A Note on Race and Politics in the United States

The impetus for this brief commentary derives from the idea that the politics of race in the United States continues to be a public affairs issue. Given that it is important for political scientists to debate race and politics in the United States, as a multifaceted area of American politics, the Journal of Political Science and Public Affairs provides an open forum for different methodological approaches and diverse perspectives and positions on race and politics. 

In fact, we are witnessing a time where race, in terms of its metonymic intensifications, is analysed and discussed through a variety of coded signifiers such as culture and class. Hence, any effort to stage ast and off that race matters or not in the United States would have to recognize the ontology and epistemology of race and its modalities of visual performance,that is, not what race is, but what race does. Race is something that is ascribed to blacks and other non-whites. Whites, on the other hand, are unraced and unmarked, which positioned whites as members of the dominant group.

Political Transition in Economic Decentralization: Bargaining Coalition between Central and Provincial Government in China: 1978-1993

Economic decentralization in China has created autonomous leverages for the provincial governments, and it is through bargaining,concessions, and cooperation with the provincial governments that the central government has promoted rapid economic growth. These are the existing cases of coalitional politics within Leninist reform.

However, such phenomenal circumstances have not been given serious consideration by most current students of the China’s reforms, who usually neglected the irreversible political transitions away from Leninism in Communist countries; nor do my findings support theories of political development, which see political coalitions only as alignments between the state and organized social interests, such as parties and interest groups. The deficiency of both types of explanations prohibits them from correctly explaining new political events in the Chinese economic decentralization.

Political Polarization and Democratic Process in Taiwan: Implications for Cross-strait Relations

The outcomes of the Chinese civil war coupled with other coincident occurrences were among the key factors and forces that led the Nationalist party retreat to Taiwan branching out from the communist government in the mainland China. In the post-Martial law Taiwan, political divisions, which started flourishing in 1986, paved the way for internal political struggles outside the KMT for the first time in Taiwan political history. 

Polarization has steadily become cogent, and one of the ambitious tasks to the yet Taiwan’s growing democracy. Taiwanese domestic politics is determined by multiple vicissitudes including cross-Strait relations. Alternatively, different groups adhere to political viewpoints favoring either unification, independent and/or status quo. As per the theory, these motions have to deal with foreign policy of the island directly, simply because trades and investments alongside diplomatic ties can be determined not only by the group or individual decision making, but also by the domestic population as well.

Female Genital Mutilation: A Violation of Human Rights

Female genital mutilation is a term used to describe a wide range of traditional practices that involves partial or total removal of external female genital for cultural, religious and social reasons. This cultural practice is a violation of human rights of child and women. This article is, therefore, aims at argue against the practice of Female Genital Mutilation. In doing so, the paper divides into three parts. 

The first part will discuss about the concept, origin, types and rationales of the practice of FGM, and highlight the practice from the Ethiopian experience. The second part will also examine the tension between the Universalist and cultural relativist approaches in regards to the practice of FGM. Universalists argument is against the practice of FGM as a harmful cultural practice that violates human rights of child and women. 

Political Elections as an Element of Democracy

The article examines electoral systems in relation to democratic theory; and it links the study of electoral systems to that of voting systems. It compares elections in various other kinds of systems, and it looks at the differences between Azerbaijan experience and that of other countries. The article tries to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

The literature regarding the formation of party systems in different transition societies, reflects that establishment of institutionalized party system where competing parties exist is an extended process and needs a long time. Also,this study accounts for different electoral system in terms of political modernization and democratic transformation. All these problems have been analyzed from both a comparative and a theoretical stand point. Today, to attain a healthy and stable political structure is one of the main problems of political science. As a result, political parties and political elections are indispensable elements of democracy.