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Six years ago the United States government charged a ten member independent, bipartisan commission to study the 9/11 attacks. In August 2004, the 9/11 Commission released its report to much media buzz and fanfare. However, when all ten commissioners reconvened in late 2005 to issue a “report card” on progress made on the recommendations of the commission, they issued five F’s, twelve D’s, nine C’s, and one A-minus. This paper therefore looks at independent commissions in the United States and the role they play as “flak-catchers” â€" stopgaps for uncertain or unfavorable judgments cast onto the political system. Because they work as effective mechanisms of evasion, giving the appearance of government action while at the same time dodging responsibility, government bodies have frequently and readily turned to independent commissions. This paper looks at the ways in which the 9/11 Commission acted as a flak-catcher. It uses historical and comparative case-study analysis to portray how the 9/11 Commission operated, organizationally and symbolically, in a manner similar to other American independent commissions, and thus argues that we should expect similar outcomes whenever an independent commission is appointed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines political participation exercises as a means to teach civic and networking skills in the U.S. It argues that civic education has a crucial role in higher education political science curricula. It looks at the individual benefits of civic education. It then turns the attention to the civic education of both majors and non-majors.

The democracy deficit in the Islamic world has long been recognized as a major challenge in present-day global politics. This paper assesses Muslim democracy, in terms of both its possibility and its sustainability. We evaluate the level of democracy in forty-six majority Muslim countries and find that five have sustained some level of democracy since 2000. We then look at two in particular - Mali and Senegal - to see if there are lessons that that we might glean from these two majority Muslim democracies in terms of encouraging and promoting democracy in other Muslim nations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1974 and 1990, the international system experienced what Samuel Huntington has termed “the third wave of democratization in the modern world” (Huntington 1991). During this sixteen-year period, approximately thirty countries, from southern and Eastern Europe to Latin America to Asia, transitioned to democracy while a handful of other countries significantly liberalized their political systems. In the years following, states continued to democratize, including even apartheid-weary South Africa. Indeed, much of the transition literature touts the peaceful nature of the third wave. The result is that there is a dearth of information regarding political violence and the role it plays in democratic transitions. This paper seeks to explore the issue of political violence as it relates to the transition process. Specifically, does political violence hinder the democratic transition process? Instances of political violence that occur during the transition period are as important to study as instances of peaceful transition; to understand only one type of transition is to misunderstand the idiosyncratic nature of transitions. The gap in the literature that currently fails to address the role of political violence in countries moving toward democratic rule has mistakenly resulted in broad generalizations that violence is only detrimental to the prospect of democracy. Instead, political violence should be understood to be one of many factors affecting the process, sometimes creating problems for the success of the transition but other times emerging as the only option. What this paper finds is that, first, while violence may act as a hindrance to the transition process, other aspects of the transition can be just as much of a barrier. Second, the degrees of obstruction should be qualified – while political violence may be a hindrance, it is by no means detrimental to the transition process. Democratic transitions can successfully occur in the presence of political violence. Finally, democratic transitions should be studied as idiosyncratic phenomena as broad generalizations often do not apply. This paper will explore these three arguments and will also briefly discuss five transitions in which violence occurred– Portugal, El Salvador, South Africa, Romania, and East Timor (Timor Leste). This research will have implications for the sub-fields of comparative politics, international relations, and political violence. How we study democratic transitions and the presence or absence of political violence will be altered as we address the explanatory value of broad generalizations. These “formulae for democratization” have deemed violent transitions as inherently dangerous to the subsequent success of the democratic state. However, the research shows that democracy can indeed arise alongside political violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the transition literature touts the peaceful nature of the third wave of democratization. The result is that there is a dearth of information regarding political violence and the role it plays in democratic transitions. This paper seeks to explore the issue of political violence as it relates to the transition process. Specifically, does political violence hinder the democratic transition process? Instances of political violence that occur during the transition period are as important to study as instances of peaceful transition; to understand only one type of transition is to misunderstand the idiosyncratic nature of transitions. The gap in the literature that currently fails to address the role of political violence in countries moving toward democratic rule has mistakenly resulted in broad generalizations that violence is only detrimental to the prospect of democracy. This paper will explore this argument and will also briefly discuss five transitions in which violence occurred? Portugal, El Salvador, South Africa, Romania, and East Timor (Timor Leste). This research borrows from and will have implications for the sub-fields of comparative politics and international relations as it truly is an intradisciplinary discussion on transitions and violence. How we study democratic transitions and the presence or absence of political violence will be altered as the research shows that democracy can indeed arise alongside violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]