Digital Commons Network^™

Police Violence In Brazil, Kyra Moon

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“This was just the beginning. They want war, and they‟ll get war. The problem of trafficking will only be resolved with blood. It is the only language they understand.” This was the response of Mario Azevedo, chief delegate of the 21st police precinct in the Bonsucsso neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, after drug traffickers killed three police officers. Three days after that assault, one hundred and twenty heavily armed police officers stormed into the Nova Brasilia favela (the Brazilian term for slum or shantytown) and killed thirteen residents, four of which were minors. Press reports initially described this incident in …

Violence Against Sex Workers In Latin America: Pervasiveness, Impunity, And Implications, Stephanie A. Bell

Human Rights & Human Welfare

On December 17, 2005, two transgendered sex workers in Guatemala City were shot in the head, one fatally. Witnesses—including the survivor—alleged that police forces shot the victims. Human rights advocates have argued that the attack was part of a broader social cleansing campaign that has targeted all sex workers.

Sex workers in Latin America are subjected to violence regularly. This violence varies greatly, but its pervasiveness and the impunity for perpetrators are two common themes. Violence against sex workers comes from many different sources: police, pimps, johns, serial killers, gang members and others. The violence also takes many forms, including …

Community, Conversation, And Conflict: A Study Of Deliberation And Moderation In A Collaborative Political Weblog, Samantha Isabella Soma

Dissertations and Theses

Concerns about the feasibility of the Internet as an appropriate venue for deliberation have emerged based on the adverse effects of depersonalization, anonymity, and lack of accountability on the part of online discussants. As in face-to-face communication, participants in online conversations are best situated to determine for themselves what type of communication is appropriate. Earlier research on Usenet groups was not optimistic, but community-administered moderation may provide a valuable tool for online political discussion groups who wish to support and enforce deliberative communication among a diverse or disagreeing membership.

This research examines individual comments and their rating and moderation within …

Traditions Of Philanthropic Order, Christine Dunn Henderson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Individuals act more or less simultaneously as economic agents, citizens, and participants in civil society. Their interactions and their ways of fulfilling these roles take many forms. Not all of them can be said to be self-organizing, yet in several instances patterns of organization emerge spontaneously without being deliberately designed. Of course, the market economy—or “catallaxy,” as F. A. Hayek called it—remains the best example of such “spontaneous orders.” But there are others. Gus diZerega (2000), for example, has identified science and democracy as being similarly constituted by self-referential, self-organizing (some authors prefer the term autopoietic) processes. In this paper …

More Than A Cultural Celebration: The Politics Of Chinese New Year In Post-Suharto Indonesia, Chang Yau Hoon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In the aftermath of the May 1998 riots that forced President Suharto to step down, ethnic Chinese received unprecedented freedom to assert their long suppressed cultural and religious identity. Following the transition from assimilation to multiculturalism, for the first time in over three decades Chinese culture became more visible and ethnic Chinese could finally enjoy the freedom to celebrate Chinese New Year (Imlek) publicly. This article focuses on the politics of the re-emergent Chinese New Year celebration in the Indonesian public sphere. It demonstrates the significance of Imlek as an ethnic symbol to Chinese-Indonesians. Borrowing Hobsbawm’s concept of “invented tradition”, …

Presidential Success In Congress: Factors That Determine The President's Ability To Influcence Congressional Voting, Christine Gibbs, '09

Honors Projects

This study examines the factors that contribute to presidential success in Congress. Results show that, overall, presidential popularity, the president's party's margin of control in Congress and the misery index positively and significantly affect presidential success in Congress, whereas party unity, presidential effort and saliency are, overall, not significant determinants of success. The study also demonstrates that the honeymoon period does not increase a president's success rate. The results indicate that these variables interact differently within foreign policy than domestic policy and in the Senate than the House.

Trust On The Internet: A Virtual Reality?, Adam Clark, '09

Honors Projects

Social capital has recently gained popularity, but it is not a new topic. The relationship between civic engagement and trust has been well tested, and it has been used in the past to help diagnose the well being of a society. Unfortunately with evolving technology, some of this research may be now obsolete. The Internet has changed the way that people communicate and learn. Since the Internet has reached such high proliferation rates, especially among the younger generations, it is likely to have an effect on the relationship between civic engagement and trust. Using NES survey data from 1996 to …

Inside The Red Box: North Korea's Post-Totalitarian Politcs, Patrick Mceachern

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation proposes a radically new understanding of North Korean politics under Kim Jong Il and carefully tests this theoretical proposition. Current models describe North Korea as some form of a highly centralized state: totalitarian, personalistic, or corporatist. By contrast, I argue that these monolithic ideal types fail to capture the institutional pluralism that helps distinguish the younger Kim’s rein from his father’s. While Kim Il Sung’s rule can be described as totalitarian, Kim Jong Il governs through a more decentralized post-totalitarian, institutionally plural state. Kim Jong Il’s government is highly centralized, but it is less centralized than his father’s. …

A Palestinian State, Jennifer A. Hileman-Tabios

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Should an independent, sovereign state of Palestine have the right to exist? The establishment of an independent Palestinian state is important because it could possibly end an extended period of violence with Israel, where civilian casualties have been high, and it could help to solidify a foundation of political tolerance and acceptance in the Middle East. Under the proposed two-state solution, an independent Palestinian state is possible. However, to determine if a Palestinian state is viable, it will be necessary to examine internal political struggles, economic resources, systems of communication, political systems and internal and external political policies. This qualitative …

Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction Into Development Planning In Egypt. Case Study: The Impact Of Avian Influenza Crisis On Traditional Poultry Keepers' Livelihoods In Fayoum, Shahdan Arram

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The study provides an overview of the literature on disaster risk reduction, its relation with various development approaches and the livelihood framework. The study also examines the theoretical debates surrounding the relation between disasters and sustainable development. In addition, the study explores the various disasters that occurred in Egypt between 1990 and 2008. The study explores â rapid onsetâ natural disasters in Egypt (earthquakes and floods), a number of frequent human-made disasters (road, maritime, train accidents and fires), and â slow onsetâ hybrid disasters (Avian and Human Influenza and landslides) and their scope, causes, and implications on the livelihoods of …

The Declining Significance Of Presidential Races?, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Osamudia R. James

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Plea For Reality, Roy A. Schotland

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Legend has it that a long-ago Chief Justice of Texas said, “No judicial selection system is worth a damn.” This view has been all but proven by American experience; nothing else in American law matches this subject in terms of the volume of written debate and endless sweat spent working for change. The selection system for federal judges is unchanged but far from untroubled, and

the States have never used a common method . . . . [O]ne can identify almost as many different methods . . . as there are States in the Union . . . . Moreover, …

Impact Of Interest Group Testimony On Lawmaking In Congress, Nina Therese Kasniunas

Dissertations

Building on interest group and congressional committee literature, the interest group impact theory is created to explicate the role of interest groups in congressional committee hearings. This theory applies not only to the influence interest groups have in congressional hearings, but also to the access given to them to be able to participate. The theory maintains that interest groups are necessary to legislators in this capacity since they provide valuable information relating to politics, elections and policy. Resource rich interest groups with visibility as experts in a policy area are expected to be given more access and influence particularly to …

Lack Of A Will Or Of A Way? Taking A Capability Approach For Analysing Disability Policy Shortcomings And Ensuring Programme Impact In Afghanistan, Jean-Francois Trani, Parul Bakhshi, Ayan A. Noor, Ashraf Mashkoor

Brown School Faculty Publications

The present paper attempts to analyse some of the shortcomings that have impeded efforts in the field of disability in Afghanistan. After an overview of recent disability initiatives, this article presents elements that have contributed to the limited impact. The context of a Conflict Affected Fragile State (CAFS) makes particularly intricate the development of state-capacity as well as the delivery of basic services for the population. To overcome identified gaps, it is argued that Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach (CA) constitutes a relevant framework for designing disability policy and implementation. While the definition of human development has evolved considerably over the …

Taiwan Top Five, Paul Katz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

As we prepare to ring out 2008, here are a few thoughts about some of the leading stories that have shaped Taiwan during the past year:

1. Back and Blue: Ma Ying-jeou sweeps into office as Taiwan’s new president, winning a convincing majority of the popular vote based on a platform promising a more stable relationship with China, economic prosperity, and clean government. Cross-Straits tensions have declined markedly, while the opening of direct links should bring great benefits to the citizens of both China and Taiwan. At the same time, however, the economy remains in the doldrums (see #2) …

Zeng Jingyan Accepts Hu Jia’S Sakharov Prize

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In late October, the European Parliament announced that it would award this year’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Hu Jia, an activist for HIV/AIDS and the environment currently imprisoned in Beijing. Hu and his wife, Zeng Jingyan, have been adept at using new media to share their message of human rights activism with an international audience, making Hu Jia better known outside China than inside it.

The award ceremony was held December 17. China has continued to protest the award.

Zeng Jingyan, who remains under surveillance at the couple’s apartment, accepted the award via video, subsequently posted on …

Selectivity In Imaging The First Emperor, K. E. Brashier

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The story of Qin may vaunt grandiose armies and new empires that encompass all under heaven, but it also extends to more humble images:

Li Si, [the chief minister of Qin], was a man of Shangcai in Chu. In his youth, when he was a minor clerk in the province, he noticed rats eating filth in the latrines of the clerks’ hostel; and if they approached a man or dog, they were generally scared of them. But when Si entered a granary, he observed that the rats in the granary were eating the stored-up grain, living underneath the main chamber …

China Celebrates Human Rights, Jeremy Paltiel

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Today, December 12, 2008 Xinhua reports that China’s President and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Hu Jintao sent a letter to a symposium held by the China Association for the Study of Human Rights to commemorate International Human Rights Day, the 60th Anniversary of the passage by the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In his letter, Hu avers that since the founding of New China in 1949 China has made steady progress in the protection of human rights according to China’s “national situation” culminating in the solemn enshrinement of the principle …

Reading Recommendations

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Gems on China often appear in unexpected places, and we were recently alerted to a handful worth looking into at the Literary Review of Canada. These three pieces review recent works in Chinese studies that touch on issues central to current discussions on the China blogosphere. We’ve included short excerpts below, but encourage you to make the leap to the longer versions.

The first is a review by Timothy Cheek, the author of a book on Mao that we flagged in one of our first posts last January, and a regular commentator on contemporary China, as here and here. In …

From Iron Girls To Oriental Beauties, Hongmei Li

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In a piece I did for the Huffington Post on women and the Olympics, I provided a brief overview of the history of ideas about feminine beauty in China and their links to concepts of modernity. This post supplements it by looking at the shift in representations of women from celebrating iron girls to extolling Oriental beauties over the course of the still relatively short history of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

During the three decades that followed the 1949 founding of the PRC, one goal promoted in official discourse was that of erasing gender differences and promoting gender …

Whose Peoples’ Games?, James Leibold

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

With the self-professed slogans of the Green Olympics, High-tech Olympics and the People’s Olympics, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) should have anticipated criticism. It left nothing to chance in hosting the world’s athletes and spectators—gleaming stadia, smiling faces and blue skies: all as ordered. But as many Western observers noted, BOCOG forgot to invite the Chinese people—with security guards, CCTV cameras and robot-like volunteers ensuring little spontaneity or popular emotion at the so-called People’s Games.

In the wake of the unprecedented media coverage of China’s global “coming out party,” few have paused to consider who and …

Zhao Ziyang’S Legacy And 6/4 Memories

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

As we prepare to mark the 30th anniversary of one turning point in the history of Chinese dissent (the appearance of Wei Jingsheng’s “Fifth Modernization” poster on December 5, 1978, the subject of a post we’ll run later this week), a debate on another major turning point (the 1989 protests and June 4th Massacre) may be re-emerging within China ahead of its 30th anniversary. One of the earliest reports (in English) that the Ministry of Culture had sought the resignation of the editor of the well-regarded magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu over its recent cover story praising purged leader Zhao Ziyang was …

Rocking The Vote: An Analysis Of What Makes The Millennial Generation Vote And The Correlation Of Civic Engagement To Empathy, Gabrielle Michelle Martinez

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Judicial Behavior Of Justice Souter In Criminal Cases And The Denial Of A Conservative Counterrevolution, Scott P. Johnson

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “The following article documents the judicial career of Justice David Souter from his time served as an attorney general and state judge in New Hampshire until his recent tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court. Based upon his written opinions and individual votes, Justice Souter clearly has evolved into a more liberal jurist than ideological conservatives would have preferred in the area of criminal justice. Over the course of his judicial career, Justice Souter has gained respect as an intellectual scholar by attempting to completely understand both sides of a dispute and applying precedent and legal rules in a flexible—albeit …

Latinos And The 2008 Presidential Elections: A Visual Data Base, Laura Limonic

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines the impact of Latino voters on the 2008 presidential election at both the national and state levels.

Methods: All data in this report were derived from the exit polls from Edison Media Research as published by CNN and Pew Hispanic Center’s analysis of the exit polls from Edison Media Research as published by CNN.

Results: Nationwide, Latinos voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama over John McCain. Obama received 67% of the Latino vote, compared to 31% for McCain. Obama also received the majority of votes from other minority groups. Latinos increased their share of the national vote …

Unintended Consequences Of Repression: Alliance Formation In South Korea's Democracy Movement (1970-1979), Paul Y. Chang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Research regarding the impact of repression on social movements has yielded conflicting findings; some argue that repression decreases the total quantity of protest events while others argue that it motivates protest. To move beyond this impasse, various scholars have suggested exploring how repression influences the quality of social movements. This study assesses the impact repression had on the information of alliances between different social groups participating in South Korea's democracy movement. Results from negative binomial regression analyses show that repression facilitated the formation of alliances between movement actors at a time when the overall number of protest events decreased. This …

Agritourism As A Viable Strategy For Economic Diversification: A Case Study Analysis Of Policy Options For The Bahamas, Erecia Hepburn

All Dissertations

This research examines the prospects for developing an economic diversification policy for The Bahamas, utilizing agritourism. The Bahamas is plagued with the dominance of one traditional sector, tourism combined with the lack of economic innovation and the inability to maintain domestic demand for food security, which has the potential for economic crisis if there are any serious 'external shocks' or setbacks in mainstream tourism. Such a possible drop in tourism is most evident from experiences in 2001 with the Straw Market fire of Sept 4th, and the terrorist attacks in America on September 11th, coupled with the escalating cost of …

In Case You Missed It: Post-Mao China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last year, the Association for Asian Studies inaugurated a new series of booklets under their “Resources for Teaching About Asia” branch called “Key Issues in Asian Studies.” The first two booklets in the series were published in 2007: Political Rights in Post-Mao China by Merle Goldman and Gender, Sexuality, and Body Politics in Modern Asia by Michael Peletz. (Those interested in applying to write a “Key Issues” booklet should see the AAS’s author guidelines.)

Goldman’s book on political rights in contemporary China canvases the factions that dominated political discussions in the post-Mao era, and is key reading for those who …

Protest In China: Further Readings

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

With protest in the news, here are some places to turn for accessible academic readings that help place unrest into perspective. One thing worth noting in the list is that while some touch upon, none specifically focuses on Tiananmen per se. The events of 1989 are important; we’ve put up material related to them before; we doubtless will again, especially as the twentieth anniversary of the June 4th Massacre approaches. Still, sometimes the shadow of the 1989 protests can make it harder to discern the meaning of current events, especially when the outbursts don’t take the form of student-led demonstrations. …

A Reader: Protests And Public Relations

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This morning the Los Angeles Times reported on a riot in Gansu that was touched off over disagreements on city planning issues. The report comes on the heels of an uptick in news in the last week on local protests in China. It is unclear if this increased coverage represents an actual increase in local protests (based on reports from the Chinese government in recent years, there are hundreds of local protests each week in China) or if the economic crisis has simply increased the relevance of these protests.

But much of the coverage we’ve been reading has been less …