scholarly journals The Mainstream Media and United States' Policy in El Salvador

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 453-461
Author(s):  
Wassim Daghrir

As far as the press of such a democratic political system is concerned, one would expect the American mainstream media to act independently of the government's will by putting the official pretexts and objectives for interference abroad under serious questioning -before accepting or rebutting them- looking for alternative sources of information, and instituting the conditions for a fair debate -by offering the opportunity to several conflicting opinions to argue and debate and then come out with the most convincing conclusions. In order to check if the US mainstream media acted as an independent organ during U.S. interference in El Salvador, I will examine their treatment of the official objectives for intervention as well as the most prominent themes and methods they applied during their coverage of a typical case study of American Global Realism.

Author(s):  
Emmanouil Karakostas

The competitive exchange rate devaluation (or currency protectionism) is a phenomenon of global political economy, which goes hand in hand with trade activities. The causes, consequences and effects of monetary protectionism for the concerned countries have been thoroughly analyzed on the basis of existing literature. An important element of analysis is the different effects of the implementation of protectionist policy measures on trading partners. An example of currency protectionism nowadays is the currency competition between the US and China. Although the US is the "hegemon" of the modern international economic-political system, China's continuous, upward and rapid economic course has weakened the primacy of the US, with consequences that are perceived in the global economic system. Of course, China has been accused of practices of economic "mercantilism." On the basis of these mercantilist accusations, a kind of war broke out with the US. But the main question is this: how are the exports of trading partners affected by this currency competition? To be able to answer this question more fully, a quantitative tool should be created that can interpret the effects of currency competition on trading partners. This study will try answering this question by using the case study of U.S. - China currency competition. The methodology applied is the creation of a Composite Index.


Author(s):  
Dawn Langan Teele

This chapter presents a case study of women's enfranchisement in the United States. It argues that the formation of a broad coalition of women, symbolized by growing membership in a large non-partisan suffrage organization, in combination with competitive conditions in state legislatures, was crucial to securing politicians' support for women's suffrage in the states. The chapter first gives a broad overview of the phases of the US suffrage movement, arguing that the salience of political cleavages related to race, ethnicity, nativity, and class influenced the type of movement suffragists sought to build. It then describes the political geography of the Gilded Age, showing how the diversity of political competition and party organization that characterized the several regions mirrors the pattern of women's enfranchisement across the states.


Author(s):  
Holly M. Mikkelson

This chapter traces the development of the medical interpreting profession in the United States as a case study. It begins with the conception of interpreters as volunteer helpers or dual-role medical professionals who happened to have some knowledge of languages other than English. Then it examines the emergence of training programs for medical interpreters, incipient efforts to impose standards by means of certification tests, the role of government in providing language access in health care, and the beginning of a labor market for paid medical interpreters. The chapter concludes with a description of the current situation of professional medical interpreting in the United States, in terms of training, certification and the labor market, and makes recommendations for further development.


2021 ◽  
pp. 330-334
Author(s):  
Rush Doshi

This concluding chapter discusses China strategy amid present debates over whether America is in decline. It argues that decline is not a product of immutable historical forces, but a choice, and that fatalism about the US competitive position relative to China is premature. It explains that the United States has faced four waves of “declinism” in the last century and has rallied after each of them, with “declinists” playing a role in preventing that which they predicted. This time, the downward path runs through the country’s polarized political system, and the path away from decline may run through a rare area susceptible to bipartisan consensus: the need for the United States to rise to the China challenge. The chapter argues that the arrival of an external competitor has often pushed the United States to become its best self and that, handled judiciously, it can once again.


1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Ansolabehere ◽  
David Brady ◽  
Morris Fiorina

Nearly two decades ago researchers pointed out the sharp decline in marginal districts in elections for the US House of Representatives. That observation led to an outpouring of research describing the electoral changes, explaining their bases and speculating about their consequences for the larger political system. Recently Gary Jacobson has offered a major corrective to that line of research, arguing that ‘House incumbents are no safer now than they were in the 1950s; the marginals, properly defined, have not vanished; the swing ratio has diminished little, if at all; and competition for House seats held by incumbents has not declined’. While Jacobson advances an extremely provocative argument, there are complicating patterns in his evidence that support additional and/or different interpretations. We argue that the marginals, ‘properly defined’ have diminished, the swing ratio has declined, and party competition for House seats held by incumbents has lessened. While fears that the vanishing marginals phenomenon would lead to lower responsiveness on the part of ‘safe’ House incumbents have proved groundless, the collective composition of Congress does appear to be less responsive to changes in popular sentiments. Thus, the vanishing marginals have contributed to the occurrence of divided government in the United States and in all likelihood do have the effects on congressional leadership and policy-making that many analysts have claimed.


Author(s):  
E. Mark Moreno

Chinacos were mounted guerrillas of the War of the Reform and the French Intervention (1857–1860, 1862–1867) who fought on the liberal republican side, operated out of central Mexican regions, and were known for their wide-brimmed sombreros and battle lances. What is known about them is largely the product of popular perception shaped by print depictions, some of which were created long afterward. They first appeared in the press when the War of the Reform was winding down and the victorious Juárez government, in carriage and on horseback, prepared to enter Mexico City in January of 1861. Before the French invasion that began in October of 1861 with the naval landing at Veracruz, the “chinaco” designation applied to irregular fighters. The newspaper and propaganda organ La Chinaca gave such fighters an image and narrative that endures to the present day. Still known among many Mexicans, their appearance in print media resulted from times of crisis as Mexico, after a military defeat by the United States and a major loss of territory, encountered the French Intervention in the 1860s. Chinacos as symbolic figures on horseback exemplify a historic pattern of guerrilla warfare in Mexico, dating at least to the US-Mexican War. There are different versions of the label chinaco, although there is strong evidence that it has roots in the chino designation assigned to Afro-Mexicans during the colonial era. It is also linked to “china,” or rural women known for their distinctive attire as depicted in popular reading.


1961 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-434
Author(s):  
Douglas E. Ashford

American experience with the ill-fated governments of the newer nations—most recently Turkey, South Korea, and Cuba—raises the question whether we can ever select a policy generally suited to the growth of stable, effective government among the developing nations. In all three of the cases mentioned, the United States followed the canons of conventional diplomacy while contributing substantially to monumental economic and social changes. Our commitment meant reliance on and support for the regime in office, although our own actions were gradually creating forces and sentiments favoring radical change in the internal political system. Whenever the pressures for political change were sufficient, adjustments were made with an abruptness that may well have left the United States in a worse position than if we had done little or nothing to assist long-term development.


1999 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Holden

The US.-sponsored programs of military and police collaboration with the Central American governments during the Cold War also contributed to the surveillance capacity of those states during the period when the Central American state formation process was being completed. Guatemala is used as a case study. Washington’s contribution was framed by the conventional discourse of “security against communism” but also by an underlying technocratic ethos in which “modernization” and “security” were higher priorities than democratization.


Author(s):  
Elina Reponen ◽  
Thomas G Rundall ◽  
Stephen M Shortell ◽  
Janet C Blodgett ◽  
Ritva Jokela ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Healthcare organizations around the world are striving to achieve transformational performance improvement, often through adopting process improvement methodologies such as Lean management. Indeed, Lean management has been implemented in hospitals in many countries. But despite a shared methodology and the potential benefit of benchmarking lean implementation and its effects on hospital performance, cross-national Lean benchmarking is rare. Healthcare organisations in different countries operate in very different contexts, including different healthcare system models, and these differences may be perceived as limiting the ability of improvers to benchmark Lean implementation and related organisational performance. However, there is no empirical research available on the international relevance and applicability of Lean implementation and hospital performance measures. To begin to understand the opportunities and limitations related to cross-national benchmarking of Lean in hospitals, we conducted a cross-national case study of the relevance and applicability of measures of Lean implementation in hospitals and hospital performance. Methods We report an exploratory case study of the relevance of Lean implementation measures and the applicability of hospital performance measures using quantitative comparisons of data from Hospital District of XX XX University Hospital in Finland and a sample of 75 large academic hospitals in the United States. Results The relevance of Lean-related measures was high across the two countries: almost 90% of the items developed for a US survey were relevant and available from XX. A majority of the US-based measures for financial performance (66.7%), service provision/utilisation (100.0%), and service provision/care processes (60.0%) were available from XX. Differences in patient satisfaction measures prevented comparisons between XX and the US. Of 18 clinical outcome measures, only four (22%) were not comparable. Clinical outcome measures were less affected by the differences in healthcare system models than measures related to service provision and financial performance. Conclusions Lean implementation measures are highly relevant in healthcare organisations operating in the United States and Finland, as is the applicability of a variety of performance improvement measures. Cross-national benchmarking in Lean healthcare is feasible, but a careful assessment of contextual factors, including the healthcare system model, and their impact on the applicability and relevance of chosen benchmarking measures is necessary. The differences between the US and Finnish healthcare system models is most clearly reflected in financial performance measures and care process measures.


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