Digital Commons Network^™

Political Competition And Local Social Spending: Evidence From Brazil, Carew Boulding, David Brown

David C. Brown

Electoral theories of democracy imply electoral competition insures accountability. Using data on local elections, socioeconomic factors, and municipal budgets from more than 5,000 municipalities in Brazil for the years 1996, 2000, and 2004, we find that municipalities with more competitive elections allocate less to social spending compared to municipalities with little political competition. We argue that previous theory on political competition and public goods obscures the critical role that financial resources play in shaping the dynamics of social spending and political competition. Municipalities with small budgets lack the resources necessary to engineer convincing electoral victories. Where resources are negligible, voter …

Toward A Radical Integral Humanism: Macintyre’S Continuing Marxism, Jeffery Nicholas

Jeffery Nicholas

I argue that we must read Alasdair MacIntyre’s mature work through a Marxist lens. I begin by discussing his argument that we must choose which God to worship on principles of justice, which, it turns out, are ones given to us by God. I contend that this argument entails that we must see Mac- Intyre’s early Marxist commitments as given to him by God, and, therefore, that he has never abandoned them in his turn to Thomistic-Aristotelianism. I examine his reading of Marx, with its emphasis on the concept of alienation as a Christian concept, and explain how this reading …

Why You Should Care About The Threatened Middle Class, Jill Littrell, Fred Brooks, Jan Ivery, Mary Ohmer

jill l littrell Dr.

In the last two decades, the income and security of the individual middle class worker has declined and the gap between the middle class and the wealthy has widened. We explain how this is bad for democracy, the economy, and the aggregate health of the nation. We examine the governmental policies and interventions that increased the middle class following the depression and maintained its vigor through the post-World War II period. The impetus for these changes in governmental policies in the 1930s was to end the Great Depression. We pose the question of whether a nation can recover from a …

Does Our Values Become Worsen? — A Study Of The Effects Of Fiscal Policies On Households’ Lives In Sudan, Yagoub Elryah

Yagoub Elryah (PhD)

As a result of the secession of South Sudan, Sudan has experienced the largest increases in the budget deficit, shortages of hard currencies, highest inflation rates, and debt accumulation. In this paper, we attempt to extend and contribute to prior research on the impacts of fiscal policies on households’ life in Sudan. An online data from 1999 until 2013 were used to examine the effects of fiscal policy on households’ life in Sudan. To do this, the OLS and VECM estimation procedures were considered. Our results supported hypotheses that the households’ life has become more worsen than the situation pre-secession …

Transdisciplinary Conflict Of Laws Foreword: Cavers's Double Legacy, Karen Knop, Ralf Michaels, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

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A New Agenda For The Cultural Study Of Law: Taking On The Technicalities, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

This article urges humanistic legal studies to take the technical dimensions of law as a central focus of inquiry. Using archival and ethnographic investigations into developments in American Conflict of Laws doctrines as an example, and building on insights in the anthropology of knowledge and in science and technology studies that focus on technical practices in scientific and engineering domains, it aims to show that the technologies of law - an ideology that law is a tool and an accompanying technical aesthetic of legal knowledge - are far more central and far more interesting dimensions of legal practice than humanists …

Real Time: Unwinding Technocratic And Anthropological Knowledge, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

“The Bank of Japan is our mother,” bankers in Tokyo sometimes said of Japan's central bank. Drawing on this metaphor as an ethnographic resource, and on the example of central bankers who sought to unwind their own technocratic knowledge by replacing it with a real-time machine, I retrace the ethnographic task of unwinding technocratic knowledge from those anthropological knowledge practices that critique technocracy. In so doing, I draw attention to special methodological problems—involving the relationship between ethnography, analysis, and reception—in the representation and critique of contemporary knowledge practices.

The New Bureaucracies Of Virtue: Introduction, Marie-Andree Jacob, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

No abstract provided.

Pax Arabica?: Provisional Sovereignty And Intervention In The Arab Uprisings, Asli Bâli, Aziz Rana

Aziz Rana

No abstract provided.

Responses To The Ten Questions, Aziz Rana

Aziz Rana

This essay responds to a question posed by the William Mitchell Law Review for its annual national security issue: Has Obama Improved Bush's National Security Policies? I maintain that Obama Administration practices have been marked by striking continuities with those of the previous Administration. I then attempt to explain these continuities by discussing how American policymakers across the political spectrum share basic assumptions about the concept of national security and the need for an aggressive and interventionist foreign policy.

American Overreach: Strategic Interests And Millennial Ambitions In The Middle East, Asli Bâli, Aziz Rana

Aziz Rana

This article argues that American actions in the Middle East designed to advance democracy and/or ‘moderation’ tend to yield perverse outcomes that frustrate the aspirations of local actors while undermining the values purportedly being promoted by the US. In order to explain these contradictions, we emphasise the linkage between policies of democracy promotion and long-standing American commitments both to millennialism and geographical omnipresence. As a result of these policies and geopolitical vision, we argue that ‘democracy promotion’ often devolves into a simple defence of American interest – by producing electoral outcomes intended to strengthen local agents seen as compliant with …

Settlers And Immigrants In The Formation Of American Law, Aziz Rana

Aziz Rana

This paper argues that the early American republic is best understood as a constitutional experiment in “settler empire,” and that related migration policies played a central role in shaping collective identity and structures of authority. Initial colonists, along with their 19th century descendants, viewed society as grounded in an ideal of freedom that emphasized continuous popular mobilization and direct economic and political decision-making. However, many settlers believed that this ideal required Indian dispossession and the coercive use of dependent groups, most prominently slaves, in order to ensure that they themselves had access to property and did not have to engage …

Barack Obama, Implicit Bias, And The 2008 Election, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Gregory S. Parks

Jeffrey J Rachlinski

The election of Barack Obama as the forty-fourth president of the United States suggests that the United States has made great strides with regard to race. The blogs and the pundits may laud Obama’s win as evidence that we now live in a “post-racial America.” But is it accurate to suggest that race no longer significantly influences how Americans evaluate each other? Does Obama’s victory suggest that affirmative action and antidiscrimination protections are no longer necessary? We think not. Ironically, rather than marking the dawn of a post-racial America, Obama’s candidacy reveals how deeply race affects judgment.

Contienda Electoral Y Rendimiento Democrático En México 2012, De Héctor Zamitiz Gamboa (Coord.), Fernando Barrientos Del Monte

Fernando Barrientos Del Monte

Reseña del libro: "Contienda electoral y rendimiento democrático en México 2012", de Héctor Zamitiz Gamboa (coord.), México, Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales-UNAM, 2013, 298 pp.

Digital Prometheus: Wikileaks, The State-Network Dichotomy And The Antinomies Of Academic Reason, Athina Karatzogianni, Andy Robinson

Athina Karatzogianni

A Flag Is Flipped And A Nation Flaps: The Politics And Patriotism Of The First International World Series, Todd J. Wiebe

Todd J Wiebe

No abstract provided.

What Is Islamic Democracy? The Three Cs Of Islamic Governance, Muqtedar Khan

Muqtedar Khan

This book chapter explores the three Cs of Islamic Governance; Constitution, Consultation and Consent.

Exploring The Invocation Of Emotion In Presidential Speeches, Cengiz Erisen, José D. Villalobos

José D. Villalobos

Scholars have long explored why presidential rhetoric is important and how it matters for public leadership and policy-making. However, relatively few works have considered the role that emotion plays in leadership communication and no research has conducted a thorough examination of the various types of emotions invoked in presidential rhetoric, their frequency, or how they have shaped presidential discourse over time. In this study, presidential speeches across 13 administrations (1933–2011) are examined to provide a first assessment of the extent to which US presidents have invoked fear, anger, and hope across policy domains and key types of speeches.

Peace And Governance In Africa, Joseph Fashagba, Segun Oshewolo

Dr. Segun Oshewolo

While some are of the opinion that good governance thrives best in an atmosphere of peace, others overwhelmingly emphasise the natural peace-inducing potentials of good governance. From the latter brand of scholarship, good governance is a necessary requirement for sustainable peace. Unfortunately, the problems confronting Africa in this century are predominantly governance-related. African countries are poorly ranked on the global scale of governance indicators. The consequences of this include recurrent civil wars, genocides, and the proliferation of organised rebellions against the state. These have largely turned the continent into a region characterised by political instability. Thus, this paper examines the …

ظهور پيدايش قدرت هاى نهادی در دولت ایران وتأثير آن در مذاكرات با ايالات متحده, Ahmed Souaiaia

Ahmed E SOUAIAIA

O Poder Legislativo Municipal: Estrutura, Composição E Produção, Patrick Silva

Patrick Silva

Esta dissertação tem como motivação a pergunta: Como é o Poder Legislativo Municipal no Brasil? É comumente assumido que Câmaras municipais são menos importantes que o Poder Executivo para elaboração e produção de políticas nos municípios brasileiros. Argumento que este é um entendimento equivocado baseado em estudos conduzidos com poucas informações em que não existem evidências empíricas suficientes para sustentar isto. A fim de apresentar um novo e mais completo entendimento sobre as Câmaras Legislativas Municipais, analiso três tópicos. Primeiro, se as Câmaras são profissionalizadas e bem estruturadas. Segundo, o perfil sócio educacional e ocupacional dos candidatos e vereadores comparados …

Beyond Keeping Peace: United Nations Effectiveness In The Midst Of Fighting, Lisa Hultman, Jacob Kathman, Megan Shannon

Megan Shannon

No abstract provided.

Foreign Relations - Northeast Asia, Lukas K. Danner

Dr. Lukas K. Danner

No abstract provided.

Open Government Partnership En México Y Brasil: La Transparencia Como Responsabilidad Compartida, Juan Jaime Mesina

Juan Jaime Mesina

Citizen Confidence In The Public Service: An Examination Of Established And Emerging Democracies In North America And Eurasia, Nurgul Ryskulovna Aitalieva

Nurgul R. Aitalieva, Ph.D.

How do levels of confidence in the public service differ across countries? Are these attitudes about the public service determined by similar individual-level attributes across countries? Do country-level correlates explain variation between countries in citizen attitudes toward the public service? Data from the 2005-2009 World Values Survey for 21 North American and Eurasian countries, in addition to aggregate-level measures of national context, are analyzed using multilevel binary logistic regression. The study shows that there is a significant amount of variation in the confidence attitudes not only within each country but also across countries. Citizens of Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and Finland …

Cyber Resilience Is A National Problem, Jan Kallberg

Jan Kallberg

The biggest challenge for American cyber resilience right now is to disseminate knowledge within the nation. The federal sector, the financial institutions, and the defense complex are on top of the game to a high degree. The asymmetric way cyber conflicts are and will be fought exposes the whole government structure of a country. The sheer numbers entities that form local government are staggering – just as examples I mention that in the US there are 6,000 counties, 15,000 police departments, and 50,000 public utilities. My take is that to be able to strengthen American cyber resiliency local government needs …

Manifesto Para Uma República, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Embora os Manifestos não cheguem, podem servir para clarificar ideias. O presente procura identificar algumas coisas que faltam para haver uma verdadeira República: desde a convicção democrática genuína, a formação do Povo, mesmo em Finanças Públicas, independência e convicção nos órgãos que exprimem as opiniões, desde os "media" aos partidos, à urgência de haver uma elite amiga do Povo. Sim, uma elite, não uma oligarquia, ou uma liga de snobismos. Uma república faz-se, acima de tudo, com Pessoas, e com Pessoas com valor, com dedicação e com honestidade. São as virtudes republicanas que nos faltam.

Reluctance Or Power Hunger: Whom Do Voters Prefer? A Test Of The Wary Cooperator Theory And Evolutionary Political Behavior, Timothy Collins

Timothy Collins

Do voters prefer political candidates who express reluctance to seek office, or do voters prefer candidates who express great ambition and an implicit hunger for power? This study uses an experimental design to test overall support of reluctant or power-hungry candidates, and discusses which people would select which candidate and why. While limited by the survey design, the evidence suggests that there is no significant overall mean difference for overall support of either candidate. However, personality traits and the degree to which participants perceived certain descriptive attributes of the candidates both play a role in vote likelihood and candidate favorability …

Partisan Sorting In The United States, 1972-2012: New Evidence From A Dynamic Analysis, Corey Lang, Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz

Corey Lang

Whether Americans have “sorted” into politically like-minded counties and to what extent is hotly debated by academic and journalists. This paper examines whether or not geographic sorting has occurred and why it has occurred using a novel, dynamic analysis. Our findings indicate that geographic sorting is on the rise, but that it is a very recent phenomenon. In the 1970s and 1980s, counties tended to become more competitive, but by 1996 a pattern of partisan sorting had emerged and continued through the present. Results suggest this pattern is driven by Southern re-alignment and voting behavior in partisan stronghold counties. Lastly, …

Tale Of Two Afghanistans: Comparative Governance And Insurgency In The North And South, Neil A. Englehart

Neil A Englehart

Afghanistan is often depicted as a failing state, but its failures display distinctive patterns over time and space. Regional variations in governance have been important in shaping the ways the Afghan state has failed and the consequences of these failures. This article argues that a history of better governance in the north facilitated the disarmament of militia warlords and comparative stability. By contrast, the south has a long history of minimal formal governance, creating opportunities for increased Taliban insurgency.