Discourses of war,geographies of abjection: reading contemporary American ideologies of terror

This article critically details the strategies and ideologies that inform three key post-9/11 volumes on the politics of terror, war making and national security in the USA. These texts, by renowned American ‘masters of statecraft’ Robert Kaplan, Victor Davis Hanson and Michael Ledeen, encourage the USA's political and military leadership to embrace terror and violence and to be continuously at war against alleged American enemies. The article argues that these writings are representative of what French post-structuralist and gender scholar Julia Kristeva has called abjection. Indeed, these literatures require their readers to be one with hatred and destruction, and to violently reject anything that appears to be un-American. Their ideologies—which have been immensely influential in post-9/11 American national security circles—aim to prepare and condition American citizens for years of ongoing violence, war and possibly terror. They encourage hatred towards enemies that may not even have been named yet. By openly propagating these kinds of discourse, these scholars' texts render the prospect for peace (in Iraq, the Middle-East and everywhere else) in the 21st century ever more difficult to achieve.     

Raising the Threshold,Fighting Fragmentation? Mechanical and Psychological Effects of the Legal Electoral Threshold in Belgium

Many proportional representation systems are characterised by a legal electoral threshold. Such a threshold reserves the allocation of seats for those parties that reach a minimum share of the votes. In order to fight fragmentation, a 5 per cent threshold has been introduced for both federal and regional elections in Belgium. This article seeks to explore the mechanical and psychological effects of this legal threshold after five elections. It is shown that the threshold has had limited mechanical and psychological effects on voters but some psychological effects on party elites. Moreover, while in the short term the average number of lists dropped and several pre-electoral coalitions formed, in the longer term the legal threshold has not prevented further fragmentation.     

Religion and Fundamental Rights in European Politics: Convergences and Divisions at the European Parliament

European legislators must increasingly deal with issues related to fundamental rights. Religion is a frequent topic obliging them to do so. It is not directly part of the EU’s competences but is a source of values underlying policy choices and a tricky political object. Relying on the findings of a survey about what Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) believe and what they do with these beliefs, the article analyzes potential tensions created by religion in the implementation of human rights by the EU. A first part shows how and to what extent European law meets religion, and how it leaves ample room for flexibility but also for divergent interpretations. A second part states that MEPs agree largely on the principle of separation between politics and religion, but may be divided when it comes to drawing boundaries between the two domains. The conclusion points out the limits of the rule of law to prevent conflicts and suggests that human rights may inspire support as well as cause resistance to Europeanization.     

Validation and casework application of a Y chromosome specific STR multiplex

A series of validation experiments was performed for a Y chromosome specific STR multiplex system following the suggestions made by the Technical Working Group DNA Analysis Methods (TWGDAM). The multiplex PCR products were detected on Perkin-Elmer 373 and 377 automated sequencers using two labeling colors. No problems regarding the stability, robustness and sensitivity of the Y STR multiplex were observed. Mixture studies revealed a cut off rate similar to autosomal STRs for mixtures of male DNAs and no interference of any female admixture. The comparison of the Y STR results to the autosomal typing results for 56 nonprobative semen stains and swabs, showed a slightly higher success rate in detecting the semen donor's alleles for the Y STR multiplex. Two examples are shown to illustrate the usefulness of Y STR typing for DNA mixtures. In one case the Y STR results confirmed an isolated exclusion; in the other case, the interpretation of a mixture was clarified since the Y STR results proved the presence of DNA from at least two semen donors. Y STR typing is a valuable addition to the forensic DNA testing panel.     

Identification of acepromazine in hair: an illustration of the difficulties encountered in investigating drug-facilitated crimes

After a drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA), a woman was found in a drowsy state at home. She remembered having drunk an unknown beverage by the accused. Blood samples (collected 8 hours after the DFSA), two glasses, and a teaspoon seized by the police were analyzed. Acepromazine, a phenothiazine tranquilizer used in human and veterinary medicine, was detected in the residue of one of the glasses. In spite of acepromazine absence in the victim's blood, the possible use of acepromazine in the DFSA was reported to the police. Two weeks later, a suspect admitted having orally administered acepromazine to the victim. Using a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method, this compound was subsequently detected (31 pg/mg) in a sample of the victim's hair collected a month and a half after the DFSA. A potential short elimination half-life in humans and/or the well-known in vitro degradation of acepromazine could explain the negative blood result. DFSA toxicological investigations are challenging and can be complicated when a rather unusual substance is concerned. In particular, special care should be taken when interpreting the results, taking into account elimination and/or instability data, when available.     

Validation and casework application of a Y chromosome specific STR multiplex

A series of validation experiments was performed for a Y chromosome specific STR multiplex system following the suggestions made by the Technical Working Group DNA Analysis Methods (TWGDAM). The multiplex PCR products were detected on Perkin-Elmer 373 and 377 automated sequencers using two labeling colors. No problems regarding the stability, robustness and sensitivity of the Y STR multiplex were observed. Mixture studies revealed a cut off rate similar to autosomal STRs for mixtures of male DNAs and no interference of any female admixture. The comparison of the Y STR results to the autosomal typing results for 56 nonprobative semen stains and swabs, showed a slightly higher success rate in detecting the semen donor’s alleles for the Y STR multiplex. Two examples are shown to illustrate the usefulness of Y STR typing for DNA mixtures. In one case the Y STR results confirmed an isolated exclusion; in the other case, the interpretation of a mixture was clarified since the Y STR results proved the presence of DNA from at least two semen donors. Y STR typing is a valuable addition to the forensic DNA testing panel.     

Resistance to Chronic Violence in Informal Workplaces: The Strategies of Domestic Workers in Brazil (2003–2018)

This article analyses the repertoire of individual strategies utilised by domestic workers to resist routinised workplace violence in the cities of São Paulo and Ilhéus, Brazil. Findings suggest that domestic workers favour two strategies of resistance: exit (quitting work without prior notice) and voice (negotiating workplace conditions). The latter strategy is divided into two subtypes: voice-pleading (appealing to decency) and voice-confrontation (warning and rights-claiming). Voice strategies appear more effective than exit in ameliorating patterns of chronic workplace violence, particularly when they incorporate labour rights claims and when emotional ties exist between workers and employers.     

The Constituent Foundations of the Rally-Round-the-Flag Phenomenon

Despite the massive attention heaped on the rally-round-the-flag phenomenon by public opinion scholars, relatively little attention has been paid to its constituent elements. Yet, recent research has found that different groups of Americans respond differently to presidents' activities according to their interests and attentiveness. In this study, I disaggregate public opinion along two dimensions: political party and political sophistication. I argue that in responding to high-profile presidential activities abroad, different groups of Americans weigh various individual, contextual, and situational factors differently. I investigate all major U.S. uses of force between 1953 and 1998 and find that the propensity of different groups to rally does indeed vary according to individual and environmental circumstances. To explain these differences, I employ two models of public opinion. The first emphasizes the importance of threshold effects in explaining opinion change. That is, individuals who are closest to the point of ambivalence between approval and disapproval are most likely to change their opinion in response to external circumstances. The second emphasizes both the propensities of different types of individuals to be exposed to a given piece of information, and their susceptibility to having their opinion influenced by any additional information. My results offer a more nuanced picture of the nature and extent of the rally phenomenon than has been available in previous studies. My findings also hold important implications for other related scholarly debates, such as whether, and under what circumstances, the use of force can successfully divert public attention from a president's domestic political difficulties.     

L'assurance-maladie au Canada: les raisons de l'implication de l‘État

Sommaire: Cet article souligne d'abord brièvenient l'importance politique de l'assurance-maladie au Canada, de même que son importance en tant qu'objet de recherche. Á la suite d'un tour d'horizon des principaux champs d'intérêt de la recherche sur les politiques, l'auteur propose de s'attarder plus longriement à la question de savoir pourquoi le Canada s'est doté de programmes d'assurancemaladie. Cette question est abordée par le biais d'une étude comparative d'Anthony King, publiée en 1973, qui attribuait l'absence de programmes universels d'assurance-maladie aux États-Unis à l'influence prépondérante des Idées, c'est-à-dire des valeurs collectives de la nation américaine. Pouvons-nous également expliquer la présence de tels programmes au Canada par cette variable? L'examen du contexte dans lequel chacun des onze gouverneinents impliqués a pris la decision d'implanter un programme d'assurance-maladie perinet d'affirmer que le rôle des Idées a été déterminant pour seulement trois de ceux-ci: le gouvernement fédéral, celui de la Saskatchewan et celui du Québec. La décision du gouvernement fédéral a été fortement influencée par les initiatives britanniques en la matière; la Saskatchewan est intervenue en mison de l'idéologie socialiste de son gouvernement; quant au Québec, il a agi sous l'impulsion dun interventionnisme en rupture avec le passé. Cependant, puisque les huit autres gouvernements en sont venus à croire nécessaire d'offrir de tels programmes à cause des initiatives du gouvernement fédéral et de celui de la Saskatchewan, on peut néanmoins considérer pe la variable des Idées constitue fondanientalement la variable clé qui explique la création de programmes d'assurance-maladie au Canada. Parmi les trois phénomènes d'Idées distingués, c'est l'influence de la Crande-Bretagne qui s'est probahlement avérée la plus importante. Abstract: First of all, this article underlines briefly the political significance of health insurance in Canada. After reviewing the main areas of interest for policy research, the author considers at greater length the reasons why Canada opted in favour of a health insurance plan. This question is introduced through a comparative study by Anthony King, published in 1973. which attributes the absence of a universal health insurance plan in the United States to the preponderont influence of Ideas, which is to say, the collective values of the American nation. Likewise, can we explain the existence of such programs in Canada on the basis of this variable? A study of the context in which each of the eleven governments involved made the decision to set up a health insurance plan shows that Ideas have played a decisive role for only three of them: the federal government, the government of Saskatchewan and the government of Quebec. The federal government's decision had been strongly influenced by the British example; Saskatchewan acted because of the socialist ideology of its government; as to Quebec, it moved under the impulse of an interventionist movement breaking with its tradition. However, since the eight other governments came to believe that they had to offer such programs because of the initiatives of both the federal government and the government of Saskatchewan, one can consider nevertheless that the ideas variable was basically the key to the creation of health insurance programs in Canada. A further examination of the three Ideas phenomena indicates that it is probably Great Britain's influence which has been most important.