Transparency and Executive Authority

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Naticchia
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Intelligence Gathering ◽  
Executive Authority ◽  
The Social ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Secrecy

This chapter will examine the extent (if any) to which sovereign power and executive authority may be justifiably exercised through secret laws. Generally speaking, social contract views reject such secrecy—insisting instead that laws must be public. In opposition to this apparent view of the social contract tradition, we have recent developments in the United States. These developments go beyond mere government attempts to classify information or to bar disclosure of intelligence-gathering methods or capabilities. They also include maintaining secrecy in the law through which the government exercises the authority it claims. For example, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issues classified rulings, creating a body of secret law that determines, by implication, which surveillance activities are consistent, and which inconsistent, with the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches without a particularized warrant based on probable cause. This chapter will argue that the social contract tradition itself may contain resources for defending these sorts of actions. It will explore whether paternalistic principles, whose scope is determined through contractarian reasoning, might be able to account for some government secrecy that extends beyond classifying information and protecting intelligence methods and capabilities to maintaining secrecy in some governing laws themselves. The question would be whether such limited paternalism—limited to cases involving “infirmities” of our reason or will—may be justifiably expanded to cover cases where those infirmities are absent, but where typical citizens may simply be “squeamish” about the judgments that certain executive decisions require.

FROM THE SOCIAL CONTRACT TO THE ART OF ASSOCIATION: A TOCQUEVILLIAN PERSPECTIVE

2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-287
Author(s):  
Aurelian Craiutu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Background ◽  
Democracy In America ◽  
Political Associations

In the United States, the debate on civil associations has coincided with the revival of interest in the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville, particularly Democracy in America (1835; 1840) in which he praised the Americans' propensity to form civil and political associations. Tocqueville regarded these associations as laboratories of democracy that teach citizens the art of being free and give them the opportunity to pursue their own interests in concert with others. Tocqueville's views on political and civil associations cannot be properly understood unless we also take into account the larger intellectual and political background of his native France. The main sections of this essay examine Tocqueville's analysis of civil and political associations in America. Special attention is paid to the strong relationship between democracy and civil and political associations and the effects that they have on promoting democratic citizenship, civility, and self-government.

The Scales of Money: Monetary Sovereignty and the Spatial Dimensions of American Politics after the Civil War

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (02) ◽  
pp. 311-339
Author(s):  
Nicolas Barreyre
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Political System ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Monetary Policies ◽  
Spatial Dimensions ◽  
The Government

Abstract With its victory in the Civil War, the Union affirmed the primacy of the national sovereignty of the United States. After the conflict, the country was absorbed by the consequences of this momentous event. Yet, even in this context, the monetary policies of the government became contentious and led to the eventual redefinition of sovereignty. This article explores how the American institutional structure and political system allowed the money question to become a spatial issue, opposing the great sections of the country. In turn, this sectionalism triggered a confrontation between alternative understandings of what sovereignty entailed in terms of both political legitimacy and spatial scales. By the end of the century, the scope of sovereign power would be redefined, and currency abandoned as one of its instruments.

scholarly journals The Dowry as a Crime in Disguise of Gifts: Evidences from Sadar and Faridganj Upazilla of Chandpur District

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Towhidur Rahman ◽  
Mahmuda Kulsum Moni ◽  
Md. Samaun Khalid3 ◽  
Farhana Begum ◽  
TamannaTabassum Khan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Rural Area ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Child Marriage ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Her Family ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
Day By Day

Dowry is a despicable affliction in society. The social evil has become a barrier for women in everysphere of life. The culture of dowry can be found not only in sub-continent but also in Europe, China,The United States, and also in African countries. A Dowry means the transfer of property by the brideor her family to the groom as an arrangement of marriage. When a bride or her family pays money orany other movable or immovable property, it is called dowry, which is also known as the bride pricein the sub-continent. Though the dowry is most common in the rural area, it cannot be said that it isabsent in cities. Instead, it is used as a disguise of gifts in women's marriage where the parents of themarriageable woman are bound to give dowry as a gift to the groom. This anathematization of dowryis increasing day by day in society. Social problems like child marriage, physical and mental abuse tothe women, divorce and even killing of women are the consequences of dowry. The government ofBangladesh has taken significant steps to eradicate this practice. The punishment for dowry-relatedcrimes is severe, which has been amalgamated in the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1980. The mostimportant step is to create consciousness among people, especially in the rural areas, to stop thepractice of dowry from the society. This study will help the practice and people of the society to goforward to abate the dowry practice.

scholarly journals The Social Darwinist ideology in American domestic policy at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 188-194
Author(s):  
Pavel Nikolaevich Mukhataev
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Minor Component ◽  
The United States ◽  
Domestic Policy ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
A Minor

This paper presents an attempt to analyze the interrelation between American domestic policy and the Social Darwinist ideology at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Soviet and Russian historiography presents a deep analysis of socio-economic and political processes in that period in terms of criticism of liberal ideology and market economics. Significant social stratification was explained by insufficiently developed socially directed normative base, illegal interaction between representatives of large business and politicians, the purpose of which was personal enrichment, etc. In general, the economic and political system of the United States in the late XIX - early XX centuries was criticized from Russian scientists. In Soviet literature the conclusion was made about the insolvency of bourgeois ideology, with elements of criticism of Social Darwinism as a minor component of this ideology. American historiography considers the subject of our study more wholly. Foreign historiography, basically, analyzes the connection of American domestic policy with the activities of financial magnates, who were becoming a new serious power in American politics. This paper attempts to explain the connection between the American domestic policy and the Social Darwinist discourse, which was an undoubted part of the intellectual and daily life of citizens in that historical period. The author points to the significant influence of the Social Darwinist ideology in the adoption of key inner-political decisions by the government of the United States.

Iran’s Second Revolution; A Millennial Challenge to the House of Saud

2019 ◽  
pp. 71-92
Author(s):  
Dilip Hiro
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
The United States ◽  
Jimmy Carter ◽  
Remedial Action ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
The Social ◽  
State And Society ◽  
The Government ◽  
Iranian State

Having overthrown the pro-Washington Shah, Khomeini set out to purge the Iranian state and society of American influence. He was aided by the surprise occupation of the United States Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 by militant students. The capture of secret CIA reports on the Middle East by the Iranian occupiers gave credibility to the regime’s description of the Embassy as a “nest of spies,” and created a rationale for taking 52 US diplomats as hostage. The crisis lasted 444 days and ended with Ronald Reagan’s inauguration as president in January 1981 after his defeat of the incumbent Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. Quite independently, Saudi King Khalid faced an unprecedented challenge to the legitimacy of the House of Saud when on the eve of .the Islamic New Year of 1400 – 20 November 1979 – hundreds of armed militant Wahhabis, led by Juheiman al Utaiba seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Utaiba called for the overthrow of the royal family for deviating from Wahhabism. Aided by the American and French intelligence agencies and Pakistani soldiers, the government regained control of the Grand Mosque. It then took remedial action by imposing strict Wahhabi rules on the social-cultural life of citizens.

scholarly journals Torah against the Virus, Rabbis against the Government: Ultra-Orthodoxy Facing the Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-122
Author(s):  
Galina Zelenina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
The United States ◽  
Major Elements ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Orthodox Jewish ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Crisis Discourse ◽  
The Government

The paper discusses a number of the most remarkable responses to the COVID‑19 pandemic and to the social isolation measures coming from several, mostly ultra‑Orthodox, Jewish communities in Israel, the United States, and Russia. It examines major elements of the crisis discourse, i.e., the hermeneutics of the causes and meanings of the pandemic; the affirmation of group borders and hierarchies as a result of the search for culprits; the relations between the religious community and the state; as well as the possible transformations of social behavior and ritual practices resulting from the crisis.

The Extent and Limitations of the Treaty-Making Power Under the Constitution

1907 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 636-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandler P. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
The People ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right

The power to make treaties with other nations is an inherent attribute of the sovereign power of an independent nation.Where the treaty-making power is exercised by the sovereign power of a nation, the right to treat with other nations rests wholly in sovereignty and extends to every question pertaining to international relations.Where, however, the treaty-making power is not exercised by the sovereign power of the nation as a whole, but has been delegated to a branch of the government by which it is exercised in a representative capacity, the treaty-making power there, although it arises from sovereignty, rests in grant, and can be exercised only to the extent of and in accordance with the terms fixed by the grant.So in the United States, where the people, as the sovereign power, have delegated through the medium of their State conventions or State legislatures the treaty-making power to a designated section of the Federal Government under the Constitution, such power rests in grant and is to be measured and exercised under the terms of such grant.

Reclaiming ‘antique’ data: Charles Booth's poverty survey

Urban History ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 75-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Bales
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Chicago School ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Influence Spread ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
A Minor

The place of Charles Booth's London poverty survey within an empirical tradition of sociology has been much discussed in recent years. The pivotal position which Booth had in this tradition was highlighted by Philip Abrams especially. Booth's achievement, it has been claimed, was to illuminate the structural underpinnings of poverty rather than just its extent. In doing so he not only challenged the assumptions of political economy but brought new life to the tradition of house-to-house surveys and case-studies as practised by those involved in the statistical movement of the nineteenth century in Britain. Booth sought answers to narrowly denned social problems, seeking to generate new and superior data capable of bearing the questions. His was the habit of ‘ad hoc compartmentalised research’, from which one main line of development was the government enquiries of the Webb era and beyond. Another line of descent can be traced in the social survey movement centred in the United States, and through this Booth's influence spread to the Chicago school of urban sociologists. Despite this wideranging influence those who followed Booth's lead studied his own descriptions of his findings and methods, and rarely, if ever, looked behind the published volumes to the varied materials generated by the large-scale research project he masterminded. These materials represent a rich and varied source of data which have so far been relatively little used by historians, and then mainly in a minor illustrative way.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document