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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Misunderstood Alliance: Defining The American And Pakistani Relationship, Zachary Joseph Shapiro Apr 2019

The Misunderstood Alliance: Defining The American And Pakistani Relationship, Zachary Joseph Shapiro

Joseph I Shapiro MD

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.


Against Totalitarianism: Agamben, Foucault, And The Politics Of Critique, C. Heike Schotten Nov 2015

Against Totalitarianism: Agamben, Foucault, And The Politics Of Critique, C. Heike Schotten

C. Heike Schotten

Despite appearances, Agamben’s engagement with Foucault in Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life is not an extension of Foucault’s analysis of biopolitics but ra-ther a disciplining of Foucault for failing to take Nazism seriously. This moralizing rebuke is the result of methodological divergences between the two thinkers that, I argue, have fun-damental political consequences. Re-reading Foucault’s most explicitly political work of the mid-1970s, I show that Foucault’s commitment to genealogy is aligned with his commitment to “insurrection”—not simply archival or historical, but practical and political insurrection—even as his non-moralizing understanding of critique makes space for the resistances he hopes …


Malaysian Political Essay Collection, Chuen-Tat Kang Sep 2014

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.


Intellectual Property Policy, Matthew Rimmer Aug 2013

Intellectual Property Policy, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

The link between IP and poverty may not be obvious, but as Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz has pointed out, ‘societal inequality was a result not just of the laws of economics, but also of how we shape the economy - through politics, including through almost every aspect of our legal system’. Stiglitz is concerned that ‘our intellectual property regime… contributes needlessly to the gravest form of inequality.’ He maintains: ‘The right to life should not be contingent on the ability to pay.’ In Australian Federal politics, there have been significant debates about intellectual property in the fields of information …


Reclaiming Egalitarianism In The Political Theory Of Campaign Finance Reform, Frank Pasquale Aug 2013

Reclaiming Egalitarianism In The Political Theory Of Campaign Finance Reform, Frank Pasquale

Frank A. Pasquale

Recent advocacy for campaign finance reform has been based on an ideal of the democratic process which is unrealistic and unhelpful. Scholars should instead return to its egalitarian roots. This article examines how deliberative democratic theory became the main justification for campaign finance reform. It exposes the shortcomings of this deliberativist detour and instead models campaign spending as an effort to commodify issue-salience. Given this dominant function of money in politics, a more effective paradigm for reform is equalizing influence. Advocates of campaign regulation should return to the original principles of reformers; not an idealized vision of the democratic process, …


South Sudan-Sudan Relations In The Light Of Current Conflicts And Border Disputes, Anne Hamilton Dec 2012

South Sudan-Sudan Relations In The Light Of Current Conflicts And Border Disputes, Anne Hamilton

Anne Hamilton

The 2012 South Sudan–Sudan border war was an armed conflict between the states of Sudan and the South Sudan in 2012 over oil-rich regions between the South Sudan's Unity and the Sudan's. South Kordofan The oil rich region Heglig is well under the control of the Republic of Sudan. Certain areas involved, notably Abyei, are claimed by both sides as part of their sovereign territory. In September 2012, a series of eight agreements were made, resolving most aspects of the conflict. Background South Sudan's independence was preceded by two civil wars, from 1955-1972 and from 1983- 2005 in which 2.5 …


Complementary Institutions And Reflexive Governance In Autonomous Social Law, Richard R. Weiner Mar 2012

Complementary Institutions And Reflexive Governance In Autonomous Social Law, Richard R. Weiner

Richard R Weiner

We approach institutions as stabilizing structures with consequences of functional incorporateness. Yet we also imagine, assert and enact claims and warrants as institutionalizable practices. There are functional supports. And there are the warranted claims of categorical normativity. Normativity in itself can be understood in terms of compliance with or acquiescence in legitimating structures. Yet normativity itself can be understood as a solidarism we intersubjectively co-constitute. The challenge in political thought has been dealing with the disincorporateness associated with modernity, specifically how a new order and dialogue may be of heterogeneous social values. A new way of ordering socioeconomic relationships of …


Arendtian Action And The Camp: Understanding The Connection Between Totalitarianism And Politics, Corey Dethier Feb 2012

Arendtian Action And The Camp: Understanding The Connection Between Totalitarianism And Politics, Corey Dethier

Corey Dethier

This paper argues for a reconceptualization of Arendt's concept of action based on her account of and experience with totalitarianism. Using Origins of Totalitarianism as a guide to what Arendt sees as the breakdown of a functioning society, it reconstructs her conception of politics found inThe Human Condition and On Revolution to show that what Arendt aims for is a form of government that can prevent the spread of totalitarianism and its characteristics. From this perspective, it argues that Arendt's concepts of politics and action are designed to create a public aware of its plurality and primarily concerned with protecting …


A Primary Human Challenge, Carroy U. Ferguson Apr 2008

A Primary Human Challenge, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

We may ask why, at both the individual and collective levels, it has seemed so difficult for us to choose to evolve our human games with Joy. There is no one answer for such a question, for each of us has the gift of free will. I will suggest, however, that built into our human games is what I call a primary human challenge. That primary human challenge is a dynamic tension, flowing from our creative urge for the freedom “to be” who we really are in our current physical form, and simultaneously to embrace our responsibility for our Being-ness.


The Opacity Of Transparency, Mark Fenster Dec 2004

The Opacity Of Transparency, Mark Fenster

Mark Fenster

The normative concept of transparency, along with the open government laws that purport to create a transparent public system of governance promise the world—a democratic and accountable state above all, and a peaceful, prosperous, and efficient one as well. But transparency, in its role as the theoretical justification for a set of legal commands, frustrates all parties affected by its ambiguities and abstractions. The public’s engagement with transparency in practice yields denials of reasonable requests for essential government information, as well as government meetings that occur behind closed doors. Meanwhile, state officials bemoan the significantly impaired decision-making processes that result …