Political Science Commons^™

Individual And Organizational Human Rights Activism In Liberia, Sierra Leone, And Kenya, Robert M. Press

Faculty Publications

This article examines the ways individual and organizational activists peacefully resisted government repression in recent decades in three sub-Saharan Africa countries. It is based on both archival research and more than 170 interviews by the author with key activists and others in the countries at various times from 2002-2012. This qualitative study makes several contributions to the literature. First, by including individual activism as well as organizational activism, it reveals wider and more varied participation in human rights activism than is normally detected. Second, where the usual focus in resistance studies is on mass movements, this study presents a more …

Herbert Hoover And Belgian Relief, Albert Winkler

Faculty Publications

Herbert Hoover was an orphan, who retained great empathy for the weak and hungry his entire life. Working without pay, he organized and administered Belgian Relief starting in 1914 to get food to ten million Belgians and Frenchmen behind German lines. His efforts doubtlessly saved hundreds of thousands from starvation. This was only the starting point in his career as the "Great Humanitarian." He got food to Germany at the end of both world wars, aided Russia in their great famine, and reportedly got food to hundreds of millions of people in his lengthy career. No one has ever done …

Recasting The Agency Of Unaccompanied Youth, Lauren Heidbrink

Faculty Publications

This is Chapter 6 of Emerging Perspectives on Children in Migratory Circumstances: Selected Proceedings of the Working Group on Childhood and Migration June 2008 Conference, published by Drexel University Department of Culture & Communication. Click for full-text.

Excerpt from the book abstract:

Most of the pieces provide in depth points of view from child migrant perspectives—data that is often difficult to obtain and portray sensitively. Child-centered data is exceptionally valuable in helping us to grasp the micro-forces by which childhood is changing through migration and how children experience or activate agency under trying conditions...Lauren Heidbrink [discusses] Spanish speakers in …

The India-Us Nuclear Cooperation Agreement: Explaining The Contentious Indian Debate, Karthika Sasikumar, Gilles Verniers

Faculty Publications

The U.S.-India civil nuclear energy agreement triggered a contentious debate in India from 2005 to 2008. Regional political actors played crucial and unanticipated roles in the debate. We present explanations for the positions adopted by the main actors and the level of contention. We find that parties’ positions were driven not by ideology but by the compulsions of coalition politics.

Enclave Under Siege: International Norms And Challenges To The Indian Nuclear Complex, Karthika Sasikumar

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the effects of international connections on India’s nuclear program; specifically, the use of international norms and resources by domestic actors to influence the Indian nuclear enclave. These actors are from the Indian executive (pressure from above) as well as civil society (pressure from below). India’s self-presentation as a responsible state necessitates compliance with international norms, and concomitant restraints on the nuclear estate from ‘above.’ Environmentalists, local residents, and their transnational allies seek to make the nuclear complex more accountable, responsive, and transparent by using social media, civil society institutions, and cross-border links. The Indian case suggests that …

What Matters To Social Democratic Party Voters? Liberal And Economic Interests Trump Ethnoreligious Identity In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Joan Davison

Faculty Publications

Bosnia and Herzegovina possesses both a history marked by ethnic differences and a tradition of tolerance and coexistence among religious groups. The millet system of Ottoman times depended upon the authority of confessional communities. With the rise of nationalism in the 1800’s, religious identity and organization became complicated by ethnicity. Later, the authoritarianism of Tito enabled the state to accommodate this multinational, multi-religious character, uniting people as socialist Yugoslavs. Thus, the collapse of the socialist, Yugoslavian ideals and structures created new and sometimes polarizing choices for the population. Previously authoritarian government mediated religious and ethnic relations, but now coexistence depended …

Prominent Peripheries: The Role Of Borderlands In Central Africa’S Regionalized Conflict., Lindsay Scorgie

Faculty Publications

The Great Lakes region of Central Africa has been beset by conflict for close to two decades now. Aside from the unprecedented humanitarian consequences, the most striking feature of the violence has been its profoundly regional character. This paper seeks to explore how one might better understand the spread and cross-border nature of conflict in this region. It argues that the dominant contemporary model for explanation of regional conflict, with its overwhelmingly state-centric orientation, is inadequate in providing a comprehensive understanding of the structure of this type of violence. Rather, the so-called peripheries of states – borderlands – need to …

Petitions, Privacy, And Political Obscurity, Rebecca Green

Faculty Publications

People who sign petitions must accept disclosure of their political views. This conclusion rests on the seemingly uncontroversial (if circular) premise that petition signing is a public activity. Courts have thus far shown little sympathy for individuals who take a public stand on an issue by signing a petition and then assert privacy claims after the fact. Democracy, after all, takes courage, as Justice Scalia wrote in the petitioning disclosure case Doe v. Reed. But signing a petition today brings consequences beyond public criticism. The real threat of disclosure for modern petition signers is not tangible harassment, but the loss …

The Punishment Of Gaza, Edward Sayre

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Features Of Greek Satyr Play As A Guide To Interpretation For Plato's "Republic", Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

The paper borrows from recent work by classicists on satyr play and demonstrates significant parallels between Plato’s Republic and the structure, theme, and stereotypical contents that characterize this newly studied genre of ancient Greek drama. Like satyr play, the Republic includes repeated passages where metatheatricality can reverse the meaning. The frequent occurrence of all the stereotypical elements of satyr play in Plato’s Republic also suggests to readers that they should be responding to Socrates’s narration as they would to a satyr play, again reversing meaning by communicating a set of literary expectations to Plato’s readers over the heads of Socrates’s …

Who Wrote Bacon? Assessing The Respective Roles Of Francis Bacon And His Secretaries In The Production Of His English Works, Noel B. Reynolds, G. Bruce Schaalje, John M. Hilton

Faculty Publications

In an earlier study that identified previously unrecognized writings of the young 15 Thomas Hobbes, questions were raised about the authorship of some of Francis Bacon’s published works. This article reports a follow-up study in which two independent statistical analyses of Bacon’s English works both conclude that, whereas Bacon’s autographic writings show clearly that they are authored by the same person; almost none of his published works can be matched statistically 20 with the autographs. The most likely explanation for this dramatic finding is that Bacon’s well-known reliance on secretaries may have been sufficiently extensive that his writing patterns are …

Sierra Leone's Peaceful Resistance To Authoritarian Rule, Robert Press

Faculty Publications

This study examines the nonviolent resistance starting in 1977 that students, lawyers, journalists, women's organizations, and others, mounted against repressive rule in Sierra Leone, a country known to many mostly for its violent civil war (1991–2002) and “blood diamonds” that helped fuel it. The study argues that social movement theories, though developed in the West, can help explain such resistance–but only with some revisions. The resistance in Sierra Leone took place without the kind of exogenous “opportunities” and resources normally associated with movements in the democratic West. The study offers alternative explanations that expand the usual concept of social movements …

Using Self Organizing Maps To Analyze Demographics And Swing State Voting In The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, Paul T. Pearson, Cameron I. Cooper

Faculty Publications

Emergent self-organizing maps (ESOMs) and k-means clustering are used to cluster counties in each of the states of Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio by demographic data from the 2010 United States census. The counties in these clusters are then analyzed for how they voted in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, and political strategies are discussed that target demographically similar geographical regions based on ESOM results. The ESOM and k-means clusterings are compared and found to be dissimilar by the variation of information distance function.

German Views Of Amazonia Through The Centuries, Richard Hacken

Faculty Publications

An exploration of German conquistadors, missionaries, explorers, empresses, naturalists, travelers, immigrants and cultural interpreters who were conspicuous among Europeans over five centuries fascinated by the biodiversity and native peoples of the incomparably vast Amazon basin stretching from the Andes to the Atlantic, from the Guiana Highlands to Peru and Bolivia, from Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador to the mouth of the Amazon at the Brazilian equator.

The Beauty And The Beast: Civil Society And Nationalisms In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Joan Davison

Faculty Publications

Both ethnic nationalism and liberal civic nationalism exist with historical precedents in Bosnia­Herzegovina. Many elected elites privilege extremist ethnic nationalism. The power-sharing structure of the Dayton Peace Accords institutionalizes their influence and permits the current political stalemate. Further, a legacy of authoritarianism vitiates a political culture supportive of elite accountability and mass responsibility. Yet a nascent civil society witnesses to the past and potential future of liberal cosmopolitanism. This research includes interviews with leaders and members of civil society organizations to assess the impediments to and strength of civil society as a vehicle to promote civic nationalism. While interviewees acknowledge …

The Senate: Out Of Order?, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Faculty Publications

Due to the routine use of the filibuster and related devices, today’s Senate operates as a supermajoritarian body. This Symposium Article considers whether this supermajoritarian aspect of the Senate renders it dysfunctional and, if so, what can be done about it. I contend that the Senate is indeed broken. Its current supermajoritarian features have pernicious effects. Further, and contrary to the claims of many of the Senate’s defenders, this aspect of the Senate is not part of the original design. I go on to explain why the Senate’s procedures, despite their deficiencies, have nonetheless proven resistant to reform. The impediment …

Change Comes With Time: Substantive Interpretation Of Non-Proportional Hazards In Event History Analysis, Amanda A. Licht

Faculty Publications

While methodologists have provided us ample notice of both the problem of non-proportional hazards and the means of correcting them, less attention has been paid to the post-estimation interpretation. The suggested inclusion of time interactions in our models is more than a statistical fix: these corrections alter the substantive meaning and interpretation of results. Framing the issue as a specific case of multiplicative-interaction modeling, I provide detailed discussion of the problem of non-proportional hazards and present several appropriate means of interpreting both the substantive impact and the significance of variables whose effects may change over time.

Peripheral Pariah Or Regional Rebel? The Allied Democratic Forces And The Uganda/Congo Borderland, Lindsay Scorgie

Faculty Publications

The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have inflicted damage and insecurity on the Rwenzori region of Uganda for over a decade and, although their strength has diminished, still constitute a threat. This article argues that it is inadequate to see the ADF primarily as an internal Ugandan rebel group. Rather, the group's cross-border dimension with the Democratic Republic of the Congo should be conceptualised as a transnational phenomenon. A borderland analytic framework offers the best means of understanding the movement.

The Beauty And The Beast: Civil Society And Nationalisms In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Joan Davison

Faculty Publications

Both ethnic nationalism and liberal civic nationalism exist with historical precedents in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Many elected elites privilege extremist ethnic nationalism. The power-sharing structure of the Dayton Peace Accords institutionalizes their influence and permits the current political stalemate. Further, a legacy of authoritarianism vitiates a political culture supportive of elite accountability and mass responsibility. Yet a nascent civil society witnesses to the past and potential future of liberal cosmopolitanism. This research includes interviews with leaders and members of civil society organizations to assess the impediments to and strength of civil society as a vehicle to promote civic nationalism. While interviewees acknowledge …

Public Administration: Local Government And Decentralization In Ghana, Kwame B. Antwi-Boasiako

Faculty Publications

Public administration as an art is defined in the Ghanaian context regarding decentralization and public officials’ accountability. It examines decentralization, local elections and empowerment. While the paper advocates for regional and district level elections, it uses the literature to argue that local representatives are more accessible to their locals. It questions the current appointment practices by the central government, which has become more partisan than originally intended in the Local Government Act. To affirm the democratic environment of politics in Ghana, it calls for constitutional amendment regarding decentralization and local government elections.

In Memoriam: Gil Friedman, Harvey Starr

Faculty Publications

Gil Friedman, lecturer in political science at Tel Aviv University, passed away on July 16, 2009, at the age of 42 after a short bout with cancer. Much too young, and with so much promise, Gil's death was an unexpected shock to his relatives, friends, and colleagues. His loss is all the more tragic because those who knew Gil were struck by his seemingly boundless energy, his enormous intellectual curiosity, his constant stream of ideas, and his incredible work ethic—all fed by a seemingly insatiable desire to read everything (ever) written in the areas of his current interest.

In Memoriam: Arnold Kanter, William I. Bacchus, Stanley I. Bach, Gary C. Jacobson, David Seidman, Harvey Starr

Faculty Publications

It is with deep sadness that we report the passing of our friend and colleague Arnold Kanter on April 10, 2010, at the all-too-young age of 65. He died from acute myelogenous leukemia, diagnosed in 2007.

Immature Citizens And The State, Vivian E. Hamilton

Faculty Publications

Citizens are born, but they are also made. How its citizens come to be—whether the educations they receive will expand or constrain their future options, whether the values they assimilate will encourage or dissuade their civic engagement, etc.—fundamentally concerns the state. Through the power it wields over a vast range of policymaking contexts, the state can significantly influence (or designate those who will influence) many of the formative experiences of young citizens. Young citizens’ accumulated experiences in turn can significantly influence the future mature citizens they will become. The state insufficiently considers the cumulative nature of its citizens’ development, however. …

Defining International Terrorism: Historical Reality And The African Experience, Kwame B. Antwi-Boasiako

Faculty Publications

Violence is terror and terror is violence. Liberators, freedom fighters, revolutionaries and terrorists have all become labels of convenience. Terrorism, historically, has been institutionalized by some governments to their advantage. Academicians and politicians fail to agree on the issues surrounding terrorism hence defining terrorism has become an academic puzzle. The ambiguity in its definition has also contributed to lack of any universal comprehensive acceptable theory. The literature on terrorism by and large accused weaker nations of supporting terrorism. This paper argues otherwise by using the African experience, slavery and colonization, to question the literature on terrorism. Nations throughout history have …

Is Hong Kong Democratizing, Dexter S. Boniface, Ilan Alon

Faculty Publications

We argue that the transition to Chinese authority has not undermined democratic governance in Hong Kong and that voice and accountability have improved since the handover. We seek to explain this surprising result and conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for China, Taiwan, and cross-strait relations.

Why We Don’T Understand The Rule Of Law Or Explaining The Rule Of Law: A Practice In Search Of A Theory, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

This lecture summarizes the main attempts to formulate an understanding of rule of law among legal theorists and explains why they fail to account for the real experience of law. It also explains key characteristics of law that need to be recognized in an adequate account of the rule of law.

“Pilot Implementation Of An Interdisciplinary Course On Climate Solutions”, Lawrence Quill, Jinny Rhee, Eugene Cordero

Faculty Publications

A pilot implementation of an experimental interdisciplinary course on climate solutions was undertaken at San Jose´ State University in the fall semester of 2008. The course, co-taught by seven faculty members from six colleges, was approved for a general education requirement and was open to upperclass students campus-wide. A course with such a breadth of topics and range of student backgrounds was the first of its kind here. The lessons learned from the pilot effort were assessed from student, faculty, and administrative perspectives. The educational benefits to students from the interdisciplinary format were found to be substantial, in addition to …

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.

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, …

Pakistan’S Nuclear Weapons Program And Implications For Us National Security., Michael Tkacik

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program and the characteristics of the environment in which the program is nested. These characteristics include Pakistan’s history of internal and external instability; nuclear saber rattling during crises; support for Islamic terrorism in order to advance state goals; indigenous production of many elements of its nuclear forces; possession of delivery and command and control systems with destabilizing characteristics; and finally, nuclear doctrine that appears to advocate first use of nuclear weapons. The article argues that the characteristics of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program generate threats to US national security interests. The article examines six interrelated …