Death for a Terrorist: Media Coverage of the McVeigh Execution as a Case Study in Interorganizational Partnering between the Public and Private Sectors

In June 2001, the Federal Bureau of Prisons helped to carry out the execution of Timothy McVeigh for his role in the infamous 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The intense national and international media attention that the execution received was virtually unprecedented in the bureau's history, and it put the bureau in the difficult position of having to carry out two potentially conflicting responsibilities: facilitating coverage of the execution by hundreds of reporters, producers, and technicians, while maintaining the safety and security of the maximum security penitentiary in which the execution was held. Historically, the Bureau of Prisons has preferred to maintain a low media profile and had no experience managing a large-scale media event. This article examines how the bureau met this challenge by forming a partnership with the news media through the creation of a Media Advisory Group. It analyzes the goals, functions, and achievements of the Media Advisory Group by employing the Dawes model of interorganizational relationships.     

Citizenship without states: rehabilitating citizenship discourse among the anarchist left

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, it seeks to give expression to the trends of an important debate that has not been formally articulated among anarchist theorists, namely whether or not the concept ‘citizenship’ can be meaningfully salvaged and repurposed. While many anarchist theorists have gestured at such a debate, the dimensions of this discourse have not been clarified. Secondly, in identifying the features of this debate, this paper seeks to show that citizenship can be meaningfully rehabilitated by the anarchist left. And finally, this essay seeks to provide some preliminary reasons why anarchist theories of citizenship may provide a fruitful partnership with theorists of citizenship today, especially those engaging in critical citizenship studies.     

On the “Exporting” of Morality: Its Relation to Political Conservatism and Epistemic Motivation

A new phenomenon, moral exporting (ME), is introduced to capture active attempts to promote certain views of morality to others. It was hypothesized that political conservatives would be more likely to exhibit ME, due in part to strong epistemic concerns for certainty that may become attached to the moral domain. Related items from the 1988 and 2006 General Social Surveys were analyzed, and new scales were developed to better assess ME and specific moral-related epistemic concerns (moral absolutism). In a second study, these scales were administered to a large college student sample along with measures of political ideology and need for closure (NFC). Results generally showed that political conservatism was strongly related to the new ME factor. Further analysis determined that both moral absolutism (MA) and NFC accounted for significant portions of this relationship, but that the specific epistemic construct (MA) was a more proximal mediator. Discussion centers on further distinguishing ME and MA from related constructs, as well as on future research and applications.     

How the WTO Matters to Industry: The Case of Scotch Whisky

Although the World Trade Organization (WTO) has spawned a considerable academic literature, as yet research on this organization has rarely been problematized around clear theories of the relationship between law, economics, and politics. Building upon institutionalist premises and concepts drawn from political sociology and industrial economics, this article suggests a means of filling this gap by grasping the "political work" involved in the regulation of specific industries. Illustrated through the case of Scotch whisky, a focus is developed on how the WTO matters to contemporary industry. This reveals that the most powerful actors in industries such as Scotch have developed resources which legitimize their simultaneous engagement in a range of decision-making arenas. These include, but are not necessarily dominated by, the WTO.