Coercive Policies Research Articles

Environmental problems and policy options in the Baltic states: Learning from the west?

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are facing severe environmental challenges following their independence, in which environmental movements had played an important role. Ecological threats from land‐use, water and air pollution are described and discussed in this study, drawing from the experience of policies implemented in the West. These include those normative, economic and coercive policy instruments in national as well as international environmental regimes, and the role of citizen participation in the implementation process. The prospect of new and more effective ways of combating environmental problems in these newly independent countries will depend largely upon the commitment of grassroots organisations and public support to prioritise their environment during times of economic recession.

Judith Blake on Fertility Control and the Problem of Voluntarism

It may be argued that coercion is justified to modify individual fertility behavior if the aggregate outcome of individuals fertility differs from what the collective deems to be in its best interest. Policy interventions which aim to modify aggregate fertility could therefore easily be viewed as violating the principle of voluntarism. Such coercive policies however are inherently costly and principly untenable. Judith Blake a former professor of the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of California Berkeley wrote in this 1972 essay that it is flawed to pose the policy issue starkly as a choice between voluntarism and coercion. She argues that the status quo is inadequately characterized as one reflecting voluntary choices because desired fertility cannot be properly interpreted in abstraction from the stringent controls which social institutions impose upon reproductive behavior. Fertility policy must be based upon a correct understanding of such institutional influences with the modification of such influences to change fertility potentially involving a net reduction of the coercive elements in the existing social controls over fertility. Blake presented a scheme in which the determinants of family size preference reflect a balancing of the various utilities which parents derive from having children and the costs which they bear in rearing them. Her insights are illustrated through references to Western demographic history. The frame of analysis is however general with reproductive goals being rational and calculated in all societies.

Public Funding and Policies for Provision of the Contraceptive Implant, Fiscal Year 1992

According to results of a survey of state Medicaid, health and welfare agencies, these agencies spent $61 million in federal and state funds on the provision of the contraceptive implant to low-income women in FY 1992. Some $57 million of this was federal funds, with Medicaid accounting for 84% of all public funds spent on the implant; only nine states committed monies from their own coffers. The Medicaid agencies of 13 states reported restrictions on the number of subsidized implants a woman could receive over her reproductive lifetime. No Medicaid agency has provisions to cover required or requested removals of the device among users who become ineligible for Medicaid while the implant is in place; only eight health departments have policies ensuring subsidized removals for such women.

Coercive conservation, defensive reaction, and the commons tragedy in Northeast Thailand

This essay reconsiders privatization and nationalization as solutions to the degradation of open-access resources, “the tragedy of the commons”. Examining the case of recent forest conservation measures in Northeast Thailand, it underscores the fact that enclosures managed by a Leviathan-like state will not guarantee conservation. This is because states, like individuals, seek economic gains from the resources they control and because coercive conservation policies engender local resistance and resource vandalism. The essay suggests that, as an alternative to privatization and nationalization, local people should be encouraged to organize community resource management. For this to happen, it is necessary for local people to recognize common-pool resources as a common good, and for the state to give official support to community resource management.

Coercive Cooperation: Explaining Multilateral Economic Sanctions

When Saddam Hussein's army invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, the United States took the lead in organizing stringent economic sanctions against Iraq. Since unilateral sanctions rarely succeed, co-operation was a necessity. This innovative study shows that multilateral, or co-operative, sanctions are coercive not only in their pressure on their target but also in their origin: the sanctions themselves frequently result from coercive policies, with one interested state attempting to convince other through persuasion, threats and promises. To analyze this process, Lisa Martin uses a methodology combining game-theoretic models, statistical analysis, and case studies. She tests her hypotheses against 99 cases of economic sanctions since 1945 and then against 4 detailed case studies - the U.S.-led pipeline embargo, high-technology sanctions against the Soviet Union, U.S. sanctions against Latin American nations for human rights violations, and British sanctions against Argentina during the Falklands War. Martin emphasizes that credible commitments gain international co-operation, and she concludes that the involvement of international institutions and the willingness of the main sender to bear heavy costs are the central factors influencing credibility.

Macro-economic determinants of penal policy: Estimating the unemployment and inflation influences on imprisonment rate changes in the United States, 1948?1985

Conflict theory proposes that systemic economic distress generates problem populations which require control via palliative and coercive means. Most previous research has concentrated on examining the unemployment-imprisonment relationship. A review of the literature suggests that other structural conditions that generate marginalization as well as the state's placative control must be considered in order to understand the linkage between economic-fiscal forces and penal policy. Using annual time-series data for the period 1948–1985, the present paper examines the extent to which changes in inprisonment rates reflect (a) governmental attempts to offset the threat of unemployment and inflation and (b) fiscal limitations placed by state expenditures on placative controls. The results indicate support for the conflict thesis, with inflation rates and annual fluctuations in black and white male unemployment rates exerting an independent positive effect upon imprisonment-rate changes, after controlling for variations in violent crime rates, prison capacity, and age structure. Possible reasons for the lack of evidence regarding trade-offs between state's placative and coercive policies are discussed and suggestions for further research are noted. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** AW502010 00003

China's Birth Control Policy in the Tibet Autonomous Region: Myths and Realities

An independent and impartial investigation the authors examine whether or not the Chinese government has pursued a coercive birth control policy in contemporary Tibet--the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The authors begin by reviewing a recently published report describing a coercive birth control policy. These reports assert that roving birth control teams enforce the birth control policy throughout Tibet. In addition to fines and penalties Tibetans face forced abortions sterilization and infanticide. Having reviewed the claims the authors briefly discuss what constitutes Tibet. The TAR is that region formerly ruled by the Dai Lama who fled in 1959. Although Chinese provinces adjacent to the TAR contain many ethnic Tibetans these areas have been under direct Chinese control for centuries. Between 1985-90 the authors researched the question of coercive birth control in the TAR. The authors lived with the nomadic communities conducted interviews and analyzed demographic data. The authors found the presence of a coercive birth control policy in Lhasa. Han (ethnic Chinese) cadre/officials living in Lhasa are subject to the standard 1-child policy practiced in urban China and Tibetan cadre/officials are limited to 2 children/couple. But for the rest of the Lhasa population no birth control policy was in place until 1990 when a new regulation calling for a 2-children limit was instituted. However no penalties or punishment had been specified by the time the authors left the TAR. Among both the agricultural and nomadic populations the authors found no birth control policies. These findings were corroborated by high birth rates which would not be possible under a coercive birth control policy. Instead of suffering from a decline in population due to coercive policies the authors conclude that Tibet is currently experiencing a rapid population growth that will eventually pose serious economic and social difficulties.

Governmental policies to reduce tax evasion: coerced behavior versus services and values development

Governments generally have at their disposal two types of tax compliance policies. One set of policy options coerces tax compliance by increasing risks for practicing tax evasion, while a second set of policies emphasizes development of supportive taxpaying values among citizens through service improvement and informational strategies. Tax agencies tend to favor coercive policies, but empirical research suggests that such policies are not in themselves fully adequate to fight tax evasion. Four hypotheses are offered which suggest the utility of service and values based policies and the need for increased investment in those areas of tax administration.

Uncertain Risks and Bitter Realities: The Reproductive Choices of HIV-Infected Women

Although most babies born to women with HIV will not develop AIDS, many health professionals and segments of the public object when these women will not forgo pregnancy. Such a view fails to consider fully the cultural, political, and socioeconomic contexts in which seropositive women make reproductive choices. HIV infection is only one of many conditions of chronic disease that can be passed from a woman to her fetus, and should not be singled out as a target for coercive policies. Rather, government and society have an obligation to empower women to protect themselves against HIV infection in the first place, and to offer them options for self-esteem and achievement independent of reproduction.

The Development of cotton in Northern Ivory Coast, 1910–1965

This article seeks to redress the largely contemporary bias and technologically deterministic approach of agricultural historians of cotton in francophone West Africa. It does this by arguing that the expansion of cotton since the 1960s has depended upon major socio-economic and cultural changes in agrarian production systems during the colonial period as much as on technological innovations in the post-colonial period. The study focuses on the political–economic and socio-cultural processes behind the emergence of an export-oriented, commodity producing peasantry among the Senufo of northern Ivory Coast. A periodization of cotton development is presented in which the gradual dissolution of precolonial production units and the gestation of smaller social units with new economic needs is emphasized. This restructuring of agricultural production systems is related to a complex interplay of internal and external factors, notably coercive state policies, the monetization of Senufo society and the internalization of commodity relations, conflicts between social groups and the direct intervention of foreign agribusiness in the productive process. Despite low levels of cotton output during the colonial period, the resultant transformation of production relations was crucial to the contemporary intensification of cotton growing.

Monopolies as “Mechanical Defects”: Frank H. Knight on Market Power

This essay examines Frank Knight's view of monopolies in a market economy through an exegesis of his writings. A cogent development of Frank Knight's theory of monopolies is conspicuously absent in the economic literature. His prominence in the discipline and the influence his work has had on others establish his views as significant in the intellectural history of the theory of capitalist competition. The study focuses on Knight's characterization of monopolies and his views as to the appropriateness of coercive repressive regulatory policies. Also, capitalistic monopolies are discussed in the context of Knight's critical attitude toward economic and philosophic dogma and his disdain for centralized economic planning. The following section deals with the Knightian view of the nature of monopolies and categorization of types of monopolies. Then, the philosophical basis for Knight's position onmonopolies is presented. Specifically, the concentration of economic power in capitalism is explained in terms of Knight's perceptions of social reformers, static equilibrium analysis, and economic planning.

Moral Obligations to the Not-Yet Born: The Fetus as Patient

The fetus destined to be born rather than aborted has become increasingly an object of medical and moral concern. With considerable justification, women view this concern--which they share to a great degree--with suspicion that it will serve as a pretext for denying them social and economic equality with men. This article attempts to show that practical moral judgments about our obligations to not-yet-born children can be made without falling into the abyss of controversy surrounding abortion. By stressing the similarities in fathers' duties to their born children, we can also counter a measure of our historical propensity to view women's moral duties to their not-yet-born children as the overwhelmingly important feature of their moral lives, and resist the temptation to impose coercive public policies.

AIDS, GAYS, AND STATE COERCION1

Mohr argues that coercive government policies in response to the AIDS crisis are unjustified and pose a serious threat to the rights of homosexuals. AIDS presently can be transmitted only to those whose actions place them at risk. Paternalistic state coercion is warranted only when a person has diminished capacity or when necessary to prevent someone from ceasing to be an independent agent. Furthermore, an individual may regard sex as a central value. Finally, using public health as a rationale for closing bathhouses or otherwise regulating sexual behavior is a step toward totalitarianism, because coercion is unwarranted when protection from a disease can be achieved by individual action and because the public good served by reducing the size of the pool of AIDS-exposed people is outweighed by the unjust discrimination involved in using coercive measures that affect only certain individuals.

Games of coercion and power part II

This paper analyses the concept of coercion, understood as a special type of social power. Coercion uses threats to force the victim to obey the dominating agent, that is, to elicit an intentional response from the subordinate person. The typical decision environment is described and the effect of threats on utility distributions is analysed. Some causal aspects of threats are also discussed. The strategies of coercive threats are expressed in a game theoretical form. A paradox is revealed: the coercer can only seldom make his threat convincing to his intended victim. It is difficult to show that a rational agent (the coercer) would indeed realize his threat when he meets resistence. Different coercive state policies are then discussed in relation to this paradox and a solution is suggested. Finally, Steven Lukes' ideas concerning power are criticized.

Games of coercion and power part I

This paper analyses the concept of coercion, understood as a special type of social power. Coercion uses threats to force the victim to obey the dominating agent, that is, to elicit an intentional response from the subordinate person. The typical decision environment is described and the effect of threats on utility distributions is analysed. Some causal aspects of threats are also discussed. The strategies of coercive threats are expressed in a game theoretical form. A paradox is revealed: the coercer can only seldom make his threat convincing to his intended victim. It is difficult to show that a rational agent (the coercer) would indeed realize his threat when he meets resistence. Different coercive state policies are then discussed in relation to this paradox and a solution is suggested. Finally, Steven Lukes' ideas concerning power are criticized.

Discriminatory decision making at the legislative level: An analysis of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970.

This paper is an analysis of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. Consistent with value-conflict perspectives, previous research on the social origins of drug legislation suggests that coercive laws occur when the behavior of minority and other subordinate groups become threatening. Liberalizing drug legislation is enacted when the interests of dominant groups seem juxtaposed to existing punitive legislation. The present analysis explores the process of legislative decision making when both subordinateand superordinate groups engage in drug-related behaviors which run counter to dominant norms and values. To do so, a detailed analysis of the congressional committee hearings and floor debates which preceded enactment of the 1970 Act was conducted. This analysis revealed that Congress did not pass a strictly coercive drug control policy at the risk of stigmatizing superordinate groups. Nor did it choose to liberalize drug penalties across the board. Congress perceived that strictly liberal policies might undermine both the instrumental goal of reducing illicit drug activity, and the symbolic goal of expressing general societal disapproval of illicit drug use. Instead, the legislation that emerged from congressional debates contained both liberal and coercive provisions reflecting the requirements of dealing with two targeted populations: young middle and upper class white drug users who became identified as victims of drug traffickers; and large-scale and professional drug dealers who became identified as enemy deviants—the true source and symbol of the drug problem. Liberal, and essentially discriminatory, provisions permitted the protection of the former from stigmatization as criminal felons. Coercive, but apparently nondiscriminatory, provisions provided the threat and potential for severe punishment of the latter. The discriminatory features of the 1970 Act are identified and explicated. And, the implications of the Act's provisions for race- or class-based decisions in the application of sanctions are discussed.

Why is there no socialism in the united states?

Many theories have been offered to explain the absence of socialism as a significant political force in the United States. Although no theory will satisfactorily explain a "non-happening," this article offers an unusual theory: that federalism is more powerful than any other factor. The influence of the federal structure is expressed in at least two ways. The first follows Madison's original design, that the states will be numerous and so different from one another that a strong movement in one will be difficult to spread to others. The second follows from the design of the national government whose policies for the first one hundred fifty years were few in number and limited mainly to patronage of individuals and husbandry of commerce. Since the national government was small and not directly involved in coercive policies (which were reserved to the state), there was little to validate the socialist critique.

Why Is There No Socialism in the United States?

Many theories have been offered to explain the absence of socialism as a significant political force in the United States. Although no theory will satisfactorily explain a "non-happening," this article offers an unusual theory: that federalism is more powerful than any other factor. The influence of the federal structure is expressed in at least two ways. The first follows Madison's original design, that the states will be numerous and so different from one another that a strong movement in one will be difficult to spread to others. The second follows from the design of the national government whose policies for the first one hundred fifty years were few in number and limited mainly to patronage of individuals and husbandry of commerce. Since the national government was small and not directly involved in coercive policies (which were reserved to the state), there was little to validate the socialist critique.

Consumers' Preferences for Alternative Energy Conservation Policies: A Trade-Off Analysis

Consumers' preferences for alternative energy conservation policies are examined as potential input to public policy decisions at state and federal levels. Simulations based on conjoint analysis of consumers' preferences show that they clearly favor incentive over coercive policies, but are evenly divided on the intervention versus free market issue.

COERCIVE AND NONCOERCIVE ABORTION DETERRENCE POLICIES: A Comparative State Analysis

The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) limited the authority of states to prohibit abortions during the first two trimesters of pregnancy. Although they can no longer prohibit abortions, state legislatures have adopted a variety of coercive and noncoercive policies that might operate to alter the utilities associated with having or providing abortions. This article analyzes the relative impacts of these policies on two measures of abortion behavior: (1) state abortion rates in 1976 and (2) trends in states' abortion rates from 1973 to 1976. Multiple regression analysis reveals that neither coercive nor noncoercive policies are strongly related to these aggregate measures of abortion behavior.