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Political Stakes (political + stake)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

The Last Word: Presidential Power and the Role of Signing Statements

PRESIDENTIAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2008
CHRISTOPHER S. KELLEY
Signing statements have become an important device that both protects and enhances presidential power by signaling how legislation is to be implemented, offering a mechanism of electoral reward, and protecting presidential prerogatives. We offer a first cut at explaining signing statements by applying William Howell's theory of unilateral action. The evidence shows that presidents use signing statements under conditions of gridlock, such as divided government, which erode their influence in Congress. The findings also suggest a strategic element to signing statement behavior. Presidents issue significantly more signing statements on major legislation when the policy and political stakes are greatest. The results provide insight into the theory of unilateral action and demonstrate how signing statements complement rather than contradict the Richard Neustadt view of power. [source]

An epidemic on wheels?

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 5 2010
Road safety, injury politics in Africa (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate), public health
Anthropologists have showed only marginal interest in road safety, despite the loss of some 1.3 million people killed in road crashes every year, the bulk of which occurs in ,developing' countries. 2011 marks the beginning of a UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. Its scope is ambitious: to save five million lives and fifty million injuries by the end of the ,decade' in 2020. In this article, the author examines the way public health professionals and educators have appropriated the language of epidemiology to argue that road death and injury can be viewed as an ,epidemic on wheels' or a ,disease of development', to mention two often cited epithets among participants in the global road safety lobby. One major consideration of interest to anthropologists and policy makers is to what extent this effectively essentializes road death in Africa and depoliticises its injury politics. Bearing in mind the historical context of medical interventions in Africa, the article examines the global road safety lobby and its affinity with public health as a form of transnational governance, arguing alternatively that if the UN Decade of Action on Road Safety is to have any significant impact, it must recognize more clearly the political stakes being raised in claims to reduce deaths and injuries caused by automobility. [source]

Fear and loathing in Kansas City: Political harassment and the making of moderates in America's abortion wars (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 4 2010
Alexander Thomas T. Smith
The pro-life movement regularly employs tactics of political harassment in its campaign against abortion. As the murder of the controversial abortion doctor George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas, demonstrated last year, such tactics often betray a potential for violence. This paper explores how the militant tactics of the pro-life movement in the 1990s have contributed to the formation of a ,new' political identity in Kansas politics: that of the moderate Republican. But for those that seek to counter-mobilize against the Christian right, the political stakes remain high. [source]

A Case of Mistaken Identity: "China Inc." and Its "Imperialism" in Sub-Saharan Africa

ASIAN POLITICS AND POLICY, Issue 4 2009
Ian Taylor
The emergence of major Chinese economic and political stakes in Africa is arguably the most important process to have emerged on the African continent since the end of the Cold War. China is now Africa's second most important trading partner, behind the United States but ahead of France and the United Kingdom. Relations are a continuation of Sino-African historical ties, propelled by China's desire to obtain new sources of raw materials and energy for its ongoing economic growth and new export markets for China-based producers on the one hand, and African elites' initiatives to find a non-Western option/leverage on the other hand. However, various commentators have misunderstood the nature of this expansion. It is common for observers to talk of either Chinese "colonization" of Africa, or of "China Inc.'s" venture into Africa. Both views are wide of the mark and reflect an ignorance of the dynamics underpinning the developing relationships between Chinese and African actors. [source]