<p>In the debate generated by the authorization and reauthorization of the Patriot act we can find a wide range of opinions and ideas concerning the balance of freedom and security, and how that might affect the society. The government (the creators of the law) advocates the necessity of the Patriot act and its structural changes to secure the freedoms of USA. While opposing views suggest that these changes affect the balance of freedom and security in such a way that it might affect the way of life and be a threat to the civil liberties of the citizens. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the debate reflects how the Patriot act may have affected the balance between the various practices of freedoms and national security in USA.</p><p>This thesis investigates three aspects of the debate that concerns the Patriot act. The rhetoric’s used in the debate by both sides show some difference in the rationales of the debating sides. Some controversial aspects of the law undermine the safeguards that are suppose to protect the civil liberties and freedoms when their definitions are opened up for a wide arrange of interpretations. The third part of the thesis investigates the big brother mentality that is being fostered and culture of preparedness of all the nation’s dimensions and systems that is asked for in order to adapt to these systematic changes of their society that the law provides.</p><p>The investigation of the debate conclude that state apparatus takes on a role of coordinative micromanaging, which together with the culture of preparedness fosters the nation to always be on its toes. As a result of these changes the practices of freedom and the democratic values they nourish are being destabilized and undermined in the climate of fear that is being established.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University.

In this paper I will offer an overview the evolution of civil liberties in the United States. These liberties, I argue, were meant to protect individuals from unwarranted exercises of power from the government, but ultimately were not intended to hamper the government’s ability to carry out basic government functions, such as self defense. Next, I examine the parallel evolution of the ability of the executive to exercise broad ranging powers in pursuit of foreign policy, especially in regard to self defense. After that I argue that the current policy not necessarily represent the administration choosing self defense over an individual’s civil liberties. Rather, it represents the notion that at a fundamental level, a state will always choose to pursue foreign policies designed to protect itself, and that even the domestic legal institutions that have evolved in the United States recognize that fact. / text

In the debate generated by the authorization and reauthorization of the Patriot act we can find a wide range of opinions and ideas concerning the balance of freedom and security, and how that might affect the society. The government (the creators of the law) advocates the necessity of the Patriot act and its structural changes to secure the freedoms of USA. While opposing views suggest that these changes affect the balance of freedom and security in such a way that it might affect the way of life and be a threat to the civil liberties of the citizens. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the debate reflects how the Patriot act may have affected the balance between the various practices of freedoms and national security in USA. This thesis investigates three aspects of the debate that concerns the Patriot act. The rhetoric’s used in the debate by both sides show some difference in the rationales of the debating sides. Some controversial aspects of the law undermine the safeguards that are suppose to protect the civil liberties and freedoms when their definitions are opened up for a wide arrange of interpretations. The third part of the thesis investigates the big brother mentality that is being fostered and culture of preparedness of all the nation’s dimensions and systems that is asked for in order to adapt to these systematic changes of their society that the law provides. The investigation of the debate conclude that state apparatus takes on a role of coordinative micromanaging, which together with the culture of preparedness fosters the nation to always be on its toes. As a result of these changes the practices of freedom and the democratic values they nourish are being destabilized and undermined in the climate of fear that is being established.

What is the impact of disease burden on democracy in sub-Saharan Africa? Despite increasing interest in the implications of health crises for state stability, there has been a dearth of literature exploring the relationship between disease burden more generally and democracy specifically. This thesis takes a comprehensive approach to bridge this gap in the literature. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, it draws on data from the Global Burden of Disease database and the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) dataset to analyze this relationship. The diseases studied are categorized as long-wave (e.g., HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis), short-wave (e.g., Ebola and lower respiratory infections), or endemic (e.g., malaria and an aggregate of other infectious diseases). In terms of democracy, this thesis focuses on civil liberties and civil society. Having utilized a linear regression, controlling for economic variables, this study found a positive and significant relationship between long-wave diseases and both civil liberties and civil society; a negative and significant relationship between Ebola and both civil liberties and civil society; a positive and significant relationship between lower respiratory infections and both civil liberties and civil society; and, finally, a positive and significant relationship between the other infectious disease aggregate and civil society. Ultimately, there was no significant relationship between the other diseases studied and the democratic variables. By identifying past relationships between particular kinds of diseases and manifestations of democracy, we can establish a baseline from which to project our expectations about how emerging diseases like COVID-19 will impact the practice of democracy.

The primary purpose of the study was to measure the influence of high school social studies teachers upon the economic and civil liberties attitudes of their twelfth grade students. Additionally, peer group influence, and influences, related to the sex role and to social class were measured.

The competing values of national security and civil liberties have been contested as conflicting ideas during times of national emergencies and war, in which the canonical knowledge asserts that the temporary secession of civil liberties is sometimes necessary to protect national security. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack there has been increased pressure on the U.S. government to provide safety and security, which has required Americans to accept certain restrictions on their freedoms, leading to debates about whether liberty or security should be prioritized. The increasing popularization of securitization in post 9/11 discourse justified by a perpetual state of emergency via the War on Terror, has reinforced the racialization of reified "others," specifically Muslims or people who are perceived to be descendent from the Middle East. The conceptualization of Middle Easterners as 'terrorists' and 'threats' to be securitized has been constructed by political elites and media narratives to garner support for security measures leading to the diminished civil liberties of those stereotyped as "terrorists." Using the theoretical approach of racialized "othering" and the minority threat perception, this research seeks to analyze public opinion on counterterrorism policies when the race/ethnicity and ideological motivations of perpetrators in a hypothetical terrorist attack scenario are manipulated. To investigate this premise, an online survey experiment distributed through Amazon MTurk was conducted to gather public opinion data on counterterrorism policies. Regression analyses were conducted from the 314 respondents to evaluate support amongst various social groups for the counterterrorism policies and whether or not this support was affected by the presence of either American-born, White, men motivated by the teachings of far-right extremism or American-born, men of Middle Eastern descent motivated by the teachings of Islamic extremism. Respondents were asked to evaluate two counterterrorism policies, one that required ceding the civil liberties of the public at large, and the other required ceding the civil liberties of suspected terrorists specifically – which is also referred to as the 'punitive' policy throughout the research. Overall, respondents were more likely to support the policy requiring ceding civil liberties in general, than the punitive policy that would take away the civil liberties of suspected terrorist. When factoring in survey type, respondents in general were more likely to support the punitive policy when taking the White/Far-right extremism survey and were also the most likely to support the policy requiring the public to cede their civil liberties when taking the Middle Eastern/Islamic extremism survey. The willingness to cede civil liberties increased for Black and Asian respondents with the presence of the White/Far-right extremism survey, while willingness to cede civil liberties decreased for White respondents taking the same survey. In general, conservatives were more likely to cede their civil liberties than liberals, and liberals were more likely to view counterterrorism policies as ineffective. When accounting for the effects of survey type on ideology, the results show that conservatives were the least likely to cede their civil liberties when taking the White/Far-right extremism survey, while liberals were the most likely to cede their civil liberties when taking the Middle Eastern/Islamic extremism survey. / Master of Arts / This thesis explores the role of issue framing, and threat perception on terrorism and its effects on public perception of the liberty vs. security paradigm by way of support for counterterrorism policies. Specifically, this research aims to assess whether support for counterterrorism policies by social group (focusing on race and ideology) varies when the race/ethnicity and ideological motivations of the perpetrators are manipulated in a hypothetical terrorist attack scenario. In order to test this effect, a survey experiment was conducted to gather public opinion data on counterterrorism policies which emulated the liberty/security trade-offs within the Patriot Act. The survey was distributed through the online platform Amazon MTurk which garnered 314 responses. Regression analyses were conducted to evaluate support amongst various social groups for the counterterrorism policies and whether or not this support was affected by the presence of either American-born, White, men motivated by the teachings of far-right extremism or American-born, men of Middle Eastern descent motivated by the teachings of Islamic extremism. Using the theoretical approach of "othering" and the minority threat perception that contributes to desires for increased social controls and levels of punitiveness among the public, this research evaluates respondents' willingness to cede their own civil liberties as well as their support for punitive policies that take away the civil liberties of the perpetrators based on the survey/stimuli respondents received. Overall, respondents were more likely to support the policy requiring ceding civil liberties, than support the punitive policy that would take away the civil liberties of the perpetrators. When factoring in survey type, respondents in general were more likely to support the punitive policy when taking the White/Far-right extremism survey and were also the most likely to support the policy requiring the public to cede their civil liberties when taking the Middle Eastern/Islamic extremism survey. The willingness to cede civil liberties increased for Black and Asian respondents with the presence of the White/Far-right extremism survey, while the willingness to cede civil liberties decreased for White respondents with the presence of the White/Far-right extremism survey. In general, conservatives were more likely to cede their civil liberties than liberals, and liberals were more likely to view counterterrorism policies as ineffective. When accounting for the effects of survey type on ideology, the results show that conservatives were the least likely to cede their civil liberties when taking the White/Far-right extremism survey, while liberals were the most likely to cede their civil liberties when taking the Middle Eastern/Islamic extremism survey.

Using data for 93 countries from 1972 through 2001 in cross-national analysis, this study compares the relative economic strength of a country's middle-class with its civil liberties performance and its history of domestic and external conflict. For purposes of this analysis, the relative strength of a country's middle-class is determined by multiplying the square root of a country's gross domestic product per capita by the percentage of income distributed to the middle 60 % of the population (middle class income share). Comparisons between this measure of per capita income distributed (PCID) and several other indicators show the strength of the relationship between PCID and civil liberties performance and domestic and external conflict. In the same manner, comparisons are made for the middle class income share (MCIS) alone. The countries are also divided by level of PCID into 3 world classes of 31 countries each for additional comparisons. In tests using bivariate correlations, the relationships between PCID and MCIS are statistically significant with better civil liberties performance and fewer internal conflicts. With multivariate regression the relationship between PCID and civil liberties performance is statistically significant but not for PCID and internal conflict. As expected, in both correlations and regression between PCID and external conflict, variables related to power dominate. However, when the countries are divided into world classes by level of PCID, the eleven countries with the highest level of PCID have had no internal or external conflict since 1972. Moreover, there is no within group conflict for countries in either the upper or middle classes of countries based on their level of PCID. The between group conflict does include democracies.

Security is a term that appears to be used in a variety of ways and to have a number of meanings. In policy discussions, there may be reference to information security, national security, network security, online security, and other kinds of security. In an environment where technological innovation appears to be occurring at an ever increasing rate, policy makers look to technological experts for advice, and information security policy is developed, it seems to be important to consider these variations in meaning. This constructivist inquiry explores the context in which information security policy is developed and inquires into the meanings, assumptions, and values of those who engage in policy discourse. The guiding research question, "What is the meaning of security?" asks participants in federal and state government, colleges and universities, and the private and non-profit sectors about their understandings of security. The findings of this inquiry, presented in a narrative case study report, and the implications of this case study provide a richer understanding of the multiple meanings of security in the context in which information is selected and presented to policy makers, advice is given, and policy decisions are made. The multiple perspectives offered by diverse research participants offer valuable insights into the complex world in which information security policy development takes place. While the goal of this research is understanding, the use of thick description in the narrative may aid in the transferability necessary for the reader to make use of this research in other settings. Lessons learned are included, along with implications for policy makers and for future research.

The problem with which this thesis is concerned is the relationship between literature and politics. By means of a biographical and historical study two significant writers of the 1930s/40s I examine the ways in which the pressures of Depression, the threat of fascism and the onset of war influenced Australian writing. In particular, I ask whether the political issues of the period affected what these authors wrote and how they wrote it. My conclusion is that pressure of political concern caused significant personal, philosophical and political changes in Barnard and Davison, and that it affected both the genre in which they wrote and the content of their fiction. They turned from fiction to cultural commentary, historical writing, political pamphleteering and activism. They utilised short fiction as a means of discussing their worries about the state of the world and in order to promote values they felt threatened. When they returned to longer fiction their work bore, to differing degrees, in its ideas, arguments and imagery, the influence of their political engagement. More generally, I conclude that liberal humanism was the major animating philosophy of writers in the 1930s and that their concern with political issues grew from their conviction that western liberal democracy was the most fruitful soil for the production of art, a climate of freedom which they felt threatened by both fascism and war. This anxiety is the most important factor in both their politicisation and the work they did under the latter???s influence.