Cet article aborde le phénomène des défections dans les partis politiques grâce à une étude du cas des députés québécois. Les entrevues avec les anciens parlementaires et une analyse des discours médiatiques à propos de leur départ documentent les motivations à quitter ou à rejoindre un autre parti. Cette recherche propose deux typologies novatrices : la première identifie les types de défections et la seconde explore les motivations à quitter. Les analyses montrent que les députés québécois partent surtout en raison de conflits liés aux valeurs et aux politiques, mais très peu pour le prestige. En ouvrant un dialogue avec les travaux d'Hirshman, l'article illustre aussi le rôle de la prise de parole et de l’écoute dans la décision pour un député de quitter un parti ou de rester dans celui-ci.

This article explores the issue of whether individuals who join enemy forces during international armed conflicts are entitled to prisoner of war status upon capture. It presents the long-running debate on the topic through a study of divided scholarly opinions and judicial decisions. An original analysis of the competing theories is conducted on the basis of available state practice, treaty interpretation methodology, and novel critical arguments and proposals. The article seeks to challenge the value attributed to mainstream academic opinions and judicial precedents and open the debate in an area of international humanitarian law that is still under development.

Defection from North Korea to South Korea has increased dramatically, but little is known of its political consequences. Do North Korean defectors successfully adopt democratic norms, and if so, what factors aid this process? Through a novel survey of defectors, I find that national identification plays a significant role in motivating their fledgling sense of democratic obligation. Greater feelings of national unity with South Koreans lead to a stronger duty to vote and otherwise contribute to the democratic state. This effect is more powerful than that of conventional contractual factors, on which most state resettlement policies are based, and is surprising given that defectors’ nationalist socialization mostly took place under the authoritarian North. The findings suggest the need to reconsider integration approaches toward North Korean defectors and similarly placed refugees elsewhere.

This article deals with the problems of North Korean defectors currently living in South Korea. In the past, most such defectors came from privileged groups in the North Korean population, and their adjustment to the new environment did not pose a significant problem. However, from the mid-1990s, defectors began to come from the far less privileged groups. They experience serious problems related to jobs, education, crime, and social adjustment. Recent years have seen a dramatic but not always openly stated change in the official South Korean attitude toward defectors: from a policy explicitly aimed at encouraging defection, Seoul has moved to the policy of quietly discouraging it. There are fears that encouraging defection will undermine the policy of peaceful engagement with the North. There is also the perception that refugees are outsiders, not quite adjustable to the conditions of South Korean society and thus a social and budgetary burden.