television and the Internet; financing political advertising; and prospects for the future. The Handbook confirms that candidates spend the major part of their campaign budget on television advertising. The US enjoys a special situation with almost no restrictions on electoral advertising whereas other countries have regulation for the time, amount and sometimes even the content of electoral advertising or they do not allow television advertising at all. The role that television advertising plays in elections is dependent on the political, the electoral and the media context and can generally be regarded as a reflection of the political culture of a country. The Internet is relatively unregulated and is the channel of the future for political advertising in many countries
This exciting new book is the first to offer a truly comprehensive account of the vibrant topic of nationalism. Packed with a series of rich, illustrative examples, the book examines this powerful and remarkable political force by exploring: - Definitions of nationalism - Language and nationalism - Religion and Nationalism - Nationalist history - The social roots of ideologies and the significance of race, gender and class - Nationalist movements, from dominant majorities to peripheral minorities socio-economic and sociological perspectives - State responses to nationalism Supported by a number of helpful illustrations, tables and diagrams, the text is both engaging and highly informative. Nationalism, Ethnicity and the State: Making and Breaking Nations will prove an insightful read for both undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers in the area of Politics and International Relations.
This book offers a comprehensive, highly informative and interdisciplinary study on territorial integrity and the challenges globalization, self-determination and external interventions present. This study aims at not only to fill an epistemological gap in this regard, but also answer the question of whether International Law is adequately equipped to help states address these challenges. The author argues that the biggest threat that many states are confronted with today is their disintegration rather than their obsolescence, and that International Law has not often been able to prevent that eventuality. In fact, states, when they were not destroyed by war, managed to survive, thanks to the flexibility of territoriality, i.e. their ability to adjust to difficult situations as they arose. It is this understanding of adaptation that urges an increasing number of states today to revive territorial autonomy and restore an original understanding of self-determination in which democracy is a pivotal factor in establishing congruence between the states and their nations. While this move is endorsed by International Law, it is not the case for globalization; for their own sake, proponents of globalization should recognize that the states are irreplaceable as long as they remain the sole providers of protection for their peoples.
Both interculturalism and multiculturalism address the question of how states should forge unity from ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. But what are the dividing lines between interculturalism and multiculturalism? This volume brings together some of the most prominent scholars in the field to address these two different approaches. With a Foreword by Charles Taylor and an Afterword by Bhikhu Parekh, this collection spans European, North-American and Latin-American debates.
In Exception Taken, Jonathan Buchsbaum examines the movements that have emerged in opposition to the homogenizing force of Hollywood in global filmmaking. While European cinema was entering a steady decline in the 1980s, France sought to strengthen support for its film industry under the new Mitterrand government. Over the following decades, the country lobbied partners in the European Economic Community to design strategies to protect the audiovisual industries and to resist cultural free-trade pressures in international trade agreements. These struggles to preserve the autonomy of national artistic prerogatives emboldened many countries to question the benefits of accelerated globalization. Led by the energetic minister of culture Jack Lang, France initiated a series of measures to support all sectors of the film industry. Lang introduced laws mandating that state and private television invest in the film industry, effectively replacing the revenue lost from a shrinking theatrical audience for French films. With the formation of the European Union in 1992, Europe passed a new treaty (Maastricht) that extended its legal purview to culture for the first time, setting up the dramatic confrontation over the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) in 1993. Pushed by France, the EU fought the United States over the idea that countries should preserve their right to regulate cultural activity as they saw fit. France and Canada then initiated a campaign to protect cultural diversity within UNESCO that led to the passage of the Convention on Cultural Diversity in 2005. As France pursued these efforts to protect cultural diversity beyond its borders, it also articulated "a certain idea of cinema" that did not simply defend a narrow vision of national cinema. France promoted both commercial cinema and art cinema, disproving announcements of the death of cinema.
