Roundtable on Epistemic Democracy and its Critics

On September 3, 2015, the Political Epistemology/Ideas, Knowledge, and Politics section of the American Political Science Association sponsored a roundtable on epistemic democracy as part of the APSA’s annual meetings. Chairing the roundtable was Daniel Viehoff, Department of Philosophy, University of Sheffield. The other participants were Jack Knight, Department of Political Science and the Law School, Duke University; Hélène Landemore, Department of Political Science, Yale University; and Nadia Urbinati, Department of Political Science, Columbia University. We thank the participants for permission to republish their remarks, which they edited for clarity after the fact

City Know-How

Human health and planetary health are influenced by city lifestyles, city leadership, and city development. For both, worrying trends are leading to increasing concern and it is imperative that human health and environmental impacts become core foci in urban policy. Changing trajectory will require concerted action; the journal Cities & Health is dedicated to supporting the flow of knowledge, in all directions, to help make this happen. We wish to foster communication between researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, communities, and decision-makers in cities. This is the purpose of the City Know-how section of the journal. ‘Research for city practice’ disseminates lessons from research by explaining key messages for city leaders, communities, and the professions involved in city policy and practice. ‘City shorts’ provide glimpses of what is being attempted or achieved ‘on the ground’ and ’case studies’ are where you will find evaluations of interventions. Last, ‘Commentary and debate’ extends conversations we are having to develop and mobilize much needed new thinking. Join in these conversations. In order to strengthen the community of interest, we would like to include many and varied voices, including those from younger practitioners and researchers who are supporting health and health equity in everyday urban lives

Mercury records covering the past 90 000 years from lakes Prespa and Ohrid, SE Europe

The element mercury (Hg) is a key pollutant, and much insight has been gained by studying the present-day Hg cycle. However, many important processes within this cycle operate on timescales responsive to centennial- to millennial-scale environmental variability, highlighting the importance of also investigating the longer-term Hg records in sedimentary archives. To this end, we here explore the timing, magnitude, and expression of Hg signals retained in sediments over the past ∼ 90 kyr from two lakes, linked by a subterranean karst system: Lake Prespa (Greece, North Macedonia, and Albania) and Lake Ohrid (North Macedonia and Albania). Results suggest that Hg fluctuations are largely independent of variability in common host phases in each lake, and the recorded sedimentary Hg signals show distinct differences first during the Late Pleistocene (Marine Isotope Stages 2–5). The Hg signals in Lake Prespa sediments highlight an abrupt, short-lived peak in Hg accumulation coinciding with local deglaciation. In contrast, Lake Ohrid shows a broader interval with enhanced Hg accumulation and, superimposed, a series of low-amplitude oscillations in Hg concentration peaking during the Last Glacial Maximum, which may result from elevated clastic inputs. Divergent Hg signals are also recorded during the Early and Middle Holocene (Marine Isotope Stage 1). Here, Lake Prespa sediments show a series of large Hg peaks, while Lake Ohrid sediments show a progression to lower Hg values. Since ∼ 3 ka, anthropogenic influences overwhelm local fluxes in both lakes. The lack of coherence in Hg accumulation between the two lakes suggests that, in the absence of an exceptional perturbation, local differences in sediment composition, lake structure, Hg sources, and water balance all influence the local Hg cycle and determine the extent to which Hg signals reflect local- or global-scale environmental changes

The subsurface geology of T.4N., R.4 & 5E., Pontotoc County, Oklahoma /

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Oklahoma, 1958.Nine maps in pocket.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-46)Main, cop. 1-2.Geology, cop. 3.wn/k

Replication Data for: Redistributive Political Transitions: Minority Rule and Liberation Wars in Colonial Africa

These files contain the replication commands and data for Paine, Jack. 2018. "Redistributive Political Transitions: Minority Rule and Liberation Wars in Colonial Africa

Replication Data for: Economic Grievances and Civil War: An Application to the Resource Curse

A large body of scholarship suggests that economic grievances play an important role in civil wars. But what specific economic activities trigger such grievances, and why would governments not take proactive steps to limit economic grievances in order to stabilize their regimes? This article argues that specific economic activities—those that undermine a producer’s ability to exit the formal economy—cause governments to make taxation decisions that, despite the costliness of fighting, increase the likelihood of civil war. An inability for producers to exit the formal economy also undermines regional autonomy deals by encouraging governments to grab short-term rents despite the risk of triggering civil war. After deriving this “redistributive grievance” mechanism by analyzing an infinite-horizon bargaining model with endogenous labor supply and economic production, I address a specific empirical source of such redistributive grievances: oil-rich regions fight separatist civil wars relatively frequently. Capital-intense, geographically concentrated, and immobile oil production corresponds with conditions in the formal model that predict redistributive grievances and war. Moreover, I argue that applying the redistributive grievances mechanism to understanding the oil-separatism relationship also highlights shortcomings of alternative “greed”-based explanations

Replication Data for: Democratic Contradictions in European Settler Colonies

How did political institutions emerge and evolve under colonial rule? Although European settlers’ strong organizational position enabled demanding representative political institutions, this article establishes core democratic contradictions in European settler oligarchies. The first hypothesis qualifies Europeans’ impulse for representative institutions by positing the importance of a metropole with a representative tradition. Analyzing new data on colonial legislatures in 144 colonies between the 17th and 20th centuries shows that only British settler colonies—emanating from a metropole with representative institutions—systematically exhibited early elected legislative representation. The second hypothesis highlights a core democratic contradiction even in colonies that established early representative institutions. Extending class-based democratization theories predicts perverse institutional evolution—resisted enfranchisement and contestation backsliding—because sizable European settler minorities usually composed an entrenched landed class, rejecting the heralded Dahlian path from competitive oligarchy to full democracy. Evidence on voting restrictions and on legislature disbandment from Africa, the British Caribbean, and the U.S. South supports these implications

Replication data for "What Were the Consequences of Decolonization?" in ISQ

These files contain the necessary information to replicate every table and figure in "What Were the Consequences of Decolonization" (joint with Alexander Lee) published in International Studies Quarterly

Replication Data for: Ethnic Violence in Africa: Destructive Legacies of Pre-Colonial States

These files enable replicating all tables and figures in Paine, Jack. 2019. "Ethnic Violence in Africa: Destructive Legacies of Pre-Colonial States." International Organization