Drug War Profiteers

2019 ◽  
pp. 19-45
Author(s):  
Horace A. Bartilow
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Drug War ◽  
Drug Enforcement ◽  
Plan Colombia ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Corporate Capital ◽  
Enforcement Policy ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
Supply Reduction

This chapter is motivated by the following questions: Why do American policymakers continue to increase funding for a drug war that has failed to realize its objectives, and why do they consistently give greater priority to reducing the supply of illicit narcotics from foreign countries than reducing demand in the United States? In answering these questions, the chapter draws on theories of the state to highlight the role that corporate capital play in shaping the federal government’s budgetary allocations for drug enforcement. Congressional deliberations of Plan Colombia and the Mérida Initiative with Mexico serve as case studies to test pluralist, radical and elite theories of U.S. drug enforcement policy making. Radical and elite theories consistently explained the ways in which corporate power shaped the drug supply reduction strategies of Plan Colombia and the Mérida Initiative. Both theories also explain how these strategies justifies the provision of large government contracts to corporate members of the regime, how drug enforcement foreign aid is used to provide security for American oil companies that operate in Latin America, and how that aid is also used to market the defense industry’s military hardware to countries in the region to prosecute the drug war.

Drug War Capitalism and Class Conflict in the Americas

2019 ◽  
pp. 185-208
Author(s):  
Horace A. Bartilow
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
Drug War ◽  
Drug Enforcement ◽  
Corporate Capital

This chapter argues that the drug war is a manifestation of class conflict in Latin America and the United States. The chapter is motivated by the following questions: Under what conditions is the drug war used to repress labor unions and, in the process, increase income inequality in Latin America? What political mechanisms in the United States create linkages among drug enforcement, income inequality, poverty, mass incarceration, and corporate capital accumulation? In answering these questions, the chapter discusses the relationships among U.S. counternarcotic aid, the repression of workers’ rights, and income inequality in Latin America and the relationship between drug enforcement and income inequality in the United States. The chapter estimates data for twenty-one countries from Latin America, covering 2003 to 2012 using a time-series cross section (TSCS) statistical model and estimates data for the United States, covering 2000 to 2012 using TSCS and structural equation modeling. The statistical results show that increasing levels of counternarcotic aid to Latin American governments increases income inequality when the rights of workers are increasingly repressed. And increasing levels of drug enforcement in the United States is associated with increasing levels of income inequality, poverty, mass incarceration and corporate revenues generated from prison labor.

Beyond Colombia and Mérida

2019 ◽  
pp. 46-67
Author(s):  
Horace A. Bartilow
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Relative Power ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Drug Enforcement ◽  
Plan Colombia ◽  
Enforcement Policy ◽  
Heckman Selection

Plan Colombia and the Mérida Initiative case studies showed that corporate congressional lobbies not only shaped the militarization of foreign drug enforcement but also drove the federal government’s drug war expenditures. However, how generalizable are these finding beyond Colombia and Mexico? This chapter answers this question by first discussing theories of congressional lobbying and provides an institutional analysis of the relative power of corporations and civil society organizations in shaping U.S. drug enforcement policy. The hypotheses that emerge from these discussions are empirically tested using the Heckman selection estimator that analyze cross-national data of thirty-three corporations who were active in lobbying for drug enforcement in Colombia and Mexico, and eighty countries that were recipients of U.S. counternarcotic aid during the period 2003–12. The finding showed that increases in corporate congressional lobbying expenditures are associated with increases in counternarcotic aid flows to the eighty recipient countries in the data set and that the outcome observed in the Columbia and Mexico case studies are indeed generalizable.

Drug War Policy Reforms and the Endurance of the Embedded Corporatist Regime

2019 ◽  
pp. 209-218
Author(s):  
Horace A. Bartilow
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Drug Policy ◽  
Illicit Drugs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Safe Harbor ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Drug War ◽  
Drug Enforcement ◽  
Enforcement Policies

This chapter examines why it is difficult to dismantle the drug enforcement regime even when it fails to realize its raison d’être. The chapter acknowledges that, while the Obama administration’s “safe harbor” policy has changed federal domestic marijuana policy by choosing not to prosecute marijuana offenses in states that have legalized marijuana, the administration’s continuation of overseas enforcement policies has facilitated the endurance of the drug enforcement regime. The continuity of the drug enforcement policies of the Obama and Trump administrations is discussed in the context of critiquing the ways in which the forty-eight-year-old drug war has failed to slow the flow of illicit drugs into the United States. It is argued that the endurance of the regime is partly due to the competing nature of drug policy reforms promoted by various U.S. civil society organizations and a number of Latin American governments, which undermine the ability to galvanize domestic and international support around a cohesive policy alternative to the prohibition and corporatist norms of the existing regime. The chapter concludes by examining existing drug policy reforms, such as decriminalization and legalization, and shows their limits in addressing the pathological effects of the corporatist drug enforcement regime.

Drug War Pathologies

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Horace A. Bartilow
Keyword(s):  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Drug War ◽  
Drug Enforcement ◽  
Enforcement Policy ◽  
Government Documents ◽  
The Military

In this book, Horace Bartilow develops a theory of embedded corporatism to explain the U.S. government’s war on drugs. Stemming from President Richard Nixon’s 1971 call for an international approach to this “war,” U.S. drug enforcement policy has persisted with few changes to the present day, despite widespread criticism of its effectiveness and of its unequal effects on hundreds of millions of people across the Americas. While researchers consistently emphasize the role of race in U.S. drug enforcement, Bartilow’s empirical analysis highlights the class dimension of the drug war and the immense power that American corporations wield within the regime. Drawing on qualitative case study methods, declassified U.S. government documents, and advanced econometric estimators that analyze cross-national data, Bartilow demonstrates how corporate power is projected and embedded—in lobbying, financing of federal elections, funding of policy think tanks, and interlocks with the federal government and the military. Embedded corporatism, he explains, creates the conditions by which the interests of state and nonstate members of the regime converge to promote capital accumulation. The subsequent human rights repression, illiberal democratic governments, antiworker practices, and widening income inequality throughout the Americas, Bartilow argues, are the pathological policy outcomes of embedded corporatism in drug enforcement.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ ПОДГОТОВКИ КАДРОВ ДЛЯ ПЕНИТЕНЦИАРНОЙ СИСТЕМЫ В США

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Unterov ◽  
Elizaveta Eremeeva
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Training System ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Foreign Experience ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Prison Systems ◽  
Correction System

Статья посвящена изучению зарубежного опыта подготовки кадров для пенитенциарных систем. Его анализ и рассмотрение возможности внедрения отдельных элементов направлены на совершенствование системы подготовки сотрудников для уголовно-исполнительной системы России, повышение их профессионального уровня, что в конечном счете будет способствовать достижению главной цели УИС - исправлению осужденных. Авторы особое внимание уделяют изучению специально-профессиональных и личностных качеств, необходимых сотрудникам пенитенциарных учреждений. В статье рассматриваются особенности подготовки сотрудников пенитенциарной системы в Соединенных Штатах Америки. Важнейшей задачей образовательных учреждений и центров по подготовке кадров для пенитенциарной системы США является обеспечение будущих сотрудников знаниями, необходимыми для выполнения профессиональных обязанностей в рамках предстоящей деятельности. Также авторы подчеркивают важность развития при подготовке будущих сотрудников не только профессиональных, но и личностных качеств.The article is devoted to the study of foreign experience in order to improve the training system for the Russian penal correction system. In particular, the training of prison officials in the United States of America is considered as one of the most developed States in the modern world. The improvement of the training process for the Russian penal correction system implies the development of international cooperation with the prison systems of foreign countries. The study of foreign experience of penitentiary education contributes to the improvement of the professional level of the staff of the Penal Correction Service and, ultimately, to the achievement of the main goal - correction of convicts. The authors pay particular attention to the study of specific professional and personal qualities required by potential prison staff. Since there have been significant positive changes in the formation of professional qualities of the future employee of the Russian penal correction system over the past decade, the main focus of the work is on the formation of personal (universal) qualities of the employee of the Federal Penal Correction Service of the Russian Federation, for which the positive experience of the United States is analyzed.

Poisoned Earth

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Jones
Keyword(s):  
Solar Energy ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Natural Beauty ◽  
Green Business ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Start Ups

The chapter examines green business during the 1960s and 1970, decades of new environmental awareness. In organic food natural beauty, a number of commercially viable green businesses and brands began to be built, and distribution channels created. There was significant innovation in wind and solar energy in the wake of the first oil crises although they remained marginal in the energy industry. Green entrepreneurs still faced huge obstacles finding both capital and consumers. In the case of the capital-intensive solar energy business, the main solution was to sell start-ups to cash-rich oil companies. Green businesses clustered in hubs of environmental and social activism, such as Berkeley and Boulder in the United States, Allgäu in Germany, and rural areas of Denmark. These clusters enabled small firms to build skills and competences which could eventually be used to expand into more mainstream locations.

NEEDED: Grassroots Leaders to Lead Systems Change Efforts that Reduce Infant Mortality

2020 ◽  
pp. 016059762096974
Author(s):  
Nathan Marquam ◽  
Ashley Irby ◽  
Nancy Swigonski ◽  
Kara Casavan ◽  
Jack Turman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Birth Outcomes ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Grassroots Movements ◽  
Reduce Infant Mortality ◽  
Reduction Strategies

The death of an infant devastates a mother, family and community. The United States has one of the highest infant mortality rates among the world’s high income nations. Infant mortality is a key indicator of a population’s health and societal well-being, yet interventions aimed at improving societal well-being are rarely a priority when devising infant mortality reduction strategies. Historically, grassroots movements have been critical in advancing social change to improve women’s health and empowerment in marginalized communities. Understanding strategic and infrastructure elements of these grassroots movements is a critical first step to efficiently growing USA grassroots movements to address social systems associated with poor birth outcomes. We provide an analysis of the diverse array of grassroots structures and strategies utilized to improve maternal and child health outcomes. It is time for grassroots movements to form and be recognized as vital players in efforts to sustainably reduce infant mortality in the United States. It is essential to foster grassroots leaders and movements that improve long standing social structures that contribute to poor birth outcomes. The personal and community knowledge of these leaders and community members are desperately needed to save women and infants in our nation.

Significant Differences in Proved Reserves Estimates Using SPE/WPC Definitions Compared to United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Definitions

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (06) ◽  
pp. 520-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.R. Harrell ◽  
Thomas L. Gardner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
Direct Function ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Publicly Owned ◽  
Hydrocarbon Reserves ◽  
The U.S

Summary A casual reading of the SPE/WPC (World Petroleum Congresses) Petroleum Reserves Definitions (1997) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) definitions (1978) would suggest very little, if any, difference in the quantities of proved hydrocarbon reserves estimated under those two classification systems. The differences in many circumstances for both volumetric and performance-based estimates may be small. In 1999, the SEC began to increase its review process, seeking greater understanding and compliance with its oil and gas reserves reporting requirements. The agency's definitions had been promulgated in 1978 in connection with the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 and at a time when most publicly owned oil and gas companies and their reserves were located in the United States. Oil and gas prices were relatively stable, and virtually all natural gas was marketed through long-term contracts at fixed or determinable prices. Development drilling was subject to well-spacing regulations as established through field rules set by state agencies. Reservoir-evaluation technology has advanced far beyond that used in 1978;production-sharing contracts were uncommon then, and probabilistic reserves assessment was not widely recognized or appreciated in the U.S. These changes in industry practice plus many other considerations have created problems in adapting the 1978 vintage definitions to the technical and commercial realities of the 21st century. This paper presents several real-world examples of how the SEC engineering staff has updated its approach to reserves assessment as well as numerous remaining unresolved areas of concern. These remaining issues are important, can lead to significant differences in reported quantities and values, and may result in questions about the "full disclosure" obligations to the SEC. Introduction For virtually all oil and gas producers, their company assets are the hydrocarbon reserves that they own through various forms of mineral interests, licensing agreements, or other contracts and that produce revenues from production and sale. Reserves are almost always reported as static quantities as of a specific date and classified into one or more categories to describe the uncertainty and production status associated with each category. The economic value of these reserves is a direct function of how the quantities are to be produced and sold over the physical or contract lives of the properties. Reserves owned by private and publicly owned companies are always assumed to be those quantities of oil and gas that can be produced and sold at a profit under assumed future prices and costs. Reserves under the control of state-owned or national oil companies may reflect quantities that exceed those deemed profitable under the commercial terms typically imposed on private or publicly owned companies.

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