2014 Cilt 7 Sayı 1
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Item Open Access The role of international organizations in the adoption of gender quotas: Afghanistan and Iraq as case studies(Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2014) Demirdöğen, ÜlküRecent literature has improved our understanding of quota adoption; we no longer focus only on domestic factors but also take into consideration the role of international organizations (both as IGOs and NGOs) when analyzing the causes and dynamics underlying the adoption of gender quotas. International norms and transnational sharing are important factors shaping national quota debates (Krook, 2006). It is remarkable that “the timing of quota proposals is clearly clustered around certain years” suggesting that gender quotas have been adopted following the recommendations issued by international organizations, namely the United Nations (Krook 2006, p.311). The gender policies by date of adoption and quota type globally [Table 1] demonstrate a pattern: after several decades of stagnation, the number of countries which have adopted quotas increased slightly over the course of the 1980s and then jumped dramatically during the 1990s and 2000s (Ibid). This sudden jump in the number of countries that have adopted gender quotas in the last several decades supports the observation that the origins of these shifts in gender policies can be located in international organizations’ decisions/documents aiming the improvement of women’s political representation. The most important of these documents are the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), adopted by the United Nations in 1979, and the Beijing Platform for Action (PfA), approved in 1995. CEDAW entered into force in 1981 and has ben ratified by 187 countries. Ratification of CEDAW, becoming signatories to various platforms of action and other regional conventions constitute a set of norms and rules related to gender equality. International organizations have an important role in shaping, defining and diffusing norms. The concern with international norms has developed most prominently in the field of international organization. Norms in the framework of regime theory are important in setting the expectations and, therefore, the behaviour of states (Young, 1989; Krasner, 1983). There is a significant literature on the role of international organizations in norm development (Finnemore & Sikkink, 1998; Goertz & Diehl, 1992). Apart from the United Nations, other international organizations have issued recommendations that involve gender equality and quotas for women, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Socialist International, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the African Union, and the Organization of American States among others, and have been influential in creating a gender equality regime. Gender quotas can be viewed as features of modern statehood since 1980s. The world polity theory of Meyer and colleagues state that “many features of the contemporary nation state derive from worldwide models constructed and propagated through global cultural and associational processes” (Meyer & Prügl, 1999). International organizations play a key role in spreading models for legitimate action or norms. The rapid increase in the number of countries which have adopted gender quotas in the 1990s and 2000s can be explained by their integration into the world polity by ratifying the 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and other recommendations promoting gender equality and gender quotas. Another indicator of a country’s world polity ties could be the increase in the number of women’s INGOs which provide organizational and informational resources for domestic activists since the 1980s.Item Open Access Understanding African relationships: The case of eritrean Ethiopian border dispute(Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2014) Uchehara, Kieran E.Boundary disputes are among the most explosive international flashpoints. They frequently correlate with militarised interstate disputes and are more likely to lead to high-intensity conflict compared to other forms of friction. The Eritrea-Ethiopia peace process remains stalled a decade after the arbitral award by the Boundary Commission and several years after awards by the Commission. To this end, I analyse primary and secondary sources and assesse why arbitration by the commissions did not produce the desired outcome. This paper examines the Eritrean-Ethiopian border dispute from 1998 to the present and explains the case while searching for solutions. In detail, the analysis first sheds light on the dispute as well as previous attempts at settlement. Second, a new theoretical approach is introduced in the form of conflict resolution theory. Finally, an analysis of the peace process in light of this theoretical tool is used to offer a prognosis of the future.Item Open Access The operational effectiveness of the European Ombudsman(Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2014) Oğuşgil, V. AtillaThe European Ombudsman, which constitutes one of the building blocks of the democratic governance structure of the European Union, was created with a view to protect fundamental rights and freedoms and ensure the settlement of good administration in the Union institutions and bodies. Established as an institution bearing the role of a mediator, the European Ombudsman has been expected to promote the relationship between the Union and its citizens. In case of any dispute between the citizens and the institutions and bodies of the Union, its primary concern is to resolve it. This paper investigates how effective the European Ombudsman operates in practice in dispute resolution. The operational effectiveness of the institution in question will be evaluated in the light of data included in thelast five-year annual reports of the institution. Based on the findings, this study will also seek an answer to the question how the European Ombudsman plays a role in achieving those aforesaid goals in the administrative domain of the UnionItem Open Access Qualitative study of Romanian managers’ identity(Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2014) Scârneci-Domnişoru, FlorentinaThe article presents the process of grounding a theory about Romanian managers’ identity. It shows the manner in which the stages of data collection, data analysis and sampling have been conceived and implemented. It also describes in detail the decisions taken in each of these stages (the choice of methods and techniques, their combining and so on), the procedures followed and the difficulties encountered. The research was done in 2008 having as subjects 20 Romanian managers; it aimed at identifying identity aspects which are typical to managers. The article is based on the idea that describing the way in which the findings were reached is as important as expressing the conclusions themselves. It shows that qualitative research is suitable in understanding managerial aspects.Item Open Access Interrogating corruption: Lessons from South Africa(Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2014) Mantzaris, Evangelos; Tsekeris, Charalambos; Tsekeris, TheodoreGovernment, the private sector, and society at large need to appreciate the war on an insidious and cancerous phenomenon that requires concerted, strategic and comprehensive arrangements and initiatives to be implemented if we are to actually arrest and then reverse its current proliferation: Corruption. This cannot occur if government and society do not move beyond the various one and two dimensional approaches that are advocated by various anti-corruption proponents. Hence, a sociological dissection of corruption needs to establish the reasons that lead to an environment becoming characterised by loss of ethical standards, the compelling need for individuals to satisfy their own personal financial and material interests, the opportunities to do so, and the absence of sufficient deterrents not to do so. These processes are instrumental in raising the levels of corrupt behaviour to a point where a broad culture of corruption develops, or to the severe detriment of an entire country. A sociological analysis of corruption will be instrumental in showing how corruption can reach proportions that have a significantly negative bearing on a country’s wellbeing, in terms of its impact on the national economy and development prospects, the political institutions and the public administration. The paper illustrates that without the utilisation of sociological imagination and its well researched empirical manifestations, the efforts to eliminate corruption are in danger of been in vain. The case of South Africa will provide the empirical dimension of the phenomenon in question.