Overseas Citizens Research Articles

The Myth of the Vanishing Voter

The apparent decline in voter participation in national elections since 1972 is an illusion created by using the Bureau of the Census estimate of the voting-age population as the denominator of the turnout rate. We construct a more accurate estimate of those eligible to vote, from 1948–2000, using government statistical series to adjust for ineligible but included groups, such as noncitizens and felons, and eligible but excluded groups, such as overseas citizens. We show that the ineligible population, not the nonvoting, has been increasing since 1972. During the 1960s the turnout rate trended downward both nationally and outside the South. Although the average turnout rates for presidential and congressional elections are lower since 1972 than during 1948–70, the only pattern since 1972 is an increased turnout rate in southern congressional elections. While the voting age was lowered to 18 in 1971, the lower turnout rate of young voters accounts for less than one-fourth of reduced voter participation.

Problems of European Union Citizenship Rights at the Periphery

European Union member states have different nationality laws. Those with overseas dependencies control access there to European Parliament (EU) voting rights. Gibraltar and French Polynesia are two dependencies in which the existing situation is contested. Gibraltar’s British citizens live on EU territory and therefore resent their exclusion from European elections. French Polynesia on the other hand is outside the European Union. Its citizens regard voting for the EP as at best irrelevant; its leaders wish to create a category of French overseas citizenship exclusive of European voting rights. This article compares the two situations and suggests some possible solutions.

Constitutionalism in the British Dependent Territories of the Caribbean

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Poverty of Language and the Reproduction of Ideology: Korean Language for Chongryun

AbstractThe paper deals with the correlation between language and the ideological reproduction of Chongryun, the organization of Koreans in Japan, who identify themselves as 'overseas citizens of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea].' It draws attention to the different mode of employment attached to two different languages, Korean and Japanese. In the case of Chongryun, the linguistic unproductivity provides effective means to secure the unitary principle inside the organization, thereby preserving its ruling ideology.

Poverty of Language and the Reproduction of Ideology

The paper deals with the correlation between language and the ideological reproduction of Chongryun, the organization of Koreans in Japan, who identify themselves as 'overseas citizens of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea].' It draws attention to the different mode of employment attached to two different languages, Korean and Japanese. In the case of Chongryun, the linguistic unproductivity provides effective means to secure the unitary principle inside the organization, thereby preserving its ruling ideology.