Showing papers on "Ideology published in 1997"

Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics? ≤

Abstract: In many instances, instead of destabilizing the assumed categories and binaries of sexual identity, queer politics has served to reinforce simple dichotomies between heterosexual and everything “queer.” An understanding of the ways in which power informs and constitutes privileged and marginalized subjects on both sides of this dichotomy has been left unexamined. Theorists and activists alike generally agree that it was in the early 1990s that we began to see, with any regularity, the use of the term “queer.” This term would come to denote not only an emerging politics, but also a new cohort of academics working in programs primarily in the humanities centered around social and cultural criticism. Only by recognizing the link between the ideological, social, political, and economic marginalization of punks, bulldaggers, and welfare queens can we begin to develop political analyses and political strategies effective in confronting the linked yet varied sites of power in this country.

Pedagogy And The Politics Of Hope: Theory, Culture, And Schooling: A Critical Reader

Abstract: Theoretical Foundations for Critical Pedagogy * Schooling and the Culture of Positivism: Notes on the Death of History * Culture and Rationality in Frankfurt School Thought: Ideological Foundations for a Theory of Social Education * Ideology and Agency in the Process of Schooling * Authority, Intellectuals, and the Politics of Practical Learning Critical Pedagogy in the Classroom * Radical Pedagogy and the Politics of Student Voice * Border Pedagogy in the Age of Postmodernism * Disturbing the Peace: Writing in the Cultural Studies Classroom Contemporary Concerns * Rethinking the Boundaries of Educational Discourse: Modernism, Postmodernism, and Feminism * Insurgent Multiculturalism and the Promise of Pedagogy * Public Intellectuals and the Culture of Reganism in the 1990s

The Plague of Fantasies

Abstract: From the Publisher: With his idiosyncratic blend of ideas from Lacan and Hegel, the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek has emerged as one of the most original thinkers of our time. Never missing an opportunity to recount a revealing anecdote or joke, his writing is as entertaining as it is informative. Untangling a heady mix of fantasy and ideology, Zizek is sure to entertain his readers. 288 pp.

The Eclipse of the State? Reflections on Stateness in an Era of Globalization

Abstract: The economic logic of the current international economy does not predict the “eclipse of the state”. Economic globalization does restrict state power, but transnational capital needs capable states as much or more than does domestically oriented business. National success in the current global political economy has been associated not with minimal states but with states that are capable, active, and engaged. Pressure for eclipse flows from the conjunction between transnational economic forces and the political hegemony of an Anglo-American ideology that, in J. P. Nettl's words, “simply leaves no room for any valid notion of the state”. Even this combination of economic and political pressure is unlikely to eclipse the state, but it is likely to put public institutions on the defensive, eclipsing any possibility of the “embedded liberalism” described by John Ruggie. A “leaner, meaner” state is the likely outcome. The possibility of a more progressive alternative outcome would depend in part on whether current zero-sum visions of the relation between the state and civil society can be replaced by a more synergistic view.

The Managerial State: Power, Politics and Ideology in the Remaking of Social Welfare

Abstract: Authors John Clarke and Janet Newman present an original analysis of the creation of new state forms that critically examines the political forces that enabled "more and better management" to be presented as a solution to the problems of the welfare state in Britain. Examining the micro-politics of change within public services, the authors draw links among politics, policies, and organizational power to present an incisive and dynamic account of the restructuring of social welfare. Clarke and Newman expose the tensions and contradictions in the managerial state and trace the emergence of new dilemmas in the provision of public services. They show that these problems are connected to the recurring difficulties in defining the "the public" that receives these services. In particular they question whether the reinvention of the public as either a nation of consumers or a nation of communities can effectively address the implications of social diversity. A cogent critique of the social, political, and organizational conflicts and instabilities that are embedded in new state forms, The Managerial State will be essential reading for students and academics in social policy, public policy, and public management. It will also be of interest to academics in sociology, politics, and organization studies.

Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History

Abstract: In this powerful and disturbing book, Rogers Smith traces political struggles over U.S. citizenship laws from the colonial period through the Progressive era and shows how and why throughout this time most adults were legally denied access to full citizenship, including political rights, solely because of their race, ethnicity, or gender. "An important and original argument that ranges through a long period of American history and makes a major contribution to the debate about the bases of American nationality and civic identity."-Eric Foner "Civic Ideals is a work of scholarly ambition on a Victorian scale."-Jeremy Rabkin, Public Interest "Extensively documented, grand in its aspirations, bold in its arguments, and highly significant, . . . Smith's book is a towering achievement. . . . [It] will be of great interest to specialists in American history, political culture, and ideology, and particularly to those who are interested in race, gender, and ethnic relations."-Michael McCann, Law and Politics Book Review "Each chapter is learned, provocative, full of telling quotations and appropriate statistical or institutional facts. The book will be carefully read and deeply mined. . . . Wonderfully learned, passionately argued, carefully constructed."-Jennifer Hochschild, Political Science Quarterly

The plague of fantasies

Abstract: This volume posits that the current epoch is plagued by fantasies. There is an intensifying antagonism between the ever greater abstraction of people's lives - whether in the form of digitalization or market relations - and the deluge of pseudo-concrete images which surround people. Traditional critical thought traces the connections between abstract notions and concrete social reality, but today, Zizek suggests, the correct procedure is the inverse: to work from pseudo-concrete imagery towards the abstract. Ranging in his examples from national differences in toilet design to cybersex, and from intellectuals' responses to the Bosnian War to Robert Schumann's music, Zizek explores the relations between fantasy and ideology, the way in which fantasy animates enjoyment while protecting against its excesses, the associations of the notion of fetishism with fantasized seduction, and the ways in whch digitalization and cyberspace affect the status of subjectivity. Slavoj Zizek is the author of "The Sublime Object of Ideology", "For They Know Not What They Do", "Metastases of Enjoyment: Six Essays on Women and Causality" and "The Indivisible Remainder: Essays on Schelling and Related Matters".

How Chiefs Come to Power: The Political Economy in Prehistory

Abstract: 1. Introduction: the nature of political power 2. The long-term developments of three chiefdoms: Denmark, Hawaii, and the Andes 3. Sources of economic power 4. Military power: the strategic use of naked force 5. Ideology as a source of power 6. Chiefly power strategies and the emergence of complex political institutions Bibliography Index.

Social Structures: A Network Approach

Abstract: Part 1 Thinking structurally: structural analysis - from method to metaphor to theory and substance, Barry Wellman understanding simple social structure - kinship units and ties, Nancy Howell the duality of persons and groups, Ronald L.Briger the ralational basis of attitudes, Bonnie Erickson. Part 2 Communities: Networks as personal communities, Barry Wellman, Peter Carrington and Alan Hall work and community in industrializing India, Leslie Howard relations of production and class rule - the hidden basis of patron-clientage, Y.Michal Bodemann. Part 3 Markets: varieties of markets, Harrison White markets and market-areas - some preliminary formulations, S.D.Berkowitz form and substance in the analysis of the world economy, Harriet Friedmann. Part 4 Social change: misreading, then re-reading, 19th-century social change, Charles Tilly structural location and ideological divergence - Jewish Marxist intellectuals in turn-of-the-century Russia, Robert J.Bryam cities and fights - material entailment analysis of the 18th-century chemical revolution, Douglas R.White and H.Gilman McCann. Part 5 Social mobility: collectivity mobility and the persistence of dynasties, Lorne Tepperman social networks and efficient resource allocation - computer models of job vacancy allocation through contacts, John Delany occupational mobility - a structural model, Joel H.Levine and John Spadaro toward a formal structural sociology, S.D.Berkowitz.

Tradition and modernity

Abstract: This book offers a philosophical interpretation and critical analysis of the African cultural experience in modern times. In their attempt to evolve ways of life appropriate to our modern world culture, says Kwame Gyekye, African people and societies face a number of challenges, some stemming from the values and practices of their traditional cultures, and others representing the legacy of European colonialism. Defending the cross-cultural applicability of philosophical concepts developed in Western culture, Kwame Gyekye attempts to show the usefulness of such concepts in addressing a wide range of specifically African problems. Among the issues he considers are: economic development, nation-building, the evolution of viable and appropriate democratic political institutions, the development of appropriate and credible ideologies, political corruption, and the crumbling of traditional moral standards in the wake of rapid social change. Throughout, Gyekye challenges the notion that modernity must be equated with Western values and institutions, arguing instead that African modernity must be forged creatively within the furnace of Africa's many-sided cultural experience.

Dominance without Hegemony: History and Power in Colonial India

Abstract: Preface Note on Transliteration PART 1: Colonialism in South Asia: A Dominance without Hegemony and Its Historiography I. Conditions for a Critique of Historiography Dominance and Its Historiographies Containment of Historiography in a Dominant Culture Where Does Historical Criticism Come From? The Universalizing Tendency of Capital and Its Limitations The General Configuration of Power in Colonial India II. Paradoxes of Power Idioms of Dominance and Subordination Order and Danda Improvement and Dharma Obedience and Bhakti Rightful Dissent and Dharmic Protest III. Dominance without Hegemony: The Colonialist Moment Overdeterminations Colonialism as the Failure of a Universalist Project The Fabrication of a Spurious Hegemony The Bad Faith of Historiography IV. Preamble to an Autocritique PART 2: Discipline and Mobilize: Hegemony and Elite Control in Nationalist Campaigns I. Mobilization and Hegemony Anticipation of Power by Mobilization A Fight for Prestige II. Swadeshi Mobilization Poor Nikhilesh Caste Sanctions Social Boycott Liberal Politics, Traditional Bans Swadeshi by Coercion or Consent? III. Mobilization For Non-cooperation Social Boycott in Non-cooperation Gandhi's Opposition to Social Boycott Hegemonic Claims Contested IV. Gandhian Discipline Discipline versus Persuasion Two Disciplines- Elite and Subaltern Crowd Control and Soul Control V. Conclusion PART 3: An Indian Historiography of India: Hegemonic Implications of a Nineteenth-Century Agenda I. Calling on Indians to Write Their Own History II. Historiography and the Formation of a Colonial State Early Colonial Historiography Three Types of Narratives Education as an Instrument of Colonialism The Importance of English III. Colonialism and the Languages of the Colonized Indigenous Languages Harnessed to the Raj Novels and Histories Beginnings of an Indigenous Rationalist Historiography An Ideology of Matribhasha IV. Historiography and the Question of Power An Appropriated Past The Theme of Kalamka Bahubol and Its Objects V. A Failed Agenda Notes Glossary Index

Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia

Abstract: In this new book, author Russell McCutcheon offers a powerful critique of traditional scholarship on religion, focusing on multiple interrelated targets. Most prominent among these are the History of Religions as a discipline; Mircea Eliade, one of the founders of the modern discipline; recent scholarship on Eliade's life and politics; contemporary textbooks on world religions; and the oft-repeated bromide that "religion" is a sui generis phenomenon. McCutcheon skillfully analyzes the ideological basis for and service of the sui generis argument, demonstrating that it has been used to constitute the field's object of study in a form that is ahistoric, apolitical, fetishized, and sacrosanct. As such, he charges, it has helped to create departments, jobs, and publication outlets for those who are comfortable with such a suspect construction, while establishing a disciplinary ethos of astounding theoretical naivete and a body of scholarship to match. Surveying the textbooks available for introductory courses in comparative religion, the author finds that they uniformly adopt the sui generis line and all that comes with it. As a result, he argues, they are not just uncritical (which helps keep them popular among the audiences for which they are intended, but badly disserve), but actively inhibit the emergence of critical perspectives and capacities. And on the geo-political scale, he contends, the study of religion as an ahistorical category participates in a larger system of political domination and economic and cultural imperialism.

Ideology: A Definitional Analysis:

Abstract: What does "ideology" mean? As a preliminary step to answering this muchasked question, I collected what seemed to be the most thoughtful and/or influential definitions circulating within the social sciences in the postwar decades. 1 A quick perusal of these definitions reveals the extent to which ideology remains a highly flexible conceptual tool (see Table 1). One is struck not only by the cumulative number of different attributes that writers find essential, but by their more than occasional contradictions. To some, ideology is dogmatic, while to others it carries connotations of political sophistication; to some it refers to dominant modes of thought, and to others it refers primarily to those most alienated by the status quo (e.g., revolutionary movements and parties). To some it is based in the concrete interests of a social class, while to others it is characterized by an absence of economic self-interest. One could continue, but the point is already apparent: not only is ideology farflung, it also encompasses a good many definitional traits which are directly at odds with one another. Indeed, it has become customary to begin any discussion of ideology with some observation concerning its semantic promiscuity.2 Few concepts in the social science lexicon have occasioned so much discussion, so much disagreement, and so much selfconscious discussion of the disagreement, as "ideology." Condemned time and again for its semantic excesses, for its bulbous unclarity, the concept of ideology remains, against all odds, a central term of social science discourse. How, then, are we to understand this semantic confusion, and how are we to deal with it? Five common approaches can be identified among writers in the social sciences: operationalization, terminological reshuffling, intellectual history, etiology and multivocality. In the following section, I outline each of these endeavors and demonstrate their limitations. I then proceed to a new approach which comprehensively maps the meanings of ideology onto a single, reasonably concise, semantic grid. I conclude with a brief discussion of "core" meanings for ideology, and a plea for context-dependent methods of definition. COMMON APPROACHES 1. Operationalization Among those who study "behavior" in American politics, discussion of ideology has centered on a single empirical question: how ideological is the mass public (compared, that is, with political elites)? There have been a good many twists and turns in this debate since it was introduced by Campbell et al. (1960), McClosky et al. (1960), Converse (1964), and McClosky (1964). But the debate over the ideological proclivities of the mass public does not seem much closer to resolution today than it did in the 1960s.3 The reason for this lack of resolution has something to do with problems of data incommensurability through time and differing methods of operationalizing variables, as generally recognized. Less often recognized are the various problems of definition inherent in the concept of ideology. Is an "ideological" mode of thought characterized by abstraction, internal consistency, external contrast, endurance through time, rationality, sophistication, a hierarchical ordering of idea-elements, parsimony-or some combination of these characteristics? Is it separate from group affiliation and/or party affiliation? Such questions, which merely scratch the surface of scholarly debate among behavioralists, are "definitional" in the sense that no answer can claim a priori precedence over another. Each definitional attribute may, of course, be operationalized in different ways, raising a second tier of disputes. Indeed, some writers take the position that definitional tasks are contained within-and rightfully subservient to-tasks of operationalization. "It matters primarily not what you call it, but how you measure it," is the implicit approach of many behavioralists. Although there is surely much to be said for a pragmatic/ empirical approach to concept definition, this has not proven an entirely successful strategy in the instant case. …

Media, Culture and the Environment

Abstract: Pressure politics the environmental lobby identity, ideology and contemporary collective action the social construction of the environment news production - personal and professional values contested ground - news-sources and the media mediating the environment consuming lifestyles.

We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History

Abstract: The end of the Cold War makes it possible, for the first time, to begin writing its history from a truly international perspective, one reflecting Soviet, East European, and Chinese as well as American and West European viewpoints. In a major departure from his earlier scholarship, John Lewis Gaddis, the pre-eminent American authority on the United States and the Cold War, has written a comprehensive comparative history of that conflict from its origins through to its most dangerous moment, the Cuban missile crisis. We Now Know is packed with new information drawn from previously unavailable sources; it also reflects the findings of a new generation of Cold War historians. It contains striking new insights into the role of ideology, democracy, economics, alliances, and nuclear weapons, as well as major reinterpretations of Stalin, Truman, Khrushchev, Mao, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. It suggests solutions to long-standing puzzles: Did the Soviet Union want world revolution? Why was Germany divided? Who started the Korean War? What did the Americans mean by `massive retaliation'? When did the Sino-Soviet split begin? Why did the U.S.S.R. This book is intended for scholars and students of International Relations, postwar US-Soviet relations and political history.

Using Ideology: Cases of Nonrecognition of the Politics of Research and Practice in Special Education

Abstract: This critical review focuses on 13 articles and 5 book chapters by prominent special education scholars. These authors write in support of a continuum of special education services and recommend that only the results of empirical research should inform special education practice. They also express wariness about the concept of inclusion and the direction of the inclusion movement. In touting the superiority of their own scholarship, they accuse inclusion supporters of being political, subjective, and ideological. This article challenges the supposed neutrality of the special education status quo and the moral grounding of the reviewed authors’ position. Drawing from the insights of theorists who study ideology, the analysis sheds light on the ideological nature of the reviewed authors’ own writing. The major recommendation put forth in this article is that scholars and other professionals need to think seriously about the impact of their educational preferences on the least powerful members of society if ...

The Politics of Social Protest: Comparative Perspectives on States and Social Movements

Abstract: Part 1 The origins of social protest: between movement and party in 19th- century French republicanism left-right ideology and collective political action in Western germany, Israel and Peru the new class, political identities and the social bases of political protest in eight western democracies. Part 2 The structure of political opportunities: the political opportunity structure of new social movements opposition movements and opposition parties left-lebertarian movements in Italy and Western Germany. Part 3 The structure of the state and movement development: the politcs pf protest and the dismantling of state socialism in Poland and Hungary neo-corporatism and political protest in OECD countries strategies of partisan influence - west European environmnetal groups the success of political movements - a bargaining persective.

Motherhood as a national mission: The construction of womanhood in the legal discourse in Israel

Abstract: Synopsis -- The paper looks at the notion of womanhood that emerged from the discourse around two laws passed in the first years of the State of Israel: the 1949 "Defense Service Law" and the 1951 "Women's Equal Rights Law." Law is conceived of as "producing" the cultural meaning of "women" as a social category and defining its relations to the state. My main argument is that in this discourse, the Jewish-Israeli woman is constructed first and foremost as a mother and a wife, and not as an individual or a citizen. The construction of a distinct category of women that emphasizes women's difference takes place within an ideological context of the self-conscious myth of gender-equality. Motherhood is defined as a public role that carries national significance. And it is via this notion of "motherhood as a national mission" that women are incorporated into the state and not through the universal characteristics of citizenship. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict, coupled with the central role that the family and the military play within the Israeli culture and society are the major determinants of this specific definition of Jewish-Israeli women's citizenship. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd

The gender gap: Differences in political attitudes and social dominance orientation

Abstract: Survey data over recent decades show men to differ from women on a number of political attitudes and on political party identification. We provide evidence that many such differences can be attributed to individual differences in Social Dominance Orientation (SDO)--preference for inequality among social groups--that are sex linked. Results from a US college student sample (N = 463) and a US 1992 voter sample (N = 478) replicate previous findings of more male support of conservative ideology, military programmes, and punitive policies and more female support of social programmes and equal rights. Consistent with our hypotheses, men were more social dominance oriented than women, and SDO accounted for much of the sex-linked variability in political attitudes, SDO was also a significant predictor of candidate choice in the US 1992 presidential election through its influence on policy attitudes and political ideology. Implications of these results for theories of gender and politics are discussed.

Social justice and political change : public opinion in capitalist and post-communist states

Abstract: Analysis and debate about economic and political justice rarely involves research on the views of the common person. Scholars often make assumptions about what common people think is fair, but for the most part they confine their thinking to a single country and argue on rational or moral grounds, with little supporting empirical data. "Social Justice and Political Change", involves the collaboration of thirty social scientists in twelve countries, and represents broad-ranging comparative research.The book grows out of a collaborative study of public opinion about social justice. Though conceived prior to the revolutions that swept Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, the ISJP did not put its survey into the field until the summer of 1991, in a new climate of open international exchange in social research. Employing common methods of data collection and, within the limits of translation, identical survey instruments, the ISJP investigated public opinion in seven newly emerging post-Communist countries and five of the world's most influential capitalist democracies, with special sensitivity to divergencies in the newly united Germany.Among the themes addressed by the volume's distinguished contributors are the views and beliefs of citizens in the post-Communist states on the transition to market economies and parliamentary democracy; the role of ideology in legitimating inequality; the structural determination of beliefs about justice; the processes that shape individual level evaluations; and the major implications of public opinion and mass participation in the democratic process.

Capitalism in the Age of Globalization: The Management of Contemporary Society

Abstract: * Foreword by John Bellamy Foster * Preface to the critique influence change edition * Introduction * 1. The Future of Global Polarization * 2. The Capitalist Economic Management of the Crisis of Contemporary Society * 3. Reforming International Monetary Management of the Crisis * 4. The Rise of Ethnicity: A Political Response to Economic Globalization * 5. What are the Conditions for Relaunching Development in the South? * 6. The Challenges Posed by Economic Globalization: The European Case * 7. Ideology and Social Thought: The Intelligentsia and the Development Crisis

Social movements for global capitalism: the transnational capitalist class in action

Abstract: The thesis that 'Capitalism does not just happen' is argued with reference to Gramsci, hegemony and the critique of state centrism. This involves a critique of the assumption that ruling classes rule effortlessly, and raises the issue: Does globalization increase the pressures on ruling classes to deliver? Global system theory is outlined in terms of transnational practices in the economic, political, and culture and ideology spheres and the characteristic institutional forms of these, the transnational corporation, transnational capitalist class and the culture-ideology of consumerism. The transnational capitalist class is organized in four overlapping fractions: TNC executives, globalizing bureaucrats, politicians and professionals, consumerist elites (merchants and media). Social movements for global capitalism and elite social movement organizations (ESMOs) are analysed. Each of the four fractions of the TCC has its own distinctive organizations, some of which take on social movement-like characteristics.

Producing hegemony : the politics of mass production and American global power

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Marx, Gramsci and possibilities for radical renewal in IPE 3. The quality of global power: a relational view of neoliberal hegemony 4. The emergence of mass production practices and productivist ideology 5. State-society relations and the politics of industrial transformation in the USA 6. Fordism vs. unionism: production politics and ideological struggle at Ford Motor Company, 1914-1937 7. Unionism is Americanism: production politics and ideological struggle at Ford Motor Company, 1937-1952 8. Fordism and neoliberal hegemony: tensions and possibilities Notes Bibliography Index.

Instituting Science: The Cultural Production of Scientific Disciplines

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Practice, reason, context: the dialogue between theory and experiment 3. The discipline of nature and the nature of disciplines 3. The discipline of nature and the nature of disciplines 4. Social interests and the organic physics of 1847 5. Science for the clinic: science policy and the formation of Carl Ludwig's Institute in Leipzig 6. The politics of vision optics, painting, and ideology in Germany 1845-95 7. A magic bullet: research for profit and the growth of knowledge in Germany around 1900 8. Practical reason and the construction of knowledge: the lifeworld of Haber-Bosch 9. Instrument makers and discipline builders: the case of nuclear magnetic resonance Notes Index.

The outrageous idea of Christian scholarship

Abstract: At the end of his 1994 book, The Soul of the American University, George Marsden advanced a modest proposal for an enhanced role for religious faith in today's scholarship. This "unscientific postscript" helped spark a heated debate that spilled out of the pages of academic journals and The Chronicle of Higher Education into mainstream media such as The New York Times, and marked Marsden as one of the leading participants in the debates concerning religion and public life. Marsden now gives his proposal a fuller treatment in The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, a thoughtful and thought-provoking book on the relationship of religious faith and intellectual scholarship. More than a response to Marsden's critics, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship takes the next step towards demonstrating what the ancient relationship of faith and learning might mean for the academy today. Marsden argues forcefully that mainstream American higher education needs to be more open to explicit expressions of faith and to accept what faith means in an intellectual context. While other defining elements of a scholar's identity, such as race or gender, are routinely taken into consideration and welcomed as providing new perspectives, Marsden points out, the perspective of the believing Christian is dismissed as irrelevant or, worse, antithetical to the scholarly enterprise. Marsden begins by examining why Christian perspectives are not welcome in the academy. He rebuts the various arguments commonly given for excluding religious viewpoints, such as the argument that faith is insufficiently empirical for scholarly pursuits (although the idea of complete scientific objectivity is consider naive in most fields today), the fear that traditional Christianity will reassert its historical role as oppressor of divergent views, and the received dogma of the separation of church and state, which stretches far beyond the actual law in the popular imagination. Marsden insists that scholars have both a religious and an intellectual obligation not to leave their deeply held religious beliefs at the gate of the academy. Such beliefs, he contends, can make a significant difference in scholarship, in campus life, and in countless other ways. Perhaps most importantly, Christian scholars have both the responsibility and the intellectual ammunition to argue against some of the prevailing ideologies held uncritically by many in the academy, such as naturalistic reductionism or unthinking moral relativism. Contemporary university culture is hollow at its core, Marsden writes. Not only does it lack a spiritual center, but it is without any real alternative. He argues that a religiously diverse culture will be an intellectually richer one, and it is time that scholars and institutions who take the intellectual dimensions of their faith seriously become active participants in the highest level of academic discourse. Whether the reader agrees or disagrees with this conclusion, Marsden's thoughtful, well-argued book is necessary reading for all sides of the debate on religion's role in education and culture.

Environmental Regulation, Ideology, and the D. C. Circuit

Abstract: Richard L. Revesz* S INCE the early 1970s, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has played a central role in the development of environmental law. This role is unique among the courts of appeals in large part because the D.C. Circuit has exclusive venue over challenges to a wide array of environmental regulations.' As a result, the D.C. Circuit provides a good vehicle for an empirical examination of judicial decisionmaking inenvironmental cases.2 Some commentators have criticized the D.C. Circuit's politicization and have maintained that judges simply vote according to their policy preferences.3 In environmental cases, the allegation

Imperialism and NGOs in Latin America

Abstract: By the early 1980s the more perceptive sectors of the neoliberal ruling classes realized that their policies were polarizing the society and provoking large-scale social discortent. Neoliberal politicians began to finance and promote a parallel strategy "from below," the promotion of "grassroots" organization with an "anti-statist" ideology to intervene among potentially conflictory classes, to create a "social cushion." These organizations were financially dependent on neoliberal sources and were directly involved in competing with socio-political movements for the allegiance or local leaders and activist communities. By the 1990s these organizations, described as "nongovernmental," numbered in the thousands and were receiving close to four billion dollars world-wide.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

The Iberian Roots of American Racist Thought

Abstract: T HE question why African slavery emerged as the primary form of exploited labor in the Americas during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has engaged the attention of scholars for years. Although a consensus seems to have emerged that the growth of capitalism played a major role in the establishment and survival of African slavery in the Americas, heated debate continues over the extent to which racism played a part in this development. The issue of which came first, racism or slavery, is central to this debate: some historians accept Eric Williams's assertion that "slavery was not born of racism: rather, racism was the consequence of slavery."1 Though the origins debate may at first glance seem artificial or analytically unimportant, it can reveal fundamental truths about the trajectory of racist ideology in Western culture. Locating the crystallization of racist ideology in Europe before 1492 shifts the focus of the origins debate from American economic explanations to European cultural ones. The search for the roots of a racial ideology might begin in ancient times; this article explores only the immediate foundations of racism in modern Western thought. Many historians of colonial Latin America insist that racism was not present in Iberia before 1492. They argue instead that racial stratification was a product of American economic conditions.2 This article contends that