Digital Commons Network^™

The New User: Revisiting The Digital Divide, David S. Lassen, David Magleby

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Though many scholars and commentators are optimistic about the influence of the Internet on American political culture, some decry the presence of a “digital divide” wherein individuals of higher socioeconomic status have greater access to online political tools. I argue that this is an unnecessarily limited view of online political behavior and that analyses of online political engagement should go beyond questions of access to include considerations of individual preference. Using the results from a new survey of 2008 campaign donors, I find that differences between online and offline political participators are largely skill-and interest-based, not demographic. I also present …

Do Muslims Vote Islamic?, Charles Kurzman, Ijlal Naqvi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Islamic parties have won parliamentary elections in several countries in recent years, leading some observers to speculate that Muslims vote Islamic whenever they are given the chance. However, a review of every parliamentary election in Muslim societies over the past 40 years shows that Islamic parties often compete and rarely win—and the freer the election, the worse these parties perform. In addition, an unprecedented collection of Islamic party platforms shows that Islamic parties have transformed since the 1980s, publicly endorsing democracy and women's rights and de-emphasizing shari'a and jihad. This record suggests that Islamic parties have embraced elections more than …

Mujeres En Las Sombras: Un Estudio Sobre El Aborto En Chile, Molly Serventi-Gleeson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mi proyecto consistió en una investigación sobre la situación actual del aborto en Chile. A través de entrevistas con expertos y investigación directa, realicé una análisis de las razones históricas por la redacción de la ley permitiendo el aborto terapéutico, la situación hoy en día y la posibilidad de un cambio en el futuro. El aborto en Chile representa el nexo entre la historia, la política, la economía y la cultura Chilena. A través de mi estudio, concluí que los efectos de la dictadura resultó en una democracia incompleta, que no se atreve de hacer cambios a la estructura social …

Political Science Spring 2010, Dan Sabia

Political Science Newsletter Spring 2010

No abstract provided.

If Only They'd Ask: Gender, Recruitment, And Political Ambition, Richard L. Fox, Jennifer L. Lawless

Political Science and International Relations Faculty Works

Based on data from the second wave of the Citizen Political Ambition Panel Study-our national survey of more than 2,000 "potential candidates" in 2008-we provide the first thorough analysis of the manner in which gender interacts with political recruitment in the candidate eligibility pool. Our findings are striking. Highly qualified and politically well-connected women from both major political parties are less likely than similarly situated men to be recruited to run for public office by all types of political actors. They are less likely than men to be recruited intensely. And they are less likely than men to be recruited …

The State In Disarray: Us Oversight Of Private Security Contractors, Rebecca A. Bernard

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

“Putting mercy back in mercenary” became the slogan of Blackwater Worldwide after harsh criticism from the media tarnished their image. Blackwater is just one example of a private firm working for the US government. The War in Iraq that began in 2003 had for the first time, contractors performing security functions for military men in an unstable environment (Elsea). Given the heightened reliance on PSCs from the Department of State and Department of Defense, the US government has taken on the burden of establishing regulations to govern their actions and hold them accountable. On September 16, 2007, Blackwater security personnel …

Doubling Nato: Functional And Geographical Enlargement Of The Alliance, Ergodan Kurt

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation studies NATO expansion as institutional adaptation. More specifically, it examines the interaction between NATO's functional and geographical enlargement. This study asserts that there is a close relationship between NATO's new functions and its enlargement. Over time, NATO evolved from a collective defense alliance to a comprehensive security organization. As NATO undertook new functions, its capabilities no longer matched the requirements of the new functions. The geographical enlargement, in fact, constitutes a vehicle for the fulfillment of the capability shortfall.

Furthermore, this dissertation asserts that the new security environment will force NATO to focus on the regions at a …

Austerity, Abundance, And The Investor States: The Political Economy Of Sovereign Wealth Funds, Manda Shemirani

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are not new, but their foreign investment created concerns among many states in 2005 and 2006. Many policy makers argued that the ownership of foreign governments in specific areas may expose their countries to various risks. The concerns in the United States were from a national security perspective, while Europe was more worried about the lack of reciprocity and established standards. The political economy literature lacks a suitable framework for the study of investor states. The mainstream economic view contends that SWFs are a result of balance of payments surpluses and are used for economic smoothing …

A Flag Is Flipped And A Nation Flaps: The Politics And Patriotism Of The First International World Series, Todd J. Wiebe

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 85, No. 41, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. Articles:

• Wilson, Laurel & Emily Ulber. Dean Kahler Resigns from Enrollment Management Position
• Snyder, Kristen. This Old House: Bowling Green Residents Restore Historic Homes – Emily Sharp, Bowling Green & Warren County Historic Preservation Board
• Historic Bowling Green
• Kriz, Lindsay. WKU Student Adopts Marine in Afghanistan – Lydia Kerr, Taylor Yontz, Afghan War 2001-2021
• Wilson, Laurel. Government to Control Student Loans – Legislation, Student Financial Aid, Direct Loan Program
• McIntyre, Scott. A Thousand Words – Esh Family, Mennonites, Automobile Accidents
• Wadley, Emily. Engagement Institute Opens in Garrett – Institute …

Coming Distractions: China Watcher, Richard Baum

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In the winter of 1994 I moved to Yokohama, Japan, to direct a semester-long U.C. Education Abroad Program (EAP) curriculum on Peace and Development Studies at Meiji Gakuin University. Because all electronic communications in Japan were controlled by the government’s telecomm monopoly, NHK, Internet access was extremely expensive, and my Compuserve subscription was costing me a small fortune —over US$250 each month — in connection charges. Since I was in more-or-less regular e-mail contact with a number of other China scholars in various countries, I decided to economize on my on-line connection charges by periodically sending group e-mailings to several …

Learning Sustainable Development: Chimeneas De La Esperanza, Miriam V. Mollan Gundersen

Social Sciences

Social inequality and environmental degradation are motivating informed young people into action and connecting impoverished regions of the world with students in more developed nations. This Social Sciences senior project is to analyze an alternative development model designed by a group of Californian university students. The project, named Chimeneas de la Esperanza, is designed to help impoverished Nicaraguan women start a ceramics business. The major hurdle of this mission is to establish a market for the ceramics product. Energy efficient ceramic stoves and smoke ventilating chimneys would benefit the community and avoid an impacted crafts market. The project encompasses ideas …

Syrian/United States Relations: Explaining The Failure Of The Relationship And Suggestions On How To Repair It, Chris Chapman

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

"Syrian-American relations have deteriorated markedly in recent years. " ~Syrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Bushra Kanafani Hezbollah. Hamas. The Islamic Jihad. Rogue nation. The axis of evil. These are features commonly used by the United States government, Western media outlets, and the American people to describe the Republic of Syria. Syria is a major player in geopolitics and relevant to the stability of the Middle East. Its relationship with the United States, therefore, is of central importance in reaching the United States goal of peace in this warravaged region of the world. The erosion of normal diplomatic relations with Syria since …

Taking Late Night Comedy Seriously: How Candidate Appearances On Late Night Television Can Engage Viewers, Michael Parkin

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Candidate appearances on entertainment television have become a staple of recent presidential campaigns, yet little is known about their effect on voters. Many assume that they leave viewers uninformed and focused on the candidate's personal image. In this article, the author investigates this idea with an experiment using John Kerry's 2004 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. He finds that-contrary to popular expectations-late night interviews have particular features that can, at times, engage otherwise politically disinterested viewers, causing them to process and recall substantive policy information.

Reading Round-Up: 2/12/10

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. China Beat team members Jeff Wasserstrom and Kate Merkel-Hess have a new piece at Foreign Policy discussing the recent joint report issued by the governments of China and Japan regarding the 1937-38 Rape of Nanking. In“Nanjing By the Numbers”, they argue that focusing on the continued controversy over the massacre’s death toll overlooks the greater significance of the report:

It would be too much to hope that any joint report over the causes and events of the Pacific War would reach accord on every issue. But as partisan as the debate on the Nanjing massacre has often seemed, a …

Upcoming Event: Ying Zhu On Google And China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Ying Zhu, Professor of Media Culture at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island, will be giving a talk on Friday, February 12 at Google’s Manhattan headquarters, beginning at noon. Although the event is not open to the public, a limited number of guest passes can be arranged; anyone interested in attending can contact her by e-mailing Ying.Zhu[at]csi.cuny.edu

Ying Zhu’s presentation, titled “Emerging Critical Masses and Shifting State-Society Relations in China,” will focus on Google’s recent tensions with China, as well as the adventures of Avatar in Chinese theaters, to explore the concept of China’s emerging “critical …

Hope For Haiti?, Kurt Mills

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Kara McDonald raises the question of whether or not the international community will go beyond its patchwork response to Haiti's problems. One wonders why the question is even asked, given the international community's track record in Haiti, as well as in other parts of the world. Indeed, setting aside the many positive acts of individuals and states to address the suffering after the earthquake, the response to Haiti illustrates the inability of the international community to respond in a coherent and humane manner to many crises around the world.

A Time For Anger. And A Time For Rights, Not Charity, Anthony Chase

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Sadness but also anger is the immediate reaction to the deaths of 200,000 Haitians. Among the dead are Myriam Merlet, Magalie Marcelin and Anne Marie Coriolan (founders of three leading Haitian feminist organizations) and 14 of the 16 members of SEROvie, the main Haitian organization providing HIV-related services for men who have sex with men and the transgendered – people who have been at the front line in pushing for political change from within Haiti. Kara McDonald’s words that “it is hard to identify another country that has had as many peacekeeping forces, stabilization operations, and crisis responses at work …

Coming Into Money: The Impact Of Foreign Aid On Leader Survival, Amanda A. Licht

Faculty Publications

Donors are more likely to send aid to leaders facing elevated risks of losing power, but targets' ability to benefit from this assistance is conditioned by regime type and political processes. The institutionalization of winning coalitions' loyalty across regime type follows opposite patterns, supporting opposite temporal dynamics across regime types. Democratic leaders' coalitions are firmest immediately after taking office, and aid is of most assistance to them then. As competition and dissatisfaction grows, aid becomes a political liability. In small winning coalition systems, however, coalitions become more solid over time, facilitating increasing benefits from aid. Without a firm coalition, however, …

Issue Engagement On Congressional Candidate Web Sites, 2002-2006, James N. Druckman, Cari Lynn Hennessy, Martin Kifer, Michael Parkin

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

When candidates engage in robust policy debate, it gives citizens clear choices on issues that matter. Previous studies of issue engagement have primarily used indicators of campaign strategy that are mediated by reporters (e. g., newspaper articles) or indicators that may exclude candidates in less competitive races (e. g., television advertisements). We study issue engagement with data from a unique source, congressional candidate Web sites, that are unmediated and representative of both House and Senate campaigns. We find that the saliency of issues in public opinion is a primary determinant of candidate engagement. And, despite the unique capacity of the …

Exchanges: Reconciling Confucianism And Socialism?, Daniel A. Bell

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Today China Beat would like to introduce our new “Exchanges” feature, which we hope will become a regular item on the blog. The debate below, between Daniel A. Bell and Michael Walzer, was originally printed in the Winter 2010 issue of Dissent, and is reposted here with permission. We’d like to invite our readers to share their thoughts on this discussion, and will run a response from Daniel Bell in the coming weeks. Please send your comments and questions to thechinabeatgmail.com.

What Exactly Happened In Copenhagen?, Yu Zhou

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Commentary and coverage of China’s role at Copenhagen has been widespread in the past few weeks, including from some of the writers and journalists we pay close attention to like Xujun Eberlein, Pallavi Aiyar, and Evan Osnos, among many others. Here, China Beat contributor Yu Zhou critiques the reading of China’s role as it has developed in the Western press.

Notes On The Shanghai Expo, Jonathan Hwang

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. One of my Chinese classmates mentioned that what really mattered for Chinese visitors were the big exhibitions: Japan, China, Europe, and the US. While still interested in the big exhibits, most Westerners were also astounded by the fact that North Korea and Iran were among the countries with pavilions at the Expo. The pavilions, although far from spectacular, showed a side of the “rogue” nations that is impossible to see in Western media, which often focuses on the proliferation of nuclear weapons and anti-US sentiment. The North Korean Pavilion showed video clips of the Mass Games and random shots …

More Questions Than Answers, Michelle Yeh

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Earlier this month, we ran an opinion piece by Peter Zarrow concerning the plagiarism accusations against Tsinghua University Professor Wang Hui, in which Dr. Zarrow explained why he had signed a letter of support organized by international scholars and sent to Tsinghua’s president. The essay was picked up and circulated by the MCLC listserv, where it generated a number of comments. One of the responses came from Michelle Yeh of UC Davis, and we asked Dr. Yeh if she would expand her remarks and share them with China Beat readers. She has done so in the essay below, and also …

Over Exposure, Lisa Movius

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“The Expo story that couldn’t be printed.” That’s what editors at Shanghai’s City Weekend magazine found they had on their hands several weeks ago, when Chinese censors deemed the story below “too negative” to run. A revised version was subsequently submitted, approved by the censors, and printed in the January 20, 2010 issue. City Weekend decided not to post the original story on its website as planned, as they were told it was inadvisable due to an official caution against publishing media reports critical of the Expo. Here, we are pleased to share with China Beat readers the full, uncensored …

Lessons From Sichuan For Haitian Survivors, Sascha Matuszak

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China has just sent its second medical team to Haiti, along with 20 tons of supplies and five Chinese peacekeepers to replace the four who died in the earthquake that destroyed Port-au-Prince on January 12th. The current group replaces a set of Chinese International Search and Rescue workers and sniffer dogs who arrived in Haiti the day after the disaster struck.

Five C’S On China, Censorship, And Cyberspace

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We’re continuing to track the Google and China story, and wanted to call your attention to these particularly good pieces of writing — each of which brought a “c” adjective to mind:

When Skinny Is Too Thin

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Many Taiwanese are becoming increasingly concerned for the health of First Lady Chow Mei-ching 周美青 (Christine Chow Ma), who suffered a spinal injury after being bowled over by a group of overenthusiastic children while visiting a primary school in Pingtung 屏東 County on March 3. She was released from the hospital on March 16, but despite repeated Presidential Office reassurances that the First Lady is in good health doctors have ordered two months of additional bed rest, meaning that she had to miss the opening game of Taiwan’s professional baseball league on March 20 (the First Lady is an avid …

Olympic Fever! From Beijing To Vancouver And Back, David Luesink

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics are now over, and most of the athletes, media, and tourists have left my home city. If the media (particularly British media) began by focusing primarily on negative issues, the drama of national teams, and individual athletes and overall medal counts seemed to drown out the naysayers, much as in Beijing two years ago. Both host countries came off as excellent hosts, and both host countries carried home unprecedented numbers of medals. If for China their Olympics had been a coming out party, an end to a century of general humiliation, for Canada these games …

A Q-And-A With Jeremy Goldkorn Of Danwei.Org

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Maura Elizabeth Cunningham: How did Danwei get started, and what is its primary mission? Has this changed over time?