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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Canada's Engagement With Democracies In The Americas, Maxwell A. Cameron, Catherine Hecht Oct 2008

Canada's Engagement With Democracies In The Americas, Maxwell A. Cameron, Catherine Hecht

Maxwell Cameron

Canada’s engagement with Latin America over the past two decades was predicated on three inter-related assumptions: that the region was becoming more democratic, that it had embraced markets, and that, as a result, it was reasonable to expect a more cooperative and pragmatic tone in inter-American affairs. These assumptions have proven faulty. Although democracy remains the preferred system of government, many voters are dissatisfied with their elected governments; the record of progress in reducing poverty and inequality has also been disappointing; finally, the international politics of the region have become more fraught. The current Canadian “re-engagement” with the region offers …


'Democratic Taxation' And Quantifiable Action: Scientizing Dilemmas, Mindy Peden Jul 2008

'Democratic Taxation' And Quantifiable Action: Scientizing Dilemmas, Mindy Peden

Mindy Peden

Against the easy presupposition that such a thing as 'democratic taxation' not only exists but is also practicable, this paper points to the dilemma posed by what I call 'quantifiable action.' The essay develops an approach to theorizing the place of taxation in political theory that counters trends in fiscal sociology, political science, and liberal theory by highlighting how taxation presumably violates the requirement that self-government includes an absence of instrumental rationality on the part of democratic citizens. For this reason, taxation presents a persistent problem for any concept of self-government, and may usefully be regarded as a technology of …


Partidos, Gobierno Y Congreso: Chile Y Perú, 1965-2005, Jose Luis Sardon Jan 2008

Partidos, Gobierno Y Congreso: Chile Y Perú, 1965-2005, Jose Luis Sardon

Jose Luis Sardon

En el presente artículo se argumenta que las diferencias en los niveles de desarrollo alcanzados por Chile y Perú en los últimos 40 años se explican no solo por las reformas económicas emprendidas en uno y otro país sino también por la reforma política realizada en Chile en 1988, mediante la cual se sustituyó el sistema de representación proporcional por un sistema binominal para la elección del Congreso. Esto habría brindado incentivos para la consolidación del sistema de partidos y la estabilización del proceso democrático en Chile. Por el contrario, Perú, al haber persistido y aún profundizado la proporcionalidad de …


Assuming Bosnia: Democracy After Srebrenica, Timothy W. Waters Jan 2008

Assuming Bosnia: Democracy After Srebrenica, Timothy W. Waters

Timothy W Waters

Assuming Bosnia: Democracy after Srebrenica Timothy William Waters Associate Professor, Indiana University School of Law (Bloomington) This essay is a reflection on democracy, justice and intervention. It focuses on the Bosnian experience, which requires one to consider several actors: Bosnia as a state, Bosnians as a people or peoples, and the international community. For since Dayton, the indispensable context for reform in Bosnia has been the international protectorate, which is to say the deliberate abrogation of autonomous, democratic, domestic processes for some defined, and hopefully higher, set of purposes. These purposes are expressed in the Dayton Accords, though increasingly the …


Assuming Bosnia: Taking The Polity Seriously In Ethnically Divided Societies, Timothy W. Waters Jan 2008

Assuming Bosnia: Taking The Polity Seriously In Ethnically Divided Societies, Timothy W. Waters

Timothy W Waters

This essay is a reflection on democracy, justice and intervention. It focuses on the Bosnian experience, where since the Dayton Accords the indispensable context for reform has been the international protectorate. This essay examines the assumptions used by the international community to govern Bosnia, which suggest a policy premised upon resistance to the fragmentation of the state under any circumstances, and a belief that the international intervention is simultaneously morally justified and a purely technical process for increasing efficiency. How necessary – indeed, how related at all – are those commitments to the dictates of justice? What is their relationship …


Toward Responsible Sovereignty: The Case For Intervention, Erik Martinez Kuhonta Jan 2008

Toward Responsible Sovereignty: The Case For Intervention, Erik Martinez Kuhonta

Erik Kuhonta

No abstract provided.


The Paradox Of Thailand's 1997 "People's Constitution": Be Careful What You Wish For, Erik Martinez Kuhonta Jan 2008

The Paradox Of Thailand's 1997 "People's Constitution": Be Careful What You Wish For, Erik Martinez Kuhonta

Erik Kuhonta

No abstract provided.


A Research Note On The Middle Class And Democracy In Thailand, Erik Martinez Kuhonta Jan 2008

A Research Note On The Middle Class And Democracy In Thailand, Erik Martinez Kuhonta

Erik Kuhonta

No abstract provided.


A Re-Assessment Of Liberal Pacifism At The Monadic Level Of Analysis, Charles R. Boehmer Jan 2008

A Re-Assessment Of Liberal Pacifism At The Monadic Level Of Analysis, Charles R. Boehmer

Charles Boehmer

Are democracies are generally peaceful? The literature was in the past contradictory, although now there appears increasing evidence that democracies are more pacifistic than other regimes. This research note explores why the literature has often been mischaracterized or misunderstood in our field. This is followed with an analysis of democracy and conflict at the state level of analysis from 1884-1999 using a broad sample of states and appropriate statistical estimators. The results comport with past studies that democracies are less likely to initiate militarized conflicts. The study also shows that even when democracies do militarize a dispute, these are less …


Sovereignty As Discourse, Robert Tsai Dec 2007

Sovereignty As Discourse, Robert Tsai

Robert L Tsai

This is a review of Howard Schweber's book, "The Language of Liberal Constitutionalism" (Cambridge University Press, 2007). Schweber argues that "the creation of a legitimate constitutional regime depends on a prior commitment to employ constitutional language, and that such a commitment is both the necessary and sufficient condition for constitution making." I critique the power and limits of this reformulated Lockean thesis, as well as Schweber's secondary claims that, for constitutional language to remain legitimate, it must increasingly become autonomous, specialized, and secular.


Paramilitarismo, Desmovilización Y Reinserción. La Ley De Justicia Y Paz Y Sus Implicaciones En La Cultura Política, La Ciudadanía Y La Democracia En Colombia, Andrés Henao Castro, Oscar Mejía Quintana Dec 2007

Paramilitarismo, Desmovilización Y Reinserción. La Ley De Justicia Y Paz Y Sus Implicaciones En La Cultura Política, La Ciudadanía Y La Democracia En Colombia, Andrés Henao Castro, Oscar Mejía Quintana

Andrés Fabián Henao-Castro

No abstract provided.


Secrecy And Democratic Decisions, Mark A. Chinen Dec 2007

Secrecy And Democratic Decisions, Mark A. Chinen

Mark A. Chinen

Secrecy to protect intelligence sources and methods appears often in the nation’s discourse about controversial national security matters. Often it is asked whether such secrecy is consistent with the nation’s democratic principles and processes. I argue such principles and processes provide a framework through which we try to answer questions about secrecy and indeed legitimate them, but are often too broad to provide definitive guidance in specific cases. At the same time, the sources and methods argument itself is overbroad because of the nature of the sources and methods themselves; the tentative nature of intelligence assessments derived from those sources …


The Militant Protester As Model Citizen, Stephen D'Arcy Dec 2007

The Militant Protester As Model Citizen, Stephen D'Arcy

Stephen D'Arcy

Argues the militancy is a civic virtue.


Political Polarization And The Electoral Effects Of Media Bias, Mattias K. Polborn, Stefan Krasa, Dan Bernhardt Dec 2007

Political Polarization And The Electoral Effects Of Media Bias, Mattias K. Polborn, Stefan Krasa, Dan Bernhardt

Mattias K Polborn

Many political commentators diagnose an increasing polarization of the U.S. electorate into two opposing camps. However, in standard spatial voting models, changes in the political preference distribution are irrelevant as long as the position of the median voter does not change. We show that media bias provides a mechanism through which political polarization can affect electoral outcomes. In our model, media firms' profits depend on their audience rating. Maximizing profits may involve catering to a partisan audience by slanting the news. While voters are rational, understand the nature of the news suppression bias and update appropriately, important information is lost …


Democracy And Constitutionalism In Nigeria Under The Fourth Republic, 1999-2007, Shola J. Omotola Dec 2007

Democracy And Constitutionalism In Nigeria Under The Fourth Republic, 1999-2007, Shola J. Omotola

Shola J. Omotola Mr

No abstract provided.