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Ethnic Politics, Political Corruption And Poverty: Perspectives On Contending Issues And Nigeria's Democratization Process, Dewale Adewale Yagboyaju

Ethnic Studies Review

It is common to interpret African politics in tribal or ethnic terms. In the case of Nigeria, the dominant political behaviour can be defined, on the one hand, in terms of "incessant pressures on the state and the consequent fragmentation or prebendalizing of state-power" (Joseph, 1991:5). On the other hand, such practices can also be related to "a certain articulation of the factors of class and ethnicity" (ibid). For a better understanding of the essentials of Nigerian politics and its dynamics, it is necessary to develop a clearer perspective on the relationship between the two social categories mentioned above and …

International Law In Crisis: A Qualitative Empirical Contribution To The Compliance Debate, Michael P. Scharf

Faculty Publications

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 21, Professors Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner published The Limits of International Law, a potentially revolutionary book that employs rational choice theory to argue that international law is really just “politics” and does not render a “compliance pull” on State decisionmakers. Critics have pointed out that Goldsmith and Posner’s identification of the role of international law in each of their case studies is largely conjectural, and that what is needed is qualitative empirical data that identifies the international law-based arguments that were actually made and the policy-makers’ responses to such …

Putting Ideas To Work: A Practical Introduction To Political Thought (Book Review), Steven Michels

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

Book review by Steven Michels.

Mattern, M. (2006). Putting ideas to work: A practical introduction to political thought. Rowman and Littlefield.

ISBN 9780742548893 (hardcover); 9780742548909 (pbk.)

Aristotelian Liberalism: An Inquiry Into The Foundations Of A Free And Flourishing Society, Geoffrey Allan Plauche

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation builds on the recent work of Douglas Rasmussen, Douglas Den Uyl and Roderick Long in developing an Aristotelian liberalism. It is argued that a neo- Aristotelian form of liberalism has a sounder foundation than others and has the resources to answer traditional left-liberal, postmodern, communitarian and conservative challenges by avoiding certain Enlightenment pitfalls: the charges of atomism, an a-historical and a- contextual view of human nature, license, excessive normative neutrality, the impoverishment of ethics and the trivialization of rights. An Aristotelian theory of virtue ethics and natural rights is developed that allows for a robust conception of the …

Tahira Khan On Women As Weapons Of War: Iraq, Sex And The Media By Kelly Oliver. New York, Ny: Columbia University Press, 2007. 208pp., Tahira Khan

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Women as Weapons of War: Iraq, Sex and the Media by Kelly Oliver. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2007. 208pp.

Playing Heads Or Tails With My Diaphragm: Drinking Lattes With Hélène Cixous, Rebecca Mccarthy

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

While sitting through endless political speeches and pundit commentary this election cycle, one would be hard pressed to miss the continuous expressions of careless racism and sexism that is an under-theme to this presidential election. Moreover, with the Republican nomination of Sarah Palin for McCain's VP, I find myself in awe over the assumption that the simple election of a woman to an office of power equates the breaking of the glass ceiling. As such, I felt compelled to revisit Hélène Cixoius' suggestion that we need a new feminine language to combat both institutionalized and careless sexism. But what would …

Greenpeace, Earth First! And The Earth Liberation Front: The Progression Of The Radical Environmental Movement In America, Christopher J. Covill

Senior Honors Projects

Causes of worldwide environmental destruction created a form of activism, Ecotage with an incredible success rate. Ecotage uses direct action, or monkey wrenching, to prevent environmental destruction. Mainstream conservation efforts were viewed by many environmentalists as having failed from compromise inspiring the birth of radicalized groups. This eventually transformed conservationists into radicalists. Green Peace inspired radical environmentalism by civil disobedience, media campaigns and direct action tactics, but remained mainstream. Earth First’s! philosophy is based on a no compromise approach. They took direct action tactics further than Green Peace was willing too. Earth First’s! direct action campaigns epitomize modern environmental radicalism. …

Emergence Of Women From ‘Private’ To ‘Public’: A Narrative Of Power Politics From Mizoram, Anup Shekhar Chakraborty

Journal of International Women's Studies

Understanding the complex state-building process in Mizoram requires the systematic mapping of the discourses and narratives of ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ at all levels which is thoroughly dictated by those in power. The region’s ‘Histories’ of statecraft and policies displays a distinct narrative than that of mainland India. The ‘Northeast’ in general and Mizoram in particular, provides a unique experience in understanding the trends in everyday politics as ‘a living space’ in contemporary India. Mizoram, as a category in contemporary Indian politics reminds one of ‘the protracted insurgency led by the legendary Laldenga and the Mizo National Front’. The region remains …

Social Security Privatization: An Ideologically Structured Movement, Judie Svihula, Carroll L. Estes

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

We document the cumulative change in expressions of support for Social Security's social insurance ideals to privatization,from the late 1970s through 2007. Social Security's basic structure and principles generally were supported by the United States government and in amendments to the original Act of 1935. However, in the 1980s market arguments began to proliferate in government alongside pension privatization projects by international governmental organizations and conservative think tanks. Although in 1983 Commission members concluded "the Social Security system is sound in principle.. and... structure," four members wrote a supplemental statement that emphasized market rationalism. By 1994 dissension in Congress was …

Are They For Real? Activism And Ironic Identities, Amber Day

English and Cultural Studies Journal Articles

A new breed of political activist has begun to appear on the streets and in the news. They are no longer trying to out-shout their opponents, but are agreeing with them instead, enthusiastically taking their adversary’s position to exaggerated extremes. It is a practice here termed “identity-nabbing,” in which participants pretend to be someone they are not, appearing in public as exaggerated caricatures of their opponents or ambiguously co-opting some of their power. This paper focuses on three groups in particular: The Billionaires for Bush, Reverend Billy, and the Yes Men. Each group stages elaborate, ironically humorous stunts as a …

Reporting On Palin: Negotiations In Political Theater, Erin Ryan

Scholarly Publications

This short essay uses negotiation theory as a lens to analyze the McCain campaign's efforts to manipulate its media coverage during the 2008 presidential election. It offers a timely consideration of the troubling dynamic that can arise between the media and the campaigns that they cover, which often approximates a formal negotiation. The essay compares the campaign's strategies for managing press coverage of its candidates to the well-researched techniques of competitive bargainers, including anchoring tactics, the scarcity effect, and psychological warfare. It reviews how reporters are uniquely hamstrung in coping with competitive bargaining tactics compared to ordinary negotiators, and tailors …

Selling Civil Defense: The Politics And Commerce Of Preparedness, 1950--1963, Angela Christine Moor

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis, by examining how business, government, and civic leaders promoted civil defense, shows how a policy of self-help merged the roles of citizen and consumer and how family-centered preparedness equated the survival of the nuclear family with the victory of the US in the Cold War. Civil defense officials helped reinforce messages about gender roles by stressing the value of nuclear families and the crucial role each family member played in the defense of America. Public information campaigns emphasized the importance of free enterprise and privatization by endorsing a policy of self-help for American families whereby individual families were …

Deep Purple: Religious Shades Of Family Law, Naomi Cahn, June Carbone

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Catch-22 In Prison Privatization: The Problem With The Solution, Ahmed M.T. Riaz

ExpressO

A step into just about any state prison in the United States reveals an institution plagued by over-population, with just about every prison running at more than 100% capacity. The problem, of course, is not new but one that has received great attention. In the past decade or so the solution has been privatization of state prisons. Proponents of privatization have pushed forth the idea that private institutions are the solution to prison overcrowding. However, by looking to for-profit private institutions as a means to resolving the problems of the penal system, are legislators in fact ensuring that the problems …

The Legality Of The Use Of White Phosphorus By The United States Military During The 2004 Fallujah Assaults, Roman O. Reyhani

ExpressO

The assaults on Fallujah by the United States military in April and November 2004 involved the use of white phosphorus. White phosphorus has extremely damaging effects on the health of victims, including severe burns and irritation of the respiratory system. This article examines whether the use of white phosphorus was a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, Protocol III to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and international humanitarian law. It concludes that the use of white phosphorus was illegal as it could be argued to be a chemical weapon, a riot control agent, or incendiary weapon. Furthermore, the methods and …

Review Essay: Some Thoughts On The Greater Integration Of Islamic Sources Into The Wider Framework Of Medieval History, John J. Curry

Quidditas

The study of Islam has been attracting greater interest in recent years, due to high-profile political and economic events. In addition, the rise of world history programs has generated a need for resources by which both students and faculty alike can strengthen their knowledge in this field. Still, general knowledge on the field is limited. This disparity has occurred, in part, because the field of Islamic history, especially in its formative and medieval periods, has been oriented toward specialists rather than a general audience. Often, world history sourcebooks are content to give only short selections from religious sources such as …

Maya Paintings As Teachers Of Justice: Art Making The Impossible Possible, Kryssi Staikidis

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

This article examines Maya paintings as historical documents, political platforms and conduits for cultural transmission in two local Maya communities. Particular attention is paid to the recent history of genocide of Maya peoples in Guatemala and the production of paintings as visual reminders of cultural loss and regeneration, as well as visual means to protect Maya future generations. Collaborative ethnography and decolonizing methodologies (Lassiter, 1998; Tuhiwai-Smith, 1999) are used in this study; thus, Maya artists speak through written dialogues and interviews in first voice regarding massacres that were kept clandestine for three decades. This paper addresses the potential and capacity …

Foreword: A Symposium Exploring The Modern Legacy Of William Jennings Bryan, Susan Franck

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

William Jennings Bryan, known as "The Great Commoner," is one of the most controversial lawyers to hail from Nebraska.' While he may be best-known as a failed three-time Democratic nominee for U.S. President and the legal defender of creationism at the Scopes Monkey Trial, fundamental aspects of Bryan's life have been overlooked.

In a new biography, A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan, Professor Michael Kazin re-evaluates Bryan's legacy and charges us to consider the profound impact Bryan had upon the political, economic and legal reality of the United States. The book has been the subject of controversy. …

The Marking Of Stuart Chase As A "Red Accountant" - An Epic (1917-1921), Richard Vangermeersch

Special Collections (Miscellaneous)

There has been recent scholarship by Bradley and Merino (1994) and Vangermeersch (2005) on this event and the subsequent eventual firing of Stuart Chase by the FTC. Bradley and Merino’s scholarship was limited to 1918 and 1919. Vangermeersch’s scholarship was limited to two narrow time periods (Oct. 20, 1919 and then from June 1920 to mid January 1921). This piece is written to extend the time frame from early 1917 through August of 1921. This piece, not only takes a broader time period, also broadens the scope of the prior scholarship. This piece examines many documents, articles, and testimony not …

Junius And Joseph: Presidential Politics And The Assassination Of The First Mormon Prophet. By Robert S. Wicks And Fred R. Foister, Susan Sessions Rugh

BYU Studies

Robert S. Wicks and Fred R. Foister. Junius and Joseph: Presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2005.

Crisis Bureaucracy: Homeland Security And The Political Design Of Legal Mandates, Mariano-Florentino Cuellar

ExpressO

Policymakers fight over bureaucratic structure because it helps shape the legal interpretations and regulatory decisions of agencies through which modern governments operate. In this article, we update positive political theories of bureaucratic structure to encompass two new issues with important implications for lawyers and political scientists: the implications of legislative responses to a crisis, and the uncertainty surrounding major bureaucratic reorganizations. The resulting perspective affords a better understanding of how agencies interpret their legal mandates and deploy their administrative discretion. We apply the theory to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Two principal questions surrounding this creation are …

Lifeways In The Northern Mayan Lowlands: New Approaches To Archaeology In The Yucatán Peninsula, Jennifer P. Mathews, Bethany A. Morrison

Faculty Authored and Edited Books & CDs

The flat, dry reaches of the northern Yucatán Peninsula have been largely ignored by archaeologists drawn to the more illustrious sites of the south. This book is the first volume to focus entirely on the northern Maya lowlands, presenting a broad cross-section of current research projects in the region by both established and up-and-coming scholars. To address the heretofore unrecognized importance of the northern lowlands in Maya prehistory, the contributors cover key topics relevant to Maya studies: the environmental and historical significance of the region, the archaeology of both large and small sites, the development of agriculture, resource management, ancient …

Lincoln, The Constitution Of Necessity, And The Necessity Of Constitutions, Michael Kent Curtis

ExpressO

Some invoke the legacy of Abraham Lincoln to justify largely unchecked executive power which in times of war trumps constitutional limits and guarantees of liberty. This article suggests that the Lincoln model is a poor one to follow: because some of his actions were inconsitent with democratic government, because the administration invoked the doctrine of necessity when many of the cabinet thought no necessity existed, and because in the end, Lincoln himself refused to follow his logic to its inevitable conclusion. It critiques two article by Michael Paulsen invoking Lincoln to justify largely unchecked executive power.

Alexander, Earle, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

143^rd interview

Interviewee: Dr. Earle Alexander

Interviewers: Dr. Mark Naison, Dawn

Interview took place February 6, 2006

Summarized by Concetta Gleason 12-20-06

Dr. Earle Alexander is a distinguished psychologist born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx. Alexander’s mother immigrated to the U.S. from Trinidad and his father from Grenada. His parents met in New York and had three children together; Alexander is the middle child of an older sister Elma and a younger brother Dawn. As the Harlem education system deteriorated, Alexander’s parents decided to move the family to the Bronx in the mid-1930s. The family lived on …

Diminishing Borders In Trade And Terrorism: An Examination Of Regional Apllicability Of Gatt Article Xxi National Security Trade Sanctions, Eric J. Lobsinger

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The concept of "war" has undergone extensive usage in U.S. foreign policy since the terrorist attacks of September 11,2001.

The Processes Of Constitutional Change: From Partisan Entrenchment To The National Surveillance State, Jack M. Balkin, Sanford Levinson

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recalibrating The War On Terror By Enhancing Development Practices In The Middle East, Kevin J. Fandl

ExpressO

This research paper suggests that the cart has been placed before the horse, that democratization and open markets in the Middle East are more likely the result of effective development than the catalyst for it. The war on terror has been justified by the United States as an effective means of reducing the possibility of terrorist attacks. This paper analyzes the validity of those justifications by reviewing the linkage between democracy and economic growth and that between democracy and peace.

The paper begins by hypothesizing that the war on terror and forced democratization of the Middle East are leading to …

Resurrection From Babel: The Cultural, Political, And Legal Status Of Christian Communities In Lebanon And Syria And Their Prospects For The Future, Alexandra R. Harrington

ExpressO

In the well-known Biblical story, the faithful, attempting to create a place of unity for themselves, set about building the Tower of Babel, only to see the Tower implode due to linguistic differences and power assertions. Thousands of years later, the world is still plagued by sectarian strife and warfare. Indeed, the situation has only become more involved since Babel, as there are now inter-communal and intra-communal conflicts for supremacy and superiority – a notable difference in these conflicts is that the ultimate tool of getting to Heaven is no longer a tower, it is now a state. Within the …

Politics And Judgment, Suzanna Sherry

Missouri Law Review

Two hundred years after its most famous invocation in Marbury v. Madison, judicial review has apparently lost its luster. Despite its global spread, it is in disrepute in its country of origin. The mainstream American academic attitude toward judicial review as practiced by the modem Supreme Court ranges from open hostility to a position similar to Winston Churchill's on democracy: It is the worst way to implement a Constitution, except for all the rest. In this essay, I want to explain the source of the hostility, defend judicial review against its critics, and make a few suggestions for improvement.

Transformation And Strategic Surprise, Colin S. Gray Dr.

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

The current process of military transformation will enable the Armed Forces to do better what they already do superbly well. It is important to excel at decisive maneuver and in the application of precise, yet overwhelming firepower. But those attributes, though key in warfare against regular enemies, tend to be less valuable in conflict with irregulars. In war after war, the United States has been surprised by the poor political reward it has earned for its military effort. The IT-led transformation will do nothing to help correct the persisting American difficulty in functioning strategically and politically in its conduct of …