bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Inhabitations (Derrida and David Lynch)
Authors: Holland Timothy
Published: April 2024

This chapter considers the applicability of deconstruction through the detours of David Lynch’s cinematic media. Despite evident dissimilarities, Derrida and Lynch can be viewed to take on the traditions they inherit through their projects by moving within and dislocating received structures. Both therefore remain committed to traditions while restaging their nontraditionality, exposing them to their limits. The title of the chapter cites Derrida’s elaboration of this gesture in Of Grammatology as a matter of inhabiting structure “in a certain way,” which contrasts the figure of opposition and application from a position presumed to be beyond or outside. The chapter goes on to analyze the worlds, homecomings, families, and speech acts of Lynch’s cinematic corpus, as well as the ambivalence of the term “Lynchian” and the centrality of sound in his work. It concludes with a close reading of the music video “Crazy Clown Time” as an instance of Lynch’s approach to the intermediality of cinema, a medium that moves between media while exhibiting their own perversity and heterogeneity.
The Grey Zone and Hybrid Conflict
Authors: Marsh Christopher
Published: April 2024

This chapter seeks to explore the phenomenon of the ‘grey zone’, including the related but distinct concepts of political warfare and hybrid conflict. Particular attention is paid to how these concepts relate to each other, even overlap, and yet describe discrete phenomena in the field of international relations. The chapter begins with an attempt to identify the grey zone and then explore Russian and Chinese activities in this realm. It then continues by seeking to define hybrid threats and distinguishing between the two concepts. Next, the concept of political warfare is explored as a possible replacement for the grey zone, though it is ultimately shown that the two terms are distinct and ‘political warfare’ as a term is problematic. Finally, in the conclusion, the author argues for greater clarity in the use of the terms while still arguing for the grey zone as a useful concept.
We Have Met the Grey Zone and He Is Us
Authors: MacIntosh Duncan
Published: April 2024

Grey zone attacks tend to paralyze response. This is so because of the inherently dilemmatic structure of certain choice scenarios and because grey zone attacks are designed to exploit our uncertainty and ambivalence about how much value we do or should place on the items that get attacked. This chapter brings standard strategies in decision theory to bear on these problems. It also offers some innovations. The first is the idea that we can subject to rational evaluation not only choice of action given our values but also the values themselves. A second innovation is that we can in effect create bright lines out of nothing to guide decision where it is better to make some decision than none. The final innovation is that we can find it rational to commit to being trustworthy and inclusive even with no capacity to enforce against failures of constructive response to such overtures from others.
Rethinking Coercion in Cyberspace
Authors: Kilovaty Ido
Published: April 2024

International law prohibits external intervention in the domestic and external affairs of another state, rooted in principles of territorial sovereignty, sovereign equality, and political independence. While the principle of non-intervention is understood by many to be a bedrock principle of international law, its precise scope and constitutive elements are contested at this time. Today’s world is undergoing rapid technological and geopolitical changes that place the principle of non-intervention, as it was understood for decades, in the grey zone of international law. This chapter analyses the constitutive elements of non-intervention and examines how socio-technological transformations challenge its foundations. It argues that socio-technological changes pose a significant threat to the survival of the non-intervention principle, leaving its utility unclear, its meaning unfixed, and its legitimacy a paramount principle of international law open to question. The chapter concludes by exploring future trajectories and challenges for non-intervention in this changing landscape of international relations.
In Pursuit of Geopolitical Advantage
Authors: Griffith Melissa K.
Published: April 2024

While we know a great deal about the dynamics of conflict and war, we know far less about the dynamics of strategic competition that occurs in the grey zone below the threshold of military confrontation. Yet, it is here that geopolitical competition between States takes on unique features and poses unique policy challenges. While cyber operations can, have, and will continue to be used alongside kinetic means in periods of armed conflict, much of the activity observed to date has occurred outside this context and without triggering open military confrontation. The chapter argues that grey zone cyber operations are distinguished by critical interconnectedness, pervasive malicious activity, and operational flexibility, setting them apart from historical intelligence contests and episodic military confrontations. Consequently, cyber operations redefine the importance of sustained competition below the threshold of war and call for a wider range of defensive policies.
Lawfare, China, and the Grey Zone
Authors: Kittrie Orde F.
Published: April 2024

Law is becoming an increasingly powerful and prevalent weapon of war. Lawfare, the use of law as a weapon of war, is particularly useful in the grey zone. The world’s preeminent practitioner of lawfare in the grey zone is the People’s Republic of China. Although the United States is a far more law-oriented society, with a higher proportion of its best minds entering the legal field, China is currently waging lawfare far more diligently and systematically than is its American competitor. This chapter develops these points to provide an overview of lawfare and China’s doctrine and practice in this area. Individual sections focus in more detail on China’s long-standing use of maritime and other access-denial lawfare against the United States and its allies, efforts to use lawfare to shape the future of information technologies, the critical role that civilian information technologies are likely to play during a period of heightened tensions short of kinetic conflict, and China’s grey zone use of its trade regulatory authorities to pursue military policy objectives.
The Maritime Domain
Authors: Letts David
Published: April 2024

The maritime domain has been subject to a number of activities, in a variety of regions throughout the world, that could be characterized as grey zone operations in recent years. This chapter attempts to define the essential components of maritime hybrid threats, the maritime grey zone, and operations that occur in that zone, looking at a number of examples to inform this analysis. The chapter also assesses how the law of the sea deals with hybrid threats and maritime grey zone activity, again using case studies to illustrate the issues. Finally, the chapter considers elements of the actions of powerful States that have used hybridity and grey zone operations to achieve their aims, provides some observations regarding whether there is a unique element about the maritime domain that makes it particularly susceptible to these types of activities, and considers the necessity of new solutions and responses to counter the impact of these activities.
Hybrid and Grey Zone Operations in Outer Space
Authors: Zwart Melissa de
Published: April 2024

Outer space has become a unique environment for grey zone operations. As space has grown from a domain accessible only to a small group of space powers to a vital sphere of commercial and military operations, there is increasing scope for tension. The chapter begins by identifying key attributes of space operations which make it susceptible to grey zone operations, then provides an overview of the relevant international space law and an analysis of the Artemis Accords process. Turning to the key threat to the continued use of the space domain, destructive ASAT tests, leads on to the discussion of the push for the development of norms of responsible behaviour in order to avoid the continuation of destructive behaviours in space. Finally, the chapter discusses these developments in the context of how we can better identify and manage these grey zone threats to ensure continued access to space.
Lying in the Grey Zone
Authors: Wheatley Steven
Published: April 2024

This chapter examines the role and legal status of State lying in grey zone conflicts, focusing on States lying to other States in their inter-State communications. The chapter begins by examining the utility of State lying in grey zone conflicts, looking at the example of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. While there is presently no international law prohibition on State lying, the chapter argues that we should extend the existing laws on insincere State utterances to include lying by States. Because the existing laws are explained by the principle of good faith, the proposed prohibition on State lying would only apply when States are coordinating plans of action, creating problems for its application in grey zone conflicts. The chapter looks to resolve some of these difficulties, before concluding with a summary of the argument.
A Grey Zone Analytic Framework for Military Operations
Authors: Nix Maegen , Chang Welton
Published: April 2024

Grey zone operations conducted to further political objectives are a vital component of conflict strategies adopted by competing State and non-State actors. The lack of a commonly accepted methodology to assess and understand how grey zone operations relate to and are executed as a part of adversarial strategic campaigns increases the risk that States will not be prepared for the outbreak of more conventional kinetic conflict. Parties therefore need to manage and counter adversary grey zone operations before security risks rise to a critical level. This chapter contributes to these efforts by addressing specific grey zone examples that focus on the use of military and paramilitary forces to capture military thinking about grey zone operations and campaigns, providing an analytical framework for comparative operational lines of effort.
Legal Resilience
Authors: Sari Aurel
Published: April 2024

This chapter explores the utility of resilience thinking at the intersection between international law and contemporary security threats. Specifically, it asks what benefits, if any, the notion of resilience may offer for addressing the legal challenges associated with grey zone conflict and hybrid threats. The chapter reviews the key features of resilience thinking and its reception in legal doctrine to formulate a definition of ‘legal resilience’. It then turns to assessing the utility of legal resilience in the context of grey zone conflict and hybrid threats, suggesting that the notion offers certain analytical and normative benefits that are worth pursuing. To realize these benefits, the chapter calls on open societies and institutions to develop ‘legal resilience strategies’ to serve as conceptual and policy frameworks to resist, recover from, and adapt to disturbances in the legal domain in a more comprehensive and systematic fashion. The final section offers some concluding thoughts.
Security Assistance by Liberal Democracies
Authors: Regan and Mitt , Harrison Sarah
Published: April 2024

Providing security assistance to partner States by liberal democracies has the potential to serve as an effective instrument of competition in the grey zone. It ideally can extend donor State influence while avoiding direct intervention and confrontation with adversaries. At the same time, liberal democracies face challenges in ensuring that such assistance effectively meets their security needs in ways that are consistent with liberal democratic values. This chapter argues that navigating these challenges requires liberal democracies to be sensitive to the practical demands of enhancing partner State capabilities and the values that may be in tension as they attempt to do so. To assist with this, the chapter develops a framework for identifying the pertinent challenges and appreciating the trade-offs that they may require.
Legal Resilience from a Finnish Perspective
Authors: Ferm Tiina
Published: April 2024

This chapter addresses legal resilience from the Finnish perspective in the context of countering and responding to hybrid threats. Following Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, the security environment of Finland deteriorated significantly. Finland is preparing for the possibility of becoming a target of exceptional, extensive, and multifaceted hybrid influence in activities the short and long term. The chapter examines how Finland has been proactively addressing gaps in its domestic legislation with the aim of mitigating vulnerabilities, for example, by adding hybrid threats to the basis for emergency conditions in the Emergency Powers Act. The chapter reviews some of the key steps taken by Finland to establish the necessary legal and operative tools to respond to hybrid threats. It also argues that Finland’s comprehensive security concept provides an example of how one nation is preparing for hybrid threats and organizing the activities of its competent authorities to this end.
The Path to Legal Resilience
Authors: Mosquera Andrés B. Muñoz , Perrin Jean Emmanuel , Sergis Panagiotis , Benítez, and Rodrigo Vázquez , Toscano Borja Montes
Published: April 2024

This chapter takes a closer look at the idea of legal resilience and the steps necessary to put the notion into practice. In the context of hybrid threat scenarios, legal resilience serves as an overarching goal and conceptual framework to respond to hostile legal operations with the aim of preventing or mitigating their adverse effects and, ultimately, to uphold the rules-based international order. The chapter focuses on the steps taken within Allied Command Operations to put legal resilience into effect by developing procedures and guidelines for the conduct of legal operations. After highlighting the overarching need for legal interoperability in a multinational alliance such as NATO, the chapter discusses to tools developed to identify hostile legal actions and the various supporting measures, such as training, undertaken to enhance NATO’s ability to anticipate, respond to, and deter adversaries engaged in hostile legal activities against it.
Introduction
Authors: Chilton Adam , Rozema Kyle
Published: April 2024

This chapter introduces the goals and philosophy of this book. It first describes the litigation over the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering of electoral districts in the United States, which ultimately culminated in a Supreme Court justice calling the empirical evidence in the case “sociological gobbledygook.” It then explains that the goal of this book is to explain the empirical methods that many lawyers are quick to dismiss as gobbledygook. It also explains that this book will try to accomplish that goal while omitting the formulas and equations found in other books, instead focusing on explaining the intuition and logic of common empirical methods. This chapter concludes with a roadmap of the topics that will be covered in the subsequent chapters of the book.
Data and Statistics
Authors: Chilton Adam , Rozema Kyle
Published: April 2024

This chapter introduces the basics of data and statistics. It first defines important concepts that are relevant for understanding empirical methods, including statistic, data, data analysis, and empirical work. Beyond introducing these concepts, it describes that the most common statistics involve measures summarizing either the center of data or the spread of data. It also demonstrates how plotting the distribution of data can reveal important patterns that common statistics can miss. Finally, it describes how these concepts serve as key building blocks for hypothesis testing and assessing statistical significance, which make it possible to test whether differences in outcomes between groups are likely to be non-random.
Causal Inference and Experiments
Authors: Chilton Adam , Rozema Kyle
Published: April 2024

This chapter begins the main inquiry of the remaining chapters of the book: causal inference, which is the attempt to determine whether one variable causes changes in another variable. The chapter first describes how causal inference requires an explicit counterfactual and how a research design is a way of setting up the counterfactual to be studied. It then demonstrates why the gold standard to make causal inferences is an experiment. Finally, it introduces a figurative kind of experiment, known as a natural experiment, that is the focus of later chapters and is more commonly used to study the law.
Why Christian Perspectives Are Not Welcomed
Authors: Marsden George M.
Published: April 2024

This chapter analyzes the reasons that Christian perspectives are not welcome in dominant academic culture. The historical explanation for mainstream college and university culture not specifically bringing the Christian perspective into fields like politics, history, sociology, psychology, economics, and literature is that a broadly Christian ethos—the assumption, for instance, that there was a Creator who authorized moral law—was largely taken for granted until about the end of the nineteenth century. Then, in the twentieth century an essentially secular ethos—no assumption, for instance, of a Creator or transcendent authorization of moral tradition—came to be taken for granted. In neither setting was there much encouragement for mainstream academics to reflect on what difference Christian outlooks would make in their various fields. Today there is no realistic prospect for the reestablishment of the dominance of Christianity in America’s leading universities. Yet the biases against speaking about Christian perspectives persist. In effect, in place of a Protestant establishment we now have a virtual establishment of nonbelief.
The Arguments for Silence
Authors: Marsden George M.
Published: April 2024

This chapter begins with a discussion of why the “science versus religion” stereotype is so deeply etched in the minds of many academics. It then turns to how religious expressions are susceptible to restrictions in the name of multiculturalism. This is particularly true in classrooms where religious expression has widely been discouraged for most of this century. The chapter also considers how religious expression suffered from the old liberalism that dominated most of twentieth-century intellectual life, one of which is the rise of the dogma of “separation of church and state.” Each of these presents a prejudice that is difficult to surmount. Nevertheless, on examination, they prove to be just that: prejudices. None of them carries the compelling weight that would justify the widespread assumption that an explicit religious perspective is inappropriate.
Christian Scholarship and the Rules of the Academic Game
Authors: Marsden George M.
Published: April 2024

This chapter argues that while it is certainly true that some religious believers wish to destroy the pluralistic academy, there are many other religious viewpoints, including some theologically conservative ones, which harbor no such desire. For instance, it is perfectly possible to hold an Augustinian view that faith in God, rather than faith in self or material contingency, should shape one’s essential vision of reality and yet to support the rules of liberal society as a God-given means for accomplishing some limited but immensely valuable goals. The main problem is how to balance the advocacy implicit in all scholarship with academic standards that are scientific or “reasonable” in the sense of being accessible to people from many different ideological camps. Traditional religious viewpoints can be just as hospitable to scientifically sound investigation as many other viewpoints, all of which are ultimately grounded in some faith or other. Hence, religious perspectives ought to be recognized as legitimate in the mainstream academy so long as their proponents are willing to support the rules necessary for constructive exchange of ideas in a pluralistic setting.
What Difference Could It Possibly Make?
Authors: Marsden George M.
Published: April 2024

This chapter responds to some of the most significant questions that are likely to be raised regarding the possibility or advisability of developing identifiably Christian scholarship. It also sketches some of the types of ways in which we should expect Christian perspectives to have real impact. It is argued that moral judgments are not the whole of Christian influence on scholarship, but rather part of a larger pattern of values that will set a scholar’s academic agenda. Christian commitments make a difference to scholarship because scholars are whole people and the various aspects of their belief systems are interrelated. Many particular aspects of a Christian scholar’s work will look much like the work of a colleague who has another nontheistic set of commitments. Yet the relative importance that we assign to things, the central questions we ask about them, and the assumptions that lie behind these questions will all vary according to what makes up our larger picture of reality.
The Positive Contributions of Theological Context
Authors: Marsden George M.
Published: April 2024

While God and theology should be considered as factors in our scholarship, we do not want to reduce our subjects to just their theological dimensions. Such theological principles, important as they are, are just one point of reference that we should take into account in thinking about the significance of our work. Thus, Christians can do the bulk of their academic work according to the standards and perspectives of their discipline, just as long as they are willing to keep in mind the context of theological concerns and be open to reflecting on their implications for larger questions. Because there are many Christian theologies and many academic disciplines, it is impossible to present a simple set of rules for how theology might be integrated with other scholarship. This chapter considers a few examples based on some of the most common Christian points of doctrine. These include creation, the incarnation, the Holy Spirit, and the human condition.
Christian Scholarship in the Twenty-First Century
Authors: Marsden George M.
Published: April 2024

This Chapter considers what has changed regarding the place of Christian scholarship since the 1990s, when this book first appeared. In the 2020s the acceptance of intellectual diversity has made it less plausible to dismiss Christian scholarship on strictly empirical grounds. At the same time increased diversity has made academia more contentious, or “an intellectual Wild West.” In that setting Christians ought to be champions of law and order, endorsing rational standards for evidence and argument. They should also promote John Inazu has called “confident pluralism,” encouraging civil exchange of diverse views. James Hunter’s “faithful presence” is another helpful model. In a “post-secular era,” with secularism in disarray, Christian scholars and academic institutions have been resilient, despite many obstacles. Essential to their continued success is that they cultivate Christian virtues, loving those with whom they differ and pointing in their lives and work to the beauty of the Christian message.
Minds, Machines, and Gods
Authors: Vallor Shannon
Published: April 2024

Beginning with the example of the AI chatbot, this chapter reveals the gap between today’s machine mirrors and minds by explaining the difference between a mirror image and the reality it reflects. Unpacking the mirror metaphor in more detail, the chapter outlines the physical nature of minds and discusses how AI mirrors work in a fundamentally different way. It explains how the mirror phenomenon causes the most well-studied and common type of harm produced by commercial AI tools: unfair bias that fosters “runaway feedback loops” of discrimination and injustice. By reproducing and amplifying historical patterns of injustice found in our data, AI pushes humanity’s past failures into our future, ensuring that we make the same mistakes, only at ever greater scales. The chapter ends by reflecting on this threat to human potential as we stand on the brink of an unsustainable past that urgently commands our power to change.
Through the Looking Glass
Authors: Vallor Shannon
Published: April 2024

This chapter explores the seductive pull of our most popular, and dangerous, narrative about the future with AI. This fictional story, in which humanity’s privilege and power is conquered by malevolent, “superhuman” machines, long predates modern computing. In fact, this dark vision tells us very little about AI itself, or about the true risks of building machines to replace humans. Like Alice’s journey in Through the Looking Glass, it’s a mirror projection of our own deepest anxieties about our power. Unlike Alice’s harmless fantasy, however, this illusion has very real political consequences in longtermism, a growing movement to shift attention and resources away from the world’s most immediate challenges, and toward these looking-glass dangers. The chapter concludes by asking what futures we might build with a very different and more humane vision for AI, one guided not by fear and illusion, but by the virtues of moral imagination, courage, and wisdom.
AI and the Bootstrapping Problem
Authors: Vallor Shannon
Published: April 2024

This chapter confronts a serious obstacle to setting the trajectory of AI development on a new moral course. It will be hard enough to counter today’s commercial and political pressures to use AI to conserve the status quo, which disproportionately profits small but powerful interests. But there’s a deeper challenge. If we realign AI with a different, more humane set of values, what—and whose—should those values be? It’s a bootstrapping problem, since the models of excellence we already recognize and celebrate are the very ones that led us to build an unsustainable world. The “virtues of innovation” we still celebrate in the AI ecosystem—from single-minded ambition and perseverance, to independent thinking and optimized efficiency, to productivity and frictionless delivery—may be dead moral weight, holding our feet to the path we have long been on. Can we turn our moral sights for AI in a new direction?
In a Mirror, Brightly
Authors: Vallor Shannon
Published: April 2024

The final chapter envisions steering a new, humane, and sustainable course for ourselves with AI. We must refuse dangerous techno-utopian ideologies that falsely equate unregulated AI innovation with progress or—worse even—envision a world redeemed by our machine replacements. Yet AI has a role to play in a sustainable and just future. Human reinvention has always been aided by technological imagination, which is every bit as natural and vital to our shared flourishing as is our moral and political imagination. A sustainable world demands that technological imagination come home to its earliest, most humane impulse: to serve the needs of others and secure a future for them. In the book’s final pages, we find encouragement and inspiration for this vision in recent science fiction that reimagines what, who, and how we could be with AI, by reclaiming the moral confidence, courage, and wisdom to repair a broken world.
Strategic Workforce Planning
Authors: Ward Dan L.
Published: April 2024

As one of the earlier practitioners, the author traces the evolution of modern workforce strategy planning as it evolved from statistically driven manpower planning modeling into more broadly based human resource planning. He suggests that a divided approach evolved as it split between those who approached it from a workforce data science foundation versus those who incorporated it within a generalized management consultancy domain. He suggests both focus areas are needed for strategic workforce planning to be truly successful. Based on legacy experience, he suggests that a solid managerial consultancy mindset is critical if one is to successfully address the fundamental workforce challenge of adequately anticipating and addressing the workforce capabilities required for future mission success.
Strategic Workforce Planning for Growth
Authors: Eyring James D. , Newmark, and Andrew P. , Setlur Sunil
Published: April 2024

Revenue growth is critical for company success, but most companies don’t sufficiently consider the impact of forecasted revenue when creating their strategic workforce plans. High- and low-growth companies face different challenges which impact company strategy, capability needs, and company culture. This chapter explores the challenges of high and low growth and describes how companies can adapt their workforce planning approach and talent strategies to meet the needs of multispeed growth. Cases from Marriott International and Gojek highlight how these two businesses have adapted their strategic workforce planning process and talent strategies to meet the needs of growth.
Strategic Work-Task Planning
Authors: Creelman David , Fink Alexis A. , Ulrich David
Published: April 2024

This chapter discusses the concept of work-task planning as an alternative to traditional workforce planning. It emphasizes the importance of analyzing tasks and the skills required to execute them rather than focusing solely on jobs and employees. Work-task planning provides insights and opportunities for talent management, allowing organizations to fill gaps in skills and efficiently allocate tasks. The authors discuss various factors driving the need for work-task planning, such as the pace of change, automation, the rise of gig workers, and advancements in natural language processing, as well as examples of work-task planning in different industries; they also discuss the challenges involved in implementing this approach. This chapter also highlights the significance of creating a taxonomy of tasks and outlines steps for effective work-task planning implementation. Overall, work-task planning offers flexibility and agility in adapting to changing work dynamics and achieving strategic goals.
The Job as Work Role and Profession
Authors: Fischbach Andrea , Schneider Benjamin
Published: April 2024

The new world of work is dynamic, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, making it increasingly less possible to precisely describe, prescribe, and directly manage work and workers. The reality of the modern work world is that workers must use their discretion as they carry out their new and expanded roles and responsibilities. To make this new work role effective, companies must focus on more than upskilling workers. They do this by actively creating a climate for professionalism commensurate with the new professional work role. This chapter details the human resources (HR) practices necessary to create the climate necessary for modern organizations to be effective in this new world of work.
The X-Factor in Strategic Workforce Planning
Authors: Reimer David , Bryant Adam
Published: April 2024

This chapter explores strategic workforce planning (SWP) from the mindset of the CEO. It provides three different, real-world case studies in which the CEO and the company faced unique challenges both inside and outside their companies. In each, the CEO conveyed a different level of openness and understanding for SWP to the conditions they were trying to navigate. The authors offer ways that SWP professionals can elevate the conversation, such that the CEO is more likely to feel urgency and provide access for SWP discussions within their already busy agenda. The authors also suggest ways to engage the CEO with the right questions so that they will view SWP as being about ongoing competitive advantage of the firm rather than an exercise to be delegated to the HR function.
The New “Science of Politics”
Authors: Siegel Neil S.
Published: April 2024

Chapter Two introduces concepts and methods in economics and political science that inform subsequent chapters of The Collective-Action Constitution. This chapter defines collective-action problems and uses simple 2 × 2 matrix game theory to sort such problems into two categories—cooperation problems and coordination problems—which are distinguished by their primary causes. The chapter then discusses potential differences between 2 × 2 matrix models and many kinds of interactions that arise in life. Complexities include increasing the number of agents whose cooperation or coordination is required for collective action to succeed, which helps explain and evaluate the Framers’ skepticism that the states would (and should) address their own collective-action problems and the Framers’ optimism that the federal government would be structurally better situated to offer solutions. These complexities do not generally change the number or nature of the collective-action problems that occur, but the complexities can affect the likelihood that collective action will succeed. In addition, Chapter Two identifies potential solutions to collective-action problems, some of which are better suited to certain such problems and environments than others, and each of which may face significant challenges. Finally, the chapter distinguishes the “pure” collective-action problems studied by game theorists from the “impure” collective-action problems that arise in life, which involve disagreements about whether there is a collective-action problem in need of solving. When collective-action problems are impure, most agents—not all—would be better off from their own perspective if collective action succeeded.
The Necessity of Federal Power
Authors: Siegel Neil S.
Published: April 2024

Chapter 4 of The Collective-Action Constitution argues that, because nationalist Founders did not expect the states regularly to be able to act collectively, the Constitution empowers the federal government to solve many multistate collective-action problems. The constitutional text and structure reflect the conviction that the federal government operating through majority (or supermajority) rule will be more likely to find solutions that elude states trying to cooperate or coordinate through unanimity rule. Professor George William Van Cleve writes in his history of the Confederation period that the Constitution ultimately emerged from “the states’ and sections’ willingness to confer fundamental new powers on the national government and to permit them to be exercised by majority vote.” Thus, the eighteen clauses of Article I, Section 8, where most of Congress’s legislative powers are found, mainly authorize Congress to address collective-action problems for the states that are caused by state incentives not to cooperate with other states no matter what other states do; by coordination difficulties for states; or by cost externalizations by states that exceed internalized benefits. Foremost among the Section 8 powers is Congress’s taxing authority—and, relatedly, its powers to spend and borrow. After detailing the main structural problems with the Articles of Confederation and the ways in which nationalist Framers sought to address them in drafting Resolution VI of the Virginia Plan and then Section 8, this chapter analyses the collective-action dimensions of the congressional powers to tax, spend, and borrow.
Races to the Bottom, Interstate Coordination, and Territorial Empire
Authors: Siegel Neil S.
Published: April 2024

Chapter 8 of The Collective-Action Constitution analyzes, from a collective-action perspective, the Constitution’s underappreciated role in helping define the constitutional relationship among the states themselves. Article IV’s two initial sections contain provisions that either limit what states may do or empower Congress to act. The Full Faith and Credit Clause, the Effects Clause, the Privileges and Immunities Clause, and the Extradition Clause aim to secure political and economic union by preventing collective-action problems for the states. Distressingly, the same could have been said of the Fugitive Slave Clause. The collective-action rationale for exclusive federal power to enforce this clause underscores the significance of constitutional rights as a firm limit on what the federal government can do, and state governments cannot do, to solve or prevent collective-action problems for the states. Article IV’s third section turns from the movement of persons across state lines to the control over territory. The Territory Clause gives Congress exclusive power to dispose of and regulate federal lands and other property, and the Admissions Clause gives Congress exclusive power to admit new states into the Union. These clauses both authorize the federal government to solve collective-action problems for the states and prevent states from causing them. Their placement together in the same section may reflect an original expectation that federal territories would eventually become states. This has not always happened, however, which raises troubling questions about the democratic legitimacy of contemporary American empire.
The Collective Costs of Strict Supermajority Requirements
Authors: Siegel Neil S.
Published: April 2024

Chapter 10 of The Collective-Action Constitution turns from interpreting the Constitution to perfecting it by making it easier for congressional majorities to solve collective-action problems for the states. This chapter discusses impediments to collective action imposed by the supermajority voting requirements that must be satisfied before important powers may be exercised. These include proposing and approving constitutional amendments, a two-part process that overrepresents the states. These also encompass concluding treaties, a procedure as difficult to use under the Constitution as it was under the Articles of Confederation. These supermajority requirements have made use of the associated powers increasingly rare and prompted the development of workarounds. Such workarounds and other considerations suggest that these supermajority rules are incompatible with the perceived needs of modern American governance. Two other supermajority voting rules empower presidents to undermine congressional solutions to multistate collective-action problems. The Framers did not anticipate that presidents might abuse their power vis-à-vis Congress and not just be victims of such abuse, and so the Framers did not worry about the difficulty of overriding presidential vetoes by meeting strict supermajority requirements. Nor did the Framers anticipate dramatically expanded executive power and political parties, let alone polarized, antagonistic parties and constant razor’s-edge elections. These developments make it extraordinarily difficult to override vetoes and remove impeached presidents by securing two-thirds support in the Senate. These supermajority rules likely make collective action by members of Congress—which helps protect federal statutes that solve collective-action problems for states—too difficult to accomplish in modern America.
The Problem of Congressional Gridlock
Authors: Siegel Neil S.
Published: April 2024

Chapter 11 of The Collective-Action Constitution argues that the US Constitution’s greatest defect in modern times is that Congress often cannot legislate to help solve serious societal problems that the states would need to act collectively to address. This chapter identifies five primary causes of gridlock: bicameralism, the separation (and interrelation) of powers, policy-based vetoes, the Senate filibuster, and polarized, antagonistic parties in a closely divided policy. To protect state autonomy and individual liberty, the Framers created a bicameral legislature and a separation-of-powers system, both of which make it more difficult to legislate than in a unicameral legislature and a parliamentary system. But the Framers did not imagine that veto threats would come to dominate the policymaking process in situations having nothing to do with perceived encroachments on the presidency or bills the president thinks unconstitutional. Nor were the Framers responsible for subconstitutional “veto gates” in Congress, especially the filibuster. Finally, the Framers did not foresee political parties, let alone polarized, antagonistic parties, extreme partisan gerrymanders, and constant razor’s-edge elections. A result has been power shifts from Congress to the executive branch, federal courts, and states. The main workaround for gridlock has been more frequent unilateral action by the executive, which is less enduring and far-reaching than legislation, and which poses greater risks of democratic deficits and backsliding. Although it is likely too hard to legislate today, collective-action problems would almost certainly be more severe if the federal government were dissolved and states had to unanimously agree to address them.
The Political as a (Feminist) Question
Authors: Krystalli Roxani
Published: April 2024

What does it mean to be a ‘good victim’? The growing fascination with victimhood in Colombia, and the ethical and methodological concerns stemming from that gaze, prompted a reorientation of this inquiry towards the role of bureaucracies in shaping both the category of ‘victim’, as well as its associated subjectivities and relationships. Rather than asserting that victimhood is political, the book asks what kinds of politics the status of ‘victim’ can enable. This chapter introduces the concept of the ‘good victim’ and connects it to interdisciplinary feminist discussions about agency and politics. The chapter also articulates the contributions that this study of the politics of victimhood can make to understandings of the state, subjectivities, and politics in the wake of violence.
Making Victims
Authors: Krystalli Roxani
Published: April 2024

This chapter interweaves three historical accounts, offering a brief history of violence in Colombia, an overview of the 2016 peace process between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and an analysis of the development of the institutional framework of transitional justice in the country. Rather than providing a comprehensive history of every aspect of the armed conflict, the chapter concentrates on key turning points that shaped the transitional justice process, which took shape before the conclusion of a formal peace accord. The analysis focuses on the institutional bureaucracy of victimhood in Colombia, analysing both laws and policies pertaining to those recognized as victims and the normative shifts that allowed them to come into force. These include a shift from mobilization around the mantle of displacement towards the category of ‘victim’, and a transition from the language of disasters and development to the register of rights.
Making the (Good) State
Authors: Krystalli Roxani
Published: April 2024

This chapter proceeds from an attentiveness to how ‘the state’ haunts those who embody it or seek its attention. It traces the life histories of the professionals who populate the bureaucracy of victimhood in Colombia by asking: How does being seen like a state shape transitional justice professionals’ encounters with people who identify as victims? What does it mean to become the state, and how do professionals make sense of that positioning, the power they wield, and the affective dilemmas it generates? Ultimately, how are the politics of becoming, being, and being seen like a state entwined with the politics of victimhood? Building on the collective wisdom of ethnographies of the state in Colombia, the argument underscores that it is not only the state that makes ‘victims’, but also victimhood makes the state in the wake of violence. The ghosts and hauntings introduced in this chapter reappear throughout the book.
Victim Professionals and Professionalized Victims
Authors: Krystalli Roxani
Published: April 2024

This chapter critically engages with the expectations of professionalization that recurred in bureaucrats’ encounters with people recognized as victims. What kind of subject is the professional(ized) victim, and what work do the narratives and practices of professionalization do during transitions from violence? Speaking of professionalization, rather than only of professionalism, brings a process into focus. The chapter pays attention to the politics of the ‘victim’ subject this process produces and the mechanisms and labour by which this subject comes into being, becomes ideal(ized), or is contested. Focusing on the legacies of transitional justice mechanisms, rather than the legacies of the violence of the armed conflict, this chapter brings to the fore the labour, paperwork, vernaculars, and ways of being these programmes require and inspire. The chapter also takes seriously the care work that people do in the margins and shadows of the bureaucracy of victimhood.
‘Victim’ as Distinction
Authors: Krystalli Roxani
Published: April 2024

Literature on transitions from war has drawn attention to the hierarchies that the label of ‘victim’ reflects and contains. This chapter extends that conversation by highlighting how the category of ‘victim of armed conflict’ itself functions as a maker of hierarchy. Focusing on the gendered dimensions of the differential approach of the peace and justice process in Colombia, the analysis pays attention to the distinctions and divisions the status of ‘victim’ creates among forms of violence, social movements, and versions of one’s own self. The distinctions and divisions that arise pertain not only to bureaucratic avenues and encounters, but also to socio-political mobilization around violence and the (re)making of the self and relationships in the wake of war.
The Future of Victimhood
Authors: Krystalli Roxani
Published: April 2024

Ideas about ‘good victims’ reflect contests over the resonance of identities and statuses across different time horizons. This concluding chapter looks towards the future of the victim category by asking: What are the implications of insisting on transitioning away from a victim identity and asking people to leave claims of victimhood in the past, while violence is ongoing and public policy fulfilment for people recognized as victims is incomplete? How do different actors imagine the future of victimhood, and how do these framings of past, present, and future shape politics, relationships, and claim-making? Rather than treating the past, present, and future as fully distinct temporal phases that one can linearly travel through, this story frames time more fluidly. Violence, victimhood, and the political subjectivities they bring to bear blur the tenses; they link the past, present, and future, shaping people’s memories, imaginations, and claims.
A New Creed on Regulation
Authors: Kus Basak
Published: April 2024

Chapter 2 unpacks the core tenets of the neoliberal perspective on regulation. It charts the rise of an intellectual wave in the 1970s and 1980s, marked by figures like Stigler, Peltzman, Buchanan, Tullock, Krueger, Niskanen, and others, that was critical of direct and substantive governmental regulation. It then traces how this anti-statist viewpoint was further fortified in the 1990s by breakthroughs in financial economics and the growing allure of the New Public Management approach to governance. The chapter highlights the transformative role economists have played in molding the contours of the American regulatory state. The chapter also lends a better understanding to the principles guiding the US government’s regulatory approach to a financializing economy.