Page 113. CHAPTER SIX Searching for Changing Organizational Architecture during Global Transition... more Page 113. CHAPTER SIX Searching for Changing Organizational Architecture during Global Transition: Where Is the PostCold War Order? Thomas J. Volgy, Keith A. Grant, and Elizabeth Fausett As the cold war concluded ...
Does the American Dream still exist when nearly 30 million Americans live in families in which wo... more Does the American Dream still exist when nearly 30 million Americans live in families in which workers find a paycheck and poverty in the same envelope? Just as Michael Harrington's The Other America shocked the nation with its disclosure of poverty in the 1960s, John E. Schwarz and Thomas J. Volgy's The Forgotten Americans exposes the breadth of poverty that exists today among responsible, hardworking Americans. At the end of the prosperous 1980s, the number of Americans living in working-poor families equaled the combined populations of the nation's 25 largest cities. Contrary to conventional wisdom, this situation is not largely confined to minorities, women, the undereducated or young adults. It is commonplace for workers from nearly all segments of society to be employed in low-paying jobs even during good economic times. The Forgotten Americans reveals the betrayal of the hopes and expectations of these industrious people through broad-based factual evidence and the real-life stories of individual families. Their hardship has been ignored at enormous cost to them and the country. Numerous problems at the forefront of national debate-welfare dependency, crime, and the inadequate performance of many American school children-are closely connected to the existence of working poverty on a large scale. Unless corrective action is taken, the country risks the creation of a deeply fractured society arising from the despair of millions of employed people who have discovered that practicing the work ethic yields little reward. The problem is staggering and often misunderstood by politicians, the media, and the public. Once Schwarz and Volgy have outlined the implications of this social and economic tragedy, they propose effective solutions that require simple changes to existing policies-solutions that are politically feasible and can be accomplished without new taxes.
Ask most Americans what they think of politics and you'll likely get an earful. With suspicio... more Ask most Americans what they think of politics and you'll likely get an earful. With suspicion and distrust of public servants running high, many citizens seem dispirited by the very process that has made the United States a showcase for democracy. Now ask Tom Volgy. This former mayor of a major western city, who is also a political scientist, contends that most elected officials are the very opposite of what the public thinks: honest, hardworking people whose real work goes unnoticed by most of their constituents and the media. Volgy has interviewed more than 300 elected officials mayors, city council members, legislators from all over the United States to offer a decidedly contrarian view of politics. He explores the lives and working conditions of elected officials at the local level the area of democracy closest to the public to show that officeholders are for the most part average citizens, not the slick lawyers or political pros we usually imagine them to be. Most are motivated by a sense of civic duty, and they often work for token salaries, yet once elected they give up their personal lives and fall prey to every conceivable brickbat of public and media outrage. In Politics in the Trenches, Volgy shows what really happens behind the scenes of government. He contrasts perception with reality regarding the rewards and perks of office. He examines the process of experimentation in the political laboratory and shows how the news media distort it. He provides a case study of homelessness to illustrate the system's constraints and limitations. And he offers a chapter on a typical week in office that will be an eye-opener for most readers. Although admittedly there are many flaws in the democratic political process, observes Volgy, all are correctable as long as citizens believe in the essential worth of the system itself. His book offers a fresh perspective on democratic governance and tackles tough issues such as campaign finance reform, urging citizens to understand the process before they condemn its players out of hand. More than that, this is a call to action, warning us that we could lose true democracy if we don't get involved.
Practicing Agnosticism Around Passionate Believers. Who Cares?: The Salience and Contours of Glob... more Practicing Agnosticism Around Passionate Believers. Who Cares?: The Salience and Contours of Global Architecture. The Three Faces of State Strength. Assessing State Strength Among the Major Powers. "Creeping Incrementalism" and "Group Hegemony": State Strength and the New World Order. Gazing Through the Crystal Ball: The Stability of Today's Architecture. What If: Another Round of Architectural Enhancements for a New World Order?
Evidence-Based Approaches to Peace and Conflict Studies, 2022
Should peace be attributed mainly to democracy or to some intervening variable that influences bo... more Should peace be attributed mainly to democracy or to some intervening variable that influences both democracy and conflict? A second, perhaps related question is whether or to what extent democratization is driven by external drivers of threat. If regime type helps explain external conflict, does external conflict also help explain regime type? By examining the relationships among strategic rivalry, unstable boundaries, democracy, and interstate conflict in a regional context, we find that rivalry and unstable boundaries are alternative manifestations of external threat. Both have significant, if not identical effects on stimulating interstate conflict. Regime type does not appear to have an independent effect on interstate conflict when we take either rivalries or unstable boundaries into consideration. At the same time, we also find that external threat indicators negatively predict changes in democratization. In short, greater threat is associated with less democratization.borders, democratization, interstate conflict, rivalry, Western Europe
Page 113. CHAPTER SIX Searching for Changing Organizational Architecture during Global Transition... more Page 113. CHAPTER SIX Searching for Changing Organizational Architecture during Global Transition: Where Is the PostCold War Order? Thomas J. Volgy, Keith A. Grant, and Elizabeth Fausett As the cold war concluded ...
Does the American Dream still exist when nearly 30 million Americans live in families in which wo... more Does the American Dream still exist when nearly 30 million Americans live in families in which workers find a paycheck and poverty in the same envelope? Just as Michael Harrington's The Other America shocked the nation with its disclosure of poverty in the 1960s, John E. Schwarz and Thomas J. Volgy's The Forgotten Americans exposes the breadth of poverty that exists today among responsible, hardworking Americans. At the end of the prosperous 1980s, the number of Americans living in working-poor families equaled the combined populations of the nation's 25 largest cities. Contrary to conventional wisdom, this situation is not largely confined to minorities, women, the undereducated or young adults. It is commonplace for workers from nearly all segments of society to be employed in low-paying jobs even during good economic times. The Forgotten Americans reveals the betrayal of the hopes and expectations of these industrious people through broad-based factual evidence and the real-life stories of individual families. Their hardship has been ignored at enormous cost to them and the country. Numerous problems at the forefront of national debate-welfare dependency, crime, and the inadequate performance of many American school children-are closely connected to the existence of working poverty on a large scale. Unless corrective action is taken, the country risks the creation of a deeply fractured society arising from the despair of millions of employed people who have discovered that practicing the work ethic yields little reward. The problem is staggering and often misunderstood by politicians, the media, and the public. Once Schwarz and Volgy have outlined the implications of this social and economic tragedy, they propose effective solutions that require simple changes to existing policies-solutions that are politically feasible and can be accomplished without new taxes.
Ask most Americans what they think of politics and you'll likely get an earful. With suspicio... more Ask most Americans what they think of politics and you'll likely get an earful. With suspicion and distrust of public servants running high, many citizens seem dispirited by the very process that has made the United States a showcase for democracy. Now ask Tom Volgy. This former mayor of a major western city, who is also a political scientist, contends that most elected officials are the very opposite of what the public thinks: honest, hardworking people whose real work goes unnoticed by most of their constituents and the media. Volgy has interviewed more than 300 elected officials mayors, city council members, legislators from all over the United States to offer a decidedly contrarian view of politics. He explores the lives and working conditions of elected officials at the local level the area of democracy closest to the public to show that officeholders are for the most part average citizens, not the slick lawyers or political pros we usually imagine them to be. Most are motivated by a sense of civic duty, and they often work for token salaries, yet once elected they give up their personal lives and fall prey to every conceivable brickbat of public and media outrage. In Politics in the Trenches, Volgy shows what really happens behind the scenes of government. He contrasts perception with reality regarding the rewards and perks of office. He examines the process of experimentation in the political laboratory and shows how the news media distort it. He provides a case study of homelessness to illustrate the system's constraints and limitations. And he offers a chapter on a typical week in office that will be an eye-opener for most readers. Although admittedly there are many flaws in the democratic political process, observes Volgy, all are correctable as long as citizens believe in the essential worth of the system itself. His book offers a fresh perspective on democratic governance and tackles tough issues such as campaign finance reform, urging citizens to understand the process before they condemn its players out of hand. More than that, this is a call to action, warning us that we could lose true democracy if we don't get involved.
Practicing Agnosticism Around Passionate Believers. Who Cares?: The Salience and Contours of Glob... more Practicing Agnosticism Around Passionate Believers. Who Cares?: The Salience and Contours of Global Architecture. The Three Faces of State Strength. Assessing State Strength Among the Major Powers. "Creeping Incrementalism" and "Group Hegemony": State Strength and the New World Order. Gazing Through the Crystal Ball: The Stability of Today's Architecture. What If: Another Round of Architectural Enhancements for a New World Order?
Evidence-Based Approaches to Peace and Conflict Studies, 2022
Should peace be attributed mainly to democracy or to some intervening variable that influences bo... more Should peace be attributed mainly to democracy or to some intervening variable that influences both democracy and conflict? A second, perhaps related question is whether or to what extent democratization is driven by external drivers of threat. If regime type helps explain external conflict, does external conflict also help explain regime type? By examining the relationships among strategic rivalry, unstable boundaries, democracy, and interstate conflict in a regional context, we find that rivalry and unstable boundaries are alternative manifestations of external threat. Both have significant, if not identical effects on stimulating interstate conflict. Regime type does not appear to have an independent effect on interstate conflict when we take either rivalries or unstable boundaries into consideration. At the same time, we also find that external threat indicators negatively predict changes in democratization. In short, greater threat is associated with less democratization.borders, democratization, interstate conflict, rivalry, Western Europe
Uploads
Papers by Thomas Volgy