"The Smugglers' World examines a critical part of Atlantic trade for a neglected corner of the Spanish Empire. Testimonies of smugglers, buyers, and royal officials found in Venezuelan prize court records reveal a colony enmeshed in covert commerce. Forsaken by the Spanish fleet system, Venezuelan colonists struggled to obtain European foods and goods. They found a solution in exchanging cacao, a coveted luxury, for the necessities of life provided by contrabandists from the Dutch, English, and French Caribbean"--
Following the collapse of communism, religious observance increased dramatically in Russia. Many observers believed that religion would provide a basis for political mobilization, but this has not eventuated. According to nationally representative surveys conducted in 1993 and 1996, levels of church attendance in postcommimist Russia have stabilized; about three-quarters identify themselves as Orthodox and 17 percent as atheist, although only about one in ten attend church at least once a month. Frequent attenders were less likely to vote in 1993, but in the rather different circumstances of the 1995 Duma election they were more likely to vote than self-declared atheists. Frequent attenders were also more likely to engage in other forms of political participation, particularly writing to the press and contacting officials. But there were relatively weak consequences for voting, in December 1995 or in the 1996 presidential election, in the absence of major parties that deliberately mobilized a confessional vote. Several explanations are advanced to account for the weak influence of religion on politics, notably the absence of a civil society and of competition between denominations.
Following the collapse of communism, religious observance increased dramatically in Russia. Many observers believed that religion would provide a basis for political mobilization, but this has not eventuated. According to nationally representative surveys conducted in 1993 and 1996, levels of church attendance in postcommimist Russia have stabilized; about three-quarters identify themselves as Orthodox and 17 percent as atheist, although only about one in ten attend church at least once a month. Frequent attenders were less likely to vote in 1993, but in the rather different circumstances of the 1995 Duma election they were more likely to vote than self-declared atheists. Frequent attenders were also more likely to engage in other forms of political participation, particularly writing to the press and contacting officials. But there were relatively weak consequences for voting, in December 1995 or in the 1996 presidential election, in the absence of major parties that deliberately mobilized a confessional vote. Several explanations are advanced to account for the weak influence of religion on politics, notably the absence of a civil society and of competition between denominations.
"Carved into a rock overlooking the Columbia River stands the arresting image of Tsagaglalal, or "She Who Watches," an ancient female chief. As the Wishram people recount, when men replaced women in positions of power, Tsagaglalal was turned to stone by Coyote so that she could forever guide her community and guard its development. Using the story of She Who Watches as her guide, Armitage shows that even though women were barred from positions of public authority until recently, they have always worked quietly and informally to assure the stability and security of their families and communities. Women's community-building and cooperative skills have been decisive in developing the societies of the Pacific Northwest--Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana, and British Columbia. Like She Who Watches, women have never been mere observers, but watchful guardians and active shapers of the public good. Drawing on her three decades of research and teaching and based on hundreds of secondary sources, Armitage's account explores the varied ways in which, beginning in the earliest times and continuing to the present, women of all races and ethnicities have made the history of our region. An accessible introduction for general readers and scholars alike, Shaping the Public Good restores a missing piece of Pacific Northwest history by demonstrating the part that women--"the famous, the forgotten, and all the women in between"--Have always played in establishing their families and building communities."--
The term "undone science" refers to absences of scientific research that social movement and other civil society organizations find when attempting to make epistemic claims in the political field. The existing literature has identified various pathways for addressing the knowledge needs of civil society organizations, including asking elected and appointed political leaders to shift funding priorities and directly seeking support and partnerships with scientists. Here, a third pathway is identified and explored: civil society organizations that have the resources to fund their own research. A sample of such "civil society research" from large, mainstream, U.S. environmental organizations demonstrates that although the large organizations do engage in such research, most of it is not published in peer‐reviewed journals. The peer‐reviewed research is found almost exclusively in large preservation and conservation organizations that have staffs of scientists. Most of the other research reports are oriented toward documenting environmental problems and providing policy and management solutions. The research is highly applied and does not represent fundamental contributions to large mainstream scientific fields. Comparisons with civil society research in the author's previous research projects on religion, health, and economic development are discussed to assess applicability of the concept for other sociological subfields.
Despite an overwhelming body of scholarship and literature on his life and thought the true systematic nature of Gandhi's intervention with modern political theory and his method and structure of thought have not previously received sustained attention. This book attempts to address the lacuna by contending that Gandhi's critique of modern civilization and the presuppositions of post-Enlightenment political theory, its epistemological and metaphysical foundations was both comprehensive and systematic.
For political fact-checking enterprises to be effective, two conditions must be met. Voters must be interested in fact-checks, and the fact-checks must encourage voters to reevaluate their beliefs. Here, we study the former: whether voters are interested in reading fact-checks of political candidates' statements. We use a simulated campaign environment in which participants' exposure to fact-checks are voluntary. We find that voters are interested in fact-checking, especially for negative campaigns and personal (versus issue) campaigns. We also find that topics salient to voters are most often fact-checked. Finally, we provide evidence for the operation of a motivated reasoning process, as statements made by less preferred candidates were more deeply scrutinized.
This special issue of Studies of Transition States and Societies focuses on youth political participation in Estonia. The articles explore diff erent dimensions of participation, providing examples of how politics is practiced by young people in a society that has undergone a relatively recent and substantial social, economic and political transformation: the shift from being an integral part of the Soviet Union to full membership of the European Union. This transition is refl ected in changing patterns of activism among Estonian youth and the nature of the issues with which they engage, with participation influenced by, one the one hand, the legacies of the communist period and, on the other, the challenge of living in contemporary Europe.
In 2004 the mayors of two municipalities in the Aymará region of the Andes were lynched—the apparent culmination of bitter conflicts within their communities and between those communities and the central government. These two cases illustrate the recent transformation of the organization and internal dynamics of Andean communities and the conflictive articulation of local politics with wider processes and institutions. They point to the importance of recent political-institutional processes, as opposed to traditional cultural factors of alleged indigenous nationalism, for understanding the cultural and political transformation of communities and the ways in which they process their internal conflicts as well as those with the wider state.
