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18871. Robust Political Economy: Classical Liberalism and the Future of Public Policy

Author:
Richard L. Gordon
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Pennington undertakes a needed effort to provide a systematic, analytic critique of recent efforts to discredit what he terms “classical liberal economics.” His is effectively the standard but hard-to-sell proposition that prescient impartial counselors—Plato's philosopher kings—have failed to emerge from the development of modern knowledge. In particular, Pennington makes good use of Hayek's radical contrast between the competitive testing of concepts in a spontaneous market order and the construction of solutions by government monopolies. As Pennington's conclusions nicely summarize, skepticism of limited government is high and fostered by those who are seeking rents from intervention. Thus, ideas that committed libertarians see as obviously absurd need systematic debunking for a broader audience. Pennington, therefore, pretends that he is treating serious arguments and confronts them respectfully.
Topic:
Government and Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States

18872. America Identified: Biometric Technology and Society

Author:
Jim Harper
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Lisa Nelson's America Identified: Biometric Technology and Society is a slow and careful examination of a formidably broad landscape—at least until she springs to her conclusions. Among them: “Individual liberty must be reconceptualized to account for the use of data by individuals for communication, transactions, and networking.” It's a scholar's way of saying, “Move over, sovereign individual. Experts are going to handle this.”
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
America

18873. They will save us, or shouldn't they? An analysis of the role of the international community in the Albanian print media after the January 21st 2011 demonstrations

Author:
Sonila Danaj
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
This article investigates the political controversies related to the role the international community plays and should play in contemporary Albanian politics through an analysis of the media accounts of the January 21, 2011 demonstration. We analyse opinion articles in the mainstream media and find that there are two representations of the political reality that compete for legitimacy: one in favour of the government and the other against it. The picture that emerges from the media accounts is that events, political action and political personalities are subject to the perceived judgement of external actors, whose confirmation or support is taken as the legitimizing factor. Thus, the accepted patterns of power put the international community at the top, from where they control, monitor, confirm or refute political elites. The alternative representation criticizes international intervention as a deterrent to the democratization processes in Albania.
Topic:
Government and Politics
Political Geography:
Albania

18874. Internet forums in Lithuania: a new stimulus for social capital?

Author:
Austėj Trinkūnait
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
This article analyzes the process of social capital formation in internet forums. It investigates whether this social phenomenon can originate in online environments and to uncover the steps of its development. Three Lithuanian internet forums are chosen for the analysis according to their discussion topics: professional, family and leisure. The methodology used is participant observation, surveys, and interviews with members of these message boards. Data analysis indicates that interactions in internet forums can contribute to formation of social capital and bridging social capital is the predominant type among Lithuanian message boards. Moreover, there exists a “middle ground” of interaction between online and offline environments and leisure forums contribute to the formation of social capital less than other discussion groups.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Lithuania

18875. Relationship between history and a sense of belonging – Russian speaking minority integration in Latvia

Author:
Ieva Gruzina
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
This article will analyze the role of history and sense of belonging development for integration and naturalization efforts in Latvia. In establishing the significance of history in national identity formation, theoretical literature analysis will explain why belonging is a fundamental need and how history and historic celebrations become tools in the process. Data from 1998-2008 will be used to illustrate the theoretical analysis and explain the dramatic drop in belonging amongst Russian speaking noncitizens. The article will argue that nation building in Latvia is based on ethnicity and culture, emphasizing collective memory and interpretation of history, as the basis of national identity. For non-members of the ethnic titular, belonging has depended on assimilation into the predefined ethnic and cultural community. The demands have alienated a significant portion of the population and opened doors for identification with Russia as the external homeland, encouraging a Diaspora identity and complicating further integration efforts.
Political Geography:
Russia and Latvia

18876. Democracy, pluralism and the idea of public reason: Rawls and Habermas in comparative perspective

Author:
Funda Gencoglu-Onbasi
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The notion of public reason, developed by two of the most influential contemporary political thinkers - Jürgen Habermas and John Rawls - as well as the contemporary discussions on the concepts of citizenship, civil society and the public sphere, among others, are all manifestations of the attempt to handle the thorny issue of the relationship between difference and equality. This article analyzes these two conceptualizations of public reason in a comparative perspective and its main contention is that the point where they depart each other is too important to be neglected. Although Habermas himself described his criticism of Rawls as a “familial dispute” and stated that he is engaged in a “friendly and provocative” critique in such a way that Rawls's theory can reveal its strengths, this article insists that the use of public reason is conceptualized radically differently by Rawls and Habermas.
Political Geography:
Turkey and Canada

18877. Distributive justice in crisis

Author:
Eldar Sarajlic
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The paper tries to examine the effects of economic crisis on philosophical considerations of distributive justice. It tackles the problem of a radical increase in scarcity as a condition of justice. Instead of assuming a relatively fixed (“moderate”) level of scarcity as a background against which justice in distribution obtains, the paper examines what happens when this level risks falling below and how does that change our views of distributive justice. It takes upon the recent events in the United States to construe a specific philosophical model and ask how crisis distribution, where that favors wealthier actors, can be justified. By analyzing the crisis distribution principle, it ultimately aims to suggest that moderate scarcity should not be seen as a mere condition, but an important and vital object of justice. As such it falls within, not beyond legitimate obligations of democratic governance.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
United States

18878. Rory McVeigh, The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan - Right-Wing Movements and National Politics (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2009).

Author:
Adriana Marinescu
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) often appears to the European reader as a spectacular source of racial violence. The Invisible Empire, the hooded people, and the fiery crosses seem just another eccentricity in the land of the mighty rule of law and civil rights. However, through a sharp analysis of the mobilization of the Klan as social movement, Rory McVeigh conveys a deeper insight into the roots of the KKK's growth and decline. As a professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame, he has continuously delved into right-wing mobilization and the echoes of the Ku Klux Klan. His latest book provides an analysis on how social theories can explain this kind of mobilization and thus develop strategies for preventing the harm that right-wing extremism can cause to individuals and to the social fabric of the communities. Moreover, what makes this research more than an explanatory flashback is the existence of yet common situations such as vigilante groups patrolling the border between the United States and Mexico or neo-Nazis boldly marching through European cities
Topic:
Politics
Political Geography:
United States and Mexico

18879. Peter Gatrell and Nick Baron (eds.), Warlands. Population Resettlement and State Reconstruction in the Soviet-East European Borderlands, 1945-50 (City: Publishing House, 2009).

Author:
Ana Dinescu
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
More than six decades after the end of the Second World War it is hard to imagine the political, social, and human landscapes of Europe in the aftermath of hostilities. In reconstructing this recent past, we can rely on a large bibliography regarding the events from the Western part of the continent. But for what concerns the territory to the east of the Iron Curtain, the appropriate and single case-study documentation remains problematic and thus, topics such as the political, economic and social effects of the first year of the Cold War reconfigurations are still insufficiently explored. It is, for example, the everyday life of the displaced person or the consequences of displacement on the identity reconfiguration of ethnic minorities.
Topic:
Economics, War, and Reconstruction
Political Geography:
Europe and Soviet Union

18880. David Ekbladh, The Great American Mission: Modernization and the Construction of an American World Order

Author:
Willem Oosterveld
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
David Ekbladh's first book, The Great American Mission, deals with the role of development policy in American foreign relations during the Cold War. More specifically, it discusses modernization as a developmental approach, tracing its rise and fall over a period of about forty years. In Ekbladh's view, modernization theory fused political, ideological and strategic objectives at a time when the United States waged what was, in essence, a global struggle over ideas.
Topic:
Cold War and Development
Political Geography:
United States and America