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Using data from an unusual survey, we gauge factors influencing support for a state anti-gay rights referendum. After controlling for other powerful predictors of attitudes, we find personal contact (especially relevant and voluntary contact) has an important impact on public support, although community context does not. These findings support an integrated notion of interactions with 'out' groups, grounded in social categorization theory, that sees community context and interpersonal contact as concentric circles, moving from abstract, detached forms of contact to more pronounced, personal forms. However, even among those with substantial interpersonal contact, support for the referendum was still widespread. Adapted from the source document.

This is a book review of the thought-provoking edited collection on human rights and legal judgments in the US, which is the product of a symposium, which took place in 2016 at the University of Alabama's School of Law. Its editor, Austin Sarat, is the Associate Dean of, and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at, Amherst College.

The right to education has become an increasingly visible feature of international educational policy debates and a foundation for state education policy itself over the last three decades. The emergence of Human Rights Education (HRE) as both a concept and an educational programme in its own right has been seen as a central condition for the realisation of the right to education. Successive Scottish Governments have expressed a commitment to the promotion of a society that is inclusive and respects, and realises, the rights of all people. The publication in December 2018 of the recommendations of the First Minister's Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership outlines an ambitious programme for the further incorporation and realisation of human rights in Scotland including economic, social, and cultural rights such as the right to education. One feature of such a commitment, we might reasonably posit, ought to be the realisation and implementation of HRE within Scottish educational policy. However, serious questions have been raised in the literature about how successful current attempts to incorporate HRE within the Scottish education system have been. The paper analyses the current status of HRE in Scotland in order to highlight a number of concerns with how well HRE is realised is within Scottish education policy and practice before identifying potential ways forward. In doing so, it will highlight three areas of deficiency in the current strategy for implementing Human Rights Education in Scotland. These are: the incorporation of HRE within the Scottish curriculum; levels of confidence and preparedness of teachers in implementing HRE; a lack of clarity surrounding HRE both as a concept and programme of education. Further, it argues that the current political climate in Scotland offer significant opportunities for addressing these issues relating to the political ambition for Scotland to show leadership in the realisation of human rights. Finally, a number of steps that can be taken in order to improve the realisation of HRE within Scottish education and the necessity of doing so if the Scottish government is serious about both strengthening the realisation of human rights in Scotland as well as being a human rights leader are presented.

The article analyzes the reasons and consequences of the spread of the ideology of left populism in Greece. It has been established that the success of the SYRIZA Coalition of Left Radical Forces, which was in power in Greece during 2015-2019, was facilitated by a number of factors. The most important among them: the popularity of leftist ideas in the social and political space of Greece; the traditions of populism inherent in most of the country's political forces; unbalanced fiscal policy, structural macroeconomic imbalances, low statistical reliability and significant government debt; the world economic crisis of 2008-2009; deterioration of social standards and demographic indicators, the spread of unemployment; negative impact of the migration crisis; the tough position of Greece's creditors, on whom public opinion blamed the country's socio-economic problems. It is noted that the phenomenon of left populism in Greece was the fact that immediately after the victory in the elections, SYRIZA, sandwiched between the demands of creditors and the real state of the economy, abandoned radical left populist ideas and was forced to pursue a neoliberal economic policy. Already in 2016, the country returned to slow economic growth, and in 2018 the financial assistance program was completed. However, due to the failure to fulfill its own campaign promises, SYRIZA lost power in the 2019 elections and took a centrist place in the Greek political system. A significant merit of the SYRIZA Coalition of Radical Left Forces was the successful resolution of an almost thirty-year dispute with North Macedonia over the name of the latter. The opinion is substantiated that for Ukraine the main conclusion from the analysis of the Greek events of the early XXIst century is the realization of the fact that the complex problems of a political and socio-economic nature that face our country do not have a simple and quick solution. To achieve success, Ukraine must consistently defend its own national interests, strengthen sovereignty and independence, and pursue a balanced budgetary and financial and economic policy. ; У статті проаналізовано причини і наслідки поширення ідеології лівого популізму у Греції. Встановлено, що успіху Коаліції ліворадикальних сил СІРІЗА, яка перебувала при владі у Греції протягом 2015-2019рр., сприяла низка чинників. Найважливіші серед них: популярність лівих ідей у суспільно-політичному просторі Греції; традиції популізму, які притаманні більшості політичних сил країни; незбалансована бюджетно-фінансова політика, структурні макроекономічні дисбаланси, низька достовірність статистичних даних та значний державний борг; світова фінансово-економічна криза 2008-2009рр.; погіршення соціальних стандартів та демографічних показників, поширення безробіття; негативний вплив міграційної кризи; жорстка позиція кредиторів Греції, на яких суспільна думка перекладала відповідальність за соціально-економічні проблеми країни. Зазначається, що феноменом лівого популізму у Греції став той факт, що відразу після перемоги на виборах Коаліція радикальних лівих СІРІЗА, затиснута між вимогами кредиторів і реальним станом економіки, відмовилась від ліворадикальних популістських ідей і була вимушена проводити неоліберальну економічну політику. Вже у 2016р. країна повернулася до повільного економічного зростання, а у 2018р. була завершена програма фінансової допомоги. Проте через невиконання власних передвиборних обіцянок СІРІЗА втратила владу на виборах 2019р. і зайняла центристське місце у політичній системі Греції. Вагомою заслугою Коаліції ліворадикальних сил СІРІЗА стало успішне вирішення майже тридцятирічної суперечки із Північною Македонією щодо назви останньої. Обґрунтовується думка, що для України головний висновок із аналізу грецьких подій початку ХХІст. полягає в усвідомленні того факту, що складні проблеми політичного та соціально-економічного характеру, які постали перед нашої країною, не мають простого і швидкого вирішення. Щоб досягти успіху, Україна повинна послідовно захищати власні національні інтереси, зміцнювати суверенітет і незалежність, проводити збалансовану бюджетну та фінансово-економічну політику.

President George W. Bush's Iraq surge decision in late 2006 is an interesting case for civil-military relations theory, in particular, the debate between professional supremacists and civilian supremacists over how much to defer to the military on decisions during war. The professional supremacists argue that the primary problem for civil-military relations during war is ensuring the military an adequate voice and keeping civilians from micromanaging and mismanaging matters. Civilian supremacists, in contrast, argue that the primary problem is ensuring that well-informed civilian strategic guidance is authoritatively directing key decisions, even when the military disagrees with that direction. A close reading of the available evidence—both in published accounts and in new, not-for-attribution interviews with the key players—shows that the surge decision vindicates neither camp. If President Bush had followed the professional supremacists, there would have been no surge because his key military commanders were recommending against that option. If Bush had followed the civilian supremacists to the letter, however, there might have been a revolt of the generals, causing the domestic political props under the surge to collapse. Instead, Bush's hybrid approach worked better than either ideal type would have.

Preface second edition -- Introduction second edition -- Part I -- 1 Cognitive Relativism and Experiential Rationality -- 1.1 Beyond Cognitive and Linguistic Relativism -- 1.2 Epistemic Relativism Refuted -- 1.3 The Experiential Validity of the Cognitive System -- 1.3.1 Judgement and Truth -- 2 Beyond Moral Relativism and Objectivism -- 2.1 Forms of Moral Relativism -- 2.2 The Two Horns of the Dilemma: Relativism versus Objectivism -- 2.2.1 Harman's Inner-Judgments Relativism -- 2.2.2 The Limits of Nagel's Objectivism in Morality -- 2.3 Wong's Mixed Position: the Idea of Pluralistic Relativism -- 2.4 Discursive Dialectic of Recognition -- Part II -- 3 Human Rights and Pluralisitc Universalism -- 3.1 From Purposive Action to Communicative Action -- 3.1.1 Discursive dialectics and the processes of subjectivization -- 3.2 The Priority of Recognition and the Formal System of Basic Liberties -- 3.3 Human Dignity as an orienting principle of the universal system of human rights -- 3.3.1 Human Dignity as a Juridical Principle -- 3.3 The Exemplar Validity of Human Rights -- 3.4 Deliberative Constraints and Pluralistic Universalism -- 4 The Legal Dimensions of Human Rights -- 4.1 The Source and the Content Validity of Law -- 4.2 The Structure and Function of Human Rights -- 4.3 Transplantability and Legal Commensurability -- 4.4 What is Wrong in the Democratic Peace Theory -- Bibliography -- Index of names -- Index of topics.

Dynamics of Political Violence examines how violence emerges and develops from episodes of contentious politics. By considering a wide range of empirical cases, such as anarchist movements, ethno-nationalist and left-wing militancy in Europe, contemporary Islamist violence, and insurgencies in South Africa and Latin America, this pathbreaking volume of research identifies the forces that shape radicalization and violent escalation. It also contributes to the process-and-mechanism-based models of contentious politics that have been developing over the past decade in both sociology and political science. Chapters of original research emphasize how the processes of radicalization and violence are open-ended, interactive, and context dependent. They offer detailed empirical accounts as well as comprehensive and systematic analyses of the dynamics leading to violent episodes. Specifically, the chapters converge around four dynamic processes that are shown to be especially germane to radicalization and violence: dynamics of movement-state interaction; dynamics of intra-movement competition; dynamics of meaning formation and transformation; and dynamics of diffusion.

THIS ARTICLE ADDRESSES THE INTRA-GROUP MALTREATMENT OF CERTAIN LESS POWERFUL GROUP MEMBERS, IN THIS CASE, WOMEN, AS SACNTIONED BY GROUP PRACTICES, WHICH TAKES PLACE AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF MULTICULTURAL ACCOMMODATION POLICIES THAT DELEGATE LEGAL POWERS FROM THE STATE TO IDENTITY GROUPS. IT INTERROGATES THE INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF ACCOMMODATED FAMILY LAW POLICIES ON THE FEMALE MEMBERS OF IDENTITY GROUPS. IT OUTLINES SEVERAL VIABLE LEGAL PARADIGMS WHICH WOULD GIRD A RESHAPED, LESS PROBLEMATIC MULTICULTURAL MODEL.

AbstractThis article develops and tests a parliamentarian‐centred decision model of the collaboration between interest groups (IGs) and parliamentarians. We posit that parliamentarians face a trade‐off when deciding on IG ties that offer them either political (policy support and votes) or financial benefits (additional income). We theorise the balance in this trade‐off to be moderated by ideology and tenure because both introduce variations in IG ties' utility across politicians. Using Swiss longitudinal data from 1985 to 2015 on 743 parliamentarians and their 5,431 IG board positions, we show that parliamentarians become more financial benefit‐seeking over time. This holds in particular if they belong to right‐leaning parties. We also find self‐imposed restrictions for new and left‐leaning parliamentarians on seeking financial benefits. This highlights that parliamentarians are responsive to their partisan constituents when building their IG tie portfolio.