This chapter provides an overview of the debates over causes of international organisation (IO) change in relation to constructivist and rationalist accounts. It argues that a constructivist account establishes a more comprehensive and dynamic analysis of IO and World Bank Group (WBG) change by examining how international norms shape IOs through interactions between IOs, states and non-state actors. This chapter also outlines the concept of transnational environmental advocacy networks (TEANs) and discusses the key concepts of socialisation and avenues of socialisation.

This book examines the spread of nuclear weapons and how to curb it. It discusses the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), the chief global political instrument operating to restrain the spread of nuclear weapons, in the context of the uptake of nuclear energy for commercial reasons. It also considers international relations theory, with special reference to rational choice approaches; the inspection procedures adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency; regional nuclear-free zones; the NPT in the context of the United States' non-proliferation policy, and vice versa.

This chapter examines the impact of direct rule on the parliamentary procedures at Westminster. It suggests that one of the main features of direct rule was the transfer of the functions of the devolved Stormont Parliament to the Westminster Parliament. It describes the special legislative process adopted for transferred legislation, the establishment of specialist Northern Ireland committees, the work imposed on other parliamentary committees and the impact on Northern Ireland business of reform and innovations in parliamentary procedures. This chapter also discusses British statutory instruments on reserved/excepted matters and the provisions of British legislation which covers Northern Ireland.

The chapter explores a virtual community as a history of a particular kind of space, one that is made of words and to a far lesser extent images, but that is more fundamentally to be understood as carved out of code. The opening section draws on Lefebvre to explore virtual space as a social production. It then turns to the Internet itself, reading its history, and within that the history of virtual community, as the history of space. It is argued that virtual community is synecdochal for the early Internet and its values, and that these values continue to attach to virtual communities even while discrete productions of community increasingly fail to instantiate them. The third section focuses on the spatial production of GeoCities, which is also understood in narrative terms. It draws out what the sense of virtual community operational in GeoCities takes from earlier models and how the phrase itself might operate as an ideologeme. This may demonstrate the degree to which processes of contradictory integration mean that ‘virtual community’ has been at once valorized and remade. If the new commercial model of GeoCities is operationalized partly through its appeal to ‘virtual community’, read as a guarantor of the persistence of human communion within an increasingly automated world, this also tends to mask the underlying logic of the Cities, which concerns the production of narrative space as a commodity.

The profile of better regulation varies across the Member States of the EU. The emphasis on different principles and tools is not the same in all EU countries. This chapter draws on the results of the questionnaire sent to the directors of better regulation policy in May 2004. The main purpose of the discussion of the questionnaire results is to ascertain whether the Member States are converging in terms of the definition of better regulation principles, use of tools, and measures. It tries to map out the specific details of better regulation policies and what progress has been made in terms of measures.

This chapter examines the theoretical basis for the application of the triform model — identity, borders, and governance — to the nation-state and the European Union (EU). It considers theories of nationalism and European integration and sets out a constructivist/modernist conception of official nationalism and nation-statehood, which traditionally frames a political system in a triform model of ‘nation’, ‘territory’ and ‘state’. It also discusses the significance of national governmental elites and their official discourse in the process of European integration. Moreover, it shows how the identity, borders, and governance of the EU may be broadly conceptualised as ‘community’, ‘space’ and ‘polity’. Finally, the chapter outlines a symbiotic theory of the relationship between the EU and nation-statehood. The use of the term ‘symbiosis’ captures the image of the nation-state and the EU as two different entities living in close association to their mutual benefit.

This chapter focuses on novel means of political engagement that have emerged in recent years, including teledemocracy and the internet, deliberative democracy, political parties' use of designer politics, and political marketing. It argues that the increased use of political consultants can in some cases strengthen democratic legitimacy by ensuring that citizens' preferences are acknowledged in policies.

This chapter considers the development of George W. Bush's thinking, the ways in which it has been shaped by the need to capture the votes of those with moderate attitudes and the electoral strategies that flow from this. It suggests that, while faith undoubtedly played a role in moulding Bush's public image, the character of his electoral strategy, the nature of the domestic policy initiatives pursued by the administration and the president's approach to moral and cultural issues were shaped by other processes. In particular, ‘W-ism’ was informed and structured by events and developments during the latter half of the 1990s. It was based on close reading of public opinion, particularly of those groupings and constituencies that were pivotal to election victory.

How can people in Northern Ireland come to ‘know the past’, after thirty-eight years of violent conflict? This chapter addresses this issue via an in-depth discussion of a unique and original model for truth recovery that is based on the communicative rationality theory of Jurgen Habermas. The Habermasian model that is outlined in this chapter suggests that the measurement of citizens' competing accounts of the past against one another is a potentially productive and stable method of attempting to uncover the ‘truth’. It provides a mechanism by which victims, and wider society, can attempt to discern the veracity of accounts of the past, and ideally agree upon a consensually negotiated history that contributes towards long-term democratic stability and genuine reconciliation.

This chapter examines Sinclair's first novel, White Chappell. It shows that this novel drew upon the events of the autumn of 1888, namely the ‘Whitechapel Murders’ of Jack the Ripper, and even some popular literary novels (A Study in Scarlet and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde). From there the discussion focuses on the concept of temporal co-presence and multi-presence, and looks at how Sinclair uses the metaphysic of topographic presence to emphasize the mythic constructions of his narrative. This chapter also considers the ‘haunted’ nature of books and the dissection and division of human bodies.

The nineteenth century was theologically fraught not just for Catholicism but for Christianity in general. As the Church struggled to face the challenges thrown up by modern science, Logue maintained a simple faith. This chapter explains the evolution and docility of the mind. The Catholic Church has not often been associated with scientific endeavour and engagement with modern thought. In Ireland and across the Catholic world, however, a passionate debate on science developed among the clergy. Certain priests embraced the discoveries of modern science and actively sought to reconcile their faith with evolution theory to defend the Church from accusations of medievalism. Ireland lagged behind in terms of the debate on science in the wider Catholic world. Compared with England, conditions in Ireland were not conducive to a wide-ranging debate. By the 1860s half of the British population lived in cities, there was an affluent middle class and a printed media with large circulations fed a general hunger for scientific debate.

This chapter concludes the book with a discussion of future the prospects for democracy. It sums up the argument, makes recommendations for future studies, and offers suggestions for new forms of participation. Contrary to the often negative assessment of the state of citizen engagement, this chapter contends that if citizen politics is to thrive, a broadening of the political system itself is required to allow for different forms of democratic participation.