Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In an effort to create what official rhetoric has deemed a “modern culture of respect,” Britain has established a cross-governmental task force to target those families in the nation’s disadvantaged communities exhibiting antisocial behavior. Citing poor parenting as a primary source of youths’ disrespectful behavior, Britain’s Home Office requires certain parents to participate in parenting programs said to address their individual parental deficiencies. The present study investigates, through consultation of government and service provider website, the implicit theory guiding this governmental incursion into the family sphere. Moreover, the present study explores the ways in which the “problem” group is defined as such, the assumptions imbuing the policies designed to govern the problematic group, the approaches used by the government and adjoining agencies to bring problematic parents into compliance, and the degree to which program participants are afforded the opportunity to provide input into program design and implementation. Possible policy implications involve the consideration of structural, rather than individual, transformations.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In an effort to create what official rhetoric has deemed a “modern culture of respect,” Britain has established a cross-governmental task force to target those families in the nation’s disadvantaged communities exhibiting antisocial behavior. Citing poor parenting as a primary source of youths’ disrespectful behavior, Britain’s Home Office requires certain parents to participate in parenting programs said to address their individual parental deficiencies. The present study investigates, through consultation of government and service provider website, the implicit theory guiding this governmental incursion into the family sphere. Moreover, the present study explores the ways in which the “problem” group is defined as such, the assumptions imbuing the policies designed to govern the problematic group, the approaches used by the government and adjoining agencies to bring problematic parents into compliance, and the degree to which program participants are afforded the opportunity to provide input into program design and implementation. Possible policy implications involve the consideration of structural, rather than individual, transformations.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Nonviolent action is according to Gene Sharp not passive. "It is not inaction. It is action that is nonviolent." The terrible casualty figures of war in the twentieth century and the proliferation of terrorism in the twenty first century have called for approaches that address a world challenged by negative attitudes and escalating violence both religious and social to what has been termed "the other".The other is often perceived as a fallacious or hostile threat to one's own security, whether in the form of a belief, a nation, or a culture. Legislation such as the Declaration of Human Rights calls for dignity, respect, and tolerance towards others, and yet since its inception human rights continue to be denied to many groups particularly those in the South. Comprehensive human rights training through the medium of active learning is able to instill ethical and moral support and focus on threats to security, tolerance, mutuality, and justice. By highlighting case studies of injustice and intolerance and encouraging restraint and responsibility through such citizen-based nonviolent concepts as human security, active learning, utilizing such methodology as role-play and constructive controversy inquiry, can show citizens ways to combat inequality and intolerance towards others.

Supporting Publications:
Supporting Document

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: While a growing body of scholarly literature has linked democratic institutions and left partisanship to higher governmental respect for human rights, it remains unclear how the influence of each of these factors on human rights is mediated by the other. In this paper, we argue that different combinations of partisanship and electoral systems have different effects on respect for human rights in the short and long term. Specifically, when parties do not share control of government (as in single member district (SMD) systems), left governments will, while in tenure, promote a higher level of respect for human rights than their right party counterparts. However, as tenure rotates in these systems, rightist governments do not need to follow the same level of respect or enforce those policies. Conversely, when parties share government (as in proportional representation (PR) systems), left parties cannot necessarily pass human rights policies easily but can promote an overall level of respect through their continuing participation in government. From this practice and policy distinction, we expect SMD systems to exhibit more variance in their respect for human rights in the short term but increase their level of human rights more quickly over the long-run. PR systems, on the other hand, should exhibit less variance in the short run but approach higher levels more slowly in the long term. We test our claims by conducting a global, comparative analysis of government respect for physical integrity, worker, and women?s rights over the 1981-2004 period. We employ both pooled cross-sectional time-series and event history analysis designs for developing democracies. Our results provide further insight into the linkage between democracy, partisanship, and human rights.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Gutmann and Thompson argue that justice requires that citizens demonstrate moral respect toward a position (even when they think it morally wrong) on any issue that is not deliberatively certain.  I argue that such a claim is untenable in politics.