Democratic Response Research Articles

Combating the terrorists: democratic responses to political violence

Journal Article Combating the terrorists: democratic responses to political violence Get access Combating the terrorists: democratic responses to political violence. Edited by H. H. Tucker. London: Institute for the Study of Conflict. 1988. 210pp. Index. £13.95. ISBN 0 8160 1904 5. Adrian Guelke Adrian Guelke 1Queen's University, Belfast Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 66, Issue 2, April 1990, Page 371, https://doi.org/10.2307/2621372 Published: 01 April 1990

Combating the terrorists: democratic responses to political violence

Combating the terrorists: democratic responses to political violence

The Gun in Politics: An Analysis of Irish Political Conflict, 1916-1986

Irish history sounds a long litany of grievance and vengeance--lost battles, escaped earls, and institutionalized injustice. The gun, certainly in this century, has played a prominent part. In The Gun in Politics, J. Bowyer Bell presents the story of one Ireland--the Ireland of the Troubles--and about an approach to understanding political violence. In particular, he examines the Irish Republic Army, the longest-enduring unsuccessful revolutionary organization. He de-scribes the covert world of gunmen and the great game they play in the street. His is a lively, telling account of sophisticated weapons transfer, of the impact of civil war on society, and of appropriate democratic responses to terrorism. Bell's association with active Republicans, his endless tea seminars at the United Irishman, drinks at Hennessy's, and constant conversation throughout Ireland on political matters over a period of twenty years has provided the author with unique background for this guide to a fascinating, though brutal, undercurrent of Irish history.

Privatization: The key to better government

Over the past 40 years, telecommunications policy worldwide has been dominated by the privatisation of former government-owned firms, the pursuit of increasing competition as well as the delegation of day-to-day operations of industry decision-making and oversight from core governments to autonomous regulators sitting at arms-length from political decision-making. One of the most (apparently) dramatic reversals of this trend has occurred in Australia where the federal government has set up a state-owned company (NBN Co) to fully replace and upgrade the fixed-line infrastructure for voice and broadband communications for the entire country. Some argued that the NBN heralded a reversal of a “failed, neoliberal” deregulation and pro-competition policy agenda in Australia, and a return to “social democratic” values. The NBN has attracted interest as a possible model for other governments looking to fund broadband infrastructure.The NBN Co's network is nearing completion. It has proved disappointing in many ways, with costs escalations, missed deadlines and a downscaling of the original full-fibre footprint to a mixed technology model (MTM). It has also proved politically divisive, with some claiming the MTM changes represent the reassertion of a neoliberal political agenda. In this paper, we trace the evolution of the fixed-line telecommunications industry in Australia from the 1980s to the present along the dimensions of privatisation, deregulation and competition in voice, broadband and policy settings. We find that contrary to popular political rhetoric, the Australian industry reforms have been characterised by only a partial and inconsistent progression towards the international policy objectives. In particular, ongoing government ownership of the incumbent created perverse incentives for both regulatory and industry actors and ensured political involvement in import network investment and operations decisions which in other jurisdictions are delegated to private-sector owners and regulators at arms-length from political influence. We contend that the NBN was not a social democratic response to failed neoliberal policies, nor was the MTM a neoliberal reassertion. Rather, the politicisation of the NBN is a function of the inability to decentralise ownership and control of the industry away from the government. These issues will continue to dominate the Australian debate, as the statutory context requires the privatisation of the NBN within five years of its projected 2021 completion. Extreme caution is warranted for jurisdictions looking to the NBN model for guidance.

Misguided Martyrdom: German Social Democratic Response to the Haymarket Incident, 1886–87

One day after the execution of the Haymarket anarchists, the German Social Democratic leader August Bebel penned a terse commentary to his friend Friedrich Engels: “So in Chicago the execution has been carried out. Abominable (scheusslich). This murder will have the best consequences for the movement. It will bring the anarchists to their senses while again revealing the class state in its nakedness to the workers and destroying any illusions. Such excesses must occur if things are to advance more quickly.”

Improved Math, Science Education Aim of White House Proposal

Scientists and educators have been concerned for some time about the quality of the science and math education received by high school and elementary school students. But late last month that concern also was expressed by the highest echelon of the nation's political leaders in a truly bipartisan fashion. Math and science education apparently have become a cause to rally 'round. In his State of the Union address to Congress, President Reagan said: Americans are still the technological leaders in most fields. We must keep that edge, and to do so we need to begin renewing the basics—starting with our educational system. While we grew complacent, others have acted. Japan, with a population about half the size of ours, graduates from its universities more engineers than we do. In the Democratic response prepared for broadcast after the State of the Union address, Senate minority leader Robert Byrd of West ...

Tolerance of Free Speech in the United States and West Germany, 1970-79: An Analysis of Public Opinion Survey Data

Tolerance of Free Speech in the United States and West Germany, 1970-79: An Analysis of Public Opinion Survey Data

The Transformation of Southern Politics: Social Change and Political Consequence since 1945

Stressing the relevance of The Transformation of Southern Politics as a background for understanding the South into the next century, Jack Bass and Walter De Vries write that the themes of change in southern politics still involve the rise of the Republican Party, black political development and the Democratic response to it - and the interaction of these forces with social and economic issues. The Transformation of Southern Politics examines the post-World War II political evolution of the eleven southern states and traces the effects of such influences as Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, urban migration, the growth of the Republican Party, and the rise of African Americans in the political landscape. In the preface to the Brown Thrasher edition, Bass and De Vries offer an overview of the region's current political climate, including an analysis of the 1994 mid-term elections. They also provide excerpts from their interview with Bill Clinton during his first campaign for political office.

The Democratic Response of Urban Governments: An Empirical Test with Simple Spatial Models

Among the normative concerns of social scientists, one of the greatest lacunae is evaluation of government performance in light of populist democratic criteria. While formal theorists have continued elaborating models of a competitive political process, and while the search for an appropriate and serviceable welfare criterion goes on, the empirical application of our existing descriptive and prescriptive insights mostly waits in abeyance. This paper offers one attempt to apply formal criteria to the evaluation task. We first briefly develop several low-level, admittedly non-complex, statements about the expected outcome of public sector activity according to the median preference model. The model’s descriptive statements then serve as evaluative and comparative criteria as we test its adequacy under several assumptions concerning democratic responsivencss. Finally we attempt to explain variations in the degree of responsiveness exhibited by ten American urban governments by reference to three aspects of political structures. The value of our approach emanates, we believe, not from any new insight into the formal interpretations and predictions provided by positive political theorists. Rather, we consider the approach a nascent attempt to match formally derived expectations to non-experimental data from both public opinion surveys and aggregate characteristics of large American cities.

The Speakership Contest of 1875: Democratic Response to Power

The Speakership Contest of 1875: Democratic Response to Power