American Paradox Research Articles

The Mortality of Politics: An American Paradox

Introduction: The USA has the poorest health statistics of any high-income country. Political polarization has risen dramatically; newer safety net programs (the Affordable Care Act [ACA]) are unevenly provided because many Republican-leaning states refused expanded Federal coverage. Democratic programs have reduced physician leadership of medicine. Both have been deleterious. Here, we investigated associations among four key health measures two of which directly impact pregnancy outcomes and two that affect all patients by percentage of each state that voted for the Republican versus Democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential election. Methods: For each state, we used public, non-partisan databases to assess the incidence of COVID, maternal, and infant mortality per 100,000 population and average life expectancy. Correlations among these four outcome variables and percentage Republican vote were calculated (r), contextualized by measuring associations with related variables including COVID vaccination rates, access to medical care, and incidences of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, gunshot deaths, and automotive fatalities. Results: COVID mortality, maternal and infant mortality, and life expectancy were highly correlated with percentage Republican (“red”) vote per state. If “red” states had vaccination rates equivalent to Democratic-leaning (“blue”) states, 72,000 deaths could have been avoided. Overall, “red” states have lower health metrics, reduced access to care, and higher comorbidities. Conclusion: The percent Republican vote was strongly associated, but not the whole answer, with worse health outcomes for multiple key measures of public health including mortality, access to care, and various comorbidities. Overall, the ACA has improved patient access to care but has also led to “maternity care deserts” disproportionately in rural areas in “red” states. Translating insurance coverage into improved care and outcomes requires further analysis and will require multi-pronged approaches including expanding coverage and incentivizing quality care.

Latina paradox in Spain? Arrival-cohort effects on the birthweight of newborns of Latina mothers.

This study analyses the arrival-cohort effects on the newborn birthweight of Latina women residing in Spain. First, it has been tested whether women of Latin American origin in Spain have an advantage in terms of birth outcomes, a pattern previously documented in the United States and referred to as the 'Latin American paradox'. Second, it has been examined whether this health advantage of Latina mothers varies by arrival cohort.A novel database provided by the Spanish National Statistics Office that links the 2011 Census with Natural Movement of the Population records from January 2011 to December 2015 has been used. Poisson regression models were applied to test for differences in the incidence rates of low birthweight (LBW) and high birthweight (HBW) among children of Latina and native mothers, controlling for various demographic, socio-economic, and birth characteristics.Two distinct arrival-cohort effects on perinatal health were observed. On one hand, first-generation Latina women were found to be at a lower risk of giving birth to LBW infants; however, they experienced a higher incidence of HBW during the study period. Second, Latina women of 1.5 generation, likely stressed by increased exposure to the receiving country, exhibited adverse birthweight results.

Decoding the American Paradox: Historical Perspectives on its Immunity to Left-Wing Politics

Decoding the American Paradox: Historical Perspectives on its Immunity to Left-Wing Politics

An American Paradox: Progress or Regress? BLM, Race, and Black Politics

An American Paradox: Progress or Regress? BLM, Race, and Black Politics

A Commentary on the Latin American Paradox

A Commentary on the Latin American Paradox

Trends in Premature Deaths Among Adults in the United States and Latin America

Premature death rates vary in the United States by race/ethnicity. Despite their socioeconomic disadvantages, US Latino populations have lower premature mortality rates than do US white populations, a phenomenon termed the "Latino or Hispanic paradox." To investigate whether there is a broader Latin American paradox by comparing premature mortality rates in the United States according to race/ethnicity with rates in Latin America and Puerto Rico from 2001 to 2015. This descriptive cross-sectional study used mortality data from the World Health Organization Mortality Database. All deaths occurring in individuals aged 20 to 64 years among US Latino, African American, white, and Puerto Rican and 12 other Latin American populations from January 2001 to December 2015 were selected. The data analysis began in October 2018. Age, sex, race/ethnicity, and country. All-cause mortality, cause-specific mortality, age-standardized mortality rates (AMSRs), and average annual percentage change in mortality rates during 2001 to 2015. During 2001 to 2015, 22 million deaths (8 million women and 14 million men) occurred among individuals aged 20 to 64 years in the selected populations. Among women, US Latina individuals had the lowest premature mortality rates (ASMR for 2015, 144 deaths per 100 000 population) and US African American women had the highest premature mortality rate (ASMR for 2015, 340 deaths per 100 000 population) of the 16 populations studied. Rates among US white women shifted from the sixth lowest in 2001 (ASMR, 231 deaths per 100 000 population) to the 12th lowest in 2015 (ASMR, 235 deaths per 100 000 population). Among men, Peru had the lowest premature mortality rates (ASMR for 2015, 219 deaths per 100 000 population), and Belize had the highest premature mortality rates (ASMR for 2015, 702 deaths per 100 000 population). White men in the United States shifted from the fifth lowest rates in 2001 (ASMR, 396 deaths per 100 000 population) to the eighth lowest rates in 2015 (ASMR, 394 deaths per 100 000 population). Rates for both women and men decreased in all the populations studied from 2001 to 2015 (average annual percentage change range, 0.4% to 3.8% per year) except among US white populations, for which the rate plateaued (average annual percentage change, 0.02% per year [95% CI, -0.3% to 0.2% per year] for women; -0.2% per year [95% CI, -0.4% to 0.0% per year] for men) and among Nicaraguan men, for whom the rates increased (0.6% per year [95% CI, 0.2% to 1.0% per year]). The populations with the lowest mortality rates in 2015 had lower rates from all major causes, but rates were particularly lower for heart disease (21 deaths per 100 000 population) and cancer (50 deaths per 100 000 population). Premature mortality rates are lower for US Latino populations and several Latin American countries than for US white populations, suggesting that there may be a broader Latin American paradox. This analysis also highlights the high premature mortality rates among US African American populations, especially women, compared with many Latin American populations.

Defending A Liberal: The Liberal Logic of Booker T. Washington’s Political Thought

At present, the academic circles at home and abroad are locked in a binary judgment on Booker T. Washington. Generally, Booker T. Washington has also been being in the comments with two different faces in the field of the academic circle. Some scholars believed that Booker T. Washington was the one who pushed the black rights movement to the rock bottom. While, other scholars believed that his political thoughts appeared to be a kind of special product of a specific historical period. To get out of this dual trap, I believe that Booker T. Washington is absolutely not an accomplice of white racism, or just only a great black political leader having the tinge of a cult of personality; instead, from my perspective of view, he is a liberal fighter with black skin outside and white soul inside. Actually, behind Booker T. Washington’s political thought, there has been lying a set of deep-rooted liberal logic which makes him a liberal at any time. We have to say that it is an immutable truth which is the appearance and ending of each historical figure is the epitome of that era; and, the formation and development of his or her thoughts doom not to be isolated from the enormous influence of social mainstream culture. More specifically, the American paradox of liberalism, the self-concept of liberalism, and the discourse hegemony of liberalism all profoundly influenced the formation and development of Booker T. Washington’s political thought, and all those have been defending such an ambitious black boy vigorously as an out-and-out liberal.

Understanding the Political Economy behind the Latin American Paradox: Managing Good Economic Performance but Social Discontent (2000–2017)

Between 2000 and 2017, Latin America presented a positive economic performance, with an average GDP growth of 2.6%. This helped in the decrease of unemployment, poverty and inequality rates. Nevertheless, improvements prove to be deficient and did not better social discontent and mistrust. Hence, Latin America experienced a paradox of economic growth but simultaneous social unrest and conflicts. The present aims to address the dynamics of the paradox and provide an explanation for its occurrence. This is achieved through an analysis of the policies used by the states regarding social expenditure and macroeconomic stability, as well as their overall performance fulfilling their role as governments. It is argued that the lack of institutional presence of the government in the poorest sectors was the reason they failed in translating the economic growth into welfare.

Split Screen Nation: Vernacular Screen Forms of the American Paradox

This essay introduces an eclectic history of popular U.S. film, including but well beyond Hollywood cinema, that mediated conflicted sentiments about the U.S. in the decades after the Second World War through an implicit, and sometimes explicit, opposition between the screen South and the screen West. More specifically, the essay detects an interest in this period in mapping the U.S. via moving images and demonstrates that within this phenomenon the South routinely appeared as a kind of moving image problem, and the West as a routine moving image solution for imagining the nation. These dynamics are considered in corporate films promoting car and bus travel, produced for Chevrolet and Greyhound, and in a remarkable amateur film comprised of footage from the 1950s and early 1960s , but not completed until 2000, Robbins Barstow’s Family Camping through Forty-Eight States: Travel Experiences by the Barstow Family of Wethersfield, CT, U.S.A, 1954-1961.

Subverting the American Paradox: Race, Redemption, and Revolution in David Walker’s Appeal

What role might the Declaration of Independence play in the struggle for racial justice in the United States? Dominant accounts suggest the Declaration’s principles have served as a wellspring for increasingly expanding rights claims, enabling progress in American history. However, critics allege that this redemptive view reinforces an exceptionalist national identity, disavows race’s constitutive role in ordering the polity, and circumscribes the scope of change. This article recovers an overlooked alternative through an analysis of David Walker’s 1829 pamphlet, Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. Like many abolitionists, Walker called upon the Declaration to authorize opposition to racial tyranny. However, his engagement with it was distinctively revolutionary rather than reverent: he rejected American exceptionalism but found in the nation’s central icon a radical model for contesting its fundamental injustices.

Desigualdad y Violencia en Latinoamérica

This document describes the Latin American paradox in which sustained levels of economic development seem to go hand in hand with unprecedented levels of violence driven by inequality as its principal root cause. From a multidimensional perspective, the focus centers on exploring how unaddressed basic needs and conditions of inequality can generate psychosocial consequences in individuals by creating emotions that can trigger into acts of violence; the article also attempts to explain how extracting industries contribute to these persisting inequities. From an economic perspective, we note how during the twentieth century the West became battlefield of conflict between two economic key principals. Efficiency (as defined by the neoliberal school of thought) versus Equity (defined by the Keynesian philosophy), a school of thought that suggested that the priority given to former concept exacerbated the levels of inequality and adversely affected the most vulnerable sectors of civil society. The article will them discuss how this clash of ideas is currently located at the center of the entire public policy debate.

Self-Regulation for Sustaining Happiness and Well-being: An Indian Perspective

An important paradox of the well-being literature is the apparent disconnect between the external materialistic strivings such as money and the experience of well-being, referred to as the American Paradox. Additionally, it has been studied that the pursuit of happiness itself may result in paradoxical effects; the more people pursue it, the less likely are they able to obtain it. Happiness and well-being thus understood from the Western perspective as the presence of pleasure and absence of pain lack sustainability theoretically as well as practically. It is deficit driven, externally directed, object dependent and culturally biased. The focus of the paper is to understand the notion of happiness from an indigenous perspective. Against the hedonistic concept of well-being advocated by Western researches, the Indian perspective holds important consequences for the individual as well as the social well-being. The paper argues that the indigenous perspective on happiness and well-being is sustainable across time and situations for the classes as well as the masses.

The American paradox: ideology of free markets and the hidden practice of directional thrust

The USA presents a paradox. The US state has practised production-focused industrial policy from the early years of the republic, with benefits that by any plausible measure far exceed costs. But since the 1980s, the exchange-focused idea that ‘the free market is what works, and having the state help it is usually a contradiction in terms’ has been at the normative centre of gravity in public policy discourse. With ‘industrial policy’ rendered toxic, the state has disguised its production-focused practice, to the point where even non-ideological academic researchers claim that the USA does industrial policy not at all, or badly. This essay reviews the history of US industrial policy, with an emphasis on ‘network-building industrial policy’ over the past two decades. At the end, it draws a lesson for policy communities in other countries and interstate development organisations such as the World Bank and IMF.

Building a school leadership programme: an American paradox of autonomy and accountability

School districts within the USA face ever-decreasing autonomy in rendering decisions regarding instruction, curriculum and the leading and managing of schools at the local level due to the ever-increasing accountability measures implemented by district, state and federal governments. This study investigates a joint university–school district partnership designed to develop turnaround administrators by exploring the tensions between autonomy and accountability. The findings indicate that mandates force educators to find new spaces that are contextually appropriate and effective in exercising their autonomy and accountability within a conceptual model for partnerships between schools, districts, universities and the governing bodies that regulate them.

Asian Performance on the Stage of American Empire in Flower Drum Song

Asian Performance on the Stage of American Empire in Flower Drum Song Chang-Hee Kim (bio) Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's original Broadway production of Flower Drum Song opened in 1958, marking a milestone in the sociopolitical realm of American popular culture in the post-World War II era. The musical was the first in Broadway history to feature a predominantly Asian American cast, including Miyoshi Umeki, Keye Luke, and Pat Suzuki. Loosely based on C. Y. Lee's 1957 hit novel of the same title, which was "more dark-humored" (R. Lee, 173), this landmark musical was a huge success both aesthetically and commercially.1 It was nominated for six Tony Awards, winning for Best Conductor and Musical Director, and was performed on national tours and in London. Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's 1961 cinematic version of the musical was also a commercial hit. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Best Music Award; and the musical number "I Enjoy Being a Girl" remains a popular standard to this day. Yet critics accused the musical's portrayal of Asian Americans as being "condescending" and even "less than fully human" (Tacorda, 119). As a result, David Henry Hwang wrote an adaptation of the original play in 2002, reworking it to repudiate its stereotypical representation of Asian Americans.2 Ironically, however, despite a favorable reception upon its opening in Los Angeles, Hwang's version was ultimately criticized for spoiling the original, for losing its "charm, warmth, and wit" (Murray). In 2008, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress added the film to its list, officially denoting it as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Flower Drum Song's remarkable popularity is indicative of more than its artistic and commercial achievement in American popular culture. Its true significance arguably lies in its status as a historical cinematic document that reflects radical changes in the U.S. immigration [End Page 1] policy toward Asians amid the Cold War, changes that continue to affect the lives of Asian Americans today. The film premiered at a time when the United States was stuck in, as Mary Dudziak puts it, a "quintessentially American dilemma" (8). On an international level, the nation's victory against totalitarianism in Asia and Europe was being compromised by ongoing domestic issues of racial and sexual oppression and discrimination. The country's growing need to enact civil rights legislation resulted in a widening rift with local authorities in the South, while racial violence and segregation significantly tainted the nation's international reputation (Dudziak, 13). With the onset of the Cold War, a uniquely American paradox emerged between the deep-seated practice of domestic racism and the political imperatives of the global proliferation of democracy, thus requiring the nation to improve its international image in the face of the Soviet's communist expansionism. In the early Cold War era, with memories of Pearl Harbor, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima still very fresh in the collective mind, one of the most complicated aspects of this dilemma was resolving how the nation could assimilate Asians into its antiracial endeavors. The primary issue, however, was not just figuring out how Asians could possibly be accepted as fellow Americans, but rather determining how a nation with a long legacy of white supremacy could suture the ontological gap of national identity in the wake of multiculturalism. Throughout the civil rights movement that ran roughly from the end of World War II through the 1960s, the United States struggled to challenge white supremacy, which greatly exacerbated the racial tension and violence that ensued in the South.3 Despite the government's attempts to promote its nationwide efforts toward racial tolerance, racial discrimination remained an ineradicable fact of American life, much to the frustration and embarrassment of its policymakers, whose efforts to claim leadership of the free world were being severely hampered by the Soviet Union's censure for the hypocrisy of American racism. If the United States was going to expand and enhance its relations with Asia, and make Asian immigrants "a permanent part of the American landscape, not only as labor, but as [a] sexualized and reproductive force" (Palumbo-Liu, 102), then the anxiety over...

Offline: The American paradox

For many non-Americans, the intense struggle between Barack Obama, an elected President who signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law in 2010, and an unelected Supreme Court, which has been deliberating on the constitutional legality of the Act, has been puzzling. Irrespective of the Court's decision, which is an important but still small footnote to a dispute that will likely continue to divide Americans, the more troubling question is why one of the most scientifically and culturally advanced nations of the world has been so reticent about embracing universal health coverage? Some critics have argued that Presidents Clinton and Obama, strenuous advocates for extending health coverage, focused too much on the economics of healthcare. Instead, they should have made health a moral issue, a legitimate entitlement and expectation for the people of a wealthy country. Others say the failure to mobilise broad support for universal coverage was because of the influence exerted by powerful corporate lobbyists. But is there a specific historical explanation for America's antipathy towards the right to health? There might be, although if true it would imply poor prospects for securing US support for universal health coverage as a larger global goal.

Using patents and publications to assess R&D efficiency in the states of the USA

Even with the USA spending the largest amounts in R&D, its share in total patent grants worldwide has been declining. This decline is also evident in its share of world scientific publications. These developments have been termed by some as the “American Paradox”. Extant research on R&D efficiency and technological innovation capability has considered the USA as a homogeneous entity and has not focused at the sub-national level. This paper analyses the R&D efficiency of 50 US states and the District of Columbia. R&D efficiency is calculated as the ratio of patents granted and scientific publications to R&D expenditures. Only 14 states out of the 51 regions are found to exhibit positive changes in R&D efficiency between 2004 and 2008. Comparing this performance with that of the BRICS nations over the same period we find that Brazil, India, China and South Korea show significant improvements in R&D efficiency with India taking the lead. This research identifies the states in the US with the highest R&D efficiency and presents benchmarks which can be followed by policy interventions. The paper highlights the importance of conducting analyses of R&D efficiency using patents and publications at the sub-national level for informed policy making.

Relations between national research investment and publication output: Application to an American Paradox

The term “European Paradox” describes the perceived failure of the EU to capture full benefits of its leadership of science as measured by publications and some other indicators. This paper investigates what might be called the “American Paradox,” the decline in scientific publication share of the U.S. despite world-leading investments in research and development (RD thus the decline is real and is not an artifact of the measurement methods. (2) Budgets of individual U.S. research agencies were correlated with overall paper production and with papers in their disciplines. Funding for the U.S. government civilian, non-healthcare sector was flat in the last ten years, resulting in declining share of papers. Funding for its healthcare sector sharply increased, but there were few additional U.S. healthcare papers. While this inefficiency contributes to loss of U.S. share, it is merely a specific example of the general syndrome that increased American investments have not produced increased publication output. (3) In fact the decline in publication share appears to be due to rapidly increasing R&D investments by China, Taiwan, S. Korea, and Singapore. A model shows that in recent years it is a country’s share of world investment that is most predictive of its publication share. While the U.S. has increased its huge R&D investment, its investment share still declined because of even more rapidly increasing investments by these Asian countries. This has likely led to their sharply increased share of scientific publication, which must result in declines of shars of others — the U.S. and more recently, the EU.

Democracy despite despotism: A Latin American paradox

This is the first part of an enormous project that aims to understand the social bases of democratic life in late eighteenthand nineteenth-century Latin America. The societies included in the book are Mexico and Peru, and we are told that it is to be followed by a similar volume focusing on Cuba and Argentina. This selection is to provide a contrast between those Latin American societies that were more deeply affected by the colonial legacy and those that were not. However, the main object of the research is to assess the extent to which contemporary theories of democratic rule, many of which are derived from the Tocquevillian tradition, can withstand the evidence derived from detailed historical research in the four countries. Starting from the familiar argument that links the flourishing civic life Alexis de Tocqueville observed in the New England townships, during his visit to America in 1831, the author seeks to explore a related set of issues. Forment breaks down the notion of "civic society" into a rather more complex set of social spheres the civil, economic, political, and public that may exhibit different degrees of democratic participation. Insofar as high levels of participation and a large number of (albeit transient) associations have the capacity to generate "social power," this, the author claims, indicates far greater "democratic" experiences and values than the frequency of authoritarian forms of government in Latin America would suggest, an argument that is for the most part convincing. Tocqueville has for many years cast a long shadow over the study of Latin American politics and society. This influence has been at times quite explicit and at other times muted or perhaps even beyond the awareness of the authors who are taking essentially Tocquevillian perspectives. Tocqueville himself periodically mentioned the Latin American cases as comparative asides, always suggesting that they contrasted sharply with their Northern neighbors. Even the land in North and South America was full of contrasts. South America and the Caribbean were idyllic and when the first European explorers landed there

An American Paradox

This paper explores the paradox that while Americans generally identify themselves as environmentalists, they show little willingness to voluntarily restrain their behavior or to support specific fiscal policies that would result in increased levels of environmental protection. I explore the role of values in the explanation of this paradox, and discuss some of the difficulties involved in studying values and their role in human behavior.