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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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.

Safeguarding German-American Relations In The New Century: Understanding And Accepting Mutual Differences, Herman Kurthen, Antonio Menéndez Alarcón, Stefan Immerfall

Antonio V. Menéndez Alarcón

Looks at the state of affair of the German-American relationship, the causes and sources of existing discontent, and opportunities for safeguarding the transatlantic relations. This book analyzes domestic and foreign policies, political cultures, and compare trends in business relations, migration, culture, education, journalism, law and religion. - WorldCat

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.

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 …

Securitization And De-Securitization In The Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands Territorial Dispute, Lukas K. Danner

Dr. Lukas K. Danner

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, …

Trends In Fdi, Home Country Measures And Competitive Neutrality, Karl P. Sauvant, Persephone Economou, Ksenia Gal, Shawn Lim, Witold P. Wilinski

Karl P. Sauvant

This chapter focusses on measures that home countries have in place to facilitate and encourage outward FDI, the conditions under which these are available and implications for competitive neutrality.

Antigone And Democratic Theory, Andrés Fabián Henao Castro

Andrés Fabián Henao-Castro

No abstract provided.

Postmodern Antigones, Andrés Fabián Henao Castro

Andrés Fabián Henao-Castro

No abstract provided.

Malaysian Political Essay Collection, Chuen-Tat Kang

Kang Chuen Tat (江俊达)

The project is about freelance commentary on various politics in Malaysian society. The book allows collection of various articles related to governmental administration in the contemporary Malaysian society in the beginning of twenty first century.

The Threat Of Terrorism And The Changing Public Discourse On Immigration After September 11, Joshua Woods, C. Damien Arthur

C. Damien Arthur

This article uses articles from the opinion-leading press to investigate how the news media's repertoire of negative portrayals changed after the September 11 terrorist attacks. It is based on a systematic random sample of 360 articles from two, opinion-leading newspapers---one known for its liberal slant (New York Times) and one known for its conservative slant (Wall Street Journal). The sample is drawn from a large population of articles published over a six-year period (1998-2004). The findings show that the percentage of negative frames involving not only terrorism but also other non-terrorist threats increased significantly after September 11. The elevated frequency …

Stato Moderno E Pubblico Ministero. Il Modello Brasiliano, Eduardo Meira Zauli Dr.

Eduardo Meira Zauli

No abstract provided.

Public Management In Political Institutions: Explaining Perceptions Of White House Chief Of Staff Influence, José Villalobos, Justin Vaughn, David Cohen

José D. Villalobos

The notion that public managers influence organizational performance is common in public administration research. However, less is known about why some managers are better at influencing organizational performance than others. Furthermore, relatively few studies have systematically examined managerial influence and scholars have yet to investigate either quantitatively or systematically managerial influence in the White House. Utilizing original survey data collected from former White House officials who served in the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton administrations, this study applies empirical public management theory to examine for the first time the key determinants that shape perceptions of chief of staff managerial …

"The Bigger The Cake?": Puzzling Over Equality 20 Years Into Post-Apartheid South Africa, Jeremy P. Cronin

jeremy p cronin

No abstract provided.

“China’S 1989 Choice: The Paradox Of Seeking Wealth And Democracy,” (With Joseph O'Mahoney)., Zheng Wang

Zheng Wang

No abstract provided.

The Problem Of Sovereignty, International Law, And Intellectual Conscience, Richard L. Lara

Richard Louis Lara

The concept of sovereignty is a recurring and controversial theme in international law, and it has a long history in western philosophy. The traditionally favored concept of sovereignty proves problematic in the context of international law. International law’s own claims to sovereignty, which are premised on traditional concept of sovereignty, undermine individual nations’ claims to sovereignty. These problems are attributable to deep-seated flaws in the traditional concept of sovereignty. A viable alternative concept of sovereignty can be derived from key concepts in Friedrich Nietzsche’s views on human reason and epistemology. The essay begins by considering the problem of sovereignty from …

Review Of "Rethinking Asia’S Economic Miracle: The Political Economy Of War, Prosperity And Crisis", Su-Mei Ooi

Su-Mei Ooi

The article reviews the book Rethinking Asia’s Economic Miracle: The Political Economy of War, Prosperity and Crisis by Richard Stubbs.

Review Of "Is Taiwan Chinese? The Impact Of Culture, Power, And Migration On Changing Identities", Su-Mei Ooi

Su-Mei Ooi

The article reviews the book Is Taiwan Chinese? The Impact of Culture, Power, and Migration on Changing Identities by Melissa J. Brown.

Review Of The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: The Decline Of Presidential Rhetoric From George Washington To George W. Bush, Steven Goldzwig

Steven Goldzwig

No abstract provided.

The Possibilities And Pitfalls Of Global Digital Humanities, Roopika Risam

Roopika Risam

U.S. Human Rights Activism And Plan Colombia, Winifred L. Tate

Winifred L. Tate

Non-governmental organizations claim to play a central role in defining U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the field of human rights. Here, I will examine the role of human rights and humanitarian groups in the debates over U.S. foreign policy towards Colombia, focusing on the design and subsequent additional appropriations for Plan Colombia, a multi-billion dollar aid package beginning in 2000. I argue that NGOs were able to build on the legacy of prior human rights activism focusing on Latin America, but failed to achieve significant grassroots mobilization around this issue. I examine the structural issues limiting such mobilization, as well …