scholarly journals Paradoxes of populism during the pandemic

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 072551362097080
Author(s):  
Rogers Brubaker

Populist protests against Coronavirus-related restrictions in the US appear paradoxical in three respects. Populism is generally hostile to expertise, yet it has flourished at a moment when expertise has seemed more indispensable than ever. Populism thrives on crisis and indeed often depends on fabricating a sense of crisis, yet it has accused mainstream politicians and media of overblowing and even inventing the Corona crisis. Populism, finally, is ordinarily protectionist, yet it has turned anti-protectionist during the pandemic and challenged the allegedly overprotective restrictions of the nanny-state. I address each apparent paradox in turn before speculating in conclusion about how populist distrust of expertise, antipathy to government regulation, and skepticism toward elite overprotectiveness may come together – in the context of intersecting medical, economic, political, and epistemic crises – in a potent and potentially dangerous mix.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rogers Brubaker

Populist protests against Coronavirus-related restrictions in the US appear paradoxical in three respects. Populism is generally hostile to expertise, yet it has flourished at a moment when expertise has seemed more indispensable than ever. Populism thrives on crisis and indeed often depends on fabricating a sense of crisis, yet it has accused mainstream politicians and media of overblowing and even inventing the Corona crisis. Populism, finally, is ordinarily protectionist, yet it has presented itself as anti-protectionist during the pandemic and challenged the allegedly overprotective restrictions of the nanny-state. I address each apparent paradox in turn before speculating in conclusion about how populist distrust of expertise, antipathy to government regulation, and skepticism toward elite overprotectiveness may come together – in the context of intersecting medical, economic, political, and epistemic crises – in a potent and potentially dangerous mix.


Intersections ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-20
Author(s):  
Rogers Brubaker

Populist protests against Coronavirus-related restrictions in the US appear paradoxical in three respects. Populism is generally hostile to expertise, yet it has flourished at a moment when expertise has seemed more indispensable than ever. Populism thrives on crisis and indeed often depends on fabricating a sense of crisis, yet it has accused mainstream politicians and media of overblowing and even inventing the Corona crisis. Populism, finally, is ordinarily protectionist, yet it has turned anti-protectionist during the pandemic and challenged the allegedly overprotective restrictions of the nanny-state. I address each apparent paradox in turn before speculating in conclusion about how populist distrust of expertise, antipathy to government regulation, and skepticism toward elite overprotectiveness may come together – in the context of intersecting medical, economic, political, and epistemic crises – in a potent and potentially dangerous mix.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-168
Author(s):  
Aditya Paramita Alhayat

Meskipun Indonesia telah mengenakan tindakan anti-dumping terhadap beberapa jenis produk baja, namun impor produk tersebut masih meningkat. Salah satu kemungkinan penyebabnya adalah importasi melalui produk yang dimodifikasi secara tidak substansial atau melalui negara ketiga yang tidak dikenakan tindakan anti-dumping, yang dalam perdagangan internasional umum disebut sebagai praktik circumvention. Studi ini ditujukan untuk membuktikan bahwa circumvention mengakibatkan tindakan anti-dumping atas impor produk baja Indonesia tidak efektif dan untuk memberikan masukan berdasarkan praktik di negara lain supaya kebijakan anti-dumping Indonesia lebih efektif. Circumvention dianalisis dengan membandingkan pola perdagangan antara sebelum dan setelah pengenaan bea masuk anti-dumping (BMAD) menggunakan data sekunder dari Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS) maupun Global Trade Information Services (GTIS). Hasil analisis menunjukkan adanya indikasi kuat bahwa circumvention mengkibatkan pengenaan tindakan anti-dumping impor produk baja di Indonesia menjadi tidak efektif. Oleh karena itu, sangat penting bagi Pemerintah Indonesia untuk segera melakukan penyempurnaan terhadap Peraturan Pemerintah No. 34/2011 tentang Tindakan Antidumping, Tindakan Imbalan, dan Tindakan Pengamanan Perdagangan dengan memasukkan klausul tindakan anti-circumvention yang setidaknya mencakup bentuk-bentuk dan prosedur tindakan, sebagaimana yang telah dilakukan beberapa negara seperti: AS, EU, Australia, dan India. Although Indonesia has imposed anti-dumping measures on several types of steel products, the import of steel products is still increasing. One possible cause is that imports are made by non-substantial modification of product or through a third country which is not subject to anti-dumping measures, which is generally referred as circumvention practice. This study is aimed to prove that circumvention made Indonesian anti-dumping actions on the steel products ineffective. This also study provides recommendation for a best practice for other countries so that Indonesia's anti-dumping policy can be more effective. Circumvention was analyzed by comparing trade patterns between before and after the imposition of anti-dumping duty using secondary data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) and the Global Trade Information Services (GTIS). The results of the analysis indicate that circumvention became the reason why Indonesian anti-dumping measures on imported steel products are ineffective. Therefore, it is very important for the Government of Indonesia to immediately make amendments to the Government Regulation No. 34/2011 on Antidumping, Countervailing, and Safeguard Measures by adopting clauses of anti-circumvention. This can be done bycovering the forms/types and procedures of action, as has been implemented by several countries such as the US, EU, Australia, and India.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-428
Author(s):  
SIMEON ANDONOV SIMEONOV

AbstractAs revolutions swept across Central and South America in the 1820s and 1830s, Andrew Jackson’s administration undertook a landmark reform that transformed the US foreign policy apparatus into the nation’s first global bureaucracy. With the introduction of Edward Livingston’s 1833 consular reform bill to Congress, the nation embarked on a long path toward the modernization of its consular service in line with the powers of Europe and the new American republics. Despite the popularity of Livingston’s plan to turn a dated US consular service comprised of mercantile elites into a salaried professional bureaucracy, the Jacksonian consular reform dragged on for more than two decades before the passing of a consular bill in 1856. Contrary to Weberian models positing a straightforward path toward bureaucratization, the trajectory of Jacksonian consular reform demonstrates the power of mercantile elites to resist central government regulation just as much as it highlights how petty partisans—the protégé consuls appointed via the Jacksonian “spoils system”—powerfully shaped government policy to achieve personal advantages. In the constant tug-of-war between merchant-consuls and Jacksonian protégés, both groups mobilized competing visions of the “national character” in their correspondence with the Department of State and in the national press. Ultimately, the Jacksonian reform vision of an egalitarian and loyal consular officialdom prevailed over the old mercantile model of consulship as a promoter of national prestige and commercial expertise, but only after protégé consuls successfully exploited merchant-consuls’ perceived inability to compete with the salaried European officials across the sister-republics of the southwestern hemisphere.


Author(s):  
Paul F. Steinberg

As we continue our exploration of who rules the earth, we find that the economy, once you look inside it, relies on a vast system of rules and regulations, its cogs and wheels spinning day and night to enable the countless transactions that make up a modern economy. The relation between markets and rules is a fascinating one, far more complex than is suggested by the usual debates over government regulation versus free enterprise. Markets rely on rules. But increasingly, the reverse is also true: Some of our most innovative environmental policies and regulations have embedded within them market incentives designed to promote pro-environment behavior. To appreciate the stakes, let’s begin by considering what is arguably the greatest environmental tragedy—and biggest environmental success story—of all time. The removal of tetraethyl lead from gasoline has had a profound impact on human health and well-being worldwide. The change began in the United States in the late 1970s, soon spread to Europe, and over the next two decades diffused throughout the entire world. This shift was prompted by an innovative set of rules that actually assigned property rights to poison—and in the process created incentives for widespread changes in corporate behavior. Under the Clean Air Act of 1970, the US Environmental Protection Agency had the legal authority to regulate tetraethyl lead, which had been added to gasoline since the 1920s to boost engine performance. The original decision to add “ethyl” to the chemical mixture sloshing around in our gas tanks took place despite dire warnings from health experts. Foremost among these was Alice Hamilton, Harvard’s first female professor and the country’s leading expert on the health impacts of lead, which she knew intimately from her studies of worker exposure in the largely unregulated “dangerous trades” of the time. In 1925, the US Surgeon General convened a special meeting to decide whether ethyl production could proceed despite the known health risks. Hamilton argued that it would be reckless to deliberately disperse throughout the air a substance whose toxic effects (notably damage to the human nervous system) were well known for centuries.


2000 ◽  
Vol 122 (02) ◽  
pp. 46-52
Author(s):  
Walter Leight ◽  
Belinda Collins

In lieu of a king’s foot, a complex, sophisticated system smoothens the mechanical aspects of contemporary life. According to experts, we expect our computers to have interoperable parts that the monitor will work with the modem and the printer as well as the processor, and that we will not have to rewrite parts so that they will work together. ANSI is the US member body in ISO and hosts the US National Committee of the IEC. ASME and other US standards-developing groups lay claim to being de facto international organizations because many of their US-developed standards are used around the world to supplement government regulation and procurement actions. The ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code is used widely, while the National Fire Protection Association’s Life Safety Code forms the basis for building codes in the United States and Canada. The technology transfer act requires that agencies report when they do not use available private sector standards, and instructs federal agencies to participate in the development of private sector standards that are relevant to their missions.


Food Policy ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peyton Ferrier ◽  
Russell Lamb

2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 553-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
YEE-KUANG HENG ◽  
KEN McDONAGH

AbstractDespite initial fanfare surrounding its launch in the White House Rose Garden, the War on Terrorist Finances (WOTF) has thus far languished as a sideshow, in the shadows of military campaigns against terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. This neglect is unfortunate, for the WOTF reflects the other multilateral cooperative dimension of the US-led ‘war on terror’, quite contrary to conventional sweeping accusations of American unilateralism. Yet the existing academic literature has been confined mostly to niche specialist journals dedicated to technical, legalistic and financial regulatory aspects of the WOTF. Using the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as a case study, this article seeks to steer discussions on the WOTF onto a broader theoretical IR perspective. Building upon emerging academic works that extend Foucauldian ideas of governmentality to the global level, we examine the interwoven overlapping national, regional and global regulatory practices emerging against terrorist financing, and the implications for notions of government, regulation and sovereignty.


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