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The Influence of Ron Paul: Loud Bang or Flash in the Pan?
Get PDFThe 2012 primary season has been one of the most volatile in recent memory, with the Republican Party struggling to settle on a candidate. The campaign has also vaulted some previously obscure politicians to national prominence, only to relegate them again to obscurity. Ron Paul has demonstrated perhaps the most dramatic transformation, from a lone voice who was once largely ignored to one of the last four candidates for the nomination, who has performed quite creditably in several primaries. In this article, I examine how much influence Paul is going to have in the short term, up to and including the Republican National Convention. I also examine how lasting his influence will be over the long term, and whether or not he will mount a third-party bid in 2012
The American Political Discourse in 2012
Get PDFThe concept of globalization refers to a multitude of processes rapidly changing the space in which individuals, institutions, and systems interact with one another. Popular interpretations have seen increasing interconnectedness as the beginning of a “race to the bottom” in which the state is precluded from governance as competition to attract capital and prevent flight mandates a retrenchment of the public sector. As this occurs, outside influences should crowd out opportunities for the “collective priority and preference setting” that defines democratic governance. Instead, much of the convergence toward retrenchment has been endogenous change motivated by ideas and political strategy rather than exogenous economic pressure. America’s protracted battle over the debt ceiling provides a compelling case to explore how the ideational force of globalization has included new voices in domestic preference setting and augmented rather than crowded out public deliberation. Tracking the impact of these influences on the American discourse will help us understand how the 2012 elections are likely to be impacted by the emergence of groups willing and able to compete with the Republican Party on behalf of economic conservatives
Key to the 2012 Presidential Election: The Philadelphia Suburbs
Get PDFMitt Romney or Barack Obama: this is the choice Pennsylvanian voters will have in November as the 2012 presidential election draws closer. The voters of Pennsylvania will be at the height of importance in the history of American presidential elections, playing a key role as one of the leading battleground states in this upcoming election. With twenty electoral votes, tied for the fifth most of any state in the country, both campaigns will look to focus a great amount of time and money on trying to win this crucial state. And at the center of this fierce battle between the current GOP presumptive nominee and the President of the United States are four counties that comprise the suburbs of Philadelphia. These counties will ultimately decide the fate of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, and possibly even the election itself
The Fourth Branch of Government: How Direct Democracy is Altering the Structure of State Governments
Get PDFThis paper aims to explore how direct democracy (i.e. the initiative and referendum) affect the balance of power in state governments. Traditionally, like the federal government, state governments consist of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. Due to a complex system of checks and balances, one branch cannot become too powerful, adhering to an anti-monarchy sentiment of the founders of the United States. In this set-up, the legislative branch is responsible for creating policy, the executive branch is responsible for implementing it, and the judicial branch is responsible for interpreting it. My thesis is that direct democracy, by allowing the populous to directly implement policy without bearing the responsibility for their actions as politicians do, undermines the legislative branch and therefore representative democracy itself, leading to irresponsible legislation that is not subject to the scrutiny of the United States political process
God Save the King: Letter from Swaziland
Get PDFSwaziland has for the past 300 years been subject to royal rule. The ruling monarch, King Mswati III, has been living in disconnect with his subjects and has failed to modernize the monarchy. In the midst of this regime that is still dictatorial and fails to abide by the constitution, unrest is slowly brewing in the tiny and mountainous country. With the present political climate of long-standing rulers being toppled, are the king\u27s days numbered
The Next American Century: A Traditional Hard Power Problem or a New World Order?
Get PDFThere is a general consensus that the new world order gathered steam in response to World War II. Major institutions like the United Nations, NATO, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights all fortified the common belief that economic, social, and political interdependence is unavoidable. This international framework in which both domestic and foreign policies have far-reaching and unclear implications is not well understood. Important debates concerning economic and military intervention in developing countries, the scope and enforceability of human rights, and the role of international governing bodies are far from settled. This raises an important question for the United States: What ought to be the values that define American foreign policy given these highly contentious circumstances? More specifically, should the United States rely primarily on its military strength as leverage? Can the U.S. maintain its superpower status? What might this look like in the future and is this desirable? These are the questions that will guide a discussion between Thomas Visco and Alex Zimmerman
Nervous Giant: China and the Financial Crisis
Get PDFWhile the current financial crisis is widely acknowledged to be global, surprisingly little attention has been paid to its effect on one of the largest players in the global economy. China has weathered the crisis extremely well, though its growth has slowed slightly. I will analyze this by looking at China’s purchases of debt, the Chinese holdings of debt in the United States and its growing holdings in Europe, and the policy decisions directing this. This shows an intriguing change in the policy decisions that led to China becoming such a large holder of American debt. China amassed its large holdings of debt from the United States by merit of the strong trade relationship between the two countries, as well as the stability of the U.S. dollar. However, China’s interest in buying up Italian debt and forming stronger bonds with other Eurozone and European countries seems to speak to a different motive. Rather than allowing its reserves of foreign capital to grow over time, as it did with its U.S. debt, China is making a more aggressive move in this case. Thanks to its relative stability during the crisis, I believe this shows us that China is seeking to both ensure the continued security of its economic growth and increase its economic influence, thus using the instability of the global financial crisis to kill two birds with one stone
Tax Reform: The Cure to the United States’ Economic Slowdown
Get PDFoai:ppr.pitt.edu:article/7Benjamin Franklin once said, “The only two certainties in life are death and taxes.” This infamous saying is as true today as it was more than 200 years ago when it was coined; the only difference between taxes today and taxes in the days of Ben Franklin is the complexity of how taxes are managed. As the American economy teeters on the brink of its second recession in four years, tax reform may be the solution to the economic situation the United States finds itself in today
A Monsoon in Delhi: Anna Hazare, the Lokpal Bill, and the Future of India
Get PDFPolitical corruption in India is a perennial problem that has recently been exposed by two spectacular scandals involving the sale of telecommunications spectrum and the troubled 2010 Commonwealth Games. A disgust for this graft and corruption bred a massive protest in Delhi with a hunger strike by veteran activist Kisan Baburao “Anna” Hazare as its centerpiece. Hazare demanded the passage of a specific version of a bill that would establish an anti-corruption ombudsman called the Jan Lokpal. After Hazare had starved himself for approximately two weeks, the Indian parliament passed the legislation that Hazare had demanded. In this article, I examine the political implications of this movement, as well as whether or not the Lokpal will be effective in its mission of combating corruption