Political Science Commons^™

Kathie Barrett On The Global Justice Movement: Cross-National And Transnational Perspectives Edited By Donatella Della Porta. Boulder, Co: Paradigm Publishers, 2007. 278pp., Kathie Barrett

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Global Justice Movement: Cross-National and Transnational Perspectives edited by Donatella Della Porta. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2007. 278pp.

Of Sweatshops And Human Subsistence: Habermas On Human Rights, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this paper I argue that the discourse theoretic account of human rights defended by Jürgen Habermas contains a fruitful tension that is obscured by its dominant tendency to identify rights with legal claims. This weakness in Habermas’s account becomes manifest when we examine how sweatshops diminish the secure enjoyment of subsistence, which Habermas himself (in recognition of the UDHR) recognizes as a human right. Discourse theories of human rights are unique in tying the legitimacy of human rights to democratic deliberation and consensus. So construed, their specific meaning and force is the outcome of historical political struggle. However, unlike …

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 …

Nothing "Colonial" About It: Service Delivery And Accountability, Todd Landman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

At one level, there is little in “The New Colonialists” with which I disagree. The necessary state capacity in developing societies for basic service delivery is in many cases absent, significantly weak, or has been corrupted in ways that produce tremendous inequality of access and disproportionate social outcomes that are related to race, ethnicity, poverty, gender, and other categories of social identity. It is true that in the presence of weak state institutions, widespread corruption, and underdeveloped infrastructure, a large number of national and international non-governmental agencies and organizations have sought to redress such imbalances through their work in providing …

September Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

"The New Colonialists" by Michael A. Cohen, Maria Figueroa Küpçü, and Parag Khanna. Foreign Policy. July/August 2008.

Saving Lives: A First Step Toward Freedom Not Dependence, William F. Felice

Human Rights & Human Welfare

During the nineteenth century, European powers extended and deepened their brutal domination of the so-called “uncivilized” (sic) nations and peoples around the world. These efforts were named “colonialist” and were based on the uprooting of indigenous peoples, the export and pillage of natural resources, cultural displacement, direct political control, and economic exploitation and the creation of dependency by the Europeans. While the European states gained colossal economic benefits from these arrangements, the colonized peoples were left with failed states and bad governments. Advocates of these colonialist policies often justified these actions on the basis of a deep-felt ideological belief in …

Cosmopolitanism And Rationalizing Tendencies, James Pattison

Human Rights & Human Welfare

When phone-in talk shows, the press, and undergraduates debate the case for cosmopolitan accounts of global distributive justice, there are a number of standard rationalizations given for why we don’t have a duty to help. These include: “we have duties only to our fellow countrymen”; “poverty is caused by corrupt leaders, so not our fault, and therefore not our responsibility“; and “humanitarian aid is counter-productive.” Unlike the other two sorts of rationalization, the latter claim does not necessarily deny the moral cosmopolitanism premise that we have extensive duties to relieve the suffering of those beyond our borders. Rather, it follows …

In With The Old, Out With The New, Brent J. Steele

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Michael Cohen, Maria Figueroa Küpçü and Parag Khanna make some compelling arguments about the inherent drawbacks regarding the role diverse networks of NGOs play in keeping at-risk populations alive throughout the world. We are informed that these groups are “the new colonialists,” agencies much like the old European empires. These new colonialists are apparently enforcing a cycle of dependency which prevents the development of state structures, structures that apparently sustain these populations more effectively. The problem with this thesis is that the authors do not seem to entertain the possibility that the nation-state is itself an (old) colonial construct, and …

Civil Society: Agent Of Change In Egypt, Ola Kubbara

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Egypt has been dominated by an authoritarian regime for decades now, which ensured its ultimate monopoly over power and government, as well as over civil society. Civil society in Egypt is a very important factor that determines the development of the process of democratization, as well as the political and social stability of the state. The role of civil society, the degree of its autonomy or its repression, reflects on all aspects of political, social and economic spheres. The lagging democracy and the augmented level of social repression and stagnation in Egypt, is due to the weakness of civil society. …

Membership Card: Edna Saffy For The William. J. Clinton Foundation

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

William J. Clinton Foundation Global community Membership Card. May 1, 2008.

Slavery And "Abuse Regeneration", Christine Bell

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Skinner’s depiction of modern day slavery is graphic and challenging. Anyone viewing prohibitions on slavery, or abolition, as historical anachronism, or requiring reinterpretation for modern-day practices, must think again. Skinner persuades us that slavery in its most old fashioned sense is alive and well and, worse than that–on the rise.

April Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“A World Enslaved" by E. Benjamin Skinner. Foreign Policy (March/April) 2008.

Women And The Democracy Project: A Feminist Take On Women's Political Participation In The Philippines, Ma. Lourdes Veneracion-Rallonza

Political Science Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Hispanic Citizenship, Registration, And Voting Patterns: A Comparative Analysis Of The 2000 And 2004 Presidential Elections, Debora Upegui

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines citizenship, registration, and voting patterns among Latinos in the 2000 and 2004 Presidential Elections.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: There is no doubt that the Hispanic population in the United States has consistently grown in the last two decades and continues to be the largest growing minority group within the United States. According to the 2004 census, …

Ayse Betul Celik On The Age Of Apology: Facing Up To The Past Edited By Mark Gibney, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Jean-Marc Coicaud, And Niklaus Steiner. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. 333 Pages., Ayse Betul Celik

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Age of Apology: Facing Up to the Past edited by Mark Gibney, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Jean-Marc Coicaud, and Niklaus Steiner. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. 333 pages.

Gainesville Area National Organization For Women 25th Anniversary Banquet October 19, 2007

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Banquet held on Friday, October 19th, 2007.

Civil Disobedience And The Necessity Defense, John Alan Cohan

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “This article will first examine the nature of civil disobedience, and distinguish between direct and indirect civil disobedience. Part II highlights some historical examples of civil disobedience. Part IV then examines the principles of the necessity defense, analyzing each of the elements that make up the defense, illustrated with cases on point. Next, Part V will turn to an analysis of several abortion-protest cases that raise issues different from other types of civil disobedience cases. Part VI then will examine Viet Nam era civil disobedience cases. Following that, Part VIII will explore a unique defense known as the Nuremberg …

Gender In Politics, Sheri L. Kunovich, Pamela Paxton, Melanie M. Hughes

Sociology Research

Women’s political participation and representation vary dramatically within and between countries. We selectively review the literature on gender in politics, focusing on women’s formal political participation.

We discuss both traditional explanations for women’s political participation and representation, such as the supply of women and the demand for women, and newer explanations such as the role of international actors and gender quotas. We also ask whether women are distinctive—does having more women in office make a difference to public policy? Throughout the review we demonstrate that a full understanding of women’s political representation requires both deep knowledge of individual cases such …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

This issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy that deals with issues of climate change, oil, and water and the interconnection of the three with the future of the planet.

Initially our topic was conceived as “Oil & Water” only. We planned to present the proceedings of an Institute for Global Leadership symposium held at Tufts University in 2005. There was then still a debate about global warming, although the Kyoto Treaty was in place. But without the world’s preeminent manufacturer of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the United States (20 percent of the total emissions with 5 percent …

Resistant Cultures: Punk Identity And Anarchist Resistance In Three Yugoslav Successor States, Jeff Lambert

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project attempts to discover the roots of the anarchist movement and reveal any connections to the punk subculture (both historic and contemporary) that emerged in Slovenia in the late 1970s and propagated throughout the federate republics. Given the unique economic history and geopolitical significance of the SFR Yugoslavia, there is a discussion of how anarchism differs in the Yugoslav successor states today (specifically Croatia) from other countries on the European continent. Punk is discussed as an alternative to nationalism and personal stories of anarchist identification are recorded herein.

Women In New England Politics, Paige Ransford, Carol Hardy-Fanta, Anne Marie Cammisa

New England Journal of Public Policy

This essay addresses a serious deficiency in the literature on women and politics in the United States today: the lack of attention to regional variation and, more specifically, the absence of research on women’s representation in New England. This deficiency is particularly troubling since political analysts of all stripes typically portray New England as imbued with ideological, individual, and structural characteristics likely to lead to rates of political representation higher than the nation as a whole. This essay provides a brief history of women in politics for New England as a whole; describes the current status of women at congressional, …

Human Rights Education: The Third Leg Of Post-Conflict/Transitional Justice, David E. Guinn

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Emerging out of the same foment of war and violence that led to the recognition of international human rights, post-conflict or transitional justice represents one of the most important political developments in efforts to advance human civilization to arise during the course of the twentieth century.

© David E. Guinn. All rights reserved.

This paper may be freely circulated in electronic or hard copy provided it is not modified in any way, the rights of the author not infringed, and the paper is not quoted or cited without express permission of the author. The editors cannot guarantee a stable URL …

Are You Voting For Democracy?, Andrew Long

The University Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Freedom And Svoboda: What Does Freedom Mean, Andrew D. Mckernan

The University Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Prospects For Democracy, Nick Stokes

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Upon the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia that had hitherto lived behind the Iron Curtain inherited new independence and uncertain political futures. Since then, the world has watched a political entity that once covered 8.6 million square miles shatter into 15 new nation-states, each with the potential to throw off the shackles of the past and forge new democracies. Fifteen years after the fall, we see elections at state and local levels, multi-party systems, and constitutions touting freedoms of press and religion. While these elements are vital to the survival …

Majority Politics And Race Based Remedies, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

This Essay applies the principles of social movement theory and analyzes the legal status of race-based remedies. Many scholars have debated the constitutionality and efficacy of affirmative action, the appropriateness of race-consciousness (from legal and social perspectives) and the legitimacy of structural judicial remedies for various types of discrimination. This paper will add to this literature by demonstrating the influence of conservative race politics and ideology on Court doctrine concerning affirmative action and other race-based remedies. In particular, this Essay will demonstrate that, consistent with broader political trends, the Court disfavors governmental usage of race as a remedy for discrimination …

In A Democracy, Are Some Citizens More Important Than Others?, Sharyn J. Potter

The University Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Democracy As A Verb: An Action Word, Lauren Schweizer

The University Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Women And Welfare: The Politics Of Coping With New Social Risks In Chile And Uruguay, Jennifer Pribble

Political Science Faculty Publications

Women make up a disproportionate share of the world’s poor, and Latin America is no exception to this trend. Nevertheless, very few studies of social policy in the region have investigated why the gendered character of welfare provision varies across countries. This article addresses that question through a comparative historical analysis of Chile and Uruguay and concludes that variation in the gendered nature of each state’s social policy regime resulted from a two-step process. In the first stage, female labor force participation, the mobilizing capacity of women, and policy legacies differentiated the two countries, placing Chile on a less equitable …

Who Participates In Today's Environmental Movement? Not The Rich Or The Educated, Jessica Schaum

Honors Capstones

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