The Political Resurrection of Russian Governors

Elections for all 83 Russian governors were reinstated in Russia in 2012, seven years after they had been suspended. The democratic reform coincided with renewed political activism in Russia since December 2011, but the reform was as much a belated recognition of the shortcomings and failures from appointing Russian governors. Pragmatic necessity and not democratic conversion was the determining factor. Based on the first elections in October 2012, the reform will have only a limited effect over the next few years on democratic change in Russia, at most placating liberal and regional demands while consolidating personal rule under Putin.     

Post-disaster emergency and reconstruction experiences in Asia and Latin America: an assessment

From United Nations emergency responses involving tent camps, to the reconstruction approach of FUNDASAL in El Salvador and the post-disaster provision of housing by Caritas in Asia, it is clear that a giant step has been taken in thinking about emergency shelter, as well as about how prevention and reconstruction are managed. This article evaluates some current good practices in Asia and Latin America in post-disaster emergency shelter that use local skills, materials, and tools, and participatory processes.     

Non-Contingent Success Reduces People’s Desire for Processes that Adhere to Principles of Fairness

A central tenet of justice theory and research is that people prefer decisions to be made with processes that adhere to principles of fairness. The present research identified a boundary condition for this general tendency. Across three studies, we found that people who experienced non-contingent success had less of a desire for fair processes relative to their counterparts who experienced contingent success. Furthermore, results attributable to other independent variables, namely regulatory focus in Study 2 and self-affirmation in Study 3, shed light on the underlying mechanism: people experience non-contingent success as self-threatening and lower their desire for processes that adhere to fairness in the service of protecting themselves against the threat. Theoretical implications are discussed as are limitations of the studies and suggestions for future research.     

Viewpoint Discrimination in the Military's Filmmaker Assistance Program and the First Amendment

The U.S. military provides assistance to filmmakers in the form of use of military sites, equipment and personnel, which can provide significant cost savings to filmmakers. The military, however, routinely denies this assistance to filmmakers whose productions portray the military in a way it considers objectionable, actions that constitute viewpoint discrimination by the government. While this may seem to be an unconstitutional violation of First Amendment rights, application of forum law and the unconstitutional conditions doctrine lead to the conclusion that the military's viewpoint discrimination is permissible and does not violate the First Amendment.     

Violence as Obscenity: Offensiveness and the First Amendment

Many efforts have been made to restrict minors' access to violent media content basing the definition of the content to be restricted on the legal definition of obscenity, which requires the content to be offensive. Without exception, such restrictions have been found to violate the First Amendment, partly because the laws have defined the violence to be restricted with reference to its offensiveness, while the purpose of the laws has been to protect children from the harms believed to be caused by exposure to such content. This has created a problematic lack of fit between the content to be restricted and the purpose of restrictions. This article examines whether restricting minors' access to offensive violent media content to protect them from its offensiveness makes it any more likely such restrictions will survive First Amendment scrutiny.