Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Ensuring Nonprofit Passivity
Abstract

This paper explores the political behavior of 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Since these nonprofits offer tax deductions to donors, and are thus subsidized by taxpayer dollars, the government is justified in regulating what these nonprofits are allowed to do in the political arena. A first step here is to analyze competing interest group theories to judge how nonprofits fit into prevailing conceptions of the appropriate role of interest groups in a democracy. Interestingly, American law on public charities disregards those theories that justify participation by lobbies or recognize how skewed the interest group world is, and instead considers nonprofit lobbying as a potential danger to the integrity of the polity. The lobbying provision of charity law is examined closely and its ambiguity along with the inconsistent and inadequate administration of sec. 501(c)(3) by the IRS discourages nonprofits from participating in the public policymaking process. Drawing on data from the Strengthening Nonprofit Advocacy Project, the evidence demonstrates that nonprofit leaders badly misunderstand their rights under the law. The data also show that charity law significantly reduces the level of legislative lobbying by nonprofits. The result is that the most disadvantaged sectors of society receive reduced representation in the political system.

Publication Type: Abstract
Abstract: This paper evaluates the effect of excise taxes and bans on smoking in public places on the exposure to tobacco smoke of non-smokers. We use a novel way of quantifying passive smoking. We use data on cotinine concentration- a metabolite of nicotine- measured in a large population of non-smokers over time. Exploiting state and time variation across US states, we reach two important conclusions. First, excise taxes have a significant effect on passive smoking. Second, smoking bans have on average no effects on non smokers. The reason is that smokers replace smoking at banned locations with smoking in places, where non smokers are in turn more likely exposed. In particular, while bans in public transportation or in schools decrease the exposure of non smokers, bans in recreational public places can in fact perversely increase their exposure by displacing smokers to private places where they contaminate non smokers. Bans affect different social groups differently: we find that smoking bans increase the exposure of poorer individuals, while it decreases the exposure of richer individuals, leading to widening health disparities.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The use of public consultation to engage civil society in debates over public policy has grown rapidly over the last two decades. Participants in these fora, however, are often left disappointed and disillusioned by the process. There has been a lack of critical theorisation of public consultation needed to clarify the nature and purpose of this participation process. Public consulation is currently understood either as a model for optimal decision-making used to try and balance competing interests, or as a form of deliberative democracy used by democratic institutions to legitimize their decisions, if such decisions can be derived from rational discussion. I argue that neither of these two models is able to explain the underlying purpose of public consulation, because they are unable to bridge the gap between what an approapriate form of consulation should be, and the frustrating, disillusioning process that it is.They are unable to do so be cause they fail to address the question of who benefits and why. I therefore apply a Gramscian lens to examine public consultation, how it works, and for whom. Through this lens, public consulation is revealed to be a tactic of passive revolution, which is a strategy for the reorganization of capitalist social relations through periods of crisis. It is therefor used to renegotiate relations between state, capital and civil society to accommodate change without challenging the political order or threatening the primacy of capital. Public consultation is therefore used to defuse and de-politicise important issues of public policy rather than provide a forum for meaningful public participation. To illustrate my argument, I use a Gramscian lens to examine a case study of a campaign to end land clearing in Queensland, Australia.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In a case pitting the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin against the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, these questions were at issue: (1) In the sentence, “The land on which the sale occurred was designated a reservation or trust land on or before January 1, 1983,” what is the meaning of the word designated? (2) Does the sentence at issue name the agent by whom the designating is to be done? A linguist concluded that (1) in the sentence at issue, the word designate has its usual, ordinary, and general sense, meaning “To indicate, select, appoint, nominate, or set apart for a purpose or duty, as to designate an officer for a command. To mark out and make known; to point out; to name; to indicate”; and (2) since no agent is named in the sentence at issue or elsewhere in the text, it is not possible tell the identity of the agent. But since the designating has to have been done by somebody or some entity, it appears that the person, agency, or other entity by whom the designating must be done is immaterial, for the English language permits such identification, and it is entirely usual and ordinary for agents to be specified in “by … ” phrases, as indicated above. These conclusions were reached on the basis of both lexicographic and syntactic analysis, each of which can be used in similar situations; thus, the methodology suggests a model for similar situations.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In dealing with two great powers--the current power and the rising power, small powers take passive and proactive positive feedback toward two powers.