Suchergebnisse

As a nation ofimmigrants, the United States has long accepted that citizens who identify withan ancestral homeland may hold dual loyalties; yet Americans have at timesregarded the persistence of foreign ties with suspicion, seeing them as a sign ofpotential disloyalty and a threat to national security. Diaspora Lobbies and the US Government bringstogether a group of distinguished scholars of international politics andinternational migration to examine this contradiction in the realm of Americanpolicy making, ultimately concluding that the relationship between diasporagroups and the government can greatly affect foreign policy. This relationshipis not unidirectional—as much as immigrants make an effort to shape foreignpolicy, government legislators and administrators also seek to enlist them infurthering American interests.From Israel to Cuba and from Ireland to Iraq, the casestudies in this volume illustrate how potential or ongoing conflicts raise thestakes for successful policy outcomes. Contributors provide historical andsociological context, gauging the influence of diasporas based on populationsize and length of time settled in the United States, geographic concentration,access to resources from their own members or through other groups, and thenature of their involvement back in their homelands. This collection brings a freshperspective to a rarely discussed aspect of the design of US foreign policy andoffers multiple insights into dynamics that may determine how the United Stateswill engage other nations in future decades

Focuses on the region to explore whether or not participation during the formal process of drafting is enough to ensure effective democracy. The Andean region has long been characterized by deep social, economic, ethnic, cultural, & political divisions that have resulted in the exclusion of large parts of the population. In the 1990s, the excluded mobilized around constitutional reform rather than revolution in an attempt to achieve legal recognition as equal partners. The impact of this "democratization of popular sovereignty" is explored in relation to constitution making in Colombia, Ecuador, & Venezuela. In all three cases, many social & political groups have traditionally been excluded from the public sphere, & their constitutions were entirely rewritten by constitutional assemblies elected by popular vote. It is concluded that determining the democratic character of the constitution-writing process must entail an examination of the alliances, coalitions, strategies, & discourses that affect the influence of the excluded on the final results. The crucial importance of the system used to elect delegates to the assembly is emphasized. 3 Tables. J. Lindroth