Civil Rights Issue Research Articles

A generational shift: how partisan alignment and the rise of social issues have produced a generation of Democrats

ABSTRACT American political elites are today more neatly divided on a wider range of issues than at any other point in the postwar era. How have these trends affected the political socialization of American youth? We argue that two distinctive aspects of US polarization, namely ideological alignment and the emergence of non-economic issues, have formed the foundation of a generational shift in favor of the Democratic party. We find that Millennials and Gen Z display levels of ideological alignment across economic, civil rights, and moral domains that are equal to or greater than previous generations. Their liberal positions on moral and civil rights issues are not only strongly predictive of vote choice, but also tend to offset any conservative positions on economic issues – in contrast to the way previous generations resolved such ideological tensions. As such, the push for a non-economic political agenda – a popular strategy in the last few decades, especially among Republicans – might well benefit the Democrats electorally as older generations are replaced.

International legal mechanisms for the protection of human rights and freedoms in times of war: the practice of the ECHR

The issue of human and civil rights and freedoms is an integral part of the problems of the real human situation in society and the State. Never before have the issues of human and civil rights and freedoms been raised as acutely as they are today in connection with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The international community is on the side of Ukraine, the inviolability of its territorial integrity, and most importantly, in defense of human rights as the highest social value in the country.
 Also, after the armed aggression of Russia and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ensuring international security has become a major issue of the day. As an independent, legal and social state, Ukraine is particularly interested in protecting human rights and freedoms. Currently, there are many international bodies that monitor the observance of human rights and freedoms and protect these rights, including courts and tribunals. They are divided into universal, i.e. those that operate at the UN level, and regional (European, American, African, Asian and others). For a detailed study of this issue, the author has researched and analyzed international standards of human and civil rights and freedoms, in particular, the case law of the ECHR in favor of Ukraine in the human rights protection system from 2014 to the present.
 As of February 21, 2023, the following interstate cases were pending before the ECtHR: the «Crimean case» related to the annexation of Crimea by Russia; the case of human rights violations in the occupied territories of Donbas, which includes the complaint about the downing of Malaysian flight MH-17 filed by Ukraine and the Netherlands; the case of violations of the rights of Ukrainian political prisoners; the case of the seizure of Ukrainian sailors and vessels in the Kerch Strait in 2018. the case of crimes committed by the Russian military during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
 However, it is worth noting that on September 16, 2022, Russia finally withdrew from the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. This was the result of Russia's expulsion from the Council of Europe. The European Court of Human Rights has finally lost jurisdiction over Russia, and the consideration of thousands of complaints against it has been called into question, including those filed by Ukraine.

Medieval urban citizenship in the West in Max Weber’s historical sociology

Recent decades in social sciences have been marked by the interest in citizenship as the most important phenomenon of the contemporary world due to its current problems associated with globalization, relations between world centers of power along the North-South and West-East lines and growing migration flows between countries and continents, and also due to the urgent, politically relevant, human rights problems. The search for solutions to these problems has led to debates in both academic circles and wider intellectual public about the extent to which the democratic model of citizenship, which historically developed in the West in modernity, can meet the new global challenges of our time. Although such debates focus on the contemporary issues of citizenship, civil rights and civic identity, they also have an important historical-sociological dimension according to Max Weber’s question formulated about a century ago: what was the universal potential of the democratic idea of citizenship that emerged in the West in the modern era, and what were the premises of this model of citizenship at the previous stages of the Western historical development? Thus, Weber considers the institution of citizenship in the broader context of comparative historical sociology which studies the difference in the paths of historical development of the West and the East. One of the closest predecessors to the modern model of citizenship in the West is medieval urban citizenship. To understand the evolution of pre-modern models of citizenship in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, Weber’s ideas remain essential in the theoretical and heuristic perspective, forming the historical sociology of ancient and medieval citizenship in his works The City and General Economic History . The article presents an attempt to reconstruct the ideal-typical model of medieval urban citizenship in Weber’s interpretation, supplementing it with some necessary materials from other relevant sources.

Decomposed Impact of Democracy on Indonesia’s Economic Growth

Indonesia's democratic performance is still classified as a 'moderate' and 'flawed democracy' according to the latest report, even though the ongoing progress of national democracy continues to advance every year. This study addresses the issue by offering a more comprehensive perspective and distinguishes itself by employing a decomposition approach that incorporates 25 indicators of the Indonesian democracy index to assess their individual effects on economic growth, which no prior Indonesian study has explored. The study classifies these indicators into six distinct categories: freedom and civil rights issues, discrimination issues, political and electoral issues, social and cultural issues, law and justice issues, and demonstration and community participation issues. The findings reveal that five out of the six categorized indicators have a crucial role and significantly impact economic growth. This evidence suggests that policymakers should prioritize a multifaceted approach, which includes bolstering the protection of civil rights and freedoms, combating discrimination, as well as reforming electoral and political processes. If implemented with transparency and inclusivity, this approach can pave the way for a more robust and prosperous democracy, leading to better and sustainable economic growth in Indonesia.

Radical Defence: The American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born and the Movement for Deportation Resistance and Immigrants’ Rights

Abstract The American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born was a Communist-affiliated legal advocacy organisation that operated from the 1930s through to the 1970s, that witnessed several periods of ideological and social change in immigration policy and politics. As a radical campaign group, it developed as an outgrowth of the twentieth-century American left, and created a distinct platform devoted explicitly to defending the rights of immigrants. Using the courts, popular protest, policy advocacy and other innovative campaign strategies, the group and its regional affiliates, along with allied leftist organisations, pioneered a framework of constitutional rights and legal protections for the immigrants who were persecuted and threatened with deportation due to their links to the labour left. During the early Cold War, their work defending foreign-born radicals against deportation gradually expanded to include other immigrant communities, and to broach broader issues of civil and human rights.

APA’s Government, Policy, and Advocacy Update (March 2023)

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Government & LegalFull AccessAPA’s Government, Policy, and Advocacy Update (March 2023)Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:26 Feb 2023https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2023.03.3.67APA Expresses Support for Efforts to Increase Naloxone AccessIn a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), APA expressed its support for the FDA’s preliminary assessment that naloxone nasal spray and autoinjector formulations are safe and effective for over-the-counter use. The letter, signed by APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., was written in response to the FDA’s request for comments on the use of naloxone for nonprescription use.In the letter, APA encouraged the FDA to add naloxone nasal spray to the list of FDA Essential Medications. “This would open federal resources and prioritize investment in long-term domestic manufacturing.” Further, APA emphasized the importance of education on the use of naloxone so individuals can appropriately identify and respond to an overdose. Finally, APA addressed the cost barriers associated with naloxone, noting that some forms of nicotine replacement therapy are not covered by Medicare because they are over the counter. APA encouraged the FDA to work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other payers to keep costs down for the most vulnerable populations.APA's Letter to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Mental Health Liaison Group Provides Feedback on CONNECT for Health ActAPA and its partner organizations, members of the Mental Health Liaison Group Telehealth Work Group, sent a letter Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) providing suggestions for the reintroduction of the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act.The groups wrote that any reintroduction of the CONNECT Act should eliminate the in-person requirement for telemental health services under Medicare as a prerequisite for coverage of a telehealth service, which was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. This provision is “inequitable for individuals with mental health conditions,” the letter stated. The letter emphasized the groups’ support for in-person care when clinically appropriate or desired by the patient.“Given the immense need for mental health services combined with acute behavioral health workforce shortages, the in-person telemental health provision is counter to the intent of ensuring more Americans receive life-changing care and, in fact, could further exacerbate our nation’s growing mental health crisis,” the letter stated.APA and Mental Health Liaison Group Telehealth Work Group (MHLG) letter to Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) APA Provides Comments on SUD Patient RecordsIn a letter to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Office of Civil Rights, APA provided input to the proposed changes to the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Patient Records under 42 CFR Part 2 (referred to as Part 2), which protects patients’ privacy and records concerning treatment related to SUD.The goals of the proposed changes are to improve coordination among professionals and increase protections for patients concerning records disclosure to avoid discrimination in treatment, according to a SAMHSA news release.However, APA cautioned that the proposed rule, as written, does not do enough to mitigate data segregation and segmentation, which challenge care coordination efforts. For example, the regulation does not ease the burden of data management in integrated and collaborative care settings. “At best, psychiatrists and other specialists may have significant administrative burden added to manage and maintain patient data in separate platforms, all without the intended outcome of coordination with colleagues to support shared patients,” APA’s letter stated.APA offered numerous recommendations, including that SAMHSA should provide one-on-one technical assistance to clinicians or facilities wanting to ensure compliance with the rule, delay the rule’s finalization, and implement public education around SUD data to empower patients when consenting to data disclosures. ■Letter to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Office of Civil Rights ISSUES NewArchived

Learning from Dar es Salaam: Harvard’s “Project Tanganyika” and a Nodal Perspective on Decolonization’s Itineraries

Abstract: This article traces the history of Harvard’s “Project Tanganyika” and its encounter with Dar es Salaam’s burgeoning community of Southern African political exiles. An unsung predecessor to Kennedy’s Peace Corps, Project Tanganyika began in 1961 amidst a Harvard campus reckoning with issues of race, civil rights and global decolonization. Sending groups of mostly white undergraduates to Dar es Salaam as volunteer teachers, the Project would become uncannily central to the city’s emerging fame as a haven for leftwing exiles and fellow-travelers. For many Project volunteers and liberation movement leaders, the initiative was mutually generative, even as it resonated in more ambivalent ways for rank-and-file cadres. In both its generative capacity and its limitations, Project Tanganyika’s trajectory provides a glimpse of the junction of African decolonization and US civil rights in a manner inflected by race, class, and mobility.

The Evolution of Sentencing Policy in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania

Criminal justice reform has become an important policy area in the American states and federal government due to the extremely high rates of incarceration in the United States. In addition, high and disproportionate rates of incarceration for black people is an important civil rights issue that needs attention at all levels of the criminal justice system, from policing to parole. This case study of the mid-Atlantic states generates hypotheses for a 50-state model on one aspect of this system: sentencing policy. The mid-Atlantic states of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania are similar in terms of political culture and demographics and have key differences in incarceration rates that make them good choices for a comparative case study using the “most similar systems” or “comparable cases” design. Through our case study we identify policies that we believe contribute to rising incarceration levels as well as suggest reforms. Specifically, we argue that the combination of Pennsylvania’s structured sentencing guidelines and indeterminate sentencing have contributed to high levels of incarceration that have persisted even as the push for punitiveness in the criminal justice system has diminished. These factors in conjunction with political variables should be studied further in a quantitative model of the 50 states in order to provide areas for reform.

Joseph Fielding Smith's Evolving Views on Race: The Odyssey of a Mormon Apostle-President

Joseph Fielding Smith's Evolving Views on Race: The Odyssey of a Mormon Apostle-President

Bootstrap Liberalism: Texas Political Culture in the Age of FDR by Sean P. Cunningham

Reviewed by: Bootstrap Liberalism: Texas Political Culture in the Age of FDR by Sean P. Cunningham Boris Heersink (bio) Bootstrap Liberalism: Texas Political Culture in the Age of FDR. By Sean P. Cunningham. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2022. Pp. ix, 312. $37.95 cloth; $28.49 ebook) In Bootstrap Liberalism: Texas Political Culture in the Age of FDR, historian Sean P. Cunningham engages with the puzzle of the massive popularity Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal enjoyed in Texas in the context of the long-standing perception of this state as the center of individualism and conservatism. How did voters with [End Page 205] a seemingly genuine belief in “conservative, rugged individualism, self-help, and limited government” end up supporting FDR in landslide numbers in each election between 1932 and 1944 (p. 2)? Conservatism was a major force in the Texas Democratic Party before, during, and after the New Deal. In 1928, Republican nominee Herbert Hoover won Texas by a small margin, as Democratic nominee Al Smith’s Catholicism and opposition to Prohibition resulted in a good number of Democratic politicians in the state bolting the ticket and openly supporting Hoover. But with the economic crash of 1929 and Hoover’s dramatic drop in popularity, these “Hoovercrats” quickly rejoined the Democratic side and fully backed Roosevelt in 1932. Importantly, Cunningham shows that these conservative Democrats generally were enthusiastic supporters of FDR throughout his first term and reelection effort. With the early New Deal benefitting local farmers and steering clear of racial and civil rights issues, conservatives—like Rep. Marvin Jones—were happy to tie themselves to FDR and celebrate the New Deal as “a new day and a new economic order for the American people” (p. 63). After 1936, however, unity dissolved, and the Texas Democratic Party split into roughly two factions. One consisted of true believers in the New Deal (such as Representatives Maury Maverick and Lyndon B. Johnson), who remained supportive of FDR until his death in 1945. The other faction united conservatives of different kinds, who became increasingly (and vocally) critical of the size and role of the federal government and FDR’s role as president and party leader. Cunningham carefully charts how these two camps battled each other in primaries and at state party conventions. In these clashes, both sides saw defeats and victories. Yet, after the conclusion of a nomination fight, Texas voters consistently voted the Democratic nominee—regardless of faction—into office in landslide victories. While much of this may have been the simple consequence of Texas (and the South in general) representing a de-facto single party system, Bootstrap Liberalism argues convincingly that it was also the product of the similar ways in which both conservatives and liberals presented [End Page 206] their politics to voters. Both sides claimed to represent the forgotten workingman in Texas and argued their policies would help voters achieve their goals. This approach may have allowed self-identified conservative voters to embrace the New Deal and incorporate it into their existing individualistic worldview. At the same time, Cunningham’s account also shows how such similar marketing likely confused voters. For example, Cunningham presents reports that some of rural voters in the 1942 senate primary race supported populist conservative W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel—who was increasingly anti-FDR, anti-New Deal, and anti-union—because they believed he would be a pro-labor ally to the president. Bootstrap Liberalism presents a fascinating insight into the workings of Texas politics in the FDR era—charting the clashes between leading Texas politicians of this period such as Maury Maverick, LBJ, “Pappy” O’Daniel, and James “Pa” and Miriam “Ma” Ferguson and spotlighting the importance of how an “individualist” presentation of the New Deal may have played a role in its popularity in Texas and—possibly—other traditionally conservative states as well. Boris Heersink BORIS HEERSINK is an assistant professor in the department of political science at Fordham University. He is the co-author of Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865–1968 and the author of National Party Organizations and Party Brands in American Politics: The Democratic and Republican National Committees, 1912–2016. Copyright © 2022 Kentucky Historical...

Civil Rights Issues in Louisiana's Public Schools Prior to and During the Pandemic

Civil Rights Issues in Louisiana's Public Schools Prior to and During the Pandemic

Worthy of membership? Rwanda and South Africa on the United Nations Human Rights Council

The election of human rights-abusing states to the human rights bodies of the United Nations has long been a source of dissatisfaction. There have been repeated calls that such states should not be members of the UN Human Rights Council. This article compares the HRC records of Rwanda, an authoritarian state, with that of South Africa, a liberal democracy. The focus falls on 12 country-specific situations and nine civil and political rights issues that appeared before the HRC from 2017 to 2019. It is demonstrated that Rwanda has been a much stronger defender of international human rights than South Africa. This finding contradicts various empirical and theoretical studies that posit a positive relationship between domestic democracy and respect for human rights, on the one hand, and international support for human rights, on the other. This finding further suggests that demands that the HRC should only have members with respectable domestic human rights records should be tempered.

CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: RESPECT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN BUSINESS

This study explores the relationship between the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and corporate sustainability (CS) through a business and human rights (BHR) lens. It affirms established guidance that companies must show respect for human rights. As a new factor, the study considers how corporations recognise civil rights. The authors examine annual reports and other material of five Fortune Global 500 multinational enterprises (MNEs) from five sectors to establish their relationship with UNGPs, SDGs and civil rights. They also review policies and reports to determine the MNEs management system(s) (MS) and system certifications. While the sample is too small to make correlations, the authors find that the sample MNEs do recognise civil rights under the guise of human rights. They appear to address civil rights issues that trend globally, not necessarily the problems that occur on the national or local level. Although the sample countries contribute to SDGs, this engagement seems connected to the MNEs business strategy. Their SDGs involvement can change from one fiscal year to the next, depending on the business strategy. In the study, the authors focus on corporate management systems (MSs) and seek to identify elements of a good MS. They recommend that companies expose their MSs to audit and certification processes to ensure that respect for civil and human rights are embedded in their systems.

CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: RESPECT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN BUSINESS

This study explores the relationship between the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and corporate sustainability (CS) through a business and human rights (BHR) lens. It affirms established guidance that companies must show respect for human rights. As a new factor, the study considers how corporations recognise civil rights. The authors examine annual reports and other material of five Fortune Global 500 multinational enterprises (MNEs) from five sectors to establish their relationship with UNGPs, SDGs and civil rights. They also review policies and reports to determine the MNEs management system(s) (MS) and system certifications. While the sample is too small to make correlations, the authors find that the sample MNEs do recognise civil rights under the guise of human rights. They appear to address civil rights issues that trend globally, not necessarily the problems that occur on the national or local level. Although the sample countries contribute to SDGs, this engagement seems connected to the MNEs business strategy. Their SDGs involvement can change from one fiscal year to the next, depending on the business strategy. In the study, the authors focus on corporate management systems (MSs) and seek to identify elements of a good MS. They recommend that companies expose their MSs to audit and certification processes to ensure that respect for civil and human rights are embedded in their systems.

Corporate Sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals: Respect for Civil Rights in Business

This study explores the relationship between the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and corporate sustainability (CS) through a business and human rights (BHR) lens. It affirms established guidance that companies must show respect for human rights. As a new factor, the study considers how corporations recognise civil rights. The authors examine annual reports and other material of five Fortune Global 500 multinational enterprises (MNEs) from five sectors to establish their relationship with UNGPs, SDGs and civil rights. They also review policies and reports to determine the MNEs management system(s) (MS) and system certifications. While the sample is too small to make correlations, the authors find that the sample MNEs do recognise civil rights under the guise of human rights. They appear to address civil rights issues that trend globally, not necessarily the problems that occur on the national or local level. Although the sample countries contribute to SDGs, this engagement seems connected to the MNEs business strategy. Their SDGs involvement can change from one fiscal year to the next, depending on the business strategy. In the study, the authors focus on corporate management systems (MSs) and seek to identify elements of a good MS. They recommend that companies expose their MSs to audit and certification processes to ensure that respect for civil and human rights are embedded in their systems.

How cigarettes became a civil-rights issue

Tobacco companies still profit from decades of marketing to Black Americans. Tobacco companies still profit from decades of marketing to Black Americans.

Corporate Sustainability and Sustainable Development Goals

This study explores the relationship between the sustainable development goals (SDG's) and corporate sustainability through a business human rights (BHR) lens. It affirms established guidance that companies must show respect for human rights. As a new factor, the study considers how companies recognize civil rights.The author examines annual reports and other materials of Five Fortune Global 500 multinational enterprises from five sectors to establish their relationship with UNGP's, SDG's and civil rights. They also review places and reports to determine the MNE's management system and system certifications. While the sample is too small to make correlations, the author finds that the sample MNE's do recognize civil rights under the guide of human rights. They appear to address civil rights issues that trend globally, not necessarily the problems that occur on a national or local level. Although the sample countries contribute to SDG's, this engagement seems connected to the MNE's business strategy. Their SDG's involvement can change from one fiscal year to the next, depending on the business strategy. In the study, the author focus on corporate management system (MSs) nd seek to identity the elements of good MS. They recommend that companies expose their MSs to audit and certification processes to ensure that respect for civil and human rights are embedded in their system.

Good Neighbor in the American Historical Imagination: Mexican American Intellectual Thought in the Fight for Civil Rights, 1930s–1940s

Abstract This article argues that historical narrative has held a significant role in Mexican American identity formation and civil rights activism by examining the way Mexican Americans in the 1930s and 1940s used history to claim full citizenship status in Texas. In particular, it centers on how George I. Sánchez (1906–1972), a scholar of Latin American education, revised historical narrative by weaving history and foreign policy together through a pragmatic lens. To educators and federal officials, Sánchez used this revisionist history to advocate for Mexican Americans, insisting that the Good Neighbor policy presented the United States with the chance to translate into reality the democratic ideals long professed in the American historical imagination. The example of Sánchez also prompts us to reexamine the historiography in our present day: How do we define the tradition and trajectory of Mexican American intellectual thought in U.S. history? This article posits that when Sánchez and other Mexican Americans thought about their community’s collective identity and civil rights issues through history, they were contributing to a longer conversation driven by questions about identity formation and equality that first emerged at the end of the U.S. War with Mexico in 1848. These questions remain salient in the present, indicating the need for a historiographic examination that will change how we imagine the tradition of intellectual thought in the United States.

Civil Rights Enforcement and Fair Housing at the Environmental Protection Agency

This article analyzes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) within the broader history of federally sponsored residential segregation, as well as the criminalization of and disinvestment from urban areas contemporaneous with the agency's founding. It offers a detailed analysis of EPA's first decade of recalcitrance regarding its own obligations under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Title VII of the 1968 Fair Housing Act. The EPA developed a pattern of responding to scrutiny by rearranging its internal office structure and launching new initiatives tangential to the substantive issues of civil rights. Through this detailed interpretation, the article demonstrates how EPA's first 10 years were crucial in laying the groundwork for subsequent decades of inaction on racial residential segregation, one of the primary causes of ill-health in the United States. Ultimately, the article argues that EPA's early paternalism and intransigence furthered the structural racism at the heart of the U.S. national project and mitigated against the agency taking substantive action on the key demands of environmental justice voiced by activists in the 1990s.

Democracy and the political regime and the role of law in efficient functioning of democratic institutions

The article inquiries into the features of the law impact on the effective functioning of democratic institutions. The essence of democracy as a legal phenomenon and the process of its formation are examined, alongside with the perspectives of current legal institutions. The clause that the key feature of the political regime is how the issues of human and civil rights and freedoms are approached in the state, the level of the people’s political involvement in the process of state and legal decision-making, the compatibility of government institutions with the relevant state legal framework, the presence of opposition and the prospects for competitive rivalry of political parties in the process of forming the public authorities. It is concluded that the specificity of democracy lies in the ability of its resources to self-reproduce within the existing system of the state legal institution. Drawing heavily on law abidance and compliance with the order in the state, democracy is well-positioned to implement economic and social reforms without significant material costs. The conclusions reached in the study are based on the standpoint of constitutional scholars who studied traditional and atypical forms of democracy, including the electronic one. The recommendations for improving the feasibility of political and legal system of Ukraine by strengthening the role of e-government are elaborated in the article by way of decentralization, gender equality, access to justice, independence of the media, blockchain technologies for information protection in the information society. The research methodology is based on the general scientific method of scientific cognition. In the process of examining the essence of democracy, its formation and further differentiation, historical and legal, formal and legal, formal and logical methods, the methods of analysis and synthesis were also applied.