Search results

Communes in theory and practice -- Theorizing participatory democracy, popular power, and counter-hegemonic globalization from below -- Popular power, participatory democracy and the communes from Punto Fijismo to the present -- Networks of popular power: communes as globalization from below -- crisis, the decline of the Pink Tide, and the future of the communes.

This paper explores the dynamic between the Venezuelan state, which has committed itself to a discourse on grassroots political participation, and civil society, which has responded to this call in ways that often exceed and challenge the expectations of the government. The Bolivarian process has raised Venezuelan's expectations of the state, and its very success depends on both the actions of grassroots activists and the Chavista government. By analyzing the case of Venezuela I make three arguments concerning human rights. First, although human rights in recent years have more often than not served as a hegemonic tool of the West, they can have emancipatory potential, especially when used by social movements, as effective agents of social change. Second, in order for human rights to serve an emancipatory or counter-hegemonic function, they must be radicalized and transformed. Movements from below must drive the reconceptualization of human rights rather than powerful governments, international institutions and other top-down entities. My third argument is that the conception of the state as the sole violator of human rights or as the guarantor of human rights is a false dichotomy. While the state can be a violator of human rights, when pressured from below the state can protect its citizens from human rights abuses.

Visual and oral, video and audio evidence are brought to bear to examine the history of the U.S. census and the practice of social science history. The article explores how artists have appropriated and depicted census taking in America and how census takers used "artistic" forms of evidence to advertise and promote the census and explicate census results to the public. The article also suggests how social science historians have understood and used the new electronic environment of the Internet and the World Wide Web to present their data and findings.

Allograft shortage is a formidable obstacle in organ transplantation. Xenotransplantation, the interspecies transplantation of cells, tissues, and organs, or ex vivo interspecies exchange between cells, tissues, and organs is a frequently suggested alternative to this allograft shortage. As xenotransplantation steadily improves into a viable allotransplantation alternative, several bioethical considerations coalesce. Such considerations include the Helsinki declaration's guarantee of patients' rights to privacy; political red tape that may select for undermined socioeconomic groups as the first recipients of xenografts; industry incentives in xenotransplantation investments; conflicts of interest when a clinician supervises a patient as a research subject; the psychosocial impact of transplantation on the xenograft recipient, and the rights of animals. This review illuminates these issues through a conglomeration of expert opinion and relevant experimental studies.

THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET EMPIRE BROUGHT WITH IT A RADICAL CHANGE IN THE NATURE OF SECURITY THREATS TO THE UNITED STATES. ADVANCES IN COMMUNICATIONS, TRANSPORTATION AND WEAPONS TECHNOLOGY HAVE ALL INCREASED THE ABILITY OF CRIMINALS WITH ACCESS TO THESE TECHNOLOGIES TO COMMIT THEIR CRIMES AND EVADE PROSECUTION. THIS ARTICLE SUGGESTS THAT THE THE NEW DEFINITIONS OF SECURITY AND THREATS THAT WE NOW FACE MEAN THAT POLICE FORCES, WELL-TRAINED, WELL EQUIPPED AND CONVERSANT WITH U.S. STANDARDS AND PRACTICES, MUST PROVIDE THE FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE OF BOTH DEMOCRACY AND THE SAFETY OF ITS CITIZENS. CIVILIAN LAW ENFORCEMENT WORKING WITHIN INVIGORATED JUDICIAL SYSTEMS WILL HELP DEMOCRATS AROUND THE WORLD DEMILITARIZE THEIR SOCIETIES.

An example which unites all the typical characteristics of att's towards the failure of conspiracies in France is the myth of the 200 fam's, which was encouraged by contingent historical circumstances. Though the myth has deeper roots in French history, it emerged with the breakdown of the cartel des gauches (org of the left) in 1926. One of the most popular slogans of the Popular Front, the myth was developed in a special issue of Le Crapouillot (The MorFar), these ideas also contained an element of genuine soc & pol'al observation. Such was its adaptability that it was also used by the extreme right, since it was linked with anti-Semitism. The 200 fam's survived the war & quickly overcame the difficulties of the immediate post-war period & reconstituted their org's such as the Conseil National du Patronat Francais. The people who have contributed to or received with sympathy, the mythology of the 200 fam's represent all strands of opinion & nearly all soc groups, & an assessment of its position is essential for the understanding of the structure of French pol. IPSA.

Though international relations and the rise and fall of European states are widely studied, little is available to students and non-specialists on the origins, development and operation of the diplomatic system through which these relations were conducted and regulated. Similarly neglected are the larger ideas and aspirations of international diplomacy that gradually emerged from its immediate functions. This impressive survey, written by one of our most experienced international historians, and covering the 500 years in which European diplomacy was largely a world to itself, triumphant.