The U.S. Economic Polity,Social Identity,and International Human Rights

In this essay, I provide some complementary perspectives on certain themes that emerge in Judith Blau's (2016) timely and insightful article, “Human Rights: What the United States Might Learn from the Rest of the World and, Yes, from American Sociology.” In response, I offer some very brief reflections structured through two prisms by which we might think further about the United States and human rights. These perspectives pick up on the core issue of Blau's article, the U.S. rejection of socioeconomic rights, and how this issue in turn relates first to the “social identity” of the United States as a whole, and second to the role of the political economy in states' recognition of human rights.     

Childrens Legal Rights in the U.S.

No abstract available for this article.     

An Analysis of the U.S. Women's Rights Movements

This paper divides the move for women's rights in the U.S. into three historical phases: (1) the early women's rights movement (1848-1875); (2) the suffrage movement (1890-1920); and, (3) the two branches of contemporary women's rights movements. The authors then set out a hypothesis for the formation of the above women's rights movements. The causes of the three respective phases then are examined and the hypothesis tested. We conclude that the following elements are necessary to the initiation of a U.S. women's protest movement: (1) a sense of collective oppresion; (2) an extant organizational base; (3) a communications network; and, (4) a critical mobilizing event. The success of these movements, however, may be tempered by the simultaneous development of opposition organizations.     

加拿大与美国都市圈内政府治理差异分析

本文探讨地方公共机构尤其是地方行政机构如何改变其结构和手段,以应对新的地区化和都市化的挑战。通过分析35个美国和加拿大的城市群,评估政府机构在多大程度上采用了怎样的方法去规划、实施和监督都市化政策,并重点研究都市圈机构和都市圈的财税政策。     

The implications of Articles 37 and 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child for U.S. juvenile justice and U.S. ratification of the convention

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) guarantees that children accused of crimes will have the right to fair court procedures and humane sentences. Current U.S. laws concerning the child's age when a court has jurisdiction, and others concerning sentencing practices and the place of confinement, contravene the provisions of the CRC. Some U.S. laws are consistent with the treaty but are nonetheless not enforced. Recent developments, including increasing understanding of brain development, U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the constitutionality of punishments for children, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child General Comment 10, will have substantial impacts on U.S. ratification. This article discusses Articles 37 and 40 of the CRC and their effect on U.S. practices if the treaty is ratified.     

Set aside programmes: Using U.S. experience to evaluate U.K. proposals

The lengthy U.S. experience with cropland diversion is helpful in evaluating U.K. set aside proposals. Acreage reduction for supply control in the U.S. has never reached its promised potential. Now, a new programme is using set aside for erosion control. Despite 50 years of practice, the past and current U.S. cropland diversions suffer serious problems. Three major U.K. set aside proposals have surfaced, two aimed at supply control and one at the provision of conservation and environmental services from farmland. Each has strengths and disadvantages, but none suffer all of the problems of American programmes, at least in their proposed forms. Too much can easily be expected of set aside which in barest form is just a land use constraint. Its best role may be as an interim supply adjustment mechanism with price restraint, which also provides compensation to disadvan- taged farmers but, most importantly, secures non-market conservation and environmental services.     

World War II and the Transformation of the U.S. State: The Wartime Foundations of U.S. Hegemony

I present an analysis of the history of U.S. expansion and rise to hegemony in World War II, and argue that the concrete global perspectives and postwar ambitions of U.S. state managers were formed in the course of world war itself. They were not the result of preconceived economic or geopolitical policies or aims. I examine U.S. expansion and postwar goals in the military, economic, and political arenas, and show how social processes set in motion by world war in each of these dimensions were central in shaping the distinctive outcomes. I develop a theoretical perspective of world war as a social process, and argue that such an extraordinary period of violence, historical contingency, and state-led expansion involves potentially unique features of macrohistorical development and change.     

Asian Americans and Voting Participation: Comparing Racial and Ethnic Differences in Recent U.S. Elections

This research assesses the significance of race and ethnicity in the participation of Asian Americans in recent U.S. elections. It reviews the major characteristics of the nonwhite, multiethnic population in recent census surveys and discusses the necessity for voting behavior research to address effects of international migration on eligibility issues in voting participation. Results from analyzing U.S. Current Population Survey Voter Supplement files, 1994–2000, indicate that Asian Americans' apparent deficit in voting participation among voting‐age persons can be reduced, removed, or even reversed when restricting analyses only to eligible persons. Multivariate analyses controlling for a set of institutional, contextual, and individual factors show that being Asian and foreign born may have the net effect of increasing voting registration, while being U.S. born and Asian may have the contrary effect, compared to non‐Hispanic whites of comparable background. Nativity is not significant in impacting turnout among registered Asians as a whole, but U.S.‐born Asians are less likely to turn out compared to their white counterparts. Among other findings, being foreign born may enhance the registration likelihood for Chinese, Korean, and Asian Indian American citizens and the turnout likelihood of registered Korean Americans.     

Political Ideology,Sociobiology, and teh U.S. Women's Rights Movement

An analysis of ideology in the United States reveals a major barrier to political and economic equality, where previously excluded groups are found to be characteristically different from historical and current participants in the area of political or economic access. This analysis is used to describe why sociobiological research threatens U.S. women's rights advocates (reform feminists) pursuing equality with men. It is argued, however, that by providing a contrast to the dominant ideological assumptions about human nature, and by providing supporting arguments for some reform feminist proposals, sociobiology merits the attention of reform feminists.     

High stakes: U.S. nonprofit organizations and the U.S. standing abroad

This research sought to explain the agency of U.S.-based nonprofit nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the U.S. standing abroad, and explore the NGO role in the U.S. public diplomacy. A multiple-case study method was used to look at five 501(c)(3) organizations that receive predominantly private funding and operate globally. The data gathered from in-person interviews and corporate documentation were compared between cases, and synthesized across cases using the theory-building technique. While U.S. standing affects American NGOs’ practices and discourses, American NGOs’ behavior might have a bearing on the attitudes, perceptions, and opinions of international publics about the United States. Both the NGO-owned state identities and American NGOs’ reputation for autonomy and freedom of expression enhance the U.S. public diplomacy efforts.     

Institutionalizing Counter‐Memories of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement: The National Civil Rights Museum and an Application of the Interest‐Convergence Principle

During the post–Reconstruction era in the United States, white southerners marked the cultural landscape with monuments and memorials honoring the Confederate cause and its heroes. These racialized symbols enjoyed an undisputed claim to public squares and parks throughout the South. It was not until the late twentieth century that commemorations to the black freedom struggle were publicly supported. This analysis examines the institutionalization of counter‐memories of the civil rights movement in Memphis, Tennessee at the Lorraine Motel, the site of the assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The author draws on collective memory, cultural trauma, and social movements research as well as critical race theory to explain the creation of the National Civil Rights Museum. Using primary and secondary data sources the author examines how social memory agents, a changing political culture, and the passage of time mediated the cultural trauma of King's assassination and influenced the institutionalization of oppositional collective memories. Relying on Derrick Bell's interest‐convergence principle, the author concludes that the creation of this major memorial museum was a result of the convergence of white and black interests, specifically the economic and political interests of white elites and the cultural and political interests of black symbolic entrepreneurs.     

The Politics of Recognition: Jewish Refugees in Relief Policies and Human Rights Debates, 1945-1950

This essay analyses the place of Jewish survivors in the refugee system established by the West in the aftermath of the Second World War. Departing from the literature of trauma and mourning, this article addresses Holocaust survivors as migrant refugees subjected to international categorisations, relief policies and human rights debates. Between 1945 and 1950, Jewish refugees were recognised as an ideal-type community of victims by western humanitarianism. Recognition entailed symbolic and material entitlements, and eventually rewarded Holocaust survivors with historical, political and territorial vindication. As opposed to other refugee groups who entered the market of international compassion in the 1940s, Jewish refugees were granted full status of political victims.     

MARKET STRUCTURE AND PRICE-COST MARGINS:A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF U.K. AND U.S. MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

This paper reports a comparative study of market structure- performance relations in U. K. and U.S. manufacturing indus- tries. The multivariate regression results support the hypothesis of homogeneity of the links between market structure and the price-cost margin dimension of performance in manufacturing industries of the two countries. Furthermore, the results indicate that the differences in the legal and cultural environments of U.K. and U.S. industries do not significantly affect the pattern of similarity in the links.     

Comparing the discussion networks and voluntary association memberships of immigrants and non-immigrants in U.S. suburban gateways

Using survey data from five Chicago (U.S.) suburbs, we build regression models comparing the social lives of immigrants and non-immigrants. We define immigration several ways (citizenship, legal status, immigrant generation, length of time in U.S., and race/ethnicity). Results indicate that the size, longevity and density of immigrants’ discussion networks are mostly comparable to those of non-immigrants, as are the number and longevity of their voluntary association memberships. Immigrants and non-immigrants differ little in geographic location of their network confidants and organizational memberships. However, there is less racial/ethnic variety in immigrants’ social lives, particularly if they are Latinx or not citizens.