Showing papers on "State (polity) published in 2018"
TL;DR: For instance, the authors argues that eco-civilization is best understood as a sociotechnical imaginary in which cultural and moral virtues constitute key components that are inseparable from the more well-known technological, judicial, and political goals.
Abstract: Ecological civilization (shengtai wenming ) has been written into China’s constitution as the ideological framework for the country’s environmental policies, laws and education. It is also increasingly presented not only as a response to environmental degradation in China, but as a vision for our global future. In this article, scholars from the disciplines of media science, anthropology and sinology analyse media representations of eco-civilization in order to explore which values and visions this highly profiled state project actually entails. The article argues that eco-civilization is best understood as a sociotechnical imaginary in which cultural and moral virtues constitute key components that are inseparable from the more well-known technological, judicial, and political goals. The imaginary of eco-civilization seeks to construct a sense of cultural and national continuity, and to place China at the center of the world by invoking its civilization’s more than 2000 years of traditional philosophical heritage as a part of the solution for the planet’s future. It is constructed as a new kind of Communist Party led utopia in which market economy and consumption continue to grow, and where technology and science have solved the basic problems of pollution and environmental degradation. Download : Download high-res image (6KB) Download : Download full-size image
213 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that the allocation of Chinese official development assistance to Africa was driven primarily by foreign policy considerations, while economic interests better explain the distribution of less concessional flows, highlighting the need for better measures of an increasingly diverse set of non-Western financial activities.
Abstract: Chinese “aid” is a lightning rod for criticism. Policymakers, journalists, and public intellectuals claim that Beijing is using its largesse to cement alliances with political leaders, secure access to natural resources, and create exclusive commercial opportunities for Chinese
firms—all at the expense of citizens living in developing countries. We argue that much of the controversy about Chinese “aid” stems from a failure to distinguish between China’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) and more commercially-oriented sources and types of state financing. Using a new database on China’s official financing commitments to Africa from 2000-2013, we find the allocation of Chinese ODA to be driven primarily by foreign policy considerations, while economic interests better explain the distribution of less concessional flows. These results highlight the need for better measures of an increasingly diverse set of non-Western financial activities.
166 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that a long philosophical and political tradition holds that victims of injustice should not get angry because doing so would be counterproductive, but this tradition neglects the possibility that anger might be counterproductive and yet apt.
Abstract: A long philosophical and political tradition holds that victims of injustice ought not get angry because doing so would be counterproductive. But this tradition neglects the possibility that anger
might be counterproductive and yet apt. What ought a victim of injustice do when her anger would worsen her situation but nonetheless be a fitting response to the state of the world? Here reasons of prudence and reasons
of aptness come apart, generating, I argue, a substantive normative conflict. Two things, I suggest, follow. First, the counterproductivity critic faces the burden of explaining why, in such conflicts, prudential
considerations trump considerations of aptness; until this burden is met, there is no obvious inference to be made from the counterproductivity of one’s anger to an all-things-considered prohibition on one’s getting angry.
Second, it’s plausible that such conflicts – where victims of oppression must choose between getting aptly angry or acting prudentially – themselves constitute a form of unrecognised injustice, what I call affective
injustice. I conclude by discussing the prospects for alleviating affective injustice in the political sphere, and offering a diagnosis of our reluctance to make room, in our politics, for anger.
144 citations
Book•
13 Nov 2018
113 citations
Dissertation•
01 Dec 2018
TL;DR: The authors study top-down, monotheistic conversions in Pontic-Caspian Eurasia and their respective mythologizations, preserved both textually and archaeologically, which serve as a primary factor for what we might call state formation.
Abstract: What is the line between the “ancient” world and the “medieval” world? Is it 476? 330? 632? 800? Most historians acknowledge there is no crisp line and that these are arbitrary distinctions, but they are made anyway, taking on lives of their own. I believe they are much the same world, except for the pervading influence of one flavor of monotheism or another. This thesis endeavors to study top-down, monotheistic conversions in Pontic-Caspian Eurasia and their respective mythologizations, preserved both textually and archaeologically, which serve as a primary factor for what we might call “state formation.” These narratives also function, in many cases, as the bases of many modern nationalisms, however haphazard they may be. I have attempted to apply this idea to Christian Rome (Byzantium)’s diachronic missionary policy around the Black Sea to reveal how what we today call the “Age of Migrations” (the so-called “Germanic” invasions of the Roman Empire), was actually in perpetual continuity all the way up to the Mongolian invasions and perhaps even later. In this way, I hope to enhance the context by which we understand the entirety of not only Western history, but to effectively bind it to a broader context of global monotheization.
104 citations
Book•
04 Apr 2018
TL;DR: In The Third Revolution, Elizabeth Economy, one of America's leading China scholars, provides an authoritative overview of contemporary China that makes sense of all of the seeming inconsistencies and ambiguities in its policies and actions.
Abstract: In The Third Revolution, Elizabeth Economy, one of America's leading China scholars, provides an authoritative overview of contemporary China that makes sense of all of the seeming inconsistencies and ambiguities in its policies and actions.
99 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the extraterritorial behaviour of agents within countries of origin, such as parties, bureaucracies and non-state actors, and explain why and how their outreach differs.
Abstract: The relationship of states to populations beyond their borders is of increasing interest to those seeking to understand the international politics of migration. This introduction to the special issue of International Political Science Review on diasporas and sending states provides an overview of existing explanations for why states reach out to diasporas and migrants abroad and problematizes in important ways the idea that the sending state is a unitary actor. It highlights the need to examine the extraterritorial behaviour of agents within countries of origin, such as parties, bureaucracies and non-state actors, and to account for why and how their outreach differs. This entails looking at how outreach is conditioned by a state’s sovereignty and capacity, type of nationalism, and regime character. This special issue starts a new conversation by delving deeper into the motivations of agents within countries of origin, and how their outreach is determined by the states and regimes in which they are embedded.
91 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the influence of government ideology on economic policy-making in the United States is analyzed using data for the national, state and local levels and elaborate on checks and balances, especially divided government, measurement of government ideologies and empirical strategies to identify causal effects.
Abstract: This paper describes the influence of government ideology on economic policy-making in the United States. I review studies using data for the national, state and local levels and elaborate on checks and balances, especially divided government, measurement of government ideology and empirical strategies to identify causal effects. Many studies conclude that parties do matter in the United States. Democratic presidents generate, for example, higher rates of economic growth than Republican presidents, but these studies using data for the national level do not identify causal effects. Ideology-induced policies are prevalent at the state level: Democratic governors implement somewhat more expansionary and liberal policies than Republican governors. At the local level, government ideology hardly influences economic policy-making at all. How growing political polarization and demographic change will influence the effects of government ideology on economic policy-making will be an important issue for future research.
87 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present results from a literature review, looking at how far the mining industry has considered environmental sustainability in its approach, and conclude that mining industry is not setting on the wrong sustainability paradigm at this stage, but is at risk of falling behind societal expectations on climate change and the leaders from other industries on natural capital considerations.
86 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the extent to which institutional openness in universities towards UIC linkages affects the generation of knowledge-intensive spin-offs and academic patenting activity in the context of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Abstract: Much in line with what has been happening in developed economies for the past few decades, policy decision makers and industry strategists in developing countries have dedicated increased attention to initiatives that foster University-Industry Collaboration (UIC). The overarching goal is to enhance the capabilities/efficiencies of innovation systems, leveraging the role of universities as generators and disseminators of valuable knowledge, highly concentrated in academia in these laggard nations. In this article we empirically assess the extent to which institutional openness in universities towards UIC linkages affect the generation of knowledge-intensive spin-offs and academic patenting activity in the context of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. We use data for 462 knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial projects related to academics receiving grants from the PIPE Program of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, as well as international patenting behavior for 126 universities and research institutes. Additionally, we have gathered data for UIC activity (2002–2010) in the affected region. The main novelty of our approach is to qualify UIC according to three different dimensions of openness, focusing on UIC levels and objects of collaboration. Results suggest that the quality of linkages (collaboration content) is a stronger predictor of both types of university entrepreneurship than the extent to which universities are connected to firms.
85 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose to reintegrate notions of state power into political CSR scholarship by highlighting how states set the context within which business takes place, regulate offshore business practices, and play pivotal roles in new global governance mechanisms.
Abstract: Key accomplishments of political corporate social responsibility (CSR) scholarship have been the identification of global governance gaps and a proposal how to tackle them. Political CSR scholarship assumes that the traditional roles of state and business have eroded, with states losing power and business gaining power in a globalized world. Consequently, the future of CSR lies in political CSR with new global governance forms which are organized by mainly non-state actors. The objective of the paper is to deepen our understanding of political CSR and reintegrate notions of state power into political CSR scholarship by highlighting how states (1) set the context within which business takes place, (2) regulate offshore business practices, and (3) play pivotal roles in new global governance mechanisms.
Book•
22 Feb 2018
TL;DR: Fukuoka as discussed by the authors recontextualizes Spinoza's Theologico-political Treatise and clarifies its historical import for Dutch debates on religion, state power, and liberty.
Abstract: Tracing Old Testament topics recurrent in Grotian and Hobbesian discourses on the church-state relationship, Atsuko Fukuoka recontextualizes Spinoza’s Theologico-political Treatise and clarifies its historical import for Dutch debates on religion, state power, and liberty.
Book•
05 Dec 2018TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on three intersecting factors: the changing geography of transnational illicit political economies; the varied capacity and complicity of state institutions tasked with providing law and order; and organizational competition to control illicit territorial enclaves.
Abstract: Why has violence spiked in Latin America's contemporary democracies? What explains its temporal and spatial variation? Analyzing the region's uneven homicide levels, this book maps out a theoretical agenda focusing on three intersecting factors: the changing geography of transnational illicit political economies; the varied capacity and complicity of state institutions tasked with providing law and order; and organizational competition to control illicit territorial enclaves. These three factors inform the emergence of 'homicidal ecologies' (subnational regions most susceptible to violence) in Latin America. After focusing on the contemporary causes of homicidal violence, the book analyzes the comparative historical origins of weak and complicit public security forces and the rare moments in which successful institutional reform takes place. Regional trends in Latin America are evaluated, followed by original case studies of Central America, which claims among the highest homicide rates in the world.
TL;DR: For instance, the authors argues that legal pluralism has seen a marked rise in interest since the turn of the century and is now widely accepted in legal studies, not least in light of the broad range of broad range...
Abstract: Legal pluralism has seen a marked rise in interest since the turn of the century. While long rejected in legal studies, legal pluralism is now widely accepted, not least in light of the broad range...
TL;DR: The authors show that political competition and movement strength are robust predictors of support for women's suffrage in state legislatures in 45 states from 1893 to 1920, and that strong suffrage movement reinforces these incentives by providing information and infrastructure that parties can capitalize on in future elections.
Abstract: A long-standing puzzle in American political development is why western states extended voting rights to women before states in the East. Building on theories of democratization and women’s suffrage, I argue that politicians have incentives to seek out new voters in competitive political environments. A strong suffrage movement reinforces these incentives by providing information and infrastructure that parties can capitalize on in future elections. If politicians believe they can mobilize the latent female vote, then large movements and competitive political environments should produce franchise expansion. Using data on legislative decisions pertaining to suffrage in 45 states from 1893 to 1920, I show that political competition and movement strength are robust predictors of support for women’s suffrage in state legislatures. In the West, fluid partisan politics and relatively strong mobilization produced early reform. Since states determine who voted for national, state, and local offices, these decisio...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe how digital communication technologies have given dissidents from authoritarian contexts better opportunities to pursue political activism from exile, by giving them more opportunities to communicate with their home country.
Abstract: Digital communication technologies have given dissidents from authoritarian contexts better opportunities to pursue political activism from exile. After the exit from their home country, activists ...
Abstract: Austerity states, institutional dismantling and the governance of sub-national economic development: the demise of the regional development agencies in England. Territory, Politics, Governance. Contributing to interpretations of the governance geographies of austerity, the paper explains how, why and in what forms austerity states are constructed by actors in particular political-economic contexts and geographical and temporal settings, how and by whom they are articulated and pursued, and how they are worked through public policy and institutional and territorial architectures. Empirically, the focus is explaining the UK Government and its abolition and closure of the regional development agencies in England. First, a more qualitative and plural conception of austerity states is developed to question singular and/or monolithic notions of state types and their transitions, and to better reflect the particularities of how state projects are configured and unfolded by actors within political-economi...
TL;DR: The authors examined the heritage destruction undertaken by the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria and argued that heritage destruction perpetrated by the IS are not only situated within a carefully articulated theological framework and key to the creation of a new and ideologically pure Islamic State, but also constituted by several complex layers of religious and political iconoclasm.
Abstract: This article examines the heritage destruction undertaken by the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria. To date, their iconoclasm has been mostly characterised either as acts of wanton barbarism devoid of religious or political justification, or as a cynical performance designed as a mass media spectacle. Drawing on a systematic analysis of two key IS propaganda outlets – their on-line magazine, Dabiq, and the various slick films released by Al-Hayat – this article argues that the heritage destruction perpetrated by the IS are not only situated within a carefully articulated theological framework and key to the creation of a new and ideologically pure ‘Islamic State’, but that they are also constituted by several complex layers of religious and political iconoclasm. To demonstrate, this article documents the iconoclasm undertaken by the IS along two key axes: Symbolic Sectarianism (Shia and Sufi mosques and shrines); and Pre-Monotheistic Iconoclasm (ancient polytheistic sites). Attacks on key sites...
TL;DR: The authors argued that new developmental states are evidence of a move beyond the historical experience of East Asian development and argued for the applicability of the developmental state framework to key questions of governance, institution building, industrial policy and the extractive industries, as well as to a wide variety of cases of successful and failed state-led development in the early twenty-first century.
Abstract: Reviewing decades of thinking regarding the role of the state in economic development, we argue for the continued relevance of the concept of the ‘developmental state’. With reference to Argentina, Brazil, Ethiopia, Rwanda and China, we contend that new developmental states are evidence of a move beyond the historical experience of East Asian development. Further, we argue for the applicability of the developmental state framework to key questions of governance, institution building, industrial policy and the extractive industries, as well as to a wide variety of cases of successful and failed state-led development in the early twenty-first century.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present evidence of a global trend of autocratization and show that men and wealthy groups tend to have a strong hold on political power in countries where 86% of the world population reside.
Abstract: This article presents evidence of a global trend of autocratization. The most visible feature of democracy – elections – remains strong and is even improving in some places. Autocratization mainly affects non-electoral aspects of democracy such as media freedom, freedom of expression, and the rule of law, yet these in turn threaten to undermine the meaningfulness of elections. While the majority of the world’s population lives under democratic rule, 2.5 billion people were subjected to autocratization in 2017. Last year, democratic qualities were in decline in 24 countries across the world, many of which are populous such as India and the United States. This article also presents evidence testifying that men and wealthy groups tend to have a strong hold on political power in countries where 86% of the world population reside. Further, we show that political exclusion based on socio-economic status in particular is becoming increasingly severe. For instance, the wealthy have gained significantly mo...
01 Mar 2018
TL;DR: Given that the majority of surveyed physicians support MMJ as an option for patients, few are registered and have adequate knowledge of MMJ, which highlights key physician issues that are likely applicable to practitioners in other states.
Abstract: Introduction: In 2014, New York (NY) became the 23rd state to legalize medical marijuana (MMJ). The purpose of this survey was to collect data about practicing NY physicians' comfort level, opinions, and experience in recommending or supporting patient use of MMJ. Materials and Methods: An anonymous web-based survey was distributed to medical societies and to academic departments in medical schools within NY. Results: A total of 164 responses were analyzed. Physician participants were primarily located in New York City and surrounding areas. The majority (71%) agreed that MMJ should be an option available to patients. Most respondents were not registered to certify MMJ in NY, but were willing to refer patients to registered physicians. Common reasons for not registering included specialty and federal status of cannabis. More than 75% reported having patients who used cannabis for symptom control, and 50% reported having patients who inquired about MMJ within the past year. Most respondents are wi...
Book•
15 May 2018
TL;DR: Tullock as mentioned in this paper defined Anarchy as Rock-n-Roll: Rethinking Hogarty's Three Cases 12. Private Property Anarchism: An American Variant 13. Anarchy and the Theory of Power 14. Polycentrism and Power 15. Anarchy 17. Reflections After Three Decades 16. Tullock on Anarchy 18.
Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Individual Welfare in Anarchy 3. Jungle or Just Bush? Anarchy and the Evolution of Cooperation 4. The Edge of the Jungle 5. Social Interaction without the State 6. Towards a Theory of the Evolution of Government 7. Do Contracts Require Formal Enforcement? 8. Before Public Choice 9. Public Choice and Leviathan 10. Cases in Anarchy 11. Defining Anarchy as Rock-n-Roll: Rethinking Hogarty's Three Cases 12. Private Property Anarchism: An American Variant 13. Anarchism and the Theory of Power 14. Polycentrism and Power 15. Reflections After Three Decades 16. Anarchy 17. Tullock on Anarchy 18. Anarchism as a Progressive Research Program in Political Economy.
Book•
31 Aug 2018TL;DR: The authors examines the causes of military coups in post-independence Africa and looks at the relationship between ethnic armies and political instability in the region, focusing on rebellions to protect rather than change the status quo.
Abstract: Military coups are a constant threat in Africa and many former military leaders are now in control of 'civilian states', yet the military remains understudied, especially over the last decade. Drawing on extensive archival research, cross-national data, and four in-depth comparative case studies, When Soldiers Rebel examines the causes of military coups in post-independence Africa and looks at the relationship between ethnic armies and political instability in the region. Kristen A. Harkness argues that the processes of creating and dismantling ethnically exclusionary state institutions engenders organized and violent political resistance. Focusing on rebellions to protect rather than change the status quo, Harkness sheds light on a mechanism of ethnic violence that helps us understand both the motivations and timing of rebellion, and the rarity of group rebellion in the face of persistent political and economic inequalities along ethnic lines.
TL;DR: The authors argue that these schemes exceed mere processes of commodification and are part of a neoliberal political economy of belonging which prompts states to include and exclude migrants according to their endowment of human, financial, economic, and emotional capital.
Abstract: Recent research considers the proliferation of citizenship-by-investment schemes primarily as a manifestation of the commodification of citizenship and of states succumbing to the logic of the market. I argue that these schemes exceed mere processes of commodification. They are part of a neoliberal political economy of belonging which prompts states to include and exclude migrants according to their endowment of human, financial, economic, and emotional capital. Hence, I show how the growing mobility opportunities for wealthy and talented migrants, the opening of humanitarian corridors for particularly vulnerable refugees, and the hardening of borders for “ordinary” refugees and undocumented migrants are manifestations of the same neoliberal rationality of government. Conceptually, I challenge mainstream understandings of neoliberalism as a process of commodification characterized by the “retreat of the state” and “domination of the market.” I approach neoliberalism as a process of economization which disseminates the model of the market to all spheres of human activity, even where money is not at stake. Neoliberal economization turns states and individuals into entrepreneurial actors that attempt to maximize their value in economic and financial, as well as moral and emotional terms. This argument advances existing scholarship on the neoliberalization of citizenship by showing how this process encompasses the emergence of distinctively neoliberal forms of belonging.
TL;DR: The authors examines an estate that is mixed with work-unit housing and municipal public housing in China and finds that the latter is not always the case in China, and the former seems to suggest a process of state retreat.
Abstract: Housing privatization seems to suggest a process of state retreat. However, this is not always the case in China. This paper examines an estate that is mixed with work-unit housing and municipal pu...
21 Mar 2018
TL;DR: The core of community colleges and their students are discussed in this article, where the authors focus on the role of the community college mission in historical perspective and the challenges faced by the community colleges.
Abstract: Section I - The Core: Community Colleges and their Students Chapter 1: Community College Mission in Historical Perspective, Ken Meier Chapter 2: Student Diversity in Community Colleges: Examining Trends and Understanding the Challenges, Lindsey E. Malcom Chapter 3: Student Development and Consumerism: Student Services on Campus, Joan B. Hirt and Tara E. Frank Chapter 4: International Students in U.S. Community Colleges: Status, Opportunities, and Future, Linda Serra Hagedorn & Yi (Leaf) Zhang Chapter 5: Adult Student Development: The Agentic Approach and its Relationship to the Community College Context, Virginia Montero-Hernandez & Christine Cerven Chapter 6: Teaching Academically Underprepared Students in Community Colleges, Dolores Perin Section II - Institutional Issues for the Community College Chapter 7: Planning Programs for Community College Education: Theory, Policy, and Practice, David F. Ayers & Michael V. Ayers Chapter 8: Managing Today's Community Colleges: A New Era? Pamela L. Eddy Chapter 9: Leadership: Community College Transitions, Marilyn Amey Chapter 10: Deconstructing Governance and Expectations for the Community College, Carrie B. Kisker & Susan T. Kater Chapter 11: State Fiscal Support for Community Colleges, Jim Palmer Section III - Economic and Workforce Development Chapter 12: Career and Technical Education: Old Debates, Persistent Challenges in Community Colleges, Debra D. Bragg Chapter 13: The Comparative Political Economy of Vocational Education: Lessons for the Study of Community Colleges in the United States, Luciana Dar Chapter 14: Community College Economic and Workforce Development Education in the Neoliberal and Academic Capitalist Contexts, Matthew M. Mars Section IV - The Future: Community College Research & Scholarship Chapter 15: Understandings of Community Colleges in Need of Resuscitation: The Case of Community College Faculty, John S. Levin
10 Dec 2018
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate how contested, shifting, emergent boundaries of the state contain the possibilities for transformative change in the Anthropocene, and propose the notion of the socioenvironmental state.
Abstract: The ‘socioenvironmental state’ conceptualisation probes how contested, shifting, emergent boundaries of the state contain the possibilities for transformative change in the Anthropocene. The paper ...
TL;DR: In this paper, two home-grown insurgencies which arose in Nigeria after the return to civilian rule in 1999: Boko Haram in the Muslim northeast, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in the oil producing and Christian southeast.
Book•
13 Dec 2018TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse legal developments in three liberal democracies that have been at the forefront of promoting exclusion measures: the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland, and comprehensively explore the implications that this new form of intervention has for the constitutional essentials of liberal democracy: the rule of law, fundamental rights and democracy.
Abstract: Hardly known twenty years ago, exclusion from public space has today become a standard tool of state intervention. Every year, tens of thousands of homeless individuals, drug addicts, teenagers, protesters and others are banned from parts of public space. The rise of exclusion measures is characteristic of two broader developments that have profoundly transformed public space in recent years: the privatisation of public space, and its increased control in the 'security society'. Despite the fundamental problems it raises, exclusion from public space has received hardly any attention from legal scholars. This book addresses this gap and comprehensively explores the implications that this new form of intervention has for the constitutional essentials of liberal democracy: the rule of law, fundamental rights, and democracy. To do so, it analyses legal developments in three liberal democracies that have been at the forefront of promoting exclusion measures: the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze rural politics through pro-state, stateless, and anti-state positions and suggest that anarchism can help explain the significance and potential of the stateless and antistate positions in rural politics.
Abstract: Popular discourse today so weds rurality and conservatism together in the United States that one does not seem quite at home without the other. But what is it really about the rural that beckons slapjack labels of conservatism? Scholars and practitioners, only a handful of them rural sociologists, have suggested a variety of explanations: antigovernmentalism, religion, lack of education, manual labor, poverty, primitivism, and a culture of poverty, among others. Each of these approaches, though, misses a sustained agent of rural dispossession and depopulation: the state. This article theorizes rural politics through pro-state, stateless, and anti-state positions. I bridge literature that documents the state as an agent of industrialization, extraction, exploitation, consolidation, and corporatization in rural America and literature on politics and the rural. In the process of my review, I suggest anarchism can help explain the significance and potential of the stateless and anti-state positions in rural politics.