Inclusive Democracy and its Prospects

ABSTRACT Takis Fotopoulos' inclusive democracy project has generated one of the most interesting and ambitious undertakings within contemporary political philosophy. Fotopoulos synthesises what he regards as the principal contributions of five discrete traditions, retrieves classical Athens as democratic exemplar, thinks through and extrapolates the implications of his vision for daily life, and seeks to anticipate and resolve conundrums likely to follow. Any one of these dimensions would render his project noteworthy. Nonetheless, his project occurs within a historic moment that limits its prospects of consideration beyond its own political constituency. However unfairly, Fotopoulos' proposals will struggle for mass attention for reasons not principally of his creation. A leading reason for this is the widespread and probably reasonable leeriness toward large-scale alternatives borne of the pathological nature of much 20th century political radicalism.     

You Say You Want a Revolution: the Arab Spring,Norm Diffusion,and the Human Rights Regime

We discuss how the Arab Spring is a reflection of the resiliency of the human rights regime. In order to accomplish this, we explore the extent to which the Arab Spring represents norm diffusion among Middle East and North Africa (MENA) states. Specifically, we examine the cases of Tunisia, Egypt, and Bahrain and consider how economic and demographic changes created space for human rights discourse in these countries. We find that, in the case of MENA states, the Arab Spring represents significant pressure from below. Access to new forms of social media allowed civil society to organize, publicize, and protest relatively efficiently. Social media expanded the potential role of individuals and created newly empowered latent human rights activists who emerged as leaders of the norm diffusion process. The resulting diffusion of human rights norms in the Arab region represents one of the most significant expansions of the human rights regime since the regime’s inception.     

欧洲与中国的人权观差异

在欧中关系中,人权问题最为敏感,分歧最大。在对人权的理解上,双方不仅官方立场存在分歧,而且公众的人权观念也存在重要差异。欧洲人通常认为,更多的人权有助于经济发展,或者经济发展将导致更多的人权,并期望或假设随着中国经济的持续发展,中国人对人权和民主的需要也将不断上升。但是,本文对大量调查数据的分析说明,欧洲人的这种预期是不切实际的。实际上,欧洲与中国有关人权的观念差距可能在日益扩大。     

Sexual attitudes and behaviors among adolescents

The purpose of this article is to examine the self-reported sexual attitudes and behaviors of adolescents living in the Midwest. A survey was administered to 463 African American youths ages 11-19. The results indicate that intent to have sexual intercourse, reported likelihood toward having sexual intercourse, and whether participants felt that they would have sex in the next 3 months were predictors of whether they had sexual intercourse at the 3-month follow-up. The results also revealed that the opinions of referent others did not predict sexual intercourse at 3 months. Negative attitudes toward condoms did predict condom use at 3 months and the opinions of referent others also predicted condom use at 3 months. Limitations as well as future research are also discussed.     

The Best Interests of the Child? Is the Best Interests of the Child in the Best Interests of Children?

The writings of Goldstein, Freud and Solnit, particularly someof the concepts they developed, have exercised a profound influenceon our thinking about children. A new, revamped, final, authoritativeedition presents the opportunity for critical re-assessment.The author finds a partial analytical framework, a dated imageof children, a narrow concept of children's rights, triggersfor intervention which leave children dangerously exposed and,above all, a sense diat events have moved on leaving the mostinfluential text of this generation firmly rooted in the ideas,problems and concepts of the last. The publication in one revised volume of the landmark trilogyof Beyond, Before and In¹ provides an excuse, if one were needed,to assess the impact and re-evaluate the arguments containedwithin the three monographs and now compressed and updated.Whether or not one agrees with all, or even any, of the ideascontained within Best Interests (as I shall now call the collection),and I shall criticize both applications and implications, theconcepts have impressed themselves, perhaps indelibly, on ourthinking about children. Like it or not, anyone thinking aboutchild law or policy, the relation between parents and children,the state and family, has to grapple with concepts like ‘leastdetrimental alternative’, the ‘psychological parent’,a child's sense of time and others of the rich ideas which permeateBest Interests.²     

Exchange Rate Volatility and Democratization in Emerging Market Countries

We examine some of the consequences of financial globalization for democratization in emerging market economies by focusing on the currency markets of four Asian countries at different stages of democratic development. Using political data of various kinds—including a new events data series—and the Markov regime switching model from empirical macroeconomics, we show that in young and incipient democracies politics continuously causes changes in the probability of experiencing two different currency market equilibria: a high volatility "contagion" regime and a low volatility "fundamentals" regime. The kind of political events that affect currency market equilibration varies cross-nationally depending on the degree to which the polity of a country is democratic and its policymaking transparent. The results help us better gauge how and the extent to which democratization is compatible with financial globalization.     

Notes on social indicators: Promises and potential

Widespread interest in social indicators—indeed, what may be characterized as a new social movement—has developed among both social scientists and policymakers. The concept of social indicators, however, continues to be diffuse and there are exaggerated claims of the utility of indicators. Deficiencies in both conceptualization and method limit the potential of indicators for such tasks as priority setting and program evaluation. Moreover, the development of social accounts, based on the analogy with economic accounts, is fallacious. Redirection in effort and more realistic claims can reduce the possibility of an eventual decline in work on indicators and enhance the value of the movement for both policymakers and social scientists concerned with the analysis and prediction of social change.