November 2008

Is there a monadic authoritarian peace: Authoritarian regimes, democratic transition types and the first use of violent force

This paper examines conflict proneness of authoritarian states and tests whether the monadic democratic peace argument can be extended to explain the conflict behavior of authoritarian states. Previous works have examined the propensity of authoritarian states to engage in conflict in dyadic relations with other states, rather than directly examining the conflict propensity of these states using monadic...

Author(s): John Ishiyama, Ryan Conway and Katherine Haggans

November 2008

The 2008 political parties’ code of conduct in Ghana: A toothless Bulldog?

The idea of drafting a Code of Conduct for political parties in the run up to the December 2008 General Elections by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA-Ghana) under the auspices of the Ghana Political Parties’ Programme (GPPP) was hailed by many Ghanaians and political analysts as a step in the right direction. Indeed, the establishment and inauguration of enforcement bodies under the Code was seen as a useful...

Author(s): Ransford Edward Van Gyampo

November 2008

UN discourse and information power: An illustration via HIV/AIDS news in Uganda

International organizations disseminate vast amounts of information on social problems. To what extent does this dissemination manifest in discourse and information power? That is to say, how do country-level actors respond to international information on HIV/AIDS? This paper addresses this question using Uganda as case study and examines how actors adopt, modify, or ignore information disseminated by UN organizations....

Author(s): Tara Das