Direct Democracy and Public Policymaking

1997 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uwe Wagschal
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Finance ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Discount Rate ◽  
Veto Player ◽  
The Social ◽  
Benefit Principle ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTWhat is the impact of direct democracy, e.g. referendums, on public policymaking? The study will present data for Switzerland, the United States, Australia and Germany leading to the conclusion that direct democracy is an effective, but flexible veto player against expansive spending and taxation. The level of public expenditure and taxation is significantly lower in countries that have elements of direct democracy compared to pure representative democracies. Several theoretical arguments support this finding. For example, the social discount rate of voters is lower than that of politicians. Also direct democracy is related to the benefit principle in public finance. Taxpayers want their payments to be related to public services they receive. They are therefore inclined to veto projects not reflecting their preferences. Moreover, referenda have an implicit restraining effect on governments and the mere threat can reduce their capacity to act.

Impacts of Liberation Pedagogy: The Case of Workers' Education

1983 ◽  
Vol 165 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hakken
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Paulo Freire ◽  
The United States ◽  
Antonio Gramsci ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Worker Education ◽  
The Social ◽  
Liberation Pedagogy ◽  
The Impact

Some perspectives with which to evaluate the impact of the pedagogy of liberation on worker education programs in England and the United States are suggested. The pedagogy of liberation is often associated with the work of Paulo Freire and occasionally with that of the Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci. After some initial discussion of the nature of liberation pedagogy, the problems involved in assessing its effectiveness, are discussed in reference to specific worker education programs in England and the United States. The analysis of workers' education involves discussion of the pedagogy which informs particular programs and the social psychological dilemmas which often face the worker/students involved in workers' education. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the research on workers' education for liberation pedagogy.

A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY ON RISK, UNCERTAINTY, AND INFORMATION

2010 ◽  
Vol 06 (02) ◽  
pp. 167-176
Author(s):  
YUMIKO NARA
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

In this paper, the author aims to examine the differences in perception concerning the anxiety toward the risk among three countries — Japan, the United States of America and China. The anxiety, in this case, is triggered by uncertainty. This paper also intends to clarify the effect of information to improve people's risk management targeted on the respondents of the Chinese population focusing on earthquake disasters. The social survey using questionnaire has been carried out in order to obtain the needed quantitative data for my research project. It is interesting to conclude that both respondents in China and in the United States tend to accept the impact of uncertainty better. They have shown somewhat lower level of anxiety toward nineteen items of the risks as compared with that of the Japanese respondents. The significant effects on information designed as a part of the risk management action plan as well as the living sufficiency safeguard are clearly observed.

Using Memes to Carve a Space for Undocumented Latino/a Visibility and to Tackle Fossilized Myths

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 12-34
Author(s):  
Kaitlin E. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Nonprofit Organization ◽  
The United States ◽  
Generation Z ◽  
The Social ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Cultural Functions ◽  
The Impact

This article considers the impact of memes shared among Millennial and Generation Z–oriented Latino/a social media outlets during the years 2014–17, and proposes reading memes as viable microliterary texts. Through the examination of many dozens of memes and hundreds of Facebook posts from the nonprofit organization UndocuMedia, I have identified two themes that reoccur with notable frequency: (in)visibility and knowledge. As expressed within the memetic platform, these themes have cultural functions beyond superficial banter: humor detracts from political absurdity, arguing points permits one to assume defensive and protective postures, and connecting with friends expands the network of allies. I first define memes and explain how they might be read as socially conscious microliterary texts. I then examine selected meme examples to illustrate how they are shared with the intent to challenge the social and political marginalization that has long plagued the undocumented Latino/a demographic in the United States and to debunk long–held fossilized myths. I conclude by discussing the role of accompanying hashtags and emoji in the process of transplanting online activism to the offline world.

scholarly journals Walls and Cows: Social Media, Vigilante Vantage, and Political Discourse

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512092851
Author(s):  
Megan Ward
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Mob Violence ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Trump Administration

Vigilante groups in the United States and India have used social media to distribute their content and publicize violent spectacles for political purposes. This essay will tackle the spectacle of vigilante lynchings, abduction, and threats as images of vigilante violence are spread online in support of specific candidates, state violences, and election discourse. It is important to understand the impact of not only these vigilante groups, but understand the communicative spectacle of their content. Using Leo R. Chavez’s understanding of early 2000s vigilante action as spectacle in service of social movements, this essay extends the analysis to modern vigilante violence online content used as dramatic political rhetoric in support of sitting administrations. Two case studies on modern vigilante violence provide insight into this phenomenon are as follows: (1) Vigilante nativist militia groups across the United States in support of border militarization have kidnapped migrants in the Southwest desert, documenting these incidents to show support for the Trump Administration and building of a border wall and (2) vigilante mobs in India have circulated videos and media documenting lynchings of so-called “cow killers”; these attacks target Muslims in the light of growing Hindu Nationalist sentiment and political movement in the country. Localized disinformation and personal video allow vigilante content to spread across social media to recruit members for militias, as well as incite quick acts of mob violence. Furthermore, these case studies display how the social media livestreams and video allow representations of violence to become attention-arresting visual acts of political discourse.

America, Germany, Israel: Three Modes of Citizenship and Incorporation

2010 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-128
Author(s):  
David Abraham
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
The United States ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Social Community ◽  
Social Question ◽  
Free Mobility ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn today's liberal democracies, the “social question” and the “immigration question” have become entwined as rarely before. Elites and citizens alike ask who belongs to the national political and social community of the “we” and what belonging entails in the way of rights and obligations. Under the impact of unprecedented free mobility for both capital and labor and the crises of the social welfare state, the borders and bonds of citizenship have been changing, mostly weakening. This essay takes a preliminary look at how these two questions are intertwined in the United States, Germany, and Israel.

Talking Politics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor N. Carlson ◽  
Marisa Abrajano ◽  
Lisa García Bedolla
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Knowledge Policy ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

Individuals arrive at meaning through conversation. Scholars have long explored political conversations in the United States, and the vast majority of this research suggests that political discussion has important effects on political attitudes and engagement. However, much of this research relies on samples of White respondents, making it potentially difficult to generalize these findings to our increasingly diverse electorate. In this book, we seek to understand how political discussion networks vary across groups who have vastly different social positions in the United States, specifically along the lines of ethnorace, nativity, and gender. We build upon seminal work in the field as we argue that individuals with different social positions likely discuss politics with different groups of people and, as a consequence, their discussion networks have different effects on their political behavior. We use a novel discussion network data set with an ethnoracially diverse sample, paired with qualitative interviews, to test this argument. We assert that this book makes three central contributions: (1) expanding the scope of the political discussion network literature by providing a comparative analysis across ethnorace, nativity, and gender; (2) demonstrating how historical differences in partisanship, policy attitudes, and engagement are reflected within groups’ social networks; and (3) revealing how the social position of our respondents affects the impact that networks can have on their trust and efficacy in government, political knowledge, policy attitudes, and political and civic engagement patterns.

scholarly journals A transnational and transregional study of the impact and effectiveness of social distancing for COVID-19 mitigation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarcísio M. Rocha Filho ◽  
Marcelo A. Moret ◽  
José F. F. Mendes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Infection Rate ◽  
Rank Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Spearman’S Correlation

AbstractWe present an analysis of the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection rates and a social distancing metric from data for all the states and most populous cities in the United States and Brazil, all the 22 European Economic Community countries and the United Kingdom. We discuss why the infection rate, instead of the effective reproduction number or growth rate of cases, is a proper choice to perform this analysis when considering a wide span of time. We obtain a strong Spearman’s rank order correlation between the social distancing metric and the infection rate in each locality. We show that mask mandates increase the values of Spearman’s correlation in the United States, where a mandate was adopted. We also obtain an explicit numerical relation between the infection rate and the social distancing metric defined in the present work.

scholarly journals A Transnational and Transregional Study of the Impact and Effectiveness of Social Distancing for COVID-19 Mitigation

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (11) ◽  
pp. 1530
Author(s):  
Tarcísio M. Rocha Filho ◽  
Marcelo A. Moret ◽  
José F. F. Mendes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Infection Rate ◽  
Rank Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Spearman’S Correlation

We present an analysis of the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection rates and a social distancing metric from data for all the states and most populous cities in the United States and Brazil, all the 22 European Economic Community countries and the United Kingdom. We discuss why the infection rate, instead of the effective reproduction number or growth rate of cases, is a proper choice to perform this analysis when considering a wide span of time. We obtain a strong Spearman’s rank order correlation between the social distancing metric and the infection rate in each locality. We show that mask mandates increase the values of Spearman’s correlation in the United States, where a mandate was adopted. We also obtain an explicit numerical relation between the infection rate and the social distancing metric defined in the present work.

Latinx Sexual and Gender Minority Mental Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 185-198
Author(s):  
Alison Cerezo ◽  
Juan Camarena ◽  
Amaranta Ramirez
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Minority Mental Health ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

Sexual and gender diverse (SGD) Latinxs are a vibrant, heterogenous community that can trace their heritage to various countries in Latin America. This chapter describes how socio-historical trends in the United States and Latin America have shaped the social and health conditions of SGD Latinxs, including the impact of colonialism and recent state-sanctioned discriminatory violence. An intersectionality framework is used in this chapter to consider how race and ethnicity, immigration, language, sexual orientation, and gender identity function interdependently to impact the lives of SGD Latinxs in the United States and around the world. The authors also discuss trends in SGD Latinx research in the United States and Latin America, with a focus on mental health and substance abuse.

A Pipeline of Unscrupulous Practices: Qualitative Study of Attitudes Toward the Social Security Disability Program

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 173-180
Author(s):  
Lila Rabinovich
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Social Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Disability Benefits ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Disability ◽  
The Impact

In the United States more than 8 million adults currently are covered by the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program, with enrollment projected to increase in the coming decades. This qualitative study explores views on work disability in the United States, and specifically on the SSDI program, among the general public. Six focus groups with a convenience sample of nonbeneficiary adults ( N = 41) were conducted in Los Angeles. We found that in spite of low levels of familiarity with the program, suspicion and prejudice against people claiming disability benefits and against the program itself were widespread among our participants. Specifically, participants argued that (a) there is a high prevalence of “scammer” disability applicants, and (b) the program fails to adequately safeguard against nondisabled claimants. Moreover, they viewed disability benefits as a symbolic admission of weakness, contrary to the U.S. ethos of hard work and against “government handouts,” and expressed a preference for claiming disability benefits as a last resort if they were ever to develop a disabling condition. Exploring public perceptions of disability and disability benefit programs helps us shed light on current cultural narratives around these topical issues. Future research could examine the impact of stigma of beneficiary status on beneficiaries’ wellbeing.

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