In this book, Professor Robert Jackson develops an original interpretation of Third World underdevelopment, explaining it in terms of international relations and law. He describes Third World countries as â€~quasi-states', arguing that they are states in name only, demonstrating how international changes during the post-1945 period made it possible for many quasi-states to be created and to survive despite the fact that they are usually inefficient, illegitimate and domestically unstable.
Despite ongoing instability and underdevelopment in post-Saddam Iraq, some parts of the country have realized relative security and growth. The Kurdish north, once an isolated outpost for the Iraqi army and local militia, has become an internationally recognized autonomous region. In The Kurdish Quasi-State, Natali explains the nature of this transformation and how it has influenced the relationship between the Kurdistan region and Iraq’s central government. This much-needed scholarship focuses on foreign aid as helping to create and sustain the Kurdish quasi-state. It argues that the generous nature of external assistance to the Kurdistan region over time has given it new forms of legitimacy and leverage in the country. Since 2003 the Kurdistan region has gained representation in the central government and developed commercial, investment, and political ties with regional states and foreign governments. Drawing on extensive field research, Natali explores how this transition has had positive and unintended consequences on Kurdish—state relations. Greater complexity in the regional political economy has demanded new forms of compromise with the central government. The Kurdistan region may have become a distinct political entity that challenges Baghdad; however, the benefits of aid and logic of quasi-statehood ensure that it will remain part of Iraq. Acutely familiar with the nuances of Kurdish politics, society, and culture, Natali has produced a timely and immensely important book for policy makers, scholars, and practitioners interested in the region.
In this book, Tonino Griffero introduces and analyzes an ontological category he terms "quasi-things." These do not exist fully in the traditional sense as substances or events, yet they powerfully act on us and on our states of mind. He offers an original approach to the study of emotions, regarding them not as inner states of the subject, but as atmospheres, that is as powers poured out into the lived space we inhabit. Griffero first outlines the general and atmospheric characters of quasi-things, and then considers examples such as pain, shame, the gaze, and twilight—which he argues is responsible for penetrating and suggestive moods precisely because of its vagueness. With frequent examples from literature and everyday life, Quasi-Things provides an accessible aesthetic and phenomenological account of feelings based on the paradigm of atmospheres.
Sovereigns, Quasi Sovereigns, and Africans was first published in 1996. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. In this trenchant critique, Siba N'Zatioula Grovogui demonstrates the failure of international law to address adequately the issues surrounding African self-determination during decolonization. Challenging the view that the only requirement for decolonization is the elimination of the legal instruments that provided for direct foreign rule, Sovereigns, Quasi Sovereigns, and Africans probes the universal claims of international law. Grovogui begins by documenting the creation of the "image of Africa" in European popular culture, examining its construction by conquerors and explorers, scientists and social scientists, and the Catholic Church. Using the case of Namibia to illuminate the general context of Africa, he demonstrates that the principles and rules recognized in international law today are not universal, but instead reflect relations of power and the historical dominance of specific European states. Grovogui argues that two important factors have undermined the universal applicability of international law: its dependence on Western culture and the way that international law has been structured to preserve Western hegemony in the international order. This dependence on Europeandominated models and legal apparatus has resulted in the paradox that only rights sanctioned by the former colonial powers have been accorded to the colonized, regardless of the latter's needs. In the case of Namibia, Grovogui focuses on the discursive strategies used by the West and their southern African allies to control the legal debate, as well as the tactics used by the colonized to recast the terms of the discussion. Grovogui blends critical legal theory, historical research, political economy, and cultural studies with profound knowledge of contemporary Africa in general and Namibia in particular. Sovereigns, Quasi Sovereigns, and Africans represents the very best of the new scholarship, moving beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries to illuminate issues of decolonization in Africa. Siba N'Zatioula Grovogui is assistant professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University. He previously practiced law in his native Guinea.
State sovereignty is an inherently social construct. The modern state system is not based on some timeless principle of sovereignty, but on the production of a normative conception that links authority, territory, population, and recognition in a unique way, and in a particular place (the state). The unique contribution of this book is to describe and illustrate the practices that have produced various sovereign ideals and resistances to them. The contributors analyze how the components of state sovereignty are socially constructed and combined in specific historical contexts.
Americans are increasingly ruled by an unwritten constitution consisting of executive orders, signing statements, and other forms of quasi-law that lack the predictability and consistency essential for the legal system to function properly. As a result, the U.S. Constitution no longer means what it says to the people it is supposed to govern, and the government no longer acts according to the rule of law. These developments can be traced back to a change in “constitutional morality,” Bruce Frohnen and George Carey argue in this challenging book. The principle of separation of powers among co-equal branches of government formed the cornerstone of America’s original constitutional morality. But toward the end of the nineteenth century, Progressives began to attack this bedrock principle, believing that it impeded government from “doing the people’s business.” The regime of mixed powers, delegation, and expansive legal interpretation they instituted rejected the ideals of limited government that had given birth to the Constitution. Instead, Progressives promoted a governmental model rooted in French revolutionary claims. They replaced a Constitution designed to mediate among society’s different geographic and socioeconomic groups with a body of quasi-laws commanding the democratic reformation of society. Pursuit of this Progressive vision has become ingrained in American legal and political culture—at the cost, according to Frohnen and Carey, of the constitutional safeguards that preserve the rule of law.
Friends sometimes have problems with one another, the reasons are myriad, because after all, they are human beings and therefore subject to all of humanities foibles, and since that is the case, if two people can have a disagreement, so can two nations. This book relates the situation between two of these countries, the United States and France. Twenty years before these problems became the war, both nations were engaged in a conflict against Great Britain. The American colonies were attempting to gain their independence and France was again continuing its battle against England that had begun with their invasion of Normandy in 1202. France, in an effort to assist another entity that was also fighting the English, entered into an agreement with the American colonies, which resulted in its supplying the colonies with the men and materials that were desperately needed to prosecute a war that most historians agreed would not have been won without this assistance. While the assistance was invaluable, the American colonies, now the United States, began trading with its benefactor which the French expected because of this assistance. Unfortunately, the exchange of goods was not only not beneficial to the United States, but worse, caused a continuation of American trade with Great Britain along with the signing of Jay's treaty which infuriated the French leading it into problems with the United States. This situation led to what has been called the Quasi-War, an odd conflict that was undeclared and fought entirely at sea between two nations, neither of whom wanted it.
As its name suggests, a quasi-judicial decision is like a court decision in several important ways. It requires the deciding board to use its judgment in applying general law to a particular land use situation while ensuring the constitutional due process rights of the parties. This handbook is designed as a guide for boards making development regulation decisions through the quasi-judicial process. The discussion covers the process prior to, during, and after the evidentiary hearing as well as the decision itself. Other topics include the board of adjustment, variances, special use permits, certificates of appropriateness, appeals of zoning determinations, and judicial review. A package of 5 books is available for a discounted price for those looking to purchase copies for their entire board.
This book examines the interstices among statutory enactment, constitutional convention and formal constitution in which quasi-constitutionality exists. It provides a focal resource that can serve as a point of reference for scholars interested in quasi-constitutionality as a whole, from national and transnational perspectives, expanding on its many forms, functions, and applications with recourse to comparative insights. The book is divided in three main Parts, each of them preceded by a separate critical introduction in which an informed scholar contextualizes the chapters and offers reflections on the themes they develop. The first Part, titled 'Forms', is composed of chapters that address, from a theoretical and comparative perspective, questions related to the recognition of constitutional statutes and quasi-constitutional legislation. The second Part is titled 'Functions', and contains chapters that explore the explanatory power of quasi-constitutionality in different institutional contexts. The third Part, titled 'Applications', considers the ways in which constitutional statutes and quasi-constitutionality operate in relation to particular tensions and debates present in various jurisdictions.
