Models and Methods Commons^™

Is It Cohesion Or Diversion? Domestic Instability And The Use Of Force In International Crises, Cigdem V. Sirin

Cigdem V. Sirin

This study asserts that cohesionary—rather than diversionary—motives primarily influence the propensity of political leaders to use external force in international crises in times of domestic turmoil. Specifically, I contend that mass violence leads political leaders to engage in cohesionary tactics to achieve and maintain social order in their country for political survival. Employing random effects probit analyses with International Crisis Behavior (ICB) data for one-hundred and thirty-nine countries from 1918 to 2005, I find that increased mass violence is more likely than other forms of domestic problems (be it an economic downturn or government instability) to instigate the external use …

Scarcity-Induced Domestic Conflict: Examining The Interactive Effects Of Environmental Scarcity And ‘Ethnic’ Population Pressures, Cigdem V. Sirin

Cigdem V. Sirin

This study argues that environmental scarcity is more likely to result in civil conflict in countries that experience ‘ethnic’ population pressures (i.e. where the size of the largest minority group is close to parity with the majority group). I refer to this argument as the ‘parity-threat’ approach to the study of scarcity-induced domestic conflict. I empirically test my argument by analysing time-series cross-section data for the period 1979–2000 using four alternative environmental indicators: (1) ecological footprint, (2) biocapacity, (3) scarcity of ecological reserves and (4) water scarcity. The results demonstrate that environmental scarcity increases the probability of civil conflict when …

Decision-Making Techniques Used By Elected Officials, Michael Gordon

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Politicians often make decisions that lead to contradictory outcomes from situations with seemingly similar circumstances and related factors. Recent examples include the U.S. reaction to the uprising in Iran contrasted with the call for the ousting of president Hosni Mubarak after the 18 Day Revolution in Egypt.

This frustrating reality, frequently based on perceived risks of publication of state secrets, has various far-reaching effects. Two effects of this reality include the loss of trust in government and government officials to do the right thing as well as the frequency of market fluctuations.

What Is Conservatism?, Heidi Peters

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

The re-branding of the right manifested itself in conservative movements and gatherings across the country in-between 2008 & 2010. One of those events included Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally on August 28, 2010. This research project is a case study that illustrates how the conservative political ideology is defined and rejuvenated after massive defeat.

Booms And Busts: Russia And Its Oil, 1970 To 2011 And Beyond, Cliff Gaddy

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

For 40 years Russia’s domestic economic and political development and its foreign policy ambitions have been driven by the varying fortunes of its oil and gas wealth. The story continues to play out today, with crucial global consequences. Russia remains the world’s largest producer of oil and gas. It holds the third largest foreign exchange reserves in the world. Understanding the role of Russia’s energy wealth is key to understanding what role the country may play in world energy security and geopolitics in the years ahead.

Network Legitimacy And Accountability In A Developmental Perspective, Richard K. Ghere

Political Science Faculty Publications

Public networks typically function beyond the lines of the hierarchical authorities that hold bureaucracies accountable, as is shown here in the case of a business-dominant network that exhibited ethically questionable behaviors at the expense of its community credibility. Public networks can build external legitimacy by engaging in critical organization learning processes, much the way some nongovernmental organizations respond to a diversity of stakeholders.

Discourse And Argument In Instituting The Governance Of Social Law, Richard R. Weiner

Faculty Publications

Social Rights were initially understood as the rights of a pluralism of instituted associations; and transformed to the rights of distributive justice associated with the politics of access to welfare state corporatism. More recently, they have been understood as the rights of multicultural difference; and now as the rights to complexity (Zolo), and rights to consideration of polycontextural effect vis-a-vis transnational corporations (Teubner). Social rights are no longer subject positions versus political bodies, but also against social institutions, in particular, vis-a-vis centers of economic power.

Federal Earmarks In The State Of Georgia, Jeffrey Lazarus

Georgia Journal of Public Policy

Earmarks have been controversial ever since becoming a prominent part of the congressional spending process. Critics charge that earmarks fund projects with little or no economic value (for instance Ted Stevens’ “Bridge to Nowhere,”) but instead allow Congress members to direct government spending to campaign contributors (the charge leading to a federal investigation of the now-defunct lobbying firm PMA Group). On the other side of the controversy, congressional earmarks do fund a number of community improvements which are very valuable, at least locally. In Georgia, the fiscal 2010 appropriations bills included earmarks which allocated $450,000 to update College Park’s emergency …

Territorios Digitales: El Camino A La Sociedad De La Innovación. El Caso De San Luis, Argentina, Lucas Jolías, Susana Finquelievich, Alejandro Prince

Lucas Jolías

El artículo describe los resultados de una investigación de campo que estudia los alcances del programa San Luis Digital en Argentina, originado por el gobierno provincial y en el que los municipios de la Provincia han participado activamente. Se hace foco sobre los procesos de innovación social basados en la utilización de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) promovidos por la Gobierno administración provincial a través de acuerdos con otros actores sociales. La metodología utilizada para la investigación fue principalmente la de meta research, es decir la integración de modelos, teorías, datos e información provenientes de diversas …

Etapas De La Inclusión Digital En Argentina: Difusión Y Adopción De Tic, Lucas Jolías, Alejandro Prince

Lucas Jolías

La inclusión digital es uno de los principales desafíos de los gobiernos en los próximos años, pero para cumplir con éste objetivo se debe prestar atención a las particularidades de la adopción de TIC en nuestra región, contemplando las diferencias socioeconómicas, culturales y motivacionales. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la inclusión digital en América Latina y el Caribe, con particular atención al caso de Argentina. Las hipótesis más importantes pueden resumirse en dos: primero, que los niveles de inclusión digital en la actualidad son en gran medida producto del mercado y la capacidad económica y de consumo de …

Political Information And Emotions In Ethnic Conflict Interventions, Cigdem V. Sirin, José D. Villalobos, Nehemia Geva

Cigdem V. Sirin

This study explores the effects of political information and anger on the public’s cognitive processing and foreign policy preferences concerning third-party interventions in ethnic conflict. Our study employs an experimental design wherein we manipulate policy-specific information by generating ad hoc political information related to ethnic conflict. The statistical methods of analysis are logistic regression and analysis of covariance. The results demonstrate that both political information and anger have a significant impact on an individual’s cognitive processing and policy preferences regarding ethnic conflict interventions. Specifically, political information increases one’s proclivity to choose non-military policy options, whereas anger instigates support for aggressive …

El Desarrollo De La Ciencia Política En México. Una Mirada A Través De Los Estudios Sobre El Estado De La Disiciplina, J. R. Joel Flores-Mariscal

J. R. Joel Flores-Mariscal

Se presenta una revisión de los títulos publicados hasta 2009 que han analizado la situación de la ciencia política en México o algún aspecto de ésta. Destaca el crecimiento y la diversificación de autores e instituciones, de las revistas publicadas y de los enfoques y temas recurrentes. Hasta fines de los años noventa se ven autores recurrentes y momentos de auge en las publicaciones asociados a coyunturas como congresos, procesos de modificación a planes de estudio, etc., Después de estos años hay la emergencia de nuevos autores y enfoques de estudio, y que el desarrollo de estos trabajos en su …

Bureaucracy And The U.S. Response To Mass Atrocity, Gregory Brazeal

Gregory Brazeal

The U.S. response to mass atrocity has followed a predictable pattern of disbelief, rationalization, evasion, and retrospective expressions of regret. The pattern is consistent enough that we should be skeptical of chalking up the United States’ failures solely to a shifting array of isolated historical contingencies, from post-Vietnam fatigue in the case of the Khmer Rouge to the Clinton administration’s recoil against humanitarian interventions after Somalia. It is implausible to suggest that the United States would have acted to mitigate or end mass atrocities but for the specific historical contingencies that happen to accompany each outbreak of violence. This essay …

How Much Does A Belief Cost?: Revisiting The Marketplace Of Ideas, Gregory Brazeal

Gregory Brazeal

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is often credited with creating the metaphor of “the marketplace of ideas,” though he did not use the exact phrase and his argument for free speech was not based on distinctively economic reasoning. Truly economic investigations of the marketplace of ideas have progressed in step with developments and trends in the law and economics literature. These investigations have tended to be one-sided, with writers focusing primarily either on the production of ideas (for example, Posner) or their consumption (for example, behavioral law and economics), without considering in depth how producers and consumers interact. This may …

Intervenção Estatal, Centralização Política E Reforma Burocrática: O Significado Dos Departamentos Administrativos No Estado Novo, Adriano Codato

Adriano Codato

The purpose of this paper is to expose and explain a precise moment of the Brazilian political-institutional evolution. It explores the conflicts that are at the origin of choice and implementation of a new politico-administrative system in post-1930. The paper explores the origins, design and objectives that drove the invention of a bureaucratic apparatus which, together with the Federal Interventor, not only controls the regional political elites, but also contributed to the organization of state power on a national basis, cooperating to facilitate state capacity: the Administrative Department. I analyze the political context, legal history and the institutional innovations of …

O Espaço Político Segundo Marx, Adriano Codato

Adriano Codato

This articles estates that Marx s historical works allows us to uphold that the political dimension is neither a field (of social struggles for strategic positions) nor a system (of functionally integrated institutions) and not even a juridical-political structure (apprehensible through its class effects in the social world). The political dimension of society may be conceived, by classical Marxism, as a form whose properties are similar to that of the commodity form. Consequently, practical politics can neither be apprehended nor analyzed as a social appearance, which makes the expression political scene very unsuitable to describe the way Marx understands the …

Reseña De "Making Social Sciences More Scientific: The Need For Predictive Models", De Rein Taagepera, Javier Martín Reyes

Javier Martín Reyes

Review of Taagepera, Rein, "Making Social Sciences More Scientific: The Need for Predictive Models", Oxford University Press, New York, 2008, 254 pages.

Central And Eastern Europe: Europeanization And Westernization Through Accession Conditionality, Michael K. Marriott

Michael K Marriott

With 27 member states, the EU is not a body in and of itself, but rather is a central authority constituted of its member states. In order to create a reasonable level of coherence within the Union, the national politics of each member state must undergo a process of Europeanization so as to find a common ground for the members to work together. This leads to the logical question: ‘to what extent are national politics Europeanized?’ Although important to consider, this question is overly broad for the purposes of this paper. A more appropriate question, one that exists within the …

Collective Choice, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

This short nontechnical article reviews the Arrow Impossibility Theorem and its implications for rational democratic decisionmaking. In the 1950s, economist Kenneth J. Arrow proved that no method for producing a unique social choice involving at least three choices and three actors could satisfy four seemingly obvious constraints that are practically constitutive of democratic decisionmaking. Any such method must violate such a constraint and risks leading to disturbingly irrational results such and Condorcet cycling. I explain the theorem in plain, nonmathematical language, and discuss the history, range, and prospects of avoiding what seems like a fundamental theoretical challenge to the possibility …

¿Gobernadores Eternos? Un Análisis Comparativo De Las Reelecciones En Argentina Y Brasil, Lucas Jolías, Augusto Reina

Lucas Jolías

Cuando se plantea el tema de las reelecciones a nivel provincial emerge una idea directa y sencilla: esto es que las reelecciones son instituciones forzadas por los gobernadores para enquistarse en el poder. Y que, de forma consecuente, estos mecanismos permiten que ciertas oligarquías políticas provinciales se mantengan en el poder a su gusto. Pero, tal como queremos plasmar en el presente artículo, achacarle tantas cosas a la reelección es sobreestimar los efectos de la institución. Plantear el tema en términos tan simples pone de lado otros procesos políticos que facilitan la estabilidad de las elites en la cima del …