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The Majoritarian Difficulty: Affirmative Action, Sodomy, And Supreme Court Politics, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

This Article challenges liberal and conservative assessments of Lawrence, Gratz, and Grutter. Although the outcome of these cases might indeed prove helpful to the agendas of social movements for racial and sexual justice, progressive scholars and activists should not receive these cases with elation. Instead, the research of constitutional theorists, critical legal scholars, and political scientists allows for a more contextualized and guarded account of and reaction to these decisions. Instead of representing extraordinary victories for oppressed classes, these cases reflect majoritarian and moderate views concerning civil rights, and the opinions contain many doctrinal elements that reinforce, …

The Courts And The Politics Of Prison Reform, Heather L. Garvock

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Empirically Testing Dworkin's Chain Novel Theory: Studying The Path Of Precedent, Stefanie A. Lindquist, Frank B. Cross

Scholarship@WashULaw

In this article, Professors Lindquist and Cross empirically study the effect of precedent on judicial decision-making. The framework for their analysis is Ronald Dworkin’s “chain novel” metaphor, an influential theory of the role of precedent whose validity has not previously been empirically tested. The chain novel metaphor suggests that the judicial use of precedent can be likened to a group of authors writing a novel seriatim, in which the accumulation of chapters increasingly constrains the choices and freedom of subsequent writers. Precedent is one of the most important areas of legal research, but currently there is no dominant working theory, …

Supreme Court Bound: An Introduction Concerning The Intrinsic Subjectivity Of Supreme Court Decision-Making, Luke Hoorelbeke

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

There are many theories behind Supreme Court decision-making that are primarily descriptive or normative. Descriptive theories attempt a hermetic explanation that sufficiently applies to all past decisions, and normative theories seek to create a rubric or method, also dependable, for how the justices of the Supreme Court should make decisions. Normative theories can be highly porous and problematic because they involve metaethical concerns like defining “the good.” Essentially, we must try to make “good” decisions all the time, but that ignores the problem of what “good” really means. The design of this essay is such that we will not deal …

Democratization In Afghanistan, Chris Rowe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

What determines whether a specific country embarks on the road to democracy, if it completes that voyage successfully, and finally consolidates democratic values, practices, and institutions? Analysts have debated these issues for decades and have identified a number of historical, structural, and cultural variables that help account for the establishment of successful democracies in some countries and its absence in others. Frequently cited prerequisites for democracy include social and economic modernization; a large and vibrant middle class; and cultural norms and values relating to politics.

Trust (And Social Capital) In Cultural Theory, Marco Verweij

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

"I Harbor No Hate": A Study Of Political Tolerance And Intolerance In Holocaust Survivors, Nancy Isserman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The political attitudes of tolerance or intolerance of victims towards their former perpetrators have not been thoroughly researched prior to this study. Through the data collected by the Transcending Trauma Project, a study looking at three generations of Holocaust survivor families, " I Harbor No Hate: A Study of Tolerance and Intolerance in Holocaust Survivors " examined this question. One expects that survivors will until their dying days hate the Germans and the Poles who destroyed their families, their livelihoods, their homes, and their communities. Yet, to a significant group of survivors interviewed for the Transcending Trauma project, this response …

Advocate, December 2004, Vol. [16], No. [3], Gc Advocate

The Advocate

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Whither Health Services? Administration Reconsiders Health Services Funding in Face of Dwindling Resources. James Hoff (p. 1)

Dispute Brews Over Dining Commons Firing. Administration and Restaurant Associates Defend Dismissal as Some Students Urge Boycott. Antonia Levy and Dan Skinner (p. 1)

Don’t Compromise with Imperial Christianity (p. 2)

Letter: What’s the Matter with Kaminski? Nate Metzger, Dept of Philosophy (p. 2)

Masthead (p. 2)

Community News

Hierarchies in Bike Culture? (Pt. 1). Will Weikart (p. 3)

A Brief History of Restaurant Associates. Dan Skinner and Antonia Levy (p. 4)

Opinions / Analysis

At Pier 57 and Central …

Political Impetus, And Moral Imperative: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Karyn House

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

The Adaptiveness Of Punishing Behavior: A Baseline Study, Levente Littvay

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study sheds light on the current patterns of punishing behavior. Experimental work with ultimatum bargaining shows that individuals have a high sensitivity to fairness, and when taken advantage of, are willing to endure costs to punish deviant behavior. Third party observers of the unfair behavior asked to represent ultimatum recipients are more hesitant to engage in such punishment. This becomes ever more puzzling when we consider individuals’ high value of their own reputation in similar settings. This leaves both rational choice modelers and political psychologists puzzled. This study presents the baseline model for a research agenda proposing a multi-agent …

Invitation: To The Dedication Of The William J. Clinton Presidential Center.

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Invitation with envelope and reply form. November 18, 2004.

University Students From Four Ethnopolitical Conflict Zones: An Exploratory Study Of Perceptions Of Self And Country, Sean Byrne, Colleen Mcleod, Brian Polkinghorn

Peace and Conflict Studies

This exploratory comparative case study examines hopes and fears for self and country of 300 students attending university in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Sri Lanka. Students report living in stressful societies where ethno political and state violence were the norm. The results of this qualitative study indicate that while the young people are optimistic about their life changes, they are concerned that the conflicts could re-ignite and spiral out of control. In particular, the students’ images indicate the importance of the self-society relationship and that these young adults relish the challenge of being productive citizens in their post-conflict …

Flyer: Save The Dates For Grand Opening Week And Library Dedication Ceremony For The Clinton Presidential Library And Center

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Grand opening ceremony and dedication on November 14-18, 2004.

Flyer: Jacksonville Rally With John Edwards.

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Rally with Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards at Metro Park, Friday, October 22, 2004.

Village Elections: Emergence Of A Democratic Political Culture Or Reinforcement Of A Repressive Regime?, Laura Conniff

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

China’s ethnic and geographic diversity makes the task of examining the implementation of national policy nearly impossible. As more than 70% of the population lives outside urban areas, narrowing the field to rural governance does not whittle down the subject matter to any great degree. However, the vastness of the topic is precisely why it is so vital to developing a coherent understanding of the country – knowing how a majority of the Chinese population interacts with local government sheds a great deal of light on the status of political reform in China today.

Many of the problems plaguing Chinese …

Political Theory 2004 Syllabus, Steven Alan Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Portals To Knowledge: Confluence And Conflict Between Enlightenment And Postmodern Currencies, Benjamin G. Lanier-Nabors

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[Editors' Introduction]

In order to provide any viable critique of twenty-first-century discourses -- whether signified by late capitalism, epistemological hegemony, cultural domination, or globalization (the catch-word for all of these) -- one must not employ an ahistorical or static lens; alternatively, one must dredge up and analyze the sediments that underlie current discourses, and many of these sediments are found in the eighteenth century. More specifically, by reading the thoughts of such writers as Joseph Addison and Jonathan Swift, one is forced to read the links and antipathies between the discursive economies of epistemology -- philosophical, scientific, and economic -- …

Advocate, September 2004, Vol. [16], No. [1], Gc Advocate

The Advocate

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

CUNY No RNC Organizes Large CUNY Contingent at UFPJ March. James Trimarco (p. 1)

Contents (p. 1)

Haggard Leaving (p. 1)

Community News: LAC Conference a Success Despite Pitfalls. Will Weikart (p. 3)

Feature: Part-Time Faculty Meet at Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL) VI. Dominic Wetzel (p. 4)

What Are Your Feelings About the Commercial Advertisements on the Scaffolding Outside the GC? (p. 14)

Doctoral Students’ Council

The Doctoral Students’ Council Welcomes You. Paul McBreen, DSC Co-chair for Communications (p. 1)

DSC Executive & Steering Committee Office Hours (p. 15)

The DSC is Hiring for Positions …

Models Of Electoral System Change, Kenneth Benoit

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Electoral systems are commonly treated as exogenous determinants of political party systems, yet our theoretical understanding remains limited as to how these institutions themselves are determined. Part of the problem lies with the subject matter itself: electoral system change is frequently idiosyncratic, often occurring during episodes of exceptional political change. Yet another aspect of the problem is that explanations of electoral system change frequently occur piecemeal in application to specific cases, without systematic or comparative development. Addressing both problems, I first survey the existing literature to develop a comprehensive typology of explanations of electoral system change and persistence. I then …

"Competing Conceptions Of Globalization" Revisited: Relocating The Tension Between World-Systems Analysis And Globalization Analysis, Thomas Clayton

Linguistics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Real Time: Unwinding Technocratic And Anthropological Knowledge, Annelise Riles

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

“The Bank of Japan is our mother,” bankers in Tokyo sometimes said of Japan's central bank. Drawing on this metaphor as an ethnographic resource, and on the example of central bankers who sought to unwind their own technocratic knowledge by replacing it with a real-time machine, I retrace the ethnographic task of unwinding technocratic knowledge from those anthropological knowledge practices that critique technocracy. In so doing, I draw attention to special methodological problems—involving the relationship between ethnography, analysis, and reception—in the representation and critique of contemporary knowledge practices.

The Smugglers' Landscape: Geography, Route Selection And The Global Heroin Trade, James Dallis Medler

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This study focuses on transnational smuggling, and puts forth an analytical framework from the smugglers' perspective with respect to route selection, focusing primarily on aspects of economic, political, and human geography. It is predicated on three interconnected decision-making domains that constitute the smuggler's operational landscape, namely access, risk and connectivity, which interact to drive the smugglers' perceptions of route attractiveness. The first two domains operate reciprocally, primarily at the national level of analysis, and together both shape and are shaped by the third at the transnational level to form a feedback loop. With respect to connectivity, the convention of the …

Official Discourse And Public Opinion In Post-Communist Societies: The Role Of Government-Affiliated Intellectuals, Ekaterina M. Levintova

Dissertations

Post-Communist countries are unique in the sense that they are undergoing not a single, but multiple transitions. The extent of social change underway inthis region is truly monumental and researchers are faced with the daunting task of studying the extent of this transformation. Change is most evident when one studies formal institutions. But lies beneath, on the level of value orientations? The answer to this question helps us understand the real progress of post-Communist countries towards the goals of their transitions.

What were the political, ideological, economic, foreign policy, and ethnic relations attitudes of the post-Communist Russian and Polish elites …

The Fight For Political Representation In A Southern Suburb: The Use Of The Voting Rights Act And The Federal Court System By Black Plaintiffs In Henrico County, Virginia, Thomas J. Shields

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

There has been an abundance of written work on the historic fight for black political equality in southern urban areas. However, almost no scholarly work exists on the fight for black political equality in the rapidly expanding southern suburbs. This article analyzes the rise of the black population and its fight for political representation on the local governing board in Henrico County, a large suburb of Richmond, Virginia. The article details the increase in the black population in Henrico County from 1950 to 2000 and provides a descriptive analysis how black plaintiffs used the Voting Rights Act in a redistricting …

The Case For Clumsiness, Michael Thompson, Marco Verweij

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Most climatologists agree that by burning fossil fuels and engaging in other forms of consumption and production we are increasing the amount of greenhouse gases that float around in the atmosphere. These gases, in trapping some of the sun’s heat, warm the earth and enable life. The trouble is, some predict, that if we continue to accumulate those gases, over the course of the new century the average temperature on earth will rise and local climates will change, with possibly catastrophic consequences. Will this indeed happen? If so, should we do something about it? And if yes, what and when? …

Women In International Development Theory, Policy And Progress, Melina Tew

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995) states: "Equality between women and men is a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice and is also a necessary and fundamental prerequisite for equality, development and peace." As this statement suggests, women are indispensable to any program in the developing world desiring sustainable, effective development. Despite efforts to thwart gender inequality, more women than men still live below the poverty line, and there is a global gender gap in levels of education and access to resources. In response to these conditions, the UN Population …

Advocate, May 2004, Vol. [15], No. [1?], Gc Advocate

The Advocate

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Columbia Adjuncts Strike as Admin Sticks to Hard Line. Andrew Kennis (p. 1)

Horowitz to Step Down as GC President. James Trimarco (p. 1)

Regime Change at Hunter College. James Trimarco (p. 1)

Contents (p. 1)

Editorial: Let’s Register Every CUNY Student to Vote! (p. 2)

Short Takes: Scalia-Cheney-Bush: The Year in Review (So Far) (p. 2)

Letter to the Editor. Sergio Kadinsky, CUNY City College (p. 2)

Correction (p. 2)

Masthead (p. 2)

Local News (p. 3)

WBAI’s “Exception to Rulers” Tour Kicks off in NYC. Paul McBreen.

Columbia Strike. Andrew Kennis.

Analysis

Thoughts on the …

The Effect Of An Illinois Wesleyan University Education On Political Ideology, Jordan T. Ault '04

Honors Projects

The nation has seen a rebirth of many of the Vietnam-era values in today's students. Protests, mostly in opposition to the war in Iraq, have become frequent events on college campuses. Student organizations advocating equal rights for women, racial minorities and the gay community have made their voice heard in state and federal legislatures. Perhaps there is some truth to the view that college students are a very liberal group that tends to become more liberal as they approach graduation. Many scholars feel that the university environment nurtures this liberalization in the student body. There seems to be a general …

Ashok Kumar Malhotra. Instant Nirvana: Americanization Of Mysticism And Meditation., Michael Andregg

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Review Of Jennifer Government, By Berry Max, David Banash

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.