Equal Voice Research Articles

Lutheran Faith and American Freedom

Lutheran Faith and American Freedom Gerhard O. Forde [A lecture to pastors in autumn, 1992] To get right to the point, when we confront the question of American freedom from a theological point of view, we are immediately in trouble, but perhaps we can get at it most quickly by saying that what most Americans call freedom today is what theology—particularly Lutheran theology—would call bondage. Freedom to do as we please usually ends in bondage to the self and the lusts of the day. Perhaps it was not always so. Originally, I suppose, freedom for Americans had to do with political liberty, with shaking off tyrannies which had plagued them in Europe. Originally they claimed the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness over against such tyrannical forces. But they knew well, in the early days, that freedom could not be only freedom from such tyranny. If it were so, freedom would become license and likely just run amok. If freedom were to work, there would have to be some way to restrain it and keep it from running amok. And if it were to remain freedom, it would have to be a voluntary restraint. And that meant, as Terry Eastland ("In Defense of Religious America," Commentary, June 1, 1981) and others have pointed out, that American freedom could work only if it had a religious base. It was religion that preached and inculcated the virtues and the sense of duty that gave freedom something worth-while to do. Thus that perennially quoted and sharp-eyed observer from France, Alexis de Tocqueville, observed that whereas freedom allowed the American people to do just about anything, there were things which their religion prevented them [End Page 424] from imagining and forbade them to dare. Religion, he said, was America's "foremost political institution." Religion provided what a Constitution based on commercialism and self-interest could not provide. Religion provided a check on the freedom guaranteed by political institutions. Freedom depended upon the old religious warning against license. But now, as we all well know, religion is no longer a "political institution." Indeed, religion, since about the 1920s, according to Eastland, has slipped into rapid decline. Politically, in recent decades, given the impression left by court decisions and the general tenor of the times, the voice of religion seems to be about the only voice that cannot be heard on important political and moral issues—particularly, it seems, the voice of the Christian religion. Indeed, one can say that we seem to have slipped over into a more or less anti-religious mood. "Religion is a cruel joke," announced a placard in an abortion rights parade. The separation of church and state, intended originally, it would seem, to give the differing denominations equal voice, has become a divorce, an antagonism. People use the principle of separation as a defense against religion. If the original intent of the Constitution guaranteeing the free exercise of religion is to mean anything more than trivialities, then surely it should mean that religion should have an equal voice to that which is not religious. But that seems no longer to be the case. Since there is separation, people seem to think, religion has no right to speak publicly at all. Freedom of religion has become freedom from religion. Now the result of this, of course, is that American freedom has lost its religious moorings and threatens to run amok and destroy itself. Americans rarely today have the original modesty to think they have the right to pursue happiness, but rather that they have the absolute right to possess it—no matter at whose expense. Rights we talk about gladly, but not duties or responsibilities or character. And since we will not police ourselves voluntarily, from the highest Savings and Loan tycoon down to the lowest drug pusher, our police force is less and less able to cope, the jails are filling, the justice system is clogged, people are suing each other for any violations of their rights imaginable. And so on and so on. From a Lutheran standpoint one might say, perhaps, that the American marriage between [End Page 425] freedom and religious...

Does Inequality Really Matter?

There is a great temptation to deal with the issues of inequality either in terms of economics alone or in a polemical style that simply dwells on the bad effects of inequality-as if that solves the problem. Instead, I want to start by seeking to address this issue more theologically, thus my question, Does inequality really matter?So what if there's inequality? There has always been inequality and there most certainly always will be inequality. This is not just a quick lapse into an approach much influenced by Darwin, that affirms the solutions for our society are about survival of the fittest and devil take the hindmost, if you'll excuse the mix of disciplines in that sentence. Rather, it's a genuine question in terms of a world that is deeply caught up in diversity, and seemingly to the world's great benefit.To put it another way: are the extremely wealthy merely the latest or possibly the last minority, a persecuted group to be identified, whom we need to defend, not attack? Should there be marches, or possibly processions of limos or Rolls Royces (necessarily chauffeurdriven), down Wall Street or Lombard Street with elegantly crafted placards produced by top-end designers saying, Justice to the ultrarich, Billionaires are people too? Why does inequality matter?I want to go back to two originating stories, turning first to the Genesis story and the development of diversity within humanity in its earliest forms.In the great west window of Canterbury Cathedral, in the center of the bottom row of stained glass, there is an image of Adam digging in the Garden of Eden. The cathedral, for those who do not know it, progresses from west to east upwards, like this church. As you go further east you go further up, except in Canterbury it's pretty steep: it goes up about thirty-five feet. At the east end, just near where the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury would have been until the Reformation, there is the throne of St. Augustine, into which one is rather firmly put when you start this job. Archbishop Robert Runcie used to say that he was constantly reminded that when he sat on the throne of St. Augustine, he was level with Adam digging at the other end of the cathedral.Underlying that comment is a wealth of thoughtfulness about the relative importance of offices to which others ascribe importance, but also the significance of Adam digging in the garden. One can meditate for days on those particular stories in the early chapters of Genesis. But one of the aspects to note is that at the beginning we are all equal. In the days of the English revolution in the seventeenth century, the gentry who were overthrowing the tyrannical rule, as they saw it, of Charles I were not in the slightest bit interested in equality with the peasantry. They wanted a decent hierarchy, only with those who were slightly more important taken down a peg or two, or taken off a head or two. Cromwell took strongly against the levelers and the diggers, quasi-communist groups who went back to Adam and Eve and proclaimed there should be no social distinctions. Hierarchy is deeply embedded, but the Adam and Eve story, the story of the Garden, has constantly come back to capture the imagination of those who see that in the creation of God there is equality.And at the heart of the Genesis story of the creation of human beings is the essential nature of the human being, both male and female, existing to know God intimately and to walk intimately with God. There is an equality of worship, in adoration of the presence of God; there is an equality of reveling and feasting, in fellowship with God in the Garden. Equality is a gift in creation, it is the foundation of equality before the law, equality of voice in the public square, equality in righteousness.Walter Brueggemann makes a similar point in his commentary on Isaiah, concerning chapter fifty-nine. The postexilic community in Israel is deeply flawed: not by its lack of worship, of which there is plenty, but by its inequalities injustice, in voice, in inclusion of all who accept Torah, regardless of wealth and status. …

November Madness

This Comment proposes Representative Democracy Brackets, a multi-level manner of choosing candidates in which all voters have an equal voice, but which by its structure reduces the effect of mass marketing in favor of a focus on forming and evaluating interpersonal relationships. By implementing Representative Democracy Brackets, a state or the United States can achieve the twin benefits of decreasing the undue effects of political spending and increasing the quality of the resulting decisions. The proposed brackets winnow the pool of voters until it is small enough to make an informed decision. This Comment defines the problem by reviewing the current state of campaign expenditures and the potentially negative effects of those expenditures on elections. To define the space within which changes could be made, the Comment discusses the law, including recent case law, that governs the financing and manner of holding elections. The Comment describes other decision-making processes and their features. Finally, the Comment proposes Representative Democracy Brackets as a viable solution, identifying the key success factors and the challenges to state or national implementation.

Prevalence and Predictors of Surveillance Cameras in Law Enforcement

Using data from more than 2,500 law enforcement agencies, the goal of this study was to identify predictors of advanced surveillance technologies. The findings suggest that the adoption of modern surveillance cameras is neither uniform nor comprehensive and that the adoption process is ongoing with agency officials implementing and discontinuing technologies over time. Most important, stakeholders both inside and outside the organization have the greatest influence on the adoption process, and cameras in vehicles and mobile devices are most prevalent in improvised communities. As cameras become smaller and less expensive, they have the potential to democratize surveillance and equalize the relationship between the police and the public during encounters. However, the democratization effect will only occur if implementation is widespread and all segments of the community have an equal voice in the process. The research findings suggest that significant progress still needs to be made in these areas.

How to Fairly Allocate Scarce Medical Resources: Ethical Argumentation under Scrutiny by Health Professionals and Lay People.

BackgroundSocieties are facing medical resource scarcities, inter alia due to increased life expectancy and limited health budgets and also due to temporal or continuous physical shortages of resources like donor organs. This makes it challenging to meet the medical needs of all. Ethicists provide normative guidance for how to fairly allocate scarce medical resources, but legitimate decisions require additionally information regarding what the general public considers to be fair. The purpose of this study was to explore how lay people, general practitioners, medical students and other health professionals evaluate the fairness of ten allocation principles for scarce medical resources: ‘sickest first’, ‘waiting list’, ‘prognosis’, ‘behaviour’ (i.e., those who engage in risky behaviour should not be prioritized), ‘instrumental value’ (e.g., health care workers should be favoured during epidemics), ‘combination of criteria’ (i.e., a sequence of the ‘youngest first’, ‘prognosis’, and ‘lottery’ principles), ‘reciprocity’ (i.e., those who provided services to the society in the past should be rewarded), ‘youngest first’, ‘lottery’, and ‘monetary contribution’.Methods1,267 respondents to an online questionnaire were confronted with hypothetical situations of scarcity regarding (i) donor organs, (ii) hospital beds during an epidemic, and (iii) joint replacements. Nine allocation principles were evaluated in terms of fairness for each type of scarcity along 7-point Likert scales. The relationship between demographic factors (gender, age, religiosity, political orientation, and health status) and fairness evaluations was modelled with logistic regression.ResultsMedical background was a major predictor of fairness evaluations. While general practitioners showed different response patterns for all three allocation situations, the responses by lay people were very similar. Lay people rated ‘sickest first’ and ‘waiting list’ on top of all allocation principles—e.g., for donor organs 83.8% (95% CI: [81.2%–86.2%]) rated ‘sickest first’ as fair (‘fair’ is represented by scale points 5–7), and 69.5% [66.2%–72.4%] rated ‘waiting list’ as fair. The corresponding results for general practitioners: ‘prognosis’ 79.7% [74.2%–84.9%], ‘combination of criteria’ 72.6% [66.4%–78.5%], and ‘sickest first’ 74.5% [68.6%–80.1%); these were the highest-rated allocation principles for donor organs allocation. Interestingly, only 44.3% [37.7%–50.9%] of the general practitioners rated ‘instrumental value’ as fair for the allocation of hospital beds during a flu epidemic. The fairness evaluations by general practitioners obtained for joint replacements: ‘sickest first’ 84.0% [78.8%–88.6%], ‘combination of criteria’ 65.6% [59.2%–71.8%], and ‘prognosis’ 63.7% [57.1%–70.0%]. ‘Lottery’, ‘reciprocity’, ‘instrumental value’, and ‘monetary contribution’ were considered very unfair allocation principles by both groups. Medical students’ ratings were similar to those of general practitioners, and the ratings by other health professionals resembled those of lay people.ConclusionsResults are partly at odds with current conclusions proposed by some ethicists. A number of ethicists reject ‘sickest first’ and ‘waiting list’ as morally unjustifiable allocation principles, whereas those allocation principles received the highest fairness endorsements by lay people and to some extent also by health professionals. Decision makers are advised to consider whether or not to give ethicists, health professionals, and the general public an equal voice when attempting to arrive at maximally endorsed allocations of scarce medical resources.

State Consent and Disagreement in International Law-Making.Dissolving the Paradox

AbstractThis article starts with a paradox: international law-making is ridden with reasonable disagreement and yet no state can be bound by international law without its consent and hence without agreement. Breaking away from the pragmatic resignation that prevails among international law scholars on this question, the article proposes an interpretation of the role of state consent that both fits and justifies its central role in the practice of international law-making and, hopefully, strengthens the latter's legitimacy in the future. Its proposed justification actually lies in the circumstances of reasonable disagreement among democratic states and this proposal dissolves the paradox. The article argues that, in international law as it is the case domestically, consent is neither a criterion of validity of law nor a ground for its legitimate authority. It also dispels two myths about state consent: its necessary relationship to legal positivism and state sovereignty. Instead, the article argues, the role of democratic state consent is that of an exception to the legitimate authority of international law and hence to its bindingness in a concrete case. While the legitimacy of international law is not democratic, the democratic nature of states and their democratic accountability to their people matter. This is especially the case in circumstances of widespread and persistent reasonable disagreement as they prevail among democratic states in international law-making. In these circumstances, respecting the sovereign equality of democratic states by requiring their consent is the way to grant an equal voice to their people. Of course, there are limits to the democratic state exception that are inherent to both its democratic dimension (it requires respecting basic political equality) and its consensual dimension (it requires that consent is expressed in a free, fair and informed fashion). The article concludes by showing how the proposed disagreement-attuned account of democratic state consent explains various characteristics of the main international law-making processes, i.e., treaties and custom.

AAAS annual meeting demonstrates the critical value of global scientific collaboration

AAAS annual meeting demonstrates the critical value of global scientific collaboration

United Nations Statistics Division The World's Women 2015: Trends and Statistics New York: United Nations, 2015. 260 p.

The World's Women reports are prepared by the UN at five-year intervals, starting in 1990. This sixth edition provides the latest statistics and related analyses on the status of women and men at global, regional, and country levels. A key objective is to assess progress toward gender equality over the past two decades. The eight chapters cover several broad policy areas identified in the Platform for Action adopted at the 1995 Beijing International Conference on Women, which provided an international agenda for improving the status of women. These topics include population and families, health, education, work, power and decisionmaking, violence against women, environment, and poverty. For each theme, a life-cycle approach is used to examine the experiences of women and men during different periods of life—from childhood and the formative years, through the working and reproductive stage, to older ages. The report documents progress in many areas for both women and men and a narrowing of the gender gap. For instance, the gender gap in education has narrowed, particularly at the primary school level, and in many countries women now outnumber men in tertiary education. However, in other areas—for example in labor force participation—the situation is not unlike that of 20 years ago. Women also still lack an equal voice to men in public and private decisionmaking. And in every region of the world, women are still subjected to various forms of violence. Property and inheritance rights also remain biased against women in many countries. Informative and authoritative, the text is highly accessible with numerous figures and tables. Throughout, indicators for women are compared with those of men, and as a result the contents of this volume are more gender equal than its title suggests. A wide selection of statistics and indicators at the global, regional, and country levels are available in the Statistical Annex of this report on a dedicated website.

The potential of integrating social media as a learning tool among international graduate students in Beijing

The study aimed at exploring social media usage by international graduate students in the faculty of education at a university in Beijing. The rationale was to find out how students use social media and the challenges associated with such media usage. This would help educators to effectively integrate social media in learning. The study found that students use social media to get social support, to collaborate on academic work and to share necessary information pertaining to their course work. The study also found that social media give equal voice to students unlike in the face to face discussions. The study further found that it is difficult to access some of the social media platforms. Again, it was found that social media reduces interpersonal skills, compromises one’s academic performance and allows abuse by some users.

Overvoting and the Equality of Voice under Instant-Runoff Voting in San Francisco

Overvoting and the Equality of Voice under Instant-Runoff Voting in San Francisco

Model & Metaphor: A Case Study of a New Methodology for Art/Science Residencies

Traditional artist-in-science-residency schemes have tended to focus on artists using scientific tools and technology as a medium for their art. What kind and quality of work might occur, however, between scientists working on cutting-edge solar energy research and a visual artist (a sculptor) when they are integrated in a truly collaborative environment? Is it good for the art? Is it good for the science? The authors describe a new methodology for art-science interactions whereby they have integrated arts practice within a scientific environment. A critical aspect of the methodology for the residency was the development of an interaction framework that ensured that both artist and scientist had equal voice in discussions involving the art and science of the project within an environment of mutual respect. The integration led to the development of outcomes that would not have occurred otherwise.

Young People's Perspectives on Participatory Ethics: Agency, Power and Impact in Domestic Abuse Research and Policy‐Making

Children's perspectives literature repositions children and young people as active participants in surviving domestic abuse, protecting their family, opposing the violence and recovering from abuse. However, key tenets of safeguarding in relation to domestic abuse, both in practice and childhood research ethics, struggle to fully recognise children's agency and the need to empower children and young people as well as women. Children's right to participation now extends to national policy‐making in many countries, yet has not been explored in relation to the interdependency of women and children's rights, safety and wellbeing where both have been subject to abuse.This paper challenges the current exclusion of young voices from the development of ethical praxis. It outlines a participatory ethical approach that promotes the inclusion and empowerment of young survivors in research and policy. Young expert advisors on Scottish domestic abuse policy (2009–11) co‐develop the approach (participatory action research) which is informed by a wider study (2004–11) about children's help‐seeking and solutions for practice. Mullenderet al.'saccepted model of three Cs and Ds (consent, confidentiality, child protection: danger, distress, disclosure) are adapted to focus on children's agency. Three Es are added focusing on children's power and impact: enjoyment, empowerment and emancipation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.‘This paper challenges the current exclusion of young voices from the development of ethical praxis’Key Practitioner MessagesChildren and young people have a distinct, essential voice in risk assessment and management.They are competent and central decision‐makers, they can consent to participation.Participation can be a powerful therapeutic tool.Enjoyment, empowerment and emancipation are intrinsic to participation, alongside recognition of children's agency in safeguarding.Access to power, equal voice and impact on children's lives are preconditions of participation to young survivors – to be worth the inherent risk of speaking out.‘Participation can be a powerful therapeutic tool’‘Access to power, equal voice and impact on children's lives are preconditions of participation to young survivors’

Why the Top Two Primary Fails California Voters

Why the Top Two Primary Fails California Voters Steven Maviglio In their 2010 ballot argument for Proposition 14, the proponents of the Top Two primary made some bold promises to voters. They said the Top Two would “reduce gridlock,” “give independent voters an equal voice in primary elections,” and “elect more practical individuals who can work together for the common good.” So far, the self-appointed “good government” groups are 0 for 3. Gridlock in Congress is worse than ever. The California Congressional delegation is splintered and partisan, perhaps more so than in a generation. Meanwhile, in Sacramento, a case can be made that the Legislature is finally getting things done (even though voters don’t seem to think so, given approval ratings of less than 40 percent in recent PPIC polls). But the progress that has been made is because of lopsided Democratic majorities that are working with a Democratic governor, the elimination of the need for a super- majority for approval of the state budget, and the revision of term limit laws. Experts widely agree that the Top Two primary has had minimal impact in changing Capitol culture compared to the other more significant reforms. What about independent voters having more influence? It’s hard to make that case; fewer of them are showing up to vote. Voter turnout hit 40-year lows in both June and November. That’s totally at odds with what Prop. 14 proponents predicted. With voters free to pick candidates from both parties in June, they argued, the top-two primary would attract hordes of voters who didn’t declare allegiance to either of the major parties. Instead, record low turnouts have given hard-core partisans greater influence. No candidate that ran under the banner of “independent” instead of belonging to a political party came close to finishing in the Top Two. Republican turned Independent Secretary of State candidate Dan Schnur, whose candidacy was heralded as Exhibit A for how an independent candidate could succeed, received a dismal 9.2 percent of the vote, finishing fourth behind scandal-plagued State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco). In a key Assembly race last June, moderate Orinda Mayor Steve Glazer tried to advance to the general election by squeezing between a progressive Democrat and a conservative Republican. Despite millions of dollars in independent expenditures by corporate interests, this “different kind of Democrat” failed to woo enough independent voters and finished a distant third. In November, a battle between a moderate Democrat and a more progressive Democrat went to the moderate. But according to a Sacramento Bee analysis, it wasn’t because Republican voters threw their more conservative weight to the moderate. There was no discernible difference in the vote tally between areas with more GOP voters and those with less.

Rethinking Knowledge Production and Circulation in Comparative and International Education: Southern Theory, Postcolonial Perspectives, and Alternative Epistemologies

Rethinking Knowledge Production and Circulation in Comparative and International Education: Southern Theory, Postcolonial Perspectives, and Alternative Epistemologies

Decent Work in the Context of Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility is the responsibility to support economic, environmental, cultural and social development for sustainable world with all people from local to global community working together to improve the quality of life. It constitutes, in this respect, strong argument in dissemination of decent work suitable for the mission of promoting job opportunities with minimum labor standards in the concept of ILO’s decent work. Decent work focuses on four main strategic goals: I) rights at work, II) employment, III) social protection and IV) social dialogue. The essence of decent work approach is to establish balance between these different components, to create integrity and political and institutional options in order to overcome confrontational relationships and constraints. Decent work takes into account equal voice recognition of workers, employers and governments as parties while developing policies and programs for labor standards as part of the dialectic strategists in its own inner loop. As it was included in the agenda of United Nations (UN) as well as International Labour Organization (ILO), decent work can be operational at work through sharing the same approach with the same accuracy. In this study, it was discussed, in relation to corporate social responsibility, decent work concept which was included in the United Nations' millennium development goals as one of the important strategies in the fight against global poverty and sustainable development on the agenda of the ILO in 1999, and it has been proposed as a visionary model for sustainable growth for businesses

Piketty and the Body: On the Relevance of Wealth Inequality to Bioethics

In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty argues that markets, absent political intervention, tend toward economic divergence and that this has deleterious consequences for democratic ideals of equal voice and meritocracy. His goal is to foster a public conversation about what a society dominated by wealth—which we already beginning to experience as the twenty-first century begins—would look like if we wish to maintain an egalitarian ethos. His work will contribute to and further motivate several discussions in feminist bioethics, namely, on the funding and organization of care labor, reproductive rights, global health, and commodification.

The United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities: Opportunities and tensions within the social inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities opens up opportunities to drive forward inclusive policy for people with disability. It also may serve as a benchmark for the evaluation of policy aimed at improving the lives of people with disabilities. For this to occur, it is vital to fix priorities for evaluation using participatory research methods that place disabled people and especially those who are ‘hard to reach’ at the heart of the participatory process. Within this process, it will be vital to stress the commonality of disability since the goals of different organizations representing disabled people may be in tension. It is also crucial when evaluating policy to be clear of ones definitions and aims. There are also fundamental tensions within the concept of social inclusion. In particular, it is vital to take into account the potential tension between a social justice agenda founded on redistribution or recognition. This may be particularly well-illustrated through the case of cochlear implants and infantile screening for deafness. Nevertheless, it is also equally crucial to preserve a space for both dimensions within the policy agenda. This may partly be achieved through participatory parity where all participants within the deliberative process have the possibility of equal status and voice. Ultimately, both tensions associated with the participatory process and the principles underlying inclusion will be resolved through making choices that are necessary for action. It is preferable such choices are made by disabled people themselves. Such choices may be informed through participatory action research in which disabled people are involved.

Building Strong Community Partnerships: Equal Voice and Mutual Benefits

This article explores an urban partnership and service-learning project deliberately created to improve literacy and strengthen learning communities in an urban, Latino neighborhood of Chicago. The project aligns activities and objectives with resources and needs of university participants, a Latino community organization, and local public schools. The needs addressed include (a) improving literacy achievement in Latino students, (b) improving literacy instruction, (c) expanding students’ awareness and engagement with social injustices, and (d) exploring barriers to literacy access in students’ homes and community. This project serves as a model for developing partnerships and outreach between higher education institutions and the community.

Struggles for Equal Voice: The History of African American Media Democracy

Journal Article Struggles for Equal Voice: The History of African American Media Democracy Get access Yuya Kiuchi. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2012. xviii, 324 pp. $85.00.) Journal of American History, Volume 100, Issue 4, March 2014, Pages 1300–1301, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jau153 Published: 01 March 2014

Struggles for Equal Voice: The History of African American Media Democracy YuyaKiuchi. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2012.

Struggles for Equal Voice: The History of African American Media Democracy YuyaKiuchi. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2012.