Political Science Commons^™

Fire & Water: An Examination Of The Technologies, Institutions, And Social Issues In Arms Control And Transboundary Water Resources Agreements, Elizabeth L. Chalecki, Peter H. Gleick, Kelli L. Larson, Arian L. Pregenzer, Aaron T. Wolf

Political Science Faculty Publications

The world of environmental security is bringing the science of natural resources in ever-closer contact with the policy issues of international stability and foreign affairs. Many U.S. and international agencies-including the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Southern African Development Community--­ now analyze foreign policy in part through the lens of environmental resources.

The Decline In Average Weekly Cinema Attendance, 1930-2000, Michelle C. Pautz

Political Science Faculty Publications

Since the beginnings of the motion picture industry, with the one small Edison studio in New Jersey in the early 1900s, America has fallen in love with films. One could argue and debate the reasons, employing everything from sociology to psychology to economics; but one thing is certain: This love affair has changed over the years. This change is perhaps most evident in the decline in the percentage of the United States population that goes to the cinema weekly. One interesting aspect of cinema attendance is that during the Great Depression, which swept the United States in the 1930s, a …

The Christian Right, The South, And State Politics, Gregory A. Petrow, Thad Beyle

Political Science Faculty Publications

The Christian Right arrived on the scene dramatically in 1980, its membership in President Reagan's electoral coalition indicative of a new politicization among religious conservatives. The movement flourished during the 1980s, spearheading campaigns against abortion rights and mobilizing supporters to vote for Republican candidates.

A New Vigilance: Identifying And Reducing The Risks Of Environmental Terrorism, Elizabeth L. Chalecki

Political Science Faculty Publications

Terrorism is a constant and fearful phenomenon, as America has learned to its recent and terrible cost, and like the nine-headed hydra of ancient mythology, as soon as one group or method is terminated, more spring up to take its place. Environmental terrorism adds a new dimension to this phenomenon, identifying the target as a natural resource or environmental feature. At a time when populations all over the world are increasing, the existing resource base is being stretched to provide for more people, and is being consumed at a faster rate. As the value and vulnerability of these resources increases, …

(Dis)Embedded Women, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann

Political Science Faculty Publications

The central question we were asked to address in the Michigan Journal of International Law's Symposium, "Dueling Fates," was, "Which international legal approach more effectively protects women's rights, the collective or the individual?" I am a political sociologist, without legal training, although I have been publishing in the field of international human rights (including women's rights) since 1980. This Article will focus on some underlying assumptions about the nature of society, and women's roles in it, that are pertinent to this central question.

The position argued in this Article is that women's rights are individual rights. To explain this position, …

To Advise And Consent: The Senate And Lower Federal Court Nominations, 1977-1998, W. L. Martinek, Mark Kemper, S. R. Van Winkle

Political Science Faculty Publications

Using nominations to Article III district and appeals court judgeships, we test a model of senatorial treatment of presidential nominations to the lower federal bench, looking both at outcome (whether or not a nomination culminates in confirmation) and process (the length of time it takes the Senate to process a nomination). We find evidence that nominee quality matters, as does composition of the Judiciary Committee and pending judicial nominations. Contrary to charges made in the popular press, however, neither race nor gender makes a difference for ultimate success or failure of a nomination. Duration analysis reveals that race (though not …

Democracy In Divided Societies: Electoral Engineering For Conflict Management, Shaheen Mozaffar

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Measuring Water Bell-Being: Water Indicators And Indices (Chapter 4), Peter H. Gleick, Elizabeth L. Chalecki, Arlene Wong

Political Science Faculty Publications

This chapter reviews methods for assessing the relationship between freshwater resources and human well-being through the development of indicators and indices. It examines single-factor measures like access to clean water, sanitation services, and per capita availability, as well as multifactor indices that integrate economic, environmental, and social variables. Case studies include the Falkenmark Water Stress Index, Basic Human Needs measure, Water Resources Vulnerability Index, and Water Poverty Index. The authors highlight the usefulness of these tools for policy, planning, and public awareness, while emphasizing limitations such as data gaps, changing definitions, scale mismatches, and the difficulty of aggregating diverse measures. …

Water And Space (Water Briefs), Elizabeth L. Chalecki

Political Science Faculty Publications

This chapter explores the discovery, origins, and significance of water beyond Earth. It reviews theories of how Earth obtained its water—ranging from volcanic outgassing to delivery by comets, meteorites, and “cosmic snowballs.” Scientific missions have detected evidence of water or ice on the Moon, Mars, and Jupiter’s moons (notably Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto), as well as in interstellar clouds, distant planetary systems, and even other galaxies via water-vapor megamasers. These findings have implications for future space exploration, as in-situ water could supply life support and fuel, and for astrobiology, since liquid water is a key prerequisite for life as we …

National Survey Shows Half-Century Trend Away From Democrats, Gregory A. Petrow

Political Science Faculty Publications

The partisan realignment in the South is a well-known fact. The 20th century began with the South solidly in the hands of the Democratic Party. This was true because the Southern Democratic Party look positions congruent with the Southern electorate's public policy preferences: namely, a states-centered view of government and an opposition to more egalitarian racial Policy.

The Privatization Of Water And Water Systems (Chapter 3), Peter H. Gleick, Gary Wolff, Elizabeth L. Chalecki, Rachel Reyes

Political Science Faculty Publications

This chapter examines the global trend toward transferring water supply and management from public to private control. It outlines drivers such as financial pressures, efficiency goals, and ideological shifts, while reviewing diverse privatization models—from service contracts to full concessions. The text highlights potential benefits, including improved infrastructure and capital access, but focuses on significant risks: inequitable access, rising costs, weakened public oversight, loss of water rights, and environmental neglect. Case studies from Argentina, Bolivia, and the United States illustrate both successes and failures. The authors conclude that privatization can only work equitably when guided by strong governance, transparent contracts, public …

Republican Citizenship, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

'Republican' and 'citizen', in fact, are old and intertwined words - so old that some may wonder at their relevance in the brave new world of the twenty-first century, and so intertwined that the phrase 'republican citizenship' seems almost redundant to others. There is no republic without citizens, after all; and, according to the classical republican thinkers, there is no citizenship, in the full sense of the word, except among those who are fortunate enough to inhabit a republic. But this view of citizenship's connection to republicanism no longer seems to prevail. If it did, there would be no need …

La Repubblica Di Sandel E L'Lo Incarnato, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Quelli che vogliono conoscere cio per cui Sandel parteggia e cio contro cui combatte, quindi, hanno una buona ragione per dare il benvenuto a Democracy's Discontent. Se credono che la politica americana trarrebbe profitto da una corroborante (per non dire generosa) dose di repubblicanesimo, troveranno anche molte cose salutari nel libro. Come uno che si considera dentro entrambi questi gruppi, io credo che Sandel sia stato saggio a prendere una qualche distanza dal comunitarismo, e ancora piu saggio a sottoscrivere l'enfasi repubblicana sulla formazione dei cittadini e la coltivazione delle virtU civiche. Ma sbaglia nel continuare a opporsi al …

Globalization And International Trade Of Water (Chapter 2), Peter H. Gleick, Gary Wolff, Elizabeth L. Chalecki, Rachel Reyes

Political Science Faculty Publications

This chapter explores the implications of treating water as an economic good within global markets. While economic valuation can promote efficiency, it raises concerns over equity, ecological protection, and cultural values. The authors define key concepts—globalization, privatization, and commodification—and examine tensions between market allocation and the universal right to water.

Examples range from bottled water sales to proposals for bulk transfers, analyzed within international trade frameworks like GATT and NAFTA. The chapter emphasizes that sustainable water management requires integrating social and economic goals, ensuring equitable access, protecting ecosystems, and establishing clear national and international rules to prevent overexploitation and inequitable …

Book Review: Ecology Of War And Peace: Counting Costs Of Conflict, Elizabeth L. Chalecki

Political Science Faculty Publications

"Si pacem para pacem" ("If you want peace, prepare for peace"). With this sentiment, Tom Hastings opens the door to a discussion of the interrelationship between violent conflict and environmental damage.

Comment On Benhabib's "Dismantling The Leviathan": A Republican-Liberai Perspective, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Those who think of themselves as republican or civic liberals, as I do, will surely be of two minds about Seyla Benhabib's "Dismantling the Leviathan: Citizen and State in a Global World" [Spring 2001 ]. In some respects, Professor Benhabib' s thoughtful essay is quite congenial to republican liberalism. She insists on the importance of human rights, for instance, and she looks for ways to expand political participation. Her indictment of "civic republicanism," however, requires a republican-liberal response.

Faux Realism: Spin Vs. Substance In The Bush Foreign-Policy Doctrine, Jeffrey W. Legro, Andrew Moravcsik

Political Science Faculty Publications

The Bush administration has coined a foreign-policy doctrine. President George W. Bush, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and Secretary of State Colin Powell herald "the new realism." Think you know what they are up to? OK, then fill in the blank: The "new realism" is _______. If you find the blank hard to fill, don’t worry; so would most of today's international-relations scholars. Indeed, one fundamental problem with the Bush administration's new doctrine is that "realism" no longer has any real intellectual coherence.

Gay Rights And The Right To A Family: Conflicts Between Liberal And Illiberal Belief Systems, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Getting And Keeping A Job At A Private Liberal Arts College, But Your Graduate Advisor Didn’T Tell You, William E. Hudson, Michelle Donaldson Deardorff, Marianne Githens, Glen Halva-Neubauer, Grant Reeher, Ronald Seyb

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Euro-Med: European Ambitions In The Mediterranean, Sheila Carapico

Political Science Faculty Publications

The European Union is carving out a sphere of potentially vast influence in the Euro-Mediterranean basin, while also cultivating special relationship further south in the Arabian Peninsula. European ambitions do not directly challenge US security policy in the Middle East. Rather, they parallel US interests in the Caribbean Basin and Latin America: for a large regional free trade zone open to imports and foreign investment.

The Dialectics Of Fashion: Gender And Politics In Yemen, Sheila Carapico

Political Science Faculty Publications

The situation of Yemeni women is complicated and contradictory. On the one hand, compared with relatively fashionforward Mediterranean Arabs, or even their affluent sisters in the Gulf, Yemeni women appear to be especially oldfashioned. One rarely sees a Yemeni woman outdoors bareheaded, and in the capital, Sana'a, most women cover their faces in public. Yet outward appearances can be misleading. While it is tempting to assume that women "still" veil because "tradition" tells them to, it is simply wrong to conclude that "traditionally" all women were secluded in their homes, or that how they dress now tells us much about …

Property Rights And The Role Of The State: Evidence From The Horn Of Africa, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

This study applies extant theories of property rights change to three land tenure systems in Imperial Ethiopia. Two of the areas underwent changes in property rights after experiencing changes in the value of land; one did not. A data set of litigation over land rights is used in conjunction with case studies to understand the mechanisms motivating or impeding property rights change. Amendments to the role of the state are suggested and two conclusions are reached: (1) that movement towards greater specificity of land rights did not always occur; and (2) the changes in property rights that occurred were imposed …

Inherited Legal Systems And Effective Rule Of Law: Africa And The Colonial Legacy, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

The question of whether particular types of legal institutions influence the effectiveness of the rule of law has long been answered with conjecture. Common law lawyers and judges tend to believe that the common law system is superior. This opinion is based on the idea that the common law system inherited from the British is more able to protect the rights of the individual than civil law judicial systems. Quite the opposite point of view can be found in lawyers from civil law countries, who may view the common law system as capricious and disorganised. This paper compares the effectiveness …

Complexities Of The Gender Gap, Susan E. Howell, Christine L. Day

Political Science Faculty Publications

Gender differences in political attitudes among whites arise from a variety of sources that may vary from issue to issue. Explanations based on gender-based social roles, basic value differences, socioeconomic status, and women's autonomy are tested in this study through an examination of both compositional and conditional effects. Compositional effects occur when men and women differ on an explanatory variable. Conditional effects occur when a variable has differential effects on the policy preferences of women and men. Using data from the 1996 National Election Study, OLS regression and logit results demonstrate the complex sources of gender gaps across issue areas. …

Bureaucracy And Organizational Performance: Causality Arguments About Public Schools, Kenneth J. Meier, Jerry L. Polinard, Robert D. Wrinkle

Political Science Faculty Publications

One key policy dispute in the school choice debate concerns whether the education bureaucracy is a cause or a consequence of poor performance. This dispute is striking because both sides accept the same neo-institutionalist organization theory. This article uses a large panel of school districts to address the dispute. The evidence suggests that poor performance results in a growing bureaucracy not vice versa. Further evidence then shows that the growth in bureaucracy is associated in an increase in teachers and smaller class sizes; in short, bureaucracy increases as schools take actions that are linked to improved performance.

Rights And Culture In The Asian Values Argument: The Rise And Fall Of Confucian Ethics In Singapore, Neil A. Englehart

Political Science Faculty Publications

The claim that cultural factors such as "Asian Values" really do militate against democracy and human rights is evaluated. The Asian Values claims of the Singapore government--both in its first incarnation, as Confucian Ethics, and its current form, as Shared Values--have actually been advanced for political and ideological reasons and have very little to do with the traditional mores of the population.

The Self-Destruction Of Yugoslavia, Dejan Guzina

Political Science Faculty Publications

The self-destructiveness of the former Yugoslav federal system has not yet received its appropriate place in numerous accounts of the causes of Yugoslavia’s disintegration. This essay explores the self-destructive mechanism of the former Yugoslav socialist federal system. Its main thesis is that it was the institutional composition of the former Yugoslavia that was largely responsible for the cleavages in the 1980s, which caused the mutually exclusive ethnic nationalisms of today. In other words, the crisis, the subsequent ethnonational homogenization and the dissolution of the federal state were a natural outcome of the constitutional foundations of the system. When in the …

Ngos, Ingos, Go-Ngos And Do-Ngos: Making Sense Of Non-Governmental Organizations, Sheila Carapico

Political Science Faculty Publications

This issue of Middle East Report takes a critical look at "NGOs"--non-governmental organizations--in and beyond the Arab world. The topic is both trendy and controversial. Although they may see themselves as marginal actors, charities, advocacy groups and a range of other civic associations in the Middle East have also become agents of political, economic and social change, influencing the allocation of scarce resources in their own societies and the images national regimes project abroad. In recent years, NGOs have been depicted as saviors of failed economies in some circles while reviled as stooges of Western imperialism in others.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

A ceasefire in the border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea is only the beginning of the process of conflict resolution that must occur for peace to take hold. The border war is the result of long standing distrust and animosity between these two countries. Therefore the possibility of the conflict erupting into violence again is high unless serious internal and international effort is put into the demarcation of the border and the acceptance of that demarcated border as fair.

The Ethiopian Prospective Case, Sandra F. Joireman, Thomas S, Szayna

Political Science Faculty Publications

This chapter applies the "process" model for anticipating the incidence of ethnic conflict to the potential case of the emergence of ethnically based violence in Ethiopia. Therefore, in contrast to the two case studies presented previously, this case entails the use of the model to consider prospectively the likelihood of an ethnic mobilization turning violent. The chapter examines the case of Ethiopia from the perspective of what an intelligence analyst might conclude were she to use the "process" model. In essence, we look at the potential ethnic mobilization of the Amhara against the Tigray-dominated Ethiopian state structures in an attempt …