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"Arwine, Alan"
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Tolerance and the Politics of Identity in the European Union
Objectives. The basic research problem in this article is whether hostility toward out-groups is a product of events or whether the degree of hostility toward out-groups exists independently of such events in the form of a generalized bigotry. Methods. We examine two countries that experienced threatening violent events from an unassimilated minority in order to determine if their levels of intolerance increased in the period between two runs of the World Values Survey when these violent events occurred. This article also examines six additional EU countries that did not experience such violent events. Results. In the six countries that did not experience violent events, the level of tolerance increased between the two waves of the World Values Survey while tolerance decreased in the two countries that experienced violent events. Conclusions. The strongest factor in fostering intolerance toward out-groups is a perception of a violent, existential threat to one’s way of life. Our analyses tentatively suggest the following factor may exacerbate levels of intolerance: the presence and strength of a nativist or populist party of identity mobilizing a rejection of out-groups.
Journal Article
The use of United States aid as a tool to improve human rights performance: An empirical analysis
The United States was the world's largest granter of foreign aid from the end of World War II until it was surpassed by Japan in 1989. As with any foreign policy instrument, political, economic and ideological considerations lay behind American decisions on when, where, and how to give aid. Aid can be used to enhance potential relationships, address the economic needs of both the U.S. and recipient countries, and to further U.S. ideological interests and values. The expected return will often depend on the specific aid recipient and surrounding circumstances. Perhaps one of the most controversial questions surrounding the use of aid is the influence it may have on a recipient's human rights performance. In the mid-1970s Congress took steps to tie U.S. foreign aid to the human rights performance of aid recipients. With Congress linking human rights concerns to U.S. foreign policy the relationship between aid and human rights has become an issue of both theoretical interest and policy importance. Despite a lack of of empirical evidence that establishes a positive relationship between U.S. aid and improved recipient nation performance it remains U.S. policy to grant aid to countries with what the U.S. defines as a satisfactory or improving human rights record. This study attempts to determine if there is a significant relationship between U.S. aid and the improvement in human rights performance of the receiving countries. The analysis indicates that aid is not consistently used as a tool to help improve the human rights performance of the recipient nations, but that it shows some promise that aid could be used for that purpose.
Dissertation
Birth Order and Political Behavior: Clearing the Underbrush
Birth order has been implicated in a wide variety of human behaviors. One aspect of this is the contention that those who are first born differ in important respects politically from later born people. Actual findings from empirical research are surveyed to see the extent to which birth order affects both mass and elite political behavior. The meta-analysis suggests no clear pattern of findings supportive of the posited birth order-politics linkage; furthermore, the bulk of the studies that do indicate some relationship are methodologically flawed. It appears that further, more refined research is necessary to demonstrate that the linkage exists. /// Le rang de naissance est utilisé pour l'explication de comportements humains très divers, notamment de comportements politiques. L'article passe en revue et évalue les principales études de cette dernière corrélation qui ont été faites soit au niveau des masses soit à celui des élites. L'entreprise fait ressortir qu'il n'y a pas de lien fermement établi entre ces deux types de phénomènes. Les travaux qui concluent qu'il y a corrélation souffrent de sérieux défauts méthodologiques.
Journal Article
VOTERS NEED NONE-OF-THE-ABOVE OPTION
Albert Somit is a professor emeritus at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; Alan Arwine is a research scientist in the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. To be sure, American voters are often dismayed by the dubious qualifications of those running for public office. That experience is nicely depicted by a New Yorker cover cartoon in which every choice for every office is symbolized by a lemon. But the presidency is not just any political position. It is the quintessential elective office in the United States (and, arguably, in the entire world). The failure of our parties to nominate truly attractive presidential candidates poses a serious threat - of which poor voter turnout is only one manifestation - for our democratic system. Some relatively modest changes in the federal laws bearing on presidential elections might induce or possibly even compel our parties to offer the voters more attractive choices. Consider the legislation that provides federal funds for presidential candidates. As matters stand, any \"third\" party that received 5 percent or more of the popular votes in the previous presidential election is allotted funds in proportion to the percentage of its vote; the remaining funds, up to a inflation-adjusted limit (currently some $122 million), are then divided equally between the two major party candidates for general election campaigning.
Newspaper Article