Age and the Construction of Gendered and Raced Citizenship in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 438-450
Author(s):  
Corinne T. Field ◽  
Nicholas L. Syrett
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Age Determination ◽  
The United States ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Birth Certificates ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Voter Identification

Abstract Focusing on the United States, Field and Syrett argue that the supposed universality of chronological age masks the processes through which legislators and government officials relied upon age to reinforce inequalities rooted in coverture and chattel slavery. Two case studies reveal how bureaucratic and legislative age requirements functioned in tandem to deny equal citizenship to women and formerly enslaved people. During the Civil War, Congress passed legislation to grant age-based Civil War pensions for minor children that appeared neutral in law but came to be administered in ways that denied equal benefits to the families of black Civil War soldiers on the grounds that they lacked adequate proof of age. State governments, meanwhile, continued to pass laws that differentiated between men and women in the realm of legal majority, using chronological age as a means to shore up gender inequality even as women gained new rights and opportunities. Recent conflicts over voter identification laws and age determination for child migrants reveal that chronological age remains a contested category through which government officials can deny equal treatment under the law by defining the criteria for what counts as adequate proof of age. Cracks in the modern regime of government-issued birth certificates reveal that age remains what it has always been: not a neutral fact, but a vector of power through which government officials and ordinary people construct and contest the boundaries of citizenship.

Modernizing America

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Reform Judaism ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Du Bois ◽  
The Social

The United States became recognizably modern in several key ways in the half-century after the Civil War. Changes such as the end of slavery, urbanization, and the suffrage movement posed formidable challenges to religious authority. Many of the most significant writers on religious politics in this period were not government officials but reformers who sought to remake Americans' public life. This chapter presents the following documents: Reynolds v. United States (1878), the Pittsburgh Platform of Reform Judaism (1885), Frances Willard's Woman in the Pulpit (1888), Elizabeth Cady Stanton's The Woman's Bible (1895), W. E. B. Du Bois' “Of the Faith of the Fathers” (1903), Walter Rauschenbusch's Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), and William Jennings Bryan's “Mr. Bryan's Last Speech” (1925).

Canada and the United States: The Civil War Years

1961 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 704
Author(s):  
D. M. L. Farr ◽  
Robin W. Winks
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
The United States

Diálogos militares by Diego García de Palacio: The first American work on the law of nations

1992 ◽  
Vol 32 (290) ◽  
pp. 446-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Valencia Villa
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
The United States ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
Simon Bolivar ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Government

Over the years the Americas have made significant contributions to the development of international humanitarian law. These include three nineteenth-century texts which constitute the earliest modern foundations of the law of armed conflict. The first is a treaty, signed on 26 November 1820 by the liberator Simón Bolívar and the peacemaker Pablo Morillo, which applied the rules of international conflict to a civil war. The second is a Spanish-American work entitled Principios de Derecho de Genres (Principles of the Law of Nations), which was published in 1832 by Andrés Bello. This work dealt systematically with the various aspects and consequences of war. The third is a legal instrument, signed on 24 April 1863 by United States President Abraham Lincoln, which codified the first body of law on internal conflict under the heading “Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field” (General Orders No. 100). This instrument, known as the Lieber Code, was adopted as the new code of conduct for the armies of the Union during the American Civil War.

The Impact of the Nicaragua Case on Matters of Evidence and Fact-Finding

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-156
Author(s):  
PAUL S. REICHLER
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pulp Mills ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Government ◽  
Fact Finding ◽  
Day To Day Operations ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe Nicaragua case demonstrates the Court's competence in receiving and interpreting evidence, and in making reasoned findings of fact, even in the most complicated evidentiary context, as is often presented in cases involving use of force and armed conflict. The Court applied well-established standards for evaluating the conflicting evidence presented to it. In particular, the Court determined that greater weight should be given to statements against interest made by high-level government officials than to a state's self-serving declarations. The Court also determined that statements by disinterested witnesses with first-hand knowledge should receive greater weight than mere statements of opinion or press reports. In applying these guidelines, the Court found, correctly, that (i) the United States had used military and paramilitary force against Nicaragua both directly and indirectly, by organizing, financing, arming, and training the Contra guerrillas to attack Nicaragua; (ii) the evidence did not support a finding that the United States exercised direct control over the Contras’ day-to-day operations; and (iii) there was no evidence that Nicaragua supplied arms to guerrillas fighting against the government of El Salvador during the relevant period, or carried out an armed attack against that state. While Judge Schwebel's dissent criticized the last of these findings, in fact, the evidence fully supported the Court's conclusion. In subsequent decisions during the past 25 years, the Court has continued to rely on the approach to evidence first elaborated in the Nicaragua case and has continued to demonstrate its competence as a finder of fact, including in cases involving armed conflict (Bosnia Genocide) and complex scientific and technical issues (Pulp Mills).

scholarly journals The Effect of Partisan Representation at Different Levels of Government on Satisfaction with Democracy in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie VanDusky-Allen ◽  
Stephen M. Utych
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
State Government ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
American National Election Study ◽  
Respective State ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Analyze Data

AbstractIn this paper, we analyze how variations in partisan representation across different levels of government influence Americans’ satisfaction with the democracy in the United States. We conduct two survey experiments and analyze data from the 2016 American National Election Study postelection survey. We find that Americans are the most satisfied with democracy when their most preferred party controls both the federal and their respective state governments. However, we also find that even if an individual’s least preferred party only controls one level of government, they are still more satisfied with democracy than if their most preferred party controls no levels of government. These findings suggest that competition in elections across both the national and state government, where winning and losing alternates between the two parties, may have positive outcomes for attitudes toward democracy.

Alliance Embeddedness: Rodrigo Duterte and the Resilience of the US–Philippine Alliance

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Winger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personal Relationship ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Us ◽  
Philippine Government ◽  
Defense Cooperation

Abstract In 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte pledged to radically reorient Philippine foreign policy by separating from Manila's longtime ally the United States. Yet, this vaunted break with America has failed to manifest. Joint US–Philippine military activities have continued with President Duterte even singing the praises of his American partners. To understand how this about-face in Manila occurred, I conducted a detailed analysis of the first eighteen months of the Duterte administration. Drawing on primary sources and interviews with government officials from both countries, I argue that the continued vitality of the US–Philippine alliance stems not from disenchantment with China nor personal relationship between Duterte and Trump, but rather from an underlying institutional affinity engendered over decades of defense cooperation. Specifically, institutionalized cooperation within the alliance has cultivated a strong reservoir of support for the alliance within key institutions inside the Philippine government. This case not only highlights the development of the Duterte administration but also illustrates the wider ability of alliances to weather political discord by cultivating support within national bureaucracies.

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