February 2012
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Hip Hop and the Arab Uprisings | openDemocracy →
A fascinating roundup of hip hop artists from around the “Arab Spring” countries. This is a great way to learn more about the story of the year through its interaction with pop culture—as well as a great way to learn about how pop culture (and, in some way, globalization) is reshaping modern Arab societies.
The story has embedded videos by MC Swat (Libya), Lowkey (Palestine), and...
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Why Tuesday? | The Monkey Cage →
From The Monkey Cage:
A reader points me to the group, Why Tuesday, that wants to move Election Day to a more convenient time. They write:
Today, we are an urban society, and we all know how hard it is to commute to our jobs, take care of the children, and get our work done, let alone stand on lines to vote. Indeed, Census data over the last decade clearly indicates that the inconvenience of...
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“Babaamr is facing a genocide right now. I will never forgive you for your...”
– One of Syrian citizen journalist Rami Al-Sayed’s last messages. The 27-year-old Al-Sayed, who bravely documented what was going on in the wartorn city of Homs, was actively targeted by the regime’s shelling according to activists. He ran a live feed of the bombardment of his city, out of the...
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WatchIf you’d like to tag along with my POL 102 class this semester, here’s your chance. Once a week I assign a web based assignment to go along with the topic of our chapter textbook (we’re using The Good Society: An Introduction to Comparative Politics).
This week, we’re looking at various facets of political culture. So Wednesday we’re discussing a Current TV report about the...
In Defense of the Public Library →
tofias:
We (and by we I mean I) don’t spend enough time appreciating that the public library has become one of the only institutions we have attempting to bridge the inequality of the digitial divide (via Matt Haughey).
I would add that choosing not to read is the same as not knowing how to. Libraries are perhaps the greatest monument to learning any society possesses. To the extent that they...
From George Takei
70 years ago today, the President signed a decree that sent me and my family to a prison camp. Hear my story, and learn how you can help fulfill our pledge: Never Forget. Never Again.
Worth a close look today, especially considering the anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric these days.
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WatchIf you took any 100-level political science course (American, comparative, or IR) last semester at the University of Mississippi, chances are you took a survey during the first and last week of the semester. If you were curious about the results of that survey (which asked about political efficacy and news media consumption, among other things), here are the results. My co-author, Cy Rosenblatt,...
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"Brazil in Black and White" | PBS Wide Angle →
If you’d like to tag along with my POL 102 class this semester, here’s your chance. Once a week I assign a web based assignment to go along with the topic of our chapter textbook (we’re using The Good Society: An Introduction to Comparative Politics).
This week, we read about the relationship between the state and society. So Wednesday we’re going to discuss a provocative PBS documentary...
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U.S. Department of State: Syria: "The Violence Is... →
statedept:
Robert S. Ford serves as U.S. Ambassador to Syria.
Editor’s Note: This entry appeared first on the U.S. Embassy Syria Facebook page. You can find additional satellite imagery of Syrian military movements here. The violence is not equal. Yesterday I put out a note…
We live in an age when we can see asymmetrical warfare waged in various forms. Here’s one clear example of...
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"The American Anomaly"
Over at his Tumblr blog, Politicalprof answers a question from a reader about what makes the US political system “so weird” with some insightful comments. As a comparativist, I won’t belabor the point about how important—perhaps critical—it is for Americans to be familiar with the differences in how our democracy functions and how it functions in other countries.
But I will...
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“We are a democracy. We can only have as good a foreign policy as the public’s...”
– Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, told PBS NewsHour last night. (via realmencry)
Is he right?
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“The French, I found, seem to have a whole different framework for raising kids....”
– From “Why French Parents Are Superior by Pamela Druckerman” | Wall Street Journal
A fascinating (comparative) look at parenting. Read the whole thing. How does this compare to Amy Chua’s “Tiger Mom” approach?
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“I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a...”
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg (via tofias)
If you were drafting a new constitution (as they’re doing in Libya and Egypt), what would you do?
For starters, you might start with some considerations on drafting a constitution from this interview (in The Christian Science Monitor) with Andrew Reynolds, a...
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The 2011 Failed States Index | Foreign Policy →
If you’d like to tag along with my POL 102 class this semester, here’s your chance. Once a week I assign a web based assignment to go along with the topic of our chapter textbook (we’re using The Good Society: An Introduction to Comparative Politics).
This week we read about the state. So tomorrow we’re going to discuss the annual Foreign Policy Failed States Index.
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"No military coup deserves a parade" | Boz →
Every coup has its defenders, whether Chile in 1973, Venezuela in 1992, Ecuador in 2000, Venezuela in 2002 or Honduras in 2009. Usually, that defense points to a democratic system that is broken, a president who has overreached or a population that demands action. … But whatever the defense, military coups are never a good sign for a country.
Boz explains why democracies shouldn’t...
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Proposal to reform [Chile's] binomial system →
Greg Weeks has an update on his previous post about possible reforms to Chile’s binomial electoral system, which I also discussed.
He outlines a joint proposal by the (centrist) Christian Democratic Party and the (center-right) Renovación Nacional:
The president can dissolve the legislature
The president chooses a prime minister who must be approved by a majority in the legislature
...
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Piñera and [Chile's] binomial system →
Greg Weeks at Two Weeks Notice comments on the possibility that Chile’s president, Sebastian Piñera, may be joining the (growing?) bandwagon for electoral system reform in Chile.
It’s only inevitable, I suppose, that electoral system reform fever would reach Chile. I’m partly sad, because Chile’s binomial system—a platypus of an electoral system made for interesting...
January 2012
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“There are a lot of rich people in the world. There are very few people who have...”
– Interview: David Karp, founder of Tumblr, on realising his dream | Media | The Guardian (via stephenabbott)
CV
Age 25
Education Calhoun school, New York City; Bronx Science, New York
Career 2005 founder, Davidville 2007 founder and chief executive, Tumblr
(via guardian)
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"Conference-Slutting Toward Good Governance" | El... →
On his blog, El Oso, David Sasaki has a snarky—but highly informative—post about all the conferences on “governance” going on in Latin America in the next few months. It’s a great roundup on the trends, topics, and themes of the “governance” agenda in the region (and beyond). Like, David, I also wonder how much actual governing takes place in between so many...
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Presidential re-election in Latin America →
From Two Weeks Notice:
Michael Penfold (who is critical of Hugo Chávez) has an interesting look at Henrique Capriles Radonski and the Venezuelan opposition in the current issue of Foreign Affairs. Beyond the Venezuelan political context, however, he makes the following point:
Incumbents in Latin America rarely lose reelection bids. In the last three decades, there have been only two: Daniel...