Civic Obligations Research Articles

A Looming Debt Crisis Narrative for Developing Countries: Consequences and Policy Implications

With the global financial crisis, there was a surge in the levels of public debt resulting from the economic downturn and many developing countries resorting to external debt to meeting their civic obligations. This paper examines the debt problem in developing countries in Africa between 2010 and 2017. The study employed the use of measurement of government’s indebtedness as well as sustainability of the debt measure to evaluate the ratio of gross public debt to the gross domestic product and to ascertain how well the borrowed funds are used by the government. Importantly, the change in ratio of public debt to GDP was examined over a 4-year period (2010-2016). Three measures were used in analysis of the data, ratio of debt to GDP, ratio of dynamic debt to GDP ratio and sustainability of debt levels. The research finds that there is a growing public debt in developing countries that is fueled by external debt and the global financial crisis. As a result of a rapid increase in public debt, one third of developing countries in Africa are at high risks of debt distress. Some of these countries are Chad, Eritrea, Mozambique, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and Zimbabwe. By 2016, the sub-Saharan countries gross public debt to GDP ratio had doubled. This increase in debt should have raised all sorts of red flags as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund should have sounded the alarm. Furthermore, the results reveal that three of the biggest countries in Africa, Nigeria, South Africa and Angola have been classified as moderate debt risk distress. While the following countries in 2018 have breached the debt to GDP ratio benchmarked at 50 percent mark Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Cameroon and Zambia. The study further recommends that these countries should mind their public spending activities.

‘Our Archaic System’: Debating and Reforming Military Justice in Argentina, 1905–35

AbstractThe treatment of draft dodgers and miscarriages of justice by Argentine military courts provoked mobilisations by families, communities and the major political parties. An examination of the debates and discussions around these issues reveals a widespread sentiment that rarely questioned neither the right of the armed forces to draft young men nor the legitimacy of the armed forces. By adopting the language of patriotism and civic obligation, individual and community petitioners and politicians who represented them challenged the state's broad claim of power over the bodies of young men from a reformist position. Military justice formed a critical platform through which citizens debated the meaning of citizenship and the place of the armed forces in society.

The Case for Universal Voting

It is time for the United States to take a major leap forward and recognize voting as both a fundamental civil right and a civic duty required of every eligible U.S. citizen. If citizens were required to vote, our democracy would be improved in critical and far-ranging ways. In Australia, which has had such a policy for ninety-six years, turnout is consistently above 90 percent of all registered voters, and registration is nearly universal. Imagine if that were the case in the United States. With dramatically increased turnout, the voting population would look much more like America. As things are now, the pool of actual voters is skewed by race, income, and age. Election processes would open up significantly. The nature of campaigns would change—for the better. Other institutions, including schools and employers, would be pushed to recognize their civic obligations as the nation moves toward full participation.

Level of Civic Knowledge and Attitude as Antidotes of Civic Engagement among Secondary School Students in Oyo State, Nigeria

The study investigated the level of civic knowledge and attitude as antidotes of civic engagement of secondary institution students in Oyo State. It also examined their attitude towards civic engagement. The research design is descriptive of the survey type. Population comprised all 411,912 public schools in urban and rural areas in Oyo State. Sample was 600 public school students selected using multistage sampling procedure. The instrument used was titled ‘Students’ Civic Engagement Questionnaire’ (SCEQ). The instrument was validated through face and content validity while reliability of the tool was established using Cronbach’s alpha method and a coefficient of 0.72 was obtained. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics for the research questions raised. It was found that the level of secondary school students’ civic knowledge and engagement was moderate, while their attitude towards civic engagement was negative. Based on the results it is suggested that students be enlightened to take part in civic obligations in order to develop positive attitudes towards civic engagement. Additionally, non- governmental organisations should intensify efforts in campaigning and promoting civic duties as this could increase the awareness of the citizens.

Religious Theoryan Implications in Classroom Teaching

Religion is an elusive phenomenon, with agreed definitions hard to find. A theory of religion as a cultural artefact with historical significance that lies beyond historical facticity or the lack of it. An individual or group’s religion connotes above all a belief system that constitutes an option among a myriad of options, rather than a single inherent truth based on historical fact. While challenging to institutional religion and its many adherents, it is contended that such an appreciation of religion is not necessarily a threat to either but in fact has potential to be a source of enrichment to both, as well as to religion’s enhancement of global harmony. It is when such an appreciation is not present that an exclusivist ‘trigger’, lying hidden in any religion, can be released and become the cause of immeasurable conflict. Since respect for human life and dignity is fundamental to all religious tradition, it follows that respect for the freedom of through and expression must likewise be recognized as a fundamental principle of religions. The defense of civil liberties is a religious as well as a civic obligation. There are many conflict is growing up due to diversity of religious theory. Religious principle compels to obey involuntary work individual, collective and society too. Many people are depriving from education, humankind because of racism. World are conflict due to religious proudness. Indigenous people all over the world are in discrimination due to religious classify. Religious theory is not valuable every time. Religious theory must flexible where same religious can adjust. Religious theory should be correction if necessary. Different religious people should respect each other.

Shall not be infringed: how the NRA used religious language to transform the meaning of the Second Amendment

Understanding the deep meaning of the Second Amendment is critical to understanding American gun culture. The centrality of the Second Amendment in American culture can be better understood through the intersection of American nationalism with Protestant Christianity. This paper argues that the National Rifle Association (NRA) has capitalized on the religious nationalism that arose in the late 1970s alongside the Moral Majority and has increasingly used religious language to shape the discourse surrounding the Second Amendment. Understanding the transformation of the Second Amendment from an important Constitutional amendment to an article of faith in religious nationalism provides new insight about the meaning of guns for American identity. The use of religious rhetoric, such as references to evil combined with references to civic obligation, illustrates the merging of American civic religion with the New Christian Right’s rhetoric. Using issues of the American Rifleman to investigate the changing discourse since the mid-1970s, this paper demonstrates how the NRA increased its use of religious language to frame the political debate about gun rights through a religious nationalist lens.

"Mejorando Nuestras Oportunidades": Engaging Urban Youth in Environmental Health Assessment and Advocacy to Improve Health and Outdoor Play Spaces.

Youth can be valuable partners in community health improvement efforts. Latino youth from Lawrence, MA were engaged in research and health promotion over an 11-month period. Utilizing their knowledge of the community, youth assessed local parks and carried out evidence-based health promotion efforts to communicate community resources to encourage physical activity, nurture community ownership of parks, and advocate for park improvements. Health promotion efforts can engage youth in strategies to address critical public health issues by leveraging their unique perspective and distinct location within communities. The communications developed by the youth were distributed within the community, benefiting residents directly. Youth were motivated to engage in the project by a sense of civic obligation, and upon completing the project, they expressed that they had gained research and communication skills and were inspired to continue to support their community. Youth engagement in applied research and health promotion at the local level can provide a foundation for community health improvement efforts that are relevant for distinct communities, while fostering the positive development of youth, and nurturing community-driven efforts to help create a healthier environment.

Ius Resistendi: Derechos de participación, garantismo, resistencia y represión a partir de las definiciones de Juan Larrea Holguín

Las constituciones establecen el marco de las instituciones formales e informales de la democracia. Los partidos políticos, reconocidos por la ley, que consiguen el gobierno y los que se quedan en la oposición, a través de elecciones universales y directas, con procedimientos preestablecidos para la adopción de decisiones políticas, consiguen y conservan el monopolio de la representación democrática formal. Así todo el gobierno, la justicia, la legislación y el poder proceden de las instituciones formales. Pero ¿qué sucede cuando la rebeldía, en forma de derecho de resistencia, está justificada en el marco del derecho positivo y de las mismas instituciones formales? ¿Cómo el ejercicio del derecho de resistencia se convierte en una obligación moral y cívica para resistir a misma ley injusta a través de las formas constitucionalizadas del siempre posible totalitarismo político? Este trabajo, desde un enfoque epistemológico interdisciplinario entre el derecho constitucional y la ciencia política, se plantea el derecho de resistencia como un derecho-garantía, anterior y superior al Estado constitucional, por su origen en el derecho natural, pero que se habilita en una circunstancia extrema, cuando los pilares del Estado moderno se han derrumbado y se encuentra en una situación limítrofe del derecho positivo. El trabajo tiene tres partes: la primera define el marco conceptual sobre el actual debate de la materia; la segunda parte discute sobre los elementos estructurales del poder y del derecho; y la tercera parte sobre los límites conceptuales en la tipicidad jurídica de la acción de resistencia.

The armour of the common soldier in the late middle ages. Harnischrödel as sources for the history of urban martial culture

Abstract The designation Harnischrödel (rolls of armour) lumps together different kinds of urban inventories. They list the names of citizens and inhabitants together with the armour they owned, were compelled to acquire within their civic obligations, or were obliged to lend to able-bodied men. This contribution systematically introduces Harnischrödel of the 14th and 15th c. as important sources for the history of urban martial culture. On the basis of lists preserved in the archives of Swiss towns, it concentrates on information pertaining to the type and quality of an average urban soldier’s gear. Although the results of this analysis are only preliminary – at this point, it is not possible to produce methodologically sound statistics –, the value of the lists as sources is readily evident, as only a smattering of the once massive quantity of actual objects has survived down to the present time.

Has Inequality Led to a Crisis for Liberalism?

The growing wealth gap has eroded support for liberal democracy by exposing its unfulfilled egalitarian promises. A renewal of civic obligations could be the best defense against creeping plutocracy.

Fostering environmental citizenship: the motivations and outcomes of civic recreation

What is the role of civic recreation – recreation-based volunteering – in the human–nature relationship? Through a mixed-method research design, this article investigates what motivates outdoor recreationists, what predicts higher levels of volunteer engagement, and the outcomes volunteers report. Importantly, civic recreation volunteers are motivated by similar reasons to other volunteers. Findings reveal six dimensions of volunteer motivation: civic engagement, environmental values, identity/enduring involvement, social/career networking, personal learning, and obligation. Individuals were most motivated by civic engagement and environmental values. Results from a multiple regression analysis indicated individuals who were motivated by identity/enduring involvement were more likely to have a higher level of volunteer engagement, whereas individuals motivated out of obligation had the lowest volunteer engagement. Finally, individuals report developing a stronger connection to nature, enhanced self-efficacy, self-enhancement, social connections, improved management, and increased civic engagement. These results suggest civic recreation has the potential to create advocates for the environment.

Assessing the Impact of the Holocaust Museum Houston's Field Trips on Adolescents' Civic Values

Civics-based educational interventions are intended to prepare students for effectively engaging in democratic society. Social studies curriculum and instruction scholars have made strong cases for the vital role that teaching adolescents about the Holocaust serves in fostering and reinforcing civic values. While these lessons have great promise, however, effectively teaching about the Holocaust poses substantial challenges for educators whom may not be well-versed or comfortable with teaching challenging, sensitive topics. Holocaust museums and memorials have played a critical role in helping teachers overcome these obstacles. Scholars have commended these efforts, but the body of empirical research evaluating these supports is limited. Applying experimental methods with a sample of 865 students across 15 middle and high school campuses, we examine the causal effects that a field trip intervention to the Holocaust Museum Houston has on students’ civic values. We find that this experience has a significant, positive impact on students’ desires to protect civil rights and liberties. Students also demonstrate a more accurate grasp of historical facts regarding the Holocaust. Overall, we did not find significant evidence that this intervention affected students’ sense of civic obligation, empathy, willingness to take on roles as “upstanders,” inclinations towards civil disobedience, or the willingness to donate to charities whose missions align with these objectives. We also find that this experience appears to have a negative effect with regard to tolerance. However, this particular result is possibly attributed to ceiling or framing effects. Finally, we find substantial differences in outcomes by student subgroups. Specifically, female students experience significant negative effects with regard to their senses of civic obligation and empathy as a result of their field trip experiences; estimates on these outcomes with males are in the positive direction, though they are statistically insignificant. Hispanic/Latinx and African-American students appear to have propelled the overall positive effect on the preservation of civil liberties; white students experience positive effects on support for civil disobedience in response to acts of injustice but demonstrate negative effects on empathy. Finally, students from less-educated parent households appear to have driven the negative effect on tolerance. Students from college-educated parental households experience positive effects in terms of preserving liberty as well as their willingness to financially support charitable causes whose missions overlap with secondary Holocaust education objectives.

Attention as a Valuable Resource

Keeping up with the news and monitoring public affairs are typically considered civic obligations. Yet there is a great deal of competition for people’s limited attention. Some studies explore when people tune in to the news and what sorts of public affairs content attract our time, but these topics warrant more research. Scholars concerned with the news media’s political role must better understand what leads people to the news in the first place. The practical import of this work is pronounced in an era where news organizations struggle to make ends meet. The purpose of this essay is to categorize what we know about what motivates people to tune in to news and then to propose a research agenda for analyzing attention to public affairs content.

THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY OBLIGATION IN DEPRESSION DIAGNOSIS

By 2030, depression is projected to be the foremost contributor to global disease burden. In cross-sectional studies, religious involvement and volunteerism are protective against depression. Connectedness to the welfare of a community (community obligation) may also have long-term protective effects on depression. Participants included 1,928 adults ages 45–76 without depressive symptoms who participated in the 1995 Midlife in the US (MIDUS)I survey and 10 years later in MIDUSII. Using logistic regression, we determined the effect of self-rated contribution to others (5-point scale), altruism, civic obligation, and volunteerism at MIDUSI on depression at MIDUSII. We also examined the effect of change in contribution to others and change in volunteerism on depression. Excellent self-rated contribution to others (vs. good) at MIDUSI and a decrease in contribution to others from MIDUSI to MIDUSII were associated with greater odds of depression at MIDUSII (OR2.37, 95%CI 1.23, 4.57 and OR2.27, 95%CI 1.43, 3.60, respectively), after adjusting for age, gender, marital status, employment, health insurance, socioeconomic status, social contacts, and chronic conditions. Altruism, civic obligation, volunteerism, and change in volunteerism were not associated with depression. Multiple conditions, female gender, and partner loss were predictive of depression, while employment at MIDUSII and older age were protective. Excellent self-rated contribution and a decrease in contribution to others over 10 years were associated with depression; the paradoxical relationship between excellent self-rated contribution and depression was unexpected. No other components of community obligation were predictive of depression. Additional studies examining the longitudinal relationship between community obligation and depression are warranted.

Genes, Personality Traits, and the Sense of Civic Duty

Political scientists have long known that the sense of civic duty is one of the strongest predictors of individual voter turnout, yet scholars are only just starting to study and understand the origins of this orientation. Recent genopolitics research has indicated that the sense of civic duty is heritable, and recent research in political psychology has illustrated that individual personality traits, many of which have a heritable component, shape feelings of civic obligation. In this article, we link these two lines of inquiry to better understand how individual differences shape the sense of civic duty. More specifically, we explore the relationship between personality traits, measured using the Big Five model; genes; and the sense of civic duty. We show that genetic factors account for between 70% and 87% of the correlation between civic duty and four of the Big Five personality traits. Overall, the results presented here expand our understanding of the process through which prosocial orientations, such as civic duty, are formed.

Juries and Viewpoint Representation

To generate high-quality deliberations, juries should be diverse in terms of not only demographics but also viewpoints. Using data from the Survey of Texas Adults (n = 1380), we examine whether existing processes select for individuals who represent the population on a variety of viewpoint characteristics, particularly whether the process of forming juries selects for people who are more independent-minded versus authority-minded. We find, on average, that those who believe in the importance of speaking English, are less compassionate, support Biblical literalism, and express more concern about the community effects of wrongdoing are more likely to have been former jurors than to not have served. Death penalty support is also modestly predictive of jury membership. Non-jurors rate their neighborhoods as cleaner than do former jurors. Results point to composition effects in the summonsing process and to the possibility that some types of people exempt themselves from this civic obligation.

Influenza and Voter Turnout

Disease makes performing civic obligations more difficult both for the afflicted and those around them. Elections held when infectious diseases are locally prevalent are therefore likely to see lower voter turnout than are those held in healthier times. This is especially notable given the strongly seasonal incidence of influenza, which coincides with election season in some countries. This article examines the relationship between regional turnout rates in Finland and the United States from 1995 to 2015 with measures of local influenza prevalence. In both countries, regression models suggest influenza outbreaks associate with lower voting rates. This may suggest another mechanism limiting the political representation of people and communities vulnerable to ill health.

The sounds of silence: American history textbook representations of non-violence and the Abolition Movement

In this paper we examine how the Abolition Movement’s approach to non-violent resistance has been silenced in four American history textbooks. Despite extensive research that reveals an extensive network of groups dedicated to the peaceful abolishment of slavery little of this historical record is included in the textbooks. Instead, a skewed representation of the movement is conveyed to the reader, one that conveys an image of a movement that contributes to a climate of social violence. Through a critical discourse analytical approach to the data we carefully deconstruct how this process of misrepresentation occurs. By employing the discursive tools of narrative framing, positioning, and stance we lift up what is often hidden from the reader and demonstrate how language use communicates powerful social messaging to the reader. We argue that student readers are left with an impoverished sense of how non-violent democratic change has occurred when presented with a limited portrayal of the Abolition Movement. We therefore emphasize the importance of equipping students with the skills needed to critically interrogate both historical and contemporary sources that purports to convey the inevitability of war to resolve complex social problems; we maintain this is both an educational imperative and a civic obligation.

Varga-Harris, Christine Stories of House and Home: Soviet Apartment Life during the Khrushchev Years (review)

SEER, 94, 3, july 2016 570 arts too; in the process it includes reference to a wide variety of interesting cultural figures who have helped make the region what it is today. The final section of the book, ‘Prospects’, in some ways is, however, a little sad. The book in fact starts with a discussion of Toomas Hendrik Ilves’s contention of some years ago that the very idea of a unifying ‘Baltic’ identity is flawed. Since, he argued, there is no common Baltic language or culture, this single identity has been externally imposed and, in fact, only reflects common experiences of annexation, Sovietization and Russification. So the last page of Purs’s text picks up this contention and looks to the possible creation of a ‘Nordic’ Estonia, a more ‘Central European’ Lithuania and a Latvia that might lose interest in preserving a shared sense of being ‘Baltic’ (p. 184). In this light, Purs also observes that if the Baltic States succeed in fashioning themselves in completely independent ways (as, at times, they appear to want to do), then this very success will spell the end of the idea of a common ‘Baltic’ identity. So here we have a useful, provocative text which deserves an interested readership. Certainly travellers and students should appreciate it, but researchers working on the region might also enjoy the zest with which the text has been written. University of Bradford Martyn Housden Varga-Harris, Christine. Stories of House and Home: Soviet Apartment Life during the Khrushchev Years. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY and London, 2015. xvi + 289 pp. Illustrations. Glossary. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $49.95. The Khrushchev government’s ambitious housing construction plan, launched in 1957, became one of the defining policies of its era. In this book, Christine Varga-Harris argues that in addition to providing millions of families with their own apartments, the mass housing programme was also intended to shape Soviet individuals, revitalize socialist society and realise the goals of Communism. Moreover, Soviet people were not mere passive recipients of homesorpropaganda;throughtheirattemptstoacquireandmaintainhousing, they asserted their rights as citizens and claimed their place in the polity. This study focuses on the city of Leningrad, which provides an illustrative example because it had the highest concentration of communal apartments in the USSR and thus faced a particularly acute housing crisis. Varga-Harris synthesizes a wide range of published and archival sources in support of her arguments and situates her work in the historiography on the thaw era in general, and on housing and domesticity specifically, citing recent works by Lynn Attwood, Steven Harris, Susan Reid and Mark Smith, among others. REVIEWS 571 The book covers several related topics that Varga-Harris groups together under the rubric of ‘house and home’. She begins with a discussion of the design and construction of new neighbourhoods and apartment complexes. These resembled the buildings going up across Europe, where mass-produced components and simple designs allowed countries devastated by war to rebuild as quickly and cheaply as possible. But Soviet architects, planners and designers strove to make such buildings distinctly socialist by emphasizing the public spaces and resources surrounding them and by asserting the educative value of decorating interiors in what they deemed good taste. Varga-Harris then explores ‘housewarming’ narratives, prevalent in a variety of media, which recounted deserving citizens moving out of crowded and dilapidated housing into new apartments. Astutely evoking the Cold War context, she argues that these stories were used to represent the success of Communism in providing every citizen with a comfortable life, in contrast to the capitalist West, where landlords grew rich on the rent of exploited workers. Subsequent chapters analyse advice about homemaking and interior design and describe the mobilization of volunteers to improve and maintain the courtyards, corridors and stairwells of apartment buildings. These chapters amplify Varga-Harris’s contention that officials and professionals countered the endorsement of privacy implied by the construction of individual apartments by emphasizing the social importance of good taste and the civic obligations of tenants to their neighbours and the larger community. In the final two chapters of the book, Varga-Harris focuses on the correspondence written by those hoping to receive new apartments, in...

Boccaccio: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works. Edited by Victoria Kirkham, Michael Sherberg, and Janet Levarie Smarr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. Pp. xix+555.

<i>Boccaccio: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works</i>. Edited by Victoria Kirkham, Michael Sherberg, and Janet Levarie Smarr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. Pp. xix+555.