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Political Theory

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Policing A Negotiated World: A Partial Test Of Klinger’S Ecological Theory Of Policing, Christopher Salvatore, Travis A. Taniguchi Oct 2019

Policing A Negotiated World: A Partial Test Of Klinger’S Ecological Theory Of Policing, Christopher Salvatore, Travis A. Taniguchi

Christopher Salvatore

The primary goal of the current study is to examine a portion of Klinger’s theory. Specifically, we test the influence of organizational and environmental contextual factors, guided by Klinger’s theory, on one measure of officer vigor. To date, few studies have taken this approach to examine Klinger’s theory. The study builds on prior research that has tested aspects of Klinger’s theory and adds new analytic strategies that prior studies have not used. The results of this study have implications for both theory and practice, and they add to the growing literature examining the influence of ecological and organization factors on …


The Life Of An Unknown Assassin: Leon Czolgosz And The Death Of William Mckinley, Cary Federman Apr 2019

The Life Of An Unknown Assassin: Leon Czolgosz And The Death Of William Mckinley, Cary Federman

Cary Federman

The purpose of this essay is to examine the discourses that surrounded the life of Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of President William McKinley. The gaps in Czolgosz’s life, his peculiar silences, his poor health and the ambiguity and thinness of his confession, rather than taken as instances of mental and physical distress, have, instead, been understood as signs of a revolutionary anarchistic assassin. Czolgosz is an expression of a cultural tradition in somatic form. I argue that the discursive construction of criminality, already present in the late nineteenth century within the medical and human sciences, is what shaped Czolgosz’s life …


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.


Bds & Political Theory Critical Exchange.Pdf, C. Heike Schotten, William Clare Roberts Dec 2018

Bds & Political Theory Critical Exchange.Pdf, C. Heike Schotten, William Clare Roberts

C. Heike Schotten

A Critical Exchange discussing the importance of academic boycott of Israel for political theory and as political praxis.


Benjamin Mazar, Biblical Israel: State And People, Philip R. Davies, In Search Of ‘Ancient Israel’, John Van Seters, Prologue To History: The Yahwist As Historian In Genesis, Steven W. Holloway Jun 2018

Benjamin Mazar, Biblical Israel: State And People, Philip R. Davies, In Search Of ‘Ancient Israel’, John Van Seters, Prologue To History: The Yahwist As Historian In Genesis, Steven W. Holloway

Steven W Holloway

No abstract provided.


Theorizing American Freedom (Review Essay), Anthony O'Rourke Apr 2018

Theorizing American Freedom (Review Essay), Anthony O'Rourke

Anthony O'Rourke

This is a review essay of The Two Faces of American Freedom, by Aziz Rana. The book presents a new and provocative account of the relationship between ideas of freedom and the constitutional structure of American power. Through the nineteenth century, Rana argues, America’s constitutional structure was shaped by a racially exclusionary, yet economically robust, concept that he calls “settler freedom.” Drawing on the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of settler colonial studies, as well as on the vast historical literature on civic republicanism, Rana contends that the concept of settler freedom necessitated a constitutional framework that enabled rapid territorial expansion and …


Pulse - A Consultation, Barry J. Mauer Jan 2018

Pulse - A Consultation, Barry J. Mauer

Barry Mauer

On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured 53 at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. We may never know or understand what was in Mateen’s mind, but we can situate his attack within the history of eliminationism in America. Islamist terrorism is just part of a larger phenomenon: right wing eliminationism. But despite centuries of right wing eliminationist words and deeds in the U.S., there is little or no mainstream recognition of the phenomenon. Instead, we are treated to more denial, more distraction, more obfuscation. Until we look this problem squarely in the face, it will …


Sexual Violence In The Field Of Vision, Sharon Sliwinski Dec 2017

Sexual Violence In The Field Of Vision, Sharon Sliwinski

Sharon Sliwinski

Meditating on a single photograph from a recent Human Rights Watch report concerning police violence in Northern British Columbia, Canada, this paper pursues two lines of questions about the visual politics of human rights. One concerns how our ways of seeing—our modes of attending to the vulnerability and integrity of particular persons—can itself be understood as a form of human rights practice. The other aims to widen space in contemporary political theory for thinking about how sexual violence functions as a central technology of sovereignty and how we might make this phenomenon more perceptible. The paper explores the ways photographs …


The Woman Who Walks Through Photographs, Sharon Sliwinski Dec 2017

The Woman Who Walks Through Photographs, Sharon Sliwinski

Sharon Sliwinski

This paper explores Michal Heiman's creative strategy to imaginatively enter the space of asylum. Her recent project, RETURN: ASYLUM (THE DRESS, 1855-2018), offers a new way to extend solidarity to people who have been subjugated by the institution. She actively enlists the public's help in developing further strategies for connecting with those individuals who have been bereft of legal rights to property, family, or public hearing. This article explores Heiman's crucial political intervention, which blends creative visual practice with object relations theory.


President Bush And Immigration Policy Rhetoric: The Effects Of Negativity On The Political Landscape At The State Level, C. Damien Arthur Phd, Joshua Woods Dec 2017

President Bush And Immigration Policy Rhetoric: The Effects Of Negativity On The Political Landscape At The State Level, C. Damien Arthur Phd, Joshua Woods

C. Damien Arthur

The attention paid to immigration since September 11th has become more pronounced. We maintain that the increases in attention are due to a significant critical juncture: the Republican Party Platform of 2004 and President Bush’s subsequent reelection. The rhetoric has become more negative and exclusive, creating a pervasive immigrant narrative. What are the ramifications, if any, of this shift in discourse from such central political figures for immigrants? Attempts to change immigration policy, despite the rhetoric, have not materialized nationally. President Bush recognized the limitations of ‘going public’ and, instead, took his immigration policy proposals to state legislatures, wherein ideological …


Congressional Hearings: Immigration Frames In Expert Testimonies, Joshua Woods, C. Damien Arthur Phd Dec 2017

Congressional Hearings: Immigration Frames In Expert Testimonies, Joshua Woods, C. Damien Arthur Phd

C. Damien Arthur

This book offers a broad interdisciplinary approach to the changes in the U.S. immigration debate before and after 9/11. A nation’s reaction to foreigners has as much to do with sociology as it does with political science, economics and psychology. Without drawing on this knowledge, our understanding of the immigration debate remains mundane, partial, and imperfect. Therefore, our story accounts for multiple factors, including culture and politics, power, organizations, social psychological processes, and political change. Examining this relationship in the contemporary context requires a lengthy voyage across academic disciplines, a synthesis of seemingly contradictory assumptions, and a grasp of research …


Security Is Local: An Analysis Of The Use Of Community-Based Security Forces During Counterinsurgency Operations, Alexander Stephenson Dec 2017

Security Is Local: An Analysis Of The Use Of Community-Based Security Forces During Counterinsurgency Operations, Alexander Stephenson

Alexander Stephenson

Counterinsurgency (COIN) operations are the most common type of military operation conducted by the United States and other Western powers.  In most cases, conventional forces intervening in an insurgency are limited in personnel and turn to local community-based security forces to mitigate this shortcoming after initial attempts fail to defeat an insurgency with the conventional forces available.  While the use of community-based security forces is a common element of COIN operations, little research has been conducted to determine the factors that contribute to their successful employment.  A synthesis of existing COIN and community-based policing theory provides a model to evaluate …


Importing Democracy: Promoting Participatory Decision Making In Russian Forest Communities, Maria Tysiachniouk, Errol E. Meidinger Nov 2017

Importing Democracy: Promoting Participatory Decision Making In Russian Forest Communities, Maria Tysiachniouk, Errol E. Meidinger

Errol Meidinger

Published in Environmental Democracy Facing Uncertainty, Cécilia Claeys & Marie Jacqué, eds.

This paper describes how the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) jump-started democratic institutions in Russian rural communities to create a basis for social, environmental, and economic modernization within the Russian forestry sector. In Russia’s post-soviet markets and institutions, a host of multinational companies and large transnational environmental organizations sought to promote the restructuring of Russia’s legal and economic infrastructure and active subsidiaries in Russia. In order for modern forestry approaches to be imported, management practices that had developed in the West needed to be adapted to Russia’s …


Constrained Behavior: Understanding The Entrenchment Of Legislative Procedure In American State Constitutional Law, Nancy Martorano Miller, Keith E. Hamm, Ronald D. Hedlund Nov 2017

Constrained Behavior: Understanding The Entrenchment Of Legislative Procedure In American State Constitutional Law, Nancy Martorano Miller, Keith E. Hamm, Ronald D. Hedlund

Nancy M. Miller

Political analysts have suggested that policy power will begin to shift from the federal government to state governments as gridlock in Congress persists. Therefore, understanding the policymaking process at the state level is more important than ever. Vitally missing from our understanding of policymaking in the states is the role of constitutional provisions. Many state constitutions contain directives that severely limit the ability of the legislature to act. Some of these directives are procedural while others are more substantive. This is relevant because constitutional rules are more difficult for members to alter than chamber rules. In this paper we present …


Evolutionary Paths And Confining Cages: The Genealogy Of American State Constitutions, Nancy Martorano Miller Nov 2017

Evolutionary Paths And Confining Cages: The Genealogy Of American State Constitutions, Nancy Martorano Miller

Nancy M. Miller

With this poster, Dr. Miller explained her work to identify how provisions and concepts in state constitutions are related to one another and evolved over time and to understand how the provisions in these documents impact the work of state officials in the policymaking process.

Her goals: 1. Provide a “genealogical” mapping of state constitutional evolution that will allow the testing of path dependency and other theories of institutional development. 2. Create a series of scores that can be used to assess the extent to which a state government’s capacity to act in a specific policy area (e.g., Health, Education, …


Strange Bedfellows: How An Anticipatory Countermovement Brought Same-Sex Marriage Into The Public Arena, Michael C. Dorf, Sidney Tarrow Nov 2017

Strange Bedfellows: How An Anticipatory Countermovement Brought Same-Sex Marriage Into The Public Arena, Michael C. Dorf, Sidney Tarrow

Michael C. Dorf

Since the 1980s, social movement scholars have investigated the dynamic of movement/countermovement interaction. Most of these studies posit movements as initiators, with countermovements reacting to their challenges. Yet sometimes a movement supports an agenda in response to a countermovement that engages in what we call “anticipatory countermobilization.” We interviewed ten leading LGBT activists to explore the hypothesis that the LGBT movement was brought to the fight for marriage equality by the anticipatory countermobilization of social conservatives who opposed same-sex marriage before there was a realistic prospect that it would be recognized by the courts or political actors. Our findings reinforce …


Undergraduate Research Needs: Faculty-Librarian Collaboration To Improve Information Literacy In Policy Papers, Michelle C. Pautz, Heidi Gauder Oct 2017

Undergraduate Research Needs: Faculty-Librarian Collaboration To Improve Information Literacy In Policy Papers, Michelle C. Pautz, Heidi Gauder

Heidi Gauder

To improve the quality of semester-long policy projects of upper-division political science students, a faculty member and research librarian collaborated to reframe the assignment in hopes of improving students’ research skills and information literacy, revising the traditional one-way model of faculty sending students to the library to get information. The outcomes over the course of two semesters have been promising. Citations in two sets of student papers showed a remarkable increase in the number and quality of sources used. This suggests that when faculty work with librarians throughout the semester, such collaboration can improve students’ information literacy and thus their …


Undergraduate Research Needs: Faculty-Librarian Collaboration To Improve Information Literacy In Policy Papers, Michelle C. Pautz, Heidi Gauder Oct 2017

Undergraduate Research Needs: Faculty-Librarian Collaboration To Improve Information Literacy In Policy Papers, Michelle C. Pautz, Heidi Gauder

Michelle Pautz

To improve the quality of semester-long policy projects of upper-division political science students, a faculty member and research librarian collaborated to reframe the assignment in hopes of improving students’ research skills and information literacy, revising the traditional one-way model of faculty sending students to the library to get information. The outcomes over the course of two semesters have been promising. Citations in two sets of student papers showed a remarkable increase in the number and quality of sources used. This suggests that when faculty work with librarians throughout the semester, such collaboration can improve students’ information literacy and thus their …


Recognition Within The Limits Of Reason: Remarks On Pippin’S Hegel’S Practical Philosophy, David Ingram Sep 2017

Recognition Within The Limits Of Reason: Remarks On Pippin’S Hegel’S Practical Philosophy, David Ingram

David Ingram

Since the publication of Charles Taylor’s Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition in 1989,[1] the concept of recognition has re-emerged as a central if not dominant category of moral and political philosophy. [1] C. Taylor, “The Politics of Recognition,” in A. Gutmann (ed.), Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), pp. 25-73.


The Public Sphere As Site Of Emancipation And Enlightenment: A Discourse Theoretic Critique Of Digital Communication, David Ingram, Asaf Bar-Tura Sep 2017

The Public Sphere As Site Of Emancipation And Enlightenment: A Discourse Theoretic Critique Of Digital Communication, David Ingram, Asaf Bar-Tura

David Ingram

Habermas claims that an inclusive public sphere is the only deliberative forum for generating public opinion that satisfies the epistemic and normative conditions underlying legitimate decision-making. He adds that digital technologies and other mass media need not undermine – but can extend – rational deliberation when properly instituted. This paper draws from social epistemology and technology studies to demonstrate the epistemic and normative limitations of this extension. We argue that current online communication structures fall short of satisfying the required epistemic and normative conditions. Furthermore, the extent to which Internet-based communications contribute to legitimate democratic opinion and will formation depends …


Research Offers Tough Love To Improve Human Rights Practices, Joel Pruce Sep 2017

Research Offers Tough Love To Improve Human Rights Practices, Joel Pruce

Joel Pruce

We know what it means to practice a skill such as juggling or dancing, but what does it mean to "practice" human rights? Contributions to OpenGlobalRights (OGR), since its inception, have gravitated around critique of human rights practices by focusing on advocacy and activism, cultivating debates that address the contemporary dilemmas facing human rights movements worldwide. The launch of OGR four years ago is a symptom of what I’ve referred to elsewhere as a “practice turn” in the scholarly field of human rights—one that takes human rights practice as its subject, forges space for scholar-practitioner collaboration and communication, and focuses …


Revolutionary Coalition Strength And Collective Failure As Determinants Of Status Reallocation, H. Andrew Michener, Edward J. Lawler Jul 2017

Revolutionary Coalition Strength And Collective Failure As Determinants Of Status Reallocation, H. Andrew Michener, Edward J. Lawler

Edward J Lawler

This experiment investigated the effects of collective performance and coalition strength on the redistribution of status prerogatives in triads. A status hierarchy was established within triads, such that one person held higher control status and the two others held lower status. Each group performed an ambiguous, decision-making task over two trials. Collective performance (i.e., success vs failure) was manipulated via bogus feedback regarding the group’s performance, while coalition strength was manipulated by varying the extent to which the two low-status members, acting together as a revolutionary coalition, could damage the outcomes received by the high-status member. Results indicate a collective-performance …


Cooptation And Coalition Mobilization, Edward J. Lawler, George A. Youngs Jr., Michael D. Lesh Jul 2017

Cooptation And Coalition Mobilization, Edward J. Lawler, George A. Youngs Jr., Michael D. Lesh

Edward J Lawler

The question addressed by this research was, “When structural circumstances make revolutionary action likely, under what conditions will a cooptation strategy prevent subordinate revolts?” Experimental procedures established a group status hierarchy consisting of a leader and two subordinates. Groups earned collective outcomes, and the leader usurped an inequitable portion of these outcomes. In this context, the first experiment shows that a cooptation strategy (i.e., offer of a promotion to one of two subordinates) inhibits subordinate revolts. Two additional experiments indicate that the cooptation strategy is most effective (a) if the offer (strategy) provides the target of cooptation a source of …


Endorsement Of Formal Leaders: An Integrative Model, H. Andrew Michener, Edward J. Lawler Jul 2017

Endorsement Of Formal Leaders: An Integrative Model, H. Andrew Michener, Edward J. Lawler

Edward J Lawler

This experiment develops an integrative, path-analytic model for the endorsement accorded formal leaders. The model contains four independent variables reflecting aspects of group structure (i.e., group success-failure, the payoff distribution, the degree of support by others members for the leader, and the vulnerability of the leader). Also included are two intervening variables reflecting perceptual processes (attributed competence and attributed fairness), and one dependent variable (endorsement). The results indicate that endorsement is greater when the group's success is high, when the payoff distribution is flat rather than hierarchical, and when the leader is not vulnerable to removal from office. Other support …


Sexuality In The Time Of War, Or, How Rape Became A Crime Against Humanity, Sharon Sliwinski Dec 2016

Sexuality In The Time Of War, Or, How Rape Became A Crime Against Humanity, Sharon Sliwinski

Sharon Sliwinski

Working closely with women's testimonies from the genocides in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, this chapter aims to widen space in contemporary human rights discourse for discussion about sexuality--and in particular about the ways sexual violence functions as one of the forces of sovereign power. There is an intimate and largely non-visible strategy that sovereign power has at its disposal to cleave a subject from their capacity to live a human life, namely, by attacking the individual’s sense of sovereignty over her own body. 


Surfing The Revolutionary Wave 2010-12: A Social Theory Of Agency, Resistance, And Orders Of Dissent In Contemporary Social Movements, Athina Karatzogianni, Michael Schandorf Dec 2016

Surfing The Revolutionary Wave 2010-12: A Social Theory Of Agency, Resistance, And Orders Of Dissent In Contemporary Social Movements, Athina Karatzogianni, Michael Schandorf

Athina Karatzogianni

The theorisation and understanding of contemporary social movements, socio-technological phenomena, and the intersection of the two are limited by an incommensurability between the conceptualisations of individual agency and the disciplining powers of social structures. We introduce a theory of sociotechnological agency that bridges the individual and the social through a reconceptualization of the conventional notion of intentionality. Drawing from recent theories of affect and embodiment, posthuman-influenced materialisms and realisms, postmodern critical theory, and critiques of network theory, we introduce a model for understanding sociopolitical action and dissent that accounts for individual human agency as a nexus of overlapping and often …


De L'Affaire Katanga Au Contrat Social Global: Un Regard Sur La Cour Pénale Internationale, Juan Branco Nov 2016

De L'Affaire Katanga Au Contrat Social Global: Un Regard Sur La Cour Pénale Internationale, Juan Branco

Juan Branco

No abstract provided.


Book Review. Secession: The Morality Of Political Divorce From Fort Sumter To Lithuania And Quebec By Allen Buchanan, Mary Ellen O'Connell Aug 2016

Book Review. Secession: The Morality Of Political Divorce From Fort Sumter To Lithuania And Quebec By Allen Buchanan, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Mary Ellen O'Connell

No abstract provided.


The Barber Who Read History And Was Overwhelmed, Rowan Cahill Jul 2016

The Barber Who Read History And Was Overwhelmed, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Beginning with a chance encounter in a Barber's shop whilst travelling, the author ruminates on history, and the proposition that each and everyone of us is an historian, and that in a sense we are all time travellers. Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is invoked, and the role of radical historians from below discussed before the author returns to his Barber shop encounter, and to Brecht. The title of the piece references Brecht's poem A Worker Reads History (1936).


Rethinking Linkage To The West: What Authoritarian Stability In Singapore Tells Us, Su-Mei Ooi Jul 2016

Rethinking Linkage To The West: What Authoritarian Stability In Singapore Tells Us, Su-Mei Ooi

Su-Mei Ooi

Recent regime change literatures compellingly assert that linkage to the West has been a significant factor in democratisation where the organisational capacity of authoritarian incumbents has overwhelmingly weakened pro-democracy forces. Detailed case studies confirming these findings have not included Singapore although high levels of linkage to the West suggest that democratisation should have taken place there. This qualitative case study fills the empirical and theoretical gap by explaining why linkage has so far failed to raise the cost of authoritarianism for Singapore's government. By eschewing the current structural approach, which conceptualises linkage as mere channels of external pressure or influence, …