Search results

AbstractThis article looks at six months of the author's repeated attempts to obtain the approval of three Helsinki Committees (HCs, Israeli hospitals' research ethics committees) to conduct ethnographic research with Palestinian physicians in Israeli hospitals. While the research was eventually approved and carried out in two of these institutions, correspondence with HC representatives, as well as evidence of their informal moves with institutions' management, reflect their perceptions of the risks the study posed. In the Israeli hospital, acknowledging Palestinian political subjectivity challenges the definition of Israeli nationhood as exclusively Jewish and contaminates the allegedly politically neutral medical sphere. These committees exerted their power to serve their institutions and state ideology. This, I argue, should not be understood as anomalous instances of negligence. I show how the committees' censorship was attuned to the Declaration of Helsinki as their guiding text and Zionism as their underlying ideology. Embedded in the powerful regimes of ethics, bureaucracy, science, and health, ethics committees employ "unarmed power" that is beyond critique. They are well‐oiled "anti‐politics machines," rearticulating political concerns into a depoliticized moral discourse. As such, they not only limit academic inquiry but also redefine, in political terms, the realm of the moral.

Die Ukraine erlebt derzeit die schwerste Krise seit ihrer Unabhängigkeit 1991. Die Eskalation der Gewalt in Kiew, der dutzende Menschenleben zum Opfer fielen, separatistische Bestrebungen auf der Krim und die instabile Lage im Osten des Landes – all das ist neben Russlands verantwortungsloser Großmachtpolitik auch einer auf Eigennutz bedachten Elite anzulasten. Das korrupte und zusehends autoritäre Janukowytsch-Regime war der bislang extremste Ausdruck einer politischen Kultur, die auf die Bedienung von Partikularinteressen ausgerichtet ist und guter Regierungsführung keine Chance lässt. Nachdem im Zuge der Revolution in Orange schon einmal Hoffnungen in der Bevölkerung auf einen substantiellen politischen Wandel enttäuscht worden sind, ist es von zentraler Bedeutung, wie ukrainische Politikerinnen und Politiker jetzt und in Zukunft mit ihrer Macht umgehen. (Autorenreferat)

What is the value of political capital for individuals? Towards the end of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, military and civilian collaborators entered the business elite, controlling the largest and most important firms in the country. Using a novel panel dataset of board members in these firms, we document a work premium for those who had previously collaborated with Pinochet. After democratization, however, collaborators were removed from boards and their compensation premium disappeared, suggesting that the value of their networks depreciated. To shed light on these findings, we study military personnel before, during, and after Pinochet and find evidence of a wage premium only during the dictatorship. We interpret these results as Pinochet favoring his collaborators while he was in power.

Social capital is the latest conceptual attempt to account for democracy'spersistence and, when it occurs, its success. Yet that focus neglects an essential element ofdemocracy's performance, leadership capital. Leadership capital consists of thecompetence, integrity, and capacities for performance that leaders may have or bring to bear onsociety's problems. However, it is grounded and unfolds in a society's culture andpsychology. Increasing diversity and cultural conflict place strong pressures on leadership capitalaccumulation in societies like the United States, and they require different strategies ofleadership if accumulated leadership capital is not to be depleted.

Suggests that social capital is the latest conceptual attempt to account for democracy's persistence and when it occurs, its success. Yet that focus neglects an essential element of democracy's performance, leadership capital. Leadership capital consists of the competence, integrity, and capacities for performance that leaders may have or bring to bear on society's problems. However, it is grounded and unfolds in a society's culture and psychology. (Original abstract - amended)