Interreligious conflict in Israel: The group basis of conflicting visions

Utilizing several theories of sociocultural mobilization, this paper examines the contours of secular-religious conflict in contemporary Israel. According to a survey of adult Israelis, resistance to religious coercion among the secular population is driven primarily by symbolic, social, and cognitive forces rather than perceived discrimination or the threat posed by spatial proximity to the religious. As such, it is rooted in cultural identity. The theocratic disposition among religious Israelis is almost entirely a matter of social identification. These findings both confirm existing theories of intergroup conflict and suggest a framework for analyzing religion and state controversies in other polities.     

U.S. Senators' Support for Israel Examined Through Sponsorship/Cosponsorship Decisions, 1993–2002: The Influence of Elite and Constituent Factors

This paper explores Senate policy-making toward Israel from 1993–2002. Previous scholarship suggests that congressional policymaking toward Israel is heavily influenced by the ethnic and religious identification of both legislators and their constituents, not simply by legislators' abstract perceptions of the national interest. Other literature de-emphasizes the likelihood that constituent interests will affect Congressional foreign policy making. We test for an impact of both elite and constituent characteristics on Congressional support for Israel, using sponsorship–cosponsorship decisions in the 103rd–107th Congresses. Israel's strongest supporters in this period are shown to be Jewish, conservative, Republican, and evangelical senators. Notably, elite characteristics (partisanship, ideology, and religion) matter more than constituency factors, with the exception of the Jewish population in senators' home states. While Jewish and conservative senators have long been vocal supporters of Israel, evangelical and Republican senators have not historically taken such a strong pro-Israel stance; hence they are relatively new additions to the active pro-Israel coalition. Thus the pro-Israel coalition shows both continuity and change as it has broadened to include new partners. However, we suggest that this coalition is not necessarily stable and may undergo further evolution in the future.     

Zur Theorie der Interessenvermittlung: Ein Netzwerkansatz dargestellt am Beispiel der Gemeinsamen Europäischen Agrarpolitik

Recent policy network studies contribute significantly to the theory of interest mediation. Despite this contribution policy network approaches still contain major theoretical deficiencies and a lack of empirical application can be observed. In this context a typology of systems of interest mediation is theoretically derived on the basis of new developments in the political exchange theory (Pappi/Henning 1998a). Analogously to the typology of economic markets, the typology corresponds to the social organization of political exchange in policy networks. Further, it is demonstrated that in contrast to conclusions found in the literature no general correspondence of specific types of interest mediation and policy-outcomes in terms of weak versus strong states, efficient versus inefficient economic policies and biased versus unbiased mediation of societies interests can be expected. In the empirical part of the paper the typology is applied to the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) using policy network data. In particular, a block model analysis is applied aggregating a set of multiple network relations among a multitude of public and private actors operating in the CAP to identify whether the overall social macro structure corresponds to national clientelism or supranational pluralism.     

Reviving rosetta tharpe: performance and memory in the 21st century

This article examines the pleasures and dangers of the 'reviving'—that is, restoring to memory, of a 'forgotten' female gospel-guitarist, Sister Rosetta Tharpe. It argues that the erasure of black women from cultural memory is not merely the effect of the passage of time, but of small but significant acts of forgetting that themselves constitute cultural practices. As examples of attempts to forestall forgetting and 'revive' the dead, the essay looks to a recent Rosetta Tharpe tribute CD, composed of women musicians' versions of songs Tharpe made famous, as well as a local Pittsburgh theatre incorporation of Tharpe as a character in its production 4 Real Women. Both projects, although inevitably fraught by difficulties specific to their medium of performance and address, set the terms of cultural 'revival' crucial not merely to Rosetta Tharpe but to black women performers generally.     

Employment Discrimination Law and Industrial Psychology: Social Science as Social Authority and the Co‐Production of Law and Science

This article combines Monahan and Walker's classification of social facts, social authority, and social frameworks with political‐institutionalism's view of law and science as competing institutional logics to explain how, and with what consequences, employment discrimination law and industrial‐organizational (I‐O) psychology became co‐produced. When social science is incorporated into enforcement of legislative law as social authority—rationale for judicial rule making—law's institutional logic of relying on precedent and reasoning by analogy ensures that social science will have ongoing influence on law's development. By helping set research agendas and providing new professional opportunities, institutionalized legal doctrine shapes social science knowledge. But because of differences in institutional logic, wherein legal cumulation is backward looking whereas scientific cumulation is forward looking, co‐production of law and science may produce institutional mismatch between legal doctrine and scientific knowledge.     

The security culture of the ECOWAS: origins,development and the challenge of child trafficking

This article explores the relationship between the security culture of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and how it has responded to transnational challenges in West Africa. To do so, it provides an overview of how the ideas, norms and principles that constitute the embryonic security culture of ECOWAS have evolved historically. Against this backdrop the article focuses on how the regional organisation has dealt with a specific contemporary security challenge: child trafficking. The concluding part of the article seeks to explain ECOWAS's collective action on child trafficking with reference to the region's different threat perceptions and security priorities. This article argues that although the decisions and policies of ECOWAS on child trafficking are influenced by certain shared ideas, norms and principles, a breakdown of collective political will and continuing differences on the key security referents and appropriate approaches to the security of individuals have led ECOWAS member states to fail in effectively addressing this particular transnational security challenge.     

Work Impairment and Disability in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Review and Recommendations for Psychological Injury Research and Practice

Work impairment and disability are common consequences of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as reflected by significant rates of sickness absence, failure to return to work, and reduced work performance. Within the psychological injury field, the issue of work impairment and disability in PTSD often arises in workers’ compensation and disability insurance claims and in personal injury litigation. In this context, clinical and forensic practitioners are faced with challenges in rendering expert opinions on diagnosis, causality, prognosis, and recommendations for treatment and rehabilitation. To promote understanding of this important, yet understudied area, there are three aims of this paper: first, to review the current literature on work impairment and disability associated with PTSD; second, to draw on this literature to present a biopsychosocial framework of work impairment and disability in PTSD; and third, to offer suggestions for improving the assessment and management of PTSD-related work impairment and disability.     

An Intelligent Radical’s Guide to the 1930s

In six short chapters, covering 1934 to 1940, the fifty-year-old Alfred Kazin self-assuredly serves as Virgil guiding readers, along with his younger self, through the mythic “Red Decade” in a style that delivers straight-up lectures intercalated with show-and-tell. What did Kazin do and how did he do it?