Search

This paper contributes to the growing body of research on participatory democracy and the literature on associational democracy by exploring the impact that institutional reforms have on local-level configurations of civil society. In the 1980s a wide range of participatory experiments were initiated in Brazil, most notably Participatory Budgeting in municipal governance. Municipios that adopted PB in principle devolve much or all of the decision making on new investments to decentralized participatory forums. In this paper we consider the results of an eight-city matched-pair analysis conducted in 2004, in which we selected municipios that adopted PB in 1997-2000, and matched them with a similar municipio that did not in the same period, drawing from the full sample of municipios over 20,000 inhabitants. Building on relational theories of civil society, we show that PB has clear but limited effects on civil society. It moves civil society practices from clientelism to associationalism, but does not contribute to the capacity of civil society to self-organize, at least in the time-frame considered. We also show that this democratizing effect on civil society practices and networks is conditioned by pre-existing state-civil society relations. (Contains 5 tables and 3 notes.)

We argue that the global digital divide, as measured by cross-national differences in Internet use, is the result of the economic, regulatory and sociopolitical characteristics of countries and their evolution over time. We predict Internet use to increase with world-system status, privatization and competition in the telecommunications sector, democracy and cosmopolitanism. Using data on 118 countries from 1997 through 2001, we find relatively robust support for each of our hypotheses. We conclude by exploring the implications of this new, powerful communication medium for the global political economy and for the spread of democracy around the world.

Extant research on social movements has highlighted activists' discursive tactics to challenge the state, yet little analytical attention focuses on elite efforts to dominate the discourse arena through the deployment of oppositional frames. This paper analyzes elite oppositional framing surrounding the placement of a highway bypass in the Czech Republic. Our research examines how democratic states deploy oppositional frames and enlist elite countermovement support for their efforts to obstruct challenges. Using a range of data sources, we delineate the mechanisms used by these elite actors to vilify and stigmatize environmental activists, paving the way for more violent forms of public harassment. The concept we initiate, "discursive obstruction", adds the critical dimension of power relations to analyses of both framing processes and discursive opportunity structures. We conclude by discussing the implications of our results for social movement research.

This paper contributes to the growing body of research on participatory democracy and the literature on associational democracy by exploring the impact that institutional reforms have on local-level configurations of civil society. In the 1980s a wide range of participatory experiments were initiated in Brazil, most notably Participatory Budgeting in municipal governance. Municipios that adopted PB in principle devolve much or all of the decision making on new investments to decentralized participatory forums. In this paper we consider the results of an eight-city matched-pair analysis conducted in 2004. in which we selected municipios that adopted PB in 1997-2000, and matched them with a similar municipio that did not in the same period, drawing from the full sample of municipios over 20,000 inhabitants. Building on relational theories of civil society, we show that PB has clear but limited effects on civil society. It moves civil society practices from clientelism to associationalism, but does not contribute to the capacity of civil society to self-organize, at least in the time-frame considered. We also show that this democratizing effect on civil society practices and networks is conditioned by pre-existing state-civil society relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that globalization is not the panacea that will contribute to the solution or amelioration of social, economic, and health problems. What seems to be clear is that the outcome of globalization has been the exacerbation of poverty and inequality. If globalization is the long-term answer or solution to the world's problems, then it seems that we will be taking a long walk to freedom, democracy, and the fulfillment of human rights and social justice. It is also important to note that as this process of globalization continues, many of our human rights will continue to be negatively impacted by diverse economic, political, and military forces. Despite the aforementioned circumstances, it is necessary to understand that globalization is a fact in today's societies and appears to be an irreversible process. Therefore, we must analyze, explore, and generate concrete initiatives that will address many of the problems and issues presented throughout this paper. It is quite evident, however, that we do not need additional laws, legislation or public policies aimed at alleviating poverty, providing access to adequate health care and educational benefits, or aimed at enhancing women's rights vis-à-vis their male counterparts. What we actually need is the fulfillment or the implementation of the United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights or their Millennium Development Goals or the 1995 ICPD Action Plan.

The article presents a paper on federal action programs and community action in the South, presented by the author at the fifth Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society in Knoxville, Tennessee on April 5, 1940. It focuses on the influence which these programs had for community life. It expresses in a general way the lines of more or less conscious thought which the activity of the federal government during the depression has given rise to in the South. This trial was not conscious nor wholehearted but its main movement would have denied the false divorce between democracy and work which the eighteenth century initiated. The double task failed, not because it was wrong nor impossible, but because in the setting in which it was tried the opposing patterns and forces were far too strong. Neither the South nor the whole of the North believed in allowing back folk to have voice in their own government; but it was more especially because the industrial North and the ruins of the planting South still wanted to keep political power separated from industry. This was finally accomplished by setting up in the South, political institutions which deserve more thorough and critical study than they have received.

ABSTRACT Citizenship is a central concept in the development of political democracy and the pursuit of political and social equality. However, citizenship rests on a balance of obligations and rights. This paper shows the development of an imbalance of rights versus obligations and examines the macrosociological implications for multi-party states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the trend in feelings of political efficacy among United States adults from 1964 to 1970 in the context of theories of political socialization. This literature has characteristically treated "regime norms" as established early in political socialization and largely independent of subsequent political events, a conception challenged herein. A second theoretical issue concerns the claim that stable democracies require large and constant "reservoirs of diffuse support" which enable them to weather periodic crises of effectiveness. The implication (drawn by the theorists themselves) is that components of diffuse support (including but not limited to political efficacy) are largely independent of disappointments with day-to-day political outputs, and this too is rendered unlikely by our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study analyzes how political context, embodied by the welfare state and Leftist political actors, shapes individual poverty. Using the Luxembourg Income Study, we conduct a multi-level analysis of working-aged adult poverty across 18 affluent Western democracies. Our index of welfare generosity has a negative effect on poverty net of individual characteristics and structural context. For each standard deviation increase in welfare generosity, the odds of poverty decline by a factor of 2.3. The odds of poverty in the United States (the least generous welfare state) are greater by a factor of 16.6 than a person with identical characteristics in Denmark (the most generous welfare state). Significant interaction effects suggest that welfare generosity reduces the extent to which low education and the number of children increase poverty. Also, welfare generosity reduces poverty among those with low education, single-mother households and young households. We show that Leftist parties and union density reduce the odds of poverty, however their effects channel through the welfare state. Ultimately, poverty is shaped both by individual characteristics and the political context in which the individual resides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forced resignation of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada from the presidency in October 2003 attests to the fragility of the process of democratization in Bolivia. A period of political and economic stability following the 1985 economic austerity measures prevailed for over ten years, but social discontent with the inadequacies of the political and economic model has become more evident since the end of the 1990s. This article charts the political, economic and social processes which have interacted in complex--and indeed contradictory--ways since the 1980s, advancing towards democracy in some important aspects, but failing to overcome structural barriers of exclusion, and rooted patterns of state patrimonialism. In a context of diminishing societal acceptance and legitimacy of the democratic institutions, new social forces have emerged which are challenging assumptions within the transitions literature regarding the path towards democratic consolidation and even the end-goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the author's comments on the article A Long Walk to Freedom and Democracy: Human Rights, Globalization, and Social Injustice, by Havidán Rodríguez in the same issue. Rodríguez's title, A Long Walk to Freedom and Democracy, implies that freedom and democracy are equivalent destinations or are at least in proximity to each other. Instead of attempting to achieve both democracy and freedom--which Rodríguez argues has failed thus far--perhaps we ought to prioritize freedom. This might prove a more achievable target on its own, without the conflict that democracy and freedom together risk. Contributions from many subfields in sociology--political sociology, stratification, social theory, race and ethnicity, sex and gender, demography, and others--will ensure an expansive operationalization of freedom. Further analysis of human rights will reveal the institutional norms that maintain the meaning of human rights and civil society's expression of human rights. Then we can begin to suggest doctrinal and enforcement changes that will allow for the meaningful expansion of human liberties, freedoms, and rights. An understanding of what it means to be human in this moment is essential. For human rights to have a meaningful impact, protecting lives and livelihood, we must continue to push the boundaries of human rights and be open to new assertions about what is minimally necessary to live as a human.

Across democratic countries, amounts of individualistic legal activity are starkly different. The current trend in explaining this variation is to break legal activity into different categories and explain why variation exists within each type. While this trend has been useful in providing detailed analyses across a narrow spectrum of activities, it moves the field away from the broader context in which all legal activity occurs. I take the opposite tack here, considering myriad types of legal activity at once. This study first finds that across nation-states, levels of many different types of legal activity are correlated with each other. Using a structural equation model and OLS regression equations, I then demonstrate that state decentralization and state/society interpenetration, i.e., the lack of a clear boundary between the state and civil society, tend to fuel individualistic legal activity. The implication is that changing individual incentives to engage in legal activity may fuel social change in some national contexts but not others, and that such contextual effects are predictable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using qualitative comparative analysis, we examine why left-libertarian parties, associated with environmental and other "new social movements," have been relatively successful in some western democracies but not others. We conceptualize the parties as products of new citizen demands on the one hand, and of political opportunity structures, which govern party supply, on the other. We show that supply-side factors, such as a strong left and the existence of proportional representation, tend to work together to facilitate party innovation. A strong left appears more likely to downplay left-libertarian issues and push new-left activists to form separate parties, while proportional representation eases entry into the party system. Demand-side facto rs play a significant but lesser role. The theoretical and methodological strategies employed here have the potential to help political sociologists explain the variable success of other types of party innovators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the determinants of cross-national variation in the share of parliamentary seats held by women in .1998. The findings of prior research on this issue have differed sharply. Studies focusing on the most affluent longstanding democracies have emphasized the importance of political factors, whereas three of the four studies to include less developed nations found that only socioeconomic and/or cultural factors matter. Our analysis uses improved variable measures, a more complete set of variables, and a larger sample of countries than has heretofore been examined. We find that political, socioeconomic, and cultural factors are each important Specifically, electoral system structure left party government, the timing of women's suffrage. the share of women in professional occupations, and cultural attitudes toward the role of women in politics each play a role in accounting for variation in the degree of gender inequality in political representation around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the transition from authoritarian rule to a democratically elected government in 1985, there remains in Brazil a persistent gap between the formal principles and the actual practices of democracy. The gap is particularly manifest in the daily contacts between citizens and representatives of state authority, especially regarding the treatment of Afro-Brazilians. Analyses of the "regulated" and "relational" character of citizenship in Brazil, as well as observations about the attitudinal dispositions of the members of the criminal justice system, suggest that Afro-Brazilians are likely to benefit from fewer protections compared to whites and are more likely to suffer discrimination at the hands of the police. Analyses of the 1988 National Household Survey (PNAD-88) support both hypotheses: Net of statistical controls for key socioeconomic indicators, Afro- Brazilians are more likely than whites to be the victim of assault, and they are more likely to be assaulted by the polices The findings show how the perceptions of class, color, and criminality produce differential protections and treatments inconsistent with the attributes of universal citizenship. Our analysis points more generally to the formidable institutional and cultural challenges that confront the attempt to fully consolidate a democratic regime in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The struggle for democracy, central to Western politics for hundreds of years, is predicated upon the belief that democratic institutions give citizens considerable power over their government. Whether this belief is correct is a key question in the study of democratic politics. This article argues that this question is neglected by sociologists who examine the determinants of public policy; they neither address theories of democratic responsiveness nor assess the impact of public opinion on public policy. This neglect is problematic for two reasons: there is much evidence that public opinion strongly influences public policy; and there is reason to believe that adding public opinion to sociologists' empirical analyses of policy change would undermine some of their conclusions about the influence of other factors. Two ways of responding to these findings are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipset, Trow and Coleman argue that the possibilities for significant and widespread union democracy in labor unions are slight. They base their pessimism on their understanding of where democracy is likely to develop: in unions with highly skilled and highly paid workers, with moderately sized units, and with autonomous subunits. Autonomous subunits are likely to develop only in small-scale and not highly rationalized industries. Here I reexamine the bases for this pessimism by comparing the highly democratic International Typographical Union with United Automobile Workers Local 600, which displayed equally impressive levels of democracy, but entirely different structural and political characteristics. This historical and comparative analysis is followed by an in-depth empirical analysis of the political processes within Local 600. The latter finds that while union factions based on Communist-influenced ideology acted as a boost to union democracy(measured here by the level of electoral contention), factions based on the more conservative Association of Catholic Trade Unionists acted to suppress high levels of electoral contention. Hence, factionalism's impact on union democracy depends in part on the ideological orientation driving it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to the theory that "oligarchy" in labor unions is an "immanent necessity" of "organization," we argue that oligarchy is no more immanent or necessary than democracy. Rather, both are alternative possible paths of union development. Which path a union takes is determined by relatively contingent political struggles among workers' "parties", and by both the resultant pattern of internal political relations and the political consciousness, radical or conservative, of their leadership. Analysis of data on CIO international unions reveals that the strategy and practices involved in organizing them, internal factionalism, and their "political camp" left, rights or center had substantial independent effects in determining the odds that as of the late 1940s, they were democratic or oligarchical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most significant bills on the agenda of the 81st U.S. Congress was H. R. 49. As introduced by Hawaii's Delegate Joseph R. Farrington, this bill had as its objective the admission of the Hawaiian Islands into the American Union as a state on an equal footing with the original states. It maybe recalled that the bill, as passed by the House, was referred to the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. After several months of deliberation, nine of the thirteen members of the Committee made public a 5000-word report. This majority report gives unequivocal testimony that the people of Hawaii are ready for statehood and recommends that the Senate approve the bill as amended by the Committee. At the same time, Senator Hugh Butler issued a one-man report in which he expressed his fear that the granting of statehood to Hawaii would create a grave danger to the national security. The other three members voiced no opinion. Like all the U.S. states, Hawaii has characteristic features of its own. These features are the natural results of a pattern of cultural and racial fusion which has been in operation in the U.S. since Colonial days. Its characteristic features may appear rather exotic, but to take them as symbolic of the predominance of alien traditions is to underrate the power of assimilation of U.S. democracy.

Though called a world war, the war of 1914-18 was, largely a European conflict which due to the increasingly intricate inter-relationships of modem life had repercussions far beyond its actual locale. While offering an unmistakable indication that in all spheres of man's activity an event occurring in any part of the world has a greater or lesser effect upon all other parts, that war was yet essentially a provincial war compared to the global conflict in which Alaska and Madagascar, Hunan province and Dakar, the Solomon Islands and the Caucasus, Norway and the Caribbean Sea are locked in the intricate maze of grand strategy. Upon students of history the effect of the earlier conflict was for the most part restricted to a search after causes or origins. The aim varied from that of placing the blame upon one nation or group of nations to the more philosophical effort to relate the already generally accepted concepts of nineteenth century history, industrialism, imperialism, nationalism, democracy, etc., into some pattern such that the inevitable result would appear to be the conflict which followed.

One of the significant features in the history of the charity organization movement has been the almost complete lack of democracy in its scheme of administration. This is not said in any critical spirit-indeed it would not be stretching the truth too far to say that it has been this very fact which has brought the movement to its present high plane. The world has been making rapid progress however, and particularly in the fields of social amelioration and reform. Many reasons may be ascribed to the change that has taken place in respect of the greater participation of a wider circle of people in such matters. It has been impossible for the very small number actively guiding the affairs to shoulder the entire burden, nor was it just that they should. The result has been an ever growing program of interpretive publicity. By various means, attempt is being nude to educate the people to the real significance of all these things. The movement to gain greater democracy in giving, however, has not been marked by a parallel project to secure as widely diffused representation in administration. In this latter respect, social work has been distinctly autocratic.

Literature, scholarship and pure science of a high, if somewhat below the highest grade. A unique perpendicular architecture based on iron and steel. Invention and business organization on an unparalleled scale. The Panama Canal, a composite triumph of engineering, commerce and sanitation. Medicine, surgery and dentistry of the best quality. Moral restraint and cleanliness. A tremendous practical application of good-will in international charity and efforts for world peace. Finally, the synthesis in political science of a strong federal government and the principle of democracy. These things scholar Wilbur Cortez Abbott offers as the answer of modern America to the question, "What is Civilization?" in the October Forum. A foundation of sound government, material prosperity and morality, coupled with that spirit of social freedom engendered by a new continent, may yet create intellectual, emotional and spiritual interests worthy to set beside those of any other people or time. And the surest way to create them is to revolutionize the whole scheme of higher education. One has been working so hard to pile up material wealth that we neglect to provide men who can control it.

From the beginning of the modern democratic movement the doctrine of an inherent equality among men has been persistent. While the assertion that "all men are created equal" as set forth in the famous Declaration has not been taken literally by the majority of informed writers, it has, nevertheless, been held by many as a fundamental article of faith. As such it has been ill-defined; facts obviously in conflict with it have been passed over in silence or in scorn. Being considered essential to the ideals of democracy, it has been, like other doctrines which are fervently avowed with the weighty emotional values of religious mysticism, immune to criticism. Its constant reiteration has been the chief evidence of its patent validity. Even among men of scientific and philosophical training, especially in the United States, a deeply grounded faith in democracy has carried with it belief in the essential equality of men. The doctrine, semi-religious in itself, has had a powerful religious sanction in the Christian hope of human brotherhood. Consequently, under its impulsion have developed many of the most characteristic features of present civilization. The suffrage has been made universal; even the immemorial prejudice of sex inferiority dissolved before the mystical potency of egalitarian ideas.