Showing papers in "Political Studies in 2008"
TL;DR: The authors argue that the norm shift is altering and expanding the patterns of political participation in America, rather than the erosion of participation, and trace their impact on political participation using data from the 2005 survey of the Center for Democracy and Civil Society (CDACS).
Abstract: A growing chorus of scholars laments the apparent decline of political participation in America, and the negative implications of this trend for American democracy. This article questions this position – arguing that previous studies misdiagnosed the sources of political change and the consequences of changing norms of citizenship for Americans' political engagement. Citizenship norms are shifting from a pattern of duty-based citizenship to engaged citizenship. Using data from the 2005 ‘Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy’ survey of the Center for Democracy and Civil Society (CDACS) I describe these two faces of citizenship, and trace their impact on political participation. Rather than the erosion of participation, this norm shift is altering and expanding the patterns of political participation in America.
873 citations
TL;DR: For instance, this paper found that individuals who regularly talk with their neighbors are less influenced by the racial and ethnic character of their surroundings than people who lack such social interaction. But not everyone is equally sensitive to context.
Abstract: This article contributes to the debate about the effects of ethnic diversity on social cohesion, particularly generalized trust. The analysis relies on data from both the ‘Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy’ (CID) survey in the US and the ‘Equality, Security and Community Survey’ (ESCS) in Canada. Our analysis, one of the first controlled cross-national comparisons of small-unit contextual variation, confirms recent findings on the negative effect of neighborhood diversity on white majorities across the two countries. Our most important finding, however, is that not everyone is equally sensitive to context. Individuals who regularly talk with their neighbors are less influenced by the racial and ethnic character of their surroundings than people who lack such social interaction. This finding challenges claims about the negative effects of diversity on trust – at least, it suggests that the negative effects so prevalent in existing research can be mediated by social ties. Research on the sources of social capital has recently turned to the role of diversity, and specifically to the potentials or problems that it poses for civic engagement, social connectedness and interpersonal trust and reciprocity. The focus has generally been on the difficulties caused by ethnic or racial diversity. A growing body of evidence suggests that localities, neighborhoods, regions or states and even countries with more ethnic, racial and socio-economic diversity experience substantially more problems with the creation of various kinds of social capital, cooperation, trust and support necessary for collective action critical to social welfare programs. These findings are reflected in the popular media. Changing immigration patterns, perceptions of the increase in the numbers of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe, the rising visibility of ethnic and racial minorities, as well as increasing socio-economic inequalities in North America, have contributed to an expanding debate about the consequences of these developments for community and social cohesion. Journalists, policy makers and ideologues have repeatedly expressed fears of an increasingly complex and multi-ethnic world. David Goodhart (2004), editor of Prospect magazine, puts it starkly: ‘Britain can have either mass immigration or generous welfare, but not both – and of the two, welfare is better’. Academic and public attention has recently been drawn to new research by Harvard professor Robert Putnam, who has confirmed in an extensive US-based
556 citations
Abstract: The debate on causes and consequences of social capital has recently been complemented by an investigation into factors that erode it. Various scholars concluded that diversity, and racial heterogeneity in particular, is damaging for the sense of community, interpersonal trust and formal and informal interactions. However, most of this research does not adequately account for the negative effect of a community's low socio-economic status on neighbourhood interactions and attitudes. This article is to date the first empirical examination of the impact of racial context on various dimensions of social capital in British neighbourhoods. Findings show that low neighbourhood status is the key element undermining all dimensions of social capital, while the eroding effect of racial diversity is limited.
515 citations
TL;DR: This article revisited classic contributions by Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Drude Dahlerup and outlined and discussed their assumptions regarding anticipated connections between numbers and outcomes, finding that later gender and politics scholars have often misconstrued their work, with crucial implications for subsequent research on relations between the descriptive and substantive representation of women.
Abstract: In studies of women's legislative behaviour, the concept of critical mass is widely used and, more recently, criticised as a tool for understanding the relationship between the percentage of female legislators and the passage of legislation beneficial to women as a group. In this research note, we revisit classic contributions by Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Drude Dahlerup and outline and discuss their assumptions regarding anticipated connections between numbers and outcomes. We find that later gender and politics scholars have often misconstrued their work, with crucial implications for subsequent research on relations between the descriptive and substantive representation of women. We argue that clarifying the theoretical origins of the critical mass concept is crucial for forging a more coherent and cumulative research agenda on women's political representation.
355 citations
TL;DR: This article found that acceptance of higher levels of immigration, deemed by many to be an economic need, will require both more selective immigration policies and an emphasis on the cultural assimilation of newcomers.
Abstract: Both Europe and the United States are confronting the challenges of economic and cultural integration posed by immigration. This article uses the ESS and CID surveys to compare transatlantic public opinion about immigrants and immigration. We find more tolerance for cultural diversity in the United States, but we also find that Americans, like Europeans, tend to overestimate the number of immigrants in their countries and tend to favor lower levels of immigration. The underpinnings of individual attitudes are similar in all countries and immigration attitudes are surprisingly unrelated to country-level differences in GDP, unemployment and the number and composition of the foreign born. An implication of these findings is that acceptance of higher levels of immigration, deemed by many to be an economic need, will require both more selective immigration policies and an emphasis on the cultural assimilation of newcomers.
325 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on one aspect of change within the field of education policy and argue that a new form of "experimental" and "strategic" governance is being fostered, based upon network relations among new policy communities.
Abstract: This article draws upon and contributes to a body of theory and research within political science which is concerned with changes in the policy process and new methods of governing society; that is, with a shift from centralised and bureaucratic government to governance in and by networks. This is sometimes called the ‘Anglo-governance model’ and the most prominent and influential figure in the field is Rod Rhodes. The article focuses on one aspect of these kinds of change within the field of education policy and argues that a new form of ‘experimental’ and ‘strategic’ governance is being fostered, based upon network relations among new policy communities. These new policy communities bring new kinds of actors into the policy process, validate new policy discourses and enable new forms of policy influence and enactment, and in some respects disable or disenfranchise established actors and agencies. The argument is illustrated with examples of networks identified and mapped by the author. Some of the relationships among participants who make up these new networks are traced and discussed, drawing upon research into the privatisation of education funded by the ESRC. These relationships interlink business, philanthropy, quangos and non-governmental agencies. This article seeks both to add to a body of research within political science which is concerned with changes in the policy process and new methods of governing society, that is with the shift from ‘the government of a unitary state to governance in and by networks’ (Bevir and Rhodes, 2003, p. 41), and to make a modest contribution to the conceptualisation of policy networks. The analysis of policy
268 citations
TL;DR: This article analysed how the British political elite has securitised migration and asylum since 9/11 by looking at when and how parliamentary debates linked counter-terrorism to immigration and/or asylum and found that there is considerable reluctance within the political elite to introduce or especially sustain the connection between migration and terrorism too intensely in public debate.
Abstract: This article analyses how the British political elite has securitised migration and asylum since 9/11 by looking at when and how parliamentary debates linked counter-terrorism to immigration and/or asylum. The findings suggest that there is considerable reluctance within the political elite to introduce or especially sustain the connection between migration and terrorism too intensely in public debate. The parliamentary debates also show that for understanding the securitising of migration and asylum one cannot focus exclusively on the main security framing that is found in counter-terrorism debates, which we name ‘the politics of exception’. There is at least one other format, which we call ‘the politics of unease’, that is central to how the British political elite securitises migration and asylum, and contests it, in the public realm.
132 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw on two recent and largely untapped sources of data to test empirically the Tocquevillian argument about the impact of involvement in civic organizations on individual attitudes and behaviors.
Abstract: This article draws on two recent and largely untapped sources of data to test empirically the Tocquevillian argument about the impact of involvement in civic organizations on individual attitudes and behaviors. Our analysis is based on two related studies – the European Social Survey (ESS) and the US ‘Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy’ (CID) survey – that incorporate innovative and detailed measures about respondents' involvement in voluntary associations in nineteen European countries and in the United States. These surveys provide us not only with rich individual-level data within a cross-national comparison, but they also allow us to develop and test a new measure of civic involvement that distinguishes between different levels of participation. After employing our ‘civic involvement index’ in pooled and individual country analyses, we find general support for the Tocquevillian argument. On average, those persons with greater levels of involvement in voluntary organizations also engage in more politi...
114 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a modified Hirschman framework with three types of exit: moving location, moving from the public to a private sector provider, and moving between public sector providers is presented.
Abstract: The article presents a modified Hirschman framework with three types of exit: moving location; moving from the public to a private sector provider; and moving between public sector providers; and t...
107 citations
TL;DR: In recent years, the idea that constitutional modes of government are exclusive to states has become the subject both of sustained challenge and of strong defence as discussed by the authors. This is due to the development at...
Abstract: In recent years, the idea that constitutional modes of government are exclusive to states has become the subject both of sustained challenge and of strong defence. This is due to the development at...
82 citations
TL;DR: A widespread consensus has emerged that a revival of patterns of civic engagement and citizenship will compensate for the assumed deficiencies of modern democracies as mentioned in this paper, and a wide range of voluntary associations are wide...
Abstract: A widespread consensus has emerged that a revival of patterns of civic engagement and citizenship will compensate for the assumed deficiencies of modern democracies. Voluntary associations are wide...
TL;DR: A double shift in the terms of reference, from the ex post evaluation of assistance projects or programmes to ex ante appraisal of the broader democracy promotion strategies, could make democracy promotion more effective as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Organisations involved in delivering international democracy assistance are engaging increasingly with questions about how to assess their activities. A double shift in the terms of reference, from the ex post evaluation of assistance projects or programmes to ex ante appraisal of the broader democracy promotion strategies, could make democracy promotion more effective. This does not mean abandoning the former; on the contrary its status would be enhanced. Improving the chain of learning that leads from assistance evaluations to the formulation of promotion strategies could improve decision-making over how and whether to promote democracy abroad. Because strategies for democracy promotion are constitutive of the political relationship with countries, different strategies have different implications for the possibilities of political self-determination. For that reason and because democratisation and hence effective democracy promotion may be beneficial for human development, international peace and national security, strategies that reflect informed appraisal would be an improvement on a defective status quo. The challenges include: more systematic data gathering; innovative ways of comparing the various democracy promotion options; and institutional changes that connect the research findings to the high politics of policy-making.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors defend a straightforward application of Lockean property arguments to territorial rights and argue that it is possible to apply directly Lockean principles regarding land use to territorial claims.
Abstract: In this article I defend a straightforward application of Lockean property arguments to territorial rights. The article is divided into three parts. In the first part I explain the difference between two rights to land: property rights and territorial rights. In the second part I explain why an individualistic account of a Lockean theory of territory cannot be used to theorise about territorial rights. In the third part I defend a collectivist version of Lockean theory of territory. I argue that it is possible to apply directly Lockean principles regarding land use to territorial rights. I punctuate my defence with examples where Lockean principles are intuitively helpful in resolving conflicts over territorial rights.
TL;DR: Parker as mentioned in this paper employed terms that describe social network properties that are best contextualised with reference to the theoretical insights offered by formal Social Network Analysis (SNA), and suggested that some of the theoretical assumptions made about concepts such as fluidity, density or trust imply specific network properties which cannot be ignored when attempting an analysis of policy outcomes.
Abstract: Rachel Parker, in her article ‘Networked Governance or Just Networks?’ in this journal, has dealt with a very challenging question on the relevance of network interaction to governance outcomes. Her use of network concepts, however, appears to employ networks as a heuristic device. Her article employs terms that describe social network properties that are best contextualised with reference to the theoretical insights offered by formal Social Network Analysis (SNA). My suggestion in this brief review is that some of the theoretical assumptions made about concepts such as fluidity, density or trust imply specific network properties that cannot be ignored when attempting an analysis of policy outcomes.
TL;DR: The authors examines two reasons for accepting this view and for rejecting global egalitarianism, and finds both wanting, and then presents three challenges to any view that holds that the scope of principles of distributive justice should be determined by the boundaries of the state.
Abstract: Many hold that the state has normative significance because its borders define the scope of egalitarian principles of distributive justice. On this view egalitarian principles of distributive justice should be applied within the state but should not be adopted at the global level. This article examines two reasons for accepting this view and for rejecting global egalitarianism, and finds both wanting. It then presents three challenges to any view that holds that the scope of principles of distributive justice should be determined by the boundaries of the state. It concludes by noting four distinct ways in which the state has normative significance, each of which can be endorsed by global egalitarians.
TL;DR: Trust is central to democratic institutions as well as to democratic political participation, and that arguments which make distrust the central element of democracy fail as discussed by the authors, arguing instead that citizens must be vigilant with respect to their legislators and fellow citizens; they must be willing to ensure that the institutions are working fairly and that people continue to abide by shared regulations.
Abstract: Although trust is clearly central to human relations of all kinds, it is less clear whether there is a role for trust in democratic politics. In this article, I argue that trust is central to democratic institutions as well as to democratic political participation, and that arguments which make distrust the central element of democracy fail. First, I argue for the centrality of trust to the democratic process. The voluntary compliance that is central to democracies relies on trust, along two dimensions: citizens must trust their legislators to have the national interest in mind and citizens must trust each other to abide by democratically established laws. Second, I refute arguments that place distrust at the centre of democratic institutions. I argue, instead, that citizens must be vigilant with respect to their legislators and fellow citizens; that is, they must be willing to ensure that the institutions are working fairly and that people continue to abide by shared regulations. This vigilance – which i...
TL;DR: The authors argues that critical analysis of global racism and racial oppression must go beyond the limits of discursive critique, in order to grasp the non-discursive dimensions of racial power, and explain the reproduction of racial inequality by an international order formally committed to racial equality.
Abstract: The current world order is characterised by profound global inequality, depicted through reference to the developed and developing world. The racialised character of global inequalities in power is rarely acknowledged, however. Explicit racial discourse has been removed from the institutional form of the modern world order, and this apparent transcendence of race is mirrored in the lack of attention to race within mainstream scholarship in International Relations (IR). This is in part because of the empiricist assumptions underlying much IR scholarship, which reflect the non-racialised appearance of the modern world order. While the question of race has been exposed by critical strands of IR scholarship, such critiques have focused largely on discursive dimensions of race. This article argues that critical analysis of global racism and racial oppression must go beyond the limits of discursive critique. It is necessary to grasp the non-discursive dimensions of racial power, in order to explain the reproduction of racial inequality by an international order formally committed to racial equality. This, in turn, requires an expanded theory of social ontology. Critical realism develops a theory of social ontology which provides a basis for differentiating between various dimensions of racial oppression. The critical realist theory of social ontology highlights the significance of the relations structuring societal interaction with nature, which are fundamental in determining distributions of social power within society. A survey of the long global history of colonialism reveals that the relations structuring societal interaction with nature on a global scale have been built upon a basis of racialised dispossession. The article argues that the racialised structures of social power produced through centuries of colonial dispossession remain entrenched, despite the formal transcendence of racism in modern institutions of international order. Thus a realist ontology provides the basis for revealing the endurance of race in the structures of international order.
TL;DR: The authors found that Muslim registration levels are higher in predominantly Muslim areas, giving credence to the argument that minority electors are mobilised through social connectedness and community networks, rather than marginalised through deprivation and segregation.
Abstract: Competing theories of political participation predict varying levels of engagement among minority groups according to the composition of the locality. For example, some previous research has shown that electoral turnout among minority groups tends to be higher in areas where those groups are concentrated. However, there has been little or no similar evidence pertaining to electoral registration. Using data from the 2001 general election in England and Wales we find that Muslim registration levels are higher in predominantly Muslim areas, giving credence to the argument that minority electors are mobilised through social connectedness and community networks, rather than marginalised through deprivation and segregation.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine oligarchic tendencies within institutionalised deliberative democracy in theory and practice and examine the role of the minority in the deliberative process and its influence on the majority.
Abstract: This article examines oligarchic tendencies within institutionalised deliberative democracy in theory and practice. Institutional deliberative democracy consists of deliberations within an institution according to regulations that are enforced and lead to voluntary changes of preferences that conclude in a majority vote. Oligarchic tendencies in deliberative democracy are changes in the preferences of a majority to match those of an interested minority through its control and manipulation of the deliberative process. The usual chain of reasoning with respect to oligarchic deliberative democracy is: (1)Democratic majority rule should reflect the common will, what is good for all members of society upon reflection and deliberation.(2)When the majority does not vote for the common will, the vote is not truly democratic.(3)If the majority does not vote for the common will, special interests or their imposition on the majority by a dominating and oppressive minority are to blame.(4)The necessary initial task o...
TL;DR: The authors reviewed the development of theories justifying local government within Britain and argued that it is possible on the basis of Mill's arguments within On Liberty to establish a strong ethical justification for local government.
Abstract: It is shown in this article how theories justifying local government in Britain are largely based on the expedience of providing administrative efficiency or stable democracy for the central state rather than ethical grounds that justify local government as an independent entity in its own right. The article critically reviews the development of theories justifying local government within Britain and argues that it is possible on the basis of Mill's arguments within On Liberty to establish a strong ethical justification for local government. It is shown how Mill did not develop this line of thought but established substantive arguments concerning the value of local government for securing a stable liberal democracy and how successive mainstream theorists have modified but not substantially departed from this approach.
TL;DR: In this paper, the implications of a particular psychoanalytic insight for thinking about freedom in general and Charles Taylor's approach to freedom in particular are explored, and the implications that such a particular insight carries for the way we think about freedom are explored.
Abstract: This article explores the implications that a particular psychoanalytic insight carries for thinking about freedom in general and Charles Taylor's approach to freedom in particular. Courtesy of the...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors re-conceptualize the notion of state capacity in order to develop a formulation that better approximates the realities of contemporary developing states and identify the critical factors shaping contemporary processes of state transformation, centred on analysing the significance of globalisation, democratisation, liberalisation and the new security agenda.
Abstract: This article seeks to re-conceptualise the notion of state capacity in order to develop a formulation that better approximates the realities of contemporary developing states. Four strands of argument are developed in the article. First, it identifies the critical factors shaping contemporary processes of state transformation, centred on analysing the significance of globalisation, democratisation, liberalisation and the new security agenda. Second, it interrogates the limitations of the dominant technocratic approach to state reform. Third, the article examines the limitations of approaches to state capacity building predicated on the ‘command-hierarchy’ approach, contrasting this with the ‘influence-network’ model centred on forms of engagement with multiple actors and institutions operating outside the boundaries of centralised, national states. Fourth, and in contrast to the influence-network approach, the article advances the notion of a spectrum of hybrid state forms, each associated with differing types of capacity that relate to the structural characteristics of contemporary states that are changing in response to globalisation and other exogenous factors.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the solidarity created by national identity is crucial to institution building, but it is also a source of inequality, since those not seen as members will often face discrimination or worse.
Abstract: Nearly all democratizing states are also nationalizing, but this connection has not been adequately explained. A few scholars argue that nationality supplies democracy with a pre-political identity, while others maintain that nationality is often developed and manipulated by elites. I argue that national identity is a political identity, sustained by political institutions for political purposes, though this identity may contain some ethnic or abstract principles within it. The solidarity that national identity creates is most needed by democracies when they first emerge. Democratizing states need to build up institutions and create a culture of sacrifice, which they can do by creating a sense of solidarity among citizens. This solidarity is not only in the interests of the elites, but also benefits those in the dominant national group. The solidarity created by national identity is crucial to institution building, but it is also a source of inequality, since those not seen as members will often face discrimination or worse. The unfortunate side of nationalism has led some theorists to argue that liberal democracies need to move toward post-nationalism if they are to reach the promise of equality and individual rights for all. Doing so, however, means separating identity from the state. I doubt this is possible; and I argue that post-nationalism means forgetting about national memories. Yet to honor rightly the past victims of nationalism we must engage in acts of remembrance. We cannot both bear the legacy of the past and easily move toward post-nationalism. I work through these issues partly by way of Habermas who tries, unsuccessfully in my view, to reconcile post-nationalism with the retention of national memory.
TL;DR: In this article, a prominent position in the global justice literature holds that claims of distributive justice are only activated by the densely coercive institutional apparatus of states and that coercive institutions do not demand an independent justification via distributive principles.
Abstract: A prominent position in the global justice literature holds that claims of distributive justice are only ‘activated’ by the densely coercive institutional apparatus of states. I dispute this view in three ways. First, I argue that coercion is either justified by its results and rationale or it cannot be justified at all; as a result, coercive institutions do not demand an independent justification via distributive justice. Second, I contend that because the shape of coercive institutions is the result of political choices that have distributive implications, one cannot make normative judgements without asking why coercive institutions have the shape that they do. Third, even accepting (for the sake of argument) the claim that coercive institutions must be justified by a special focus on distributive justice among those subject to them, I argue that the resulting position does not justify restricting distributive justice to state borders. If (any of) these arguments are correct, it is a mistake to think that a concern with the coercive nature of political institutions legitimates restricting claims of distributive justice to compatriots.
TL;DR: For close to 50 years, so-called "dons" have positioned themselves as civic leaders in Jamaica, gaining acceptance among poor urban communities and (tacit) political recognition in the wider society.
Abstract: For close to 50 years, so-called ‘dons’ have positioned themselves as civic leaders in Jamaica, gaining acceptance among poor urban communities and (tacit) political recognition in the wider society. The dons' systematic, coercive organisation of the ghetto community and the counter-hegemonic, executive-style bureaucracy and culture entrenched here resembles the ‘godfather’-led criminal culture and power of the (Italian) Mafia. However, over the last ten years the Mafia has faced a considerable decline in its omnipotence, due to increased state intervention and resistance within civil society, particularly by women in the local Italian communities. This article attempts to ascertain if such a ‘reversible destiny’ is also thinkable in Jamaica.
TL;DR: This article argued that the limitations of environmental capacity-building assistance are due in large part to the failure of donors to distinguish between different "capacities" and their insistence on prioritising the development of project grant expertise and organisational management know-how over and above other developmental needs.
Abstract: This article argues that efforts by international donors, in particular the EU, to build the capacity of environmental NGOs in Bosnia-Herzegovina has less to do with fostering democratic stability and civil society, and more to do with establishing a new epistemic community. Among critics, the technocratic, apolitical and rather benign term ‘capacity building’ has become code for the transformation and undermining of ‘local’ knowledge, the disregard for existing ‘capacities’, the construction of new networks of experts and the importation of rationalities based on West European discourses and constructions of ecological risk, sustainable development and policy responses. Not surprisingly, the weaker the post-socialist state – legacies of ethnic conflict, the severity of economic collapse – the greater the extent to which capacity-building assistance seeks to transform policy communities, actors and networks. From the perspective of environmental mobilisations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, it is argued that the limitations of environmental capacity-building assistance are due in large part to the failure of donors to distinguish between different ‘capacities’, and their insistence on prioritising the development of project grant expertise and organisational management know-how over and above other developmental needs. The article illustrates the extent to which environmental movement organisations either require very basic developmental assistance or need more bespoke support that will enable them to engage effectively in political and legal contestation with the state. The article concludes that while aspects of environmental capacity-building assistance are clearly having a positive impact, the rigidity of donor aid and the framework of project grants as the mechanism for delivering assistance are limiting the impact to a narrow elite of organisations, of which some are neither non-governmental nor linked to indigenous local environmental networks within civil society.
TL;DR: This paper explored the role of the news media in asymmetrical conflicts after countries have signed a peace agreement and found that the relative level of political power of the two sides and the varying amount of hostility affect the quantity and quality of news flow and the ways in which leaders can sometimes overcome the obstacles they face in promoting encouraging news about peace.
Abstract: This study explores the role of the news media in asymmetrical conflicts after countries have signed a peace agreement. While most research has focused on the inherently negative role the press plays in attempts to bring peace, this study attempts to look at this issue using a more dynamic perspective. The theoretical argument focuses on how political factors affect the quantity and quality of the news flow and some of the ways in which leaders can sometimes overcome the obstacles they face in promoting encouraging news about peace. The model considers two political factors that have a major impact on media performance: the relative level of political power of the two sides and the varying amount of hostility. To illustrate the importance of these factors we focus on the flow of news between Jordan and Israel between 1999 and 2002. The major findings from content analyses of news articles (N = 859) appearing in both countries show that while Jordanians are exposed to massive amounts of mostly negative inf...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace out the normative implications of ecological footprinting in comparison and contrast with those of carrying capacity, an alternative conception of sustainability which the footprint ought (or so I shall argue) to replace.
Abstract: Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees describe the ‘ecological footprint’ (i.e. the ecological capacity, measured in hectares of biologically productive land, needed to supply a given person’s consumption of natural resources and absorb their waste) as a conception of environmental sustainability, and have accumulated significant data to measure the footprints of nations, cities and even individual persons. Although the authors refrain from explicitly drawing normative inferences from their measurements, such implications lie not far beneath the surface of their work. Besides providing an empirical tool for assessing efforts to improve environmental performance, the footprint implies a normative ideal of global resource egalitarianism, once the conception is examined through the lens of contemporary political theory. In this article, I trace out the normative implications of ecological footprinting in comparison and contrast with those of carrying capacity, an alternative conception of sustainability which the footprint ought (or so I shall argue) to replace. The concept of environmental sustainability identifies a state of affairs and invests it with normative import: in reference to the essential life-supporting capacities of the environment (providing clean air, water, food and a stable climate), sustainability results from acts or policies which allow for the human use of ecological services in perpetuity without their diminution (the ideal with which the concept is associated), avoiding those unsustainable ones which are incompatible with that aim. As a contested concept, however, sustainability offers competing normative premises and evaluative standards with its various formulations, identifying different root causes of environmental problems and prescribing different remedies to those problems with rival accounts of the concept’s meaning and measurement. Given the importance of promoting sustainability in practice, a sound conceptual framework must provide the means by which progress toward the ideal can be tracked (distinguishing sustainable actions and policies from unsustainable ones) while grounding the ideal itself in a defensible normative foundation. Together, these criteria offer the critical standards by which alternative conceptions of sustainability may be compared; the latter is necessary for identifying the desirable state of affairs to be promoted, and the former for the operational means to realizing that ideal. Both of these criteria are essential, for the failure of either prevents the concept from being used in the service of promoting a genuinely sustainable world, either because we cannot know what such a world looks like or because we will not know how to get there from here. The normative implications of competing conceptions of sustainability typically go unnoticed by those relying upon the evaluative standards that they entail, yet
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on whether the provision of "objectively" correct information to voters about where parties stand on an issue affects their placement of the parties, and ultimately their own position, on that issue.
Abstract: This article focuses on whether the provision of ‘objectively’ correct information to voters about where parties stand on an issue affects their placement of the parties, and ultimately their own position, on that issue. Classic theories of how mass publics make voting decisions assume that voters are able relatively accurately to place themselves and the parties on various issue dimensions. While these assumptions have been challenged, it is generally assumed that the provision of new information makes voters' placements more informed. We explicitly test this idea using a survey experiment focusing on one political issue – European integration. In the experiment, all respondents were twice asked to place the three main British parties and themselves on a bipolar scale of European integration. This was done towards the beginning, and then at the end of the survey. Most respondents were also given information on the ‘informed’ positions of the parties, derived from expert survey placement. Our analyses indicate that individuals' placements did change, and the tendency was related to both political sophistication and the inherent difficulty of placing the party. Only less sophisticated voters updated their placements, and these changes are concentrated on the placement of the Labour party, where the elite stance on Europe has been more conflicted. For all respondents we do not detect any corresponding changes in self-placement that would be congruent with ‘cueing’ effects.
TL;DR: Although civic engagement as a field of study has a long tradition in political science, it re-emerged in the 1990s as a result of real world events and academic scholarship as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Although civic engagement as a field of study has a long tradition in political science, it re-emerged in the 1990s as a result of real world events and academic scholarship. Popular revolutions in Eastern Europe and elsewhere led to a renewed interest in ‘people power’ across the world, including in the United States.And political scientist Robert Putnam’s study of civic community in Italy, followed by his analysis of changing patterns of social capital in the United States, helped to launch a new research agenda in the fields of comparative and American politics. Indeed, over the last fifteen years since the publication of Making Democracy Work, and over a decade since the article versions of what eventually became Bowling Alone, numerous works have addressed the themes of civil society and social capital, in a wide variety of theoretical and empirical contexts (see, for example, Adler and Kwon, 2002; van Deth, 1997; Foley and Edwards, 1999; Glaeser et al., 2002; Hooghe and Stolle, 2003; Howard, 2003; Lidstrom, 2006; Lin, 2001; Newton, 2006; Paxton, 2002; Portes, 1998; Woolcock, 1998).