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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
America's Forgotten Constitutions: Defiant Visions Of Power And Community, Robert Tsai
America's Forgotten Constitutions: Defiant Visions Of Power And Community, Robert Tsai
Robert L Tsai
The U.S. Constitution opens by proclaiming the sovereignty of all citizens: "We the People." Robert Tsai's gripping history of alternative constitutions invites readers into the circle of those who have rejected this ringing assertion--the defiant groups that refused to accept the Constitution's definition of who "the people" are and how their authority should be exercised. America's Forgotten Constitutions is the story of America as told by dissenters: squatters, Native Americans, abolitionists, socialists, internationalists, and racial nationalists. Beginning in the nineteenth century, Tsai chronicles eight episodes in which discontented citizens took the extraordinary step of drafting a new constitution. He examines …
Change.Gov, La Loria Konata
Change.Gov, La Loria Konata
La Loria Konata
The Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics explores how the rise of social media is altering politics both in the United States and in key moments, movements, and places around the world. The essay, Change.gov, gives an overview of the website, detailing how it was used to transition the presidency to President-Elect Barack Obama.
Foreword, Sherry Penney
Foreword, Sherry Penney
Sherry Penney
The author of the foreword speaks about how this issue touches on the subjects of women's rights and how their struggle to break through the glass ceiling has given them more empowerment than ever. The article also speaks about the works within the issue and how each one talks about the struggle, the progress, and success of women in today's working and educational world.
Organised Labor And Health Reform, Laurence Weil
Organised Labor And Health Reform, Laurence Weil
Laurence Weil
By the summer of 1993, the AFL-CIO had endorsed in principle President-elect Bill Clinton's "managed competition" approach to comprehensive health reform, and committed itself to a multi-million dollar effort on behalf of the Administration's proposal. By February 1994, labor's promised commitment had grown to $10 million, although it had thus far spent only about $500 thousand (2,3). In the end the labor movement anted up between $5 and $10 million (about two-thirds in direct expenditures, the rest in in-kind contributions), an effort that proved wholly inadequate in the face of the mammoth sums of money and aggressive tactics deployed by …
Discourse And Argument In Instituting The Governance Of Social Law, Richard Weiner
Discourse And Argument In Instituting The Governance Of Social Law, Richard Weiner
Richard R Weiner
Social Rights were initially understood as the rights of a pluralism of instituted associations; and transformed to the rights of distributive justice associated with the politics of access to welfare state corporatism. More recently, they have been understood as the rights of multicultural difference; and now as the rights to complexity (Zolo), and rights to consideration of polycontextural effect vis-�- vis transnational corporations (Teubner). Social rights are no longer subject positions versus political bodies, but also against social institutions, in particular, vis-�-vis centers of economic power.
Traces Of The Stillborn? , Richard Weiner
Traces Of The Stillborn? , Richard Weiner
Richard R Weiner
The architect Daniel Libeskind has written a noted lecture, "Traces of the Unborn." We might add, "Traces of the Stillborn." There is a tendency in historical institutionalism (HI) to concentrate on the retrieval of traces of paths taken rather than (1) to consider the processes involved in the selection of paths; and (2) to reflect upon the conditions of institutional emergence and sedimentation of paths, whether taken or untaken. Contrary to the path-dependency obsessed historical institutionalism of a Paul Pierson, this paper stresses the significance of historical case studies of institutional emergence in the earlier 20th century and …
Les Forms Changeants Des Contrats Dans Une Societé Aux Résaux Transnationaux, Richard Weiner
Les Forms Changeants Des Contrats Dans Une Societé Aux Résaux Transnationaux, Richard Weiner
Richard R Weiner
Alors qu’au nouveau millénaire on soulignait les « règles de collision » au sein des gouvernances globale et corporative, les crises économiques qui émergeas en 2008, ont déplacé l’accent sur l’échec des pratiques régulatrices. Les crises actuelles mettent au défi non seulement l’hégémonie néo-libérale mais aussi le modèle étatique de coordination du New deal/grande société, étant donné que nous avons passé de la société des individus à la société des organisations. Nous vivons présentement, dans une société au réseau transnational de pratiques de gouvernances corporative et contractuelle. Cette société de réseaux ne peut désormais être clairement associée aux conceptions traditionnelles …
Ideas, Constructivism, And Complentarity In Insititutionalism, Richard Weiner
Ideas, Constructivism, And Complentarity In Insititutionalism, Richard Weiner
Richard R Weiner
Colin Crouch recently chided the proliferation of institutionalisms (e.g., historical, normative, ideational, discursive, constructivist) as a growing cottage industry more focused on creating intellectual fiefdoms than extending political theory. In this vein, we can assess the recent constructivist institutionalism developed by Colin Hay out of the ideational and discursive institutionalism efforts of himself, Mark Blyth,Vivian Schmidt, J.L. Campbell and Ove Pedersen. This constructivism reproduces all of the weaknesses of the sociology of knowledge without heeding the contributions of critical theory, poststructuralism, interpretivism (e.g., Mark Bevir), polycontexturality (e.g., Gunther Teubner) or recent economic theory. We are challenged to represent a polycontextural …
Assessment Governance, Richard Weiner, Karl Benziger
Assessment Governance, Richard Weiner, Karl Benziger
Richard R Weiner
There has emerged a web of exogenous forces emanating from national and regional accreditation associations, particularly a satellite professional association involved in teacher preparation called the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). The reality of this web contradicts the implicit idealist sentiment in John Ishiyama’s report on the “Assessment of Student Outcomes’ meetings at the 2004 TLC where he describes “assessment as a voluntarist/bootstrapping “bottom up” effort of individual faculty members. [PS.27: 3, July 2004, 483-85.] Faculty are increasingly bombarded by outside agencies for standards inventory matrices, evaluation rubrics, and course maps.
Piacular Subjectivity And Contested Narrative In The Imre Nagy Memorials, Karl Benziger, Richard Weiner
Piacular Subjectivity And Contested Narrative In The Imre Nagy Memorials, Karl Benziger, Richard Weiner
Richard R Weiner
The funeral of Imre Nagy on June 16, 1989 can be seen as a critical moment in the Hungarian transition to a democratic republic as it explicitly undermined the moral and political authority of the communist government then in power. This Nagy memorial signified a longing for a national identity tied to the spirit of republicanism that had been thwarted in 1956 and had roots going back to 1848. The unity of purpose displayed by the Hungarian people at the funeral brings to mind Emile Durkheim_s analysis of piaculum and the conscience collective. This is what the sociologist, Robert Bellah …
Course Syllabus: Harry Potter And International Politics - Identity, Violence And Social Control, Emma Norman
Course Syllabus: Harry Potter And International Politics - Identity, Violence And Social Control, Emma Norman
Emma R. Norman
The themes we draw from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series are used to illuminate parallels in contemporary world politics and to apprehend in detail some of the key problems that revolve around the three core themes of the course (identity, violence, and social control). How, for instance, does life in Hogwarts help to illuminate the multiple, crosscutting identities produced by globalization? How does the divide between wizards and muggles, or Hermione’s obsession with elvish welfare, serve to illuminate continued discrimination in current liberal democracies and do these narratives help to widen our options when it comes to minimizing it? What …
Assessment Governance, Richard Weiner, Karl Benziger
Assessment Governance, Richard Weiner, Karl Benziger
Karl P. Benziger
There has emerged a web of exogenous forces emanating from national and regional accreditation associations, particularly a satellite professional association involved in teacher preparation called the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). The reality of this web contradicts the implicit idealist sentiment in John Ishiyama’s report on the “Assessment of Student Outcomes’ meetings at the 2004 TLC where he describes “assessment as a voluntarist/bootstrapping “bottom up” effort of individual faculty members. [PS.27: 3, July 2004, 483-85.] Faculty are increasingly bombarded by outside agencies for standards inventory matrices, evaluation rubrics, and course maps.
Piacular Subjectivity And Contested Narrative In The Imre Nagy Memorials, Karl Benziger, Richard Weiner
Piacular Subjectivity And Contested Narrative In The Imre Nagy Memorials, Karl Benziger, Richard Weiner
Karl P. Benziger
The funeral of Imre Nagy on June 16, 1989 can be seen as a critical moment in the Hungarian transition to a democratic republic as it explicitly undermined the moral and political authority of the communist government then in power. This Nagy memorial signified a longing for a national identity tied to the spirit of republicanism that had been thwarted in 1956 and had roots going back to 1848. The unity of purpose displayed by the Hungarian people at the funeral brings to mind Emile Durkheim_s analysis of piaculum and the conscience collective. This is what the sociologist, Robert Bellah …
Citizanship In Austria, Germany, And Switzerland, Claus Hofhansel
Citizanship In Austria, Germany, And Switzerland, Claus Hofhansel
Claus Hofhansel
A common claim has been that liberalization of citizenship policy depends on making policy behind closed doors. I challenge one variant of this line of argument, which regards courts as the primary �countermajoritarian� champion of the expansion of immigrant rights, through a comparison of citizenship policy in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. In all three countries subnational authorities play a significant role in the administration of naturalization policy. Courts have played more of a �nationalizing� rather than a �countermajoritarian� role. I also show how differences in federal structures affected recent efforts to reform citizenship policy in these countries.
Learning Democracy, Claus Hofhansel
Learning Democracy, Claus Hofhansel
Claus Hofhansel
After the initial euphoria over German (re)unification had subsided, it became clear that it would take longer to tear down the mental barriers separating eastern and western Germans than to remove concrete slabs from the Berlin Wall. Studies of German electoral behavior found that eastern and western Germans displayed different voting patterns and that eastern Germans were less supportive of the principles of a market economy and the political institutions of unified Germany than western Germans.
Book Review Of Beau Breslin, "From Words To Worlds: Exploring Constitutional Functionality", Robert Tsai
Book Review Of Beau Breslin, "From Words To Worlds: Exploring Constitutional Functionality", Robert Tsai
Robert L Tsai
This is a review of Beau Breslin's book, "From Words to Worlds: Exploring Constitutional Functionality" (Johns Hopkins, 2009). As an antidote to what he believes to be scholarly marginalization of the "unique" aspects of a written constitution, Breslin focuses attention on seven functions of such a legal text: transforming existing orders, conveying collective aspirations, designing institutions, mediating conflict, recognizing claims of subnational communities, empowering social actors, and constraining governmental authority. This review briefly critiques Breslin's functional approach and discusses two of the more pressing goals of modern constitutionalism: managing social conflict and preserving cultural heritage.
Eloquence And Reason: Creating A First Amendment Culture, Robert L. Tsai
Eloquence And Reason: Creating A First Amendment Culture, Robert L. Tsai
Robert L Tsai
This book presents a general theory to explain how the words in the Constitution become culturally salient ideas, inscribed in the habits and outlooks of ordinary Americans. "Eloquence and Reason" employs the First Amendment as a case study to illustrate that liberty is achieved through the formation of a common language and a set of organizing beliefs. The book explicates the structure of First Amendment language as a distinctive discourse and illustrates how activists, lawyers, and even presidents help to sustain our First Amendment belief system. When significant changes to constitutional law occur, they are best understood as the results …
The George W. Bush Legacy, Caroline Heldman
The George W. Bush Legacy, Caroline Heldman
Caroline Heldman
Book review of The George W. Bush Legacy. Bush will be known for his ideological polarization of the political parties, his expansion of presidential power, and his appointment of a more conservative federal judiciary. The 2006 election was a major turning point for the White House in terms of public opinion and the loss of a Republican majority in Congress, and only time will tell whether the last two years will shift the direction of the Bush legacy.
The Janus-Faced Character Of Tourism In Cuba: Ideological Continuity And Change, Kathleen Adams
The Janus-Faced Character Of Tourism In Cuba: Ideological Continuity And Change, Kathleen Adams
Kathleen M. Adams
No abstract provided.
Middle Power Statecraft: Indonesia, Malaysia And The Asia-Pacific, Jonathan Ping
Middle Power Statecraft: Indonesia, Malaysia And The Asia-Pacific, Jonathan Ping
Jonathan H. Ping
Jonathan Ping's volume establishes a unifying theory for the concept of middle power (MP). MPs are states which have an innate form of statecraft and perceived power as a result of their size. The book presents hybridization theory as a basis for analysis, policy development and prediction of MP statecraft and perceived power. A prerequisite to the founding of hybridization theory is the new statistical method of definition which identifies sixteen MPs of Asia and the Pacific.
The volume takes a comparative focus on Indonesia and Malaysia to inform and test hybridization theory, as well as to provide a historical …
Torture And Eucharist: Theology, Politics, And The Body Of Christ, William Cavanaugh
Torture And Eucharist: Theology, Politics, And The Body Of Christ, William Cavanaugh
William T. Cavanaugh
"Cavanaugh begins with an engrossing analysis of the dynamics of torture and disappearance as a mode disciplining the body politic. He judiciously uses psychological and social scientific sources without letting them override the theological focus of the book. He then gives an equally engrossing account of the Church in Chile under Pinochet. His analyses both of Maritain and the 'New Christendom' ecclesiology provide as interesting critique of the failures of the Church to respond to Pinochet's repression, while his concluding chapter on eucharistic theology points towards the source of the successful responses made by the Church. Particularly useful and interesting …
Change In Eastern Europe, Robert Weiner
Change In Eastern Europe, Robert Weiner
Robert Weiner
An up-to-date examination of the causes and consequences of the East European Revolutions of 1989.