Spartan Daily, February 8, 1991

Volume 96, Issue 8https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/8076/thumbnail.jp

The Politics of Acknowledgement: Truth Commissions in Uganda and Haiti

In the aftermath of a period of mass violations of human rights, societies are left with a weakened social infrastructure, on top of a similarly weakened physical infrastructure. The "Politics of Acknowledgement" posits that a society must pass through several stages in its quest to right the wrongs of the past, and remedy the social problems, and explores the role of acknowledgement in the process of societal recovery. I argue that the process of acknowledgement is of particular importance, forming a necessary but not sufficient condition in any successful process of societal recovery to allow the society to move forward. Acknowledgement can lead to forgiveness, which allows social trust and civic engagement to grow, all of which can lead to the development of civil society and, ultimately, democracy. The thesis considers how the truth commissions of Uganda and Haiti were able to foster such acknowledgement. Both commissions were beset by a number constraints. Chief among these was a lack of political will to see the commission successfully through. This led directly to the failure of the commissions. The commissions failed in securing the social capital, security, and funding required to complete their work in a timely fashion. The evidence shows that neither commission was able to foster any significant levels of acknowledgement. As a result, social trust and civil society simply did not develop, which compromised the development of democracy in both Haiti and Uganda.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD

The Politics of Democratization: Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the Lavalas Movement in Haiti

As the 29-year Duvalier dictatorship ended in 1986, the emergence of Mouvement Lavalas out of the grassroots organizations of Haiti\u27s poor majority, and election of charismatic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1990, challenged efforts by Haitian political parties and the U.S. foreign policy establishment to contain the parameters of Haiti\u27s democratic transition. This dissertation examines the politics of Lavalas to determine whether it held a particular conception of democracy that explains the movement\u27s antagonistic relationship with the political parties and U.S. democracy promoters. Using the qualitative methodology of process-tracing outlined in the works of Paul F. Steinberg (2004) and Tulia G. Falleti (2006), this study analyzes primary and secondary sources associated with Aristide and the grassroots organizations across the period of contested democratization from 1986 to 1991, with emphasis on four critical junctures: 1) the rule of the Conseil National du Gouvernement; 2) the government of Leslie Manigat; 3) the military regimes of Henri Namphy and Prosper Avril; and 4) Aristide\u27s 8 months in power before being overthrown on September 29, 1991. This study concludes that there were systematic differences in how Lavalas pursued democracy in Haiti, as contrasted to the political parties and U.S. foreign policy-makers. Evidence indicates that while Lavalas placed emphasis on popular mobilization to challenge Haiti\u27s legacy of authoritarianism, the political parties and U.S. democracy promoters emphasized processes of negotiation and compromise with Haiti\u27s anti-democratic forces. Lavalas was rooted in the long historic struggle of the country\u27s poor masses to, not simply establish procedural democracy, what noted political scientist Robert Dahl calls polyarchy, but to expand the parameters of politics to guarantee the right of all Haitians to participate directly in the process of governing, in order to share more equitably in the distribution of national resources, in what critical scholar William I. Robinson calls popular democracy

Approval of George W. Bush: Economic and media impacts

George W. Bush\u27s approval rate had its shares of ups and downs. In this time series study I analyze the empirical evidence of the media\u27s and economy\u27s impact on his approval rate from 2001-2009. People tend to hold the president responsible for the country\u27s economic performance and the media influences people\u27s opinions of the president through agenda setting and priming. I operationalize the media influence on people into an independent variable. My economic independent variables are the monthly percent change in inflation rate, unemployment rate, and personal income. The dependent variable is the president\u27s approval rate. This study seeks to understand the relationship between the economy, media, and George W. Bush\u27s approval rate and add insight to the body of approval research

We do not yet have development : encounters of development knowledges, identities and practices in a NGO program in rural Haiti

Thesis, Carleton University, 199