Recent issr items

China Since the Global Crisis: Ascent Uninterrupted?

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

David Lampton presents a wide-ranging analysis of the macro-economic strengths and potential weaknesses of China since 2008. He argues that China’s has a strong foundation for economic growth in the near and medium-term and suggests multiple reasons for this conclusion. He notes that this growth is likely to be secular but with occasional falls from unexpected shocks. He also considers several large problems that China faces on the macro-economic level especially in the areas of the environment, social organization and political adjustment.

Victor Shih argues that the economic stimulus promoted by the Chinese central government from 2008 onward has been a great success on the surface. It is argued that the success of this Keynesian operation did not result in a huge growth of central government debt as a percentage of GDP. However, he goes on to show that while the central government was calling for stimulus, it was local governments who were tasked with putting the stimulus...

What Counts in US Politics: Voters or Interest Groups?

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Alan Abramowitz trains his lens on the disappearing center in US politics. He surmises that the polarization in politics has long historical roots and has only increased under both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama Administrations. The divergence between parties is at historic highs according to Congressional vote tallies. It is largely due to ideological shifts to the right especially within the Republican Party. The Democratic Party is substantially the same but has lost the Southern wing of its support. The polarization is consistent among politicians, party activists, funders and the media. It reflects economic change, rising educational status, workforce composition and changes in the nature of families. He ends his talk by noting that the 2012 elections can be won by either party and this will have huge implications for public policy.

William Domhoff considers the historic background of the two-party system in national politics. He maintains that it is important...

Understanding the Great Recession

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Thomas Palley argues that the causes of the “Great Recession” are not primarily to be found in the asset bubble that was allowed to inflate in the housing market and in the financial sector. The bubbles actually reflect the longer-term basis for stagnation that originate in the macro-economic structure of the US. He presents two major dimensions of these structural problems. The first problem is the entrenchment of a “neoliberal” growth model that is hegemonic in the minds of politicians and the economics establishment that became orthodoxy in the 1980s. He then considers the second obstacle to creating a virtuous circle of demand and full employment. Secondly, Palley finds that the US model of economic engagement with the world’s other economies is flawed. He ends his presentation with an alternative policy recommendation that inverts the power of corporations in favor of workers.

Crisis is an inherent, inevitable, feature of capitalism in the findings of Anwar Shaikh....

Future of Public Higher Education in California

Tue, 1 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Marc Bousquet argues that public education has become less and less democratic. Primary and secondary public educational institutions are now run as if they were corporations. The metrics used to determine performance and productivity are vapid and intended on supporting administrations at the expense of students and faculty. Teachers and faculty are working harder to meet business-inspired goals, for example “testing to the test”, rather than producing graduates who have powerful analytical/critical skills. He demonstrates that so far the Obama Administration has consistently backed this ongoing process especially given the appointment of Arne Duncan as the Secretary of Education. Moreover, he focuses on why these changes are undermining students’ freedom of expression and democratic rights. He concludes with some suggestions on how faculty, students and the public might respond to these challenges. Christopher Newfield notes that part of the loss of US competitiveness...

A Multilateral Moment: A New US Foreign Policy?

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Paul Schroeder presents a historical argument for the declining possibility of wars between the world’s great powers. In large part this new era of peace is generally a success story rooted in practical experience, historical knowledge and institution building since the Concert of Europe. He also contends that the history of US foreign policy has largely been successful though not as commonly asserted. The US was largely a “rent-receiving state”, in the international system, before taking on a role as a “rent-paying state” following World War II. Schroeder concludes that the US must continue to play a vital role in global affairs and not turn inward especially based on a false and myth-based history. General Wesley Clark maintains that the Obama administration has effectively deployed itself in the realm of domestic politics to begin to rebuild US social capital in the international arena. Obama’s appointment of Republican-leaning men to critical foreign policy and defense...

Climate Change and Public Policy After Copenhagen

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Somerville argues that one of the most important factors left out of debates on policies to address climate change is population growth. He asserts that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report of 2007 probably understates the rapid rise of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere and rising temperatures as measured and observed from a wide variety of sources: CO2 levels, melting of ice sheets, sea level rising, changing ocean temperatures et cetera. Moreover, it is clear that these phenomenon result from human activities. If anthropogenic climate change is not mitigated a whole host of threats will manifest themselves that demand policy-makers address these challenges quickly and frankly. He hopes that scientists will have a central role in crafting and negotiating new policies as well as raising the public’s scientific knowledge of the problem.

Matthew Kahn agrees with the general conclusions presented by Richard Somerville and turns to some economic...

Trading Places: China and the US in the International System

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Baum does not foresee China and the US “trading places” in the near future but does not rule out this scenario in twenty to thirty years. He evaluates China’s role in the international system. China’s strong economic growth continues, though probably slowing, and it has become powerful regional actor. Yet, China also faces problems with the United States and other sovereign nations in Asia as well as its membership in WTO, World Bank and IMF. Baum considers these and other tensions for China on the international front. He includes in his discussion the different positions of various China scholars take on these developments.

Barry Naughton argues that China has become the world’s Number Two superpower following three decades of record economic growth. It is unlikely that China wants to challenge US primacy in the near term but rather seeks to improve and build upon its regional standing. The Communist Party is in the process of recalibrating its relations with...

The Obama Presidency After One Year

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Joyce Appleby outlines the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency noting a number of his successes on the domestic front as well as some notably failures and reverses of course. She focuses on some of the future struggles that his administration faces from the electorates’ “buyer’s remorse”, to passing health care and regulatory reform, to various international problems. Unfortunately for President Obama, he must navigate these shoals within the context of economic crisis, partisan rancor, and high public discontent with government. Professor Appleby concludes by noting that it is important that a larger Democratic majority in both houses of Congress and how the president might achieve those ends.

Michael Lind places Barack Obama in the camp of New Democrats whose political platform is akin to Rockefeller Republicans and supported by the media and the finance sectors. New Democrats differ from Roosevelt Democrats in their opposition to most forms of direct government...

Organized Workers and the Making of Los Angeles, 1890-1915

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Three social forces set out to grow Los Angeles as the 19th century ended: free- market capitalists clustered around L.A. Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis, a coterie of entrepreneurs and professionals who called themselves "progressives," and organized workers. Each group strove to direct the rewards of growth to classes it favored, and each pursued a competing vision of the city. The story of Otis and his free-market allies has often been told. So has the story of L.A.'s progressives. Both celebratory accounts have been shaped by the hardy American mega-narrative that privileges elites as the makers of history. Skewed by the same mega-narrative, the story of L.A.'s unions has also been told and retold as a tale of defeat, inconsequence, and woe. The conventional wisdom about progressive-era Los Angeles thus overcredits elites for the city's achievements, submerging the equally powerful role of organized workers.

This dissertation resurrects the political legacy...

What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America The Origins of the Present Crisis

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Robert Brenner outlines the long-term causes of the present economic crisis. Rather than understanding the current downturn as merely a function of financial incompetence and miscalculation, he demonstrates that the US economy and that of the G7 has been slower growth in most of the major indices with each passing business cycle since the 1970s. In the last two cycles, asset bubbles inclined US consumers to take on more debt in order to spend and achieve limited GDP growth. Brenner outlines in detail how and why the financial sector played a key role in the creation and inflation of debt bubbles with new financial instruments. The implications for the US and the global economy are also outlined including the US current account deficit, trade imbalances, the rise of China and the East Asian economies as well as declining investment in the real economy and overcapacity in manufacturing worldwide.

Peak Oil and Future of Energy

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

David Goodstein outlines the approaching peak of oil drilling that is commonly referred to as Hubbert’s Peak. He notes that most of the energy used by humans, animals and plants is from the sun. This energy is stored in various forms including oil and coal. The exact amount of these forms of energy has not been established reliably. However, the number of discoveries of new oil fields has declined significantly since 1980. Once oil production has peaked it is likely to lead to a host of problems. Goodstein asserts that oil is too important for other aspects of human activity to be wasted so much on transportation. Other energy forms must be developed especially clean forms as climate change is also a growing threat to the planet. He then considers some of the alternatives and concludes that we must address these problems immediately.

Vaclav Smil contests the point that we have reached peak oil but notes that there is a finite amount in the planet. Smil also concedes that...

American Empire?

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Chalmers Johnson argues that US military spending is far beyond its ability to pay placing the burden on future generations. Part of the budget deficit is from too low taxes on the highest incomes but more importantly because of “military Keynesianism”. This policy has reduced invest in society including education, health care, and efficient use of the environment. He goes to note that it is impossible to know the real size of the military budget. Congress is the biggest supporter of defense spending because of pork barrel politics. He outlines some of the budget figures for 2008 [conservatively $1.1 trillion]. This incredible sum adds to the current account balance that is unsustainable and has increased by 45% under G. W. Bush pushed up by military spending. Yet, President Bush is not totally to blame. Large military expenditure has been on a permanent footing. It dates back to first years of the Cold War based, in part, on fears of another depression. It became the “military...

Law and the Courts

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Erwin Chemerinsky maintains that President George W. Bush took a historic opportunity to fill Supreme Court justice vacancies with ideologically right-of-center nominees. He explains that these justices will force the court to write opinions that break new ground in judicial activism. The areas that will be open to new adjudication include abortion rights, access to the courts, affirmative action, and presidential war powers. He describes the critical cases in each of these fields and the key points of contention. Professor Chemerinsky concludes that the incoming president may be able to offset the appointments of Justices Alito and Roberts with more centrist or center-left appointments if seats become open.

John Yoo argues that presidents have historically resisted Supreme Court decisions especially strong presidents such as Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Reagan changed this calculus by politicizing the courts further through the appointment...

US Foreign Policy: Continuity or Rupture?

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

James Mann refutes the idea that George W. Bush’s foreign policy was a rupture from previous administrations. He does find that it took previous policies much further but these trends had already been in place. He points to a number of military interventions to bolster his case including Haiti, Somalia, Panama, Iraq and Yugoslavia. He notes that previous administrations in foreign policy have acted unilaterally though not to the degree of the Bush administration, have promoted democracy, have used military force without Congressional approval, and have reserved the right to preemption. However, the Bush administration used preemption, unlike previous administrations, to intimidate a region. Mann argues that this administration was also different from its predecessors because its military strategy in Iraq was a “complete failure”. He ends by raising the counterfactual of what Gore would have done if he had been elected in 2000.

John Mueller weighs three themes to determine...

The Future of the Mass Media

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Michael Massing argues that the news media is being adversely affected by the internet because of declining advertising revenue. As a result newspapers and television networks are cutting staff, especially foreign correspondents. The top-tier of newspapers has been adversely affected but second-tier newspapers like the Boston Globe and the Baltimore Sun have been devastated. As a result there is a greater reliance on fewer reporters and fewer areas of coverage. In order to increase revenues newspapers have begun to cater to affluent audiences. Thus, they have larger business section and fewer reports on poverty and labor/working class issues. Massing outlines some of the structural forces at work with reporting including the general gravitation pull to the political right as a result of constant attacks on the “liberal media” by pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly, the influence of public opinion on what gets investigate and how it is reported, and the over-reliance...

Bush's America - Rhetoric and Realities

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Christopher Caldwell argues that President George W. Bush inherited many problems from the Clinton years. President Bush was similar to his predecessor as a baby-boomer, his amiability, and his solipicism. However, the Bush administration did make policy choices from a significantly different ideological base. Caldwell considers how and why policy determinations were made in economic matters and tax cuts, the re-invasion of Iraq, civil liberties and international relations. He summarizes with a first draft on the Bush legacy.

Michael Lind maintains that President George W. Bush’s tenure in office marked the end of the conservative movement in US politics. He outlines the history of the conservative movement from Goldwater’s presidential run in 1964 to 2008. The administration’s failure to privatize Social Security, rolling back the New Deal, marked conservatism’s limits for the US electorate. Moreover, the president’s foreign policy was too much of a departure from liberal...

Immigration Policy: Who Benefits?

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Joel Fetzer undertakes a description of the political basis of the immigration policies under the George W. Bush presidency. He finds that there was not a major difference between the Clinton and Bush administrations on immigration. One exception to this position was the scale of immigration raids and the draconian detentions of migrants. He finds supporters of immigration tend to be in the managerial classes and opponents in the working class. There is also a rising tide of support for immigration reform especially as many Congressional districts have a changing ethnic composition. Fetzer summarizes his talk by noting whom most benefits from “illegal” immigration and who suffers.

Roger Waldinger considers the political quandary that immigration legislation faced in the run-up to comprehensive immigration reform in 2007. He describes the various forms of immigrant entry into the US and the national composition of the immigrant population. He proceeds to note cleavages...

Climate Change: Causes, Consequences, and How to Respond

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Diana Liverman explores the theoretical positions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions including “earth-system management”, cap and trade policies, individual and community behavioral change, political economy of carbon governance (“carbon capitalism”), and government regulation and incentives. She supports a blending of the last three to produce “political ecology”. Liverman is critical of the Kyoto Accords but argues in favor of the Clean Development Mechanism [CDM] with some significant adjustments and much clearer analysis of how much carbon offsets truly reduce greenhouse gases. She limns out the limitations of CDM as well as implications for relations between the Global North and South.

Glen MacDonald weighs the various arguments and models for climate change noting their strengths and weaknesses. He finds arguments that human activity has heightened CO2 levels in the atmosphere more compelling than those of skeptics. However, science still has not become capable...

Globalization and Living Standards

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Freeman contemplates the effects of world workforce doubling with the fall of the Soviet Union, China’s turn to the market and India’s liberalization. What effect has this globalization process had on wages worldwide? Though world wages were probably affected, Freeman emphasizes the fact that education and innovation are countervailing forces to wage repression. While he considers globalization as a “positive” especially in the long run, he suggests that the gains from the process can be reversed in the face of pandemics, climate change, ongoing terrorism, “political insanity” and capital markets failures. He ends with some good and bad scenarios for the future.

Edward Leamer takes up the question of whether tariffs on imports raise wages as a counter-factual to whether open trade markets depress wages. He outlines four economic models to answer the question: Ricardo Model, Ricardo-Viner Model, Heckscher-Ohlin Model and the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem. He concludes...

The World Food Crisis

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Harriet Friedman describes how the world food system has shifted away from cereal production for human consumption. The "meatification of diet" has led farmers and agribusiness to produce grains for animals. This shift is also typified by production for profit more than for feeding people. Significant problems have resulted such as misallocation of food, higher pollution, and lower species diversity. Moreover, it has given multinational corporations much more power including property rights on genetic materials. She ends her presentation with some possible alternatives.

Raj Patel sets out the historical precedent for the current movement for food security and the largest obstacles to achieving this goal. He documents the changes in World Bank policy and how it has affected the food system. He concludes with some of the alternatives including those advanced by Via Campesina, the world’s largest social movement.

The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording...

Climate Change in a World of Slums

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Mike Davis argues that the climate stability of the Halocene Age has reached a tipping point that will lead to radical changes in global weather patterns. He discusses various models for estimating CO2 in the atmosphere and some of the consequences of climate change which will affect the poor and less developed nation much more dramatically than the wealthier and developed nations.The accompanying audio file provides the complete recording of the talk.

Perpetual War?

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Michael Mann documents the increasing substitution of war for diplomacy by US policy elites. In part, the substitution has come about because of ideological change but also because the "Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex" maintains a high level of military spending due to the fact that most congressional districts receive some form of military expenditure from bases to munitions production.

General Wesley Clark considers foreign policy under the Bush administration. He argues that the military has a central role to play in support of US foreign policy goals especially in regards to protecting the world economy. He concludes that the Obama administration for political reasons must form national security policy from the center or he will be attacked from the right of the political spectrum. Thus, any strong change in policy will come about slowly.The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording of the two talks.

Economic Meltdown: Causes and Consequences

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Robert Brenner outlines the long-term causes of the present economic meltdown. Rather than understanding the current downturn as solely a function of financial malpractice and incompetence, he demonstrates that the economy has been growing slower in most of the major indices with each passing business cycle since the 1970s. In the last two cycles, asset bubbles inclined US consumers to take on more debt in order to spend and achieve limited GDP growth. The implications for the US and the global economy are also considered including the US current account deficit, trade imbalances, the rise of China and the East Asian economies as well as declining investment in the real economy and overcapacity in manufacturing worldwide.

Gary Dymski makes the case that banks are much more responsible than borrowers for the subprime crisis that has since led to a financial crisis and economic decline in the rest of the economy. The subprime bubble had its origins in the “strategic reorientation”...

Edgy Cities, Technoblurbs and Simulcrumbs: Depthless Utopias and Dystopias on the Sub-urban Fringe

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Edgy Cities, Technoblurbs and Simulcrumbs: Depthless Utopias and Dystopias on the Sub-urban Fringe

Environmental Planning and Policy in the Los Angeles Region: Openings and Opportunities

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Environmental Planning and Policy in the Los Angeles Region: Openings and Opportunities

Los Angeles 1965-1992: Six Geographies of Urban Restructuring

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Los Angeles 1965-1992: Six Geographies of Urban Restructuring

Explaining New York City's Aberrant Economy: Post-Industrial vs Classical Perspectives

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Explaining New York City's Aberrant Economy: Post-Industrial vs Classical Perspectives

Is the Japanese Economy in Crisis

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Is the Japanese Economy in Crisis

Is There A Crisis in the World Economy?

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Is There A Crisis in the World Economy?

The Dilemma of Durable Goods

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The Dilemma of Durable Goods

From National Movement to Nation

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

From National Movement to Nation

THe Market and the Origins of American Economic Development, 1750-1850

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

THe Market and the Origins of American Economic Development, 1750-1850

Schumpeter and Democracy

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Schumpeter and Democracy

Strategic Factors in the Economic Development of Early Massachusetts

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Strategic Factors in the Economic Development of Early Massachusetts

Cultural Underpinnings of Capitalist Development in the Early National Period

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Cultural Underpinnings of Capitalist Development in the Early National Period

A National Compensation for Backwardness

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

A National Compensation for Backwardness

The Market Economy of the US, 1800-1860

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The Market Economy of the US, 1800-1860

Colonial Social Formations: The Indian Case

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Colonial Social Formations: The Indian Case

Uneconomic Factors in 19th Century Economic Development

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Uneconomic Factors in 19th Century Economic Development

Japan and East Asia: Still a Special Path?

Wed, 30 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Professor Woo argues that the 1997 East Asian currency crisis had its roots in the changing political economy of the region. The post-World War II paradigm for economic development in the region was destroyed by the crisis and a new more Sino-centric configuration has begun to unfold. Ron Bevacqua argues that Japan created a very successful model of development that was based on the idea of the state maintaining order through growth and market-oriented policies. However, this model has now reached its limits, if Japan wants to continue to be a world leader. The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording of the two talks.

Paths to Modernity: Japan and the West

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Harry Harootunian, Department of History, New York University, discussed the Japanese model of peaceful evolutionary modernization in the context of Cold War politics and also talked about other theories of modernization. He provided a critical analysis of Modernization Theory and the political rationality for the reform of Japanese society under American occupation. Carol Gluck, Department of History, Columbia University, talked about the problems with various theories of modernity and the need for new paradigms. She proposed several criteria for study of the historicity of modernization, using Meiji Japan as a frame of reference. Fred G. Notehelfer, Director, UCLA Center for Japanese Studies, discussed modernization of Japan in terms of the economic and socio-political changes that took place during the Tokugawa and Meiji periods. He argued that the new class of wealthy village merchants was instrumental in the reformation of Japanese society. The accompanying audio...

Paths to Modernity: China and India

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Wang Hui, editor of Dushu (Beijing), talked about the different historical narratives of China. He argued that the emergence of the modern nation state began in the Song Dynasty and thus the process was independent of European expansion into Asia. Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Director, Center for India and South Asia, Department of History, UCLA, discussed theories on the modernization of India. He talked about challenges to the dominant view that modernity was exported to India via British rule. The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording and audience discussion of the talks given by the authors. No formal paper is included. Those who download the audio files must have their own software for playing and listening.

The Latin American Challenge: Chavez, Morales, Castro

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Tariq Ali, political activist and author, talked about an emergent challenge to neo-liberalism and the Washington consensus in Latin America. He discussed the democratic legitimacy of the Venezuelan regime and the failed attempts to topple Hugo Chavez whose Bolivarian Project provides an alternative social vision to that of the United States. He also talked about Chavez’s indirect interventions in U.S. politics. He argued that what is happening in Latin America represents a growing crisis for the U.S. The accompanying audio file provides the complete recording of the talk given by the author. Those who download the audio file must have their own software for playing and listening.

Age Shock and Financialization: The Crisis in Pensions

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Robin Blackburn, Department of Historical Studies, New School for Social Research, talked about the current crisis of the American pension system. He cited “vulture capitalism” as a major cause of private pension deficits. He proposed redistribution of capital as a partial solution to the problem. His proposal requires large corporations to annually issue shares equivalent to their profits to a network of social funds. These trust funds cannot sell their shares which will be kept to generate future income for retired workers. The accompanying audio file provides the complete recording and audience discussion of the talk given by the author. Those who download the audio file must have their own software for playing and listening.

The Question of European Unity

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 00:00:00 +0000

John Gillingham, Department of History, University of Missouri - St. Louis, talked about the history of European integration, the roots of its current problems, and implications for its future. He argued that shared political principles rather than economic interests should be the rationale for the next phase of European integration and that successful re-launching of the process requires popular mandate. Bernard Cassen, Institute of European Studies, University of Paris VIII, talked about neo-liberalism and the French referendum on the European Constitution. He explained the French rejection in the context of popular opposition to neo-liberalism and distrust of the free enterprise system. He argued that people were voting against free trade and competition rather than Europe. The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording of the talks given by the authors. Those who download the audio files must have their own software for playing and listening.

A New Populism in Latin American?

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Adolfo Gilly, Department of Political Science, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), talked about neo-liberalism and the emergence of a “new populism” in many Latin American countries. Alfredo Saad Filho, Department of History, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), talked about the political and economic transition to liberalism in Brazil. He discussed the Worker’s Party (PT), the administration of Luiz Inacio da Silva (Lula), and neo-liberalism in Brazil.

Israel’s Separation Fence

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Gadi Algazi, Department of History, Tel Aviv University, talked about colonialism and civil resistance in the West Bank. He discussed the non-violent resistance movement which began in the Palestinian villages. He also talked about the new Jewish settlements which were predominantly driven by economics rather than Zionism. The accompanying audio file provides the complete recording and audience discussion of the talk given by the author. Those who download the audio file must have their own software for playing and listening.

China Today: Economy and Politics

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Wen Tiejun, the School of Agriculture and Rural Development at Renmin University, talked about economic and agricultural policies in China. The accompanying audio file provides the complete recording and audience discussion of the talk given by the author. Those who download the audio file must have their own software for playing and listening.

Russia: Failed Transition?

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Georgi Derluguian, Department of Sociology, Northwestern University, talked about the Russian economy and socio-political system. The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording and audience discussion of the talk given by the author. Those who download the audio files must have their own software for playing and listening.

Organizing Against the WTO: Hong Kong

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Loong-Yu Au, editor of Globalization Monitor, talked about labor activism in Hong Kong. The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording and audience discussion of the talk given by the author. Those who download the audio files must have their own software for playing and listening.

The US Media: Freedom, Power, & Profits

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Robert McChesney, University of Illinois, and Alexander Cockburn, editor of CounterPunch, talked about media criticism and activism. The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording and audience discussion of the talks given by the authors. Those who download the audio files must have their own software for playing and listening.

Israel and Palestine

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Nadim Rouhana, Institute for Conflict Resolution, George Mason University, and Gershon Shafir, Department of Sociology, UC San Diego, talked about democracy in the Israeli context. Beshara Doumani, Department of History, UC Berkeley, talked about democracy in the Palestinian experience. The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording and audience discussion of the talks given by the authors. Those who download the audio files must have their own software for playing and listening.

Democracy in Iraq?

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Juan Cole, Department of History, University of Michigan, and Larry Diamond, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, talked about the establishment of a democratic system in Iraq and the future of the country. The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording and audience discussion of the talks given by the authors. Those who download the audio files must have their own software for playing and listening.

Triumph of the Right?

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Thomas Frank, author of What’s the Matter with Kansas, and Mike Davis, Department of History, UC Irvine, talked about the conservative culture in America. The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording and audience discussion of the talks given by the authors. Those who download the audio files must have their own software for playing and listening.

Hugo Chavez and the Future of Venezuela

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Steven Ellner, Department of Economic History, Universidad Central de Venezuela, and David Myers, Department of Political Science, Pennsylvania State University, talked about democracy in Venezuela and the Chavez movement. The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording and audience discussion of the talks given by the authors. Those who download the audio files must have their own software for playing and listening.

Prime Suspects: The Corrosive Influence of Local Television

Wed, 25 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Local television news is the public’s primary source of public affairs information. News stories about crime dominate local news programming because they maintain high audience demand. The prevalence of this type of reporting has led to a crime narrative or “script” that includes two core elements: crime is violent and perpetrators of crime are non-white males. We show that this script has become an ingrained heuristic for understanding crime and race. Using a multi-method design, we assess the impact of the crime script on the viewing public. Our central findings are that exposure to the racial element of the crime script increases support for punitive approaches to crime and heightens negative attitudes about African-Americans among white, but not black, viewers. In closing, we consider the implications of our results for intergroup relations, electoral politics, and the practice of journalism.

Where You Live and What You Watch: The Impact of Racial Proximity and Local Television News on Attitudes about Race and Crime

Wed, 25 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000

In this study, we integrate research findings on the impact of exposure to stereotype reinforcing local crime news with theories about the impact of residential context on attitudes about race and crime. To date, there has been no research investigating whether neighborhood context mitigates or exacerbates the impact of exposure to racially stereotypic crime news. We test extensions of two competing theories. According to the social contact hypothesis, under certain circumstances whites’ residential proximity to blacks might reduce the likelihood of further negative effects via exposure to racially stereotypic media messages. On the other hand, according to the group threat hypothesis, proximity to blacks might increase whites’ sensitivity to stereotype-reinforcing crime news. We collected information about the neighborhood racial context for each respondent in an experiment. We then exposed respondents either to racially stereotypic or non-stereotypic crime stories on local...

Strategic Frame Analysis: Reframing America's Youth

Wed, 25 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Strategic frame analysis, the method advanced in this paper, allows a nuanced understanding of the role played by media and public opinion in impeding or advancing the goals of those who seek more public attention and resources allocated to youth. Strategic frame analysis relies on a series of methods adapted from traditional opinion research, media studies and cultural and cognitive fieldwork including survey research, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, media content analysis, metaphor analysis, and media effects tests. This paper applies the basic principles of strategic frame analysis to discern what Americans think about youth (especially teenagers), why they think what they do, what consequences this has for youth policy and policy advocates, and how policy advocates might best engage Americans in a discussion about positive youth development.

The Superpredator Script

Wed, 25 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Recently we set out to examine in a novel way the connections between what people see in local newscasts and what they think about juvenile crime. We designed an experiment to assess the impact of the "superpredator news frame" in which the only difference between what groups of viewers saw in a news story involved the race of the alleged youth perpetrator.

The "Welfare Queen" Experiment: How Viewers React to Images of African-American Mothers on Welfare

Wed, 25 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000

In the midst of this evolving political landscape on which new debates about welfare ensued, the news media played and continues to play a critical role in the public's understanding of what "welfare" ought to be. Utilizing a novel experimental design, I wanted to examine the impact of media portrayals of the "welfare queen" (Reagan's iconic representation of the African-American welfare experience) on white people's attitudes about welfare policy, race and gender.

The Influence of Local Television News Frames on Attitudes about Childcare: An Evaluation Report to the Benton Foundation

Thu, 5 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Drastic changes in American lifestyles have called into question the future of America's children. For instance, the lack of kinship networks -- a product of urbanization and increased individual mobility -- limits the traditional child rearing functions performed by members of the extended family. Rising divorce rates and an increase in "out-of-wedlock" births produce more single-parent households. And as more women enter the workforce -- particularly outside of the home -- the role of women in the family is at odds with the historical pattern of men being the primary "bread-winners" and women taking care of the home and the family. The net result is that finding suitable childcare services is now a central feature of American family life.

American Labor in International Lean Production

Fri, 7 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000

American Labor in International Lean Production

Assessment of Interracial/Interethnic Conflict in Los Angeles

Wed, 22 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Los Angeles has a history of considerable racial and ethnic conflict, ranging from the “zoot suit riots” of 1943 through the Watts riots of 1965 and the so-called “Rodney King” rioting in 1992. Politics in Los Angeles has often reflected this intergroup conflict, from Sam Yorty’s mayoralty campaign against the black Tom Bradley, that many observers felt was laced with quasi-racist appeals, through the high-intensity contentions over busing for school integration in the 1970's and over illegal immigration in the 1990's, to the ethnic rivalries that surfaced in the 2001 mayoralty race between James Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa.

At the end of World War II Los Angeles County had an overwhelmingly white population. That has changed over time, most dramatically in the last two decades. Now there is no majority ethnic group in Los Angeles County. The largest consists of Latinos, with about 41% of the total population, according to the 2000 Census. Trailing well behind are non-Hispanic...

Long-Term Continuities in the Politics of Race

Wed, 22 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

This study tests for long-term continuities in the politics of race. It uses a quasi-experimental method to examine the role of racial issues in presidential voting in the present era. It identifies two earlier historical eras in which it is generally agreed racial issues were a central point of partisan division in national politics: the immediately antebellum and civil rights periods. It uses presidential voting data to demonstrate continuity in the distribution of the vote across states between those two eras, and between both eras and the present. The pattern of the vote has been quite different in eras when race has not been a central national political issue. We argue that these data are consistent with the view that divisions over race continue to underlie partisan preferences to a significant degree in the present era.

Self Interest, Moral Principle, and Social Context: A Rational Choice Analysis of the Abolitionist Movement

Wed, 22 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Is it possible to explain all political behavior in terms of self-interest? If we interpret self-interest as narrow, direct and short-term, the answer is obviously no. Things that we might call culture, ideology, ideas and moral principles clearly affect individual choices, and, thereby, political outcomes. But inquiries into the the logic behind these other forces often bring us back to interest. Much behavior that appears at odds with self-interest can be “rationalized” by considering long time horizons and the complexities of social interaction. In acting against my short-term self-interest, I may be building a useful reputation, winning and maintaining allies, making credible commitments, or establishing a focal point. Recent game theoretic work has shown how patterns of behavior that we might attribute to culture (Kreps 1990, Fearon and Laitin, 1996), partisanship (Aldrich 1995), ideology (Bawn 1999) or ideas (Garret and Weingast 1993, Weingast 1995, Bates, de Figueiredo...

Built on Rock or Sand? The Stability of Religiosity and Attitudes Towards Abortion

Wed, 22 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines two questions. First, how stable is religiosity over time? Second, how does religiosity affect the stability of attitudes over time? I begin by discussing several reasons why religiosity might help to stabilize attitudes. Then, drawing on the 1992-94-96 National Election Study panel, I examine the stability of religious tradition, religious movement identification, church attendance, view of scripture, and the overall importance of religion. For the most part, these indicators are found to be fairly stable, though not uniformly so. I then examine the effect of religiosity on the stability of attitudes towards abortion. Religiosity is found to have no significant impact. I conclude by speculating on reasons why.

A Paradox of Public Opinion: Why a Less Interested Public is More Attentive to War

Wed, 22 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

This study argues that even as the American people declares themselves, in countless public opinion surveys, less concerned with foreign affairs in the Post-Cold War era than at any time since the end of World War II, they are nonetheless growing increasingly attentive to foreign policy crises. I develop a theory suggesting that this trend is attributable to a “direct marketing” revolution in television broadcasting, which has for many Americans increased the appeal of information about foreign crises. As evidence, I conduct two statistical investigations. The first examines the relationship between individual media consumption habits and attentiveness to three recent high-profile foreign policy crisis issues. The second compares public opinion trends during the three major post-World War II American uses of military force -- Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf, to determine whether the relationships identified at the individual level can account for aggregate trends in public...

The Blanket Primary: Candidate Strategy and Voter Response

Wed, 22 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

The party coalitions that emerged from the New Deal realignment were defined by race, nationality and ethnicity, religion, region, and social class. In the last decade, the "religious impulse" has become an increas-ingly important aspect of the party coalitions as Republican and Demo-cratic identifiers have become increasingly distinct in terms of their re-ligiosity and religious practice. The paper traces the increasing impor-tance of religiosity and social class as correlates of party identification and argues that the contemporary GOP has a support base that is highly similar to that of conventional Christian Democratic parties. It further suggests that the pattern of issue politics between the parties today is a result of this new cleavage structure.

The Stealth Campaign: Experimental Studies of Slate Mail in California

Wed, 22 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

This paper is a preliminary consideration of slate mail. We provide some basic information about the nature and use of slate mail in California and about the policy debates that have surrounded it in the last decade or two.4 We then briefly describe a program of experimental research into the effects of slate mail and report and analyze in detail the results of one such experiment.

The Persistence of the Past: The Class of 1965 Turns Fifty

Wed, 22 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

This paper revisits the linked questions of attitudinal crystallization and generational formation in an attempt to nudge the understanding of these matters forward. Our goal, put most generally, is to bring ideas about the formation of political generations into an analysis of the long-term dynamics of attitude crystallization. Although scholars have quite often tried to trace the long-term development of political generations, and often employ comparison groups (e.g., Alwin, Cohen, and Newcomb 1991, Cole, Zucker, and Ostrove 1998, Elder 1974, Fendrich and Lovoy 1988, Jennings 1987, Markus 1979, Stewart, Settles, and Winter 1998), less common are analyses of attitudinal crystallization that bring ideas about political generations to bear. We do this in the paper in two ways.

First, our analysis distinguishes within an age-cohort between those who were politically engaged and those who were politically unengaged during their early adult, and presumably politically formative,...

Is It Really Racism? The Origins of White Americans' Opposition to Race-Targeted Policies

Wed, 22 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

We address the role of racial antagonism in whites’ opposition to racially-targeted policies. The data come from four surveys selected for their unusually rich measurement of both policy preferences and other racial attitudes: the 1986 and 1992 National Election Studies, the 1994 General Social Survey, and the 1995 Los Angeles County Social Survey. They indicate that such opposition is more strongly rooted in racial antagonism than in non-racial conservatism, that whites tend to respond to quite different racial policies in similar fashion, that racial attitudes affect evaluations of black and ethnocentric white presidential candidates, and that their effects are just as strong among college graduates as among those with no college education. Second, we present evidence that symbolic racism is consistently more powerful than older forms of racial antagonism, and its greater strength does not diminish with controls on non-racial ideology, partisanship, and values. The origins...

Negative Campaign Advertising: Demobilizer or Mobilizer

Wed, 8 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

With political campaigns becoming increasingly adversarial, scholars have recently given some much-needed attention to the impact of negative advertising on turnout.In a widely recognized Review article and subsequent book, Ansolabehere and his colleagues (1994, 1995) contend that attack advertising drives potential voters away from the polls. We dispute the generalizability of these claims outside of the experimental setting. Using NES survey data as well aggregate sources, we subject this previous research to rigorous real-world testing. The survey data directly contradict Ansolabehere et al.'s findings, yielding evidence of a turnout advantage for those recollecting negative presidential campaign advertising. In attempting to replicate Ansolabehere et al’s earlier aggregate results we uncover quite significant discrepancies and inconsistencies in their dataset. This analysis leads to the conclusion that their aggregate study is hopelessly flawed. We must conclude that attack...

Reformulating the Party Coalitions: The "Christian Democratic" Republicans

Wed, 8 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Ethnic Officeholders and Party Activists in Los Angeles County

Wed, 24 Jul 2002 00:00:00 +0000

This inquiry into ethnic participation in Los Angeles party politics starts with a look at the comparative success in gaining public office that representatives of five minority status groups have had since 1960. Specifically, the success in winning significant political office by candidates who are Latino, Black, Jewish, Asian and/or women has been quite different. It has been much more rapid for Jews than for Blacks, who in turn have outpaced Latinos, while Asians have had little success throughout the 27-year period. Further, women not linked to these ethnic communities have not done as well as women from ethnic communities in gaining public office.

In 1960, ethnic minorities held 5 percent of the most significant elective positions in Los Angeles County. By 1986, the ethnic communities of Los Angeles (Latino, Black, Jewish and Asian) provided 54 percent of the individuals holding the most significant elective positions. What developments in Los Angeles have led to...

The UCLA Asian Pacific American Voter Registration Study

Wed, 24 Jul 2002 00:00:00 +0000

Asian Pacific American political involvement is not a new phenomenon, but it has clearly become a significant focus of attention for the Asian Pacific American population. Perhaps at no other period in Asian Pacific American history have so many individuals and organizations of different issue orientations participated in a wide array of political activities, especially in relation to American electoral politics, but also in the affairs of the Pacific Rim. At the same time, what has come to be taken as a quite expected occurrence in Hawaii, namely the election of Asian Pacific Americans to public office, has suddenly become a less than surprising novelty in the Mainland states with the election and appointment of Asian Pacific Americans to federal, state, and local positions in California and elsewhere. Most importantly, perhaps, Asian Pacific Americans have demonstrated that they, too, have resources and talents--financial, organizational, and otherwise--to advance their specific...

The Sexually Active Mexican Adolescent: A Preliminary Report

Wed, 24 Jul 2002 00:00:00 +0000

Adolescent fertility has become identified as a major social problem in the United States; however, little empirical data are available regarding the critical social variables which influence adolescent sexual behavior. While adolescents learn about sexuality from many sources, two major sources that influence adolescent attitudes toward sexual behavior are from persons who form their internal support network--family and peers. The adolescent's family and peers are instrumental in forming the adolescent's knowledge base about reproduc- tion, contraceptive use, and other sexual behavioral variables. The importance and role of these influences can differ when viewed in another cultural context. To date, little is known about differences in sexual behavior among culturally diverse adolescent groups nor...

Contraceptive Knowledge and Intentions Among Latina Teenagers Experiencing Their First Birth

Wed, 24 Jul 2002 00:00:00 +0000

This article describes the social context of pregnancy, contraceptive knowlege, past birth control use and plans for future contraception for 233 adolescent women of Mexican origin and/or descent delivering their first child in one of two Los Angeles hospitals. The teenagers described here were part of a larger sample of 518 women interviewed in 1981 and 1982. Although this paper focuses on adolescents, the adult group is briefly discussed for purposes of comparison.

The Social Coalition Character of the Democratic and Republican Precinct Cadres in Detroit, 1956-1984

Tue, 23 Jul 2002 00:00:00 +0000

Political parties are alliances of socio-economic interest groups. One cannot understand party organizational dynamics in any community without identifying the critical coalitional subgroups of the organization, assessing their relative strengths, and analyzing their ideologies and behaviors. This is a position we elaborated long ago in our 1956 Detroit study of the Republican and Democratic hierarchies (Eldersveld 1964). The effectiveness of party structures in electoral democracies depends on their linkages to the significant socio-economic interest sectors of the electorates whose support they seek to exploit and mobilize in order to acquire, and to remain in, power. Hence, the viability of local party cadres depends greatly on their capacity for adaptation to the changing character of their electorates. By adaptation we mean not only their response in terms of the numerical representation of social interests in precinct cadres, but also the qualitative performance of precinct...

Sources of Stress in Latino Women Experiencing Unemployment After a Plant Closure

Tue, 23 Jul 2002 00:00:00 +0000

A common assumption about women as laborers made in past unemployment research has been that their participation in the labor force is optional (Schlozman 1979). This assumption suggests that when unemployed, such women should be less susceptible than are males to personal, familial or social sources of stress (Rundquist and Sletto 1938). Additionally, this view suggests that women, especially Latino women, who are accustomed to the role of homemaker, should not object to job loss nor to a return to this role, particularly since they are supported by their husbands (Rundquist and Sletto 1936). However, current demographic data indicate that the number of Latino families headed and maintained by women have continued to increase since 1970. In 1983, women maintained 23 percent of Latino families (U.S. Department of Commerce 1984). Thus, the assumption must be questioned that participation in the labor force is entirely optional for Latino women, and that these women are not...

Learning About Bilingual, Multicultural Organizing

Fri, 19 Jul 2002 00:00:00 +0000

This paper is a reflection on several years' struggle to establish a federation of housing cooperatives in a low-income, multi-ethnic, bilingual community in Los Angeles. The history of this organization has significant implications for the study of multicultural organization in general, and for the modeling of multicultural, as opposed to assimilative or pluralistic, society. The concept of multiculturalism has grown in importance as the melting pot myths of the past and shortcomings of pluralism are fully exposed.

Are the Characterisitcs of Exiles Different from Immigrants? The Case of Iranians in Los Angeles

Fri, 19 Jul 2002 00:00:00 +0000

The main objective of this paper is to use the Iranian case to test three hypotheses about the demographic, religious, and socioeconomic differences between immigrants and political refugees or exiles, which are commonly found in the literature. These hypotheses are tested by using data from the 1980 U.S. Census Public Use Microdata Sample for the 1975-80 and the pre-1975 Iranian immigrant cohorts. Our first hypothesis is that the 1975-80 immigrants include a higher proportion of religious minorities than the pre-1975 immigrants. Our second hypothesis is that the 1975-1980 cohort, composed of a large number of refugees, is much more balanced with respect to age and sex distribution than the pre-1975 cohort. The third hypothesis is that Iranians who arrived in 1975-80 had a higher socioeconomic achievement than those who came before that date. The analysis of data from the 1980 U.S. Census on immigration cohorts is preceded by a brief review of trends and types of Iranian immigration...

Sex Ratio Imbalance Among Los Angeles Afro-Americans

Fri, 19 Jul 2002 00:00:00 +0000

This paper explores the social structural implications of a male shortage among Afro-Americans living in Los Angeles County, California from two perspectives: (1) the relationship between the sex ratio and selected hypothesized consequences of sex ratio imbalance and (2) the economic cost of non-marriage for women.

Post-Industrialization and the Social Organization of Afro-Trinidadian Immigrants in Los Angeles

Fri, 19 Jul 2002 00:00:00 +0000

In this paper, the author examines the relationship between "post-industrialism" and patterns of social organization that may be observed among international migrants at the micro-level; more specifically, the connection between certain aspects of post-industrial technology such as innovations in telecommunications and transportation and the social organization of Caribbean immigrants, a subset of the New Immigrants to the United States. The intent is to draw attention to the idea of non-territorial social systems as an emerging social form in the post-industrial era. This paper focuses on the New Immigrants largely because the New Immigration has coincided with the development of the computerization and automation of information, communication and transportation infrastructures, which is to say, at a post-industrial moment in history.

Beyond the Neighborhood: The Spatial Distribution of Social Ties in Three Urban Black Communities

Thu, 18 Jul 2002 00:00:00 +0000

This paper explores the distribution of social ties within three black communities. We take seriously the notion that in order to study the personal communities of urbanites we must explore ties both inside and outside neighborhood boundaries. Using data on the interpersonal ties of 352 blacks residing in three contrasting study areas, we explore several questions. First, to what degree are ties neighborhood based or what we term, beyond the neighborhood? Second, are there sub-group differences in spatial location in these study areas; are differences for age, sex, education, and occupational status present? Third, we ask whether differences in the degree of neighborhood embeddedness occur for various attributes of ties; are they equally close, as frequently contacted, or contacted in different ways (i.e., personally or by phone)? Fourth, to what extent are kin, co-workers and co-members spatially dispersed? And finally, in what ways do ties beyond the neighborhood differ...

The Comparative Sociology of Women Lawyers: The "Feminization" of the Legal Profession