135,131 research outputs found

    Does a College Degree Really Influence Economic Success? It\u27s Complicated

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    Higher education in the United States is currently facing a myriad of challenges, most of which are self-inflicted. Having a more educated populace, in and of itself, does not necessarily guarantee any advantages to anyone. We can blame shifting demographics, evolving economic realities and changing societal priorities – but the ultimate responsibility for our present circumstance lies squarely with those within the academy

    Power Grid Politics: Winter Storm Uri and Texas Governor Greg Abbott\u27s Image Repair Discourse

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    Winter storm Uri hit the state of Texas on February 14, 2021. Bringing record amounts of snow, ice, and prolonged sub-zero temperatures, the storm caused widespread power outages which led to hundreds of deaths, and created a complex rhetorical situation for Governor Greg Abbott. This article examines the image repair discourse engaged in by Abbott, and ultimately concludes that his use of blame-shifting, corrective action, and defeasibility strategies were ultimately effective, but to varying degrees based on each respective strategy. We argue herein that Abbott’s strategy of shifting the blame for the debacle to ERCOT was his most effective tactic, while his reliance on corrective action approaches (while necessary and expected by the audience) were only marginally persuasive. Abbott’s defeasibility strategy was undercut both by conflicting statements, and by the recent reality that Texas does, in fact, experience extreme weather events however rare. We also argue that severe weather events are likely to become more frequent in the future, and that Texas in particular will be uniquely impacted by these storms due to climate change. We conclude that the political fortunes of elected officials will increasingly depend on how they justify their response to these cataclysmic storms

    Dishonest Ethical Advocacy?: False Defenses in Criminal Court

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    This Note examines this dilemma and recent judicial approaches to it. Judges disagree about how guilty criminal defendants should be permitted to mount defenses at trial. Some have forbidden defense counsel from knowingly advancing any false exculpatory proposition. Others have permitted guilty defense attorneys to present sincere or truthful testimony in order to bolster a falsehood. And still others have signaled more general comfort with the idea that an attorney aggressively can pursue an acquittal on behalf of a guilty client. This Note seeks to resolve this issue by parsing the range of false defense tactics available to attorneys and evaluating the propriety of each under the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. This Note reads the Model Rules in the context of the adversary system’s twin aims to seek truth and safeguard individual rights; it defines and categorizes specific false defense tactics; and it offers practical, context-specific recommendations to courts and attorneys evaluating knowingly false defenses as they occur in the real world

    Shifting the Blame: On Delegation and Responsibility

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    To fully understand the motives for delegating a decision right, it is important to study responsibility attributions for outcomes of delegated decisions. We conducted an experiment in which subjects were able to delegate the choice between a fair or unfair allocation, and used a punishment option to elicit responsibility attributions. Our results show that, first, responsibility attribution can be effectively shifted and, second, this constitutes a powerful motive for the delegation of a decision right. Furthermore, we propose a formal measure of responsibility and show that this measure outperforms measures based on outcome or intention in predicting punishment behavior.delegation, decision rights, moral responsibility, blame shifting

    An Argument Against the Arbitrary Acceptance of Guilty Pleas as Statements Against Interest

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    “La culpa es de los tlaxcaltecas”: Gender, the Burden of Blame, and a Re-examination of the Myth of La Malinche

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    This paper explores Elena Garro’s short story “La culpa es de los tlaxcaltecas.” Supplementing close readings with analyses drawn from relevant authors and theorists, I highlight the key ideas regarding gender, identity, memory, and history that Garro weaves into her text, and I consider Garro’s emphasis on patriarchal control, the internalization of female culpability for the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, and women’s role in constructing and reconstructing historical discourses. By travelling into her own and Mexico’s past, Laura Aldama, one of the main female protagonists in the story, not only challenges gendered histories but also reveals how patriarchal thought continues to influence contemporary realities. In addition, by paralleling Laura’s guilt and feelings of betrayal with the La Malinche myth, Garro’s work restructures this cultural symbol. Ultimately, I argue that “La culpa es de los tlaxcaltecas” redefines women’s role in history and society; valorizes female solidarity, voice, and perspective; and encourages women to challenge the limitations of masculinist discourses

    Risk-talk: the politics of risk and its representation

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    Looking at the concept of risk from a cross-cultural perspective, the contributors challenge the Eurocentric frameworks within which notions of risk are more commonly considered. They argue that perceptions of danger, and sources of anxiety, are far more socially and culturally constructed – and far more contingent – than risk theorists generally admit. Topics covered include prostitutes in London; AIDS in Tanzania; the cease-fire in Northern Ireland; the volcanic eruptions in Montserrat; modernisation in Amazonia; and the BSE scare in Britain

    Before Forgiveness

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    Why Training Doesn't Stick: Who is to Blame?

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    This article, "Why Training Doesn't Stick," presupposes that it does not, and that, as a matter of course, it is a waste of precious dollars to send someone to a workshop or a seminar for training. Soon after training goes the assumption that the trainee will be doing things the old way. While acknowledging that at least sometimes that training does stick, the author has come to understand that the conditions under which training is successful are so specific and so rarely met that when it happens it is the exception rather than the rule. "Who is to blame?" The author answers that question by explaining how we can turn the tables and make "training that sticks" the rule rather than the exception.published or submitted for publicatio
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