title: The trap of incrementalism in recognising children’s right to vote

authors: Munn, Nicholas

abstract: Thirty years on from the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the international norm for the age of political majority remains set at 18 years of age. With few exceptions, those under 18 are denied the right to vote in elections, local or national. Practical efforts to open this new frontier for human rights have primarily been focused on the incremental inclusion of older children into the franchise, via attempts to lower the voting age to 16. By contrast, theoretical arguments, particularly from philosophers, have defended a much more expansive position on the inclusion of children—lowering the age to 14, 12, or even eliminating age limits entirely. I argue that proponents of children's enfranchisement should pursue enfranchisement of all children who have a strong claim to political inclusion, rather than merely those closest to 18 years of age. Enfranchisement is itself empowering, as is the participation which follows. A commitment to theoretically more defensible but politically less likely positions could work to the advantage of children, by making moves such as the lowering of the voting age a reasonable compromise position, rather than an extreme to be opposed.

text: The trap of incrementalism in recognising children’s right to vote Thirty years on from the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the international norm for the age of political majority remains set at 18 years of age. With few exceptions, those under 18 are denied the right to vote in elections, local or national. Practical efforts to open this new frontier for human rights have primarily been focused on the incremental inclusion of older children into the franchise, via attempts to lower the voting age to 16. By contrast, theoretical arguments, particularly from philosophers, have defended a much more expansive position on the inclusion of children—lowering the age to 14, 12, or even eliminating age limits entirely. I argue that proponents of children's enfranchisement should pursue enfranchisement of all children who have a strong claim to political inclusion, rather than merely those closest to 18 years of age. Enfranchisement is itself empowering, as is the participation which follows. A commitment to theoretically more defensible but politically less likely positions could work to the advantage of children, by making moves such as the lowering of the voting age a reasonable compromise position, rather than an extreme to be opposed.

year: 2021-01-01

title: Transport theory and the WKB approximation for interplanetary MHD fluctuations

authors: Matthaeus, William H.

abstract: An alternative approach, based on a multiple scale analysis, is presented in order to reconcile the traditional WKB approach to the modeling of interplanetary fluctuations in a mildly inhomogeneous large-scale flow with a more recently developed transport theory. This enables us to compare directly, at a formal level, the inherent structure of the two models. In the case of noninteracting, incompressible (Alfvén) waves, the principle difference between the two models is the presence of leading-order couplings (called “mixing effects”) in the non-WKB turbulence model which are absent in a WKB development. Within the context of linearized MHD, two cases have been identified for which the leading order non-WKB “mixing term” does not vanish at zero wavelength. For these cases the WKB expansion is divergent, whereas the multiple-scale theory is well behaved. We have thus established that the WKB results are contained within the multiple-scale theory, but leading order mixing effects, which are likely to have important observational consequences, can never be recovered in the WKB style expansion. Properties of the higher-order terms in each expansion are also discussed, leading to the conclusion that the non-WKB hierarchy may be applicable even when the scale separation parameter is not small.

text: Transport theory and the WKB approximation for interplanetary MHD fluctuations An alternative approach, based on a multiple scale analysis, is presented in order to reconcile the traditional WKB approach to the modeling of interplanetary fluctuations in a mildly inhomogeneous large-scale flow with a more recently developed transport theory. This enables us to compare directly, at a formal level, the inherent structure of the two models. In the case of noninteracting, incompressible (Alfvén) waves, the principle difference between the two models is the presence of leading-order couplings (called “mixing effects”) in the non-WKB turbulence model which are absent in a WKB development. Within the context of linearized MHD, two cases have been identified for which the leading order non-WKB “mixing term” does not vanish at zero wavelength. For these cases the WKB expansion is divergent, whereas the multiple-scale theory is well behaved. We have thus established that the WKB results are contained within the multiple-scale theory, but leading order mixing effects, which are likely to have important observational consequences, can never be recovered in the WKB style expansion. Properties of the higher-order terms in each expansion are also discussed, leading to the conclusion that the non-WKB hierarchy may be applicable even when the scale separation parameter is not small.

year: 1994

title: “BODY-SNATCHING”: Changes to coroners legislation and possible Māori responses

authors: Mika, Carl Te Hira

subjects: body-snatcher

abstract: The term body-snatcher has enjoyed a renaissance in the media recently, as various Māori have moved to reclaim their deceased relations. From a Māori perspective, the claiming of bodies has nothing to do with body-snatching, a term that referred to episodes in the West. Indeed, Māori may see some laws themselves as instruments that snatch the body, in contravention of Māori customs. One of these laws, the Coroners Act 2006, may have made some progress by quietly acknowledging these customs in many ways, but that is merely the start of a greater dialogue between Māori and the Crown in relation to proper Māori respect of the dead body.

text: “BODY-SNATCHING”: Changes to coroners legislation and possible Māori responses The term body-snatcher has enjoyed a renaissance in the media recently, as various Māori have moved to reclaim their deceased relations. From a Māori perspective, the claiming of bodies has nothing to do with body-snatching, a term that referred to episodes in the West. Indeed, Māori may see some laws themselves as instruments that snatch the body, in contravention of Māori customs. One of these laws, the Coroners Act 2006, may have made some progress by quietly acknowledging these customs in many ways, but that is merely the start of a greater dialogue between Māori and the Crown in relation to proper Māori respect of the dead body.

year: 2009