Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The 1993 Russian constitution created a hybrid presidential-parliamentary system in which the president has the power to initiate and veto legislation and to issue normative decrees. We identify three sets of influences on the use of these law-making and decree-making powers by the president and parliament: those stemming from basic constitutional constraints on the use of decree-making power; those associated with long-term and short-term temporal considerations; and the effect of change in the policy distance between the president and the Duma. These factors shape the strategic context in which the two presidents and four Dumas since 1993 have operated. On the basis of a comprehensive examination of the record of laws and decrees promulgated from 1994 through 2004, we evaluate and largely confirm these propositions. A case study of the use of law and decree in setting policy in the area of land ownership illustrates the interplay of these forces.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: From its humble beginnings as Terminus, Atlanta has constantly re- invented itself: as a center of industry and commerce; as a cosmopolitan city and cultural center; as an international destination and place to visit; as the birthplace of the civil rights movement. Governor Sonny Perdue’s recent heritage tourism initiative points to the heritage industry as one of the primary sites for producing these images. Touristic images of Atlanta rely upon a dualistic construction of Atlanta as the place where history happened (the Old South) and a place without history (the New South). Images of the New South present Atlanta as a center of urban industrial growth, while the Old South is seen as traditional and timeless. Atlanta, the self-proclaimed capital of the New South, perhaps best captures this tension through the city slogan popularized by Mayor William Hartsfield in 1959: Atlanta: The City too Busy to Hate. As the representative of the New South, Atlanta has tried to re-create itself in the image of the rest of the nation: a place where racism is an issue of the past. In the New South, therefore, racism is incompatible with capitalism. On the other hand, the south writ large must remain marked as the place where racism happens in order to keep the rest of the country free of stain. These various constructions point to how Atlanta relates to, and defines itself by race and history. Thus, a crucial part of creating, recreating, naming and interpreting Atlanta is the use of the racial past in the present. My assertion is that history is best understood as an embodied practice that is created through interpretation, interaction and performance; therefore, history can be thought of as a performance or something that is done. On these tours, history is not simply preserved through performance, but created as it is done. Through this production there is a simultaneously construction of race and history. Therefore, there is a constant flux and negotiation of history and race through their creation and preservation – a fluid stasis; history and race are recreated daily in a context that is constantly changing. Furthermore, the embodiment of history is intimately tied to the construction of place. The creation of place assigns meaning and helps to define who we are and who we are not. Thus, places are specifically designed and constructed to evoke memories, trigger identities, and embody histories. The process of emplacement is explicitly tied to the market, power, normative historical narrative and identity. Thus, tourism mediates our encounters with history, race and place and creates sites of consumption. In short, this paper will explore the themes of historical memory, tourism and the politics of history by drawing upon ethnographic data collected by the author.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper, I suggest that structure and process play a major role in limiting the agency and autonomy of international organizations, in enacting institutional compliance and reinforcing a strict principal-agent relationship. The model for this framework stems from an examination of domestic-level bureaucracies by Matthew McCubbins, Roger Noll, and Barry Weingast, who argue that ?effective political control of an agency requires ex ante constraints on the agency.? The administrative procedures that provide these constraints include cumbersome decisionmaking processes, direct representation, and the facilitation of information through third parties. The result is that agency policies reflect an autopilot characteristic, as the enacting coalition benefits its favored interests, while preventing substantial policy deviations in the future. I believe that there is tremendous applicability for this framework at the international stage, providing a vital component in the conception of rational design espoused by Barbara Koremenos. Alongside these low-cost administrative procedures that McCubbins et al. direct their attention to, I also take into account more traditional and formal mechanisms governing institutional action ? i.e., the oversight process that would allow any change to the status quo, whether in the form of monitoring committees, rewards and sanctions, and so forth. It is this theoretical framework I plan to develop, as well as apply to the case of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR). How did the decision-making structure and process of UNAMIR affect its efforts to expand or better enforce its own mandate in light of the situation in that country? To answer this, I examine the structure of the organization, identify those administrative procedures, and more importantly, explore the manner in which they manifested, connecting UNAMIR policy decisions to the interests of the enacting principals (notable countries in the Security Council; including the United States, Belgium, and France, as well as the UN Secretariat itself). Future revisions of this paper would explain the degree of discrepancy (or lack thereof) between policy outcome and the interests of the enacting principals of given institutions with unique structures and processes.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: We present a model of the strategic uses of decrees and laws and apply the model to the Russian case to explain key features of policy making.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: When a person arrives to a setting in which a party of persons is already engaged in some activity, parties must make choices about how they manage the pre-present party’s previous activity. This paper analyzes sequences in which pre-present speakers formulate their previous activities for arrivers, showing how co-participants use these formulations to include newcomers, making way and making sense for them so they can merge into the interaction.