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Contemporary debates over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are polarized between proponents claiming they seek to end world hunger and opponents insisting that "Frankenfoods" will destroy the ecosystem. While these debates focus on the virtues and vices of scientists and corporations, they conspicuously ignore the significant involvement of the American state in spurring the development of GMOs. This paper explores the U.S. government?s role in laying a market foundation for the agricultural biotechnology industry. It concentrates on intellectual property rights as the primary policy tool deployed by policymakers to foster growth in the biotechnology sector. In situating the historical context in which molecular biology?s commercial potential became evident, this paper reveals the origins of this contemporary debate. I argue the government?s intervention into this economic sector, during the early 1970s, should be seen as part of a broad-based industrial strategy to enhance U.S. competitiveness in world food markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper will analyze how during the two Intifadas Israel has strategically and tactically responded to local Palestinian insurgency, which has evolved from civil disobedience to outright terrorism and guerrilla warfare, particularly following the now-defunct Oslo peace process. The paper will show how the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has tried to transform its conventional-based and trained army and to adopt low-intensity urban warfare strategies and tactics over the last 15 years ? particularly during the Al-Aqsa Intifada ? against violent rioters, guerrilla fighters and terrorists. The paper will, consequently, analyze whether or not the IDF has been able to impose a battlefield decision on Palestinian insurgency efforts and has been able to achieve ultimately strategic success during the last four years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The paper will argue that, notwithstanding the extensive innovations in tactics, weaponry and training adopted in response to Palestinian attacks, the political nature of low-intensity insurgencies and, thus, the inherent strategic restraint imposed by the Israeli political echelon?s decision to conduct low-intensity warfare ad nauseam without seriously providing an alternative political resolution to the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stop the IDF from imposing a clear battlefield decision. Finally, the paper will conclude by claiming that the decision to conduct low-intensity warfare in turn leads to a prolonged war of attrition, which historically has always ended in a strategic deadlock and, thus, military failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on state policies concerning older drivers, with particular attention to two contrasting policy strategies ? one involving license renewal requirements targeted for elderly drivers and the other involving the use of the medical community to screen for problematic older drivers. The paper develops and test hypotheses concerning the substantial variation in utilization of these policies that is to be found across state-years in the period 1980-2003. Explanations focusing on the political power of important stakeholder interests such as senior citizens and the medical establishment find some support as do some explanations involving the objective problem context, such as the magnitude of the problem as reflected in the older driver fatal crash rate and the availability of transportation alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been written in recent years about the challenges of achieving effective mechanisms of global economic governance in the face of the emerging disjuncture between the formal authority of the state and the spatial reach of contemporary systems of production, distribution and exchange. However, while some regard such transformations in global distributions of power and authority as threatening to intensify the exploitation of workers in the global south by expanding the power of unaccountable multinational corporations, others talk instead of the promise of strengthened citizen-based mobilization and transnational political activity as a means of empowering southern workers through new forms of ?civil regulation?. This paper presents an empirical analysis of these complex changes within the institutions governing transnational economic relationships, and evaluates their implications for the empowerment of workers in the global south, based on an in-depth study of supply chains within the global garment industry. The garment industry is characterised by structures of production and exchange in which the transnational scope of supply chains connects some of the world?s poorest workers with affluent and powerful consumer markets and corporate entities in the global north, and analysis draws on extensive field research conducted at all levels of the supply chain, from the production phase in Nicaragua, to consumer markets in Europe and the US, and the sites of investors and civil society advocates spanning the US, Europe and East Asia (Taiwan and South Korea). This industry has also been the subject of increasing attention from highly visible actors within global civil society, who have politicized many important decision-making processes within the global garment industry through their promotion of the agenda of defending core labor standards. The paper documents established and emerging non-state governance initiatives driven by both citizen-based and private sector actors, and analyses the interaction of such mechanisms with traditional governmental and inter-governmental forms of regulation. These new patterns of governance are shown to reflect both the fragmentation of governance functions and capabilities between an expanding range of non-state actors, and a broadening of mechanisms employed in the exercise of governance, incorporating both expanded forms of network-based non-state governance, and the increasing importance of norm-based or ?soft-law? governance mechanisms. The paper then evaluates the impact of these changes upon southern workers using a conceptual framework of empowerment, which places power at the centre of the analysis of structural dynamics of north-south economic relationships, and highlights the importance of not only material improvements in wages and working conditions, but also the agency of workers at the bottom of global supply chains to participate in processes of decision-making that impact so profoundly upon their lives. The paper concludes by commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of existing non-state governance mechanisms, and their potential to contribute to the development of global economic governance regimes better able to serve the interests of workers in the global south. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper charts developments in the taxation of the Russian oil sector after Russia’s financial crisis in 1998. It argues that the key political issues created by the massive devaluation following the crisis were, first, division of its substantial benefits to the oil sector and, second, the question of how fuel supplies to domestic markets would be maintained in the face of low domestic purchasing power. These issues drove the politics of taxation, which involved much hard bargaining between the government and the oil sector. The paper argues that this empirical record supports a "political economic sociology" approach to transition, which derives from a detailed analysis of actors in market and institutional context and treats the distributive outcomes of capitalism as deriving from bargaining power in markets, not just state allocation. The empirical record does not support an alternate theoretical approach that sees tax developments in this period as the result of consensual and mutual confidence-building between the government and the oil sector. PRELIMINARY DRAFT ONLY. PLEASE WRITE THE AUTHOR FOR A CURRENT COPY. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While most of the existing literature predicts that coups d?etat should depress investment, existing empirical evidence is contradictory and there is remarkable variation in the way that investors appear to respond to different coups. This paper argues that particular characteristics of coups ? political orientation, degree of military support, and associated violence - may help to account for this variation. Extant research has overlooked this effect because it treats coups as uniform events. The paper uses a new, original dataset on coups incorporating detailed information on the attributes of coups in all regions from 1950-2000. The analysis supports the predicted relationship: right-leaning, bloodless coups perpetrated by military leaders are associated with increased investment in the wake of a coup. In contrast, left-leaning coups, coups which install weak or unknown governments, or violent coups (even if they are right-leaning) depress investment. The insight that different types of coups have predictably different effects on investment has implications for a large number of studies which incorporate assumptions about the effects of political instability, and the regional clustering of particular types of coups stands to shed light on the puzzlingly diverse ramifications of political instability in different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because it is not clear why Jiang Jieshi?s [Chiang Kaishek] drew so persistently on ?shame? for his leadership, this paper outlines the method by which what one might call the ?Confucian self? makes decisions. Within this Confucian framework, this paper argues that ?shame? occurs at certain moments, when propriety [li] has degenerated to where one side of the hierarchical relationship (i.e. ruler to ruled or father to son) has lost its standing (and usually it is the inferior side). ?Shame? serves a dual purpose of reinforcing or transforming the script of propriety (i.e. the rules of proper behavior between superior and inferior). Each side may exert great effort to reinforce or transform the script to prevent the relationship from degenerating. But, for various reasons, ?shame? might still occur. This paper demonstrates that the standards of ?propriety? might not follow the changing of times; the superior might be overbearing; the inferior operates with another standard. Because ?shame? often occurs on the inferior?s side, ?shame? becomes an important ideological resource and weapon of the weak to recover standing, and in the process, further reinforce or transform the script of propriety. Given the dire circumstances of the Chinese army and of society, Chiang?s uses of ?shame? become intelligible. Because China was always in the ?inferior? position in relation to the ?superior? imperial powers that had transgressed propriety, Jiang appealed to ?shame? to exhort his soldiers and citizens to overcome their dire situation and to recover their standing in the international community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International cooperation can take a variety of forms and one of them is early settlement in a dispute: reaching a compromise before escalating the dispute to a higher stage. This paper looks at trade disputes that Japan has been involved in at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to see what factors influence the behavior of states to reach early settlement. Two existing hypotheses, one by Priest and Klein (1984) and the other by Guzman and Simmons (2002) are examined. Both are insufficient to explain dispute outcomes as far as cases from Japan are concerned. Therefore, this paper offers an alternative explanation, which focuses on domestic constraints within the disputing countries. When law as such is contested, when the legislature is independent, when a local government under a federal system is a focus of the dispute, and when the affected industries are in financial difficulties; early settlement is found to be extremely difficult, if not impossible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does religion matter in Taiwanese politics? Our paper rejects a simple answer to it. Both the pros and cons can find statistical support from this paper. In many cases, beliefs, religious commitment, and civic-religious group types have significant impacts on Political Tolerance, Traditional Political Values, Political Participation, and Party Preference. But these impacts are not consistent across different regression models, after controlling for age, sex, income, education, and marriage. However, in most cases, we find civic-religious group type a powerful religious factor affecting political values and behaviors. This supports our social capital thesis that participation in religious groups (particularly, non-traditional religions) enables the believers to learn liberal political values and accumulate their social capital for democratic participation. Although religious leaders might indoctrinate their believers with traditional political values or favor certain political parties, they do not necessarily dictate the political thinking or behavior of the activist believers. After all, the religious behaviors of most Taiwanese believers are very personal, de-institutional, and non-theological. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to assess the long-term significance of the eighteenth-century debate about the virtues or otherwise of luxury. It does so principally by contrasting the views of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Jean-Francois Melon, author of the Essai politique sur le commerce (1734). Having considered the manner in which this argument was developed by the likes of Diderot and Saint-Lambert, the paper turns to an examination of the broader deabte about the nature of a commercial society and the relevance of the English model. By way of conclusion the paper looks at the writings of Jean-Baptiste Say to illustrate the enduring nature of the arguments posed by Rousseau against immoderate wealth and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past three decades, business and professional intermediaries have become key players in the governance of the global political economy. These agents, which include accounting firms, credit-rating firms, corporate law firms, business consulting firms, and financial market regulators, are omnipresent in the making of major business deals, structuring corporate governance, allocating corporate finance, and shaping the priorities and strategies of public policy-making. To this point, however, scholars have only begun the task of understanding who these intermediaries are and what they do. In this paper, I develop a framework for analyzing the contemporary role of business and professional intermediaries. This framework draws heavily on the literature on networks and norm diffusion, and provides an orientation for ongoing research on the ways in which intermediaries are implicated in the governance of the global economy, while exploring the similarities and differences in the roles played by intermediaries. My overall analysis suggests that these actors are particularly crucial in the application of norms to specific problems and contexts, and in the monitoring of business and policy practice. I apply this framework to the role of private lawyers and law firms in the global political economy, with a focus on transnational competition policy. The paper concludes with a consideration of how the study of business intermediaries can inform our understanding of the role of networks in shaping the use of power in the global system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 includes temporal provisions scheduled to expire in 2007, if not further extended by Congress. The first part of this paper outlines the main provisions and issues of the Voting Rights Act, as amended. A summary of the key findings on unintended and undesirable effects in an urban setting (Dallas, Texas) of the single-member district remedial requirement for ensuring representation to specific minority groups follows. The remainder of the paper describes the path to the radical change in Census 2000 and its implications for Voting Rights Act enforcement. I conclude that the original intent of the Act to protect individuals’ right to cast a vote and have it counted requires new and increased enforcement efforts, but that Section 5 preclearance and the English-only ballot prohibition, both intended as temporary remedial measures, should be allowed to expire in 2007. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although religion?s impact on political attitudes and electoral choices has been increasingly recognized by mainstream political science, that influence is often thought to be limited primarily to the realm of domestic politics. Very little research has tried to connect religious affiliations, beliefs and behavior to mass attitudes on foreign policy or international affairs. This paper both reviews the limited evidence from past scholarship and suggests several reasons why religion may influence contemporary attitudes toward foreign policy, including its continued effect on overarching public orientations, religious groups? increasingly vocal involvement on such issues, growing partisan and ideological divisions over foreign policy, and the ?domestication? of international issues in a globalizing world. The paper then examines the relationship between religious variables and generalized public orientations toward foreign affairs, evaluation of the Bush administration?s foreign policy and, most important, support for the war on terror and the Iraq conflict. Data from the 2002 American National Election Study, several surveys from the Pew Center for the People and the Press, and a poll from ABC News reveal consistent differences between religious groups, despite variations in measurement strategies. Evangelical Protestants, especially the traditionalists among them, emerge as the strongest supporters of a militant approach to foreign policy, and of Bush administration policies generally, while African-American Protestants are usually the most critical of such policies, followed by adherents of non-Christian religions, secular voters, and other religious minorities. These differences often survive rigorous multivariate analysis, incorporating factors often thought of as important influences on foreign policy attitudes in the mass public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper will present results of a research on the substantive representation of women in the Belgian Lower House during the 20th century. The aim of this research consists in learning more about the practice of substantive representation of a social group. The underlying hypotheses is that a ‘higher’ level of descriptive political representation results in a ‘higher’ level of substantive representation. More particularly, the research deals with the impact of women’s suffrage and of female MPs on the substantive representation of women. Although the empirical part of this investigation is of an historical nature and focuses on women, it relates to broader contemporary debates on the political inclusion of social groups such as immigrants. The research deals with the assumption, often present in societal as well as in political debates, that franchise, on the one hand, and MPs sharing the ‘identity’ of those whom they represent, on the other hand, have a positive impact on the extent to which social groups are represented. This research is embedded in a tradition of both theoretical investigation and empirical research on the link between ‘standing for’ and ‘acting for’. The first aim of the paper is to provide for an introductory picture of the political representation of women’s interests during a politically important parliamentary debate: the budget debates. The substantive representation of women, i.e. the act of taking care of women’s needs and interests, is defined through three criteria: 1) a situation that is bad for or unjust to women is discussed; 2) a suggestion to improve the situation of women is formulated; or 3) a right for women is claimed. Notwithstanding the paper’s final focus, firstly the evolution of the defence of women’s interests will be described and, secondly, we will verify whether changes are due to the direct impact of female MPs or coincide with the appearance of female voters. The three time periods researched are: 1) 1900 - 1929: a homogeneous male parliament; 2) 1930 - 1948: a few women in parliament but no female electorate; 3) 1949 - 1980: a growing number of female parliamentarians (significant increase from 1974 on) and a female electorate. In each time period the points of interest are: 1) which women receive political attention; 2) which topics are dealt with; and 3) what is the aim of the intervention (to merely improve the situation of women or to establish equality between men and women). Subsequently the question will be: do the right to vote and descriptive representatives result in a ‘better’ or ‘higher level of’ substantive representation? An increased diversity of groups of women receiving political attention, of women’s interests addressed and of feminist projects tackled could be seen as an indicator for a more elaborated form of substantive representation of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A chasm has long existed in political science between those who view the American policymaking process as static and those who see it as dynamic. Insufficient effort has been made to bridge this divide or to incorporate the insights of both perspectives into the analysis of major policy initiation and reform. This paper uses the case of federal education policy to demonstrate how a historically-based policy regimes framework can illuminate the evolution of specific policy areas over time and account for periods of dynamic change amidst long periods of policy stasis. This framework picks up where Baumgartner and Jones left off by focusing on what happens after agendas change, policy monopolies are broken, and equilibria punctured. The paper then demonstrates the efficacy of the policy regimes approach by using it to briefly examine the evolution of federal education policy and to explain how reformers were able to overcome both institutional and political obstacles to policy change in the 2002 No Child Left Behind law. Contemporary developments in American politics?particularly the existence of partisan parity and intense political competition for swing voters?have led politicians to adopt popular, moderate positions on swing issues such as education even if they conflict with longstanding ideological convictions or the preferences of allied interest groups. This political maneuvering can force both parties to the center and generate compromises on salient issues over which there may have long been great conflict and little change. Swing issues are thus an important political phenomenon?their unique characteristics facilitate major policy change even as they influence the direction of wider political debates and encourage greater democratic responsiveness from government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of the paper: How to think together Leo Strauss’s characterization of the "status of individuality" as a "fundamental problem" with his account of modern philosophy as a "break with the natural understanding." The paper considers how this question may relate to Strauss’s account of the problem of Socrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How should normative political theorists think about contentious and potentially coercive political action? What should the limits of acceptable political activity be? How are the boundaries of reasonable participation in the political life of a liberal democratic nation to be delineated? These questions are central to the actual functioning of any liberal democratic society. They remain, however, largely unanswered by contemporary normative political theory. Indeed since the early 1970s, remarkably few political theorists have seriously addressed the challenges of protest, direct action and civil disobedience, even as these topics have become central to the study of empirical politics. This paper examines some of the reasons for that oversight and seeks to point out its consequences for the study of political theory in the early twenty first century. In particular, the paper contends that much contemporary liberal political theory is undermined by serious misunderstandings as to the nature of political life and these misunderstandings prevent a proper analysis of the more contentious elements of political participation in the modern world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to evaluate Bruce Ackerman?s theory of dualist democracy. He distinguishes two different decisions that may be made in a democracy. The first is a decision by the people themselves, which is designated as higher lawmaking that embodies the general will of the people; the second is a decision by government, which is designated as normal politics. The objective of Ackerman?s two-track theory of democracy is to resolve the tension between self-government and the rule law in American constitutionalism. I attempt to demonstrate that Ackerman?s idea of dualist democracy is a virtue-centric, populist, republicanism. His synthesis relies on the premise of the priority of self-government over the rule of law. It constitutes a solid alternative to the recent neo-Roman republicanism of Quentin Skinner and Philip Pettit, which emphasizes law-centric republican constitutionalism. The relevance of dualist democracy is explored via a contextualized analysis of the virtue-centric republicanism from Hannah Arendt to J. G. A. Pocock and Hanna Pitkin. Ackerman?s interpretation of the Federalist Paper as the main intellectual resource of his project is also examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenges in isolating the substantive conflict in American politics as it actually moves the mass public are truly daunting. Two such challenges dominate all others, however. First, it is necessary to have consistent measures of the main domains of policy conflict across the postwar years, itself a demanding challenge. But second, it is necessary to combine these into a consistent issue structure across that same period, else good individual measures will mislead as much as they help, by masking and distorting the mix of available policy concerns. This paper builds on previous APSA papers aimed at eliciting this issue structure, and moves on to its impact on voting behavior from 1952 through 2000. A set of measures for the policy domains of social welfare, foreign affairs, civil rights, and cultural values are developed, with much confirmation of an existing literature specialized to these domains, plus some twists that arrive with the ability to address them in an extended time-frame. These individual measures are then combined into a more comprehensive picture, an ?issue structure?, so that their influence within a richer issue context can be examined. What results is a picture of postwar American politics at the mass level, confirmed in many familiar ways but, we hope, nuanced in many others and actually disconfirmed in a few. Said differently, what results is a picture of social welfare as the dominating issue concern in this politics among the general public, with foreign affairs as an important?and frequently cross-cutting?secondary concern. Civil rights changes its partisan direction as the postwar years pass. And cultural values does the same, while exploding to prominence in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a process-oriented approach to the study of policy diffusion. It divides policy diffusion into four political processes: agenda setting, information generation, customization, and enactment. This division provides an analytical framework for assessing the impact of many diffusion mechanisms that are largely neglected by existing studies. The paper illustrates the utility of the process-oriented approach by assessing the trajectory of medical savings accounts (MSAs) in Oregon. This case study suggests that external political forces have a strong impact on the early stages of policy diffusion, while the impact of internal political forces increases during the later stages of policy diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decade the two largest democracies of the world, i.e., India and US have been constantly coming closer. Advent of satellite channels and beginning of economic liberalization program in India has generated a keen interest in U.S. affairs. US has become the hottest destination for Indian software professionals. Sociologists have been expressing deep concern regarding Americanization of Indian youth because of channels like MTV and Hollywood movies. 911 attacks on US and ensuing war on terror have been extensively covered and scrutinized by Indian media. Indian media has a love-hate relationship with US. On the one hand Indian media admires American democracy, entrepreneurship and rule of law, on the other it is portraying war on terror as hegemonistic design intended to turn international politics completely unipolar. While deepening commercial ties and joint military exercises between the two countries are being welcomed by all sections of media, certain quarters are vehemently critical of US attack and subsequent occupation of Iraq. The reason Indian government dithered, debated and ultimately decided not to send troops to Iraq can be attributed to media?s vociferous opposition. Bush administration?s unstinted support to Musharraf government in Pakistan is being termed by Indian media as the most glaring example of ?double standards? in war against terror. Indian media accuses that in spite of having full knowledge of terrorist camps in Pakistan, Bush administration has refused to take penal actions against Pakistan. This paper will deal with how media has covered America?s war on terror and what impact it has had on Indian public opinion and decision making process. The perception of Indian media regarding the burgeoning American hegemony in new world order will also be analyzed in this paper. The paper will make suggestions regarding what role media can play in bringing these two countries together in their mutual fight against terror. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economists commonly explain cross-national variation in international trade complaints according to differences in macroeconomic conditions and macroeconomic policy. Macroeconomic variables including exchange rates and GDP growth, however, fail to solve two puzzles related to antidumping (AD) complaints. First, they cannot account for why AD use is persistently higher in some countries than in others. Second, they cannot explain wide differences in industries? use of the policy despite high complainant success rates in most countries. In this paper, I argue that a country?s institutional context, including its electoral and social institutions, influences AD filings: institutions directly influence AD filings and interact with macroeconomic variables to condition the frequency of industry demands for protection. These hypotheses are tested on cross-national time series data from 19 OECD countries. The results indicate that institutional variables condition the effect of economic conditions on AD appeals. This paper demonstrates the value of unpacking broad categories of countries to consider ways in which both electoral and social institutions influence industries? political behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the Cold War, western defense experts and intelligence had worried that the Soviet Union had a window of opportunity because of its military capability and expansionist ambition. Also in the Korean peninsula, many scholars have argued that North Korea has had a window of opportunity and has been ready to initiate a second Korean War at any moment due to its military capability and offensive intentions. However, both the Soviet Union and North Korea were weaker and declining nations compared to the United States and South Korea, so that it is logically wrong or statistically mistaken to argue that such weaker states had windows of opportunity. Due to the power gap, the Cold War ended peacefully and the Korean peninsula has enjoyed a long peace since the Korean War. However, this paper does not conclude that simple deterrence always works. Weaker states do not possess windows of opportunity due to the unfavorable balance of power, but they may still challenge stronger opponents and start war. To explain this, this paper draws on the recent development of prospect theory in international relations and proposes a few hypotheses about why and when the weaker fight the stronger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes issue with interpretations of Foucault?s thought that understand power and resistance as forces working in opposition to one another to fix and dissolve or construct and deconstruct social identities. Starting from the theme of dispersion presented in The Archaeology of Knowledge, it maintains that, for Foucault, power works only in a dispersive manner and that identities are not so much substantialities produced by power as simulacra that appear on the surface of a very different dynamic. Resistance, in turn, is not a force opposed to power but rather a consequence of the disjunctive nature of power relations themselves. Using this reconceived dynamic of power and resistance, the paper revisits Foucault?s understanding of disciplinary society and the micropolitics of the care of the self, and argues that although Foucault has been deployed in political theory to show that identities are both necessary and problematic, his work in fact points to a politics and ethics that strives to dispense with this necessity altogether. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the instantiation of power in the ability to control the flow of information. Powerful agents, be they governments, firms, individuals, or groups, are able to act effectively as gatekeepers, keeping secrets, preventing the intrusion of unwanted information, disseminating information at will, and acquiring desired information. Controlling information flows for individuals and groups is closely connected to notions of privacy; for firms, it involves trade secrets and proprietary data; and for governments, it ties into national security. Since the flow of information is mediated by information and communications technologies, having access to them, along with the intellectual capital required to use them effectively, have become important prerequisites for having power. The paper addresses the question of how current political economic structures reinforce or ameliorate disparities of power by creating opportunities and constraints for agents as information gatekeepers. The normative concerns explicated by Emmanuel Levinas provide the ethical context in which such power is made manifest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers implications of the neoliberal shift for forms of national integration that were achieved in sub-Saharan Africa during the developmentalist era. National integration strategies pursued during the developmentalist era created and helped to manage regional competition within not-completely-integrated national units. This was the old territorial politics. The argument here is that the neoliberal shift makes old strategies of national integration difficult to sustain. What has emerged is a new territorial politics, which revolves around attempts to consolidate power within sub-units of the state and reorder relations among them, to enforce political control within communities, and to reorder rural property rights. The paper argues that the new territorial politics is structured by four institutional legacies of the developmentalist era: indirect rule, discriminatory allocation of local citizenship rights, spatially fragmented markets for land and labor, the build-up of regional caciques or strongmen. The neoliberal turn reveals spatial and territorial aspects of state-formation strategies that were not so obvious, or did not seem so politically salient, in the earlier period. Côte d?Ivoire provides a case in point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars study the properties of voting rules, but few extend their studies to legislative institutions such as quorum requirements. This paper investigates the optimal quorum requirement between 1 and N, assuming that decisions are made by simple majority rule. Quorum requirements are evaluated by the probability that they fulfill one of four criteria: 1) the Pareto criterion, 2) a modified version of Rae?s criterion, 3) Expected Social Gain (a utilitarian criterion), and 4) a Non-Negative Representation criterion (a measure of how well the quorum represents the assembly). This paper shows that the optimal quorum according to all four criteria is typically no quorum requirement. However, the optimal quorum according to the third and fourth criterion is N, if non-voters are more likely to oppose the proposal than favor it. Such results have important implications for institutional design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Last summer, the Supreme Court handed down two landmark decisions regarding the use of affirmative action in higher education. In one case, Grutter v. Bollinger, the Court said it was constitutional to consider race in admissions decisions in order to achieve the educational benefits of a diverse student body. In stark contrast, the Court struck down in Gratz v. Bollinger the University of Michigan?s undergraduate admissions policy on the grounds that too much of the decision was based on race. Some scholars have suggested the Court has provided conflicting and confusing messages regarding the constitutional use of affirmative action in higher education. Others maintain that as this is the first time the Court has directly addressed this question since the 1978 Regents of University of California v. Bakke case (Ball 2000), these decisions will change admissions policies in undergraduate and law school programs across the country. This paper will not consider the meaning of the decisions or try to constitutionally reconcile their outcomes; instead, the focus of our analysis is to highlight how these decisions impact universities? admissions policies. This paper will use survey data and interviews to discover how institutions of higher education have responded to these two decisions. What changes, if any, have these universities made in their undergraduate and law school admissions policies? Why did the school make adjustments? How did they implement the changes? In this process, what pressures, if any, were exerted on the institutions and their Admissions Offices? This research will provide further insight on the relative power of the Court in the implementation of its own decisions. Regional differences in implementation and policy-making will also be highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do statutory protections against pregnancy discrimination directly affect employees who breastfeed, the infertile, and those who wish to control fertility? This paper examines the limits of the coverage federal courts have been willing to provide employees under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA). In the 25 years since Congress recognized pregnancy as a form of gender discrimination, federal courts have wrestled with the permissible treatment of pregnant workers. But what are the parameters of this statute? Are male employees discriminated against if they do not have identical opportunities as female colleagues? Are employers and their insurance companies responsible for infertility treatments, if infertility is the absence of pregnancy? Does the avoidance of pregnancy through the use of birth control constitute a ?related condition? warranting coverage? Are employees who breastfeed protected by statutory language that considers ?any discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, and any related condition? sex discrimination? Is breastfeeding ?a related condition of pregnancy?? Based on a data set of published opinions of the federal courts surrounding the application and definition of this statute, this paper examines how the federal courts have answered these questions and consequently interpreted the scope of the PDA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the integration of the modern working class into the capitalist system, and hence in light of its unfulfilled revolutionary potential, in the 1950’s Herbert Marcuse called upon leftist intellectuals to act as the catalyst of historical change. Organized locally and nationally, the bearers of critical consciousness against ?the affluent society? could perform a preparatory function towards qualitative change. Today, many American intellectuals have renounced this critical role. As Stanley Aronowitz and William DiFazio observe in The Jobless Future, if quite a number of professors have become willing and complacent technicians, experts, entrepreneurs and consultants to contemporary private and public power structures and institutions, many more?under siege from excessive teaching loads and administrative and clerical responsibilities?can only work as scholars--that is, they "neither challenge the dominant paradigm nor work outside it." More troublesome than this, is the undeniable fact that contemporary academia has become the site of modern American society that most perfectly approaches and presages the dualistic stratification of social activity towards which philosopher Andre Gorz predicts the entire labor market is moving in advanced capitalist societies, if for different reasons. In American academia, as a consequence of the growing numbers of adjuncts assuming increasingly heavier teaching loads for below the poverty line remuneration and without the benefits of any job security and health insurance, the stratification amongst professors at each university has come to resemble that of an ancient Greek democracy where the challenging and yet denigrated sweat equity of women and slaves (adjuncts) allows those initiated and bearing the full rights of citizenship (tenure track professors) to engage in leisure (in the old sense of the word?that is, think critically and actively engage in the public life [of the academic community]), while monopolizing more than one post at different institutions and receiving salaries for teaching that they do not do. In fact, ?Despite reports, such as that of the Carnegie Foundation, that stress the importance of teaching and urge universities to change their reward structure so that excellence in teaching may be elevated to the level of research and publication, few major schools have followed this advice.? Hence, the current status of academia seems to already be a prelude to the larger phenomenon?identified by Gorz?of "a society based on mass unemployment [that] is coming into being before our eyes. It consists of a growing mass of the permanently unemployed on one hand, an aristocracy of tenured workers on the other, and between them, a proletariat of temporary workers [made up of adjuncts, in this case] carrying out [what is perceived but are not] the least skilled and most unpleasant types of work." The above described changes have been taking place within academia for a while now and are not accidental or temporary but structural and systemic. They are the result of a process that is driven by the capitalist market?s own dynamics, and that has given rise to the vocational- and customer- centered approaches to higher education that are currently predominant administration?s choices and policies within most universities,--a phenomenon that has spelled out not just the end of a critical but also that of a classical education. If, in fact, in earlier times, culture was, for the most part, unavailable outside of academia, as DiFazio writes, the current elimination of humanities, foreign languages and social science courses, departments and requirements, in favor of applied sciences, public policy and empirical research--as a response to the penetration within all universities of the market?s divine ?criteria of ?relevance? and ?productivity? and its demand for ?products?useful to the state and industry"-- has now led to culture becoming more and more irrelevant even within academia. This atmosphere so hostile to critical thinking, teaching and writing, currently reigning in most places of higher learning around the country, has been further aggravated by the suffocating (self)-censorship regime imposed by the noxiously freedom limiting side-effects of the yet extremely justified consciousness raising intentions and goals of politically correct identity and sensitivity politics which--unintentionally--have further strengthened right wing and religious fundamentalist claims about the ?appropriateness? and ?immorality? of certain opinions. To these factors, last but not least, one must also add today?s oppressively intolerant and unreflectively patriotic climate in the following of the abominable attack of September 11, 2001. Jumping on the band wagon of political correctness, while perverting its progressive aims, conservative groups and the religious right,--in a modern version of the red hunt of the McCarthy era,--have begun to monitor ?anti-American? remarks made by faculty members. For example, The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, ?a conservative nonprofit group devoted to curing liberal tendencies in academia? continuously compiles and updates lists of perpetrators. In light of all these variables, this paper will argue that for leftist intellectuals interested in generating the conditions within which there may spring new wo/men whose needs and wants go beyond the ones satisfied by the affluent society, academia, as Marcuse had argued a long time ago, may no longer be the most ideal space where women and men may be nurtured who will eventually claim their rights to the satisfaction of what he calls their ?aesthetic needs,? needs that imply the fullest development of their human sensitivity and sensibility. What Reich observed in The Mass Psychology of Fascism of the Marxist movements of his times is ever truer today: The revolutionary movement [also] failed to appreciate the importance of the seemingly irrelevant habits, indeed, very often turned them to bad account. The lower middle class bedroom suite, which the ?rabble? buys as soon as he has the means, even if he is otherwise revolutionary minded; the consequent suppression of the wife, even if he is a Communist; the ?decent? suit of clothes for Sunday: ?proper? dance steps and a thousand other ?banalities,? have an incomparably greater reactionary influence when repeated day after day than thousands of revolutionary rallies and leaflets can ever hope to counterbalance. Narrow conservative life exercises a continuous influence, penetrates every facet of everyday life; whereas factory work and revolutionary leaflets have only a brief effect? We must pay more, much more, attention to these details of everyday life. It is around these details that social progress or its opposite assume concrete forms, not around political slogans that arouse temporary enthusiasm only (The Psyhcology of Fascism, p. 69) Only by stressing all possibilities of a work-democratic way of life, by taking a militant stance toward reactionary thinking and militantly developing the seed of a living culture of masses of people, can lasting peace be assured. (The Psychology of Fascism, p. 70.) It is for these reasons that this paper will argue the extreme relevance to leftist causes of contemporary social movements (the anti-globalization movement, amongst them) in offering tentative answers to the New Left in regards to what type of daily practices or discourses, what type of praxis?in the Gramscian sense of the word?could give rise to the ?creative imagination? and critical consciousness necessary amongst modern citizens for generating the desire for radical changes in capitalist society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the impact of the European Union?s Open Method of Coordination (OMC) on Italy?s institutional capability in the employment and social inclusion policy fields. Institutional capability is defined as the extent to which a system of collective action is able ? by means of interactive dynamics ? to elaborate ?satisficing? responses to environmental challenges; transform such responses into decisions of a political nature; implement such decisions; and learn from experience. Both in employment and social inclusion, Italy has suffered from a twofold handicap: initial congruence of its policymaking process with that presupposed by the OMC was low in both fields, and there have been internal dynamics of change which have significantly interacted with the push related to the OMC. However, the evidence provided in the paper points towards a clear strengthening of institutional capability as an OMC-induced effect in the employment field, while the OMC seems to have had little ? if any ? impact on institutional capability in the social assistance field. This variance is put to work in order to identify clusters of factors that have plausibly affected the impact of the OMC on Italy?s institutional capability, and could be exploited to generate general hypotheses about the impact of the OMC on national institutional capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes up the question: how did India?s economic liberalization affect the state?s decisions about nuclear weapons and disarmament? While it focuses on the India case which I have studied in depth, it critiques the general Liberal account of the political economy of nuclear development. This account posits that internationally-oriented actors resist nuclear ?acceleration? out of fear of adverse international reactions, or because they oppose the concentration of resources in statist and non-productive uses. The paper shows that a comprehensive conception of national security, a state-led economic strategy, the compulsions of the global market itself, and a fractured and inconsistent international sanctions regime alleviated such concerns in India. Unlike Realist accounts which argue that economic factors were irrelevant in explaining India?s decision, this argument takes the entire economic context?particularly elite beliefs?into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper primarily examines the social reconstruct of Taiwan?s identity since 2000, when Chen Shui-bian and the Democratic Progressive Party won the presidential election. It will address the Chen Shui-bian regime?s policies of identity reconstruction in a series of political issues (e.g., history text rewriting and language policy) to generate collective action from the public, the resistance from opponents, and the intriguing relationship between identity and ethnicity. Finally, the paper will draw assessments and implications for the future of Taiwan?s political development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Patterns of Democracy, Arend Lijphart not only contends that democracy is bipolar, but also that consensus democracies are ?kindler, gentler? forms of institutional settings than majoritarian arrangements (Lijphart 1999). Although Lijphart?s analysis shows strong empirical support for his claims, his framework was never applied outside stable democracies. The present paper proposes to cover that gap by replicating Lijphart?s analysis in the post-communist context, therefore testing the relevance of his prescriptions to democratizing states. The proposed study evaluates Lijphart?s theory in two separate ways. First, if his posited split of democracies into two blocs appears in the post-communist world. Second if post-communist states with more ?consensus-oriented? attributes actually enjoy greater political rights and civil liberties, with the following results. The main finding of the paper is that by contrast with older democracies, there is no such thing as a two dimensional map of democracy in the case of post-communist countries: there is no regular pattern of correlations between indicators of consensus-majoritarian democracy in the post-communist context. Nevertheless, empirical verification reveals that some elements included in the consensus democracy framework should be introduced in new constitutions, but perhaps not as the monolithic cluster of basic laws of constitutions like Lijphart originally suggested. Hence this study casts a shadow on the relevance of the majoritarian versus consensus classification of democratic regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the proposition that material interests played a decisive role in shaping national preferences over the design of the Kyoto Protocol, the world?s first global CO2 emissions control regime. That states act to defend their material interests when negotiating international regimes has long been a bedrock assumption of international relations scholarship, and is also a widely held belief among analysts of climate politics. This paper investigates whether the preferences of national governments over a global climate treaty are correlated with measures of the material interests that may have been at stake. States should oppose a stringent climate treaty if their economic output is highly dependent on fossil fuel consumption; if the real and opportunity costs of curbing CO2 emissions are relatively low; and if their vulnerability to climate change related damages is relatively small. The empirical evidence offers only limited support for these hypotheses. At best, material interests favoring emissions abatement may be a necessary, but not sufficient, condition of support for a strong climate treaty. Case studies indicate that other determinants of state preferences may include ideational factors and the configuration of political institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to enhance our understanding of the ways in which decentralizing reforms influence and shape party politics at both the statewide and non-statewide level, looking at the special case of asymmetric devolution. In asymmetric devolution, statewide political parties have to adapt to the presence of new arenas of political competition at the subcentral level, but these new arenas are either not present, or not equally developed, in the whole state territory. The paper hypothesizes possible party reactions and adaptations to these circumstances, focusing on changes in party organization, interparty cooperation and interparty competition. It then goes on to assess the emerging reality of party politics under asymmetric devolution in two prominent Western European cases: Spain, where asymmetric devolution has developed over the past two decades, and the United Kingdom, where devolution has been established more recently. This comparative analysis illustrates the organizational strains that asymmetric devolution creates for political parties, and assesses its impact on party competition and government formation at the statewide level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the political and economic dimensions of state takeover of local school districts in a theoretical framework that reveals the intergovernmental tensions evident in restoring local control after a contentious period of state intervention. Over the course of the past fifteen years, state takeover has generated not only the strongest resistance from local officials of any policy innovation to reinvigorate the performance of local education agencies within the American public education system, but also the most diverse set of results in the duration and extent of state involvement at the district level. What accounts for this variation? And, more importantly, what does the emergence of state takeover signify for the future of the intergovernmental system in the context of American public education? In this paper, the authors present preliminary findings from a national quantitative analysis of local school districts that have been subject to state takeover and have since regained local control, as well as empirical case studies of two states, Alabama and Kentucky, where state authorities have restored local control in at least eleven local school districts. An analytical consideration of the effects of state takeover on decision-making authority at the district level, fiscal and resource allocation, and the consequences of local capacity and local culture demonstrates that 1) local autonomy is conditional based on acceptable performance as defined by the state, 2) the sequential progression of state takeover in reforming the mode of local governance as well as the variable nature of duration necessitate more consideration by policymakers seeking to enhance performance accountability, 3) economic factors may have less to do with the return of local control than politics, and 4) the significance of unemployment and debt measures in contributing to the duration of state takeover has the potential to fundamentally reshape our understanding of intergovernmental relations and state policy leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently introduced by critical security theorists into the literature on international relations, the concept of ?human security?, as opposed to state-centric or traditional security, identifies individuals and collectivities as the objects of security and emphasizes human rights, good governance, and, more generally, quality of life issues as the central dimensions of (international) security. Although the concept of human security has received considerable attention, some of the core arguments and hypotheses put forward by critical security theorists have not been empirically tested. This paper attempts to empirically address one of the most interesting and intriguing hypotheses advanced by critical security theorists. This hypothesis identifies global civil society as the central agent of change in international security and posits that transformative human security initiatives will emerge in global civil society in the post Cold War era, transformative initiatives being initiatives that represent a fundamental change in ideas about the nature and object of international security. In two case studies of initiatives concerned with (human) security, namely, the Kimberley Process and Jubilee 2000, this paper attempts to explore the questions of whether or not global civil society has been the source of transformative security initiatives over the past 10-15 years since the end of the Cold War, and of whether or not it has been successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Social Democratic-Green coalition government’s revision of Germany’s citizenship law marked a significant shift in the boundaries of German national membership. The introduction of jus soli (the principle of territory) has enabled children born of non-ethnic German parents to become German nationals at birth, thereby breaking the dominance of jus sanguinis (principle of descent) in German nationality law. This paper traces the origins of this shift, examining debates over the integration of post-WWII "guest workers" from the 1960s onward. The paper argues that the path to nationality reform is best understood as the unravelling of an institutionalized policy regime in the face of changed socio-political conditions and new principled ideas. The high degree of politicization that accompanied the amendment of Germany?s citizenship law reflects the continuing resonance of descent-based membership among a segment of German political actors and the difficulty of pursuing reforms in lieu of cross-party political consensus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines political egalitarianism. Political egalitarianism forms the core of any conception of democratic legitimacy, but many different interpretations of what political equality requires can be identified in the literature on democratic theory, especially in the literature on deliberative democracy. There is a parallel between this debate and the well-known ?equality of what? debate about the appropriate informational framework for conceptions of social justice. Specifically, the paper compares two interpretations of political equality: one based on Rawlsian primary goods and the other based on Amartya Sen?s capability approach. I call ?political capabilities? those capabilities that are related to the requirements of political legitimacy. I shall argue that even though prima facie, there are some compelling arguments for the capability approach as the appropriate framework for political equality, the idea of political capabilities faces challenges that the primary goods framework does not. While the primary goods framework may appear too lean, the capability approach runs into the opposite problem: it may exempt too much from democratic decision-making. The attempt to answer the question ?Political equality of what??, the paper concludes, leads into a dilemma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper explores why financial decentralization and political pressure to lower graduated personal tax has had different impacts in two Ugandan districts. It examines three possible explanations to these differences focusing on different aspects of the local context. The quid-pro-quo explanation focuses on whether services are delivered in return for the tax paid. Different perceived service delivery levels would then explain differences in compliance and tax takes. The neo-patrimonial explanation argues that differences in the degree to which personal relations dominate over formal rules would explain the differences in tax takes. The extractive capacity explanation focuses on established practices with regard to tax collection and stresses the fact that administrative autonomy differ among districts. The paper argues that the latter explanation is most plausible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy study visits - formal visits or tours made by participants to a specific site or sites outside of their own jurisdiction to observe and gather information about a policy or policies in place at the site(s) ? are a form of policy learning through the processes of policy transfer. In this paper we review the research literature in the fields of organizational and policy learning and in policy transfer in order to generate hypotheses about policy study visits and their potential effectiveness. We then set forth a tentative typology of policy study visits and discuss various functions they might serve. We discuss the probable roles played by the visit participants, host, and organizers in affecting the effectiveness of the visit. We define effectiveness to include not only the communication of policy ideas to participants, but also that these ideas are adequately assessed and that conclusions derived from that assessment are utilized in policy making. Finally we describe research we are undertaking to better understand policy study visits and to test the hypotheses we generate in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts from the position that the ?Transatlantic Crisis? of the early 2000s has also on the face of it been a crisis for EU collective action in external policy: instead of a ?Europe that can say no? in the light of US challenges, there appears to have been a failure to produce any consensus on policy. Most obviously, the chaos of EU Member State responses to the approach and conduct of the Iraq war raised questions about the continuing feasibility of EU collective action in such episodes, throwing doubt for some on the future development of ?European foreign policy?. But this turbulent episode must be placed within the broader context of developments in EU external collective action and EU-US relations, and can usefully be analysed through concepts of collective action theory. The paper pursues such an analysis, first by reviewing the implications of a ?Europe that can say no? to the US, next by briefly summarising the narratives provided by other approaches, and then by setting out relevant collective action concepts. It then argues that collective action possibilities and processes in EU external policy lie on a spectrum delineated by a number of key factors and that therefore analysis and evaluation should take account of the unevenness and variation between sectors of policy. In this light, the ?EU crisis? of the early 2000s becomes part of a much broader picture in which the EU has scored notable successes as well as policy failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains why, among a group of relatively similar states, certain states but not others would comply with the same international legal commitment. Drawing on concepts from the ?ideas? literature in comparative politics, the literature on global norms in IR, and analyses of reasoning and adjudication in legal philosophy, the paper develops a theoretical framework with which to explain variations in compliance by the US, Germany, France, and the UK with the 1997 OECD anti-bribery Convention. The central argument is that state compliance with an international commitment is a function of the effectiveness with which the global norm at stake in that commitment is articulated in a state?s domestic politics. Effective norm articulation can create the conditions under which a state is unable to produce justifiable reasons for non-compliance, and can provoke compliance despite important countervailing material interests. In the case of the OECD Convention, both powerful strategic trade interests and a powerful international anti-corruption norm are at stake. An analysis of state compliance with the OECD Convention in light of strategic trade theory, however, reveals the limitations of a materialist explanation based on the rationalist framework. Instead, an analysis of norm articulation in the four cases shows the importance of non-materialist variables, having to do with features of the actor that is doing the norm articulation in the domestic political context ? the norm entrepreneur ? and of the domestic political and normative context into which the global norm is introduced. These features generate four key variables: the legitimacy of the domestic norm entrepreneur; whether the norm entrepreneur enjoys access to the relevant political institutions and policy makers; whether the norm is framed as an element of a high priority policy area, with this framing the result of strategic, instrumental rationality on the part of the norm entrepreneur; and whether the norm resonates in the domestic public policy context, with this resonance a function of public sentiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

``Going negative’’ has practical and normative implications for electoral outcomes in all democracies. But most research on campaign strategy is limited to the two-candidate, plurality context provided by many elected offices in the United States. How do campaign strategies change as a function of electoral rules? In this paper, I use recent campaign strategies observed under three different sets of electoral rules in Brazil to illustrate several lessons overlooked in models derived for single member districts, and I discuss implications for building a general model of campaign strategies. The main conclusions of the paper are that (a) negative campaigning should occur under many other electoral systems, though the patterns and calculus of attacks should be considerably more complex; and (b) uncertainty about public opinion and voting behavior can quickly eliminate negative campaigning, especially as district magnitude increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Richard Clucas (2001) found that state house Speaker power is driven by electoral competition and career opportunity structure. Is it the case that these same forces influence the institutional power of committee systems in state legislatures or are other forces at work? Further, a chamber utilizing procedures that allow for a strong Speaker or presiding officef is also a chamber in which the Speaker ort presiding officer can easily centralize power. Thus, it is further anticipated that chambers with institutionally strong presiding officers will possess institutionally weak committee systems, since a strong committee system facilitates the decentralization of power in the chamber, and the essence of a strong legislative leader lies in their ability to centralize their control over the legislative process. Thus, this paper will accomplish two tasks. First, the paper will update Clucas? speaker power measure and examine patterns of presiding officer and committee system power in the 99 American state legislative chambers for the 2001-02 legislative session. Second, the paper assesses the relationship between the strength of presiding officers and committee systems in the state legislative process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, while in some countries Islamist groups seeking formal political recognition have remained peaceful under state repression, in others pervasive violence broke out between states and radical Islamist groups. The literature does not offer a systematic theoretical account of these contrasting outcomes. Yet the importance of this subject cannot be overstated. Do the attacks of the militants following the repression of the moderates indicate the existence of an organic link between them? The political regimes in countries under Islamist attack are convinced that they do. However, moderate Islamist groups usually deny having any direct ties with radicals. If the moderates are telling the truth, factors behind the outbreak of violence following their repression or the more common peaceful outcomes need a better explanation. This paper takes the first step in that direction, and discusses the following three factors: 1) the role of accommodationist state policies toward Islamist movements, 2) organizational differences among the moderate Islamist groups, and 3) the unexpected, and sometimes, unwanted?on the part of the actors? long-term confluence of the first two points. Political regimes often launch accommodationist policies as a short-term strategy to contain, control and/or stem the demands of the moderate Islamist groups. Their long-term impact, however, can sometimes differ from their originally anticipated effects when implemented. Similarly, the centralized or decentralized organization styles of the Islamist groups can constrain or expand their long-term strategy choices in ways earlier unanticipated by them. Specifically, organizing as a political party can restrict the means of action otherwise available to a moderate Islamist movement in the short-run, while the loose structure of a political front can reduce the organization costs for the same group and lend it remarkable flexibility to attract a wider range of followers. In the long run, however, the constrictions of the party framework and the advantages of the political front structure are reversed. The boundaries that restrict the movements of a moderate Islamist group that is organized along the lines of a political party can also enable it to have some access to the political system that was completely inaccessible earlier, and gradually help to further enhance its power. Contrariwise, the loose boundaries that give the political fronts their protean outlook can become a liability for raising the suspicions of the states that face them about mingling with the radical Islamist factions. Worse, the latter groups can also perceive them as rivals, and take advantage of their repression to start launching violent attacks in the hopes of replacing them. The paper draws from four countries to further support its arguments. Whereas Indonesia and Turkey represent cases where the Islamist movements have maintained peaceful relations with the political regimes, Algeria and Egypt represent cases where Islamist violence broke out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relation between coercive diplomacy and coercive disarmament, and uses the case of Iraq to explore the utility of the literature on coercive diplomacy for cases of coercive disarmament. In particular, it argues that factors identified as influencing the success and failure of coercive diplomacy do go some way towards explaining both the narrow success of disarmament in Iraq and the broader failure to prevent war. However, three additional factors are also required to explain the successful disarmament of Iraq: the overall balance of power, the possession of specific enforcement powers, and the capability and willingness to impose punishment. The paper recognizes the need for comparative case studies of coercive disarmament to further explore these arguments, and raises other issues that such case studies might explore, including the efficacy of the use of positive incentives, the role of norms, and the effect, if any, of the unique characteristics of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a new theory that explains why uneven economic growth leads to war in some cases but passes peacefully in others. This issue is the subject of rigorous academic debate. Offense-defense theory attributes variation on peace and war to military technology and geography. Dynamic differentials theory explains it in terms of military balance and polarity, and power transition theorists focus on the relative aggregate power of states. In contrast, I argue that the declining state?s military strategy is the key determinant of peace and war in the presence of uneven growth. States can adopt two military strategies: maneuver and attrition. The possession of a maneuver strategy increases the prospect of war by enhancing the decliner?s confidence in its military capability, accentuating its fear of losing a military opportunity, and reducing its susceptibility to compensation. If the declining state only has an attrition strategy available to it, on the other hand, war is less likely since the state has little confidence in its chance of victory and is more likely to be accommodating during a crisis. This paper tests my theory against its alternatives in two ways. First, I take the case universe of long-term uneven economic growth among major states over the past two centuries and establish correlations between the indicators of each theory and the incidence of war and peace. Second, I examine logical strengths and weaknesses of each theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how military strategy shapes the prospects for negotiated settlement of international disputes. According to offense-defense theorists, diplomacy is likely to fail when states adopt offensive strategies. An offensive strategy, they argue, creates a strong incentive for preemptive attack and thus makes insufficient time available for negotiation. A defensive strategy poses no such obstacle to diplomatic settlement. In contrast, I offer a new theory that focuses on whether a military strategy is maneuver or attrition-oriented. When a state has what I call a maneuver strategy, I argue, diplomatic efforts will bear no fruit for two reasons. First, the cost-effective strategy will imbue its owner with confidence in military victory and thus lead it to ask for large concessions. Second, the deceptive nature of the maneuver strategy hinders an accurate assessment of military capabilities and therefore prevents antagonists from finding a mutually satisfactory bargain. Such a problem is absent when states have attrition strategies. This paper evaluates these alternative theories through an in-depth historical analysis of the outbreak of the Pacific War. I show that the maneuver-oriented character of Japanese maneuver strategy indeed contributed to the breakdown of diplomacy in 1941. By contrast, the offensiveness of the war plan and an incentive for preemptive were not significant obstacles to a negotiated settlement. In addition to offering a new theory, this paper also presents an innovative historical interpretation of the War?s origin by shifting analytic focus on the overlooked impact of Japan?s military strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]