Political Theory Commons^™

Europe’S Refugee Crisis: Assessing The Factors Preventing A Coordinated Eu Response, Ali Albassam

Master's Theses

In order to escape increasing political violence in the Middle East and Africa, many refugees are fleeing by sea to seek asylum in Europe. As a result, Europe has witnessed the highest influx of refugees since World War Two. European Union member states have scrambled for a solution, seemingly unable to form a collective response. The reemergence of nationalism amid the arrival of thousands of refugees not only clouds Europe’s moral compass, but also weakens the EU and its founding principles. In an effort to contribute to the protection of refugees and the EU and its values, this thesis aims …

Voter Trust And The Power Of Direct Democracy: An Exploration Into The Importance Of Legitimate Forms Of Governing In A Democracy, Emma Brent

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Legitimacy is the only concept that gives a government control of a population. For a democracy, legitimacy is especially imperative to its function. Current polling in the United States reflects the lowest approval ratings of Congress in history, and a sense of hopelessness in the system. Civil unrest has become a trademark of the 21st century, and much of the unrest has spawned from voters believing their voice is lost in a system that never valued it to begin with. When it comes to direct democracy in the U.S., initiated through ballot measures, many studies point to trust in government, …

Understanding Transitional Justice And Its Two Major Dilemmas, Jared Bell

Journal of Interdisciplinary Conflict Science

Transitional justice is an ever growing field and greatly intersects with conflict science and peace studies. With the horrific crimes committed during World War II and the latter half of the 20^th century societies now more than ever before are devising processes, mechanisms, and policies to move past gross human rights violations or communal violence. However, these mechanisms much like anything else are not perfect and come with a variety of dilemmas. In particular two main dilemmas plague transitional justice which this paper aims to deal with: Getting to Truth and Reality versus Expectation. Within the context of …

Applications Of Cultural Theory And Empirical Analysis Of Sustainable Energy Policy Preferences In Arkansas, John Henry Kester Iii

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The local policy arena is ripe for research on policy elite decisionmaking because where policy diffusion is concerned, previous studies focus on state-to-state and city-to-city dynamics. Therefore, there is a significant opportunity to expand understanding about the adoption of policies and policy diffusion at the local level. Identification of individual level determinants that signify policy adoption is a cornerstone to fostering this knowledge. This study examines such preference indicators found among policy elites in select Arkansas cities. For this research, the primary theoretical perspective for evaluating individual determinants is cultural theory, which has shown strong correlation to individual policy preference …

The Calculus Of Consent, John Thrasher, Gerald Gaus

Philosophy Faculty Books and Book Chapters

The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy is a groundbreaking work in democratic theory. This chapter argues that it is of continued relevance today, due both to its methodological innovations and its use of those innovative techniques to solve the fundamental problem of democratic justification. In Calculus, James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock fuse economic methods, political theory, and the normative project of showing how democratic institutions of a particular sort can be justified contractually, creating a unique form of democratic contractualism that came to be known as “Constitutional Political Economy” and the more general research program of “Public …

Groundings Volume Two, Issue Two

Groundings

This is the full issue of Groundings Vol. 2, Iss. 2. It includes a wrap of both the 12th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium and the 3rd Annual Walter Rodney Speakers Series; a piece by Jesus Chucho Garcia that honors the late Norman Girvan; the official Save the Date for the 13th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium; information on the republication of The Groundings with My Brothers; a photo-narrative by Julian Plowden on the student protests at the Atlanta CNN Center; we then have 3 pieces surrounding the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry by Wazir Mohamed, Anne Braithwaite, and Rohit Kanhai, …

Justice For Border Crossing Peoples, David Watkins

Political Science Faculty Publications

This chapter seeks to advance the conceptual and normative analysis of what Rogers Smith (2014) calls “appropriately differentiated citizenship” for a particular category of would-be border crossers who have so far been absent from the normative literature on immigration and exclusion: border crossing peoples.

Such peoples are defined by a longstanding history of crossing a particular international border for reasons — cultural, political, and/or economic — central to their collective identity. National territorial rights theorists such as David Miller argue that restrictive immigration policies can be justified via a collectivist Lockean analogy: Private property rights are to individuals as national …

Justice, Democratic Inclusion, And Empowered Governance In Richmond’S Development Policy, Rand Irons

VA Engage Journal

After surviving a car crash, a fish fry owner finds her store in disrepair and smelling of rotting fish. Without access to resources to clean her store, she sets up shop on the sidewalk to make ends meet. On the same block, a florist sells fake flowers because he lacks the capital to purchase refrigerators to sell real flowers. These small businesses located on the same block in Northside Richmond, VA are a microcosm of the inequalities present in this city. As gentrification accelerates, many minority businesses and residents lack the resources to respond. This research gathered evidence on the …

Notes From The Editor, Rory J. Conces

International Dialogue

Notes from International Dialogue's Editor-in-Chief, Rory J. Conces for Volume 5.

The Battle For Jerusalem: Marcel Dubois' Challenge To Roman Catholics, Israeli Jews, And Christian Zionists, Curtis Hutt

International Dialogue

For several decades, the face of Christian Zionism in Jerusalem was not the International Christian Embassy or John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel but a French/Israeli Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University—the Dominican priest, Fr. Marcel-Jacques Dubois. In this paper, Dubois’ once influential form of Christian Zionism is discussed. While few today outside of Israel and Rome are familiar with his brand of non-premillenial dispensationalist Christian Zionism, I will lay out the persuasive relevance and challenge of his work for those making claims on Jerusalem today.

Sloterdijk: You Must Change Your Life. On Anthropotechnics; In The World Interior Of Capital. For A Philosophical Theory Of Globalization; Globes: Spheres Ii: Macrospherology, Pieter Lemmens

International Dialogue

Although the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk (1947) is certainly still not a well-known, let alone “settled” author within the Anglophone philosophical community that leans toward what is still frequently called “continental philosophy,” unlike similarly important figures such as Jean-Luc Nancy, Bruno Latour, Alain Badiou, Giorgio Agamben, Niklas Luhmann and Axel Honneth, his star is nevertheless slowly rising and many of his books have been translated in English in recent years. One of the reasons for this delayed reception in Anglophone academia might be Sloterdijk’s highly idiosyncratic approach to philosophy, his even more idiosyncratic, lavishly exuberant, intensely literary and (in my …

Wittgenstein: The Fate Of Wonder Wittgenstein’S Critique Of Metaphysics And Modernity, David A. White

International Dialogue

That Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) was one of the most influential twentieth-century philosophers is hardly a controversial claim. However, Wittgenstein’s own works, principally the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) and Philosophical Investigations (1953; second edition 1997), have engendered a considerable range of widely diverse—and divisive—commentary. In The Fate of Wonder Wittgenstein’s Critique of Metaphysics and Modernity, Kevin M. Cahill has produced a useful and at times provocative addition to this literature.

Rawls And Religion, Pietro Maffettone

International Dialogue

John Rawls was the most important political philosopher in the twentieth century. His work has been immensely influential within the Anglo-American philosophical tradition and beyond. As one of his staunchest critics and colleague famously said (as far back as 1973), one has to either work within the Rawlsian paradigm or explain why not. Political philosophers have, to the regret of some, clearly followed Nozick’s suggestion, and scholarship on Rawls’ work has basically become a sub-discipline in U.S. and UK universities. Any addition to this ample and well-developed literature will thus have to meet a relatively high threshold of quality to …

Deliberative Democracy: Issues And Cases, Clodagh Harris

International Dialogue

Deliberative democracy, a theory of political legitimacy, argues citizens should be given a more central role in political processes, contending that collective decisions are legitimate to the extent that those subject to them have the right, opportunity and capacity to contribute to deliberations on them. It has been at the forefront of political theory in recent decades and has evolved theoretically, empirically and in praxis overtime.

Dictablanda: Politics, Work And Culture In Mexico, 1938–1968, Maria S. Arbeláez

International Dialogue

Dictablanda is a volume of essays examining three main forms of power in post-revolutionary Mexico: political, cultural, and material power. That is, the scope of powers that rose-up and matured between 1938 and 1968. The study is located at mid-twentieth century when the revolutionary effervescence fizzled out and conservative-reactionary politics matured. These thirty years are considered the heyday of the authoritarian rule of the one party regime led by the Partido Revolucionario Institutional (PRI). In the following review, I only cover some of the chapters of the compilation. An all-inclusive assessment would have been too extensive and would have left …

The Question Of Intervention: John Stuart Mill & The Responsibility To Protect, Timothy Mawe

International Dialogue

John Stuart Mill’s “A Few Words on Non-Intervention” (1859) considers both the “sacred duties” owed to the independence and nationality of states and the possible exceptions to the general rule of non-intervention. In The Question of Intervention, Michael Doyle proposes to “comment on Mill’s arguments, defend some, condemn some, and refine others” (10). What emerges is a clear and well-structured overview of the ethics and legitimacy of intervention.

Truth And Democracy, Yann Allard-Tremblay

International Dialogue

It is no secret that politicians lie. Yet, most of us feel queasy faced with the level of mendacity and deceptiveness, and with the lack of concern for facts associated with the Bush administration. This unease is certainly due in part to the disastrous consequences this administration had for the lives of thousands and thousands of people in Iraq and the U.S., among other places, and for the stability of the whole Middle-East. Yet, there is more to this unease. We expect dictators and despots to lie and deceive. In contrast, democratic politics should be more concerned with the truth. …

The Crisis Of The European Union: A Response, Barry Stocker

International Dialogue

A Crisis of the European Union contains the essay “The Crisis of the European Union in Light of a Constitutionalisation of International Law—An Essay on the Constitution for Europe,” the second essay “The Concept of Human Dignity and the Realistic Utopia of Human Rights,” and an appendix “The Europe of the Federal Republic.” The first essay is itself divided into three sections: “Why Europe is Now More than Ever a Constitutional Project”; “The European Union Must Decide between Transnational Democracy and Post-Democratic Executive Federalism,” and “From the International to the Cosmopolitan Community.” The second of these sections is itself divided …

The Heart Of Human Rights, Brian Kin Ting Ho

International Dialogue

Allen Buchanan’s book is an impressive addition to the contemporary philosophical discussions about human rights. It covers a wide range of topics, including the nature of justifications in human rights (chapters 2 and 3), the problems existing accounts face (chapter 2), a justificatory account of human rights as a system of international law (chapters 3 and 4), the nature of legitimacy-judgments in political philosophy (chapter 5), the supposed “supremacy” of international legal human rights (chapter 6), and ethical relativism and pluralism (chapter 7).

The Effects Of Globalization In Latin America, Africa, And Asia: A Global South Perspective, Clark Capshaw

International Dialogue

Kema Irogbe’s study of the effects of globalization on Latin America, Africa, and Asia, is an informative and interesting read, but, unfortunately, it also suffers from many flaws, most of which derive from information and arguments outside the scope of the subject of globalization and its effects.