Suchergebnisse

THE BANDWAGON EFFECT IS CORRECTLY ASCRIBED TO THE INTERACTION BETWEEN DIFFERENT VOTERS, THE INTENTIONS OF ONE VOTER INCLINING OTHERS TO VOTER IN THE SAME WAY. MOST MODELS OF THIS EFFECT ASSUME A SEQUENCE OF VOTES WHEREIN EACH VOTER IS INCLINED TO VOTE IN AGREEMENT WITH THE MAJORITY CHOICE OF CERTAIN OTHER VOTERS, THE INCLINATION BEING THE GREATER THE CLOSER THAT MAJORITY IS TO UNANIMITY.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN CENTRAL AMERICA GAINED INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ATTENTION DURING THE 1980S BECAUSE OF THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES IN THIS CONFLICTIVE REGION, AND A GENERATION OF ACTIVISTS AND SCHOLARS HAS WRITTEN ABOUT IT. NOW IN THE WAKE OF RECONCILIATION EFFORTS IN THE REGION, IT IS APPROPRIATE TO REVISIT THE QUESTION OF WHY AND HOW THE TRAGEDY OF THE PAST FOUR DECADES OCCURRED. THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES THE EFFECTS OF POLITICALLY MOTIVATED VIOLENCE ON POPULAR MOVEMENTS, SPECIFICALLY CAMPESINO ORGANIZATIONS, IN GUATEMALA BETWEEN 1954 AND 1985.

ENOUGH BLOOD HAS BEEN SPILLED IN THE BRIEF PERIOD SINCE THE END OF THE COLD WAR--AND THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE END OF HISTORY--TO WARRENT A REVISITATION OF FRANCIS FUKUYAMA'S THESIS THAT WE HAVE REACHED THE END OF HISTORY WITH A FINAL FORM OF HUMAN GOVERNMENT. THIS ARTICLE WARNS THAT LEFT UNCHECKED, MAN'S DESIRE FOR PRIDEFUL RECOGNITION, THAT IS, THE DESIRE OF MASTERS TO DOMINATE, IS A PRINCIPAL CAUSE OF WAR. HISTORY, THUS FAR, OFFERS LITTLE SUPPORT TO ASSUME THE TRIUMPH OF REASON OVER SUCH NON-RATIONAL INSTINCTS AS AGGRESSION AND TERRITORIAL IMPERATIVES.

In the 1960s and 1970s, what most people knew - or at least thought they knew - about Papua New Guinea's 'traditional' societies was that they were essentially egalitarian: excepting a few societies which possessed hereditarial chieftaincies, leadership was typically by 'bigmen', who achieved their status through competition, and community decision making was predominantly consensual. Although challenged by a number of scholars from the mid 1970's, this stereotypical view still has a good deal of currency. In recent years, however, stimulated by a series of reviews of the provincial government system and attempts to nurture new local-level political structures, it has come under increasing challenge within Papua New Guinea. In the mid 1990s people are (re)discovering chiefs on a wide front and are looking to traditional 'chiefly' structures as part of a move towards more extensive political decentralization. this paper looks briefly at the discussion of traditional authority in the anthropological literature, examines the emerging political discourse on 'chiefs' within Papua New Guinea, and comments on its contemporary political significance.