Author: Rebecca Gebauer

“Continue” by Maya Angelou

Last week, a number of my friends on social media shared Maya Angelou’s poem “Continue” to mark the start of a new year. Originally written as a birthday gift for Oprah Winfrey, the poem seemed especially powerful in the face of violence once more erupting in the Middle East, fires ravaging vast parts of Australia, politics generally having gone berserk and, here in the UK, all of this being incredibly easy overshadowed by a so called “royal crisis”. It would be easy to turn bitter in these times but the poem shows us how not to.

Reflections on studying and experiencing the Israel-Palestine Conflict

Imagine you intensely study a conflict region and its narratives for a whole year and then you travel to see the situation on ground for yourself. You think that you are well prepared and that you understand why the conflict is what it is. Power imbalances. Corrupt politicians. Contested truths and histories. Legacies from colonial times. Greedy elites. Education systems based on ideologies rather than facts. If not like an expert, you at least feel like a well-educated observer. A student diplomat who knows what she is doing. This is how I imagined myself when I applied for the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI) and pretty much throughout the program up until the point where I landed in Amman. I had this glorious image of OTI and myself only to discover that OTI indeed is an incredible program, however, personally I felt much humbled over the course of the trip through Israel and Palestine.

Democracy Matters – but does it work?

  This week, I had the chance to host two workshops as part of a Scottish Government consultation on local decision making. The project is called “Democracy Matters” and partially facilitated with help of the Scottish Churches Parliamentary office which seems sensible considering that the church has a presence even in the farthest corners of … Continue reading Democracy Matters – but does it work? →

Which theories of democratisation best explain why democracy failed in the Weimar Republic?

It appears to be impossible to identify a singular approach or theory to fully explain the failure of the Weimar republic or any other case of democratization. As argued above, the theories on democratisation are manifold and all have their merits, therefore, the best theories for one particular case can only be identified by looking at the defining features of that case. The dominance of historical disadvantages and societal struggles in the Weimar republic suggest a historical sociological approach, and though naturally Huntington’s and Moore’s theories cannot fully explain its failure, they do well in putting Weimar into context and to deepen our understanding of it.       

Is it possible for nationalism to avoid being based on either race or ethnicity?

It seems, on the surface at least, that for the most part nationalism has a strong focus on exclusion based on ethnicity or race by very often aiming to protect the nation from foreigners, with foreigners being mostly identified by the different biological appearance (race) or their different customs (ethnicity). However, this essay shows that neither ethnicity or race are the driving force behind nationalism but that nationalism and ethnicity are vulnerable to political exploitation and therefore often appear to go hand in hand.

‘Theory is always for someone, and for some purpose’ Robert W. Cox

It appears to be impossible to identify a singular approach or theory to fully explain the failure of the Weimar republic or any other case of democratization. As argued above, the theories on democratisation are manifold and all have their merits, therefore, the best theories for one particular case can only be identified by looking at the defining features of that case. The dominance of historical disadvantages and societal struggles in the Weimar republic suggest a historical sociological approach, and though naturally Huntington’s and Moore’s theories cannot fully explain its failure, they do well in putting Weimar into context and to deepen our understanding of it.