Bargaining in legislatures over private and public goods with endogenous recognition

Public Choice - This paper studies a sequential model of multilateral bargaining under majority rule in which legislators make decisions in both private and public good dimensions via an endogenous...     

Understanding Turkish secularism in the 21th century: a contextual roadmap

ABSTRACT

This paper asserts that Turkish secularism and Islamism represent two faces of one coin – contemporary Turkish politics – when one considers their goals and strategies. The two ideological movements have shaped one another and each now seeks to impose itself as superior. This article unpacks these differences and similarities in the following steps: (a) it defines the socio-historic modes of Turkish secularism and (b) examines its social and political origins; (c) it then explores Islam’s return to the public domain as an oppositional Turkish identity; (d) and thereafter considers the diverse understandings of secularism resulting from neoliberal policies that relaxed state control over Islam, which then prompted socially-acceptable reinterpretations of Islam; and finally (e) describes how the AKP’s has re-imagined secularism while (mis)using Islam as a political instrument. The comparison highlights such commonalties as a collectivist character, a desire for state control as a vehicle to realize an ideology, intolerance of diversity and criminalization of other perspectives, and the differentiation of religion as morality in the private sphere versus its cultural role in the public sphere. It concludes that, under the AKP government, Islam is used as a tool to consolidate the power of Erdo?an’s kleptocratic regime.     

Reputation and U.S. Withdrawal from Iraq

The need to demonstrate America's resolve is a major argument among those who oppose a premature U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. According to this argument, a quick exit from Iraq would be a major blow to U.S. credibility and embolden the forces of radical Islam in their war against the United States. This article assesses this “reputational” argument and concludes that evidence from radical Islamists’ pronouncements gives the argument significant and unprecedented forcefulness. These pronouncements unmistakably call into question the United States’ resoluteness by pointing to America's past withdrawals from theaters of war and declare Iraq as the central front, raising the reputational stake of a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq considerably. The potency of the reputational argument is also unprecedented when it is compared to its similar formulation during the Vietnam War, when it was vague and short of supporting evidence. The reputational argument may play an important rationale in maintaining a substantial level of American forces in Iraq for years to come.     

Investigating demodex in forensic autopsy cases

Demodex is an ectoparasite living in the skin as a nonpathogen or a pathogen. It is also known that demodex acts as a vector of pathogenic microorganisms. In this study, we have investigated the rate of occurrence and vitality of demodex in forensic autopsies that have a high risk of contamination by infected organisms. The study, which was cross-sectional, conducted on 100 autopsy cases: 77 of the bodies were male and 23 female. The average age was 41. The samples were taken from the forehead, nose, cheeks, eyelashes and the temporal areas using the standardized skin surface biopsy and hair epilation techniques that were modified for this study. The data obtained were assessed statistically. Demodex was determined in 10% of all the cases. The cases revealed that demodex increased in old age and was more frequently seen in people with fair complexion. It was most frequently found in the forehead and the cheek. The longest postmortem interval in the positive cases was 55 h. The relationship between the postmortem interval and the presence of demodex was not statistically significant. Considering the fact that demodex, which is transmitted from human to human through skin contact, acts as a vector of pathogenic organisms and can stay alive in dead bodies for a long time, we think that the personnel performing autopsies without taking the necessary precautions are under risk.     

Conflict and gender: the implications of the Burundian conflict on HIV/AIDS risks

Sexual and gender-based violence in many conflict and post-conflict contexts are creating vulnerabilities to HIV. The paper is based on research conducted in Burundi in 2007–2008.The country experienced long-term civil war from the early 1990s until recently and has been the locus of post-conflict disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes, providing a coherent and focused study. The research finds that the relationship between conflict and HIV/AIDS is a function of pre-existing gender relations that also regulate sexual life and determine critical female vulnerabilities. When put under stress by armed conflict, these vulnerabilities become amplified, creating conditions for the increased spread of HIV. Analysis of how gender relations and vulnerabilities change according to the specific social and economic circumstances generated by military mobilisation, organisation and deployment, in relation to civilian displacement and insecurity, in a range of distinct circumstances, provides a framework for understanding HIV vulnerabilities during and after the conflict.     

Performing through Friday khutbas: re-instrumentalization of religion in the new Turkey

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between religion and politics in current Turkish society, particularly since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) consolidated its power over state institutions and replaced the Kemalist establishment in the early 2010s. It argues that the AKP has re-instrumentalized the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and used its mosques to enact a performance of nationalism, deviating from a Kemalist, laicist-national identity towards a more encompassing, Ottomanist, religious one. After discussing the unique understanding of laicism in Turkey and the transformation of Diyanet as a state apparatus, content and discourse analyses are used to examine the texts of 1,200 Friday khutbas, weekly prayers that are ordinarily prepared and distributed nationwide by Diyanet. These indicate how citizens perform their nation simply by participating in gatherings, composing the congregation, listening to imams, and being exposed to the reminders of their (re-)identified nationality. The content analysis of Friday khutbas over three distinct periods—1927, 1997–2010, and 2011–2018—illustrates that, as political power shifts over time, the repetition of certain banal reminders used in the khutbas has resulted in different performances of the nation and that, under the rule of the AKP, a new performance has already begun.     

Adult violence with the mother and sibling as predictors of partner violence

The present study provides the first available evaluation of how violence with the mother and siblings during adulthood is associated with the occurrence of partner violence in young adults. Because a pattern of reciprocal partner violence is well documented, the authors hypothesized that reciprocal violence would also be found for adults and their mothers and for adults and their siblings. The authors also hypothesized that reciprocal violence with the mother and sisters would explain variance in partner violence even when controlling for other known predictors (poverty, poor family support, stress, anger, low self-esteem). Study participants included 377 college adults (114 men, 263 women; mean age = 24.4 years) who completed questionnaires to report their present violence to and from their mothers, sisters, brothers, and romantic partners. Violence is measured with a modified Conflict Tactics Scale. No sibling gender differences are found in violence reported as adults. Factor analysis confirms good fit for three clusters of reciprocal violence for adults: violence with the mother, violence with siblings, violence with the romantic partner. Violence with the mother and siblings significantly explains variance in partner violence even after controlling for other contextual variables, but only for women. One interpretation of present results is that because women receive less socialization than men to use violence, these two within-family models of violence have more significance for increasing their risk of partner violence. Partner violence prevention programs could include participation of mothers and siblings to enhance development of more peaceful conflict resolution patterns within and outside the family.