bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Love of God and the Radical Enlightenment: Mary Astell's Brush with Spinoza
Authors: Ellenzweig Sarah
Published: February 2007

The essay argues that Mary Astell’s support of the theocentric philosophy of Nicolas Malebranche embroiled her in the fray of anti-Spinozism in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century.  Because of her dawning awareness of contemporaries’ associations of Malebranche’s occasionalism with the Spinozist doctrine of one substance, Astell retracted her previous endorsement of this theory in 1694.  When contemporaries briefly turned the accusation of Spinozism against Locke and his followers in the early 1700s, however, Astell felt free to return to a support of Malebranche.
France's Search for Nuclear Test Sites, 1957-1963
Authors: Regnault Jean-Marc
Published: February 2007

In 1957 the French
government was searching for a nuclear testing site. It chose a site
in the Sahara desert in Algeria in order to begin testing as soon
as possible, but technical and political considerations rendered
this solution only temporary. Recently declassified archival sources
reveal that France subsequently considered using a South Pacific site,
which helps to explain why France sought such tight control over its
overseas territories of New Caledonia and French Polynesia. Finally,
at the end of 1961, the Moruroa atoll was chosen, but New Caledonia
remained an alternate site. The removal by the French government of
nationalistic leaders in New Caledonia and French Polynesia between
1958 and 1963 appears to have been motivated by nuclear testing
considerations.
The Military Revolution in Russia, 1550-1682
Authors: Paul Michael C
Published: February 2007

Much has been written about the Military Revolution, a series of
changes in tactics and strategy, the scale of warfare, and the impact
of warfare on society in the late sixteenth century and the first
third of the seventeenth century. However, most of the discussion of
the Military Revolution has centered on Western Europe. The Military
Revolution in Eastern Europe and Russia is often poorly understood. From
the mid-sixteenth to the late seventeenth century, the Russian armed
forces underwent changes in tactics and organization that were truly
revolutionary in their impact on Russian society and helped make Russia
a significant power in Northern and Eastern Europe, laying the groundwork
for the changes that Peter the Great was to bring about.
Devaluing the Vote in Latin America
Authors: Snyder Richard , Samuels David
Published: February 2007

Abstract: Malapportionment poses a serious, yet hitherto neglected, challenge to the quality and fairness of democracy in many Latin American countries.
Democratization Falters in Azerbaijan
Authors: Cornell Svante E
Published: February 2007

The November 2000 parliamentary elections, expected to be a step forward for democracy, instead turned into a major setback, casting doubt on the countryÕs future stability.
Latin America's Lost Illusions: The Future of Structural Reform
Authors: Lora Eduardo , Ugo Panizza
Published: February 2007

Abstract: The future of structural reforms in Latin America is under discussion. This paper synthesizes the facts and opinions that underlie this debate taking into account both the neo-liberal agenda and the views of the anti globalization movement. The paper pointing out that although the reform process has not ground to a halt, it has been incomplete and uneven, both across countries and different areas of reform. Next, the paper analyzes analyzes public opinion of on the reform process and points out that disillusionment with the reforms has been growing, particularly among the middle class and in countries characterized by high levels of corruption. The paper third section of the paper reviews the effects of the reform on growth, poverty, inequality, and employment. The paper summarizes the main proposals to expand or reorient the reform agenda in Latin America.
Turkey at the Polls: A New Path Emerges
Authors: Öniş Ziya , Keyman E. Fuat
Published: February 2007

Abstract: Turkey's economic and political system has been confronted with major challenges during the course of the 1990s. These challenges originating from economic crises, state-centric model of development, European integration and the problems of democratization have brought Turkey to crossroads. In this context, the November 3rd national election was of utmost importance in the determination of Turkey's future course of democratization. The AKP has won the election and formed a single majority government. In the present article, we try to provide a sociological and political economy-based analysis of the election and the origins of the AKP's unprecedented success. We have attempted to highlight the possible domestic and foreign policy-oriented challenges confronted by the AKP. In doing so, we have argued that the possibility of democratic consolidation in Turkey lies in the success of the AKP to cope effectively with these challenges.
Latin America's Lost Illusions: Decentralization and Political Parties
Authors: Sabatini Christopher
Published: February 2007

Abstract: The article looks at the emergence and growth of regional and local parties in Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru after decentralization. It argues that in a context of weak political parties and declining public trust in parties, local elections and the transfer of resources to sub-national units have had unintended consequences for national party systems. Traditional and national parties have struggled to adapt to these new conditions and a mosaic of locally defined parties have emerged. The growth of these parties has fragmented party systems in the Andean Region and will pose a challenge for governability of these countries.
Lessons from Bosnia and Herzegovina: Travails of the European Raj
Authors: Knaus Gerald , Martin Felix
Published: February 2007

Abstract: Can the extraordinary powers of the international mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina be justified by reference to a state of emergency, and do they facilitate its objectives of state-building and democratization? A review of the history of the international protectorate—and in particular the Office of the High Representative—finds that the answers to these questions are negative. Its philosophy, as revealed by its actions, is very similar to that of 19th century liberal imperialism; but the theory of emergency powers of the constitutional dictator of Niccolo Machiavelli offers a better roadmap for future post-conflict missions. The specification and independent monitoring of a red line beyond which international power will not be used is vital to their legitimacy and effectiveness.
A Model for Post-Saddam Iraq
Authors: Makiya Kanan
Published: February 2007

If Iraq is successfully to democratize and an inclusive democratic
culture
is to emerge, the Iraqi state must be reconstituted as a federal and
strongly
liberal system and thoroughly demilitarized.
Democracy, Dictatorship, and Infant Mortality Revisited
Authors: Navia Patricio , Zweifel Thomas D.
Published: February 2007

This article updates our earlier finding that democracies outperformed
dictatorships in 1950-90 by achieving lower infant mortality rates at
every level of development. Now we show that this holds even post-Cold
War and after the latest wave of democratization. Using 1990-97 data, we
again find that democracies outdo dictatorships, though the difference
is somewhat smaller now. One key finding is relevant to policymakers:
foreign direct investment and aid both significantly reduce IMRs in
democracies, but not in dictatorships. Giving money to dictatorships,
whether in the form of aid or investment, makes either no difference or
even hurts children born there.
An "Arab" More Than a "Muslim" Democracy Gap
Authors: Stepan Alfred C , Robertson Graeme B
Published: February 2007

Re-examining the debate on Islam and democracy, the authors look at
the relationship between competitive elections and levels of economic
development in both Arab Muslim majority countries and non-Arab Muslim
majority countries. While the performance gap in terms of electoral
competition in Arab Muslim majority countries is widely recognized,
less noticed is the fact that the non-Arab Muslim majority subset
includes many "greatly over-achieving" countries, vis-�-vis
contested elections. The authors demonstrate this using a combination
of quantitative and qualitative evidence, and set out what this implies
for Middle Eastern politics and the study of democracy and religion.
The Crisis of Indian Secularism
Authors: Ganguly Sumit
Published: February 2007

After fifty years of independence India maintains a constitutional
commitment to secularism. However, the practice of secularism in India is
now increasingly under attack. In the quest for electoral advantage, the
once-dominant Congress Party, made a series of choices that compromised
India's secular ethos. These choices enabled the explicitly anti-secular
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to dramatically expand its political base
through the pursuit of a blatantly anti-secular and majoritarian political
agenda. In recent years, as a direct consequence of the BJP's rhetoric
and policies, a range of religious minorities have been subjected to
discrimination and violence. Despite this adverse trend it is still
too early to ring the death-knell of Indian secularism. The growing
electoral strength of hitherto disenfranchised groups, the existence
of institutions committed to secularism and the continuing secular
constitutional dispensation offer some hope for sustaining the secular
order in India.
Making Sense of the EU: Toward a Cosmopolitan Europe
Authors: Habermas JÃ¼rgen
Published: February 2007

Abstract: The globalization of the worldâs economy and society has strained the limits of the nation-states capacityâboth for democratic political life and for the redistributive policies upon which basic social justice depends. Moreover, individual states can no longer adequately protect their citizens from such increasingly globalized challenges as environmental degradation, epidemics, or the security risks created by advanced technologies. The European Union represents an opportunity not only to fashion a postnational welfare state capable of responding to a postnational economy, but to lay a groundwork that will ultimately make possible a global domestic policy.
"Negro Women Are Great Thinkers as Well as Doers": Amy Jacques-Garvey and Community Feminism, 1924-1927
Authors: Taylor Ula Y
Published: February 2007

Amy Jacques-Garvey (1896-1973) was the second
wife of Marcus Mosiah Garvey and unofficial leader of the Universal
Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the largest Pan-African movement
in the twentieth century. Jacques-Garvey mastered what Taylor calls
community feminism. Community feminism allowed black women to function
within their communities as both helpmates and leaders. An examination of
Jacques-Garvey's editorials published in the Negro World, the propaganda
newspaper for the UNIA, reveals her brand of community feminism and how
her choices were political--transforming her from a personal secretary,
editor, and wife into an indispensable UNIA leader during the 1920s.
The Adventures of Peanut and Bo: Summer Camps and Early-Twentieth-Century American Girlhood
Authors: Paris Leslie
Published: February 2007

This study considers the rise of girls' summer camps in
late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century New York State
as evidence of broader shifts in American girlhood. The first
section traces the historiography of girlhood. Paris then explores
how a growing number of girls came to attend camps, establishing
semiautonomous and temporary communities away from their parents, and
considers how factors other than gender enhanced or limited girls' camping
opportunities. The final two sections investigate how girls at camp
learned and performed gender and age hierarchies, particularly through
ritualized camp activities. Camps, Paris proposes, speak eloquently to
the central place of recreation in girls' social inculcation, and about
girlhood as a social identity that is learned, practiced, and sometimes
resisted. Histories of girlhood, meanwhile, help us reenvision women's
history as meaningfully marked by age-bound transitions.
Between Choice and Coercion: Women and the Politics of Sterilization in North Carolina, 1929-1975
Authors: Schoen Johanna
Published: February 2007

Between 1929 and 1975, the North Carolina Eugenics Board
authorized over eight thousand eugenic sterilizations. By stressing
the irreversible and permanent effects of sterilization, historians
have emphasized the involuntary character of sterilization for poor
and minority women. They have associated sterilization with coercion and
abortion and birth control with women's liberation, thus situating them at
opposite poles. Yet the eugenic sterilization program ironically offered
rare access to a form of birth control women desired. Given the absence
of adequate health and welfare services for poor women, the program was
often the only means by which they could control their reproduction. This
article demonstrates that sterilization sometimes enhanced and sometimes
limited women's reproductive autonomy. It highlights that women were not merely victims of state sterilization policies, but tried
to control their reproduction even if it meant taking advantage of
less-than-perfect programs.
"As Badly off as the Filipinos": U.S. Women's Suffragists and the Imperial Issue at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Authors: Hoganson Kristin L
Published: February 2007

This article considers why turn-of-the-twentieth-century
U.S. women's
suffragists failed to build a coalition with anti-imperialists
comparable to the antislavery-women's rights alliance of the
antebellum period. Although some prominent suffragists--including Susan
B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton--accepted the fundamental principle
of empire and only critiqued the implementation of U.S. policies, others
regarded anti-imperialism as a necessary outgrowth of their suffrage
principles. Since imperial endeavors gave rise to an anti-imperialist
movement, that, during the Philippine-American War, gained more political
salience than women's suffrage, anti-imperialist suffragists also regarded
their opposition to empire as a politically astute strategy. Yet the
suffragists who strove to build a reform coalition were frustrated
by both male anti-imperialist leaders and many of their suffrage
associates. And despite their interest in coalition building,
anti-imperialist suffragists failed to reach out to Filipina women,
who faced protracted struggles for political rights.
"Worthy Wives and Mothers": State-Sponsored Women's Organizing in Postrevolutionary Mexico
Authors: Olcott Jocelyn
Published: February 2007

During the mid-1930s, as the postrevolutionary Mexican
government embarked on its modernization project, women mobilized for
rights ranging from suffrage to religious freedom. In an effort to
control and direct women's organizing energies, the regime established
a network of official women's leagues, which policymakers hoped would
attract women away from both left- and right-wing movements. Although
these leagues sought to circumscribe women's activism, they also created
an organizing infrastructure that women instrumentalized. This article
examines women's leagues as both an explicitly gendered instance of
state formation and a historical case study in women's organizing.
Feeding the Imperial Appetite: Imperial Knowledge and Anglo-Indian Discourse
Authors: Procida Mary A
Published: February 2007

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, a spate of cookbooks
and household management guides appeared that were intended to assist
British women in running their households in India. In this article, the
author argues that these texts constructed a new approach to imperial
domesticity. Rather than mimicking the labor-intensive approach to
household management common in the metropole, British women in India
adopted a "hands-off" approach to housekeeping that allowed them to devote
their attentions to other pursuits, including the work of empire.
To Live "through One's Own Powers": British Medicine, Tuberculosis, and "Invalidism" in the Life of Alice Clark (1874-1934)
Authors: Holton Sandra Stanley
Published: February 2007

This article analyzes British women's historian Alice Clark's
(1874-1934) encounters with tuberculosis, in order to chart her rejection
of an invalid identity for a more autonomous sense of self. It also
compares and contrasts the effect of tuberculosis on her life with that
of her elder brother, John Bright Clark, in order to distinguish how
sex, gender, class, and historical context affect the impact of this
disease. Third, it examines the disease process from the consumptive's
point of view, seeking to acknowledge Alice Clark's agency in choosing
how to live with and die from this disease.
Becoming a Historian, Being an Activist, and Thinking Archivally: Documents and Memory as Sources
Authors: Strobel Margaret
Published: February 2007

This article examines the relationship between documentary sources
and memory, drawing upon the author's experiences as a scholar who has
used oral history, an activist who did not keep documents about the
causes for which she worked, a historian who now tries to convince other
activists of the importance of maintaining archival records in their
organizations, and an individual who has discovered disjunctures between
her own memories and the information in her diaries and letters. It
argues for the importance of both written and oral sources.
Violent and Violated Women: Justice and Gender in Rural Guatemala, 1936-1956
Authors: Forster Cindy
Published: February 2007

This article explores how sexual subordination legitimized class and
racial hatreds in the Indian region of San Marcos, Guatemala, between
1936 and 1956. Based on court records, the author first draws a portrait
of sexual violence, then examines infanticide and abortion, two crimes
which were defined as female. "Permissible hatred" and unpunished rape
softened the degradations of being born poor and male, in an admittedly
perverse logic, by permitting these men to humiliate working-class and
Indian women with an expectation of impunity. Similarly, in the realm
of "illicit" sex outside of marriage, both men and women could freely
practice acts of permissible hatred against women accused of abortion
or infanticide.
Soviet "Civic-Minded Women" in the 1930s: Gender, Class, and Industrialization in a Socialist Society
Authors: Schrand Thomas G
Published: February 2007

During the mid-1930s, the wives of Soviet industrial managers,
engineers, and technicians began organizing into volunteer groups
devoted to improving the living and working conditions at the factories
where their husbands worked. Soviet historians generally have treated
these obshchestvennitsy (civic-minded women, or female activists) as
evidence of the social stratification that occurred during the Stalin
era. But analysis of the socioeconomic context in which these women
emerged suggests that this women's "movement" played an important part in
resolving a variety of "reproductive crises" which had arisen as a result
of the rapid industrialization campaign of the 1930s. By emphasizing the
"culturedness," or "refinement" (kul'turnost'), of these elite wives,
the Soviet regime assigned the obshchestvennitsy a hegemonic role in
defining the socialist culture of the future. This "civilizing" function
of the wives' movement parallels philanthropic activities of bourgeois
women during similar crises associated with industrialization of European
nations and the United States.
Introduction: A Long Way from Earth Day
Authors: Graham Otis L.
Published: February 2007

The third Conservation movement was summoned to life between Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring (1962) and the Santa Barbara Oil Spill at the end of the movement-spawning Sixties, and would be called by a more nature-evoking term—environmentalism. Looking back from there, those of us with some historical memory were struck by how far we had come from the first Conservation crusade led by John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, and Gifford Pinchot, or the second led by FDR in the 1930s. In those early days they thought the problem was loss of forests, soil erosion, water and air pollution, and that the solutions were National Parks and National Forests watched over by civil servants in their gray or tan-brown uniforms, along with a Soil Conservation Service for farmers.
Epilogue: A Look Ahead
Authors: Graham Otis L.
Published: February 2007

Environmental policy is about fixing a problem—a large, complex, foundational problem. From the 1960s to the end of the century, the United States engaged this problem on a wider scale and with more energy than ever be-fore, as a part of a global, multinational effort in this direction. Seen from our experience and vantage, what are the prospects ahead of humanity and nature in the ongoing negotiation of our relationship?
U.S. Environmental Policy and Politics: From the 1960s to the 1990s
Authors: Kraft Michael E.
Published: February 2007

Environmental policy and politics in the United States have changed dramatically over the past three decades. What began in the late 1960s as an heroic effort by an incipient environmental movement to conserve dwindling natural resources and prevent further deterioration of the air, water, and land has been transformed over more than three decades into an extraordinarily complex, diverse, and often controversial array of environmental policies. Those policies occupy a continuing position of high visibility on the political agenda at all levels of government, and environmental values are widely embraced by the American public. Yet throughout the 1990s environmental policies and programs were characterized as much by sharp political conflict as by the consensus over policy goals and means that reigned during the early to mid-1970s. As the twenty-first century approaches, there is considerable value in looking back at this exceptional period to under-stand the nature of the transformation and its implications for the future.
The Environment as a National Security Issue
Authors: Matthew Richard A.
Published: February 2007

In 1994 a young journalist with a sharp eye for social anxieties and a flair for dramatic prose wrote an article that described environmental change as “the national security issue of the early 21st century.” Robert Kaplan's thesis in “The Coming Anarchy” is fetchingly simple: combine weak political systems, burgeoning urban populations, grinding poverty, and a flood of cheap weapons, and society becomes highly volatile. This lethal mixture, Kaplan suggests, already is generating high levels of violence in West Africa; soon it will affect the rest of the planet. This will happen because at the root of social collapse in West Africa is environmental degradation—a problem the entire world is experiencing. The pathways to chaos may differ from one place to the next, but all of humankind is being pushed along them. The state of the environment, Kaplan concludes, has become a matter of national security.
Environmental Justice, Political Agenda Setting, and the Myths of History
Authors: Melosi Martin V.
Published: February 2007

The emergence of the environmental justice movement in the 1980s has stimulated much debate on the extent to which race and class have been or should become central concerns of modern environmentalism. Leaders in the environmental justice movement have charged that mainstream environmental organizations and, in turn, environmental policy have demonstrated a greater concern for preserving wilderness and animal habitats than addressing health hazards of humans, especially those living in cities; have embraced a “Save the Earth” perspective at the expense of saving people's lives and protecting their homes and backyards. Some advocates of environmental justice have gone so far as to dissociate their movement from American environmentalism altogether, rather identifying with a broader social justice heritage as imbedded in civil rights activities of the 1950s and 1960s.
The Institutional Foundation of U.S. Trade Policy: Revisiting Explanations for the 1934 Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act
Authors: Schnietz Karen E.
Published: February 2007

In the 1934 Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (“RTAA”), Congress delegated its constitutionally granted power to set tariffs to the President. Trade agreements negotiated under the RTAA required noex postcongressional approval. Instead, the broad authority conferred upon the President was subject to congressional renewal every three years. Tariff reductions also were no longer made unilaterally via omnibus tariff legislation, but rather bilaterally via trade agreements and in exchange for comparable tariff reductions from foreign trading partners. The RTAA dramatically altered the governance structure that had controlled U.S. trade policymaking for over a century, laying a new institutional foundation that made U.S. postwar participation in, and leadership of, global trade liberalization and expansion possible. Indeed, the RTAA is arguably the most important piece of trade legislation of this century. It also is an unusual case of congressional delegation of policymaking authority to the President. Representative Hamilton Fish (R-N.Y.) called the RTAA “a betrayal of our representative form of government [that] amounts to an open admission by Congress that … it is now incompetent and unfit to legislate properly, intelligently and in the public interest.” The press described the RTAA as a “radical departure in commercial policy.” What accounts for this extraordinary delegation, especially by a legislative body better known for guarding its power than for giving it away?
A Child of the Sixties: The Great Society, the New Right, and the Politics of Federal Child Care
Authors: Morgan Kimberly
Published: February 2007

In 1971, a coalition of legislators and advocates put together a bill to establish the foundations of a public, universally available day-care system in the United States. Backed by Democrats, Republicans, and a highly mobilized set of interest organizations, the bill's middle-class appeal made it seem like a political sure bet in the months preceding the 1972 election season. Over the course of 1971, however, support for the bill eroded, and by December most House Republicans had jumped ship. On December 9, President Nixon vetoed the legislation, criticizing its “fiscal irresponsibility, administrative unworkability [sic], and family-weakening implications.” Such direct federal provision of day-care services, he claimed, “would commit the vast moral authority of the National Government to the side of communal approaches to child-rearing over the family-centered approach.” The day after the veto, however, Nixon signed the 1971 Revenue Act, which included tax breaks for families who use private day-care services. In late 1972, Congress passed legislation to reauthorize Head Start, a program providing early childhood education and health services for disadvantaged, preschool-aged children. Nixon's own welfare-reform proposal included day care for poor women. Clearly, only the middle class was at risk from “communal approaches” in federally supported child care; poor families, and particularly women on welfare, could use public day care while the middle class would be subsidized to solve their child-care problems through the private sector.
Images of Race, Class, and Markets: Rethinking the Origin of U.S. Fair Housing Policy
Authors: Sidney Mara S.
Published: February 2007

As the first national law to address racial discrimination in housing, the 1968 Fair Housing Act was truly a landmark piece of legislation. It prohibited homeowners, real-estate agents, lenders, and other housing professionals from engaging in a range of practices they had commonly used to keep neighborhoods racially segregated, such as refusing to sell or rent to a person because of his or her race, lying about the availability of a dwelling, or blockbusting (inducing white owners to sell by telling them that blacks were moving into the neighborhood). The last of the 1960s-era civil rights laws, the Fair Housing Act tackled the arena long felt to be the most sensitive to whites. Intense controversy, demonstrations, and violence over fair housing issues had occurred in many cities and states since at least the 1940s. Although John F. Kennedy promised during his presidential campaign to end housing discrimination “with the stroke of a pen,” once elected, he waited two years to sign a limited executive order. In 1966, a fair housing bill supported by President Johnson failed in Congress. Unlike other civil rights bills, the issue of housing evoked opposition not just from the South but also from the North. Opponents claimed that it challenged basic American values such as “a man's home is his castle”; to supporters, the symbolism of homeownership as “the American Dream” only underscored the importance of ensuring that housing was available to all Americans, regardless of race.
The Other New Deal and Labor: The Regulatory State and the Unions, 1933–1940
Authors: Nelson Daniel
Published: February 2007

At the end of Turbulent Years, his classic study of the labor upheavals of the 1930s, Irving Bernstein unexpectedly announces that the American Federation of Labor “gained a decisive and permanent victory.” This is a remarkable admission. Bernstein had devoted the bulk of his study to the failures of the AFL and the emergence of a more relevant alternative, the CIO. Like most authors, he associated the turbulence of the 1930s with the rise of industrial unionism, which addressed the apparent deficiencies of the AFL, notably its preoccupation with skilled workers and neglect of large-scale manufacturing. Still, the AFL grew more rapidly. Bernstein tries to explain: the triumph of the AFL “was hidden by the mystique of power [John L] Lewis had imparted to the CIO, by the highly publicized contemporary successes of SWOC…and UAW…and the deliberate falsification of membership records.” While these factors may account for the misleading imagery of the CIO, they do not explain the behavior of millions of workers who opted for AFL organizations. Clearly other forces were at work.
Religion and Public Policy: An Introduction
Authors: Heclo Hugh
Published: February 2007

One way of approaching the following essays is to pause here at the beginning and consider the peculiarity of the conversation we will be overhearing. In this volume we will be listening to a group of scholars who are Catholic, Episcopal, mainline Protestant, evangelical, and secularist in their varied backgrounds. They are considering the place of religion in public policymaking. The peculiarity arises if we think about American public life historically. For one thing, we are listening to people who most likely would not have been inclined to interact with each other at the outset of the twentieth century. More than that, they are talking about something that hardly anyone a hundred years ago would have thought even needs discussing.
Direct Democracy During the Progressive Era: A Crack in the Populist Veneer?
Authors: Smith Daniel A. , Lubinski Joseph
Published: February 2007

Since its inaugural use in Oregon in 1904, direct democracy—as practiced in twenty-seven American states—has garnered its share of defenders and critics. While the debate over the merits and drawbacks of citizen lawmaking remains as contentious as ever, critics and proponents alike usually concur that two extra-legislative tools—the “citizen” initiative and the “popular” referendum—were most effectively used to counteract the legislative might of special interests during the Progressive Era. Citing the clout of corporate monopolies that dominated numerous state legislatures at the turn of the century, contemporary observers of direct democracy approvingly note how citizen groups during the Progressive Era used the mechanisms to take on an array of vested interests. As evidence, they submit the popular adoption of numerous progressive reforms during the 1910s, such as the direct primary, women's suffrage, prohibition, the abolition of the poll tax, home rule for cities and towns, eighthour workdays for women and miners, and the regulation of public utility and railroad monopolies. Circumventing their partisan state legislatures, defenders of the plebiscitary mechanisms evoke how citizens successfully employed the initiative and popular referendum, as one Progressive Era supporter of the “pure” democratic process championed, to rouse “a great forward movement toward stability, justice, and public spirit in American political institutions.”
“Being There”: Fact-Finding and Policymaking: The Rockefeller Foundation's Division of Medical Education and the “Russian Matter,” 1925–1927
Authors: Solomon Susan Gross
Published: February 2007

The last quarter century has witnessed a rising tide of skepticism among scholars about the link between information-gathering and policymaking. Drawing on several decades of research and rethinking, students of organizational behavior concluded that organizations collect information for reasons that have more to do with organizational dynamics than with the making of choice. Students of public policy found high-stakes policy controversies deeply resistant to recourse to “the facts.”
Prospects for a Democratic Left in Postcommunist Russia
Authors: Remington Thomas F.
Published: February 2007

Parties of the democratic left have fared surprisingly poorly in postcommunist Russia. The reasons for this have to do with the legacy of the communist state, particularly the weakness of organized social associations outside the state and the continuing strength of patrimonial and corporatist patterns of state-society relations, together with constitutional and electoral institutions in the post-1993 system that undermine incentives for a system of competitive national political parties.
From Reformism to Resignation and Remedialism? Labour's Trajectory Through British Politics
Authors: Wickham-Jones Mark
Published: February 2007

On 9 April 1992, the British Labour party lost its fourth successive general election. The outcome, coming after prolonged economic difficulties, led many commentators to call into question altogether the viability of the reformist project in the United Kingdom. For Labour's leaders, the result was bitterly disappointing. To lose any general election is, of course, evidence of failure. But, given the extent of the radical transformation the party appeared to have undergone in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to lose in the propitious circumstances of 1992 was especially frustrating. Just over five years later, however, much of the period under a new leader, Tony Blair, and having undergone further dramatic adaptation, including a comprehensive rebranding as “New Labour,” the party not only took office at the general election of 1 May 1997 but won a landslide victory of 179 seats. A little over four years later it won a second landslide victory with a majority just 12 seats fewer at 167: it was an unparalleled achievement in the party's history.
Governing Growth: A Comparative Analysis of the Role of the State in the Rise of the West
Authors: Vries P. H. H
Published: February 2007

In explaining the fact that Western Europe was the first region in the world with industrial economic growth, numerous authors have referred to the existence of a type of state and a state-system that presumably were uniquely European. In this article this thesis is put to the test through an analysis of how in the early modern period they are supposed to have brought about a "European miracle" and through a systematic comparison of the Western European polities and the context in which they operated with those of China, India, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan in the same period. The author concludes that the role of the state in explaining the emergence or non-emergence--in contrast to the diffusing and sustaining--of modern industrial growth has been much smaller and much less self-evident than is often claimed.
Cycles of Silver: Global Economic Unity through the Mid-Eighteenth Century
Authors: Flynn Dennis Owen , Giraldez Arturo
Published: February 2007

Conversion of China's monetary and fiscal systems to a silver standard led to a doubling in the value of silver in China vis-�-vis the rest of the world by the early sixteenth century. Heightened profit opportunities induced an unprecedented surge in silver production in Spanish America and in Japan. Destined ultimately for China, tens of thousands of tons of silver passed through Europe via long-distance maritime and overland trade routes. Fifty tons of silver annually also reached China via the Pacific Ocean after the founding of the Spanish city of Manila in 1571. Japan exported huge quantities of silver to China until the late seventeenth century. New American crops were also introduced to Chinese agriculture via the Manila galleons, contributing to a doubling or more of Chinese population in the eighteenth century. Silver demand grew along with China's population, which in turn led to a fifty percent silver price premium in China. Largely in response to buoyant demand, more Mexican silver was produced during the eighteenth century than had been produced by all of Spanish America during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries combined. Subsequently, during the second half of the eighteenth century, a "tea and opium cycle" propelled British fortunes in Asia. Economic, environmental, and demographic histories must not be viewed as independent phenomena. It is a mistake to view societies around the world as independent of or weakly connected to global forces. All heavily populated continents have been deeply connected since the sixteenth century.
Berserks: A History of Indo-European "Mad Warriors"
Authors: Speidel Michael
Published: February 2007

Berserks, mad warriors scorning wounds and death, constituted an Indo-European warrior style on the same order as wolf-warriors. This study traces their history as far as we can know it, from Mesopotamia to Iceland, from 1300 B.C. to A.D. 1300. Making use of new archaeological and literary sources, the study shows berserks to be a long-lived, cross-cultural phenomenon that lends color and coherence to the early millennia of recorded history.
What Happened to the Ancient Libyans? Chasing Sources across the Sahara from Herodotus to Ibn Khaldun
Authors: Smith Richard
Published: February 2007

Determining group identity in the ancient world, especially when peoples were lumped under the constructs of tribe and ethnicity, was based on point of view, and labeling was a haphazard process. A case in point is the fate of those North African ancient writers called Libyans. Did their descendants become the people Arab writers referred to as Sanhaja and Zanata? Despite a significant degree of cultural discontinuity, the answer seems to be yes. A principal issue is the reliability of sources, which are markedly better for the era of Arab domination than for the ancient period.
Why a Feminist Approach to Bioethics?
Authors: Little Margaret Olivia
Published: February 2007

Many have asked how and why feminist theory makes a distinctive
contribution to bioethics. In this essay, I outline two ways in which
feminist reflection can enrich bioethical studies. First, feminist
theory may expose certain themes of androcentric reasoning that
can affect, in sometimes crude but often subtle ways, the
substantive analysis of topics in bioethics; second, it can unearth
the gendered nature of certain basic philosophical concepts that
form the working tools of ethical theory.
Ethical Issues in Cochlear Implant Surgery: An Exploration into Disease, Disability, and the Best Interests of the Child
Authors: Grodin Michael A , Lane Harlan L
Published: February 2007

This paper examines ethical issues related to medical practices
with children and adults who are members of a linguistic and
cultural minority known as the DEAF-WORLD. Members of that
culture characteristically have hearing parents and are treated by
hearing professionals whose values, particularly concerning
language, speech, and hearing, are typically quite different from
their own. That disparity has long fueled a debate on several ethical
issues, most recently the merits of cochlear implant surgery for
DEA children. We explore whether that surgery would be ethical
if implants could deliver close to normal hearing for most implanted
children, thereby diminishing the ranks of the DEAF-WORLD. The
ethical implications of eugenic practices with the DEA are
explored, as are ethical quandaries in parental surrogacy for
DEA children, and their parallels in transracial adoption.
Clinical Pragmatism: Bridging Theory and Practice
Authors: Fins Joseph , Miller Franklin G , Bacchetta Matthew D
Published: February 2007

This response to Lynn Jansen's critique of clinical pragmatism
concentrates on two themes: (1) contrasting approaches to moral
epistemology and (2) the connection between theory and practice
in clinical ethics. Particular attention is paid to the status of
principles and the role of consensus, with some closing
speculations on how Dewey might view the current state of
bioethics.
Future Directions in Genetic Counseling: Practical and Ethical Considerations
Authors: Biesecker Barbara
Published: February 2007

The accelerated discovery of gene mutations that lead to increased
risk of disease has led to the rapid development of predictive
genetic tests. These tests improve the accuracy of assigning risk,
but at a time when intervention or prevention strategies are largely
unproved. In coming years, however, data will become increasingly
available to guide treatment of genetic diseases. Eventually genetic
testing will be performed for common diseases as well as for rare
genetic conditions. This will challenge genetic counseling practice.
The ethical principles that now guide this practice take into account
the personal nature of test decision making, the need to respect
individual self-determination, and the importance of client
confidentiality. Certain of these principles may have to be modified
as genetic testing becomes more widespread in order to meet the
changing needs of clients and society. This paper offers
recommendations to ensure that genetic counselors will take a
leading role in the future delivery of ethical genetic services.
Wrestling with the Future: Should We Test Children for Adult-Onset Genetic Conditions?
Authors: Cohen Cynthia B
Published: February 2007

Genetics professionals have been reluctant to test children for
adult-onset conditions because they believe this would create
psychosocial harm to children not counterbalanced by significant
benefits. An additional concern they express is that such testing
would violate the autonomy of these children as adults. Yet
weighing the harms and benefits of such testing results in a draw,
with no substantial harms proven. Moreover, such testing can
enhance, rather than violate the adult autonomy of these children.
In deciding whether to proceed with predictive testing of children,
parents, mature children, and health care professionals should
consider a complex of factors relevant to the particular child. The
importance of these factors will vary depending on the condition at
issue, the age and stage of development of the child, family
dynamics, and the concerns, values, and objectives of the parents
and mature child. The final decision whether to test a child for an
adult-onset condition should rest with the parents and the mature
child.
Bioethics in the Third Millennium: Some Critical Anticipations
Authors: Engelhardt H. Tristram (Hugo Tristram)
Published: February 2007

Its promises to the contrary notwithstanding, bioethics is plural.
There is a diversity of content-full moral understandings of the good
and the right. Moreover, there is no secular means in principle to
set this diversity aside without begging the question. This moral
diversity exists both as a sociological condition and as a moral
epistemological constraint. Without succumbing to a metaphysical
scepticism or moral relativism, the bioethics of the future, if it is to
be honest, should learn how to live with robust moral diversity.
"Phronesis" on Tour: Cultural Adaptability of Aristotelian Ethical Notions
Authors: Polansky Ronald M.
Published: February 2007

How might bioethics take account of cultural diversity? Can
practical wisdom of an Aristotelian sort be applied across cultures? After
showing that practical wisdom involves both intellectual cleverness
and moral virtue, it is argued that both these components have
universality. Hence practical wisdom must be universal as well. Hellenic
ethical thought neither depended on outdated theoretical notions nor
limited itself to the Greek world, but was in fact developed with constant
awareness of cultural differences, so it arguably works as well in other
times and places as when formulated. Even the eudaemonistic setting for
practical wisdom is unproblematic.
Medical Malpractice, Mistake Prevention, and Compensation
Authors: May Thomas , Aulisio Mark P.
Published: February 2007

Clinicians' fear of malpractice litigation is the most significant obstacle to the open reporting of medical mistakes. Without open reporting of medical mistakes, however, root cause analysis of mistakes cannot be done, thus undermining efforts to implement safeguards to minimize the occurrence of future mistakes. Efforts to prevent medical mistakes, therefore, must first directly address cliniciansÕ fear of malpractice litigation. In this paper, we explore the relationship between the current malpractice system and cliniciansÕ fear of litigation. Ultimately, we argue that both the prevention of medical mistakes and the goals of malpractice litigation itself will be better served if substantial malpractice reform is undertaken.
Mistakes as a Social Construct: An Historical Approach
Authors: Pinkus Rosa Lynn B
Published: February 2007

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) published To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System in November 1999. The report focused public attention on the errors that occur within the medical system that cause death and harm to patients. It outlined a series of changes for health care that are aimed at reducing these errors by 50 percent over the next five years. This paper examines the problem of medical mistakes historically. It documents how legal, scientific, and medical trends during the years 1890Ð1934 intersected to effect the reporting of mistakes in the subspecialty of neurosurgery. At the start of this time frame, mistakes were reported openly in journal articles as an educational tool. By its end, however, mistakes had gone ÒundergroundÓ and were buried amid a more objective, scientific reporting system. Using this historical perspective as a baseline, the paper concludes by re-examining the IOMÕs suggestions for change and comments on what they mean for the culture of medicine.
Genetics, Commodification, and Social Justice in the Globalization Era
Authors: Cahill Lisa Sowle
Published: February 2007

The commercialization of biotechnology,
especially research and development by transnational pharmaceutical
companies, is already excessive and is increasingly dangerous to
distributive justice, human rights, and access of marginal populations
to basic human goods. Focusing on gene patenting, this article employs
the work of Margaret Jane Radin and others to argue that gene patenting
ought to be more highly regulated and that it ought to be regulated with
international participation and in view of concerns about solidarity and
the common good. The mode of argument called for on this issue is more
pragmatic than logical, emphasizing persuasion based on evidence about
the reality and effects of control of genetic research by profit-driven
biotech companies.