Political Science

The Provincial Agency for Sustainable Development (OPDS) and municipalities under the law of industrial settlement: delegation and decentralization in provincial regionalization.

by Federico Del Giorgio Solfa

Co-authored with Luciana Mercedes Girotto, published in VII Congreso de Medio Ambiente de la AUGM, May 22th - 24th 2012.

Environmental issues are oriented towards clean production, that is, a preventive strategy against contamination and a... more Environmental issues are oriented towards clean production, that is, a preventive strategy against contamination and a key point in the environmental policy. There is a trend to generate a sustainable productive development, including the environmental dimension. Among the rules and regulations, the General Environmental Act of the Province of Buenos Aires (Law No. 11723) seeks to protect, preserve, enhance and restore natural resources within the territory. This Act also compels the Provincial Executive Branch and the Municipalities to guarantee environmental rights, environmental policy principles as well as an environmental impact assessment on industries. This paper shows the relationship between the provincial institution for sustainable development (OPDS, in Spanish) - as the authority to enforce the law- and the municipalities within the Province of Buenos Aires. Municipalities were classified according to their productive features and resources. The industrial profile of each municipality was analyzed and the need for more exhaustive and direct control was determined in order to strengthen environmental protection. Advantages and obstacles (operative, legal and economic) from a local and a provincial perspective were also analyzed in order to delegate the OPDS faculties to Municipalities so the latter can issue environmental certificates and control industrial business. After this analysis, some proposals were made in order to strengthen  environmental actions taken by the provincial government.. Two lines were stated to improve the control of productive enterprises to achieve sustainable development: 1. trengthening the idea of the delegating OPDS faculties to municipalities, 2. decentralizing OPDS in the provincial program.

El horizonte en la temática ambiental es la producción limpia, estrategia preventiva de la contaminación e instrumento clave de la política ambiental. La tendencia es generar un desarrollo productivo sustentable, incorporando la dimensión ambiental. Entre las normativas, la Ley N° 11.723 “Ley de Medio Ambiente”, tiene por objeto la protección, conservación, mejoramiento y restauración de los recursos naturales y del ambiente, en la Provincia de Buenos Aires. La misma, obliga a que el Poder Ejecutivo Provincial y los Municipios, garanticen los derechos ambientales y los principios de política ambiental; al mismo tiempo que cada emprendimiento industrial cuente con una evaluación de impacto ambiental. En este contexto, el presente trabajo da cuenta de la relación existente entre el Organismo Provincial para el Desarrollo Sostenible (OPDS) -como Autoridad de Aplicación de la Ley- y los Municipios bonaerenses. Se clasificó a los Municipios, tomando en cuenta sus características productivas y recursos territoriales. Se diagnosticó el perfil industrial de cada municipio y se determinaron las necesidades de controles más directos y exhaustivos, para el fortalecimiento de la protección medioambiental. También se analizaron ventajas y obstáculos –operativos, legales y económicos- desde las perspectivas municipal y provincial, para la delegación de facultades del OPDS a los Municipios, en la expedición de Certificados Ambientales y las fiscalizaciones de los establecimientos industriales (Art. 2°, Ley N° 11.459). Una vez realizado el diagnóstico y el análisis respectivo, concluimos con algunas propuestas tendientes a alinear está temática con los principales ejes del gobierno provincial (PBA, 2011) y de esta manera, fortalecer la gestión medioambiental. Se desarrollan dos líneas: 1. Fortalecimiento de la delegación de facultades del OPDS a los Municipios; y, 2. Descentralización del OPDS en el marco del Programa de Regionalización Provincial. Entendiendo que a partir de estas propuestas, se podría mejorar el control de los emprendimientos productivos, logrando un desarrollo sustentable.

Factors Influencing Effectiveness of the Provincial Administrative Organizations in Providing Infrastructure Public Services

by Voharn Yasarawan

The objectives of this research were: (1) to study the effectiveness of Provincial Administrative Organizations in... more The objectives of this research were: (1) to study the effectiveness of Provincial Administrative Organizations in providing infrastructure public services under the concept of Balanced Scorecard from 4 perspectives, i.e., internal process perspective, financial perspective, learning and growth perspective and customer perspective; (2) to study factors influencing effectiveness of Provincial Administrative Organizations in providing  infrastructure public services under the concept  of  Steers from 4 types, i.e., the organizational structure, the organizational environment, the individuals in the organization and policy of administration and operation; (3) to create forecasting equations to forecast the effectiveness of Provincial Administrative Organizations in providing infrastructure public services; and (4) to study guidelines for developing the provision of  infrastructure public services of Provincial Administrative Organizations. The results revealed that: (1) the effectiveness of Provincial Administrative Organizations in providing infrastructure public services was at a high level; (2) organizational structure factors, organizational environment factors, and the individuals in the organization factors had a positive relationship with the effectiveness of Provincial Administrative Organizations in providing infrastructure public services at a rather high level, and policy of administration and operation factors had a positive relationship with the effectiveness of Provincial Administrative Organizations in providing infrastructure public services at a  rather high level; and (3) the variables of organizational culture, communication, change management, strategic management, organizational structure, conflict management, technology, motivation, personnel quality, and politics and law can jointly interpret the variance of the effectiveness of Provincial Administrative Organizations in providing infrastructure public services at 77%.

Ethnicity and machine politics

by Jerome Krase

This is a book I co-wrote with Charles La Cerra: Ethnicity and Machine Politics: The Madison Club of Brooklyn. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1992.

Uma Palavra Preocupada: A Escrita como Ofício de Cidadania em Eugénio de Andrade

by João de Mancelos

Mancelos, João de. “Uma palavra preocupada: A escrita como ofício de cidadania em Eugénio de Andrade”. Ofícios do Livro. Org. António Manuel Ferreira e Eugénia Pereira. Aveiro: Universidade de Aveiro, 2007. 153-162. ISBN: 978-972-789-257-0

“Temporal, por excelência, a palavra do poeta é uma palavra preocupada”, afirma Eugénio de Andrade. Na poesia, nas... more “Temporal, por excelência, a palavra do poeta é uma palavra preocupada”, afirma Eugénio de Andrade. Na poesia, nas entrevistas e nos volumes de meditações que nos deixou (Os Afluentes do Silêncio, Rosto Precário e À Sombra da Memória), Eugénio debruça-se, diversas vezes, sobre a escrita como um ofício de cidadania. Neste breve estudo, refiro e analiso passos que apresentam o poeta como um cidadão comprometido com as causas do anti-belicismo e da ecologia. Para tanto, recorro à obra eugeniana, ao corpus crítico e à minha opinião.

No One Is Safe from the Parodist (Part 4) by Barbara Ardinger

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

Just imagine it! See it now! You can learn the secrets of the New Alchemy and make your life free from all outside... more Just imagine it! See it now! You can learn the secrets of the New Alchemy and make your life free from all outside government interference! Tornado or hurricane in the neighborhood? Don’t call FEMA. Take care of it yourself! Finances unstable where you live? Listen to Old-Phashioned Phinancial Philosophers and print more money yourself! Plague or pandemic in town? Don’t call the AMA. Heal yourself. (And your family.) Terror attack or plane crash? Don’t call the TSA. Get out your gun and get those bad guys before they get you. Study the age-old secrets of the New Alchemy and learn what Do It Yourself really means. Become wholly independent by joining the Holy Independent Order (Reconstructed).

Religion in a Political Context: The Case of the Kingdom of Bahrain

by Magdalena Karolak

Asia Journal of Global Studies
Vol 4, No 1 (2010-11), 04-20

Politics and Gender: Advancing Female Political Participation in the Kingdom of Bahrain

by Magdalena Karolak

Paper presented at the Political Socialization and the Emerging Political Actors in in the Middle East Conference, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland, 18-20 May 2011

The aim of this paper is to assess the prospects of women empowerment in politics in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Due to... more The aim of this paper is to assess the prospects of women empowerment in politics in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Due to the social, economic and political changes experienced in Bahrain at the beginning of the 21st century, women's role in society has been constantly growing; their role in politics however lags behind.
Female participation in society is a new phenomenon in the Gulf region and it requires an in-depth analysis. It has been observed that the unprecedented economic boom in the 1970’s did not really open doors for female participation in Bahrain's society. In the 1970’s women made up only for 4 % of total workforce in Bahrain (Supreme Council for Women, 2001). Ross (2008) argued that oil rentierism is the cause of limited economic and political participation of women in the Middle East. Oil industry requires male labor and reduces female activity in the workforce. Consequently, women concentrate on running the households, which leads to higher fertility rates and limits possibilities of information exchange and thus political organization. In 2008, female participation in workforce rose to around 30% (Dunne, 2008). Fertility rates dropped from 7.09 children per woman rate in 1960’s to 2.29 in 2007 (World Bank, 2009). Women accounted for 70% of all university graduates (Bahrain Economic Development Board, 2009). It is no surprise that with better education and more prominent role in economics, female aspirations in the field of politics are on the rise. Furthermore governmental policies aim at reinforcing the position of women in society.
Women emancipation has been an important part in the governmental agenda as part of a broader strategy of development of the country, branded as Economic Vision 2030. In 2002 women were granted universal suffrage as well as the right to stand for elections to the lower house of the Bahrain Parliament. Women were subsequently appointed in high public offices. Cabinets in 2002 and 2006 included women as minister of health, minister of social affairs and minister of culture and information. Women were also appointed in the Shura Council, the upper chamber of the Parliament. In 2000 first woman represented Bahrain as ambassador. Establishment of the Supreme Council for Women in 2001 also marked the importance of women empowerment. This governmental organization advisory to the king, aims at improvement of skills of women, creation of job opportunities as well as promotion of awareness programs among women.
A slowly growing grassroot movement includes women's non-governmental associations as well as individual activists. Bahrain Businesswomen’s Society, Bahrain Women's Association for Human Development, Bahrain Women’s Association or Women’s Petition Committee aim at promotion of gender equality but also, in the case of three latter cases, protection from unjust treatment and abuse.
Based on the analysis of the 2002, 2006 and 2010 municipal and parliamentary elections, we observe however a number of factors, which account for poor results of female candidates in general elections. These are, between the others, patriarchal societal structure, impact of religion as well as reluctance of major political parties to endorse female candidates in general elections. Until now only one woman managed to secure a parliamentary seat in 2006 and in 2010; both times she was however running uncontested in her district. The first female municipal candidate was elected only in 2010.
In this paper we analize the impact of governmental policies as well as the activity of women's NGOs and women's grassroots movement and provide scenarios of possible change of societal attitudes that would allow a greater female participation in politics.

Bibliography
BAHRAIN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD (BEDB). (2009). Bahrain leads the way in building capabilities of women. Retrieved January 6, 2010, from www.bahrainedb.com
DUNNE, M. (n.d.). Women's Political Participation in the Gulf: A Conversation with Activists Fatin Bundagji (Saudi Arabia), Rola Dashti (Kuwait), Munira Fakhro (Bahrain). Retrieved December 11, 2009, from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Web site: http://www.carnegieendowment.org/
ROSS, M. L. (2008). Oil, Islam, and women. American Political Science Review, 102(1),107-123.
SUPREME COUNCIL FOR WOMEN. (2001). Statistics on Bahraini Women. Bahrain: SCW.
WORLD BANK (2009). World Bank Development Indicators. Washington: The World Bank.

Relacje sunnicko-szyickie w kontekście liberalizacji politycznej Bahrajnu

by Magdalena Karolak

Published in Middle Eastern Studies (Jagiellonian University)

Escalation of Social Conflict during Popular Upheavals: Evidence from Bahrain

by Magdalena Karolak

Central European Journal of Political Science

Bahraini Government and the e-Government Initiative: an Assessment

by Magdalena Karolak

Proceedings of the Asian Group for Public Administration Annual Conference 2012

The Emerging Neo-Communitarianism

by Will Davies

Forthcoming in Political Quarterly, 83: 4 Oct-Dec 2012 http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0032-3179

The financial crisis which began in 2007 has been widely interpreted as a crisis of neoliberalism, akin to the crisis... more The financial crisis which began in 2007 has been widely interpreted as a crisis of neoliberalism, akin to the crisis of Keynesianism of the 1970s. But there is little sign of a major paradigmatic alternative, either in theory in practice. This article looks at how the crises and failures of neoliberalism are occurring at a micro-policy level, where they are interpreted in terms of the fallibility of individual rational choice. Policy responses to this crisis, drawing on more psychologically nuanced accounts of economic behaviour, can be described as ‘neo-communitarian’, inasmuch as they echo the communitarian critique of the liberal self. Where neoliberalism rests on a vision of the individual as atomised and rational, neo-communitarianism treats individuals as governed by social norms and incentives simultaneously. And where neoliberalism subjects individuals to periodic audit organised around targets and outputs, neo-communitarianism conducts a constant audit of behavioural fluctuations in real time.

Crisis Is Governance: Sub-Prime, the Traumatic Event, and Bare Life

by james brassett

co-authored with Nick Vaughan-Williams

This article provides a critical analysis of how discourses of trauma and the traumatic event constituted the... more This article provides a critical analysis of how discourses of trauma and the traumatic event constituted the ethico-political possibilities and limits of the sub-prime crisis. Metaphors of a “financial tsunami” and pervasive media focus on emotional “responses” such as fear, anger and blame constituted the sub-prime crisis as a singular, traumatic “event” demanding particular (humanitarian) responses. Drawing upon the work of Giorgio Agamben, we render this constituted logic of event and response in terms of the securing of sovereign power and the concomitant production of bare life; the savers and homeowners who became “helpless victims” in need of rescue. Using Agamben’s recent arguments about “the apparatus” and processes of subjectification and de-subjectification, we illustrate this theoretical approach by addressing the position of the British economy, bankers and homeowners. On this view, it was the movement between subject positions—from safe to vulnerable, from entrepreneurial to greedy, from victim to survivor—that marked out the effective manner of governance during the sub-prime crisis. In the process sovereign categories of financial citizenship, asset based welfare and securitisation (which many would posit as the very problem) were confirmed as central to our future “survival”. In short, (the way that the) crisis (was constituted) is governance.

A Pragmatic Approach to the Tobin Tax Campaign: The Politics of Sentimental Education

by james brassett

The article provides a critical analysis of the campaign for a Tobin
Tax. A popular view that global civil... more The article provides a critical analysis of the campaign for a Tobin
Tax. A popular view that global civil society can act as an agent for ethics is interrogated by appeal to the dilemmas and political contests which pervade the campaign. Problems with financial and institutional universalism undermine any unambiguous ethical appeal in the TobinTax by imposing a set of limits on thinkable avenues of reform. How ever, and drawing on the philosophical pragmatism of Richard Rorty, it is argued that the campaign can be celebrated for its role in ongoing practices of ‘sentimental education’. By illustrating the harm that financial markets cause, the Tobin Tax involves larger, more diverse, audiences in a conversation about global finance; technical and sentimental discourses blur. Moreover, those very contests that pervade the campaign can act to interrupt the totalizing aspects of the proposal, thus making alternatives thinkable. Engaging the ‘politics of sentimental education’, in this way, allows a contingent celebration of what is ethically useful in the Tobin Tax, while leaving an area of contest that is potentially antithetical. Rather than plump for an either/or position, the difficult, but ethical, challenge is to do both-and. The article concludes by suggesting how this ‘politics of sentimental education’ might bear upon existing knowledge about the theory and practice of global civil society.

Ethics in world politics: cosmopolitanism and beyond?

by james brassett

Building the normative dimension (s) of a global polity

by james brassett

The Politics of Legitimate Global Governance

by james brassett

Legitimacy is an important question to ask of the theory and practice of global governance. In this introduction, we... more Legitimacy is an important question to ask of the theory and practice of global governance. In this introduction, we make two propositions that are used to push thinking about these issues forward. Firstly, in analytical terms we outline a spectrum between legitimacy and legitimization which is aimed to capture the diverse set of approaches to this subject and to develop an engaged and reformist attitude that refuses the either-or distinction in favour of a methodologically pluralist logic of ‘both and’. Secondly, in political terms, we argue that discussions of legitimate global governance in both policy and academic circles can carry a ‘Trojan horse’ quality whereby the ambiguity of the term might allow a point of intervention for more ambitious
ethical objectives.

Review - Paul Brass, An Indian Political Life: Charan Singh and Congress Politics, 1937 to 1961 (New Delhi, 2011)

by Uday Chandra

Forthcoming in Contemporary South Asia 22 (3), 2012

Taking the Copyfight Online: Comparing the Copyright Debate in Congressional Hearings, in Newspapers, and on the Web

by Bill Herman

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Volume 17, Issue 3, pages 354–368, April 2012

This article examines the rhetoric around copyright and the regulation of digital rights management (DRM) from 2003 to... more This article examines the rhetoric around copyright and the regulation of digital rights management (DRM) from 2003 to 2006 in congressional hearings, in major newspapers, and on the most prominent relevant websites. The article describes a new combination of methods for identifying a set of online documents to compare with offline documents via content analysis. These three media present very different views of the copyright debate. Hearings present a rough balance of both coalitions' messages. Newspapers lean slightly toward stronger fair use but have little coverage. The online debate features a deluge of strong fair use arguments. These findings highlight different communication strategies and suggest broader lessons about the changing nature of policy advocacy and the policymaking process.

Magic for a People Trained in Pragmatism: Kenneth Burke, Mein Kampf, and the Early 9/11 Oratory of George W. Bush

by Jason C. Thompson

British irony, global justice: a pragmatic reading of Chris Brown, Banksy and Ricky Gervais

by james brassett

The article provides a critical analysis of the concept of irony and how it relates to global justice. Taking Richard... more The article provides a critical analysis of the concept of irony and how it relates to global justice. Taking Richard Rorty as a lead, it is suggested that irony can foreground a sense of doubt over our own most heartfelt beliefs regarding justice. This provides at least one ideal sense in which irony can impact the discussion of global ethics by pitching less as a discourse of grand universals and more as a set of hopeful narratives about how to reduce suffering. The article then extends this notion via the particular – and particularly – ethnocentric case of British Irony. Accepting certain difficulties with any definition of British Irony the article reads the interventions of three protagonists on the subject of global justice – Chris Brown, Banksy and Ricky Gervais. It is argued that their considerations bring to light important nuances in irony relating to the importance of playfulness, tragedy, pain, self-criticism and paradox. The position is then qualified against the (opposing) critiques that irony is either too radical, or, too
conservative a quality to make a meaningful impact on the discussion of global justice. Ultimately, irony is defended as a critical and imaginative form, which can (but does not necessarily) foster a greater awareness of the possibilities and limits for thinking/doing global justice.