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Articles 1 - 26 of 26
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
“Daughter” As A Positionality And The Gendered Politics Of Taking Parents Into The Field, Menusha De Silva, Kanchan Gandhi
“Daughter” As A Positionality And The Gendered Politics Of Taking Parents Into The Field, Menusha De Silva, Kanchan Gandhi
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Research on gendered politics of the field has delved into the practices of accompaniment and its implications on research and knowledge production, particularly through the case of researchers’ children and partners. In comparison, the tendency to seek assistance from parents is neglected within the scholarship. Drawing on the PhD fieldwork experiences of two researchers in their “native” country, specifically a Sri Lankan researcher conducting fieldwork in Sri Lanka and a North Indian scholar researching in South India, the paper reveals parents’ contribution to the research process, in terms of enhancing researcher credibility, facilitating contact‐making and access, and providing emotional and …
The Dao Of Politics: Li (Ritual/Rites) And Laws As Pragmatic Tools Of Government, Sor-Hoon Tan
The Dao Of Politics: Li (Ritual/Rites) And Laws As Pragmatic Tools Of Government, Sor-Hoon Tan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
American philosopher John Dewey spent more than two years in China (191 During and after his visit, he wrote some fairly perceptive and insightful comme on China. These were published in periodicals such as the New Republic, As the China Review, and sometimes in newspapers such as the Baltimore Sun ever, there is hardly any discussion of Chinese philosophy in Dewey's publ works or even his papers and correspondence. Among his rare mentions of C philosophy was an article published in 1922, "As the Chinese Think," w cussed the teachings of Lao Zi and Confucius (M13:217-27).1 This was an att …
Lawyers And Law Graduates In Parliaments As A Consequence Of Smd Electoral Systems: Comparing Japan, South Korea, And Germany, Devin K. Joshi
Lawyers And Law Graduates In Parliaments As A Consequence Of Smd Electoral Systems: Comparing Japan, South Korea, And Germany, Devin K. Joshi
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This study addresses the question of why so many of the world’s legislators are lawyers or law graduates. Drawing from previous studies on lawyer-legislators and electoral systems, it develops the argument that ‘first-pass-the-post’ single-member district electoral systems presume a principal-agent logic of representation and are therefore conducive to political parties selecting representatives with either occupational experience or educational training in the field of law. By contrast, proportional representation (PR) elections presume a microcosm model of representation incentivizing parties to select candidates representing diverse demographic and occupational backgrounds. This conjecture is tested by examining legislator backgrounds in three large parliaments with …
Democracy In Southeast Asia: A Year Of Elections, Jacob Ricks
Democracy In Southeast Asia: A Year Of Elections, Jacob Ricks
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
I n the year from May 2018 to May 2019, 6 of the 11 Southeast Asian states held major elections. The outcomes demonstrate the broad and mixed uses and impacts elections have in the region, ranging from what many consider to be a major democratization event in Malaysia wherein a coalition of opposition parties finally unseated the long-standing Barisan Nasional (BN), to the continued consolidation of single-party rule in Cambodia under Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). With so many elections happening in short order, we at Asian Politics & Policy felt that this is an opportune moment to compile …
Obstacles To Accessing Pro-Poor Microcredit Programs In China: Evidence From Penggan Village, Guizhou, Deborah Shu Yi Tan, Track Tze Tuan Tan, Shao Tong Ling, John A. Donaldson
Obstacles To Accessing Pro-Poor Microcredit Programs In China: Evidence From Penggan Village, Guizhou, Deborah Shu Yi Tan, Track Tze Tuan Tan, Shao Tong Ling, John A. Donaldson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Why do poor farmers not take up microcredit loans, even when the terms are designed to be pro-poor? Fieldwork in a village in China’s Guizhou province revealed a puzzle: although the county government had designed a loan program that was intended to be unusually pro-poor, only three of the 349 eligible households had successfully applied. This article analyzes three potential hypotheses: farmer failure (risk aversion or financial illiteracy), market failure (lack of viable or stable market opportunities), and institutional failure (structural or institutional barriers precluding taking up loans). Based on evidence from intensive interviews, we reject the first hypothesis, and …
Time Running Out To End U.S. - China Trade War, Singapore Management University
Time Running Out To End U.S. - China Trade War, Singapore Management University
Perspectives@SMU
The world watches on as China’s rise and controversial trade practices trigger a U.S. reaction
Thailand's 2019 Vote: The General's Election, Jacob Ricks
Thailand's 2019 Vote: The General's Election, Jacob Ricks
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Thailand’s March 2019 ballot was the first for the country since 2011, and for many it signaled the potential end of the military junta’s five-year rule. But was it truly a return to democracy? This essay argues that the election was far from a democratization event. Instead, it was a highly orchestrated exercise to ensure authoritarian longevity. The junta employed techniques of institutional engineering as well as managing the election’s outcomes in an effort to extend the premiership of Prayuth Chan-ocha despite increasing pressure for a return to civilian rule. The results of the election suggest that Thai society continues …
Thailand’S 2019 Vote: The General’S Election, Jacob Ricks
Thailand’S 2019 Vote: The General’S Election, Jacob Ricks
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Thailand's March 2019 ballot was the first for the country since 2011, and for many it signaled the potential end of the military junta's five-year rule. But was it truly a return to democracy? This essay argues that the election was far from a democratization event. Instead, it was a highly orchestrated exercise to ensure authoritarian longevity. The junta employed techniques of institutional engineering as well as managing the election's outcomes in an effort to extend the premiership of Prayuth Chan-ocha despite increasing pressure for a return to civilian rule. The results of the election suggest that Thai society continues …
A Crude Bargain: Great Powers, Oil States, And Petro-Alignment, Inwook Kim
A Crude Bargain: Great Powers, Oil States, And Petro-Alignment, Inwook Kim
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Petro-alignment, a quid pro quo arrangement whereby great powers offer security in exchange for oil states’ friendly oil policies, is a widely used and yet undertheorized energy security strategy. One consequential aspect of this exchange is that great powers choose different levels of security commitment to keep oil producers friendly. With what criteria do great powers rank oil states? How do we conceptualize different types of petro-alignments? What exactly do great powers and oil producers exchange under each petro-alignment type? I posit that a mix of market power and geostrategic location determines the strategic value and vulnerability of individual client …
Subverting Institutions: Derrida And Zhuangzi On The Power Of Institutions, Steven Burik
Subverting Institutions: Derrida And Zhuangzi On The Power Of Institutions, Steven Burik
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper shows how both Jacques Derrida and Zhuangzi use their respective ways of subverting philosophical systems, by and large through language systems, to arrive at an (implicit or explicit) subversion of political power or political systems or institutions. Political institutions are presented as including more general institutions such as the media, press, and academic and other kinds of institutions that influence the way our societies function, the way we live, work, and think. The paper first highlights the similarities and differences in the application of subversive techniques in Derrida and Zhuangzi as they battle against their respective opponents. After …
Policy Effectiveness And Capacity: Two Sides Of The Design Coin, Ishani Mukherjee, Azad S. Bali
Policy Effectiveness And Capacity: Two Sides Of The Design Coin, Ishani Mukherjee, Azad S. Bali
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Policy capacity and effectiveness are two themes that have opened new pathways for academic and empirical enquiry throughout the policy sciences. In the contemporary discourse of policy design, effectiveness has taken on a more foundational meaning that goes beyond what is understood as only the attainment of specific policy goals. Rather, it has come to occupy a central position in the study of policy design, signifying the broader logic of deliberate policy action used to articulate policy problems and present alternative ways of addressing them. Effectiveness thus signals both effectual processes as well as successful policy outcomes. However, what constitutes …
Virtuous Testimonial Belief In Young Children, Shane Ryan
Virtuous Testimonial Belief In Young Children, Shane Ryan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
I lay out the challenge posed by testimonial knowledge in young children to virtue reliabilist accounts of knowledge. In particular, I examine accounts from Greco and Pritchard and argue that those accounts are too demanding. More specifically, I make the case that young children can have testimonial knowledge without meeting the ability requirements claimed by Greco and Pritchard. As a virtue theoretic alternative, I argue that an agent's belief must be epistemically virtuous, but that this may sometimes involve belief from a trait rather than an ability.
There And Back Again: What The Cold War For Southeast Asia Can Teach Us About Sino-Us Competition In The Region Today, Wen-Qing Ngoei
There And Back Again: What The Cold War For Southeast Asia Can Teach Us About Sino-Us Competition In The Region Today, Wen-Qing Ngoei
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Expert commentary today typically focuses on the agendas and actions of the two big powers, the United States and China, which misses the bigger picture. During the Cold War, leaders of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) played a critical role in containing Chinese influence, shaping the terms of Sino-U.S. competition and rapprochement, and deepening the U.S. presence in Southeast Asia. The legacy of ASEAN’s foreign relations during and since the Cold War militates against the popular notion that Chinese hegemony in Asia is inevitable.
Proud To Be Thai: The Puzzling Absence Of Ethnicity-Based Political Cleavages In Northeastern Thailand, Jacob I. Ricks
Proud To Be Thai: The Puzzling Absence Of Ethnicity-Based Political Cleavages In Northeastern Thailand, Jacob I. Ricks
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Underneath the veneer of a homogenous state-approved Thai ethnicity,Thailand is home to a heterogeneous population. Only about one-thirdof Thailand’s inhabitants speak the national language as their mothertongue; multiple alternate ethnolinguistic groups comprise the remainderof the population, with the Lao in the northeast, often called Isan people,being the largest at 28 percent of the population. Ethnic divisions closelyalign with areas of political party strength: the Thai Rak Thai Party and itssubsequent incarnations have enjoyed strong support from Isan people andKhammuang speakers in the north while the Democrat Party dominatesamong the Thai- and Paktay-speaking people of the central plains and thesouth. Despite …
Early Birds, Short Tenures, And The Double Squeeze: How Gender And Age Intersect With Parliamentary Representation, Devin K. Joshi, Malliga Och
Early Birds, Short Tenures, And The Double Squeeze: How Gender And Age Intersect With Parliamentary Representation, Devin K. Joshi, Malliga Och
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The gender and age composition of a parliament impacts who is descriptively represented and marginalized and what types of policy ideas and solutions are brought forward or excluded. While important for both descriptive and substantive representation, scholarship on the intersection of gender and age in parliaments has thus far been limited. To broaden our understanding, we conducted a large-scale cross-sectional analysis of the gender and ages of over 20,000 representatives from 78 national assemblies. We identified four types of gender-age patterns depending on whether women enter legislatures younger than men (“early birds”) or have served in parliament for a shorter …
What An Election Poster Can Tell Us About Thai Election Campaigns, Jacob I. Ricks
What An Election Poster Can Tell Us About Thai Election Campaigns, Jacob I. Ricks
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In the runup to Thailand’s 2019 national elections, the country has been awash with election posters. This simple form of campaign communication remains a staple of Thai campaigns, despite the advent of various Internet platforms and communication devices. But although election posters are often discussed by journalists and the general public, they are rarely analyzed in academic research. This is surprising and unfortunate, since their wealth of textual and visual information can tell us a lot about campaigns.
Is Liberal Democracy In Decline?, Singapore Management University
Is Liberal Democracy In Decline?, Singapore Management University
Perspectives@SMU
The apparent decline of Western liberal democracy affords nations, especially those in ASEAN, the chance to forge a path without siding with a rising China or a stuttering America
Deterrence Under Nuclear Asymmetry: Thaad And The Prospects For Missile Defense On The Korean Peninsula, Inwook Kim, Soul Park
Deterrence Under Nuclear Asymmetry: Thaad And The Prospects For Missile Defense On The Korean Peninsula, Inwook Kim, Soul Park
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The 2016 decision to deploy Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) to South Korea has generated multitude of intensely politicized issues and has proved highly controversial. This has made it challenging to alleviate, let alone clarify, points of analytical and policy tensions. We instead disaggregate and revisit two fundamental questions. One is whether THAAD could really defend South Korea from North Korean missiles. We challenge the conventional “qualified optimism” by giving analytical primacy to three countermeasures available to defeat THAAD–use of decoys, tumbling and spiral motion, and outnumbering. These countermeasures are relatively inexpensive to create but exceedingly difficult to offset. …
The Myanmar Business Environment Index 2020: Measuring Economic Governance For Private Sector Development, Malesky Edmund, Dean C. Dulay, Jon Kesssecker
The Myanmar Business Environment Index 2020: Measuring Economic Governance For Private Sector Development, Malesky Edmund, Dean C. Dulay, Jon Kesssecker
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The Economic Governance Index (EGI) is a tool that has become widely accepted by governments to understand economic growth, attract investors, and engage in public-private sector dialogue. EGIs have been used in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kosovo, El Salvador, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Vietnam to offer crucial insight into governance and help guide reform efforts. The Myanmar Business Environment Index (MBEI) follows in this tradition by adapting the EGI model to the Myanmar context. The MBEI is designed to provide Union and state/region government leaders, as well as stakeholders such as business managers, with a tool to understand and address the …
Popular Versus Elite Democracies And Human Rights: Inclusion Makes A Difference, Devin K. Joshi, J. S. Maloy, Timothy M. Peterson
Popular Versus Elite Democracies And Human Rights: Inclusion Makes A Difference, Devin K. Joshi, J. S. Maloy, Timothy M. Peterson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Scholarly research generally finds that democratic governments are more likely to respect human rights than other types of regimes. Different human rights practices among long-standing and affluent democracies therefore present a puzzle. Drawing from democratic theory and comparative institutional studies, we argue more inclusive or "popular" democracies should enforce human rights better than more exclusive or "elite" democracies, even in the face of security threats from armed conflict. Instead of relying on the Freedom House or Polity indexes to distinguish levels of democracy, we adopt a more focused approach to measuring structures of inclusion, the Institutional Democracy Index (IDI), which …
How To Be Singaporean: Becoming Global National Citizens And The National Dimension In Cosmopolitan Openness, Wen Li Thian
How To Be Singaporean: Becoming Global National Citizens And The National Dimension In Cosmopolitan Openness, Wen Li Thian
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper looks at how cosmopolitanism is practised amongst Singaporeans who have experienced Singapore’s education reform in the 1990s. Cosmopolitanism in Singapore is tied to state-intervention with a national orientation. To complement Singapore’s push towards cosmopolitanism, the education reform in the 1990s promoted the idea of a national citizen with a global orientation. I looked at 40 Singaporeans born after the year 1990 to investigate cosmopolitan attitudes that have emerged from the tensions between cosmopolitanism and nationalism. To meet the state’s ideals of cosmopolitanism, these Singaporeans employed strategies to practice a particular form of cosmopolitan openness which prioritise national interests. …
Sanctions For Nuclear Inhibition: Comparing Sanctions Conditions Between Iran And North Korea, Inwook Kim, Jung-Chul Lee
Sanctions For Nuclear Inhibition: Comparing Sanctions Conditions Between Iran And North Korea, Inwook Kim, Jung-Chul Lee
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Whendo sanctions succeed in nuclear inhibition? Is there a generalizable frameworkto estimate sanction effectiveness against nuclear aspirants? Instead ofrelying on partial equilibrium analysis, we conceptualize sanctions as threesequential phases—imposition of economic pain, conversation to politicalpressure, and creation (or failure thereof) of zone of possible agreement(ZOPA). The effectiveness of each phase is subject to phase-specific contextualvariables, an aggregation of which helps measure individual sanction’s effectiveness,conduct cross-case comparison, and estimate one’s replicability in other cases.To illustrate its analytical utility, we analyze the divergent sanctionoutcomes between Iran in 2012-2015 and North Korea 2013-2017. Iran waseconomically more vulnerable, politically less resilient, and its bargainingposition …
Jawing Through Crises: Chinese And Vietnamese Media Strategies In The South China Sea, Frances Yaping Wang, Brantly Womack
Jawing Through Crises: Chinese And Vietnamese Media Strategies In The South China Sea, Frances Yaping Wang, Brantly Womack
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Winston Churchill once said, ‘it is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war.’ However, negotiations are particularly difficult when they are enmeshed in public opinion precommitments. The sharpest crisis between China and Vietnam in the last 30 years concerned the placement of a Chinese oil rig into contested waters in 2014. This study analyses the Chinese and Vietnamese propaganda efforts surrounding the crisis as examples of the instrumental use of propaganda in managing domestic public opinion on diplomatic crises. The article argues that despite very different approaches to public diplomacy during the crisis, both states were primarily concerned with avoiding escalation …
Perception Of Corrupt Acts: East Vs. West, Singapore Management University
Perception Of Corrupt Acts: East Vs. West, Singapore Management University
Perspectives@SMU
Corruption is a major threat faced by China and anyone who wants to do business in the country. In recent years, the Chinese government’s crackdowns in corruption has led to some success. In the Berlin-based non-profit Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2017, China ranked 77th with a score of 41 out of 100, a slight improvement from the score of 36 in 2014. The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople with a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
Review: Red China’S Green Revolution: Technological Innovation, Institutional Change, And Economic Development Under The Commune, John A. Donaldson
Review: Red China’S Green Revolution: Technological Innovation, Institutional Change, And Economic Development Under The Commune, John A. Donaldson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Professor Joshua Eisenman’s book, “Red China’s Green Revolution: Technological Innovation, Institutional Change, and Economic Development Under the Commune,” is as paradoxical as the enigmatic era that it seeks to illuminate. On the one hand, the volume contains compelling evidence – much of it newly and painstakingly collected provincial and county-level data – that the later Maoist period, particularly the 1970–1979 period, was not the disaster that it is sometimes portrayed to be. It fundamentally undermines the discredited (yet often rehearsed) fable that decollectivization was initiated and promulgated solely by desperate protesting farmers. The author supports his argument via an impressive …
The Uses Of History In International Society: From The Paris Peace Conference To The Present, Margaret Macmillan, Patrick Quinton-Brown
The Uses Of History In International Society: From The Paris Peace Conference To The Present, Margaret Macmillan, Patrick Quinton-Brown
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
History has been used—and abused—for centuries. Yet the more familiar notion of ‘history's lessons’—a notion which tends to make most historians uncomfortable, and which surely demands thoroughgoing skepticism—is far from exhaustive of history's uses in the practice and study of international relations. One important and timely subject is the more constitutive role of history in international deliberations over the creation, fragmentation and transformation of nation-states. What follows is a historical comparison of the changing ways in which the past has been used to frame the terms and content of such debates. While we will be exploring the uses of history …