Content Type: Journal Article / Publication Year: within 25 Years

13601. Current Situation of Muslim Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author:: Juan Carlos Antúnez
Publication Date:: 10-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Athena Intelligence Journal
Institution:: Athena Intelligence
Abstract:: Tras el desmoronamiento de la antigua Yugoslavia el Islam en Bosnia se tuvo que enfrentar a dos grandes desafíos que le han marcado en gran medida y de los que todavía se recupera: 1.- El uso del Islam como factor de cohesión del sentimiento nacionalista de los musulmanes de Bosnia ha producido una cierta islamización de la sociedad, utilizándose el Islam como un elemento político; y 2.-La influencia de ideas radicales foráneas, diferentes a la versión tradicional del Islam en el país y, en la mayoría de los casos, totalmente incompatibles con el modo de sentir la religión de la mayor parte de los musulmanes de los Balcanes.
Topic:: Islam
Political Geography:: Bosnia and Balkans

13602. Reflections on 3/11 Madrid Bombings Sentence

Author:: Luis de la Corte Ibáñez
Publication Date:: 10-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Athena Intelligence Journal
Institution:: Athena Intelligence
Abstract:: Este análisis extrae algunas conclusiones sobre la sentencia del 11-M, hecha pública el pasado uno de noviembre. En particular, los comentarios vertidos en las siguientes páginas abordarán tres cuestiones sucesivas: el definitivo debacle de las llamadas teorías conspirativas, los aspectos explicativos del 11-M que no pudieron ser suficientemente tratados en la mencionada sentencia y los fallos que facilitaron la comisión de los atentados
Topic:: Terrorism
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

13603. The Morabitun World Movement in Spain

Author:: Jesús González and Andrés Gómez
Publication Date:: 10-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Athena Intelligence Journal
Institution:: Athena Intelligence
Abstract:: El nombre de "al-Murabitún" remite al menos a tres movimientos o grupos separados temporalmente aunque con un objetivo compartido: la lucha contra el infiel desviado del camino del Islam. El primer referente histórico lo constituyen los Murabitún de Al-Andalus ("hombres de la Ribat"), almorávides de la dinastía bereber - los más temidos guerreros de la época, por cierto- en los actuales Marruecos, Mauritania, Argelia Occidental y España entre 1056/1060 y 1 147 d. C
Topic:: Islam
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

13604. Improvised Explosive Devices

Author:: Javier Jordán and Fernando M. Mañas
Publication Date:: 10-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Athena Intelligence Journal
Institution:: Athena Intelligence
Abstract:: Las fuerzas de Estados Unidos se encuentran empeñadas en dos teatros bélicos que son escenario de insurgencia y contrainsurgencia: Afganistán e Irak. En ellos los insurgentes combaten, en la mayor parte de los casos, mediante tácticas que evitan el enfrentamiento directo y que, además de asegurar un goteo continuo de bajas norteamericanas y europeas, prolongan el conflicto y les permiten vislumbrar un horizonte de victoria a través de la obstinación. En semejante contexto los artefactos explosivos improvisados VEDs, acrónimo de Improvised Explosive Device) se han convertido en una de las principales armas de los insurgentes. Prueba de ello es que los ataques con IEDs son responsables de gran parte de las muertes sufridas por las fuerzas internacionales desplegadas en Afganistán e Irak. Este paper ofrece un análisis introductorio sobre las características básicas de los IEDs, las principales contramedidas, y las consecuencias estratégicas y políticas de su empleo.
Topic:: Terrorism
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Iraq, Middle East, and Asia

13605. Spanish Society Three Years after 3/11 Madrid Bombings

Author:: Domingo JimÃ©nez
Publication Date:: 10-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Athena Intelligence Journal
Institution:: Athena Intelligence
Abstract:: El objetivo del presente trabajo es describir la evolución de la percepción de la amenaza yihadista en los últimos tres años intentando identificar las causas que hayan podido incidir en las oscilaciones, si las hubiese. Tomando como punto de partida los trabajos que han estudiado el modo en el que los atentados de Madrid pudieron incidir en las elecciones generales de 2004 y viendo los resultados de los estudios de opinión realizados desde esa fecha en nuestro país (principalmente los barómetros de CIS y los del Real Instituto Elcano que han cubierto estos aspectos), hemos descrito la evolución de la percepción de los españoles acerca del terrorismo yihadista durante este período.
Topic:: Civil Society and Terrorism
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

13606. Spanish Jihadist Networks: Evolution after 3/11 Madrid Bombings

Author:: Javier Jordán
Publication Date:: 10-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Athena Intelligence Journal
Institution:: Athena Intelligence
Abstract:: Más de tres años después de los atentados del 11 de marzo de 2004, las Fuerzas y Cuerpos de Seguridad del Estado continúan desarticulando redes yihadistas en nuestro país. Durante este tiempo los medios de comunicación han venido prestando atención a las operaciones policiales de cierto calado y, en los últimos meses, también han logrado espacio informativo las proclamas yihadistas a favor de la recuperación de Al-Andalus. Parece claro que España sigue amenazada por el terrorismo yihadista pero la capacidad de real de estos grupos para volver atentar resulta un tanto confusa
Topic:: Islam and Terrorism
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

13607. Freeing All God's Children

Author:: Clifford Bob
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Human Rights and Human Welfare - Review Essays
Institution:: Josef Korbel Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver
Abstract:: Each year since 1999 the U.S. State Department has issued a lengthy report on violations of religious freedoms around the world. In recent years, Human Rights Watch and other major rights organizations have made religious persecution one of their major foci. And the world media now pays significant attention to violations of worship rights. As a result, countries such as Sudan, China, North Korea, Uzbekistan, and others have faced international pressure for their repression of various faiths, especially Christianity.
Topic:: Non-Governmental Organization and Religion
Political Geography:: Africa, United States, China, Sudan, North Korea, and Uzbekistan

13608. "I'm just talking about the law": Guantánamo and the Lawyers

Author:: Marten Zwanenburg
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Human Rights and Human Welfare - Review Essays
Institution:: Josef Korbel Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver
Abstract:: “Because the legal advice was we could do what we wanted to them there”. This is how a top-level Pentagon official, in David Rose's Guantánamo: The War on Human Rights, explains why detainees held by the United States have been detained at Guantanamo Bay. It is just one illustration of the important role that lawyers have played in the “War on Terror”—a role, along with factors that have or that may have influenced it, that forms the topic of this essay.
Topic:: Government, Human Rights, and Torture
Political Geography:: United States

13609. Noble Human Rights Defender or International Band-Aid? On Contemporary Humanitarianism

Author:: Kurt Mills
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Human Rights and Human Welfare - Review Essays
Institution:: Josef Korbel Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver
Abstract:: In David Forsythe's The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross we see a microcosm of the internal and external struggles and dilemmas that human rights and humanitarian organizations face today. We see a picture of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as both the “heroic leader” and the “marginal social worker”. We see an organization at one time quite satisfied with its principles and ways of doing things, but also a movement which is internally divided and incoherent in many ways. We see an organization which is seemingly both incompatible and complementary with other human rights and humanitarian organizations. We see an organization firmly tied to states while also in opposition to them. We see an organization clinging to, and attempting to propagate, rules governing warfare in the face of many recalcitrant states, while at the same time setting aside the letter of the law when necessary.
Topic:: Humanitarian Aid and Non-Governmental Organization

13610. Making Sense of a Senseless War

Author:: J. Peter Pham
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Human Rights and Human Welfare - Review Essays
Institution:: Josef Korbel Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver
Abstract:: In a report on the United Nations-supervised disarmament process in Sierra Leone, veteran Washington Post correspondent Douglas Farah described the pathos of the ragged Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighters: many were barely into their teens, straggling into a processing center in the diamond-rich eastern district of Kono with little more than ill-fitting rags draped over their emaciated bodies (Farah 2001). There was little evidence that these broken youths had, just a short while earlier, been part of one of the most brutal and effective insurgencies in the world, one whose strategy was predicated on terror in its most primordial expression. Farah's piece was headlined, “They Fought for Nothing, and That's What They Got,” a succinct description of a conflict that struck many as senseless, despite its heavy toll in lives and property.
Topic:: United Nations
Political Geography:: Africa, Washington, and Sierra Leone

13611. The Ethics of Torture

Author:: Rebecca Evans
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Human Rights and Human Welfare - Review Essays
Institution:: Josef Korbel Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver
Abstract:: Torture has once again become a timely topic. The “War on Terror” launched after September 11, 2001 has renewed a philosophical and political debate, in the United States and elsewhere, about whether torture is ever justified. The basic parameters of this debate revolve around the question whether there should be an absolute prohibition against torture or whether, under carefully specified circumstances, it is a lesser evil to torture a suspect for information to prevent a greater evil that menaces society.
Topic:: Terrorism and Torture

13612. Exploring Universal Rights: A Symposium

Author:: Jamie Mayerfeld, Henry Shue, Jack Donnelly, Kok-Chor Tan, Charles Beitz, and Brooke A. Ackerly
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Human Rights and Human Welfare - Review Essays
Institution:: Josef Korbel Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver
Abstract:: The struggle for human rights has been shadowed by philosophical doubt. Can we assert universal human rights without engaging in moral imperialism? Can we have confidence in the moral beliefs that underlie human rights claims? Can we justify human rights to those who do not believe in the intrinsic value of autonomy? Which Rights Should Be Universal?, the first of two projected volumes on human rights, is a significant contribution to this literature. In a series of original and mind-opening arguments, William Talbott, a professor of philosophy at the University of Washington, lifts us over one philosophical impasse after another. Admirers of Which Rights Should Be Universal? will find their thinking about human rights enlarged and enhanced by a wealth of new concepts; critics will be kept busy in answering the book's copious arguments. From any perspective, Professor Talbott's book moves the conversation about human rights onto a new plane.
Topic:: Civil Society, Development, Gender Issues, Human Rights, Political Economy, and Post Colonialism
Political Geography:: Global Focus

13613. The Universality of Human Rights: A Response

Author:: William J. Talbott
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Human Rights and Human Welfare - Review Essays
Institution:: Josef Korbel Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver
Abstract:: I want to thank my critics for their excellent comments. Before I try to respond to them, let me say something about the project that I intend to be contributing to. In my book, I ask the question: which rights should beuniversal? The book is the first of two volumes that try to answer it. In the first volume, which is the only one that has been published so far, I focus on the big picture and outline, in general terms, a list of nine basic rights. I provide both consequentialist and non-consequentialist rationales for the rights on my list. In the second volume Human Rights and Human Well-Being(forthcoming),I explain why I favor the consequentialist rationale over the non-consequentialist rationale, I specify more precisely the contours of the basic rights, and I consider which other rights should be universal.
Topic:: Human Rights

13614. Global Imbalances, Tanking Dollar, and the IMF's Surveillance over Exchange Rate Policies

Author:: Sitikantha Pattanaik
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: The exchange rate policies of the member countries of the International Monetary Fund could come under more intrusive scrutiny because of the June 15, 2007, decision of the IMF Executive Board on bilateral surveillance. This article highlights why the IMF decision cannot help in addressing the problem of global imbalances, even if it succeeds in delivering further appreciation of the exchange rates of surplus countries against the U.S. dollar. Moreover, there could be enormous challenges for effective implementation of the decision, which may further erode the credibility of the IMF. Even though disorderly correction of global imbalances remains a concern for every country, shifting the burden of adjustment entirely to surplus countries could have potentially damaging implications for international cooperation on global economic challenges. Past experiences of international cooperation to deal with global imbalances and currency misalignments suggest that countries rarely sacrifice their domestic economic priorities. Without appropriate macroeconomic adjustment measures, neither the high and growing U.S. current account deficit nor the savings glut of several surplus countries can be corrected solely by removing exchange rate misalignments.
Political Geography:: United States

13615. Can Corruption Ever Improve an Economy?

Author:: Douglas A. Houston
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Many in the world of developmental economics believe that corruption, the circumvention of the rule of law for private gain, leads to nothing but woe for any nation's economy, under any circumstances. Transparency International makes the elimination of corruption their mission, and many large multinational firms today echo that goal by building ethical codes that prohibit employees from engaging in practices deemed corrupt, regardless of local attitudes and customs toward the practices. The World Bank makes curbing corruption a linchpin in their campaign to improve governance. Reasons given for blanket condemnation of corrupt behavior are often utilitarian: Corruption is expected to increase the economic costs of doing business by undermining the laws of the land; this, in turn, reduces productive activities and investments, with negative consequences unfolding for human development and economic growth.
Topic:: Corruption, Economics, and Government

13616. Economic Freedom, Corruption, and Growth

Author:: Mushfiq us Swaleheen and Dean Stansel
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: This article adds to the empirical literature on the relationship between corruption and economic growth by incorporating the impact of economic freedom. We utilize an econometric model with two improvements on the previous literature: (1) our model accounts for the fact that economic growth, corruption, and investment are jointly determined, and (2) we include economic freedom explicitly as an explanatory variable. Using a panel of 60 countries, we find that for countries with low economic freedom (where individuals have limited economic choices), corruption reduces economic growth. However, in countries with high economic freedom, corruption is found to increase economic growth. Our results contradict the generally accepted view that corruption lowers the rate of growth. We use Osterfeld's (1992) distinction between expansive and restrictive corruption to explain our results. According to Osterfeld, corruption expands output if more bribes help the economy move toward greater free exchange. Thus, in economies where economic freedom is high, if bribing makes public officials less diligent in enforcing restrictions on firms' activities, output will increase. However, corruption will restrict output when bribes reduce competition and increase market rigidities. This outcome is more likely in countries where economic freedom is low due to widespread state ownership of assets (e.g., in China), monopolies and high tariff barriers granted to businesses owned by ruling elites and their cronies (e.g., the Philippines under Marcos and Indonesia under Suharto), and state-run marketing boards that are often the sole purchasers of agricultural products (e.g., in several African countries). An increase in corruption in these low economic freedom countries means even less competition and free exchange and leads to a fall in output. The policy implication of our finding is straightforward: The surest way to mitigate corruption and its adverse effects is to increase economic freedom.
Political Geography:: Africa

13617. Government Behavior and Trust: The Case of China

Author:: Peihong Yang
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Social capital has become a critical term in the social sciences since Loury (1977) and Coleman's (1988) seminal studies. Coleman (1990) and Putnan, Leonardi, and Nanetti (1993) focus on the positive spillover effect of social capital. Fukuyama (1997) argues that only certain shared norms and values can be regarded as social capital. Putnan (2000), Ostrom (2000), and Bowles and Gintis (2002) highlight the network effect of social capital. All these studies demonstrate that trust is central to social capital.
Political Geography:: China

13618. The Real Coase Theorems

Author:: Glenn Fox
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: The “Coase theorem,” in one respect, is a triumph of social science scholarship. Web searches using “Coase theorem” as key words typically yield over 100,000 hits. Economists, legal scholars, environmentalists, and political scientists have written volumes on the theorem. Few ideas written by economists in the 20th century have been as widely debated. And the debating continues, 47 years after the publication of “The Problem of Social Cost” (Coase 1960), the essay recognized as the source of the ideas in question. There is only one problem: Ronald Coase maintains that the theorem that bears his name conveys an idea that is antithetical to the message that he intended.

13619. Potential Gains from Trade in Dirty Industries: Revisiting Lawrence Summers' Memo

Author:: Jay Johnson, Gary Pecquet, and Leon Taylor
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Lawrence Summers has a long history of controversial statements. Well before his comments in 2005 as then-president of Harvard University about the underrepresentation of women on faculties for mathematics and science, Summers was the chief economist at the World Bank. In that position, he penned a memo to his colleagues in 1991 that was leaked to the public, drawing heated criticism. In 1999, when President Bill Clinton nominated Summers as Secretary of the Treasury, the controversy over Summers' memo was revived during his Senate confirmation hearings. Hundreds of articles were posted on the Internet at that time attempting to sway public opinion against Summers.

13620. Economic Liberty and the Official Law Books in Colonial Massachusetts

Author:: Charles Edward Smith
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Hernando de Soto's The Mystery of Capital traces the essential developments of land registration and titling in 19th century U.S. history. But his chronology omits implementation of mid-17th century English legal reform initiatives in colonial Massachusetts concerning land registration, creditor-debtor law, and market regulations. Massachusetts's legislators were pursuing a reform agenda in an agrarian, semi-literate, and pre-contract society, conditions that are similar to many developing countries today. This article expands on de Soto's work by examining the vehicle that colonial Massachusetts utilized to communicate its ordinances and regulations: the official law books printed and distributed to colonists.
Political Geography:: United States

13621. The Role of Fiscal and Political Institutions in Limiting the Size of State Government

Author:: Robert Krol
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: In many states, tax and expenditure limits constrain government spending. All but one state have adopted balanced-budget rules. Some governors have the power to veto individual budget items (the so-called line-item veto). This article reviews the evidence linking fiscal and political institutions to state taxation, spending, and debt.

13622. Do Spillover Benefits Create A Market Inefficiency in K-12 Public Education?

Author:: Kerry A. King
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: In economics there is a well-established framework for determining whether government intervention into a market is justified. If we look from the perspective of economic efficiency, government intervention has the potential to improve the market outcome when a so-called market failure exists. As Bator (1958) suggests, certain categories of market failures such as public goods, externalities, and monopoly all contain certain properties that lead to an allocation of resources that is not Pareto-efficient—that is, does not equate marginal social benefits and costs.

13623. The Future of the U.S. Postal Service

Author:: Robert Carbaugh
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Structural, legal, and financial constraints have brought the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to the brink of breakdown in the past decade. Faced by declining business brought about by the e-mail revolution and competition from private express companies, the Postal Service has repeatedly requested assistance from the federal government. This culminated in December 2006 with the passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which introduces modest re-visions in the pricing and service policies of the Postal Service so as to make it a self-sustaining government corporation. But will it?
Political Geography:: United States

13624. Book Review: The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World

Author:: William Niskanen
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Alan Greenspan, for an $8 million advance, has written two books in one. The first 11 chapters are a personal memoir from his earliest child-hood memories through the end of 2006. The final 14 chapters are a series of lectures about the major recent changes in the United States and the world economy. The book is written in clear English, not Greenspan's occasional “Fedspeak,” and is a pleasure to read—the result of a productive collaboration with Peter Petre, who taught him to write in the first person as a participant rather than only as an observer of the many important events in the past several decades. This is important because Greenspan has a lot to say about the people and policies of six administrations from that of Richard Nixon to that of George W. Bush. And it is important for both economists and others to understand the major lessons from this period.

13625. Book Review: A Farewell to Alms: A Brief History of the World

Author:: Jason Kuznicki
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: The thesis of Gregory Clark's A Farewell to Alms is that, for most of human history and prehistory, there prevailed an essentially Malthusian social dynamic, one in which improvements in technology or wealth were turned almost immediately into increased population rather than in- creased individual wealth or technological innovation. Only calamities, such as the Black Death of the 14th century, could raise the average wealth of a society, and they did so by reducing the population.

13626. Book Review: Enemies of Intelligence: Knowledge and Power in American National Security

Author:: Justin Logan
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: After the shocking intelligence failure of September 11 and the faulty estimate of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, many observers are asking why such egregious mistakes happened, and what can be done to prevent repeat performances. Washington has never been short on proposed intelligence reforms. Daniel Patrick Moynihan proposed shuttering the CIA altogether while Gary Schmitt advocated giving Congress more raw intelligence. These and other proposals have varied a great deal in quality and feasibility.
Political Geography:: Iraq

13627. A "WEAPON IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE": THE RHETORICAL PRESIDENCY IN HISTORICAL AND CONCEPTUAL CONTEXT

Author:: Jeffrey Friedman
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: The Tulis thesis becomes even more powerful when the constitutional revolution he describes is put in its Progressive-Era context. The public had long demanded social reforms designed to curb or replace laissez-faire capitalism, which was seen as antithetical to the interests of ordinary working people. But popular demands for social reform went largely unmet until the 1910 s. Democratizing political reforms, such as the rhetorical presidency, were designed to facilitate “change” by finally giving the public the power to enact social reforms. The resulting political order has created systemic pressure for policy demagoguery in place of rational deliberation. Mass political mobilization seems to be better achieved by contests of grand principle that pit the well-meaning supporters of obviously needed reforms against “villains and conspirators,” than by technical discussions of the possibly counterproductive effects of those reforms.

13628. The Practical Origins Of The Rhetorical Presidency

Author:: Terri Bimes
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: As readers of The Rhetorical Presidency might expect, the Framers\' remarks at the Constitutional Convention revealed a deep concern about popular political ignorance—and a desire to shield the new government from it. However, when it came to designing the presidency, the Founders seem to have been less intent on insulating sitting presidents from the mass public than on guarding the presidents\' selection itself against elite factions that might take advantage of the public\'s ignorance. The resulting constitutional structure left the actual relationship between the president and the public open-ended. In short order, even the most restrained, patrician presidents took advantage of the opportunity to invoke, and to shape, public opinion—setting the stage for Andrew Jackson\'s, and his Democratic successors\', more aggressive presidential populism.
Topic:: Government

13629. Demagoguery, Statesmanship, And The American Presidency

Author:: James W. Ceaser
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: Worries about “the rhetorical presidency” ultimately concern the danger of presidential demagoguery. As such, they echo an important theme of the Founders, who erected several barriers to the emergence of the president as demagogue in chief. In the ancient sources on which the Founders partly drew, the worry was the popular or pseudo-popular leader who seizes on widespread envies, fears, or hopes in the service of his political career—in contrast to the statesman, who pursues the public good and is, therefore, less interested in how to gain office than in how to use it. Later iterations emphasized the “superstitious,” “prejudiced,” or ideological nature of demagogic appeals. When Woodrow Wilson proposed that the president should seize the public-policy initiative in the name of the people, he sought to insulate the presidency from charges of demagoguery by arguing that no leader who spoke falsely on behalf of the people could expect to win the office. True adepts of the “progress” of public opinion, hence of the public good, are non-demagogic by definition. Although one is hard pressed to find an American president who can unambiguously be called demagogic, one does find demagoguery among presidential candidates, especially during their campaigns for party nomination.
Political Geography:: America

13630. The Layered Rhetorical Presidency

Author:: David A. Crockett
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: The Rhetorical Presidency, with its critique of Richard Neustadt's Presidential Power, exemplifies the sectarian strife that sometimes marks presidency studies. Yet Tulis's own layered-text metaphor, in which the rhetorical presidency is superimposed upon the earlier constitutional office, also suggests how different approaches to the presidency can build upon each other. To the most foundational approach—the constitutional level of analysis—can be added historical, institutional, organizational, and operational layers. This pyramidal model places Neustadt's operational analysis in an appropriate position: subordinate, but still valuable.

13631. The Hyper-Rhetorical Presidency

Author:: John J. DiIulio, Jr.
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: During the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, the Executive Office of the President became dominated by West Wing advisers who specialized in campaign politics, media management, and nonstop public communications. With record numbers of presidential appointees requiring no congressional approval, the Bush White House pursued partisan control of cabinet agencies. Even obscure federal bureaus were required to remain “on message.” The constitutional derangement about which The Rhetorical Presidency had warned has occurred. No matter who occupies the Oval Office in the future, the hyper-rhetorical presidency is here to stay.

13632. The Idea of An Unrhetoricla Presidency

Author:: Bryan Garsten
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: Jeffrey Tulis's The Rhetorical Presidency should not be read as a tale of decline. It is not a call for an “un-rhetorical” presidency so much as an exploration of the fundamentally uneasy place that popular rhetoric occupies in constitutional governments. Popular rhetoric is one way that executives exercise their prerogative power, and the dilemmas about rhetoric that Tulis exposes arise from a fundamental fact about prerogative power that all presidents must confront: Strong constitutional governments seem almost necessarily to grant their chief executives more discretionary authority than is consistent with the idea of constitutional government. Whatever rhetorical style or strategy a president adopts, he must respond in one way or another to this fact.
Topic:: Government

13633. The Rhetorical Presidency and The Contemporary Media Environment

Author:: Susan Herbst
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: Presidential rhetoric can matter immensely in moments of national crisis, and even during times of less melodrama. But the possibilities for rhetorical impact are slipping away from American presidents. In light of the multiplication of presidential spokespeople, commentators, on-line editors, and audiences, and the relative intimacy of other personalities viewed by those audiences, one might posit that “presidential speech,” as described and analyzed by Tulis, is hurtling toward its demise. Tulis's important thesis may therefore need some serious updating.
Political Geography:: America

13634. A rhetorical judiciary, too?

Author:: Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Jeffrey Gottfried
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: Into Jeffrey Tulis's argument that “the rhetorical presidency signals and constitutes a fundamental transformation of American politics” he inserts parenthetically the question, “Has the rhetorical presidency now given birth to the rhetorical judiciary?” Whether the rhetorical presidency birthed or simply predated the rhetorical judiciary is open to question. The existence of the rhetorical judiciary is not. Since the publication of The Rhetorical Presidency, judges and their interlocutors have ratified one of the insights that grounded Tulis's question, while challenging another. They have borne out his fear that judges would increasingly respond to attack; his worry about the vacuity of confirmation hearings for those nominated to the Supreme Court, however, has not been similarly confirmed.

13635. Ppresidents' Party Affiliations and Their Communicatin Strategies

Author:: Mel Laracey
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: More than half of all pre-twentieth century presidents communicated with the public on policy matters. Some gave speeches or wrote public letters and messages, while others utilized the facade of a presidential newspaper. The partisan affiliations of the presidents who communicated with the public suggest that even before the full articulation of the concept of the “rhetorical” presidency by Woodrow Wilson, there was underlying disagreement among American political leaders about the proper role of the public in influencing public policy—and of the role of the president in influencing public opinion.
Political Geography:: America

13636. The Rhetorical Presidency and The Partisan Echo Chamber

Author:: Nicole Mellow
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: The rise of a partisan Congress can aggravate some of the pathologies of the rhetorical presidency identified by Jeffrey Tulis: reckless policy production, and the resulting public disillusionment with an overpromising government. In some cases, such as the debate over the invasion of Iraq, the unified ranks of the president's party amplify the president's simplistic rhetoric, reducing policy deliberation and aggravating public disappointment when reality turns out to be more complex. When combined with divided government, however, partisanship can work to produce deliberative compromises that mitigate these pathologies, as exemplified by the welfare-reform legislation enacted by a Republican Congress under a Democratic president in 1996.
Topic:: Government

13637. The Rhetorical and Administrative Presidencies

Author:: Sidney M. Milkis
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: The modern presidency emerged not from an effort to escape constitutional propriety, as Tulis argues, but, rather, to emancipate presidents from the localized political parties of the nineteenth century, which had come to be viewed as sites of provincial and corrupt forms of popular rule. As the troubled tenure of George W. Bush suggests, contemporary presidents are torn between the public expectation that they stand apart from party politics and act as the chief executive of the administrative state; and their role as party leaders, which links them to political allies in Congress and loyalists in the electorate. In its contribution to the development of a “new” national programmatic party system, the Bush administration reveals the potential for a novel, disturbing meld of party and administration, in which presidents seek to exploit the powers of the modern executive office for partisan gain.

13638. The Puzzle of the Rhetorical Presidency

Author:: Thomas L. Pangle
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: Jeffrey Tulis's classic study traces the central dilemmas of today's presidency to Woodrow Wilson's invention of the full-blown “rhetorical presidency”: a radicalized version of Theodore Roosevelt's essential rhetorical supplement to the Founders' inadequate conception of the office. But what is Tulis's teaching as to how we ought to evaluate this transformation? Tulis shows that our system suffers from a profound constitutional contradiction, with attendant deleterious consequences for our civic life; and he spotlights major virtues of TR's “middle way.” What, then, holds Tulis back from endorsing that “moderate” way as superior, even in principle, to the Wilsonian system under which we now live?

13639. Presidential Rhetoric from Wilson to "W": Popular Politics Meets Recalcritant Reality

Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: With the publication of Jeffrey Tulis's The Rhetorical Presidency, Woodrow Wilson's contribution to a major transformation in the American presidency—and in American politics—came to be recognized. But while Wilson believed that the danger of presidential demagoguery was overrated, forms of demagoguery that he underestimated have undermined the legitimacy of America's presidential democracy, in both its Wilsonian, plebiscitary form; and in the rule by decree to which presidents sometimes turn when their rhetoric does not suffice. The basic problem that Wilson overlooked is the mismatch between effective rhetoric and what can actually be accomplished, even by the most popular of presidents.
Topic:: Politics
Political Geography:: America

13640. When the president speaks, how do the people respond?

Author:: Paul J. Quirk
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: Tulis's critique of popular presidential leadership raises several questions about public opinion: Do modern, rhetorically inclined presidents influence the public? What types of presidential rhetoric might, in principle, mislead or manipulate the public? And is the net result that the people are led into error and distortion in their policy opinions? The public-opinion literature, which has assiduously documented the public's ignorance about politics and policy, might seem, at first glance, to offer grounds for an unequivocal “yes” to the third question. But most scholars of public opinion discount public ignorance and defend an optimistic view of the citizenry's political competence. The more convincing arguments and evidence, however, support more critical views. There is ample reason to worry about the consequences of policy making driven by popular rhetoric, and thus to consider whether any remedies for plebiscitary democracy might be found.

13641. Allegories of Reading Tulis

Author:: Diane Rubenstein
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: Jeffrey Tulis's The Rhetorical Presidency is deceptively titled. It is not about rhetoric or political symbolism or even about the American presidency as such, as were many postmodern studies produced in the Reagan era. Rather, Tulis re-situates rhetoric: a minor theme in a story about the presidency becomes an important avenue into profound questions of political order and republican governance. Like Tulis, I approach my thesis obliquely; I distinguish his from other, seemingly similar, works (and realign him with other rhetorical readers, such as Paul de Man and Jacques Derrida) to underscore what I see as the book's lasting legacy: its explication of the double binds and central paradoxes of republican governance (seen, for example, in presidential prerogative), and its articulation of the role of rhetoric in institutional transformation.
Topic:: Government and Governance
Political Geography:: America

13642. "Publicity" And the Progressive-Era Origins of Modern Politics

Author:: Adam D. Sheingate
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: The Rhetorical Presidency places great importance on the transformative power of political ideas. For Tulis, Progressive ideas informed the rhetorical practices of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson—practices that reconstituted the American presidency. They did so, in part, by trading on the ambiguous nature of the concept of “publicity”—which at once evoked liberal ideals of public deliberation and transparency, and modern practices of manipulative communication. In turn, the new practices of publicity revolutionized not only the American presidency, but American politics as a whole.
Topic:: Politics
Political Geography:: America

13643. The Rhetorical Presidency In Retrospect

Author:: Jeffrey K. Tulis
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Critical Review
Institution:: Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:: The Rhetorical Presidency is not, principally, a book about rhetoric or the presidency. Rather, rhetoric and the presidency are windows on the American constitutional order as a whole. Critics have greatly enhanced the historical narrative but have not undermined the principal historical and theoretical claims. Recent changes in the American polity are best understood as exacerbations of problems described in the book, rather than as fundamental alterations of our political world. Contemporary political pathologies can still be diagnosed as a product of the contending imperatives of the new constitutional order that has been layered on top of the old one. And while problems may be attenuated by a creative melding of the old and new orders, they cannot be solved within the confines of American constitutionalism, as it has been traditionally understood.
Political Geography:: America

13644. The Writer's Responsibility in France: From Flaubert to Sartre

Author:: Gisèle Sapiro
Publication Date:: 03-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: As Michel Foucault observed in his famous essay, “Qu'est-ce qu'un auteur?” before discourse was a product, it was an act that could be punished. The author's appropriation of discourse as his personal property is secondary to its ascription to his name through penal responsibility. In France, authorial responsibility was introduced in 1551 through royal legislation directed at controlling the book market. The Chateaubriant edict made it compulsory to print both the author's and the printer's names on any publication. The notion of responsibility is thus a fundamental aspect of the emergence of the figure of the modern writer. The state first imposed this conception of responsibility in order to control the circulation of discourses. But after writers internalized the notion, they deployed it against the state in their struggle to establish their moral right on their work and to have literary property recognized as individual property, a struggle that culminated in 1777 with a royal decree recognizing literary compositions as products of labor from which authors were entitled to derive an income. This professional development reinforced the writer's social prestige and status, in Max Weber's sense.
Political Geography:: France

13645. The DPRK's Decrepit Economy, Pyongyang's Achilles Heel

Author:: Dick K. Nanto
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: For a country ever on the brink of mass starvation, the DPRK in 2008 appears to have inched yet closer to an economic abyss that may generate famine and starvation not seen since the mid-1990s. This comes at a time when the Six Party Talks have reached what could be a turning point. In the talks, North Korea's decrepit economy serves as a primary source of leverage that parties in the talks are wielding to move decision making forward. “Great Leader” Kim Jong-il, who ever portrays himself as invincible, may find that the economy is his Achilles heel.
Political Geography:: North Korea and Pyongyang

13646. Redefining ROK's Strategic Posture in the Twenty-First Century

Author:: Choong Nam Kim
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: The Republic of Korea (ROK) requires a new strategic vision and a workable new strategy befitting a changing security environment and changing national interests. Having been preoccupied with an engagement policy toward Pyongyang, South Korea seems to be lacking a long-term strategic vision beyond the peninsula. In other words, its national strategy is not well defined. Moreover, the South Korean people are sharply divided over their country's security and foreign policies.
Political Geography:: South Korea and Pyongyang

13647. Re-Aligning the Military and Political Dimensions of the ROK-US Alliance: The Possibilities

Author:: Patrick M. Morgan
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: In a nutshell, the ROK-US alliance faces the following problem: for some time the military and political dimensions of the alliance have been out of alignment on adjusting to the international and national security issues that concern the alliance. In many ways the alliance should be doing well. After all, over time North Korea has become steadily weaker as an international actor, while those who explicitly oppose many elements of its foreign and domestic policies have grown in number, including all its immediate neighbors. The promising opening to the outside world that the North undertook after signing the Agreed Framework has been sharply devalued and it is back to being quite isolated. The economic recovery the North had begun earlier in this decade seems to have slowed. It is difficult to see how the North has benefited in any serious way from its missile tests or its test of a nuclear device. The alliance's goal of containing and deterring North Korea is well in hand – the DPRK has made no great breakout politically from containment and is militarily even weaker relative to the alliance than before, despite its missile and nuclear weapons programs. In addition, the alliance partners have been doing reasonably well in the East Asian system: flourishing economically, modernizing militarily. Despite all this the alliance has been under great strain in this decade, with much recrimination between the allies, so numerous analysts have suggested that it is not at all healthy. In this case, at least, success has been breeding decay.
Political Geography:: East Asia and North Korea

13648. Disabling "Nuclear" North Korea for Regional Balance and Security

Author:: Young Whan Kihl
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: The reality of a rising “nuclear” North Korea, with its testfiring of seven missiles on July 5, 2006, and underground testing of a nuclear device on October 9, was met by world-wide condemnation and emergency sessions of the United Nations Security Council. The world had not yet gotten accustomed to the two UN Security Council resolutions (1695 and 1718), imposing limited economic sanctions on North Korea, when it was surprised once again by the breakthrough announcement of February 13, 2007: the Six-Party Talks Accord on “Disabling the North Korean nuclear program.”
Political Geography:: North Korea

13649. The Terrorism List Issue in U.S. Policy Toward North Korea

Author:: Larry A. Niksch
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: The issue of North Korea's inclusion on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism has been in U.S.-North Korean diplomacy since 2000, but three stages are of particular importance: the first in 2000 in Clinton Administration-North Korean negotiations; the second during the 2003-2004 Six Party negotiations over the North Korean nuclear issue; and the third in the diplomacy around the Six Party nuclear agreement of February 2007. Until 2000, the core element of U.S.-North Korean diplomacy was the Agreed Framework, which Washington and Pyongyang signed in October 1994. It dealt primarily with North Korea's nuclear program, but U.S. obligations specified in the Agreed Framework included economic and diplomatic measures. However, the issue of removal of North Korea from the U.S. terrorism list was omitted from the Agreement. The issue appears not to have been a major object of the negotiations in 1994.
Political Geography:: United States and North Korea

13650. China's Foreign Policy toward North Korea—A US Perspective

Author:: Robert Sutter
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the demise of East-West and Sino-Soviet competition for influence in the Korean peninsula after the cold war, Beijing adjusted Chinese relations to take advantage of economic and other opportunities with South Korea, while sustaining a leading international position in relations with North Korea. In contrast with steady Chinese efforts to use post cold war conditions in order to advance China's relations with South Korea, Chinese foreign policy toward North Korea has been characterized by reactive moves in response to abrupt and often provocative behavior of North Korea, and, to a lesser degree, the United States.
Political Geography:: United States, China, Beijing, North Korea, and Soviet Union

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS