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This paper seeks to explain levels of FDI flows in 15 Latin American countries for a 20-year period. The authors, by utilizing a cross-sectional time-series model of FDI level, build on the literature that has found a wide array of explanations for flows of investment in the region (Biglaiser & DeRouen 2006; Montero 2008; Trevino et al 2002; Tuman & Emmert 2004). While these four recent studies employ similar methods for a similar time period, the results are wide-ranging and the findings are contradictory. We find support for several key explanations found in previous research, but we uncover a more nuanced understanding of FDI flows in the region. In the paper we argue that previous scholarship has not paid sufficient attention to the effects of different sorts of risk associated with respective domestic political situations. Specifically, the nature of political terror in the country influences investment decisions. Likewise, we argue that the influence of democracy becomes an important part of the explanation under certain conditions. As well, we argue that prior spending decisions and investments by states help to determine inflows of FDI in Latin America. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes to explain why the European Union decides to intervene outside of its borders to support electoral processes in transitional and non-established democracies. EU’s support for elections takes the form of electoral assistance projects and election observation missions. Election assistance is the technical and material support given to the electoral process, and election observation is its political complement. The EU has been active in the area of election support since the early 1990s, and it has become one of the leading actors in the world in this domain. Although EU’s foreign policy has been studied widely, very little attention has been given to explaining why the EU has become such an important actor in the area of election support. In order to fill this gap, this paper answers the following question: what explains the EU’s decision to provide electoral support to transitional and non-established democracies? This paper will present an analysis of the EU decision-making process and the determinants of intervention in the area of election support since 1993. Preliminary research shows that criteria for interventions fall into four main categories: strategic, ideological, operational, and circumstantial. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a minimalist, procedural, multi-dimensional definition of democracy: limitations on government, individual rights, and competitive elections. The paper reviews some conceptual issues in defining democracy, and some prominent efforts to conceptualize and measure democracy and its alternatives. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a single-case historical analysis of the "democratic past" in Syria. While the current regime in Damascus is exclusively authoritarian, Syria before the rise of the Ba'th and the ruling Asad family witnessed a brief period of constitutional discourse, vibrant civil society, and democratic and electoral politics. The roots of this activity can be traced to Syria's experience in the late Ottoman Empire and specifically its encounters with officials from the French Mandate. This paper utilizes extensive archival research from the U.S. Department of State Central Files on internal politics in Syria to account for this activity, and document why it failed to materialize. This analysis provides insights into the significance of ill-advised Western foreign policy and the impact of regional and international considerations on democratic political development. By studying this period, we are moreover better able to situate the discourse of the current pro-democracy movement and political opposition in Syria, and gauge the potential impacts of a "democratic past" on political development from a cursory comparative perspective of other relevant cases. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a quantitative analysis on the question of why natural resource wealth has strong antidemocratic effects in some countries but not in others. Although the relevant literature acknowledges the perverse effects of natural resource wealth on the quality of democracy in general through systematic analyses, only anecdotal evidence has been presented regarding the immunity of some countries to the detrimental effects of natural resource wealth by alluding to rather vague concepts of state capacity, democratic consolidation or decentralized government. The current paper will be the first study to address this issue systematically by introducing a new variable: the level of market-contracting in a society, i.e. the degree by which individuals obtain their incomes, goods, and services by contracting on a market. Informed by the newly emerging economic norms theory, the empirical evidence suggests that societies with higher level of market-contracting are significantly less prone to the detrimental effects of natural resource wealth on democracy. This effect in such societies can be attributed primarily to a lack of patronage opportunities and a collective interest in the rule of law. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an analysis of modern shiite political thought in Iraq. Given the power vacuum in 2003, a multiplicity of voices surfaced among Iraqi ayatollahs about the relationship between religion and politics, and democracy..x000d.Saddam Hussein, Shiite Ayatollahs in Iraq were under close scrutiny. Though they offered their political views through their writings and political decrees (fatawa), they were never given the opportunity to express their political views in an open dialogue with competing groups. Since 2003, we are witnessing a moment in history where Shiite identity is being consolidated. .x000d.The process in Iraq is a case study in identity politics. This paper offers a break down of competing visions for statehood and how the ayatollahs rationalize an inclusive, modern, Iraqi state. This research is based on the analysis of primary documents, in Arabic ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the use of service learning in teaching active citizenship in the postgraduate classroom. It critically analyses the impact of service learning in GV6104 ‘the dynamics of public participation’, a MBS/MA module that explores the relationship between democracy and participation. Students in this module are trained in the internationally respected Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice (VSPJ) voter education active citizenship programme. They will deliver it in the Carrigtwohill Saint Vincent de Paul family resource centre in advance of the 2009 European Parliament and Local Government elections and to students in UCC’s Certificate in Political issues in Ireland which is offered to refugees and asylum seekers. As part of their course work the students will also develop and produce additional teaching materials..x000d..x000d.In order to critically evaluate the project this paper: investigates service learning as a pedagogy reviewing the literature on the relationship between it and civic education; explores service learning best practice; and evaluates the performance of the UCC project against service learning standards of best practice and data gathered from student assessment of the service learning experience. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the meaning attached to elections among ex-combatants in Liberia, in particular in relation to the historic elections of 2005. These elections were generally considered successful, and should therefore be instrumental in the consolidation of democracy; this paper investigates the extent of such consolidation that can be seen in their wake. In particular, the meaning attached to elections are described in terms of voting behavior and motivation, as well as the extent of application of the equality principle, and finally in relation to the perceived legitimacy of the elections, based on focus group discussions carried out in the spring of 2008 in Liberia with 99 participants. The conclusions presented in this paper point to problems vis-à-vis the legitimacy of the elections which may have long term implications for the consolidation of democracy in Liberia. However, other areas, in particular attitudes towards vote buying, show a more positive trend. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the fundamental tensions in between deliberative and participatory democracy via the philosophy of John Dewey. Some of the major distinctions between deliberative and participatory models of democracy are well documented. Broadly speaking, participatory democracy privileges participation as an end in itself, presents a normative appeal to widespread citizen participation in building political communities, and posits that individuals are transformed through political engagement (e.g. Barber 1984). In contrast, deliberative models privilege the procedures of rational discourse to ensure democratic legitimacy (e.g. Habermas 1996). Perhaps most simply, participatory democracy privileges action, while deliberative democracy privileges (specific forms of) speech. .x000d..x000d.In this paper, I argue that the project to integrate participatory and deliberative democracy demands re-thinking the distinction between speech and action. To this end, I turn to John Dewey’s concept of cooperative experimental inquiry as an alternative means to understand this relationship. This reconstruction of Dewey will hopefully enable democratic theorists to move beyond the limits of both participatory and deliberative models. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of voluntary associations in the East German city of Leipzig in order to assess the strength of post-communist civil society. Due to structures put in place by the city government to encourage citizen input in policy decision and relatively widespread democratic participation before and after the fall of communism, Leipzig presents an interesting case-study in assessing the vibrancy of civil society, and thus democracy, in a post-communist city that appears to embrace ideals of democratic participation. It focuses on how environmental and citizens' associations contribute to city development policy, such as preserving historic buildings, repairing the infrastructure and creating green spaces. Utilizing data from 35 qualitative interviews with members of these associations, local parliamentarians and city officials, the paper addresses theories about the role that voluntary associations play in strengthening city society. Based on the theoretical literature, it analyzes the extent to which associations are able to develop civic competence among members, create city-wide civic networks that allow cooperation in pursuing political goals, and influence policy decisions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nature of democratic politics and the continuous efforts of democratic consolidation in Cambodia since 1991. I intend to explore the internal factors responsible for influencing the process of democratic consolidation the country-socio-political and structural conditions such as, corruption, political parties and the contestation between state and societal forces. This paper would examine the process of evolving democratic patterns. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how a shift in moral philosophy between America’s founding and the mid-twentieth century fundamentally altered the way political scientists understood the relationship between political culture and democracy. The earlier approach was grounded in a philosophy that posited an objective morality that could be discovered by the empirical and introspective study of human beings. This view, in turn, supported the dominant paradigm of democratic political culture, which saw public and private virtue as requisites for a successful republic. By the early 1960s, this paradigm was supplanted in comparative politics by a subjective understanding of morality, which replaced the concept of virtue for social “values” and “orientations.” This shift, in turn, was driven by changes in moral philosophy in the first half of the twentieth century, including emotivist theories of ethics. By applying the two approaches to contemporary problems that affect democracy, the paper argues that the newer paradigm leaves us with intellectual blind spots in our understanding of the cultural requirements for a quality democracy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses one of the most elaborate attempts at eliminating the concept of sovereignty both from political theory and international law â€" Hans Kelsen’s legal critique of sovereignty. I argue that Kelsen’s critique is based on a misleading view of sovereignty and show how this misconception translates into his contested notion of the basic norm and into his “monistic” theory of a legal system and international law. The implausibility of the monistic approach is shown not only on the theoretical level but also in the light of recent processes of pluralization of legal systems. The second part of the paper takes up Kelsen’s neglected theory of constitutional democracy. By focusing on Kelsen’s conception of the autonomy and the dynamics of lawmaking I try to show that Kelsen in fact relies on a notion of sovereignty quite different from the one he attempts to displace. I argue that such an “alternative” notion of sovereignty represents an indispensable feature of constitutional democracy. The article concludes by addressing the question of the relationship between sovereignty and constitutional democracy and the impossibility of the realization of the latter without the former. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the conceptual, political and organizational tensions between the service-delivery organizations and the movement organizations in civil society and their implications towards democratic political change. It argues creating social capital and trust do not help advancing democracy. The civil in civil society needs to get politicized. The service delivery organizations have created a culture of dependency among the masses. On the contrary, by using the language of rights, the movement groups have turned the ‘civil public’ into, what Habermas has called, the ‘political public’ and helped decentering domination, assert selfhood and chart out democratic discourses affecting the politics of everyday social life. The paper concludes that civil society would contribute actively towards democratization when it makes a transition from ‘capacity building’ to ‘capacity mobilization’; emphasizes on the ‘politics of accountability’; and start building a ‘counter-hegemonic’ force at the grassroots. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds upon previous work evaluating the strategic effectiveness of terrorism, specifically that of Abrahms (2006, 2007). It has been proposed that terrorism often is successful at winning policy concessions, and that democracies are particularly likely to grant policy concessions to terrorists. The evidence offered in this paper does not support either proposition. Campaigns of terror tend to be strategically ineffective and democracies seem to be particularly resistant to the demands of terrorists. There are several plausible reasons as to why this is the case. Respect for civil liberties places restraints on the type of counter-terrorism measures which may be employed by democracies; however, these restraints actually increase counter-terrorism’s effectiveness because it allows the target state to acquire and maintain the support of citizens, moderates, and the international community. Also, the deliberate targeting of civilians is a concept so far removed from liberal-democratic principles democracies will be particularly loath to reward this type of behavior with policy concessions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The previously accepted notion that political institutions are relatively enduring phenomena has come to be challenged. The minimum amount of possible change, in this relatively enduring setting, is incremental but cumulative institutional transformation (Streek and Thelen 2005). Institutional change can either be explained by processes of globalisation or EU and NATO integration, by changes in the national environment or by preferences of political actors. Whatever the theoretically possible roots of institutional transformations, it is first necessary to identify institutional change (or stability) in liberal democracies in an empirically sound and internationally comparable manner. The proposed paper seeks to trace and compare institutional change as perceived by three different data sources (Armingeon et al., Beck et al., Frye et al.). Which of these datasets focusing on political institutions allow researchers to map institutional change in liberal democracies? The aim of the paper is to evaluate their relative capacity to depict institutional change. We will conclude with an assessment of their aptitude to serve as starting points for analyses that regard institutional change either as dependent or as independent variables. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents evidence that protest drives democracy, confirming the supply and demand theory of democratization while calling the dominant modernization approach into question. Modernization theory has remained the centerpiece of comparative research on democratization over the previous decade, amassing an impressive body of empirical research linking democracy to economic development. Drawing from an established cultural tradition in comparative politics, this paper challenges the dominant modernization approach and advances a theory that does not rely upon economic development to explain democratization. The supply and demand theory of democratization posits that the institutional supply of democracy flows naturally from the societal demand for democratization. Accordingly, countries cannot simply buy democracy with economic development, but rather, democracy must be actively pursued at the societal level. Using protest as an indicator of societal demand for democracy, cross-national evidence from Latin America confirms the new theory, providing robust evidence that societal demand drives democratization in the third wave. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that the creation of new cultural horizons out of the interlocked and sometimes conflictive traditions in modern democracies can succeed only to the extent that the confrontation between ‘master’ and ‘slave’ moralities turns into a mutually inspiring cultural practice, through which they transform each other (the ‘enemy’) and in the process imaginatively alter the boundaries of their identities. Nietzsche sketches a model of such cultural practice through the experiment of “good Europeans.” The paper further develops and gives full political relevance to Nietzsche’s experiment through an interpretation of Orhan Pamuk’s novel, The White Castle: the story of an Ottoman ‘master’ and his Italian ‘slave’ who engage in an inspiring and transformative cultural practice, through which the frontiers of each other’s identity are altered and expanded through the power of imagination, in ways that produce new cultural syntheses. Through such exercises the “power of a novelist’s imagination” opens an “inspiring and critical new space” between cultural worlds from which the either/or thinking of nationalism and Westernization, as well as, the obsessions with identity can be overcome. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines how the recent surge in protest against economic liberalization has affected the quality of democracy in the Latin American region. Existing research on the consequences of economic liberalization does not expect societal mobilization to take place, much less waves of mobilization to contribute to the deepening of democracy. Moreover, protest and conflict are seen largely as anathema to democracy. Using cross-sectional time-series data from 17 Latin American countries for the 1970-2003 period, this paper provides strong evidence that economic liberalization deepens democracy because of increasing levels of mobilization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines how different histories of state formation and social policy experience shape informal institutions of reciprocity with consequences for the everyday practice of democracy and citizenship in similar regions of Ghana and Ivory Coast. To begin, Morris MacLean draws on original primary data to establish puzzling differences in the informal relations of social reciprocity among extended family, friends, and village neighbors. The significant variations revealed in both the level and structure of informal reciprocal exchange are surprising because these regions shared the same history of precolonial state formation and dominant Akan ethnic culture prior to colonial rule. At the end of the 19th century, European powers agreed on an arbitrary boundary that split this area into two, with one region included in the British colony of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and the other region belonging to the French colony of Ivory Coast. Morris MacLean shows how subsequent differences in political administration and the provision of social services have profoundly shaped the informal system of social reciprocity today. The paper is based on quantitative and qualitative data collected during over 18 months of intensive fieldwork. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The institutional organization of advanced democratic states has been shown to impact a variety of policy choices. This paper contends that electoral systems that utilize proportional representation and have large, multi-member districts should adopt climate change policy that is broader in scope, and perhaps more ambitious, than their majoritarian, single-member district counterparts. Furthermore, there appears to be a general trend, supported by both economists and politicians, away from command-and-control policy and toward market-based instruments in order to mitigate climate change. Market-based policies can range from broad-based carbon taxation to narrowly targeted green-certificate programs. This paper, therefore, specifically examines the way in which institutional organization affects the probability of adopting these different market-based environmental policies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing literature on special-purpose authorities argues that they are often unaccountable to voters and residents of cities. This paper tests this assumption by exploring new modes of accountability and democracy at the local level. Specifically, it considers varying paths to accountability at a special-purpose authority in Chicago and questions the degree to which this institution operates accountably to local citizens and other constituencies. The case, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA), is typical of many authorities found in large cities throughout the U.S. and manages the city's convention center and an entertainment district. The paper uses content analysis of the population of newspaper coverage on the MPEA, MPEA press releases from 2004-2007, and interviews with MPEA officials and community group leaders, to analyze the multiple constituencies and accountability mechanisms at the MPEA. Findings presented suggest that the MPEA does not act accountably in a traditional, electoral sense, but is operating accountably to particular constituencies by utilizing public relations tactics as well as collaborative planning techniques. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of democracy in Indonesia after the end to Suharto’s regime succeeded in an improved freedom of the press, yet the continuing conflicts and secessionist movements in both Aceh and Papua escape the realm of everyday media that reaches Indonesian citizens. The conflicts in each territory are complex and originate from long-standing grievances against the Indonesian government. The conflicts in Aceh and Papua continue in part due to a maldistribution of the exported natural resources within the territories, and consequently contribute to furthering the secessionist causes. This paper seeks to answer how the Indonesian national media frames the conflicts in Aceh and Papua. This paper will examine the disparities in national and regional media coverage of the conflicts in Aceh and Papua. This paper contends that the disparity between the national and regional media’s coverage of these issue has contributed to prolonging the conflicts in Aceh and Papua. Next, this paper explores the selection of the resources, which contribute, to conflicts in the areas. Finally, this paper explores the contributions these factors play in the sustainability of secessionist groups in Aceh and Papua. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to show the impact of democratic structures on the provision of transboundary public goods. Empirically, I focus on governments' behaviour regarding transboundary river management using a new dataset on transboundary water events covering all international basins for a period of ten years. Based on these event data, I analyse whether democratic countries tend to differ with respect to their mutual environmental commitments (on both cross-border and border-demarcating rivers) compared to non-democratic countries. In particular, I juxtapose both the severity and the salience of possible environmental problems and water scarcity with cooperative (and conflictive) events between riparian countries' governments with respect to joint river management.Given that some of the data still needs to be coded, this paper only briefly describes the research design and data rather than providing a rigourous test of the theoretical argument. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That leaders with strong democratic records and high exit approval ratings to leaders with weak democratic records and low exit approval ratings (and variations in between) are voted back into office alike poses a puzzle: Why do formers leaders make comebacks and why in the elections in which they do? This paper challenges hypotheses that attribute electoral comebacks to positive performance retrospective voting, to popular appeal or charisma, to the number of alternations of democratic transitions, or most recently, to a preference for familiarity during times of economic volatility and party fragmentation. Instead, this paper posits that it is the persistence of old political coalitions and institutions within the political system that secures comeback efforts. In doing so, it contends that a focus on transitions has overlooked and underestimated instances of continuity in political systems. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taiwan's national identity is unique, diverse, important, and an urgent task for the people in Taiwan. In this paper, national identity is treated as a latent variable and used self-identity and attitudes toward China to measure this vague concept. Besides, rational choice theory is used for people in Taiwan to "choose" their shallow national identity. Also, this paper is testing the relationship between economic confidence and consolidated democracy to national identity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Support for Democracy and Autocracy in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe.x000d.1992 - 2006.x000d..x000d.Christian W Haerpfer.x000d..x000d.The topic of this paper is part of the current scholarly debate about the concept of “political support for democracy.” This paper proposes to go beyond that specific concept of “support for democracy” and includes, in addition, the concept of “support for autocracy” within comparative studies of democratization. The proposed paper is analyzing political support for democracy on 5 levels: political community (1), regime principles (2), regime performance (3), regime institutions (4) as well as political actors (5). This paper is the sequel of an article in the International Political Science Review 2008, vol. 29, No.4, 411-432..x000d..x000d.The data analyzed in this article are taken from the New Democracies Barometer (NDB) as well as the World Values Study (WVS) for 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2006. The paper is using data from both surveys for the following countries: Slovenia (1), Poland (2), Romania (3), Bulgaria (4), Serbia (5), Moldova (6), Ukraine (7), and Russian Federation (8). The paper will use as most recent time point data from the most recent WVS wave, which has been conducted in 2006 and 2007. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political institutions play an important role in shaping public policy. The literature presents robust empirical evidence linking policy differences with alternative constitutional structures for policy areas ranging from trade openness to environmental protection, yet not for the protection of human rights, which is our focus. In this paper we consider the effects of presidential constitution on human rights. .x000d.There are two sets of theoretical arguments and empirical findings in the paper. First, we argue that presidential systems are inferior for human rights practices. In the data we find that, indeed, worse practices of physical integrity rights (as well as other rights) are observed in presidential regimes. Second, we argue that the adverse effect of presidency on human rights is not an artifact of marginal democracies relying on presidency, but has systematic basis. To support that claim, we show that the difference between regime types in their ability to protect human rights increases as the quality of democracy improves and institutions play more important role. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liberal democracies in Europe are facing a new challenge. Parties belonging to the radical right-wing party family have gained more political influence. Sweden is, in this context, no exception. The Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna), the Swedish version of radical right-wing populism, is at the moment the largest political party outside the Swedish parliament. The success of the Sweden Democrats implies a discussion on how the Swedish political system handles the presence of radical right-wing populism. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship between radical right-wing populism and the democratic institutions. The paper shows how the Sweden Democrats are used as a marker by the Swedish political establishment; the party has become associated as something the other parties do not want to be connected to. The Sweden Democrats are being perceived as “the Evil Other”, the pariah and used as an instrument for the other political parties in order to distance themselves from each other. The existence of radical right-wing populism within the European political systems implies a thorough discussion on how to handle this existence in relation to the basis and values of the modern European democratic institutions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is a viable system of interest groups essential to the consolidation of Latin American democracy? The argument in this paper is that it is essential even in the qualifiedâ€"non-liberal democraticâ€"forms (electoral, presidential, etc.) of democracy that has emerged in the region, particularly since the mid-1980s. .x000d..x000d.This paper draws on work on all Latin American countries with original research from Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. By applying an analytical framework, it identifies a wide-range of contemporary success of the establishment of independent, institutionalized interest group systems. Then, the paper assesses how interest groups, and the role of so-called power groups, have advanced or hindered the prospects for consolidating democracy in particular countries..x000d..x000d.However, the study of the region’s interest group systems cannot be achieved by simply applying the theories used in liberal democraciesâ€"such as pluralism and neo-corporatismâ€"to the Latin American case. It must be based upon a synthesis of this theory with aspects of Latin American political development and interest activity including the corporatist tradition past and present, elitism and low levels of political efficacy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is democracy and good governance achievable in the multiethnic states of Africa? Can meaningful economic development be attained in the face of the divisive politics that have characterized multiracial and multiethnic states in Africa? Can the competing ethnic claims to resources be harmonized to facilitate a more peaceful coexistence in multiethnic societies? Indeed can democratization in Africa be devoid of the ethnic conflict it has generated throughout the continent? The answer to any of these questions is definitely not negative. Rather the more fundamental question is how these competing ethnic claims to positions and resources can be harmonized to make politics less violent..x000d.This paper examines the process of democratization and democratic transition in the post cold war Africa and the ethnic conflicts that democratization has generated in the continent. Using the recent post election ethnic violence in Kenya and the ongoing political tensions in Zimbabwe, the paper advocates for the establishment of institutions and constitutions that encourage power sharing or coalition governments as a mechanism for reducing ethnic politics that continue to threaten the political stability of democratizing African countries. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I show how the right of parents to educationally advantage their own children and the principle of equality of opportunity, while both important to liberal political democracy, come into conflict around issues of education. I argue that the existence of private schools, school choice policies and exclusive neighborhood, tax supported schools, satisfy the first principle but inhibit the second. The paper then deconstructs the notions of public and private and proposes an educational taxation policy modeled somewhat after Rawls’s difference principle that taxes educational advantage thus still allowing parents to advantage one’s own children while serving to advance principle of educational opportunity as well. Finally I show why it is permissible to tax the educationally advantaged without violating basic liberal ideals. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How were Mexican American leaders able to successfully organize the largest mass demonstration in US history in May of 2006?This remains a puzzling question given the fact that the political participation literature and the turnout rates of these citizens have documented the fact that Mexican Americans had been amongst one of the groups scoring the lowest on political participation. Using the results of a survey conducted by the author in June 2006 this paper analyses the conditions leading to the two most successful Mexican American led demonstrations in California: those that followed Proposition 187 and antiimmigration bill HR4437. This paper finds -opposite to Huntington- that the success of these mobilizations can be attributed to the interaction between: the assimilation of Mexican Americans leaders in California into the mainstream political culture and the context of overt political hostility towards Mexican Americans/Latinos. The context provided the fuel to ignite ethnic group solidarity but receded afterward. Open ended probes were added to fixed survey questions to provide information on complex identity issues which, as the paper argues, lie at the heart of the surges in the political participation of this group. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do states comply with their alliance commitments? This paper employs institutional perspectives in an attempt to refine previous discussions and to find the conditions under which countries comply with alliance commitments. Specifically, this paper gives particular attention to how democratic institutions can affect foreign policy stability in terms of the existence of veto players. My analysis demonstrates that the existence of veto players in democracies is critical in enhancing the alliance reliability. The larger the number of veto players and the greater the ideological distances among them, the more difficult it is for state leaders to reverse prior alliance commitments. Hypotheses are tested against alliance compliance datasets from 1816 to 2000. Statistical analyses show that veto players are a significant predictor of compliance. Moreover, empirical results remain robust when analyzed by a selection model. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having experienced artificial equality during the Communist period, women face new challenges of economic and political inequality in the post-Communist era of democratization and market reform. While most research on the subject has focused on seeking explanation from domestic reforms, this paper studies the effects of globalization on gender inequality in Central and Eastern Europe. Assuming that globalization means increased economic growth and free trade, pursued in the process of transition to market economies, the paper examines whether factors such as free trade, economic growth and democracy increase, decrease or have no effect on gender inequality. If an effect is found, has it been similar across all countries? An attempt at discerning regional patterns of explanation of gender inequality will be made. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing scholarship has made the claim that while democracies do not go to war, democratizing states are much more war prone than their fully democratic or authoritarian counterparts. This claim has generated a large literature and a substantial controversy. It is surprising that no dataset identifies in an acceptable manner the set of democratizing states. Neither the Polity IV project nor Freedom House have adequate scoring criteria for the task. That means any findings on the particular issue of democratization and war are debatable as they hinge on less than defensible empirical measures. This paper exploits a unique new dataset of democratizing states to cast new light on the question of political transititions and war-proneness. The dataset identifies democratizing states by the number and quality of national -level elections held. Consolidated democracies, fully closed authoritarian regimes, and semi-democracies are best identified by their electoral practices. The paper's findings call into question some established findings while suggesting ways to further establish the causal logic through which political transitions may bear on belligerent foreign policies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic institutions such as property rights are regularly characterized as the fundamental cause of material prosperity. Much less attention is devoted to understanding the origins of secure property rights. Only recently have theoretical models attempted to explain the political conditions that affect the emergence of strong property rights systems. This paper provides the first empirical test of one recent argument focusing on the role of political replacement of leaders. Specifically, the paper describes non-monotonic effects of the likelihood of political replacement on the strength of property rights. Then, drawing on data that measure the turnover of leaders in democratic and autocratic regimes, the paper creates a new measure of the likelihood of political replacement. Finally, the paper evaluates the impact on property rights using cross-sectional and panel data. The findings suggest that property rights are more secure when the likelihood of democratic political replacement is highest and extra-constitutional replacement is lowest. The conclusion contextualizes these results in terms of contemporary political economy theory. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do political parties encourage or impede democratic developments in the nations that departed from the authoritarian rule? This paper demonstrates that Ukrainian parties have both facilitating and hindering effects on democratic transformations in this country. On the one hand, political parties in Ukraine have become exclusive vehicles for gaining power; they promote grater accountability of political actors and contribute to institutionalization of free and fair elections via the institute of electoral observers. On the other hand, the presence and activities of “the parties of power,” a strong charismatic element in all major Ukrainian parties, a sale of seats on the electoral party lists for profit, and the “apparentement” (an ability of parties to file joint lists) make political parties uneasy partners of democracy in Ukraine. The paper will form a framework of a chapter in a multi-authored project “Political Parties and Democracy” scheduled to be published by Praeger in late 2009. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional reasoning holds that liberal democracies are disadvantaged, as compared to illiberal non-democracies, in their battles with terrorism because of institutional constraints that prevent them from responding to terrorism with repression. The position taken in this paper is that it is important to distinguish between “soft” and “hard” forms of repression before evaluating the mediating effect of governmental institutions. Findings presented in this paper demonstrate that institutional constraints limit hard repression as an anti-terrorism strategy but have no effect on the use of soft repression. Conversely, politically contextual constraints limit soft repression but do not affect use of its harder form. Lastly, state capacity is a structural factor in the battle against terrorism that provides leaders with non-repressive alternatives according to amount of resources available. Access to these resources provides leaders with what they consider a viable alternative to hard repression but has little effect on the use of soft repression. With regard to disadvantage, institutions inhibit but do not outright prevent democracies from using repression and resources relax the pressure to use hard repression. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decade now since turmoil and political change gripped the country, scholars continue to reflect on Indonesia’s transition from a centralized authoritarian regime to a decentralized democratic country. While much research has focused on ethnic conflict and violence, this paper notes Indonesia's territorial resilience. What has made Indonesia hang together?.x000d..x000d.This paper highlights some of the institutional reasons that Indonesia has been able to maintain its territorial integrity after authoritarianism. I identify three institutional changes that have helped maintain Indonesia’s territorial integrity: evolution, by which I mean democratic reforms; devolution, by which I mean decentralization; and involution, by which I mean subnational territorial splits. .x000d..x000d.Indonesia’s territorial resilience can be explained not despite its diversity, but because of it. On the one hand, institutional reforms do prevent groups from garnering support to break away from the state. However, I suggest that devolution, and what I call involution actually also devolves conflict. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will examine the connection between rhetoric and regime change in Aristotle's Politics and Rhetoric. This paper will articulate Aristotle's understanding of how human emotion should, and should not, be leveraged to help maintain democracy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the political fortunes of three military and security officials in Argentina who ruled during the country's 1976-1983 military regime and who have reasserted themselves in public life as candidates in the new democracy. The project demonstrates the shortcomings of transitional justice mechanisms in explaining outcomes in the democratization process and offers, instead, a broader account of this democratic dilemma by highlighting the dynamic interaction between post-transition politics and the candidates, themselves. Through case study analysis, the paper develops hypotheses about the nature of democratic resilience and establishes grounds for future research. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent development of deliberative scholarship has arguably generated a persuasive normative case for deliberative governance reform along democratic concerns of citizen inclusion and increased sense of efficacy and legitimacy. The deliberative literature also clearly demonstrates the actual existence of real deliberation in various issue areas through numerous and extensive case studies. However, while some basic agreement exists among scholars regarding criteria for deliberation, there still remains substantial disagreement over a) the actual meaning of each of these deliberative criteria, and b) to what extent or in what combinations these criteria should be present in order to state that deliberation exists where actual agreement exists over the meaning of each criteria. To begin to address these problems, this paper seeks to better understand policy issue conditions under which an actor will seek out deliberation (as opposed to exit or manipulation) and how we can determine the emergence of deliberation. The purpose of this paper is to establish a testable set of deliberative hypothesis where a general consensus exists for deliberation seeking and deliberative emergence overall through a systematic review and synthesis of the extant deliberative literature and to select a small set of cases to test these hypothesis. These cases will then be tested later in four different Oregon based policy issue areas to determine which criteria are important and at what levels along deliberation seeking and emergence. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the psychological roots of intraparty power. Since Michels' seminal study of parties, scholars have contended that the psychological tendencies of leaders and members alike pose a major hurdle to intraparty democracy. On the one hand, leaders are thought to desire above all else the personal benefits of public office; hence, they seek complete control over party decision-making and aim to limit the role of the more ideologically minded members and activists. On the other, the rank-and-file accept and even endorse elite control, because they have a "psychological need" for strong leadership and a general apathy toward the entire political process. In short, oligarchy is inevitable because leaders seek it and members willingly acquiesce to it. While Michels' thesis has long held near axiomatic status in the party literature, there has been only limited empirical research on its validity or underlying assumptions. Drawing on a unique set of representative party member surveys from 13 parties in Denmark and The Netherlands, this study constitutes perhaps the most comprehensive and systematic attempt to assess the psychological roots of intraparty power. Specifically, it examines attitudinal support for two competing visions of party democracy: elite-driven and grass-roots, participatory. Overall, the results provide mixed support for Michels' thesis. On the one hand, a clear majority of members in several parties, especially those on the right, are deferent to the leadership. On the other, there is little evidence that leaders have an insatiable appetite for power. Indeed, in 12 of our 13 parties, the leaders, both party and public office-holders, are more supportive of the grass-roots, participatory model than are members themselves! Moreover, the multivariate analysis indicates that attitudes toward intraparty power vary depending on party ideology and the formal structure of internal power-members as well as leaders of leftist, decentralized parties express greater support for grass-roots, participatory democracy. Finally, at the individual-level, age, education, post-materialist values, and political efficacy are found to affect support for the two competing models of democracy. This paper makes an important contribution to our understanding of the intricacies of intraparty power and decision-making in the modern democratic process. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines differences between successful and unsuccessful political elites' strategic communications in the context of eroding democracies. In particular, this paper analyzes strategic mobilization appeals explicitly or implicitly expressed in the independent and pro-government print media in Slovakia during the election campaign of 1998 and in Belarus during the referendum campaign of 1996. It concludes that in Slovakia, where the opposition elites were successful in preventing the chief executive from usurping power, the opposition print media (1) communicated more messages of crisis and empowerment than the government press and (2) communicated a more balanced combination of the messages of crisis and empowerment than its Belarusian counterpart. My content analysis findings corroborate the hypotheses I set out to test in this paper about the importance of communicating messages of crisis and empowerment to overcome the problems of efficacy and free riding in mobilizing a pro-democratic movement. Indeed, in the three months before the parliamentary election in Slovakia in 1998, the opposition paper in Slovakia conveyed more messages of crisis and empowerment in a more balanced combination of both types of appeals, than did the Slovak government paper. In Belarus, the government papers conveyed more messages of empowerment than did the opposition papers, and in this way they may have influenced perceptions of not just presidential supporters but also of opposition sympathizers by imparting a belief that the president will succeed, hence, collective action is futile. Accordingly, the empirical data I have gathered, and the content analysis of this data that I have performed, support the two hypotheses regarding messages of crisis and empowerment that I set out to test in this chapter. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion that the careful design and engineering of formal political institutions could help mollify group conflict in a society that might otherwise be prone to it is, for obvious reasons, an encouraging one. Although scholars may not always agree with one another about the most desirable forms for these formal institutions to take, most scholars do agree that the formal political institutions in a new democracy and the incentives they offer to political elites competing for power in a new environment can have profound consequences for that country's democratic endurance (or lack thereof). In this paper, I consider the nature of a much less "formal" institution which receives too little attention in the literature on democracy in divided societies: language regimes. I argue that language regimes are too little understood in comparative politics and that efforts to rectify this might lead to an enhanced disciplinary understanding of democratic transition and democratic endurance, particularly in diverse societies. This paper first introduces the concept of "language regime" and articulates its importance for the study of democratic regime change in comparative politics. It then develops a basic framework for understanding the political economy of language regime change and illustrates the usefulness of this framework using the case of language regime change in the post-apartheid South Africa. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the impact of local civil society organizations on the trajectory of social conflicts under conditions of weak rule of law. Both civil society and rule of law have been presented as potentially key elements for improving governance and facilitating democratic consolidation. However, there is little empirical research on how the two interact in scenarios that are very different from those of the affluent liberal-democratic countries in which the concepts were developed. The case of Peru offers a valuable opportunity for evaluating this relationship, as accounts of 173 social conflicts collected by the Peruvian Ombudsman over the last three years shed light on both the shortcomings of the rule of law and the type of actors involved in articulating popular discontent. The paper finds that the presence of civil society organizations increases the likelihood that complainants will attempt to use legal mechanisms and peaceful demonstrations. However, it also argues that due to the weakness of the rule of law, legal mechanisms usually prove ineffective. For this reason, the presence of civil society organizations is insufficient to curb the recurrent use of violence to solve disputes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses Dewey's approach to democracy in order to reactivate his claim that democracy should be grounded on human experience rather than on political institutions. The 'common man' is the political subject named by Dewey after having written extensively on the shadowy and formless 'public' who once organized and articulated would allow democracy to flow by itself thus converting the world into a 'great community'. Dewey's writings on the 'public' are widely known, and so is his criticism of liberal democracy. In this paper I do not intend to simply revisit Dewey's political thought as the title might suggest, nor offer an overall exposition of his account of democracy and its relation to the figure of the common man. I intend to use Dewey's conceptual framework in order to propose a brief account of what I have been calling elsewhere an ordinary democracy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a significant flaw in democratic theory, which assumes that citizens can combat the abuse of executive power via standard mechanisms of oversight - elections, public opinion and deliberation. It examines how the institution of state secrecy can obstruct the functioning of these standard mechanisms and analyzes why alternative mechanisms of oversight proposed by contemporary democratic theorists - including transparency, mediation and retrospection - prove inadequate. The paper then identifies circumvention (or 'leaking' to the news media) as the mechanism that democracies actually rely on to combat the abuse of state secrecy and explains why the reliance of democratic oversight on this mechanism is problematic. In particular, it suggests that the efficacy of democratic oversight in this setting depends in a significant way on the role of private institutions and personal virtues. If correct, this assessment invites democratic theory to cultivate a relationship with theoretical approaches that can account for the importance of these institutions and virtues. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do the fundamental institutional rules of a political system evolve or change? When can they be altered, and by whom? Basic constitutional rules like federalism belong to the meta-rules that structure the political game in advanced democracies. As such they are hard to change because they usually are subject to large set-up costs, involve multiple constituencies, and are conditioned by the entrenched interests of a variety of powerful key actors. The (failed) reforms of a federal system thus present opportunities to examine whether and how the basic rules of the game can be changed.Theories about constitutional and institutional change can be divided into normative, interest-based, and non-rational explanations. They fit quite neatly into current divisions within the new institutionalism in political science, between historical-institutionalism, rational choice and sociological institutionalism (Hall and Taylor 1996). Historical-institutional explanations emphasize path dependence, stickiness, and "lock-in" effects, whereas rational choice underscores the contested nature of institutional development and the distribution of power and strategic interactions of key actors in society. Sociological explanations highlight the non-rational effects of political discourse and the impact of the recognition heuristic (Immergut 2006).After German unification and the creation of the European Union in the early 1990s, federalism became widely regarded as at least partially responsible for the German "Reformstau" or "reform gridlock". This paper briefly examines the evolution and the repeated efforts to reform the federal system of (West) Germany. The main focus is on the work of the "Federalism Commission" from 2003 to 2004 and the final adoption of its proposals to reform the German federal system in May 2006. Utilizing historical-institutional, rational, and sociological explanations, the paper will assess whether the changes of federalism in Germany represent primarily the (un-)intended consequences of prior normative commitments and path-dependent development of institutions, whether they are the results of deliberate choices and self-interested utility maximization of powerful key actors in German politics and society, or whether they are the non-rational outcomes of political discourse, cognitive framing and recognition heuristics among decision makers, or perhaps a combination of all three. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]