Use Of Political Power Research Articles

Reinhold Niebuhr's Quest for Balance in the Public Oversight of Market Economies

Three basic themes played indispensable roles in Reinhold Niebuhr’s engagements with economic issues: (1) the foundational importance of a theological anthropology for his critical assessment of complex social, economic, and political issues; (2) his focus on two clashing theories of economic order: Adam’s Smith’s doctrine of laissez-faire capitalism and Karl Marx’s revolutionary vision for the collective ownership of property within a centralized state system; and (3) his endorsement of a realistic yet viable alternative to these two classic theories, one that involved pragmatic and incremental steps toward fostering economic justice through the public regulation and oversight of a free-market economy. These pragmatic measures included allocating government resources for vitally important public goods and services at federal, state, and local levels. Though Niebuhr was initially drawn to some form of democratic socialism, he embraced this incremental strategy within the context of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s implementation of his New Deal agenda. My analysis of Niebuhr’s contributions concludes with attention to new challenges confronting contemporary quests for economic justice in a post–New Deal era, one marked Soundings, Vol. 95, No. 4, 2012 Copyright © 2012 The Pennsylvania state University, University Park, Pa di sc us sio n diussion

Reciprocity as Mutual Recognition

Reciprocity as Mutual Recognition

Some Thoughts on the Economic History of Early Colonial Mexico

AbstractCompetitive markets reward the scarce factor of production. As a result of the Spanish Conquest, Indian labor became the scarce factor of production relative to land. But the whole point of conquest was to enrich the Spaniards, not the Indians. Therefore, the Spaniards resisted the use of the market as a device to accomplish productive economic activities. The result was an inefficient allocation of resources and a suboptimal rate of growth, not to say the structural economic distortions that resulted. The development of the economy in colonial Mexico was, in effect, given over to wholesale rent‐seeking, the allocation of resources by the use of political power. If there is a conceptual basis for understanding colonial development, it is this rather than dependent capitalism.

Is global justice a mirage?

Chandran Kukathas has argued that ‘the political pursuit of global justice is not a worthy goal, and that our aims in establishing international legal and political institutions should be more modest’. In this article I will examine Kukathas’s argument, and argue in turn that he is mistaken to decry the efforts of those who press for global justice. Despite Kukathas’s professed support for international law and cosmopolitanism, and his concern about global inequality and other injustices, he argues that we should forswear the use of political power and political reform to secure the former or address the latter. Instead, Kukathas points us towards the possibility of a future global convergence on moral standards, which, despite being belied by his focus on human diversity, he seems to view as a prerequisite for political activity towards global justice. Kukathas is mistaken in his arguments about the relationship between power and justice, and this leads him to false conclusions about the role that political reform and political institutions should play in consideration of global injustice.

‘They did to him whatever they pleased’: The exercise of political power within Matthew’s narrative

To read Matthew’s Gospel within the global context is to read this narrative vis-à-vis the urgent challenges facing the global community. One such challenge concerns the exercise of political power within the public arena. Throughout his narrative Matthew paints a vivid portrait of the political power brokers of Jesus’ world and the unsavoury methods that they use to achieve their goals. He also offers graphic depictions of political power as wielded by those in authority. This study examines Matthew’s narrative portrait of the first-century authorities, Roman and Jewish, who exercised power in Palestine and beyond. Part one depicts these authorities and their methods of exercising political power. Part two assesses the relative effectiveness of such uses of power in Matthew’s depiction. Part three points toward Matthew’s contrasting portrait of positive leadership patterns. Part four assesses Matthew’s narrative rhetoric as a tool for fruitful refl ection on the use of political power.

Assessing Arms Makers’ Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a focal point for research aimed at extending business ethics to extra-corporate issues; and as a result many companies now seek to at least appear dedicated to one or another version of CSR. This has not affected the arms industry, however. For, this industry has not been discussed in CSR literature, perhaps because few CSR scholars have questioned this industry’s privileged status as an instrument of national sovereignty. But major changes in the organization of political communities call traditional views of sovereignty into question. With these considerations in mind I assess the U.S. arms industry on the basis of CSR requirements regarding the environment, social equity, profitability, and use of political power. I find that this industry fails to meet any of these four CSR requirements. Countering a claim that these failings should not be held against arms manufacturers because their products are crucial to national defense, I contend that many of these companies function not as dutiful agents of a nation-state but as politically powerful entities in their own right. So, I conclude, they should be held responsible for the foreseeable consequences that flow from use of their products. This responsibility should include civil liability and, in cases involving war crimes and violations of human rights, responsibility under international human rights standards.

Assessing Arms Makers’ Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a focal point for research aimed at extending business ethics to extra-corporate issues; and as a result many companies now seek to at least appear dedicated to one or another version of CSR. This has not affected the arms industry, however. For, this industry has not been discussed in CSR literature, perhaps because few CSR scholars have questioned this industry’s privileged status as an instrument of national sovereignty. But major changes in the organization of political communities call traditional views of sovereignty into question. With these considerations in mind I assess the U.S. arms industry on the basis of CSR requirements regarding the environment, social equity, profitability, and use of political power. I find that this industry fails to meet any of these four CSR requirements. Countering a claim that these failings should not be held against arms manufacturers because their products are crucial to national defense, I contend that many of these companies function not as dutiful agents of a nation-state but as politically powerful entities in their own right. So, I conclude, they should be held responsible for the foreseeable consequences that flow from use of their products. This responsibility should include civil liability and, in cases involving war crimes and violations of human rights, responsibility under international human rights standards.

Internal colonisation, development and environment

'Internal colonisation' is a poorly defined term, but no other phrase so accurately captures the full nature of the complex interactions involved. Here the term 'internal colonisation' is used in a broad but quite specific sense, to designate the process by which, on the pretext of 'development', large parts of many Southern states are still in effect being colonised by their own ruling elite. The process parallels in all important respects external colonisation and is in essence the same process, differentiated only by its geographical location. Just as towns formed a key link in colonisation, the use of political power to bring about enclosure and encourage the growth of settlements gives the elite the ability to develop both town and countryside. The urbanisation of the countryside and the expansion of towns are therefore each special cases of the desire to control land and use its capacity to generate wealth. The accelerated growth of urban settlements in the South has, however, serious implications for the environment. Thus the concept of internal colonisation helps explain the distinctive nature of environmental politics in the South.

Defaming Politicians: The Not So Common Law

expression and the protection of public reputations? These questions or something like them have recently been asked of the highest appellate courts in Australia, New Zealand and Britain. Traditionally, the common law has refused to accept that a defamatory statement, not provably true, could properly be made to the world at large simply because it concerned matters of public interest. Similarly, fair comment demands that defendants show the factual basis of the comment to be true. While qualified privilege is not dependent on the proof of truth, it does require that what is said serve 'the common convenience and welfare of society.'1 What was requisite for the public benefit was narrowly construed. Conventional wisdom denied that there could be a privilege in favour of widespread political dialogue which was honest, albeit erroneous.2 Additionally, the extent of publication had to be appropriate to the occasion and no wider than necessary.3 Each of the cases under review departs from this tradition to some extent. Though they differ significantly, they broadly agree about three matters. Firstly, in modern democratic societies a freedom to communicate widely about the use of political power and other matters of public moment is essential. Secondly, the law must allow the media some margin for factual error if the exercise of that freedom is not to be unduly inhibited by the threat of having to pay substantial damages libel's so-called 'chilling' effect. Thirdly, some form of qualified privilege is the most appropriate method of securing an expanded freedom of expression while continuing to offer suitable protection to reputation.

Public health strategies for Mäori.

When the New Zealand Department of Public Health was established in 1900, Maöri health status was compromised to the extent that survival itself was threatened. The remarkable turnaround was unexpected and owes much to pioneer Maöri professionals, especially the first Maöri medical practitioner, Dr. Maui Pomare, who graduated in the United States in 1899. As "Medical Officer to the Maöris," and later as Minister of Health, he made major changes through a five-part strategy: recognizing Maöri community leaders as leaders in health, improving access to societal goods and services (especially housing and education), appealing to cultural practices that were linked to good health, wise use of political power, and developing a skilled Maori health workforce to complement community leadership. Although mental health disorders and lifestyle illnesses have largely replaced infectious diseases, malnutrition, and tuberculosis, Pomare's strategy has continuing relevance and warrants serious consideration as a model for health promotion.

Self-restraint and the Principle of Consent: Some considerations of the Liberal Conception of Political Legitmacy

This article discusses the legitimacy argument on which many liberals ground their demand for restraining the use of religious convictions in processes of political deliberation and decision making. According to this argument the exercise of political power can only be justified by 'neutral' grounds, i.e. grounds that are able to find reciprocal, hypothetical consent. The author argues that this understanding of political legitimacy is not distinctive of the liberal tradition. His thesis is that reciprocal, hypothetical consent is not sufficient and only in a certain, restricted sense necessary for justifying the use of political power.

Narrowing the Gap by Widening the Conflict: Power Politics, Symbols of Sovereignty, and the American Vietnam War Resisters' Migration to Canada

In this article, I consider how a second face or dimension of covert political power was used to deny legal immigration status to Vietnam War military resisters who sought refuge in Canada during the early years of the largest politically motivated migration since the American Revolution. Recently declassified historical records and interviews with former politicians and administrators reveal that the Canadian Immigration Department and its minister misled the public in advancing an official myth about the evolution of this migration. Until successfully exposed by persistent and innovative investigative journalism, the backstage use of political power kept American Vietnam military resisters who were seeking to legally immigrate defensively framed in a symbolic package that defined them as culturally unsuitable. Several thousand American military resisters lived illegally in Canada until conflict about their plight was successfully broadened and transformed into an effective collective grievance and claim under Canadian immigration law. Once the gap between Canadian immigration law and its practice was fully exposed, the conflict about this policy grew rapidly to include a number of cultural elite groups and a master framing of these American servicemen as unexpected symbols of Canadian sovereignty. A fully elaborated explanation of the collective transformation of sociolegal grievances into successful legal claims requires combined attention to the macrolevel interaction of political power and cultural symbolism

The Political Dimension in the Agrarian Question: Strategies of Resilience and Political Entrepreneurship of Agrarian Elite Families in a Philippine Province1

ABSTRACT This paper on the rural political sociology of a Philippine province relates the strategies of political resilience of landed oligarchies to the political dimension of the agrarian question in the Philippines. Bukidnon in Northern Mindanao is used to illustrate how pioneer agrarian families have protected their economic privileges and survived the political challenge posed by migrant politicians. Despite differences in their economic bases and social backgrounds, pioneer families and migrant politicians share strategies of political entrepreneurship and rent‐seeking that have maintained oligarchic rule: (1) establishment and maintenance of kinship networks, through intermarriage, and non‐kinship, ritual ties; (2) diversification into non‐agricultural economic activities; (3) control of political parties and state patronage (primarily electoral) machinery; (4) cooptation or mobilization of political symbols, issues, and movements; (5) use of political power to obstruct progressive legislation, particularly on land reform and taxation; and (6) the strategic management of political violence. Analysis of provincial and national political dynamics, as played out in Bukidnon, shows how the nexus of property, power, and privilege is consolidated, contested, and reconstructed in the ongoing competition among Bukidnon elites. These strategies are integral to the political practices of a landed capitalist class and have serious implications for agrarian transition and industrialization in the Philippines.

The Politics of Bilingual Education

Proposition 227 was approved by Californians in June 1998. In essence, the voters amended the state constitution to outlaw bilingual education. This use of political power was used to solve technical arguments over language instruction for limited English proficiency (LEP) students. This article creates a framework for analyzing the politics of language development research and school program implementation. The model is then applied to language development programs in a large Southern California school district. The educational and political implications of the model and its application to Proposition 227 are discussed.

From New Deal to New Liberalism

From New Deal to New Liberalism William R. Brock (bio) Alan Brinkley. The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War. New York: Knopf, 1995. x 271 pp. Archival sources, notes, and index. $27.50. This is an important addition to New Deal historiography, but, as with many other academic monographs, the subtitle tells more than the title. The book’s primary purpose is not to examine the end of reform but to explain how and why American liberalism was transformed. In that it brings together much that is already known and advances no startling new interpretations, it can be described as a synthesis; but it is synthesis of a high order. No other book covers the ground with such mastery and at numerous points a new insight or citation illuminates what has hitherto been obscure. Seventy-two archival sources and eighty-one pages of notes (several of them condensed historiographical essays) demonstrate the width and depth of his learning. Even more telling is the good judgment with which the material is handled. The New Deal gave birth to a new species of liberalism. In Roosevelt’s words, quoted by Brinkley, its leading characteristic was “a changed concept of the duty and responsibility of government toward economic life.” Progressive moralism slipped into the background, city bosses were flattered rather than challenged, all forms of populism were distrusted as antiintellectual and irrational, racial questions were avoided, gender was not yet an issue, and so far as the New Dealers were concerned anyone could imbibe as much alcohol as they wished. What the New Deal liberals did have in overflowing measure was intellectual energy harnessed to the conviction that society could be reconstructed on just, rational, and efficient lines, and that the intelligent use of political power would make general welfare more than an empty phrase. To these liberals of the New Deal everything seemed possible after the election of 1936; then came recession to show that it was not. Worse followed with the ill-fated attempt to reform the Supreme Court, the loss of the Executive Reorganization Bill, and the resurgence of conservative and frequently virulent opposition. In the next five years appropriations for the Works Progress Administration were cut and cut again until it expired, other New Deal innovations were dropped or rendered ineffective, and the National Resources Planning Board — repository for so many liberal hopes — was [End Page 710] killed. During the war industrialists won praise but mismanagement in the wartime agencies discredited government direction of the economy. Faced by these setbacks and operating in a cold climate liberals so modified their own attitudes and aims that Brinkley can write with authority of a “new liberalism” emerging during the years of disillusion and war, and maintain that it rather than the New Deal was the parent of liberalism as it is known today. The new liberalism was less adventurous than the old and not merely because intellects grew weary. In the heady days of the early New Deal, liberals had assumed that capitalism would remain but could be transformed; new liberals recognized that in all essentials it would remain the same. Despite a few attempts at resuscitation the ideas that had inspired the NRA were dead. Big business might still be unpopular, but political antimonopoly faded away. Facing a future in which corporate power would survive and probably grow stronger, liberals shifted their emphasis from regulation to fiscal management, from disciplining producers to protecting consumers, from emergency measures of relief to a permanent and expanding welfare system. They dropped the idea that the economy was mature and looked for growth, putting profits into private pockets with the proviso that it must also provide full employment. Victory of a sort came with Truman’s triumph in 1948 but the Fair Deal was separated by an intellectual gulf from the New Deal. Brinkley’s introduction and epilogue provide a stimulating overview of this decisive stage in the history of American liberalism. The ten chapters that make up the body of the book provide massive substance to support his generalizations, but close argument and much detail should not deter readers. His style is fluent, lucid, readable, and devoid of pretentious...

The Establishment of Louisville Municipal College: A Case Study in Racial Conflict and Compromise

By examining factors leading to the creation of Louisville Municipal College for Negroes in Louisville, Kentucky, this article presents a case study of a southern African American community's use of political power to achieve educational gains in the early decades of the 20th century. Three streams of historical development are traced as they relate to this development: (a) the history of African Americans in Kentucky, (b) the history of African American education in Kentucky, and (c) the history of education in Kentucky, particularly that of the city of Louisville and the University of Louisville, the parent institution of Louisville Municipal. INTRODUCTION Opened on February 9, 1931, as a segregated Black branch of the University of Louisville, Louisville Municipal College for Negroes was the product of decades of organized political pressure on the part of African American Kentuckians. This pressure--beginning before the Civil War, lasting through the Reconstruction period, and continuing until after World War I--contributed decisively to the founding of the college as well as to the advancement of other education goals shared by the African American community of Louisville and its leadership. The effective application of this pressure was possible due to the confluence of three streams of historical development, specifically: (a) the history of African Americans in Kentucky, ) the history of African American education in Kentucky, and (c) the history of education in Kentucky, particularly that of the city of Louisville and the University of Louisville. This article argues that the process of Louisville Municipal's establishment, indeed, the college's very existence and purpose, can be accurately understood only by examining these streams and their interactions. Moreover, it contends that examination of the factors surrounding the creation of this institution presents an excellent opportunity for the study of the effective use of African American political power to achieve educational gains. AFRICAN AMERICANS IN KENTUCKY African Americans entered the region of Virginia west of the mountains as early as 1751 and played important roles in the early settlement of what later became the Commonwealth of Kentucky (Clark, 1937; Lucas, 1992; Rice, 1975). Because soil and climatic conditions in Kentucky did not lend themselves to cotton cultivation and large-scale plantation agriculture, and because tillable land was scarce in the Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky, African Americans came to be concentrated in what is known as the Bluegrass or central region of the commonwealth, where they worked primarily as enslaved laborers on small farms and as free or enslaved laborers or servants in urban areas (Clark, 1937; Lucas, 1992). By 1784, the roughly four thousand African Americans residing in Kentucky represented about 10% of the commonwealth's population (Coleman, 1940). By 1830, there were 165,213 enslaved and 4,917 free persons of African ancestry, 170,130 in total, representing nearly 25% of all Kentuckians (McDougle, 1918). Although Kentucky's African American population increased in absolute numbers over time, the state's White population increased far more significantly. For example, the number of African Americans held in bondage or residing freely in Kentucky increased to a total of 236,167 persons by 1860; however, the statewide percentage of African Americans declined to 20.4%. By 1890, Kentucky's 268,071 African Americans represented only 16.9% of its 1,590,462 citizens (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1974). These demographic trends rendered the threat of Negro domination--the typical rationale for the disenfranchisement of African Americans in other former slave-holding states--less ominous in Kentucky (Wright, 1992). Ironically, while this smaller proportionate number enabled Black Kentuckians to retain some limited freedom to exercise their right to vote by the turn of the century (Hudson, 1981), the franchise could be used effectively only in Louisville, with its high concentration of African Americans (19. …

The Impact of Unionism on Municipal Expenditures and Revenues

This study tests the hypothesis that municipal unions, through the use of political power and multilateral bargaining power, are able to increase the demand for municipal services. An analysis of data on approximately 700 cities from the 1980 Survey of Governments and Census of Population shows, in both cross-section and fixed effects estimates, that collective bargaining increased expenditures in departments covered by a contract. In contrast, collective bargaining apparently did not affect cities' total expenditures, total revenues, or property taxes.

POWER IN THE AMERICAN ECONOMY: A REVIEW AND COMMENTARY

Summary The two books I have been reviewing have made a number of points about the nature of power in the American economy. Our economic society is dominated by large institutional actors. Supporting this reality are layers of traditional reasons, some of which are myth-like. These institutions are not necessarily as efficient or as innovative as these traditional beliefs inform us, and they coalesce to form an interconnected whole that operates to serve institutional interests first. In the process, large business corporations come to see natural persons as roles. This perception at once increases the individual's mobility and her irrelevance. Many of us are leading meaningless lives as we serve the objectives of others in our work. Overall, the large American business corporation has brought a new form of social organization that substantially truncates us as natural, whole persons. In the process, these organizations are challenging the family as a dominant form of organization in our society. Rights in our society accrue to the actor with productive capacity. Through the use of political power, market research, and advertising, we can discern a type of power that subtly conditions us to believe that this reorganization of our environment is proper and right. As we pursue our own “free will,” therefore, we actually submit to the objectives of the large business corporation. Generally speaking, Adams, Brock, and Coleman agree on this fundamental point: the dignity of individual purpose and meaning that we share and that define us as human beings is thwarted by a set of institutional arrangements that have fundamentally reoriented our society to serve the institutions' own objectives of profit and growth. Why is this important? It seems that in social systems, like mechanical systems, something is lost when mass is increased. As our important institutions become larger, what is lost is a kind of knowledge about our own environment and how it works. In the place of this first-hand knowledge, we come to rely on second-hand knowledge provided by social-science experts. Without this first-hand knowledge, we lose the confidence that we have the ability to see for ourselves what has meaning and to bring about desired changes in our lives. With the loss of confidence, we lose power, a form of power that each of us is told from childhood that we, by nature, should have. Our individual wills and perceptions atrophy without use. We come to believe that our place in the social order is inevitable and natural. In short, the individual, the source of both knowledge and political rights, has become secondary to the will and strength of large private and public institutions. How can natural, individual actors regain–or perhaps realize for the first time –power in their own lives? In reaching for an answer to this question, I believe Adams, Brock, and Coleman have overlooked some essential features of our modern political economy.

Implementing local multipurpose land information systems: Political-economic research issues

This paper explores the relationship between multipurpose land information systems and the acquisition, distribution and use of political power in U.S. local governments. It is argued that local governments will be the primary adopters and users of these systems. Evidence from related research suggests that adoption of computerized land information technology will act to reinforce, rather than redistribute, the existing distribution and use of political power. However, this evidence is based on non-land information system computer adoption. The need to conduct specific political and institutional research on land information systems, and to begin conceptualizing and testing a democratic theory of their adoption is stressed.

The Failure of the Destitute Mother's Bill: The Use of Political Power in Social Welfare

The Failure of the Destitute Mother's Bill: The Use of Political Power in Social Welfare