Truth and Democracy

It is no secret that politicians lie. Yet, most of us feel queasy faced with the level of mendacity and deceptiveness, and with the lack of concern for facts associated with the Bush administration. This unease is certainly due in part to the disastrous consequences this administration had for the lives of thousands and thousands of people in Iraq and the U.S., among other places, and for the stability of the whole Middle-East. Yet, there is more to this unease. We expect dictators and despots to lie and deceive. In contrast, democratic politics should be more concerned with the truth. There appears to be a clear incompatibility between the idea of a self-governing people and a lying and deceptive government. Our unease with the Bush administration comes from this apparent mismatch between its behaviour and our ideal of democratic politics

Principe de légitimité et violence démocratique

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Political Corruption as Deformities of Truth

This paper presents a conception of corruption informed by epistemic democratic theory. I first explain the view of corruption as a disease of the political body. Following this view, we have to consider the type of actions that debase a political entity of its constitutive principal in order to assess corruption. Accordingly, we need to consider what the constitutive principle of democracy is. This is the task I undertake in the second section where I explicate democratic legitimacy. I present democracy as a procedure of social inquiry about what ought to be done that includes epistemic and practical considerations. In the third section, I argue that the problem of corruption for a procedural conception of democracy is that the epistemic value of the procedure is diminished by corrupted agents’ lack of concern for truth. Corruption, according to this view, consists in two deformities of truth: lying and bullshit. These deformities corrupt since they conceal private interests under the guise of a concern for truth. In the fourth section, I discuss the difficulties a procedural account may face in formulating solutions to the problem of corruption.Cet article offre une approche du concept de corruption en fonction d’une théorie épistémique de la démocratie. J’explique d’abord l’idée de la corruption en tant que maladie du corps politique. Suivant cette approche, concevoir la corruption politique requiert de déterminer quel type d’action détourne une entité politique de son principe constitutif. Ainsi, il convient d’établir quel est le principe constitutif de la démocratie. C’est ce que je fais dans la seconde section où j’explique la légitimité démocratique. Je présente la démocratie comme une entreprise commune d’enquête, qui inclut à la fois des considérations épistémiques et pratiques, sur ce qui devrait être fait. Dans la troisième section, j’argumente que le problème de la corruption pour une justification procédurale de la démocratie est que la valeur épistémique de la procédure est amoindrie par le manque de considération d’agents corrompus pour la vérité. La corruption, selon ce cadre d’analyse, consiste en deux difformités de la vérité : le mensonge et la bullshit. Ces difformités cor-rompent du fait qu’elles dissimulent une recherche d’intérêts particuliers sous le couvert d’un intérêt pour une décision correcte. Dans la quatrième section, je discute des difficultés de l’approche procédurale à formuler des solutions au problème de la corruption

Bird-borne video-cameras show that seabird movement patterns relate to previously unrevealed proximate environment, not prey

The study of ecological and behavioral processes has been revolutionized in the last two decades with the rapid development of biologging-science. Recently, using image-capturing devices, some pilot studies demonstrated the potential of understanding marine vertebrate movement patterns in relation to their proximate, as opposed to remote sensed environmental contexts. Here, using miniaturized video cameras and GPS tracking recorders simultaneously, we show for the first time that information on the immediate visual surroundings of a foraging seabird, the Cape gannet, is fundamental in understanding the origins of its movement patterns. We found that movement patterns were related to specific stimuli which were mostly other predators such as gannets, dolphins or fishing boats. Contrary to a widely accepted idea, our data suggest that foraging seabirds are not directly looking for prey. Instead, they search for indicators of the presence of prey, the latter being targeted at the very last moment and at a very small scale. We demonstrate that movement patterns of foraging seabirds can be heavily driven by processes unobservable with conventional methodology. Except perhaps for large scale processes, local-enhancement seems to be the only ruling mechanism; this has profounds implications for ecosystem-based management of marine areas

Sympatric otariids increase trophic segregation in response to warming ocean conditions in Peruvian Humboldt Current System

Determining trophic habits of predator communities is essential to measure interspecific interactions and response to environmental fluctuations. South American fur seals, Arctocephalus australis (SAFS) and sea lions Otaria byronia (SASL), coexist along the coasts of Peru. Recently, ocean warming events (2014–2017) that can decrease and impoverish prey biomass have occurred in the Peruvian Humboldt Current System. In this context, our aim was to assess the effect of warming events on long-term inter- and intra-specific niche segregation. We collected whisker from SAFS (55 females and 21 males) and SASL (14 females and 22 males) in Punta San Juan, Peru. We used δ13C and δ15N values serially archived in otariid whiskers to construct a monthly time series for 2005–2019. From the same period we used sea level anomaly records to determine shifts in the predominant oceanographic conditions using a change point analysis. Ellipse areas (SIBER) estimated niche width of species-sex groups and their overlap. We detected a shift in the environmental conditions marking two distinct periods (P1: January 2005—October 2013; P2: November 2013—December 2019). Reduction in δ15N in all groups during P2 suggests impoverished baseline values with bottom-up effects, a shift towards consuming lower trophic level prey, or both. Reduced overlap between all groups in P2 lends support of a more redundant assemblage during the colder P1 to a more trophically segregated assemblage during warmer P2. SASL females show the largest variation in response to the warming scenario (P2), reducing both ellipse area and δ15N mean values. Plasticity to adapt to changing environments and feeding on a more available food source without fishing pressure can be more advantageous for female SASL, albeit temporary trophic bottom-up effects. This helps explain larger population size of SASL in Peru, in contrast to the smaller and declining SAFS population

Enjeux théoriques et pratiques du développement régional : 30 Ans de recherche au GRIR

Le trentième anniversaire du GRIR a été souligné au printemps 2013 par un colloque regroupant plusieurs chercheurs dans le domaine du développement local et régional. Cet ouvrage est le produit de leurs réflexions tant sur le plan théorique que pratique. Ce livre est articulé autour de trois axes : 1) la présentation des divers courants en développement régional, 2) des réflexions sur le passé et le présent des Premières Nations et 3) la présentation de cas concrets sur la prise en main du développement par les différents acteurs du territoire. Cet ouvrage est un outil permettant de constater le travail accompli en développement local et régional et de dégager des pistes de réflexion sur les avenues possibles de développement

Association of behavior in boys from low socioeconomic neighborhoods with employment earnings in adulthood

Importance Identifying early childhood behavioral problems associated with economic success/failure is essential for the development of targeted interventions that enhance economic prosperity through improved educational attainment and social integration. Objective To test the association between kindergarten teacher–rated assessments of inattention, hyperactivity, opposition, aggression, and prosociality in boys with their employment earnings at age 35 to 36 years as measured by government tax return data. Design, Setting, and Participants A 30-year prospective follow-up study analyzing low socioeconomic neighborhoods in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Boys aged 5 to 6 years attending kindergarten in low socioeconomic neighborhoods were recruited. Teacher-rated behavioral assessments were obtained for 1040 boys. Data were collected from April 1984 to December 2015. Analysis began January 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures Mixed-effects linear regression models were used to examine the association between teacher ratings of inattention, hyperactivity, opposition, aggression, and prosociality at age 6 years and individual earnings obtained from government tax returns at age 35 to 36 years. The IQ of the child and family adversity were adjusted for in the analysis. Results Complete data were available for 920 study participants (mean age at follow-up was 36.3 years). Mean (SD) personal earnings at follow-up were $28 865.53 ($24 103.45) (range, $0-$142 267.84). A 1-unit increase in inattention (mean [SD], 2.66 [2.34]; range, 0-8) at age 6 years was associated with decrease in earnings at age 35 to 36 years of $1295.13 (95$2051.65 to −$538.62), while a unit increase in prosociality (mean [SD], 8.0 [4.96]; range, 0-20) was associated with an increase in earnings of$406.15 (95% CI, $172.54-$639.77). Hyperactivity, opposition, and aggression were not significantly associated with earnings. Child IQ was associated with higher earnings and family adversity with lower earnings in all models. A 1-SD reduction in inattention at age 6 years was associated with a theoretical increase in annual earnings of $3040.41, a similar magnitude to an equivalent increase in IQ. Conclusions and Relevance Teacher ratings of inattention and prosociality in kindergarten boys from low socioeconomic neighborhoods are associated with earnings in adulthood after adjustment for hyperactivity, aggression, and opposition, which were not associated with earnings. Interventions beginning in kindergarten that target boys’ inattention and enhance prosociality could positively impact workforce integration and earnings

Longitudinal child data: What can be gained by linking administrative data and cohort data?

Linked administrative data sets are an emerging tool for studying the health and well-being of the population. Previous papers have described methods for linking Canadian data, although few have specifically focused on children, nor have they described linkages between tax outcomes and a cohort of children who are particularly at risk for poor outcomes in adulthood. This paper describes a probabilistic linkage performed by Statistics Canada linking the Montreal Longitudinal Experimental Study (MLES) and the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Kindergarten Children (QLSKC) survey cohorts and administrative tax data from 1992 through 2012. The number of valid cases in the original cohort file with valid tax records was approximately 84%. Rates of false positives, false negatives, sensitivity, and specificity of the linkage were all acceptable. Using the linked file, the relationship of childhood behavioural indicators to adult outcomes including earnings, total household income, and use of social assistance can be investigated in future studies. Innovative methods for creating longitudinal datasets on children can enhance existing data by providing information on a variety of outcomes without an increase in response burden, additional costs, or additional data collection. These can increase the longevity of survey data by examining long-term outcomes associated with early childhood characteristics as well as interventions to enhance child outcomes