Thesis advisor: Dennis Hale / This dissertation aims to evaluate the utility of democracy promotion in the Middle East to U.S. foreign policy; in particular, it asks why the Arab-Islamic world has proven uniquely resistant to liberal democracy. The overall argument is that an inadequate theoretical understanding of our own regime and its prerequisites led American policy makers simultaneously to expect too much of democratization, and to think too little of liberal democracy. We overestimated its promise, believing transforming key regimes could, in a cost effective manner, bring peace and prosperity to the Middle East, and in the long term help root out terrorist acts committed in the name of Islam. One of the reasons for this: policymakers underestimated what liberal democracy requires of its citizenry--deeply ingrained beliefs and social practices that are acquired only with difficulty. In Iraq, the Bush administration failed to appreciate that long established opinions and mores establish boundaries that constrain political action. Part I begins by giving an account of the assumptions and deliberations that led the Bush administration to pursue regime change in Iraq. It goes on to demonstrate by concrete examples drawn from the occupation period, the insurgency period, and the period since (characterized by utterly dysfunctional and increasingly authoritarian politics), that the rights and privileges associated with democracy--free and fair elections, new liberties, even the constitutional convention itself--are often used in illiberal ways, as weapons to serve narrow and self-interested factions, where the citizenry has not internalized a liberal political consciousness. Part II argues that a rare political personality--largely separable from any particular national character--accounts for the confluence of political liberalism and democratic institutions in the North Atlantic states. Our gentle and tolerant politics are the result of a series of revolutions in social consciousness that have not occurred in the Islamic world. In fact, the Islamic Resurgence of the last century, a revolution as consequential as the French of American Revolutions, is the consequence of a conscious project dedicated to popularizing guiding opinions that are deliberately inhospitable to political liberalism. Analysis of leading Islamist thinkers in the Sunni and Shiite world demonstrates the extent to which they have been successful in erecting barriers to modern and moderate government in the Middle East, which they reject as unjust and corrupting. The dissertation concludes by arguing that Turkey succeeded at establishing a mixed regime by emulating, so far as possible under its own circumstances, the conditions that made the emergence of liberal democracy possible in the West. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

稿本 / 論文(碩士)--香港中文大學硏究院哲學學部,1992. / 參考文獻: leaves 79-84 / 孔繁楓. / 論文撮要 --- p.iv / 前言 --- p.vi / Chapter 第一章 --- 導論：自由主義的進路 --- p.1 / Chapter 第二章 --- 自由主義 --- p.2 / Chapter 第三章 --- 公正 --- p.6 / Chapter 3.1 --- 效益主義 --- p.6 / Chapter 3.2 --- 義務論式的自由主義 --- p.7 / Chapter 3.3 --- 康德的傳統 --- p.8 / Chapter 3.4 --- 建構社會的基本原則 --- p.11 / Chapter 第四章 --- 公正的社會 --- p.13 / Chapter 4.1 --- 主要論旨 --- p.14 / Chapter 4.2 --- 對基要理論的論証 --- p.15 / Chapter 4.3 --- 平等的概念 --- p.17 / Chapter 4.4 --- 價值多元 --- p.23 / Chapter 4.5 --- 各自實現理想的自由 --- p.24 / Chapter 第五章 --- 市場 --- p.26 / Chapter 5.1 --- 不自由與不能夠 --- p.27 / Chapter 5.2 --- Polis與個體社會 --- p.28 / Chapter 5.3 --- 市場運作 --- p.29 / Chapter 第六章 --- 市場的缺陷 --- p.33 / Chapter 6.1 --- 內部與外在的缺 --- p.33 / Chapter 6 .2 --- 違反市場規律的回報 --- p.34 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- 囚犯的兩難 --- p.35 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- 欺詐的效益 --- p.36 / Chapter 6.3 --- 市場式的平等 --- p.37 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- 不平等的競爭能力 --- p.38 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- 外部經濟 --- p.40 / Chapter 6.3.3 --- 理性的交易者 --- p.41 / Chapter 6.4 --- 戰爭狀態 --- p.42 / Chapter 第七章 --- 政府 --- p.43 / Chapter 7 .1 --- 諾錫克的論証 --- p.43 / Chapter 7.2 --- 對市場機制的保証與補充 --- p.44 / Chapter 第八章 --- 政府的權限 --- p.46 / Chapter 8.1 --- 普遍的原則 --- p.47 / Chapter 8.2 --- 領域的規範 --- p.50 / Chapter 8.3 --- 運作程序程的保証 --- p.52 / Chapter 第九章 --- 權利 --- p.58 / Chapter 9.1 --- 理想及權利 --- p.58 / Chapter 9.2 --- 高人與矮瓜 --- p.60 / Chapter 9.3 --- 自由主義的困局 --- p.63 / Chapter 第十章 --- 結語：另一條進路 --- p.67 / 註釋 --- p.73 / 參考書目 --- p.79

This dissertation aspires to revive the dystopian liberalism which identifies the avoidance of the worst as the fundamental aim of politics. The theory I present consists of three elements overall: The first element is what I call the Priority Claim, stating that the most important aim of social institutions should, morally speaking, be to avoid cruelty qua worst evil (Part I). The second element is the identification of the informal structure, the set of social norms within a population, as an important site to realize this ideal (Part II). The third element is the application of the principle that cruelty be avoided to the in-formal structure (Part III). This leads to an account of desirable social norms and in turn to a concrete answer to the question how individuals can in their everyday lives do their part to create a world that is overall less cruel and more humane.

The most common economic myths through the prism of liberal economic schools Abstract The thesis analyses the two grand, persisting economic myths - the myth of just price and the myth of immorality of profits, vis-à-vis the work of scholarly economists, mainly of the liberal persuasion. This broad intellectual current of economic thought is represented by the so called Chicago school of economics, represented by Thomas Sowell, and the so called neo- Austrian school of economics, represented by Ludwig von Mises. The second part of the thesis deals with the myth of just price and it`s presence throughout our history, from ancient Babylon to today`s Venezuela. Since it took almost 2000 years for this myth to be dispelled by economic thought, a brief history of such thought has been incorporsted into the thesis, beginning from Aristotle, through Thomas Aquinas to Alfred Marshall. A big part of this brief history is then dedicated to the so called marginal revolution and the effects thereof. The end of the second part of the thesis concerns itself with the thought of liberal economists, whose work was at least partly dedicated to dispelling of the myth of just price and other economic myths. The thesis attempts to illuminate the role of prices, value and other associated economic phenomena which relate to these...

<p>Uppsatsens syfte är att analysera den mediala debatten kring konfessionella friskolor för att komma fram till hur diskursen kring de religiösa friskolorna konstrueras. Vilka teman är debatten uppbyggd kring, vilka utgångspunkter grundar sig den i och vilka begränsningar skapas det i talet om de religiösa friskolorna? Uppsatsen behandlar såväl olika syn på religion och dess betydelse, som integration, liberalistiska värden och hur makt skapas i samband med institutionaliserade diskurser.</p><p> </p><p>Vidare kan man genom debatten även utröna diskussioner om vilken funktion skolan bör ha, hur mycket statlig styrning som är önskvärd och hur intolerans egentligen ska definieras. Genom analysen uppmärksammas det svenska svenska samhället och de sekulariserade samt liberalistiska värden som styr möjligheterna att utala sig som de religiösa friskolorna. Debatten kring de religiösa friksolorna kan bland annat ses som en sätt att försöka kontrollera och definiera religionen och dess alltmer påtagliga plats i det offentliga.</p>

The common asylum and migration policy of the European Union is a struggle between a strong belief in the protection of human rights and the need of strong and secured borders. This paper highlights the dilemma that occurs in the common asylum and migration policy of the European Union. What happens when the union have to choose between liberal standards with high priorities to human rights and a realistic focus on security? The aim is to study the asylum policy presented in the Stockholm Program, and thereafter evaluate what kind of character the union has itself. By an ideal type analysis of the Stockholm program from 2009, the common asylum policy is divided into either liberal or realistic ideas. The result of the study has shown that the realistic tendencies are stronger than the liberal, which gives the union a character of an unitary state.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, urban spaces have become increasingly subject to various methods of surveillance and control, especially by physical means. Yet, while 9/11 acted as a catalyst for rapid increases in security measures, the process of securitization has a much longer history. Accordingly, this research looks at how security has been planned and how this has changed over the last four decades in the context of Canada. The dissertation focuses on three Canadian case studies to explore the evolution of security planning: the October Crisis with an emphasis on Montreal (1970), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vancouver (1997), and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. Each case represents a significant moment in Canadian security planning and provides insight into the shifting structure of Canada’s security apparatus. Furthermore, these cases offer a lens into the historical transformations of the Canadian ‘security state’. While the issues and actions associated with these cases cut across local, national, and international scales, the impacts of security measures in each were mostly local and urban. To show how Canadian urban spaces have been transformed and controlled by an evolving security framework, I argue that security planning must be understood as a form of urban planning, although one that remains to be properly acknowledged by the profession or even the academic discipline of planning. Given the democratic claims of liberal planning and its professed concern for the good city, it is therefore significant that the security measures studied in these case studies were implemented without democratic scrutiny but with significant consequences for urban experience. This dissertation tells a story of security planning in Canada, demonstrating how its practices have changed over time in ways that are at odds with liberal political values cherished by mainstream planning.

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The concept of human nature profoundly shapes our understanding of how political and social life ought to be organised. This thesis examines the concept of human nature developed by the Green political perspective and its impact on the Green understanding of economy, society and technology. By comparing the Green and Liberal concepts of human nature (and by extension their respective conceptualisation of society, economy and technology), it is argued that the roots of present day environmental crisis could be traced to the Liberal concept of human nature and the Liberal conceptualisation of the relationship between humanity and nature.

No description available.