Political Science Commons^™

China Beat Birthday: Now We Are Three

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China Beat very quietly celebrated its third birthday last Friday, making the site now almost a senior citizen in the constantly enlarging arena of China blogs. While we’re very happy with the work we’ve been doing for the past three years—and we hope China Beat readers and contributors are equally pleased with our efforts—it’s always nice to shake things up a bit. For that reason, China Beat is now undertaking a collaborative venture with the journal Twentieth-Century China, a move that we hope will continue to bring together the worlds of online and print publishing.

Reading Round-Up, 2/27/2011

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

• Guest-blogging for James Fallows last week, Jeremiah Jenne devoted several of his posts to discussions of protests and the possibility of a “Jasmine Revolution” in China. His columns on this topic include “China: Not Quite a Revolution,” “After Protests, Beijing Cracks Down,” and “In China, Droughts Bring the Crazy.” Jenne also provided on-the-spot reporting today from Wangfujing in Beijing, the site of a planned protest that was primarily attended by security forces and foreign journalists.

From The Group Comes The Nation: China’S First Mass Political Organization, The Baohuanghui, Jane Leung Larson

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We recently learned that the Chinese government has deemed the term “civil society” [gongmin shehui 公民社会] too sensitive to use in Chinese news reports. Apparently, even the mention of Chinese citizens voluntarily joining together for a common cause challenges the authority of China’s rulers, especially when that cause is political. Such aversion to autonomous organizations goes back to imperial China, and it was not until the last throes of the Qing dynasty that the first truly political Chinese organization emerged and grew. And that organization had no choice but to be based outside of China.

(Not Quite) Frivolous Friday: High Tea And The Opium War

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Have you ever wondered how you might have fared as an opium trader in the early decades of the nineteenth century? Maybe not . . . but now you can try your hand at the trade nevertheless. UC Irvine grad student Christopher Heselton alerted us to this opportunity by sending along a link to High Tea, available free online from Armor Games. Players are given a tea order that they have to meet by a certain deadline, but must first raise capital to buy the tea by joining the ranks of opium smugglers operating around the Pearl River Delta. Watch …

Not Drowning But Waving?, Tom Bannister

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

There are many migrant workers in China. Look from any urban window and you will doubtless see several hundred constructing the next high-rise apartment block in that city’s endless stream of development. The migrant worker is one of the most remarkable features of the reform era; with numbers in the range of 200 million, they represent around 3% of the world’s population and would form the world’s fifth most populous country. Together they have created the phenomenon of China’s ‘floating population’ (Liudong renkou, 流动人口), the largest peacetime movement of people in history. However, this is not the ordinary …

Human Rights Revisionism And The Canadian Parliamentary Coalition To Combat Antisemitism, Susan Ferguson, James Cairns

Journalism

This article focuses on the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism (CPCCA): a self-appointed group of parliamentarians dedicated to extinguishing what it calls “the new antisemitism.” Working from a Gramscian perspective, we identify key discursive strategies in coalition publications and testimony and argue that despite the CPCCA’s pretence to being a forum for liberal-pluralist debate, in fact it is engaged in an ideological reframing of human rights designed to restrict political debate. It does so, paradoxically, by drawing on the language of left-liberalism, which contrasts with recent ideological interventions aiming to secure the priorities of the neo-liberal state.

No. 08: Climate Change And Food Security In Southern African Cities, Gina Ziervogel, Bruce Frayne

African Food Security Urban Network

The current urban transition in the Global South is at the heart of discussions about the relationship between climate change and food security. This paper explores the links between climate change and food security within the context of the urban transition taking place in Southern Africa. Climate change is expected to negatively accentuate existing levels of urban food insecurity and these adverse impacts are likely to fall disproportionately on the poor. Researchers, planners and policymakers in Southern African cities are starting to explore how changes in weather associated with climate change are likely to affect urban lifestyles and systems. In …

No. 11: The State Of Food Insecurity In Cape Town, Jane Battersby

African Food Security Urban Network

Cape Town is one of the wealthiest cities in the Southern African region. Yet, the vast majority of households in poor areas of the city experience food insecurity. This paper uses AFSUN data to examine the characteristics and drivers of food insecurity in Cape Town. While food insecurity correlates closely with income poverty and household structure, broader factors also impact upon urban food security, most notably urban design and market structure. Efforts to address urban food insecurity should therefore not simply target the household. Instead, a food systems approach is necessary, which considers supply chains, procurement, nutrition support programmes, public …

No. 06: Urban Food Insecurity And The Advent Of Food Banking In Southern Africa, Daniel N. Warshawsky

African Food Security Urban Network

In most African cities, there is sufficient food to feed everyone and considerable wastage of fresh and processed foodstuffs. Poor households are food insecure because they cannot afford to purchase enough quality food and are unable to access the surplus food that exists. Food redistribution NGOs are well established in Southern Africa but more recently large centralized food banks have been advocated as a means to get surplus food to the hungry. In 2009, the first food banks opened in the South African cities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth. The South African model of food collection and …

The Cost Of Going For The Gavel: Individual Candidate Spending In Intermediate Appellate Court Elections, Brian Frederick, Matthew J. Streb

Political Science Faculty Publications

Substantial research in recent years has studied judicial campaign spending. Most of this research has concentrated on state supreme court elections. Less is known about candidate spending in lower-level judicial elections. Moreover, research has focused on the costs of campaigns with the race as the unit of analysis. This study probes patterns of spending by 470 candidates in all contested races for state immediate appellate court seats from 2000 to 2009. It makes the first comprehensive evaluation of the systematic factors that drive spending in lower-level judicial elections with the individual candidate as the unit of analysis. It explores several …

John Hughes May Be Onto Something: Anti-Authoritarianism In Education, Film And Policy, James M. Iddins

Graduate Student Publications

In this article, I use two popular anti-authoritarian films to explore often-overlooked options for the education reform debate and general issues related to educational public policy. Bringing in sources from many disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, and economics, I argue for a second look at the issues revealed in the films and action on our part toward creating a more sustainable educational and economic reality. I contend that if we take into account our historical context, we come to a much different conclusion regarding these issues than we might have otherwise.

Jurisdiction‐Granting: Legislative Capacity And Ideological Distance, Seth W. Greenfest

Political Science Faculty Publications

This paper examines the conditions under which Congress passes jurisdiction-granting legislation, legislation that expands the discretion of the federal district courts by designating them as venues in which policy questions are to be heard. This project extends existing research that has demonstrated that Congress manipulates the parameters of jurisdiction by examining the manner in which Congress routinely engages in this activity. I construct and evaluate a comprehensive dataset of laws in which Congress grants jurisdiction to the district courts for the period between 1949 and 2000 with the goal of explaining conditions under which Congress grants jurisdiction Two explanations are …

Ranked Choice Voting In The 2011 San Francisco Municipal Election: Final Report, Corey Cook, David Latterman

McCarthy Center Faculty and Staff Scholarship

We present here a final analysis of voters’ usage of the ranked choice ballot in the 2011 San Francisco Municipal Election. Unlike our previous report, which concentrated primarily on political outcomes, this paper focuses on voters’ usage of the ballot and tendencies to overvote, undervote, and rank candidates for three citywide offices: Sheriff, District Attorney, and Mayor. This study combines individual ballot records with county voter file data to allow for a systematic analysis of the relationship between various demographic factors and variations in observed voting behaviors. Additional data are presented in the appendix, including voter turnout by neighborhood in …

November 2011 Proposition Results And Pvi Corelations, David Latterman

McCarthy Center Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Bay Area Survey: Public Attitudes About The Economy, Government And Public Policy (June 2011), University Of San Francisco, Leo T. Mccarthy Center For Public Service And The Common Good

McCarthy Center Faculty and Staff Scholarship

SURVEY OVERVIEW The Leo T McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good launched its inaugural Bay Area Regional Survey in June 2011. The Center interviewed nearly 1,200 respondents over the age of 18 in eight Bay Area counties to get the current pulse of San Francisco and the Bay Area on a range of important issues.

In this first McCarthy Center survey, a baseline of opinions is established so that regional changes in perception can be measured over time. Included are such topics as concern over the economy, pension reform, and other public policy issues, and overall assessments …

Bay Citizen/University Of San Francisco Survey Findings Memo (Amended) October 2011, University Of San Francisco, Leo T. Mccarthy Center For Public Service And The Common Good

McCarthy Center Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good at the University of San Francisco, in partnership with The Bay Citizen launched its inaugural municipal election survey in October 2011 to offer an objective and independent analysis of the state of the election. The poll represents a unique snapshot in time and offers statistically significant information about likely voters interviewed at the time of the survey. It is not intended to be, nor is it capable of being, predictive of the November election. This report presents the responses of the 551 persons surveyed. The margin of error …

San Benito County And California's Geopolitical Fault Lines, Corey Cook, David Latterman

McCarthy Center Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Over the past decade San Benito County has emerged as California’s textbook bellwether county, narrowly mirroring statewide election results on ballot measures and statewide candidate races. San Benito’s uncanny predictive power suggests the importance of California emerging political geography as it straddles the major political fault lines of the state. Neither northern nor southern, neither coastal nor inland, and neither urban nor rural, San Benito illustrates the broad geographic forces shaping contemporary California politics.

November 2011 Preliminary Rcv Analysis, David Latterman, Corey Cook

McCarthy Center Faculty and Staff Scholarship

We present here an initial RCV analysis of the 2011 San Francisco Sheriff, District Attorney, and Mayor race. For each race, we examine the first choice by second choice voting patterns, the frequency of slates, and the number of times a candidate is on a ballot, which is useful measure of candidate performance. We also show maps for each race's winner, with a few ethnic and Progressive Voter Index (PVI) correlations when noteworthy.

For the first time, we are also able to present cross-contest analyses at the individual voter level. The city’s ballot images maintain consistent voter identification numbers. This …

Within The Gated: Before And After The Egyptian Revolution, Safaa Marafi

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

Modified part Neoliberal dream of segregation: rethinking gated communities in greater Cairo, a case study: AL-Rehab City gated community

Virginity Tests And Their Implications On Law And Development, Farida Kalagy

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

(No abstract provided)

Chasing After Huntington's Third Wave Of Democratization: The Middle East Under Change, Reem Awny Abuzaid

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

Escaping Huntington's three waves of democracy, the Middle East has become a phenomenon. Ever since, the Middle East scholars attempted extensively to rationalize the prevailing authoritarian regimes over the past four decades; a number of theories were proposed to address such a paradox. Studying authoritarianism has denied the Middle East academic society the chance to predict the current wave of political change that is being witnessed in the region. A draw back that could be believed to have left researchers with limited theoretical explanations for the on going experience, but that could always remain superficial. in fact a number of …

Is Egypt Ready For Democracy?, Nivin Abdel Meguid

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

In the early phases, revolutions are expected to be intensely focused on achieving political goals. Over the long term, however, “revolutions cannot be described as such unless they are able to produce deep permanent political transformations” (Bahaa Eldin, 2011). These political conversions can be counted complete according to their ability to go beyond direct political and social gains. I believe that it is time for the January 25 revolution, which has already realized a great part of its political targets, to leverage its grassroots popularity to get the best use of Egypt's social capital in passing the critical period of …

The Economic Causes Of The Egyptian Revolution "January 25, 2011", Nivin Abdel Meguid, Sanaa El Banna, Rana Korayem, Hoda Salah Eldin

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

A growing number of recent studies on the Egyptian revolution attribute its beginning to a set of socio-economic and political factors. On the political side, explanations includes a) the persistent rule by terror for thirty years through the emergency law, b) the prohibition on political rights and civil freedoms and lack of free and fair elections, c) police brutality against activists– namely the case of Khaled Said) the wide spread corruption, e) the spread of virtual-opposition through social networking websites and the Arabic satellite, f) the success of the Tunisian revolution as a bloodless and fast change, the sacrifice of …

The Ethical Motivation In Public Service, Nivin Abdel Meguid

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

This paper discusses the role of ethics in public administration practice, and considers the probability of adding an ethical dimension to the public service motivation (PSM) construct. Several scholars have linked PSM with ethical behavior in government. Together theory and research have shown that public servants, when compared to ordinary citizens, are more concerned about ethical considerations at both the individual (personal honesty and integrity) and collective (social justice and fairness) levels in the United States. It may thus be possible for ethics to play a fundamental role in scholarly efforts to define and measure PSM. This paper considers the …

The Governor And The Gap Between Reality And Expectations: A Case Study Of El-Dakahlia Governorate, Mahmoud Nahla

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

The governors is one of the main components of the local administration system in Egypt. According to in depth-interviews conducted by the researcher in El-Dakahlia, there is a gap between the actual role of the governors and the role they should play. In addition, there are many problems related to the governor's characteristics, functions and responsibilities and the way the people perceiving and evaluating them. Moreover, the study presents the main problems face the local citizens within El-Dakahlia and the governor's responsibility about them and their role in solving these problems. In addition, the study highlights the various suggested recommendations …

Which Egyptian Parties Represent Women And Copts And Young People?, Heba Galal

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

The purpose of this post is to compile research on which Egyptian parties represent women and Copts and young people This had been copied from Dr. Warigia Bowman’s blog, Dr. Warigia Bowman is a Visiting Assistant professor in the department of Public Policy and Administration at AUC .This research had done in collaboration with my professor and me while I was working with her as research assistant during the parliamentary elections in Egypt that took place in 2011. My name’s Heba Galal and I’m doing my master’s degree in Public Administration at AUC.

Plato's Guardians' Educational Program And The Process Of Regaining Security Back In Egypt After The Revolution, Refai Deena

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

A state is like a mosaic piece, in terms of foundation and realization. A mosaic piece is founded or assembled by little glass pieces, and finally realized as a whole piece because of these little other pieces that it contains; the same concept can be applied to a state, as it is formed and founded on multiple bodies and institutions and therefore realized as an entity due to their existence. Additionally, the choice of color and the way the little glass pieces are assembled determine the beauty and value of the mosaic piece, the same case here can also be …

Applying The Swot Analysis On Egyptian Nonprofit Organizations: A Case Study Of Future Protectors For Care And Development Association, Nashwa Ghoneim

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

The civil society has taken a very active role in the quest for democracy that continues to spread across the continents till it reached the Middle East region only recently. This is clear given the successive revolts that have taken place in many of the Arab countries calling for real democracy. Therefore, especially in Egypt, efforts should be directed toward defending civil society organizations and activists who are being threatened by the coercive authoritarian government actions over the past decades (Naidoo, 2007).

Buckeye Battleground, Daniel J. Coffey, John C. Green, David B. Cohen, Stephen C. Brooks

Buckeye Battleground

Buckeye Battleground is the result of a decade’s worth of research at the Bliss Institute on elections in Ohio, with special emphasis on the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns, and the 2006 gubernatorial campaign. This book seeks to explain why Ohio is, and has been, at the center of American elections. Using historical analysis, demographic data, and public opinion surveys, the authors demonstrate Ohio’s role as the quintessential “battleground” state in American elections. This title is unique in its approach and coverage.

Mahathir's Successors: Sharpening Dilemmas In Malaysian Politics, William Case

Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies

No abstract provided.