Coercive Approach Research Articles

Biomedical moral enhancement for psychopaths.

This study examines the ethical permissibility of biomedical moral enhancement (BME) for psychopaths, considering both coercive and voluntary approaches. To do so, I will first briefly explain what psychopaths are and some normative implications of these facts. I will then ethically examine three scenarios of BME for psychopaths: (1) coercive BME for non-criminal psychopaths, (2) coercive BME for psychopathic offenders, and (3) voluntary BME for psychopathic offenders. I will argue that coercive BME for non-criminal psychopaths is ethically problematic due to issues of cost, invasion of privacy, and stigmatic effects of compulsory diagnosis. Similarly, I will argue that coercive BME for criminals is impermissible due to violations of the rights to bodily and mental integrity. However, I will show that voluntary BME for offenders may be ethically permissible under certain conditions, challenging the critique that the consent of vulnerable prisoners cannot be considered fully voluntary. I argue that when an offender is provided with sufficient medical and legal information, incentives such as the possibility of parole review based on BME results do not preclude the voluntariness of consent. Ultimately, I aim to advance the debate on BME for psychopaths by delineating and defending conditions for the ethical permissibility of voluntary BME.

Malaysia’s “Triadic Maritime Diplomacy” Strategy in the South China Sea

The importance of safeguarding Malaysia’s Kasawari gas field in the South China Sea has reoriented Malaysia’s maritime diplomatic strategies vis-à-vis China’s growing assertiveness in this semi-enclosed sea. China’s increased sea infringements through its coast guards and maritime constabulary forces have led Malaysia to adopt what this article coins as “triadic maritime diplomacy,” a combination of coercive, persuasive, and co-operative maritime diplomacy. Malaysia’s maritime diplomatic strategies thus act more as a set of contradictory policies rather than a decisive attempt to defend Malaysia’s sovereignty at sea. This article engages in qualitative inquiry to address two central empirical questions: Firstly, how has Malaysia managed the delicate balance between safeguarding its sovereignty at sea and maintaining close economic ties with China? Secondly, what accounts for Malaysia’s persistent “downplaying” stance despite the escalating intrusions around the Luconia Shoals, particularly concerning the Kasawari gas field? The findings of this study reveal three key aspects: Firstly, Malaysia’s prioritization of developing the Kasawari gas field has necessitated the adoption of seemingly contradictory policies, employing coercive maritime measures utilizing its naval assets while simultaneously adopting rhetoric that downplays crises. Secondly, Malaysia’s maritime diplomacy can be aptly characterized as “triadic” strategies, encompassing the adoption of coercive, persuasive, and co-operative approaches. Lastly, these seemingly inconsistent policies are a strategic response aimed at accommodating both immediate and prospective economic opportunities involving China, all while signaling its nonaligned stance to major global powers.

Performance without legitimacy? Examining the performance-legitimacy dilemma of China’s authoritarian environmentalism model through Hebei’s ‘ban on coal furnace’ project

ABSTRACT Mainstream environmental politics tends to measure the success of a policy through its quantitative environmental performance. Under Xi's rule, China's model of ‘Authoritarian Environmentalism’ is often assessed for its effectiveness; however, the facets of policy legitimacy have largely been overlooked. This research explores the policy legitimacy deficit of China's authoritarian environmentalism by examining the case of ‘Ban on Coal Furnace’ (BCF) project in Hebei province. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and policy discourse analysis, this article suggests that while the BCF project succeeded in environmental performance, both in policy outputs and outcomes, it failed in maintaining policy legitimacy essential for sustaining these policy outcomes over the long term. Integrating the three distinctive aspects of policy outputs, outcomes and legitimacy, this study highlights an inherent Performance-Legitimacy dilemma within China's Authoritarian Environmentalism: on the one hand, the top leader's strong political will is crucial for achieving effective performance. On the other hand, however, policy legitimacy may suffer when local officials adopt an excessively coercive campaign-style implementation approach that overlooks local needs and interests.

A tale of two Southeast Asian states: media governance and authoritarian regimes in Singapore and Vietnam

Political scientists have crafted intricate taxonomies to classify nations beyond liberal democracy, positioning these societies along an authoritarian continuum. Despite the pivotal role of journalists in accelerating political dynamics, there exists a lack of comparative research on media governance in these regimes. Consequently, this study scrutinizes the media governance ecosystems in Vietnam and Singapore. Vietnam is a one-party authoritarian state, whereas Singapore represents a hybrid political system. However, both countries exhibit a stable and uninterrupted rule by the respective ruling party. Our research uncovers the nuances of Singapore’s media regulation, which embeds trusted stakeholders with financial interests in key press roles to reinforce the implicit political norms. Conversely, Vietnam employs a more direct, coercive, and state-centric approach. Media actors in both nations occasionally test the boundaries of acceptable discourses, with each government’s responses being shaped by specific contexts and broader history. Reforms in Vietnam, embracing privatization and commercialization, mirror Singapore’s integration of capitalism, public ownership, and commercial interests when governing media. These findings highlight diverse yet effective authoritarian media governance strategies, unique features, and commonalities in both systems. Overall, media structures in these Southeast Asian countries have undergone profound evolutions towards more sophisticated regulatory tools to manage societal and political transformations.

"Too soft for real psychiatry"? Gendered boundary-making between coercion and dialog in Italian wards.

Psychiatric practice has always entailed a coercive dimension, visible not only in its formal expressions (e.g. compulsory treatment) but in many informal and implicit forms. In fact, contemporary psychiatric practices are characterized by an interplay of coercion and dialog to be interpreted not as binary categories but as extremes of a spectrum. Within this perspective, it becomes crucial to draw boundaries attributing meaning to professional identities and practices in psychiatric work. This is particularly relevant in acute wards: to explore this issue, we selected two cases according to a most-different-cases design, one ward with a mechanical-restraint approach compared to one with no-mechanical-restraint. We argue that gender, mobilized to performatively draw distinctions and hierarchies in order to define and justify different approaches to psychiatric crises along the continuum between coercion and dialog, is a key dimension in the boundary-making process. The analysis identifies two main dimensions of drawing gendered boundaries: inter-gender boundaries (overlapping the binary distinction between masculinity and femininity with a more coercive or relational-dialogic approach to crisis) and intra-gender boundaries (distinguishing and ranking of different masculinities and femininities), associating a less coercive orientation with a devirilized masculinity.

Autonomy and paternalism – framing Swedish COVID-19 restriction policy

ABSTRACT Sweden became an outlier among the Nordic countries in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. While the Nordic countries have historically shared a social democratic welfare state regime, with strong cooperation and harmonization of social policies, their responses to the pandemic showcased fundamental differences to that of Sweden. In particular, Sweden’s prioritization of individual civil liberties over social rights diverged from the more coercive approaches of Finland and Norway, which placed greater emphasis on public health and social welfare. This study examines the media framing surrounding the contrasting Swedish approach and highlights the dichotomy between statist individualism/autonomy and welfare paternalism/interdependence that has been an inherent part of the Swedish welfare state framing. Employing interpretive policy analysis, the study explores the media narratives used by policy actors to frame their pandemic response in terms of individual autonomy and governmental paternalism. We identified two contrasting perspectives on governance regarding the COVID-19 policy strategy. One framing perspective backed the strategy, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding individual autonomy and minimizing central control. The other viewpoint demanded a lockdown and criticized the Swedish response as too lenient. This deviated from usual Swedish political alignments and created a polarized and lively debate around the core values of individual autonomy, agency, and central governmental paternalism.

Unfolding COVID-19 vaccine communication campaigns in China's neighborhoods: a qualitative study of stakeholders' narratives.

The Chinese state has recently implemented the COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Campaign (CVCC) to counter vaccine hesitancy. Nonetheless, the extant literature that examines COVID-19 vaccine acceptance has less represented COVID-19 vaccine communication efforts. To address this lacuna, we qualitatively explored how CVCCs were organized in Chinese communities by investigating 54 Chinese stakeholders. This study indicates that the CVCC was sustained by top-down political pressure. CVCCs' components involve ideological education among politically affiliated health workers, expanding health worker networks, training health workers, implementing media promotion, communicating with residents using persuasive and explanatory techniques, encouraging multistakeholder partnerships, and using public opinion-steered and coercive approaches. While CVCCs significantly enhanced COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, lacking open communication, stigmatizing vaccine refusers, insufficient stakeholder collaboration, and low trust in the COVID-19 vaccination program (CVP) eroded the validity of CVCCs. To promote the continuity of CVCCs in China, CVCC performers are expected to conduct open and inclusive communication with residents. Furthermore, CVP planers should create robust partnerships among health workers by ensuring their agreements on strategies for implementing CVCCs and optimize COVID-19 immunization service provision to depoliticize CVPs. Our study will not only deepen global audiences' understanding of CVCCs in authoritarian China but also offer potential neighborhood-level solutions for implementing local and global public health communication efforts.

Legitimization of data quality management practices in health management information systems: A soft systems methodology perspective

AbstractRecognizing the significance of data for policy change to improve population health, many developing countries and Health Partners have invested for decades in Health Management Information System (HMIS). Despite huge investments in technologies and capacity building to support the management of routine health data, there is still a problem in trying to make substantial improvements on gains made so far. A number of researchers have reported on lack of motivation, ownership, data use and work overload as some of the reasons explaining the persistent problem with routine health data quality. However not much has been reported on how legitimacy seekers and providers negotiate for the legitimacy of data quality management practices. We drew on this gap to explore how gaps are negotiated between the legitimacy seekers and the legitimacy providers when seeking legitimacy of data quality management practices in HMIS at micro level. Using institutional theory pillars: institutionalization and legitimation, we framed our qualitative study in soft systems methodology (SSM). We collected data using observations, semi‐structured interviews, and study of artifacts to answer our question based on the Malawi's District Health Information System (DHIS2) use case. Our findings revealed three factors shaping the gap negotiation: coercive approach, technical support and social relationship and moral judgment. The paper's contribution is two‐fold, (a) from a practical perspective we identify the pertinent context issues that come into play when negotiating a gap between the data cadres and the managers (from the Ministry of Health and partners) in the course of seeking legitimacy of data quality management practices; (b) theoretically we promote the application of SSM models with an institutional perspective in making sense of complex situations relating to legitimation.

The Influence of Guardian and Warrior Police Orientations on Australian Officers’ Use of Force Attitudes and Tactical Decision-Making

Concerns about excessive use of force by U.S. police have led to calls for agencies to move from ‘warrior’ to ‘guardian’ policing. ‘Warrior’ policing embodies an aggressive or coercive approach to law enforcement, while ‘guardian’ policing prioritises communication, procedural justice and citizen safety. Associations between guardian and warrior policing orientations and use of force attitudes in the U.S. have been found, however the influence of these orientations on police use of force in Australia has not been examined. This study examined the association of guardian and warrior policing orientations with use of force attitudes, threat perceptions and tactical decision-making among Australian officers, through a survey of 183 police officers in Queensland. Regression analyses indicated that warrior policing was associated with greater support for use of force and greater perceived threat in an ambiguous threat scenario, while guardian policing was associated with more restraint in tactical decision-making among Australian police officers.

‘Who is patriotic, who is not’? Enactment of patriotism law in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT Scholars have long been interested in understanding whether patriotism or patriotic history can be imposed upon citizens. This raging debate has been evident in both developed and developing countries invoking sentiments around the role of patriotism, identity and nationalism in nation-building. Drawing on the Zimbabwean case study, this article examines the current efforts by the ZANU-PF led regime to legislate patriotism through an Act of Parliament. The article contends that patriotism is a degree, sense of love for and pride in one’s country that resides in citizenry’s hearts and minds and thus cannot be thrust or foisted unto them through coercive measures including national legislation. In contributing to the social identity and patriotism literature, the article examines whether patriotism infused through a coercive approach will succeed in inculcating a sense of pride, self-love, and respect for the country.

Coercion and Its Discontents: The Promise and Peril of Increasingly Restrictive of Vaccination Mandates Comment on "Convergence on Coercion: Functional and Political Pressures as Drivers of Global Childhood Vaccine Mandates".

Attwell and Hannah present a cogent analysis of why policy-makers in four jurisdictions chose to use coercive approaches to increase vaccination rates between 2015 and 2017. Their study calls attention to the challenging political calculations that are necessary when choosing between coercion and persuasion to increase vaccine uptake. Further research is needed on the consequences of making a mandatory vaccination policy more restrictive, in order to better understand the backlash and resistance such a strategy may provoke. Although one reason that policy-makers may choose a coercive approach is that it is cheaper and easier to implement than a persuasive one, sociopolitical trends and backlash related to the COVID-19 pandemic may make coercive policies more politically risky in the coming years.

Knowledge, power and the failure of US peacemaking in Afghanistan 2018–21

Abstract The power of narrative and norm entrepreneurship in shaping policy and practice is increasingly appreciated in the study of international relations but rarely investigated in the context of international peacemaking and mediation. Applying constructivist analyses and drawing on empirical evidence from US diplomacy in Afghanistan between 2018 and 2021, this article demonstrates how emergent western policy discourses, knowledge production, and the mediator's ideas and practices interacted in a dynamic context to induce a significant shift in US policy, legitimate it, and fundamentally reshape the conflict and peacemaking landscape. Approaching the reality of conflict and peacemaking as socially constructed and drawing on documentary analysis, in-depth interviews and insights from first-hand participation in the Afghan ‘peace’ process, I argue that these new narratives influenced and sanctioned a coercive US peacemaking approach that reshaped the interests and behaviors of Afghan stakeholders, with violent material consequences on the ground. In doing so, the article highlights the potential of constructivist analyses of peacemaking to provide a more holistic, multi-dimensional understanding of these processes and their outcomes in ways that purely rationalist or structurally-based accounts can not.

Exploring NGOs-government collaboration strategies in institutionalising child-centred disaster resilience and climate change adaptation

Child-centred disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation have gained traction through projects and programs implemented by various actors worldwide. However, there remains a lack of understanding of their longer-term impact and influence on policy and practice at different levels of governance. This longitudinal research examines the processes of mainstreaming child-centred disaster risk reduction (DRR) and school safety programs at various levels. The data collection methods included participatory workshops, focus group discussions, and participant observations collected in 2008 and 2019. The findings suggest that the existence of local disaster regulation and mainstream institutions does not serve as a legitimate predictor for how likely governments adopt child-centred DRR and sustain school safety policy implementation. By adopting hybrid and combining approaches to DRR institutionalisation, NGOs and governments have collaboratively combined various strategies, including local regulatory change, incentives, nudging, and coercive and discursive approaches.

Taming the Nuclear Elephant: The US Indo-Pacific Strategy on North Korea

Assessing its coercive diplomacy in retrospect, the United States should deal with the North Korean nuclear issue with a more sophisticated combination of coercive measures and positive inducements to overcome past failures. Simultaneously, based on an analysis of current challenges and opportunities, the United States should consider this nuclear agenda within its Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) with a long-term regional vision. The active engagement of the United States in the North Korean nuclear issue can create opportunities for cooperation with China or provide the United States with the strategic means to influence China. In addition, the US–ROK alliance and US–ROK–Japan trilateral cooperation could be a driving force in resolving the nuclear agenda of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and support the IPS of the United States. Ultimately, the linkage between the US' coercive approach to the DPRK and its IPS could help prevent regional tension and the possible demise of the international nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime, which is threatened by North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Analysis of the Influence of Regulatory Enforcement Shifts from Coercive to Collaborative on Compliance Behaviors within the Pre-Tertiary Education Regulatory Environment

The use of the coercive (traditional enforcement) approach in enforcing regulatory compliance to aspects of the Education Regulatory Act, 2020 (Act 1023), that is overseen by the National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA), led to media clamor and a high level of non-compliance, which necessitated the development of a new collaborative approach to change non-compliance behavior in the education regulatory environment. With critics raising alarm over the tendency of the new approach to deepen the level of non-compliance instead of solving the problem, there was a need to explore this new approach to understand the effectiveness and efficiency of the new collaborative approach. The research design used to address the research problem was divided into two (2) phases. The main approach focused on using situational analysis of a case to describe the regulatory environment of NaSIA before and after the change in the regulatory enforcement approach of the regulator and the compliance behavior of the regulated entities. The second phase entailed the use of descriptive statistics to analyze survey data of regulated entities (pre-tertiary education institutions) to verify the veracity of the attitudes or thoughts identified in the situational analysis. The study showed that the adoption of the new approach reduced the level of agitation and clamor in the media, and the level of regulatory compliance increased, leading to over six thousand (6000) pre-tertiary education institutions that were considered non-compliant in 2021 attaining full compliance at the end of 2022. This is a 75% improvement in regulatory compliance over the previous year, demonstrating the success of the new strategy in attaining the regulator’s primary goal.

Norman Edwin Himes's "Eugenics and Democracy: A Call to Action" (1939). The Eugenic Manifesto of a Devote Carverian

This note presents an unpublished 1939 address given by the American sociologist and population specialist Norman Edwin Himes on "Eugenics and Democracy: A Call to Action. Himes's discussion of eugenics and democracy has a two-fold relevance. First, it provides further evidence that among population studies specialists a generalized commitment to eugenics persisted well beyond the era of the so-called Progressive Era and continued throughout the 1930s. Second, Himes's approach reveals an attempt to reformulate a eugenic agenda along "liberal" lines, which was intended to distance him from the coercive and racialist approach of his progressive predecessors. Yet, it will be shown, even though Himes seemed to temper the extremism of the earlier movement with sociological and voluntaristic language, there was little actual change in the ultimate goals of his agenda regardless of the apparent switch to democratic eugenics.

'As for dignity and respect…. me bollix': A human rights-based exploration of service user narratives in Irish methadone maintenance treatment.

This paper explores the narratives of service users of contemporary methadone maintenance treatment services (MMT) in the Republic of Ireland to obtain their perspectives in the context of them negotiating their right to health METHODS: Participants were recruited and interviewed by a former service user of MMT services. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 40 current and recent users of MMT services RESULTS: Participants overwhelmingly reported a reduced sense of personal agency because of their experiences in MMT treatment. Participants observed that their perceptions of treatment were forged by a sense of reduced autonomy, coercive and disrespectful approaches from healthcare workers. Within a system which the participants considered to be failing, the services that they accessed were predicated on a process of reward and punishment, where best practice was often ignored by practitioners, all of which resulted in adverse consequences for service users DISCUSSION: The findings indicate that there is a significant 'chasm' between human rights, policy and best practice and how these are operationalised within the structures and practices of Irish MMT services. The treatment of service users, based on human rights principles such as equality, respect, autonomy, empowerment and personal choice remains aspirational and is unlikely to be fulfilled without addressing more systemic challenges such as funding, training of staff, service culture, governance and independent oversight of MMT services.

Stigmatising attitudes of probation, parole and custodial officers towards people with mental health issues: A systematic literature review and meta‐analysis

AbstractPurposeThis review aimed to examine (1) stigmatising attitudes of probation, parole and custodial officers (hereafter referred to as correctional staff) towards people with mental health issues, (2) the potential impacts of these attitudes on client treatment and (3) what is currently known about anti‐stigma interventions in correctional settings.MethodAcademic databases were searched for peer‐reviewed and dissertation literature published between 1 January 2000 and 10 February 2022. Eligible studies included observational and intervention studies investigating stigmatising attitudes of correctional staff towards people with mental health issues. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used to assess the quality of studies. A meta‐analysis of anti‐stigma intervention studies was performed.ResultsA total of 35 studies were included for data extraction, including eight interventions, one longitudinal, 18 cross‐sectional and eight qualitative studies. Some studies indicated neutral or positive attitudes, but the majority showed a range of stigmatising attitudes towards people with mental health issues. The findings indicate these stigmatising attitudes can lead to negative treatment of justice‐involved clients, such as more coercive, restrictive and punitive approaches. The meta‐analysis of six intervention studies focussed on education found a small positive effect on stigmatising attitudes (d = .31, 95% CI: 0.16–0.45).ConclusionThe various stigmatising attitudes of correctional staff towards people with mental health issues can have detrimental impacts on the well‐being and treatment outcomes of clients presenting with mental health issues. Anti‐stigma interventions may be effective in mitigating these impacts; however, more rigorous evidence is needed.

An analysis of power and conviction around land and linked natural resources in the Western Highlands of Cameroon

Questions on power exercise by natural resource actors and inherent conflicts have gained traction in scientific and policy circles in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), although there is virtual neglect of harmful convictions embedded in the exercise of power. To bridge this gap, this paper explores power and convictions around land and linked natural resources in Cameroon. Data was generated through focus group discussions (N = 14), key informant (N = 44) and expert interviews (N = 19). The analysis drew from the actor-centered power lens employing thematic and content analysis. The results indicate the following: First, while gender-based and elitism-based harmful convictions significantly shape land and linked natural resource access, region/ethnic-based and religion-based convictions were less significant. Second, actors championing gender-based convictions employ more coercive approaches, while elitist and political actors make use of incentives. This study informs the actor-centered power (ACP) approach, with emphasis on the convictions embedded in the exercise of power during natural resource acquisition.

Virtual Venues and International Negotiations: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has altered international diplomacy, with many negotiations now conducted in ‘virtual venues’ facilitated by videoconferencing platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Interprefy. Drawing on a survey of diplomats with experience in virtual venue negotiation, we analyze respondents’ perceptions of efficacy, tactics, and legitimacy in these venues. We find that virtual venues not only affect the format, but also the substance of negotiations. In general, perceptions of efficacy are related to diplomats’ ability to ‘read the room’. Virtual venues also impact negotiations at the tactical level. We find that coercive approaches (including novel tactics) are more common than persuasive approaches. Overall, these venues are afforded the same legitimacy as face-to-face negotiations. We conclude that, as virtual venues will be a feature of international diplomacy for the foreseeable future, further research is required to inform increased diplomatic adaptation and hybridity.