OLYMPIC CHINA

Jean-Philippe Béja
A modern China for model Olympics? When a dream all but fades away.
To the Chinese Communist Party, the Olympic Games come as an opportunity to wake up the patriotic streak among the populace while highlighting the country's global success. As the Party looks set on a winning gamble, it cannot help showing its authoritarian control of civil liberties when faced with political opposition, to the risk of tainting China's image as a prosperous, responsible nation.

China must stand as a model in Olympic history.
An interview with Wei Hanfeng
In this column, which has been published in China, the author shows that the overall meaning of the Games has come under discussion in the Chinese press, with some overcoming the ambient sentiment of pride and recognising the indirect benefits competitive sport can have for the powers that be.

Françoise Robin
Development for whose benefit? Chinese policies in Tibetan areas, 1908-2008.
Tibet's Spring 2008 anti-Chinese protests must be seen in the wider perspective of the past decade, which consisted of a mix of economic development, demographic growth and urbanization. Both the nomadic lifestyle and religion are the consistent targets of policies that only aim at transforming Tibetan lifestyle.

GLOBAL ISSUES: NOW IS IT "NO DEMOCRATS, PLEASE"?

Pierre Rosanvallon
Democracy's shifting focus.
Today, all the international community seems to be content with by way of democratic credentials is for a country to hold elections on a regular basis; but this is ignoring that in the Western tradition, it took more than polls to affirm democratic legitimacy. Abidance of the law by administrative institutions and their development under the rational and disinterested form of the "civil service" are another aspect. And still democratic legitimacy is undergoing some further transformations, what with demands for proximity and impartiality.

When crises percolate into each other: Security, legitimacy and influence.
An interview with Pierre Hassner
Since 2003, the gap has kept widening between the West and the rest of the world. The rise of new powers, the threat environmental risk poses on our lifestyles and the West's inability to maintain peace and stability on its own are factors whose negative effects percolate into each other.

Pauline Peretz and Manuel Lafont Rapnouil
When democracies come together: A semblance of multilateralism, but no legitimacy?
Is the UN failing because democratic countries have to make do with all the authoritarian governments in the rest of the world? Should we not act accordingly and set up a new-fangled global union for democracies only? The idea is developing in the United States despite its many, unsuspected faults.

Marie Mendras and Jean-Charles Lallemand
Putin Mk III: How Russia had to vote for Medvedev in order to keep Putin.
Russia's 2008 presidential election failed to elicit strong criticism. And wrongly so, as it reflected a step back for the State of law and democratic principles in Russia while reinforcing the incumbent oligarchy's stronghold over power.

Raúl Pérez Barbosa
When political power weakens in Mexico.
Economic woes and poor management by public administrations have eroded people's confidence in Mexican institutions. Faced with strengthening drug cartels which manage to corrupt even the country's main national services, Mexico is challenged by the need to maintain public order, which could be an opportunity to re-assert political authority.

Violence in the Near-East and its future.
An interview with Hamit Bozarslan
Since the mid-twentieth century, the Near-East has experienced several successive bouts of violence. This type of perspective sheds light on ongoing changes in the region's power games as well as the specific nature of the relationships between Government and society, which must be viewed against a background of evolving violence, the dissemination of which is worrying.

Alain Bockel and Ariane Bonzon
Turkey's stability at risk.
Recent court proceedings nearly led to a ban on Turkey's ruling AKP party and the demotion of both the prime minister and the president. How did we get there? Is the founding chasm of the Turkish nation reviving? And what would happen to the country's cultural identity, if some new trial of strength (judicial or otherwise) negated the majority in the polls?

Georges-Marie Chenu
Kosovo in a persistent state of flux.
Kosovo's declaration of independence has been gaining more recognition since February 2008. However, the difficult nature of this process shows that many countries are less than prepared to affirm the sovereignty of a new State that carries more than its fair share of ambiguities.

FEATURE ARTICLES

Thomas Pierret
Islamic diplomacy.
In October 2007, or one year after Pope Benedict XVI's landmark Regensburg address, 138 Islamic clerics called on the heads of Christianity to evolve "a common Word between you and us." Beyond this welcome though conventional call to dialogue, who are the clerics behind this collective voice? The list reads as a survey of the various types of outlooks and perspectives in today's global Islam.

Robert Castel
Social ownership: How a notion rose, evolved and came under challenge.
A late nineteenth century invention, social ownership provides every citizen access to a particular type of resource, namely, a right of access to collective goods and services with a social purpose, rather than direct ownership of some private property. Today, what used to act as a protection for individuals has become weaker , reflecting the challenges protective regimes are coming up against.

Élise Domenach
A Christmas Tale: Movie-maker Arnaud Desplechin's new Arcadia.
Family links exposed over the course of closed-doors Christmas celebrations: this pattern, nearly a cinematic genre in its own right, gives every character an opportunity to come face to face with their own freedom, beyond bereavement and doubt, and to end up being "reborn to themselves" as per Emerson's "perfectionism" that is a major inspiration to Desplechin.

Why do movies do matter?
A debate between Stanley Cavell and Arnaud Desplechin
In this conversation, the American philosopher and the French film director share in their passion for film as well as for an analytical style that does not mistake films for any visual enactment of some predetermined abstract thought. Quite the reverse: to them, films can tell us things about ourselves which neither philosophy nor any other art can get us to understand, i.e., how do we manage to believe in this world?

Published 2008-08-19

Original in French
© Esprit