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112. Reasoning about a distributed probabilistic system
- Author:
- J.W. Sanders and Ukachukwu Ndukwu
- Publication Date:
- 08-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Reasoning about a distributed system that exhibits a combination of probabilistic and temporal behaviour does not seem to be easy with current techniques. The reason is the interaction between probability and abstraction, made worse by remote synchronisation. In this paper the recently proposed language ptsc (for probability, time and shared-variable concurrency) is extended by constructs for interleaving and local block. Both enhance a designer's ability to modularise a design; the latter also permits a design to be compared with its more abstract specification, by concealing appropriately chosen design variables. Laws of the extended language are studied and applied in a case study consisting of a faulty register-transfer-level design.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Development, International Organization, United Nations, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- United States
113. The International Dimensions of Authoritarian Legitimation: The Impact of Regime Evolution
- Author:
- Bert Hoffmann
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Abstract:
- While traditional theories of legitimacy have focused on the nation-state, authoritarian regimes and democracies alike seek legitimation not only in the domestic realm but also from international sources. This paper argues that the degree to, and the form in, which they do so depend on the regime's origins, characteristics, and evolution, rather than being mere consequences of changes in the international context. Empirically, the paper draws on the case of the Cuban regime since the 1959 revolution. In particular, it analyzes how the regime's transition from a charismatic to a bureaucratic model of state socialism in the post-Fidel succession era led to a reconfiguration in the regime's legitimation strategy, wherein it has greatly downsized its once expansive international dimensions.
- Topic:
- Government and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Cuba, Latin America, and Caribbean
114. Mechanism-Based Thinking on Policy Diffusion. A Review of Current Approaches in Political Science
- Author:
- Torben Heinze
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- Despite theoretical and methodological progress in what is now coined as the third generation of diffusion studies, explicitly dealing with the causal mechanisms underlying diffusion processes and comparatively analyzing them is only of recent date. As a matter of fact, diffusion research has ended up in a diverse and often unconnected array of theoretical assumptions relying both on rational as well as constructivist reasoning – a circumstance calling for more theoretical coherence and consistency. Against this backdrop, this paper reviews and streamlines diffusion literature in political science. Diffusion mechanisms largely cluster around two causal arguments determining the desires and preferences of actors for choosing alter¬native policies. First, existing diffusion mechanisms accounts can be grouped according to the rationality for policy adoption, this means that government behavior is based on the instrumental considerations of actors or on constructivist arguments like norms and rule-driven actors. Second, diffusion mechanisms can either directly impact on the beliefs of actors or they might influence the structural conditions for decision-making. Following this logic, four basic diffusion mechanisms can be identified in mechanism-based thinking on policy diffusion: emulation, socialization, learning, and externalities.
- Topic:
- Education, International Affairs, Political Theory, and Sociology
115. Modifying Gender Role Stereotypes in Children
- Author:
- Laura McCloskey
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Sexual Violence Research Initiative
- Abstract:
- Gender stereotypes exist in all cultures, conveyed through media messages, television, music, religious and cultural institutions, and even toys. Parents convey expectations of gender role conformity starting in infancy' with one study finding that parents hold gender-typed expectations of their sons and daughters in the first 24 hours following birth. Another found that children show an awareness of their parents' communication about gender roles from two to two-and-a-half years of age' with the early provision of gender differentiated toy selection typically reflecting parental stereotypes. These gender stereotypes persist throughout childhood, with parents choosing, and rewarding' certain stereotypical activities for their children, from playing with dolls for girls to sports activities for boys. Additionally, childhood peers and teachers play a significant role as children enter school. While both mothers and fathers contribute to the gender stereotyping of their children, fathers have been found to reinforce gender stereotypes more often than mothers.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Political Theory, Social Stratification, and Sociology
116. Would Women Leaders Have Prevented the Global Financial Crisis? Implications for Teaching about Gender and Economics
- Author:
- Julie A. Nelson
- Publication Date:
- 10-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
- Abstract:
- Would having more women in leadership have prevented the financial crisis? This question challenges feminist economists to once again address questions of "difference" versus "sameness" that have engaged—and often divided—academic feminists for decades. The first part of this essay argues that while some behavioral research seems to support an exaggerated "difference" view, non-simplistic behavioral research can serve feminist libratory purposes by debunking this view and revealing the immense unconscious power of stereotyping, as well as the possibility of non-dualist understandings of gender. The second part of this essay argues that the more urgently needed gender analysis of the financial industry is not concerned with (presumed) "differences" by sex, but rather with the role of gender biases in the social construction of markets. An Appendix discusses specific examples and tools that can be used when teaching about difference and similarity.
- Topic:
- Economics, Gender Issues, Politics, Political Theory, Financial Crisis, and Governance
117. The Global Puzzle: Order in an Age of Primacy, Power-Shifts and Interdependence
- Author:
- Graeme P. Herd
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
- Abstract:
- How can the US maintain its relative primacy in an age of power-shifts and interdependence? Power-shifts generate multiple peer competitors, who first establish their predominance within their geopolitical neighbourhoods, and then selectively challenge the US for leadership of global strategic agendas. The net strategic effect is the incremental erosion of US relative primacy. By contrast, growing interdependence generates a shared realization that all states are weakened by structural and systemic threats which no one state – even the US – can manage alone. Paradoxically, with regards to US relative primacy, the net strategic effect is the same: to maintain its relative primacy, the US must take the lead in managing structural and systemic strategic challenges interdependence generates; if this management is to be effective, efficient and legitimate then power needs to be shared, “prime player” status is eroded, primacy is lost by design.
- Topic:
- International Affairs, Political Theory, and Power Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States
118. How Empires Emerge
- Author:
- Morten Skumsrud Andersen
- Publication Date:
- 02-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- In the Assyrian empire, boasting about how terrible and ferocious the Assyrian kings and their armies were in war served to install fear in the to-be-conquered populations (Mann 1986: 232-234). But their relations were not only of fear and awe. One event, as retold in the Bible, describes how the Assyrian army approaches the walls of Jerusalem. The people of Jerusalem are on the walls to see and listen. The Assyrian envoy, the Rab-shakeh (a vizier), is negotiating with the He- brew representative, but is asked by his fellow Assyrians not to speak in Hebrew when negotiating. The people on the wall will understand. But that was exactly the purpose. The Assyrians had chosen an envoy that mastered the local language. He 'stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the word of the Great King, the King of Assyria. Thus says the King...Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of you will eat of his own vine, and every one of his own fig tree”' (2 Kings 18:31, quoted in Watson 1998: 36). He was reaching out to influence the people, not only talking to the local rulers.
- Topic:
- Imperialism, International Affairs, and Political Theory
119. The Invention of International Relations Theory: Realism, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the 1954 Conference on Theory
- Author:
- Nicolas Guilhot
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Columbia University Press
- Abstract:
- The 1954 conference on theory, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, featured a who’s who of scholars and practitioners debating the foundations of international relations theory. Assembling his own team of experts, all of whom have struggled with this legacy, Nicolas Guilhot revisits a seminal event and its odd rejection of scientific rationalism. Far from being a spontaneous development, these essays argue, the emergence of a “realist” approach to international politics, later codified at the conference, was deliberately triggered by the Rockefeller Foundation. The organization was an early advocate of scholars who opposed the idea of a “science” of politics, pursuing, for the sake of disciplinary autonomy, a vision of politics as a prerational and existential dimension that could not be “solved” by scientific means. As a result, this nascent theory was more a rejection of behavioral social science than the birth of one of its specialized branches. The archived conversations reproduced here, along with unpublished papers by Hans Morgenthau, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Paul Nitze, speak to this defensive stance. International relations theory is critically linked to the context of postwar liberalism, and the contributors explore how these origins have played out in political thought and American foreign policy.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Political Theory, and History
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
- Publication Identifier:
- 9780231526449
- Publication Identifier Type:
- ISBN
120. Governance Without a State?: Policies and Politics in Areas of Limited Statehood
- Author:
- Thomas Risse
- Publication Date:
- 10-2011
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Columbia University Press
- Abstract:
- Governance discourse centers on an “ideal type” of modern statehood that exhibits full internal and external sovereignty and a legitimate monopoly on the use of force. Yet modern statehood is an anomaly, both historically and within the contemporary international system, while the condition of “limited statehood,” wherein countries lack the capacity to implement central decisions and monopolize force, is the norm. Limited statehood, argue the authors in this provocative collection, is in fact a fundamental form of governance, immune to the forces of economic and political modernization. Challenging common assumptions about sovereign states and the evolution of modern statehood, particularly the dominant paradigms supported by international relations theorists, development agencies, and international organizations, this volume explores strategies for effective and legitimate governance within a framework of weak and ineffective state institutions. Approaching the problem from the perspectives of political science, history, and law, contributors explore the factors that contribute to successful governance under conditions of limited statehood. These include the involvement of nonstate actors and nonhierarchical modes of political influence. Empirical chapters analyze security governance by nonstate actors, the contribution of publicprivate partnerships to promote the United Nations Millennium Goals, the role of business in environmental governance, and the problems of Western state-building efforts, among other issues. Recognizing these forms of governance as legitimate, the contributors clarify the complexities of a system the developed world must negotiate in the coming century.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Political Theory, and History
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
- Publication Identifier:
- 9780231521871
- Publication Identifier Type:
- ISBN