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Series

2018

Democracy

Discipline
Institution
Publication

Articles 1 - 18 of 18

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Communication, Democracy, And Intelligentsia, Dmitri N. Shalin Dec 2018

Communication, Democracy, And Intelligentsia, Dmitri N. Shalin

Sociology Faculty Research

In the early 1990s, a group of Russian and American scholars teamed up to investigate the impact of Gorbachev’s reform on Soviet society, focusing especially on the role the intelligentsia played in fomenting glasnost and perestroika. Results of this collaborative study were published in a volume Russian Culture at the Crossroads: Paradoxes of Postcommunist Consciousness (Shalin, 1996a). The contributors worked on the assumption that perestroika was an irreversible achievement, that distortions the reforms wrought in Russian society would be smoothed out over time. Today, this assumption appears overoptimistic. After nearly twenty years in power, Vladimir Putin dismantled key democratic institutions, …

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Questioning The Dogma Of Banned Books Week, Elliott Kuecker Dec 2018

Questioning The Dogma Of Banned Books Week, Elliott Kuecker

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This article examines the dogmatic celebration of Banned Books Week in libraries in the United States through Foucault's notion of the speaker's benefit and the repressive hypothesis. Given that the books featured during Banned Books Week are not legally banned, but actually widely available, it appears this celebration does more for the identity of the field of librarianship than it does to fight censorship.

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Rwu First Amendment Blog: David Logan's Blog: Recognizing The Free Press In The Crosshairs Across The Globe 12-12-2018, David A. Logan Dec 2018

Rwu First Amendment Blog: David Logan's Blog: Recognizing The Free Press In The Crosshairs Across The Globe 12-12-2018, David A. Logan

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

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Whole-Of-Society Approach Needed Against Truth Decay, Eugene K. B. Tan Nov 2018

Whole-Of-Society Approach Needed Against Truth Decay, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In an age of pervasive informationflows, governments do not defeat fake news. It's the people as a society whodo.The threatof deliberate falsehoods, or more popularly "fake news", posesserious threats to the democratic wellbeing of societies. The marketplace ofideas increasingly suffers from truth decay, propagated online or offline,imperilling an already vulnerable information ecosystem. In turn,this compromises the functioning of a democracy, which is premised on citizenshaving a shared reality rather than multiple distorted realities.

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Candidate-Centric Systems And The Politicization Of Ethnicity: Evidence From Indonesia, Colm A. Fox Oct 2018

Candidate-Centric Systems And The Politicization Of Ethnicity: Evidence From Indonesia, Colm A. Fox

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

When and why do electoral candidates politicize ethnicity? From the literature, we might expect this behaviour to occur during democratic transitions or under proportional rules. However, empirical support for these arguments is mixed. This article presents a new approach, arguing that candidate-centric rules offer candidates incentives to politicize ethnicity. The argument is tested in Indonesia with empirical evidence drawn from coding newspaper reports on campaign events, endorsements and group appeals. Indonesia used party-centric rules from 1997 to 2004, and even though the country democratized during this period, the politicization of ethnicity actually declined. I show how party-centric rules, coupled with …

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Exit, Voice, And Public Reason, Kevin Vallier Aug 2018

Exit, Voice, And Public Reason, Kevin Vallier

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Public reason liberals appeal to public deliberation to ensure that a legal order can be publicly justified to its citizens. I argue that this voice mechanism should be supplemented by exit mechanisms. By allowing citizens to exit legal orders they believe cannot be publicly justified, citizens can pressure states to change their laws. This exit pressure is sometimes more effective than deliberation. I explore federalism as an exit mechanism that can help public deliberation establish a publicly justified polity.

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Who Doesn’T Want Democracy? A Multilevel Analysis Of Elite And Mass Attitudes, Brandon Gorman, Ijlal Naqvi, Charles Kurzman Jul 2018

Who Doesn’T Want Democracy? A Multilevel Analysis Of Elite And Mass Attitudes, Brandon Gorman, Ijlal Naqvi, Charles Kurzman

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite its global rise in popularity, a significant number of people still oppose democracy. The present study evaluates three competing theories of opposition to democracy—developmentalist, culturalist, and elitist—using a series of multilevel regression models that combine individual- and country-level variables. Results of our statistical analyses suggest that (1) country-level indicators of social, political, and economic development are unrelated to individual support for democracy; (2) macro-cultural factors have mixed effects on individual support for democracy; and (3) individual income and education have strong effects on individual support for democracy, but this relationship is mediated by country-level economic development. Specifically, we find …

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Agrarian Politics And The American Tradition, Jeff Taylor May 2018

Agrarian Politics And The American Tradition, Jeff Taylor

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Agrarianism is a political philosophy and way of life known and prac­ticed among peoples of diverse nationalities and religions. While having ancient, medieval, and early-modern roots, agrarian politics blossomed most dramatically in America, during both its colonial and republican periods. Notable spokesmen for American agrarianism include Thomas Jefferson, William Jennings Bryan, and Robert La Follette. It has been in steady decline for the past century as cosmopolitan and centralizing forc­es have displaced tradition and smallness of scale. Still, there have been natural voices lamenting losses in the face of"progress": Distributists and Southern Agrarians, the Counterculture and the Green Party, Wendell …

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Unequal Democracies: Economic Sanctions' Impact On Human Rights In Democratic Systems, Daniel Partin May 2018

Unequal Democracies: Economic Sanctions' Impact On Human Rights In Democratic Systems, Daniel Partin

Masters Theses

In the past, research into the field of human rights has treated regime as a dichotomous variable and divided the type of governmental structure into either autocracies or democracies. By lumping all democracies into one category, all variation between different categories of governmental composition is discarded and it is difficult to examine the differences between types of democratic governments and their human rights capacities. Due to their tendency to accrete power centrally, presidential democracies are thought to repress the rights of citizens more often and severely than parliamentary systems. Further, an exogenous shock to the political system, such as the …

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Making African Civil Society Work: Assessing Conditions For Democratic State-Society Relations In Rwanda, Fiacre Bienvenu Apr 2018

Making African Civil Society Work: Assessing Conditions For Democratic State-Society Relations In Rwanda, Fiacre Bienvenu

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation offers a single case in-depth analysis of factors precluding civil society from democratizing African polities. Synthesizing existing literature on Rwanda, I first undertake an historical search to trace the origins and qualities of civil society in the colonial era. This effort shows, however, that the central authority—commencing before the inception of the Republic in 1962—consistently organized civil society to buttress its activities, not to challenge them. Next, using ethnographic research, I challenge conventional economic and institutional accounts of civil society’s role in democratization. I show that institutional change and the economic clout of organized groups are marginal and …

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Speech Excerpts: Democracy And Human Rights Apr 2018

Speech Excerpts: Democracy And Human Rights

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Excerpt from speeches given by Bill Clinton on democracy and human rights worldwide. No date given.

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Tracking Public Support For Japan's Remilitarization Policies: An Examination Of Elitist And Pluralist Governance, Cory S. Madison Apr 2018

Tracking Public Support For Japan's Remilitarization Policies: An Examination Of Elitist And Pluralist Governance, Cory S. Madison

Student Publications

Has Japan’s post-Second World War transformation into one of the most militarily capable nations been the result of 60 years of truly representative government? This research compares government-collected opinion polls to policy trends and actions, to determine whether the case of Japan’s remilitarization argues for or against the country’s democratic quality. For the purpose of this research, the size of Japan’s military and its legislative freedom to act as a more conventional military were considered the most pertinent militarization policies. Results indicated that those policies were consistently unjustified by measured opinion, suggesting elitist policy formation. However, other policy areas, such …

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Rwu First Amendment Blog: David Logan's Blog: Media Centralization Imperils Marketplace Of Ideas 04-05-2018, David A. Logan Apr 2018

Rwu First Amendment Blog: David Logan's Blog: Media Centralization Imperils Marketplace Of Ideas 04-05-2018, David A. Logan

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

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Support For Open Borders: A Case Study Of Spanish Society, Anna Ondracek Mar 2018

Support For Open Borders: A Case Study Of Spanish Society, Anna Ondracek

Honors Theses

In his book “The Ethics of Immigration”, political philosopher Joseph Carens argues for the rights of migrant populations on the grounds of democracy, freedom, and equality. He advocates for open international borders, focusing on democratic countries in North America and Europe. Carens compares the current international order of closed borders to feudalism and discusses various forms of privilege Westerners have, which, he says, makes those in the West complacent and unaware of the injustices from which Westerners benefit. Focusing on the case of Spain, this project evaluates public opinions on the debate over open borders. I survey the support for …

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The Rise Of Trump And The Death Of Civility, Keith Bybee Jan 2018

The Rise Of Trump And The Death Of Civility, Keith Bybee

Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media at Syracuse University

According to supporters and opponents alike, Donald Trump has been an unconventional candidate and president. In this article, I evaluate the relationship between Trump’s unconventional behavior and the requirements of civility. I provide a definition of civility, and I explain why it makes sense to relate Trump’s actions to civil norms. I then discuss how civility is enacted, I examine criticisms of civility’s triviality, and I explore the ways in which civility may repress dissent and maintain hierarchy. Although I consider the degree to which Trump’s actions are strategic, I ultimately argue that Trump’s incivilities should be understood as an …

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Aristotle On Democracy And Democracies, Kevin M. Cherry Jan 2018

Aristotle On Democracy And Democracies, Kevin M. Cherry

Political Science Faculty Publications

It is a commonplace that Aristotle, like his teacher Plato, was a critic of democracy. This is, to a certain extent, true: Plato and Aristotle both saw democracy, at least as practiced in Athens, as prone to tumultuousness and imprudence. The failed Sicilian expedition, the execution of Socrates, the failure to heed Demosthenes's warnings about Philip of Macedon and Aristotle's own reported flight from Athens all highlighted the weaknesses of Athenian democratic institutions. Yet Aristotle's understanding of political science requires him to consider not only what the simply best regime might be, as Socrates purports to do in the Republic, …

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Young People’S Views Of Government, Peaceful Coexistence, And Diversity In Five Latin American Countries: Iea International Civic And Citizenship Education Study 2016 Latin American Report, Wolfram Schulz, John Ainley, Cristián Cox, Tim Friedman Jan 2018

Young People’S Views Of Government, Peaceful Coexistence, And Diversity In Five Latin American Countries: Iea International Civic And Citizenship Education Study 2016 Latin American Report, Wolfram Schulz, John Ainley, Cristián Cox, Tim Friedman

Civics and Citizenship Assessment

ICCS 2016 was the second cycle of the IEA Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS). ICCS studies the ways in which education systems from around the world prepare young people to undertake their roles as citizens in society. In Latin America, this area of learning is set within particular challenges and contexts. Compared to established Western democracies, most countries in this region returned to democratic rule only three or four decades ago or even more recently, and their political, social, and economic stability continues to be called into question. Surveys have consistently found that commitment to democracy among adults in …

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Sustaining Collective Self-Governance And Collective Action: A Constitutional Role Morality For Presidents And Members Of Congress, Neil S. Siegel Jan 2018

Sustaining Collective Self-Governance And Collective Action: A Constitutional Role Morality For Presidents And Members Of Congress, Neil S. Siegel

Faculty Scholarship

In the United States today, the behavior of the political branches is generally viewed as more damaging to the American constitutional system than is the behavior of the federal courts. Yet constitutional law scholarship continues to focus primarily on judges and judging. This Article suggests that such scholarship should develop for presidents and members of Congress what it has long advocated for judges: a role morality that imposes normative limits on the exercise of official discretion over and above strictly legal limits. The Article first grounds a role morality for federal elected officials in two purposes of the U.S. Constitution …

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