Political Science Commons^™

Change We Can Believe In?, Katherine Hite

Human Rights & Human Welfare

We were warned to temper our high hopes for a bold new Obama era of human rights. After all, President Obama would have “a lot on his plate”: a serious economic crisis, high unemployment, over forty million people without health insurance, “two wars,” global volatility. But it’s very hard not to be dismayed by some of the continuities from the Bush to the Obama administration, as well as by some Janus-faced policy decisions with damning human rights implications. When it comes to US-Latin America relations, such decisions include: professing support for progressive immigration reform while expanding regressive anti-immigration measures; claiming …

From Inspiring Hope To Taking Action: Obama And Human Rights, Stephen James

Human Rights & Human Welfare

While President George H. Bush spoke of a new world order, and his “misunderestimated” son mangled the English language at countless press conferences, with Barack Obama the USA now has a talented orator as a president. There is a new word order. But does the new and skillful rhetoric match the reality when it comes to human rights?

Tea Leaves Of The Economy: General Elections In 2010?, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Incumbent governments with good economic track records would typically capitalise on economic downturns to seize a political advantage by calling for early elections. Will the ruling People's Action Party do so nect year in view of the strong economic perormances in recent months?

Who Governs Energy? The Challenges Facing Global Energy Governance, Ann Florini, Benjamin K. Sovacool

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article conceptualizes the energy problems facing society from a global governance perspective. It argues that a notion of "global energy governance," taken to mean international collective action efforts undertaken to manage and distribute energy resources and provide energy services, offers a meaningful and useful framework for assessing energy-related challenges. The article begins by exploring the concepts of governance, global governance, and global energy governance. It then examines some of the existing institutions in place to establish and carry out rules and norms governing global energy problems and describes the range of institutional design options available to policymakers. It briefly …

December Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

Obama's speech to the United Nations General Assembly (September, 2009).

and

Does Obama believe in human rights? By Bret Stephens. The Wall Street Journal. October 19, 2009.

The Statesman's Dilemma: Peace Or Justice? Or Neither?, Henry Krisch

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Just as I sat down to comment on President Obama and human rights, I glanced today's (November 19, 2009) The New York Times and found several opinion essays-careful in fact, thoughtful in tone, reasonable in argument-critical of Obama's approach during his recent visit to China toward Chinese human rights violations (mainly concerning Tibet but including also imprisoned lawyers, internet censorship, and persecution of Falun Gong.) The essayists considered various tactics for exerting American pressure on China regarding human rights. Common to all of them was a tone of rueful admiration for the political and diplomatic skill with which China fended …

Why Foreign Counterinsurgency Campaigns Fail, Donald Frederick Butler

Doctoral Dissertations

Why have foreign counterinsurgency operations had such low success rates since 1945? While operations of this type succeeded at the rate of 85.71% during the period of 1816-1945, they declined by 56.30 percentage points to just 29.49% during period of 1945-1997 (Sarkees, 2000: 123-144). This occurred even though foreign powers were often fighting in the same territories where they had previously been overwhelmingly victorious.

I argue that military defeats suffered by European states during the Second World War convinced the peoples of the developing world that colonial control could be successfully challenged. As guerrilla struggles emerged in post-war Asia and …

Suboptimal Executive Privilege, Stephen C. N. Lilley

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Media Gender Bias In The 1984 And 2008 Vice Presidential Elections, Katherine Shaunesi Reeves

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Media coverage in political campaigns helps shape public opinion and can be a factor in people determining how to vote. Thus, bias evident in the coverage of political candidates should be a concern for a society which values fair elections. In the 2008 general election, for the first time in 24 years, a woman was on a major party ticket. The treatment of female candidates historically has been sexist. To understand the media coverage of Sarah Palin I chose to look at editorials in The New York Times. I compared her editorial references to Joe Biden’s in The Times. Then, …

An Investigation Into The Use Of Geospatial Technologies As Part Of Disaster Management Efforts Related To The Asian Tsunami Of 2004, Robert William Redding Jr.

Dissertations

On the 26th of December, 2004, a tsunami impacted the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean, immediately killing over two hundred and eighty thousand people, displacing another million people, and initially causing at least US$10 billion in damage. The response by the international community was swift and massive. Disaster decision-makers who led their organization's responses to the tsunami used geospatial information to support their decision-making efforts with mixed success. When describing their use of geospatial technologies during the response, a select set of disaster decision-makers provided information about how they used geospatial information, they described what worked and what did not …

Dialogic Cosmopolitanism And Global Justice, Eduard Christiaan Jordaan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Although the term “cosmopolitan-communitarian debate” never really caught on, a national-global fault line remains prominent in debates about global justice. “Dialogic cosmopolitanism” holds the promise of bridging this alleged fault line by accepting many of the communitarian criticisms against cosmopolitanism and following what can be described as a communitarian path to cosmopolitanism. This article identifies and describes four key elements that distinguish dialogic cosmopolitanism: a respect for difference; a commitment to genuine dialogue; an open, hesitant and self-problematising attitude on the part of the moral subject; and an undertaking to expand the boundaries of moral concern to the point of …

Democracy And The Environment In Latin America, Javier Albert Escamilla

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the ability of democratic and non-democratic states alike to protect the environment. Democracy has long been an important concept in the study of politics and environmental protection is an increasingly important issue in world politics. Advocates of democracy claim democratic states are better able to protect the environment than non-democracies. In contrast there are those that argue democracy's emphasis on individual rights leads to excessive resource consumption. This thesis employs a mixed methods approach to determine if democratic countries protect the environment more than their non-democratic counterparts. In short democracies do protect the environment better than non-democracies …

Dialogic Cosmopolitanism And Global Justice, Eduard Jordaan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Although the term “cosmopolitan-communitarian debate” never really caught on, a national-global fault line remains prominent in debates about global justice. “Dialogic cosmopolitanism” holds the promise of bridging this alleged fault line by accepting many of the communitarian criticisms against cosmopolitanism and following what can be described as a communitarian path to cosmopolitanism. This article identifies and describes four key elements that distinguish dialogic cosmopolitanism: a respect for difference; a commitment to genuine dialogue; an open, hesitant and self-problematising attitude on the part of the moral subject; and an undertaking to expand the boundaries of moral concern to the point of …

Important Or Impotent? Radical Right Political Parties And Public Policy In Germany And Austria, Marcella J. Myers

Dissertations

Across Western Europe throughout the 1990s radical right political parties emerged and gained some electoral success. Since that time, particularly in the face of the popularity of the National Front in France and the Freedom Party in Austria, many studies have been conducted examining the voting behavior, party membership and ideologies of these parties, and what the parties mean to democratic governments. Largely unexamined are the effects of radical right political parties on public policy. This study attempts to evaluate the effect of radical right parties on public policy by using a most similar, case study research design, relying heavily …

The Politics And Consequences Of Stakeholder Participation In International Development Evaluation, Anne Cullen

Dissertations

Participatory approaches to evaluation have long been vogue in the international development evaluation community. However, despite their widespread use, there is a dearth of research on the impact of stakeholder participation in international development evaluations. Although proponents of participatory approaches to international development evaluation assert many advantages of their use, the evidence to support these claims is largely anecdotal. Similarly, critics of participatory approaches do not have empirical data on which to base their assertions. Further confusing the matter are multiple and conflicting definitions of stakeholder and participation. Some interpret stakeholders to mean funders while others view stakeholders as those …

Nicola Pratt, Democracy And Authoritarianism In The Arab World (London: Lynne Rienner, 2007, 235 Pp.), Mehmet Ozkan

Mehmet OZKAN

No abstract provided.

The Taiwan Question And The One-China Policy: Legal Challenges With Renewed Momentum, Pasha L. Hsieh

Pasha L. HSIEH

No abstract provided.

Ideologia E Utopias Nas Mais Recentes Constituintes Brasileira E Portuguesa: Algumas Linhas De Leitura, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Based upon a political compromise, in which « democratic socialists » and « social democrats » were the main protagonists, the ideology of Portuguese Constitution of 1976 was discrete, subtle. And ulterior constitutional revisions confirmed that fondamental aspect. Of course, utopia was present. But, even more present was the « hope principle ». We believe that the Brazilean constituent assembly, with the original importance of popular contributions, also had hope principle’s decisive influence. But the dinamics of the constituent assembly moderated, since the very beggining, the verbal signs of less discret ideologies. Utopia, neverthless, is very present in the aim …

Chongqing Castle

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“In Chongqing, the old town of Ciqikou looms over a more modern addition by the riverbank. This kid was more interested in her bouncy throne than in the juxtaposition of her city’s ancient past and booming present.”

—Alec Ash

Lu Xun And Translation

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I recently wrote an essay called “China’s Orwell” for the Asian edition of Time Magazine. In the article, I deal with the conundrum of Lu Xun’s enormous influence within China yet continued relative obscurity outside of the Sinophone world. Among other things, I ponder the possibility that an attractive new collection of his complete fiction, which features spirited translations by Julia Lovell and was published as part of the Penguin Classics series (click here for a “Paper Republic” interview with the translator about the book), could help right this imbalance by introducing figures such as Ah-Q to Western readers who …

A Fateful Year For Climate Change, William J. Antholis

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Since 1979, 20% of the polar ice cap has melted away. While the public is aware of climate change, the urgency to action is not there. Climate change is also an issue of national security, but enforcement of the the Kyoto and Copenhagen treaties is hampered.

The Obama Administration's Challenges After The 'War On Science': Reforming Staffing Practices And Protecting Scientific Integrity In The Executive Branch, Justin Vaughn, José Villalobos

José D. Villalobos

In this article, we examine the difficult leadership position President Barack Obama inherited as he took office with respect to science and technology policy making and implementation, particularly following the Bush administration and years of the so-called "war on science." We contend that the Obama administration's challenge is not only to take substantive policy action, but also to reform certain administrative practices, particularly in light of the previous administration's practice of the politics of strategic vacancies, a managerial technique that rearranges an agency's ideological inclinations not through the usual forms of active politicization (i.e., by filling the appointee ranks with …

Obama In China: Final Thoughts

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

President Obama’s trip to China is now in the past, though there might be a postscript when the U.N. Climate Change Conference convenes in Copenhagen next month, as how China and the U.S. would cooperate (or not) in dealing with environmental issues was a major topic during Obama’s meetings with Chinese leaders. As a final look back at Obama’s first trip to China, here are several readings that put his visit in a larger context:

1. Timothy Garton Ash writes about “Two Ways for West to Meet China”, arguing that Western countries could choose between two strategies when dealing with …

China’S Lincolnophilia, Alan Wachman

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Abraham Lincoln’s stance on national unity during the U.S. Civil War and his opposition to the institution of slavery have been summoned up by PRC officials, media, and elites in efforts to explain and legitimate their own response to those they disparage as “separatists” in Taiwan and Tibet.

To Beijing, vigorously opposing separatism and preserving Chinese territorial integrity is a cause no less noble than was Abraham Lincoln’s resort to war as a way of preventing the secession of southern states. In its quest for moral authority, Beijing has recalled the rhetoric and …

A Columnist's View Of Capitol Square: Ohio Politics And Government, 1969-2005, Lee Leonard

University of Akron Press Publications

This carefully-selected collection brings together his columns about the major figures, seminal events, and legends from 1969 through 2005. Leonard, the man with no agenda but the truth, covers campaigns and national political conventions, including the famous Democratic primary battles between John Glenn and Howard Metzenbaum in the 1970s. Fully described is the era of the four-term Governor James A. Rhodes, who controlled the Ohio Republican Party for two decades. Among the cast of characters are colorful lobbyist, Tom Dudgeon, who described the legislative process as “The Dance of the Stomping Buzzards,” state Senator Oakley Collins, a southern Ohioan who …

Vietnam Blocks Facebook, Caroline Finlay

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Writer Caroline Finlay has written for China Beat in the past about Southeast Asian news stories that have a China angle. Here, she draws parallels between Internet controls in Vietnam and those in China. She’s written about speech issues in Vietnam before, for instance see “Vietnam Youth Given Rare Chance to Protest–Against China” from May 2008.

Facebook users have begun having difficulty logging on to the social networking site, the Associated Press and the Inter Press Service reported on November 17th.

News agencies are citing an unverified document that says it’s from Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security and states, “For …

“Caijing Is Dead, Long Live Caijing”, Scott Kennedy

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In the past few weeks, the coverage of the fall of Caijing and the exodus of its staff has read almost like an obituary. During its eleven years in production, Caijingbenefitted from protection from patrons as well as the deft leadership of its editor, Hu Shuli, who has a sixth sense for knowing where the boundaries of permissibility sit and how to move them. The result was a record of breaking myriad stories of serious corruption and poor governance. Over the years, a couple issues were temporarily held up for “technical” reasons, but Caijing appeared to have regularly escaped the …

The Good, The Bad, And The Boring: Barack Obama’S China Trip In Review, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Barack Obama spent fewer than three days in China, but his first trip there has been a week-long story in the news world, as countless journalists, academics, and pundits have shared their thoughts about what this visit could do for U.S.-China relations. Now that the president has left the PRC, how did it all go? Obama Administration officials are speaking highly of it, claiming that Obama was forceful in private meetings with Hu Jintao and the rest of the Chinese leadership. And perhaps the devil is in the details, as political scientist David Shambaugh says, speaking favorably of the joint …

Thou Shall Not Kill: Analyzing Democracy's Moderating Effect On Violent Religious Supremacy In Islam, Ariel Morgenstern

Political Science Theses

This research examines the commonly explicated theory that democracy is a moderating force on the public’s support for terrorism. Specifically, I test the hypothesis that living in a democracy will decrease support for terror in Muslim populations. I analyze survey data on support for terrorism from the 2006 Pew Global Attitudes Survey, which has data from 10 nations. I use an ordered logistic regression model to test what determines support for terrorism. The results show that democracy negatively correlates with support for terror. Additionally, I find that opinions toward US policy in the region, including the ‘Global War on Terror’ …

Around The Web…

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. Many of us around here have been spending time over the last couple of years thinking about the growing number of China-India connections (as well as their historical antecedents), so we’re always pleased to find another blog from an Indian journalist or writer covering China. But “China India Citizens’ Initiative” takes the genre a step further, encouraging people-to-people dialogue between Chinese and Indians. Recent post topics include the role of the Dalai Lama, coverage of the Berlin Wall anniversary, and issues in Chinese-Indian trade.

2. Alec Ash of Six (who also contributes bi-weekly photos to China Beat), drew our …