Suchergebnisse

A review essay on a book by Nicholas Deakin, In Search of Civil Society (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2001). 17 References. Adapted from the source document.

The much noted decline of "state autonomy" theories owes partly to external challenges to state power, such as globalization, supranational regimes, & the like. But advanced democratic states have also long been seen as threatened from within, especially by powerful private interest groups. The extent of private interest influence on policy making depends in important part on corporate lobbyists, a group whose activities are chronicled in this essay. Lobbyists exercise considerably more autonomy from the private clients who lure them than has previously been acknowledged. This portrait ultimately suggests that the national state & civil society may be mutually supportive rather than strictly separate spheres. 47 References. Adapted from the source document.

According to conventional wisdom, associations that are closely linked with & penetrated by an authoritarian state are significant chiefly as symbols of state domination of society. Yet a review of empirical evidence suggests that the nature & significance of incorporated or co-opted associations varies much more widely than the conventional perspective suggests. Not only are close association-state linkages sometimes looked upon favorably by societal participants, but some independent societal associations actually seek to be co-opted by an authoritarian state. Moreover, incorporated associations often have more to do with strategies by state agencies & officials to accomplish parochial goals than with state efforts to control society. This article elucidates a new analytical perspective for understanding the dynamics & functioning of incorporated associations, citing a wide range of empirical cases to show how this perspective facilitates a better understanding of the kinds of state-society engagement that occur within & through incorporated associations. The article concludes with a brief analysis of associations in contemporary People's Republic of China that builds on the preceding discussion, illuminating the importance of local-level interactions in determining the character of incorporated associations. 94 References. Adapted from the source document.

Americans lack a sense of the state for many understandable historical reasons. Yet, the specific organizational forms that state activities have taken in the US from the time of the Constitution to the present have profoundly affected the social cleavages that have gained political expression & influenced the sorts of public policies that governments have -- & have not -- implemented. As an alternative or supplement to theoretical perspectives emphasizing the causal primacy of industrialization, national values, or SC politics, this state-society perspective can illuminate patterns of US social policy, from distributive social benefits in the nineteenth century to bifurcations between social insurance & public assistance since the New Deal. These US polity patterns are contrasted with the more comprehensive & nationally uniform policies characteristic of certain Western European welfare states. 55 References. HA

Offenses against the state fall into 2 categories: conduct inimical to the very existence of gov, & offenses which affect the orderly & just administration of public business. Treason, which shades into sedition or advocacy of overthrow, & espionage are examples of the former. Although the US Constitution was designed to limit the definition of treason to exclude 'constructive treason' as used in England, sedition laws giving similar effect have been passed in times of crisis. First Amendment problems have made prosecutions for subversive activities of livelier interest in constitutional than in criminal law. Examples of offenses which obstruct gov'al operations include perjury, bribery & corruption, & criminal libel & contempt by publication. Convictions for actions to obstruct are generally difficult to obtain. Prosecution for perjury, however, has been undertaken in a number of cases in which the statute of limitations proscribed prosecution for espionage or a more serious charge or where a conviction on another charge could not be obtained. It has always been difficult to delineate satisfactorily free pol'al activity & extralegal conspiracy contemplating force & arms rather than persuasion & the ballot. To the credit of US pol'al institutions, patriotic excesses, popular, legislative, or admin've, have generally been checked by an independent bar & an independent judiciary, & criticism of gov'al action which jeopardizes pol'al liberty if freely voiced in Congress, the courts, & the press. AA.