tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/northwestern-university-1259/articlesNorthwestern University2024-03-04T13:37:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2245872024-03-04T13:37:41Z2024-03-04T13:37:41ZHow much does a government shutdown hurt the economy? Depends how long it lasts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578414/original/file-20240227-20-8h8s6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=114%2C130%2C4993%2C3002&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Congress faces yet another potential shutdown.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/GovernmentShutdown/46beb94542d041e29fb52751bd371d2f/photo?Query=shutdown%202013&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=26&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=1&vs=true">AP Photo/Andrew Harnik</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the U.S. government shuts down, the immediate and <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/government-shutdown-3305683">most visible impact</a> is a rupture in its day-to-day operations.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-shutdown-what-closed-open-affected-explained-post-office-irs-national-parks-2019-01-05/">many national museums and parks are closed</a>, immigration hearings are postponed and the <a href="https://www.crfb.org/papers/government-shutdowns-qa-everything-you-should-know">Food and Drug Administration isn’t doing routine inspections</a> of domestic food-processing facilities.</p>
<p>But beyond these functions and the individual workers and families affected, could a short or lengthy shutdown affect the broader U.S. economy as well? </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mmNLdVoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Constantine Yannelis</a>, a professor at the University of Chicago, and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8syQapsAAAAJ&hl=en">I</a> examined data from the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2016.09.005">2013 government shutdown</a> to better understand its impact. </p>
<h2>An economic speed bump</h2>
<p>A primary channel through which a shutdown affects the economy is through withheld or forgone pay from federal employees who don’t receive their paychecks. </p>
<p>Since consumer spending makes up <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/consumer-spending-trends-and-current-statistics-3305916">about 70% of economic activity</a> in the United States, withholding pay from even some <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/30/1202782481/government-shutdown-federal-workers-contractors-military-dc-maryland-virginia">of the 2 million or so</a> government workers could introduce a significant economic speed bump in the short run. </p>
<p>And that’s exactly what we saw in October 2013, when a partisan standoff in Congress <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/lessons-from-the-last-time-the-government-shut-down">led to a partial shutdown of the government</a> that lasted a little over two weeks. </p>
<p>Well over 1 million federal employees were affected and didn’t receive a paycheck during the shutdown. Some were furloughed – sent home and told not to do anything related to their job. Those deemed “essential” or “exempted” – such as security personnel screening passengers at airports or border patrol agents – were required to continue working at their jobs, although they were not receiving paychecks. The government eventually paid both groups the money owed them, regardless of whether they worked, after <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/10/16/235442199/how-we-got-here-a-shutdown-timeline">Democrats and Republicans reached</a> an agreement on Oct. 16, 2013.</p>
<p>My colleague and I <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2016.09.005">sought to understand</a> how households responded by tracking how they behaved in the days leading up to, during and following the shutdown using detailed financial data.</p>
<p>We obtained this anonymized data from a personal finance website where people track their income, expenses, savings and debt. Using the paycheck transaction descriptions, we identified over 60,000 households that contained employees of federal agencies affected by the shutdown. These affected employees included both those who were asked to work without pay and those who were furloughed.</p>
<p>As a comparison group, we also identified over 90,000 households with a member who worked for a state government. That would likely mean they have fairly similar levels of education, experience and financial security, yet their paychecks were unaffected by the shutdown.</p>
<h2>Short-term impact on spending</h2>
<p>Our study led to two primary findings. </p>
<p>First, we found that the shutdown led to an immediate decline in average household spending of almost 10%. Surprisingly, despite the fact that most federal workers have stable jobs and income sources, they were quick to cut spending on pretty much everything, from restaurants to clothing to electronics, just days after their pay was delayed.</p>
<p>While households with less money in the bank cut their spending by larger amounts, even those with significant resources and easy access to credit reduced their expenditures. </p>
<p>Second, households with a member who was furloughed and required to stay home from work slashed their spending more dramatically – by 15% to 20%, or almost twice as much as the average of those affected. This larger decline reflected the fact that these households suddenly had a lot more time on their hands. Rather than going out to eat or paying for child care, for example, they could spend more time, say, cooking or watching their own children. </p>
<p>These types of behavioral changes are what help spread the economic effects of a shutdown from the slice of the population that’s immediately affected to a wider group of businesses and individuals in Washington, D.C. And in regions with substantial numbers of federal workers, these declines in spending can greatly hurt the health of the local economy in the short run. </p>
<h2>Long-term impact?</h2>
<p>Whether or not a shutdown has a longer-term economic impact depends on whether employees are paid their forgone wages after its conclusion – and how long the shutdown lasts. </p>
<p>In 2013, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-past-shutdowns-congress-gave-federal-workers-back-pay-this-time-dont-count-on-it/2013/09/23/a7028e3e-2485-11e3-ad0d-b7c8d2a594b9_story.html">government repaid</a> even furloughed workers what they would have earned had the shutdown not happened. </p>
<p>This repayment, essentially increasing the size of their first post-shutdown paychecks, had significant and immediate effects on household spending. A sudden spike in spending occurred in the days after the paychecks were disbursed, largely erasing some of the most dramatic declines in spending during the previous two weeks. </p>
<p>The government has usually paid all its employees, “essential” or not, back pay after other shutdowns, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-past-shutdowns-congress-gave-federal-workers-back-pay-this-time-dont-count-on-it/2013/09/23/a7028e3e-2485-11e3-ad0d-b7c8d2a594b9_story.html">such as those in the 1990s</a>. While Congress is legally required to pay federal employees who worked during the shutdown, there’s no law requiring the same treatment for nonessential workers. </p>
<p>In addition, the longer the shutdown lasts, the worse its impact. Households might deplete savings or hit their credit card limits as the impasse stretches day after day, giving them additional time to adjust their spending in ways that they could not do with only a few days’ notice. For instance, in 2013, bills for health insurance or tuition payments were largely unaffected. Had that shutdown persisted, households may have started to cut back here as well.</p>
<p>So if Congress refuses to offer furloughed workers back pay, or the shutdown lasts months rather than weeks, the economic impact could be severe. </p>
<p>However, if a shutdown is resolved in a relatively short amount of time, with workers being paid back their regular income, the damage would likely be fairly contained.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-a-federal-government-shutdown-damage-the-us-economy-90419">article originally published</a> on Jan. 19, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224587/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott R. Baker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As Democrat and Republican leaders negotiate a potential spending deal to fund the government, the partial shutdown of 2013 offers some clues about the economic impact should they fail.Scott R. Baker, Associate Professor of Finance, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2245862024-02-27T20:00:16Z2024-02-27T20:00:16ZUS temporarily avoids government shutdown but threat remains: 4 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578384/original/file-20240227-24-l6d3lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=129%2C931%2C8497%2C4811&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Biden and Vice President Harris met on Feb. 27, 2024, with congressional leaders to find a way to avoid a shutdown.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Biden/ff2a1de2d69744cf80a497414c3edd8f/photo?Query=biden&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=124199&currentItemNo=7">AP Photo/Evan Vucci</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Congress <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-29/house-passes-short-term-spending-to-avert-us-government-shutdown?srnd=homepage-americas&sref=Hjm5biAW">temporarily averted</a> a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-26/government-shutdown-q-a-will-it-shut-down-and-what-you-should-know">partial government shutdown</a> that would have taken effect on March 2, 2024, by passing a very short-term funding extension.</p>
<p>The measure – which gives Congress more time to finalize spending packages for the current fiscal year – keeps funds flowing to government agencies until March 8 for some departments and until March 22 for the others. A short-term spending deal <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/federal-government-shutdown-funding-11-14-23/index.html">reached just a little over three months ago</a>, which helped prevent the last threatened shutdown, had given Congress two deadlines: March 1 and March 8, 2024, with different departments closing down if funding wasn’t passed by each date. </p>
<p>Democrats and Republicans have been far apart on funding the government, as a group of hard-right lawmakers <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/world/europe/republicans-spending-shutdown.html">demands spending cuts and conservative policies</a> such as new restrictions on abortion access, as part of any agreement. </p>
<p>If following U.S. politics feels a little like “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/">Groundhog Day</a>,” you’re not alone. The Conversation has been covering the increasingly frequent shutdown close calls in recent years by asking experts in politics, economics and other fields to provide context and explain the consequences of a government shutdown. The following is a roundup of some of those articles from our archive. </p>
<h2>1. A shutdown is the wrong way to negotiate a budget</h2>
<p>The small band of conservatives who keep staging these showdown standoffs often use fiscal discipline as a rallying cry. The government is spending too much money, they say, and it’s up to them to put a stop to it. </p>
<p>On the goal of reducing the high U.S. budget deficit – currently about $1.6 trillion – <a href="https://theconversation.com/gop-shutdown-threat-is-the-wrong-way-to-win-a-budget-war-history-shows-a-better-strategy-for-reducing-the-deficit-213938">you won’t get an argument</a> from <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymond-scheppach-19b98536">Raymond Scheppach</a>, former deputy director of the Congressional Budget Office and retired professor of public policy at the University of Virginia. </p>
<p>But trying to cut the deficit by holding the government hostage is the wrong way to do it, he wrote. </p>
<p>“First of all, shutdowns don’t get results,” Scheppach explained. “The U.S. has had 21 shutdowns over the past five decades, three of which have been major. These have all caused real harm to the U.S. economy, but they haven’t led to the spending levels Republicans wanted.”</p>
<p>If today’s conservatives are serious about cutting the swelling budget deficit, Scheppach suggested they take a different tack – genuine negotiation – which has generally yielded just the results they sought. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gop-shutdown-threat-is-the-wrong-way-to-win-a-budget-war-history-shows-a-better-strategy-for-reducing-the-deficit-213938">GOP shutdown threat is the wrong way to win a budget war − history shows a better strategy for reducing the deficit</a>
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<h2>2. Why political brinkmanship keeps getting worse</h2>
<p>One big problem with negotiation is that many lawmakers in both political parties are encouraged by increasing levels of hyperpartisanship to dig in their heels and refuse to compromise. And compromise is a key part of any reasonable negotiation.</p>
<p>That’s the assessment of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cfH3-8sAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Laurel Harbridge-Yong</a>, a Northwestern University political scientist and a specialist in partisan conflict. <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-government-funding-running-out-soon-expect-more-brinkmanship-despite-public-dismay-at-political-gridlock-217252">She doesn’t expect this to change anytime soon</a> – even though the public wants it to.</p>
<p>“So you now have many Republicans who are more willing to fight quite hard against the Democrats because they don’t want to give a win to Biden,” Harbridge-Yong wrote. “However, even if individual members think they’re representing their constituents, representation at the aggregate level can be poor. What the public as a whole – which tends to be more moderate – wants is compromise and resolution.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-government-funding-running-out-soon-expect-more-brinkmanship-despite-public-dismay-at-political-gridlock-217252">With government funding running out soon, expect more brinkmanship despite public dismay at political gridlock</a>
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<h2>3. Shutdowns have long-lasting costs</h2>
<p>The group of Americans most directly affected by a shutdown are federal workers. When a shutdown happens, most are furloughed without pay, while others whose work is deemed essential – such as many in national defense – must still work, but also without getting a paycheck. </p>
<p>When the shutdown ends and the government is funded again, paychecks resume and workers get back pay for however long it lasted. But shutdowns <a href="https://theconversation.com/government-shutdowns-hurt-federal-worker-morale-long-after-paychecks-resume-especially-for-those-considered-nonessential-214431">can have lingering effects on worker morale and retention rates</a>. That drives up the price tag of shutting down the government and can cause long-term damage, wrote <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AJLW1HwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Susannah Bruns Ali</a>, an assistant professor of public policy and administration at Florida International University. </p>
<p>“Shutdowns lead to more people being more likely to leave government employment – and higher workloads and lower motivation for those who remain,” she explained. “These conditions may feed Republican political goals, but they harm the millions of Americans who depend on competent, timely assistance from the public servants on the government payroll. This ultimately leads to lower work performance and employee retention problems.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/government-shutdowns-hurt-federal-worker-morale-long-after-paychecks-resume-especially-for-those-considered-nonessential-214431">Government shutdowns hurt federal worker morale, long after paychecks resume − especially for those considered 'nonessential'</a>
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<h2>4. Shutdowns are uniquely American</h2>
<p>Many other countries also seem to have a great deal of political partisanship, so you might expect fights over government shutdowns to be relatively common. </p>
<p>If you thought that, <a href="https://theconversation.com/shutdowns-are-a-uniquely-american-drama-in-the-uk-its-just-not-parliaments-cup-of-tea-213928">you’d be wrong</a>, according to <a href="https://www.american.edu/sis/faculty/garretm.cfm">Garret Martin</a>, who studies transatlantic relations at the American University School of International Service. </p>
<p>“Other Western democracies experience polarization and political turmoil, too, yet do not experience this problem,” he explained. Take the British system, famous for its raucous Parliamentary sessions: “Government shutdowns just don’t happen – in fact, there has never been one and likely never will be.”</p>
<p>The reason for the difference comes down to four factors, Martin explained: legislative power, ease of passing a budget, political stakes and appropriation rules.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shutdowns-are-a-uniquely-american-drama-in-the-uk-its-just-not-parliaments-cup-of-tea-213928">Shutdowns are a uniquely American drama − in the UK, it's just not Parliament's cup of tea</a>
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<p><em>This article was updated on March 1, 2024, to reflect a new short-term funding deal.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Congress is again on the brink of a government shutdown less than four months after the last close call.Bryan Keogh, Managing EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2203822024-02-21T13:24:02Z2024-02-21T13:24:02ZWealthier, urban Americans have access to more local news – while roughly half of US counties have only one outlet or less<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571704/original/file-20240126-15-zmnjbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New York City could be described as a news oasis – the city's density and wealth mean there are many news outlets competing.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/collaboration/boards/mLIkgOfD3kO9L5mTPzmyfA">Gary Hershorn/via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Is local news readily available in your town? Do reporters still cover your school board and other municipal meetings? </p>
<p>If you answered yes, you are likely wealthier than the average American, and you live in or near a metro area. </p>
<p>The State of Local News Project at Northwestern University documents the changing local news landscape across the country. Our <a href="https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/2023/">latest report</a> shows that where you live and how much money you make affect whether you live in a news desert or a news oasis. This divide is related to other factors affecting the health of our democracy, as analysis of our data by the nonprofit <a href="https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2023/news-deserts-conservative-areas-political/">Rebuild Local News</a> showed.</p>
<p>For more than a decade, I have worked in organizations that study and support local journalism, and I’m <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&authuser=1&user=ItAnZWIAAAAJ&gmla=AH70aAUlPRHu6kmjNSSP-TVvnudJas_Lyz3yPPCuHDmsSYUw4nDbdCcWxmg7Sa1ZBvwXVEh-ulKZ942giM6J4HsIdw4jBb2XJF-zNRWFGmYl9x7m1tgEXxE2Kw">intimately familiar</a> with both the challenges and the solutions for the local journalism landscape.</p>
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<h2>Inequity in local news</h2>
<p>One of the most vexing problems, as our report shows, is the persistence of inequity between communities that are local journalism haves and have-nots. </p>
<p>The have-nots are news deserts with few, if any, journalists to do the daily newsgathering and reporting that people require to participate meaningfully in their local communities and democratic institutions. </p>
<p>The main challenge for news outlets in have-not communities is the <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/news-for-the-rich-white-and-blue/9780231184663">migration of advertising money from the printed page</a> – where it made up roughly 80% of news organizations’ income – to the screen, where it now makes up less than 20%. This decline in ad revenue, a trend for the last decade-plus, has forced many outlets to rely on audience funding, philanthropy, cost-cutting or some combination of the three. </p>
<p>In communities with little disposable income to put toward news subscriptions or donations and no local philanthropies, cost-cutting becomes the only option. This creates a self-reinforcing spiral of lower quality and declining readership and, ultimately, closure. </p>
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<p>In 2023, the country lost more than 130 print newspapers, which continue to be the newsrooms most likely to produce original local content that other outlets circulate.</p>
<p>Since 2005, the U.S. has lost almost 2,900 papers. </p>
<p>New digital outlets are not being created fast enough to fill that huge void. The number of digital outlets has held steady at roughly 550 in recent years, with about 20 new outlets opening each year – and roughly the same number closing.</p>
<p>All told, 1,558 of the nation’s 3,143 counties have only one news outlet, while 203 are news deserts with zero, meaning there are likely thousands of communities that simply do not have access to local news. </p>
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<p>For example, both Texas and Tennessee had four counties lose their only remaining newspaper last year. All eight papers were independently owned.</p>
<h2>What it takes to thrive</h2>
<p>Wealthier communities do better sustaining local news organizations.</p>
<p>Our data shows that counties with an average household income over US$80,000 can support a robust local journalism ecosystem – meaning 10 or more outlets. Those with an average household income of $54,000 or less are more likely to be news deserts. By the same token, the percentage of the population below the poverty line in news deserts averages more than 16%, versus 12% in counties with robust markets. This finding aligns with <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2018-10/Kalogeropolous%20Social%20Inequality%20in%20News%20FINAL.pdf">other research</a>, including a previous study I did of <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2237404">local news in New Jersey</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to household income, population density correlates to the number of outlets serving a local community. In our data, counties with 10 or more outlets are overwhelmingly urban or dense suburbia, while news deserts are usually rural – though news deserts also occur in low-income pockets of metro areas. Densely populated communities tend to include higher-income households and have network effects that come from the ability of businesses to reach a larger number of people in a relatively small footprint. </p>
<p>This phenomenon leads to the third factor related to number of outlets in a county: gross domestic product per capita. In any town, city or country, the GDP represents the amount of money netted from sales of services and merchandise, divided by population. For the news oases in our study, the average GDP per capita is $75,140. For the news deserts, it is just $8,964. This difference reflects the retail and services base, and the number of businesses that could buy advertising in their local news outlet, or create jobs that would allow residents to donate to one. </p>
<p>An example that highlights the importance of this factor is the newspaper <a href="https://moabsunnews.com/">Moab Sun News</a>, which is thriving in the rural rocky highlands of Utah, thanks in part to a <a href="https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/2023/case-studies/moab-sun-news/">robust tourism industry and retail base</a>. Though it serves a relatively small permanent population of 5,321, the Moab Sun News has built a sustainable business model through strong advertising revenue, a user-friendly website that welcomes subscriptions and donations, and creative collaborations with other community organizations in town.</p>
<p>The final factor that contributes to a community being a journalism have or have-not is access to high-quality broadband. <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543064/farm-fresh-broadband/">Emerging metrics</a> show that this near-necessity of contemporary life is not yet reliably available to rural Americans. </p>
<h2>What’s working</h2>
<p>Despite these seemingly intractable problems, solutions to local journalism inequality are becoming clearer.</p>
<p>One is collaboration. For example, in Colorado, the national nonprofit news outlet The Daily Yonder has hired a reporter based in a rural community to write stories about life there and <a href="https://coloradomedia.substack.com/p/bigger-picture-slower-stuff-a-rural">share them out with both local and national organizations</a>. </p>
<p>Another is philanthropy. The new Press Forward initiative has begun <a href="https://www.pressforward.news/locals/">local chapters across the country</a>, with at least one planning to serve rural communities. Organizations like the <a href="https://www.nationaltrustforlocalnews.org/">National Trust for Local News</a> have been buying outlets that would likely otherwise be sold to hedge funds, and turning them into nonprofits that will continue to serve their communities.</p>
<p>Public policy should also play a role. At the state level, <a href="https://njcivicinfo.org/">policies</a> to <a href="https://www.cislm.org/research/government-support-for-local-news/">support local news</a> have seen success in New Jersey, California and elsewhere, and <a href="https://www.rebuildlocalnews.org/wip-resources-other-bills/">more bills</a> are working their way through state legislatures. <a href="https://www.cislm.org/unc-doctoral-student-andrea-lorenz-nenque-on-support-for-local-news/">People seem to be realizing</a> that having quality local news is just as vital as having public education and access to health care. With any luck, every community will have the opportunity to be a journalism “have.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220382/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Stonbely does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The number of nonprofit news outlets is holding steady as they go out of business just as fast as they are founded.Sarah Stonbely, Director, State of Local News Project, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2172502023-11-13T13:33:19Z2023-11-13T13:33:19ZAs yet another deadline looms, a divided US House stumbles closer to a federal shutdown: 5 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558696/original/file-20231109-15-3o1kq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1253%2C576%2C3551%2C2622&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson arrives for a GOP meeting at the Capitol on Nov. 7, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/speaker-of-the-house-mike-johnson-arrives-for-a-house-news-photo/1768479565?adppopup=true">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Once again, federal budget negotiations are down to the last minute, and once again, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-09/house-speaker-mike-johnson-is-running-out-of-time-to-avoid-government-shutdown#xj4y7vzkg">GOP hardliners</a> are in the middle of what might turn into a gridlock. </p>
<p>Current government funding expires on Nov. 17, 2023. While newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republican-us-house-speaker-johnson-nears-choice-avoiding-govt-shutdown-2023-11-08/">has not announced</a> any <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/09/politics/house-republicans-government-funding/index.html">new and specific proposals</a> that stand a chance of passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate, he has urged the public to “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/07/congress-shutdown-house-gop-plan/">trust us</a>.”</p>
<p>The Conversation has published the work of several scholars who study Congress and federal budgets. They explain the brinkmanship politics and the economic consequences of federal shutdowns. Here, we spotlight five examples of those scholars’ work.</p>
<h2>1. How a government shutdown affects the economy</h2>
<p>In the past four decades, the government <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/government-shutdowns-how-long-lasted-years-parties-power-rcna117508">has shut down 20 times</a>.</p>
<p>During the Trump administration, the government <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/25/trump-shutdown-announcement-1125529">shut down three times</a>, the longest starting three days before Christmas in 2018 and lasting 34 days.</p>
<p>Northwestern finance scholar <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8syQapsAAAAJ&hl=en">Scott R. Baker</a> examined a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1094202516300308?via%3Dihub">shutdown in 2013</a> to determine both short- and long-term effects of the federal government closing down. </p>
<p>Baker wrote that the most immediate impact of a shutdown is on the government’s day-to-day operations. </p>
<p>“Many national museums and parks are closed, immigration hearings are being postponed, and the Food and Drug Administration isn’t doing routine inspections of domestic food-processing facilities,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-government-shutdown-affects-the-economy-109688">Baker wrote</a>. </p>
<p>Whether or not a shutdown has a longer-term economic impact, Baker explained, depends on “how long the shutdown lasts and whether employees are paid their foregone wages after its conclusion.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-government-shutdown-affects-the-economy-109688">How a government shutdown affects the economy</a>
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</p>
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<h2>2. Congressional dysfunction?</h2>
<p>As a public policy expert and former deputy director of the Congressional Budget Office, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymond-scheppach-19b98536/">Raymond Scheppach</a> said he believes the challenges in 2023’s negotiations over the budget are the greatest faced in the last five decades. </p>
<p>The reason, Scheppach explained, is the result of “the magnitude of the differences” between the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as the split between the GOP-controlled House and the Senate, where the Democrats hold sway.</p>
<p>“A worst-case scenario could see a government shutdown for several weeks, or even a couple of months – and that could have a significant negative impact on the economy,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/congress-needs-to-pass-12-funding-bills-in-11-days-to-avert-a-shutdown-heres-why-that-isnt-likely-212520">he wrote</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/congress-needs-to-pass-12-funding-bills-in-11-days-to-avert-a-shutdown-heres-why-that-isnt-likely-212520">Congress needs to pass 12 funding bills in 11 days to avert a shutdown – here’s why that isn’t likely</a>
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</p>
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<h2>3. Beyond partisan gridlock</h2>
<p>As a political scientist who studies the evolving budget brinkmanship, <a href="https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014TkUCAA0/laura-blessing">Laura Blessing</a> asks an important question: What are the costs of congressional dysfunction?</p>
<p>One such cost is the added bureaucratic burden on federal agencies to submit shutdown plans to the Office of Management and Budget as required by law. Though as of late September, 80% of the plans had been updated since 2021, no two shutdowns are exactly alike, and agencies are continually revising their plans, which help sketch out the variety of ways the shutdown will affect individual Americans.</p>
<p>And that’s the most immediate concern for most people of the country.</p>
<p>“Whether delayed business loans, slower mortgage applications, curtailed food assistance or postponed food inspections, the effects could be substantial,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-will-this-government-shutdown-shut-down-social-security-and-medicaid-keep-going-sba-loans-and-some-food-and-safety-inspections-do-not-214040">Blessing wrote</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-will-this-government-shutdown-shut-down-social-security-and-medicaid-keep-going-sba-loans-and-some-food-and-safety-inspections-do-not-214040">What will this government shutdown shut down? Social Security and Medicaid keep going; SBA loans and some food and safety inspections do not</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. An ideological battle</h2>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Jks9RasAAAAJ&hl=en">David R. Jones</a>, a scholar of Congress, political parties and elections, noted that one important factor in the House dysfunction over the federal budget is the difference in party ideologies. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://theconversation.com/3-reasons-the-house-gop-is-not-any-more-dysfunctional-than-the-democrats-even-after-the-prolonged-speaker-chaos-216608">Jones wrote</a>, Democrats generally agree that a functioning government is needed to help solve societal problems. Even dissident factions within the Democratic Party are typically unwilling to shut down government operations indefinitely in order to extract concessions from their leadership.</p>
<p>Not so the Republicans. </p>
<p>They are more likely to believe, as President Ronald Reagan famously stated, that “government IS the problem,” Jones wrote. </p>
<p>“This means that dissident factions in the Republican Party can much more credibly threaten to indefinitely halt government operations – doing so does not conflict as much with their policy goals. In turn, the fact that they have less incentive to drop their obstruction gives them more leverage over their party’s leadership.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-reasons-the-house-gop-is-not-any-more-dysfunctional-than-the-democrats-even-after-the-prolonged-speaker-chaos-216608">3 reasons the House GOP is not any more dysfunctional than the Democrats − even after the prolonged speaker chaos</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>5. Federal workers feel the pain</h2>
<p>As a researcher who studies <a href="https://u.osu.edu/zagorsky.1/tag/wealth/">people’s wealth</a>, <a href="https://www.bu.edu/questrom/profile/jay-zagorsky/">Jay L. Zagorsky</a> understands that the loss of a single paycheck can be devastating for many American families.</p>
<p>During the 2019 partial shutdown, about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/shutdown-who-gets-sent-home/?amp;utm_term=.db75457d08e1&noredirect=on&utm_term=.27e7c33902aa">800,000 federal workers</a> were either furloughed or working without pay.</p>
<p>“Going without a paycheck for a few weeks is hard enough,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-workers-begin-to-feel-pain-of-shutdown-as-800-000-lose-their-paychecks-109710">Zagorsky wrote</a>. “If the shutdown lasts months or years, the situation could get very dire for the average government worker.”</p>
<p>Zagorsky noted that there is a bit of good news.</p>
<p>“Congress tends to give all affected workers back pay, regardless of whether they worked during the impasse,” he wrote.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-workers-begin-to-feel-pain-of-shutdown-as-800-000-lose-their-paychecks-109710">Federal workers begin to feel pain of shutdown as 800,000 lose their paychecks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217250/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The threat to shut down the federal government to attain political goals appears to be an important factor in the budget negotiations.Howard Manly, Race + Equity Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2172522023-11-09T13:36:28Z2023-11-09T13:36:28ZWith government funding running out soon, expect more brinkmanship despite public dismay at political gridlock<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558474/original/file-20231108-27-e7mj5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C26%2C4391%2C4114&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When Democrats and Republicans fight, do Americans win?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/government-fight-royalty-free-image/1094058960">wildpixel/iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Much of the news coverage of the discussions and negotiations <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/07/congress-shutdown-house-gop-plan/">aimed at averting a government shutdown</a> on Nov. 17, 2023, relies on pundits and their unnamed sources, on leaks, speculation, wishful thinking and maybe even the reading of tea leaves. The Conversation tapped an expert on congressional behavior, Northwestern University political scientist <a href="https://sites.northwestern.edu/lharbridgeyong/">Laurel Harbridge-Yong</a>, and asked her what she sees when she looks at the prolonged trouble Congress has had over the past few years coming to agreement on the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republicans-look-use-debt-limit-tactics-funding-fight-rcna90876">debt ceiling and</a> <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/collision-course-government-funding-raises-fears-shutdown-rcna88849">spending to keep the government open</a>. Harbridge-Yong is a specialist in partisan conflict and the lack of bipartisan agreement in American politics, so her expertise is tailor-made for the moment.</em> </p>
<h2>What do the repeated and difficult debt limit and budget negotiations in Congress look like to you?</h2>
<p>The problems that Congress and the White House are having in reaching compromises highlight two aspects of contemporary politics. The first: Since the 1970s, both the House and Senate have <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/">become much more polarized</a>. Members of the two parties are more unified internally and further apart from the opposing party. You don’t have the overlap between parties now that existed 50 years ago. </p>
<p>Even as the U.S. has experienced rising polarization, there are still <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/356174/democrats-big-political-tent-helps-explain-stalemate.aspx">important differences within the parties</a>. Not every Democrat is the same as another and not every Republican is the same. </p>
<p>This relates to a second point: Members’ individual and collective interests shape their behavior. For <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/05/06/republicans-debt-ceiling-mccarthy-freedom-caucus">Republicans in more competitive districts</a>, their own individual electoral interests probably say, “Let’s cut a deal. Let’s not risk a default on the debt or a government shutdown that the Republicans get blamed for, and which is going to run really poorly in my district.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558487/original/file-20231108-29-z58kr0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man holding a leather folio and standing at microphones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558487/original/file-20231108-29-z58kr0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558487/original/file-20231108-29-z58kr0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558487/original/file-20231108-29-z58kr0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558487/original/file-20231108-29-z58kr0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558487/original/file-20231108-29-z58kr0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558487/original/file-20231108-29-z58kr0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558487/original/file-20231108-29-z58kr0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, will have to keep his GOP caucus happy while making a deal with Democrats to pass government funding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/speaker-of-the-house-mike-johnson-gives-a-brief-statement-news-photo/1746072258?adppopup=true">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>On the other hand, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-house-hardliners-could-try-block-debt-ceiling-deal-without-robust-cuts-2023-05-18/">House Freedom Caucus Republicans</a> come from really safe districts, and they care more about their primary elections than they do their general elections. So their own electoral interests say, “Stand firm, fight till the bitter end, try to force the hand of the president.” </p>
<p>These kinds of electoral interests occur at the individual and collective levels for members of a party. Since the 1990s, there’s been <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-polisci-072012-113747">a lot more competition for majority control</a>, and as a result the two parties don’t want to do something that gives the other party a win in the eyes of the voter. </p>
<p>So you now have many Republicans who are more willing to fight quite hard against the Democrats because they don’t want to give a win to Biden. This is most evident among the most conservative wing of the party, which has both individual and collective reasons to oppose a compromise. The far-right wing recently showed its power over the party, both through <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/mccarthy-says-he-thinks-he-will-survive-leadership-challenge-us-house-2023-10-03/">ousting former Speaker Kevin McCarthy</a> – in large part for his willingness to broker deals and compromise with Democrats – and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/25/politics/house-speaker-vote-republicans/index.html">influencing the selection of the new speaker, Mike Johnson</a>. </p>
<p>Johnson may be less willing to broker compromises with the Democrats <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-25/what-to-know-about-trump-backed-speaker-candidate-mike-johnson">because of his own preferences</a> and because he needs to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/27/what-weve-learned-about-mike-johnson-so-far-00123924">maintain the support of the far-right members</a> in his party. Beyond the far-right wing of the party, other conservative Republicans might also believe that insisting on major spending cuts and concessions from the Democrats will boost the electoral fortunes of their party.</p>
<p>Democrats are also resistant to compromising, both because they <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2023/05/24/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-35/">don’t want to gut programs</a> that they put in place and also because they don’t want to make this look like a win for Republicans, who have been able to play chicken and get what they wanted. </p>
<p>These dynamics, layered on top of policy interests, all contribute to the problems that we’re seeing now. </p>
<h2>What has been the role of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/19/1149861784/debt-ceiling-brinksmanship">brinkmanship in these conflicts</a>?</h2>
<p>When I think of brinkmanship, I’m thinking about negotiating tactics that push things until the very last minute to try to secure the most concessions for your side. During the May 2023 version of these negotiations, that meant <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/05/24/debt-ceiling-gop-demands/">coming to the edge of potential default</a> on the debt. This fall, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/government-shutdown-deadline-09-30-23/index.html">Congress passed a short-term funding bill</a> with only hours to spare before the government shut down. Now, it faces the <a href="https://www.federaltimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2023/11/06/less-than-two-weeks-to-go-before-the-next-government-shutdown-deadline/">next deadline to fund the government by November 17</a>.</p>
<h2>Does brinkmanship work?</h2>
<p>I was looking back at some of the previous government <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-debt-ceiling-crises-and-the-political-chaos-theyve-unleashed-205178">shutdowns as well as debt ceiling negotiations</a>. In some instances, concessions by the other side were granted, so brinkmanship paid off. In other instances it was less obvious that there was a win, and in some instances there was perhaps a penalty, when the parties couldn’t agree and there was a government shutdown. </p>
<p>One party may be banking on the fact that the other party’s going to get blamed by the public while their own party reputation won’t be hurt. In the 1990s, it seemed as though it was the <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/voters-blamed-gop-for-1995-shutdown_n_842769">Republicans who took the brunt</a> of the blame for a government shutdown. </p>
<p>There have been instances in which parties get something out of brinkmanship, as in the government shutdown at the beginning of the Trump administration over <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/25/trump-shutdown-announcement-1125529">funding for the border wall</a>. The Democrats ended up giving some money for the border wall. It wasn’t all of what Trump wanted, but it was part of what Trump and the Republicans wanted.</p>
<p>Brinkmanship and gridlock are disproportionately consequential for Democrats, who generally <a href="https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/">want to expand government programs</a>, versus for Republicans, who tend to want to <a href="https://prod-static.gop.com/media/Resolution_Platform.pdf?_gl=1*gor9yy*_gcl_au*MTY3NTEyMDk2NC4xNjgyNTE4Nzc1&_ga=2.185781033.1441572001.1685048771-688242051.1682518780">constrict government programs</a>. So gridlock or forced spending cuts are easier for Republicans to stomach than Democrats. It may be part of why we see Republicans, especially on the far right, going harder on this kind of brinkmanship. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528424/original/file-20230525-17-jqufsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C25%2C8575%2C5665&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men sitting in yellow armchairs in front of an elegant fireplace." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528424/original/file-20230525-17-jqufsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C25%2C8575%2C5665&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528424/original/file-20230525-17-jqufsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528424/original/file-20230525-17-jqufsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528424/original/file-20230525-17-jqufsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528424/original/file-20230525-17-jqufsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528424/original/file-20230525-17-jqufsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528424/original/file-20230525-17-jqufsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kevin McCarthy, then the House speaker, at left, meets with President Joe Biden to discuss the debt limit in the White House on May 22, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BidenDebtLimit/6f1e6ced06ab4a0b81026f02e69825f6/photo?Query=debt%20limit&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1596&currentItemNo=307">AP Photo/Alex Brandon</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How does the public see brinkmanship?</h2>
<p>On the whole, I think the public doesn’t like it. </p>
<p>My own work has shown that the <a href="https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/documents/policy-briefs/harbridge-policybrief-2020.pdf?linkId=84025998">public does not like gridlock</a> on issues in which people agree on the end goal. The public, on average, even prefers a victory for the other side over policy gridlock. </p>
<p>A win for their own side is the best outcome, a compromise is next best, a win for the other side is next best after that. Gridlock is the worst outcome. </p>
<p>The place where it gets a little bit more challenging is that how people understand and interpret politics is heavily <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.10.072805.103054">shaped by how politics is framed to them</a>. </p>
<p>Looking back at the debt ceiling negotiations: Conservative politicians and media spun the issue very much as a <a href="https://lucas.house.gov/posts/lucas-statement-on-house-gop-plan-addressing-debt-ceiling-applauds-passage-of-limit-save-grow-act">fiscal responsibility</a> question, saying it was just like a family’s personal budget at home or that it was really important to not just raise the debt limit without <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/us/politics/debt-limit-vote-republicans.html">spending concessions</a>. </p>
<p>Those on the Democratic side heard that the Republicans were <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5072354/congressional-democrats-accuse-republicans-holding-economy-hostage-debt-limit-talks">holding the country hostage</a>, that we can’t give in to them, <a href="https://democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/speaker-mccarthy-puts-nation-s-economy-at-risk">this will gut really important programs</a>, and so forth.</p>
<p>So on the one hand, the public doesn’t like gridlock – especially gridlock when the consequences are so bad, as default or a shutdown would be. On the other hand, voters in each party’s base hear the issues framed in very different ways. Both sides may <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/debt-ceiling-crisis-democrats-gop">end up blaming the other side</a>. They’re not necessarily going to be calling their legislators and asking them to compromise.</p>
<h2>Democracy is about representation. As they conduct negotiations, do lawmakers see themselves as representing voters?</h2>
<p>Many conservative Republicans who hold firm in budget negotiations may believe that they are good representatives of what the base wants. In <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/rejecting-compromise/01F2DA900C72ACF02E1B3ECF4EED43D3">the recent book</a> that I wrote with Sarah Anderson and Daniel Butler, we found that legislators of both parties believe their primary voters want them to reject compromises. </p>
<p>But in today’s conflicts, those constituents may not really understand the consequences. Sometimes good representation doesn’t just mean doing what the public wants – legislators have better information or understanding of how things work and should do what’s in the best interests of their constituents.</p>
<p>However, even if individual members think they’re representing their constituents, representation at the aggregate level can be poor. </p>
<p>What the public as a whole – which tends to be more moderate – wants is compromise and resolution.</p>
<p><em>This story is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/voters-want-compromise-in-congress-so-why-the-brinkmanship-over-the-debt-ceiling-206465">a story originally published</a> on May 26, 2023.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217252/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurel Harbridge-Yong receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Justice, Unite America, and the Social Science Research Council.</span></em></p>The deadline to fund the US government is fast approaching, and it will take a Congress seemingly addicted to brinkmanship to keep the government open.Laurel Harbridge-Yong, Associate Professor of Political Science, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2120852023-09-16T02:48:03Z2023-09-16T02:48:03ZMembandingkan orang kulit hitam dengan monyet berangkat dari sejarah simian yang panjang dan kelam<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544102/original/file-20230822-5243-dp39pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Klimaks dari simianisasi yang populer adalah film klasik yang sangat sukses dari pabrik horor Hollywood, King Kong.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Artikel ini adalah sebuah esai dasar. Artikel ini lebih panjang dari biasanya dan membahas lebih luas tentang masalah utama yang memengaruhi masyarakat.</em></p>
<p>Dalam sejarah budaya Eropa, perbandingan manusia dengan kera dan monyet telah direndahkan sejak awal.</p>
<p>Ketika Plato–dengan mengutip Heraclitus–menyatakan bahwa kera itu buruk dalam hubungannya dengan manusia dan manusia itu buruk dalam hubungannya dengan para dewa, ini sebenarnya penghinaan bagi kera. Hal ini secara transenden memutuskan hubungan mereka dengan manusia. Para Bapa Gereja berpikir lebih jauh lagi: Santo Gregorius dari Nazianzus dan Santo Isidore dari Sevilla membandingkan orang kafir dengan monyet.</p>
<p>Pada Abad Pertengahan, wacana Kristen mengakui simian sebagai sosok iblis dan perwakilan dari perilaku yang penuh nafsu dan dosa. Karena perempuan menjadi sasaran penghinaan yang serupa, segala sesuatunya berjalan seperti yang bisa diduga. Pada abad ke-11, Kardinal Peter Damian memberikan sebuah kisah tentang seekor monyet yang menjadi kekasih seorang bangsawan dari Liguria. Simian yang cemburu itu membunuh suaminya dan melahirkan anaknya.</p>
<h2>Sarang monster</h2>
<p>Beberapa abad kemudian pada tahun 1633, John Donne dalam karyanya <a href="http://www.luminarium.org/editions/metempsycosis.htm">“Metempsychosis”</a> bahkan membiarkan salah satu anak perempuan Adam dirayu oleh seekor kera dalam sebuah perselingkuhan. Dengan penuh semangat dia menerimanya dan menjadi ketagihan. </p>
<p>Sejak saat itu, manifestasi seksis dari simianisasi terjalin erat dengan dimensi rasisnya. Jean Bodin, penemu teori kedaulatan, telah mengaitkan hubungan seksual antara hewan dan manusia dengan Afrika di selatan Sahara. Dia mencirikan wilayah tersebut sebagai sarang monster, yang muncul dari persatuan seksual antara manusia dan hewan. </p>
<p>Sejarah narasi oleh Antonio de Torquemada menunjukkan bagaimana dalam proses ini orang-orang Afrika menjadi iblis dan iblis-iblis itu menjadi rasial. Dalam versi pertama cerita ini (1570), seorang perempuan Portugis diasingkan ke Afrika lalu ia <a href="https://sapientia.ualg.pt/bitstream/10400.1/1610/1/11-12-Dodds.pdf">diperkosa oleh kera</a> dan melahirkan bayinya.</p>
<p>Satu abad kemudian, kisah ini telah memasuki ranah pemikiran filosofis besar Eropa. John Locke dalam esainya pada tahun 1689 <a href="http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/locke-the-works-vol-1-an-essay-concerning-human-understanding-part-1?q=drills#Locke_0128-01_907">“Concerning Human Understanding”</a>, menyatakan bahwa “perempuan telah mengandung dengan <em>drills</em>”. Para intelektual pada zamannya tahu betul bahwa panggung tempat terjadinya kisah cinta dan perkosaan yang melampaui batas ini adalah Afrika karena, menurut kearifan pada masa itu, <em>drills</em> hidup di Guinea.</p>
<p>Pada abad-abad berikutnya, simianisasi masuk ke dalam berbagai ilmu pengetahuan dan humaniora. Beberapa di antaranya adalah Antropologi, arkeologi, biologi, etnologi, geologi, kedokteran, filsafat dan, yang tak kalah penting, teologi.</p>
<h2>Rasisme film ‘King Kong’</h2>
<p>Sastra, seni, dan hiburan sehari-hari juga ikut menyoroti masalah ini. Film ini memopulerkan kombinasi representasi seksis dan rasis yang sangat menjijikkan. Puncaknya adalah film klasik yang sangat sukses dari pabrik horor Hollywood, “King Kong”.</p>
<p>Pada saat produksi King Kong, publik di Amerika Serikat (AS) terpaku pada sebuah percobaan perkosaan. Diceritakan tentang the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/scottsboro/timeline/"><em>Scottsboro Boys</em></a>, sembilan remaja kulit hitam yang dituduh telah memerkosa dua orang perempuan kulit putih. Pada tahun 1935, sebuah cerita bergambar karya seniman Jepang Lin Shi Khan dan litografer Toni Perez diterbitkan. “Scottsboro Alabama” memiliki kata pengantar oleh Michael Gold, editor jurnal komunis New Masses.</p>
<p>Salah satu dari 56 gambar itu menampilkan kelompok pemuda yang dituduh dengan judul “Perkosaan Bersalah”. Sisa gambar lainnya dipenuhi dengan sosok simian hitam yang mengerikan yang memperlihatkan giginya dan menyeret seorang perempuan kulit putih yang tak berdaya.</p>
<p>Para seniman sepenuhnya memahami interaksi antara ideologi rasis, pemberitaan reaksioner, dan ketidakadilan di selatan. Mereka menyadari bahwa masyarakat kulit putih telah dikondisikan secara menyeluruh oleh kekerasan yang tidak manusiawi dari perbandingan hewan dan representasi simian, seperti dalam rasisme film “King Kong”.</p>
<h2>Dilabeli dengan penyakit</h2>
<p>Animalisasi dan bahkan bakterialisasi adalah elemen dehumanisasi rasis yang tersebar luas. Hal ini berkaitan erat dengan pelabelan orang lain dengan bahasa kontaminasi dan penyakit. Gambar-gambar yang menempatkan manusia sejajar dengan tikus yang membawa wabah penyakit merupakan bagian dari pengawalan ideologi rasisme anti-Yahudi dan anti-Cina.</p>
<p>Afrika dicap sebagai benua penular yang menginkubasi berbagai macam wabah penyakit di hutan-hutan yang panas dan lembab, yang disebarkan oleh orang-orang yang sembrono dan tidak terkendali secara seksual. AIDS secara khusus dikatakan berasal dari kecerobohan orang-orang Afrika dalam berhubungan dengan simian, yang mereka makan atau yang darahnya mereka gunakan sebagai obat perangsang.</p>
<p>Ini hanyalah bab terbaru dari deretan stereotip yang panjang dan buruk yang ditujukan kepada orang-orang yang berbeda seperti orang <a href="http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/28/irish-apes-tactics-of-de-humanization/">Irlandia</a> atau orang <a href="https://po394.wordpress.com/wartime-propaganda/">Jepang</a>, dan khususnya orang Afrika dan orang <a href="http://www.authentichistory.com/diversity/african/3-coon/6-monkey/">Afrika-Amerika</a>. Melempar pisang di depan olahragawan kulit hitam merupakan provokasi rasis yang umum terjadi bahkan hingga saat ini.</p>
<h2>Mengapa orang kulit hitam dilecehkan?</h2>
<p>Apa yang menjelaskan asosiasi buruk terhadap orang kulit hitam yang difitnah sebagai simian ini? Kombinasi beberapa faktor mungkin menjadi penyebabnya: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Prevalensi berbagai jenis kera besar di Afrika, yang ukurannya paling mendekati manusia. Populasi kera besar di Asia lebih terbatas, sementara di Amerika kita dapat menemukan monyet, tetapi tidak ada kera; </p></li>
<li><p>Tingkat “jarak” estetika antara kulit putih dan kulit hitam, derajat yang lebih besar dari perspektif “keanehan” fisik orang kulit putih (tidak hanya berbeda dalam warna kulit dan tekstur rambut, tetapi juga fitur wajah) dibandingkan dengan ras “non-kulit putih” lainnya; </p></li>
<li><p>penghormatan yang lebih tinggi yang secara umum diberikan oleh orang Eropa kepada orang Asia dibandingkan dengan peradaban Afrika; dan </p></li>
<li><p>di atas semua itu, dampak psikis dari perbudakan rasial selama ratusan tahun di era modernitas, yang mencap “Negro” sebagai sub-manusia dan budak alami, dalam kesadaran global.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Perbudakan dalam skala besar membutuhkan pengurangan manusia menjadi objek. Justru karena itu, hal ini juga membutuhkan jenis dehumanisasi yang menyeluruh dan sistematis dalam teorisasi realitas tersebut.</p>
<h2>Asal usul spesies</h2>
<p>Jauh sebelum “rasisme ilmiah” pasca-Darwin mulai berkembang, orang dapat menemukan orang kulit hitam digambarkan lebih dekat dengan kera dalam Rantai Makhluk Besar.</p>
<p>Ambil contoh pertengahan abad ke-19 di Amerika, di mana poligenesis (asal-usul ras yang terpisah) dianggap serius. Ilmuwan terkemuka pada masa itu, Josiah C. Nott dan George R. Gliddon, dalam buku mereka yang berjudul <a href="https://archive.org/details/typesmankindore01pattgoog">“Types of Mankind” (1854)</a>, mendokumentasikan apa yang mereka anggap sebagai hierarki rasial yang obyektif dengan ilustrasi-ilustrasi yang membandingkan orang kulit hitam dengan simpanse, gorila, dan orangutan. </p>
<p>Seperti yang dikatakan oleh Stephen Jay Gould, buku tersebut bukanlah dokumen amatir, tetapi merupakan teks terkemuka di Amerika tentang perbedaan ras.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Darwin tidak mendiskreditkan rasisme ilmiah dalam ‘<em>On the Origin of Species</em>’. Ia hanya menyempurnakannya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Karya revolusioner Darwin di 1859, <em>On the Origin of Species</em>, tidak mendiskreditkan rasisme ilmiah, melainkan hanya varian poligenetiknya. Darwinisme Sosial, yang menang secara monogenetik, akan menjadi ortodoksi rasial yang baru. Dominasi kulit putih secara global dianggap sebagai bukti keunggulan evolusi ras kulit putih.</p>
<p>Jika sekarang harus diakui bahwa kita semua berkerabat dengan kera, tetap saja dapat dikatakan bahwa konsanguitas orang kulit hitam jauh lebih dekat–mungkin sebuah identitas yang jelas.</p>
<h2>Tarzan = kulit putih</h2>
<p>Budaya populer memainkan peran penting dalam menyebarkan kepercayaan ini. Rata-rata orang awam Amerika tidak mungkin membaca jurnal ilmiah. Namun mereka pasti membaca H. Rider Haggard (penulis “King Solomon’s Mines” dan “She”) dan Edgar Rice Burroughs (pencipta “Tarzan”). Mereka pergi ke bioskop setiap minggu, termasuk genre “film rimba”. Mereka mengikuti strip komik harian seperti “The Phantom” - supercop kulit putih Afrika, Hantu yang berjalan.</p>
<p>Afrika dan orang Afrika menempati tempat khusus dalam khayalan kulit putih, dengan penggambaran yang paling memalukan. Burroughs akan menjadi salah satu penulis terlaris di abad ke-20. Tidak hanya dalam berbagai bukunya, tetapi juga dalam film yang dibuat dari buku-buku tersebut dan berbagai strip kartun dan <em>spin-off</em> komik, dari ciptaannya yang paling terkenal, <a href="http://weareorlando.co.uk/page13.php">“Tarzan”</a> sebagai bagian dari Kera.</p>
<p>Tarzan memberikan citra yang tak terhapuskan dalam pikiran Barat tentang seorang pria kulit putih yang menguasai benua hitam. “Tar-zan” = “kulit putih” dalam bahasa Kera, demikian Burroughs yang merupakan seorang poliglot menginformasikan kepada kita. Ini adalah dunia di mana manusia berkulit hitam adalah binatang, simian, sementara kera yang sebenarnya adalah manusia.</p>
<p>Karya Burroughs termasuk karya yang berhasil, hal yang belum pernah terjadi sebelumnya, tetapi sama sekali tidak biasa untuk periode tersebut. Sebaliknya, karya ini mengonsolidasikan ikonografi Manichean yang tersebar di seluruh dunia Barat pada paruh pertama abad ke-20 dan bertahan hingga saat ini. Dalam konflik antara terang dan gelap ini, orang Eropa berkulit putih menguasai orang kulit hitam yang mereka anggap lebih rendah.</p>
<h2>Pengumuman Lumumba</h2>
<p>Seri kartun “Tintin” karya kartunis Belgia Hergé, misalnya, termasuk buku <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/15/tintin-and-racism/">“Tintin au Congo”</a> yang terkenal, juga menggambarkan orang Afrika sebagai makhluk yang lebih rendah.</p>
<p>Tidak mengherankan, <em>macaques</em> (monyet) menjadi salah satu istilah rasis yang digunakan oleh orang kulit putih di Kongo Belgia untuk orang kulit hitam, seperti halnya “macacos” di Afrika Portugis. Dalam pidato Hari Kemerdekaan tahun 1960, pemimpin Kongo Patrice Lumumba mengecam warisan kolonialisme Belgia yang menindas (yang membuat heran dan marah raja Belgia dan para pembesarnya, yang mengharapkan penghormatan dari penduduk asli). Dia menyimpulkan:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/tag/patrice-lumumba/"><em>Nous ne sommes plus vos macaques!</em></a> (Kami bukan lagi monyet-monyet kalian)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Kisah ini tampaknya disembunyikan–tidak ada dokumentasi yang ditemukan untuk itu–tetapi peredarannya yang luas membuktikan aspirasi dekolonial jutaan orang Afrika. Sayangnya, dalam waktu kurang dari satu tahun, Lumumba mati, dibunuh dengan persekongkolan agen-agen Barat, dan negara itu beralih ke pemerintahan neokolonial.</p>
<h2>Aliansi lintas kelas yang rasis</h2>
<p>Penggunaan simianisasi sebagai penghinaan rasis terhadap orang kulit hitam belum berakhir, seperti yang ditunjukkan oleh kehebohan di Afrika Selatan yang dipicu oleh Penny Sparrow, seorang perempuan kulit putih, yang <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/05/south-african-woman-faces-criminal-charges-racist-tweets">mengeluh</a> tentang orang-orang kulit hitam yang berpesta pora di malam Tahun Baru:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Mulai sekarang saya akan menyebut orang kulit hitam di Afrika Selatan sebagai monyet karena saya melihat monyet-monyet kecil yang lucu melakukan hal yang sama, memungut dan membuang sampah sembarangan.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Amarah publik yang dipantik Sparrow menunjukkan betapa dalamnya prasangka dan stereotip rasial.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pasangan Presiden Amerika Serikat, Barack dan Michelle Obama, menjadi sasaran simianisasi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Kevin Lamarque</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hal ini tidak berhenti pada batas-batas kelas. Internet telah dipenuhi dengan perbandingan kera sejak Barack Obama dan Michelle Obama pindah ke Gedung Putih. Bahkan sebuah surat kabar sosial-liberal, seperti De Morgen dari Belgia, menganggap lucu untuk melakukan simianisasi terhadap <a href="http://thisisafrica.me/obamas-ape-impression-furore/">Sang Presiden dan First Lady</a> tersebut.</p>
<p>Aliansi lintas kelas untuk melawan orang lain yang tidak berkelas adalah ciri khas rasisme.</p>
<p>Theodore W. Allen pernah mendefinisikannya sebagai “kematian sosial dari penindasan rasial”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… reduksi semua anggota kelompok yang tertindas menjadi satu status sosial yang tidak terdiferensiasi, di bawah status sosial anggota <a href="http://clogic.eserver.org/1-2/allen.html">kelompok penindas</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Animalisasi tetap menjadi instrumen yang jahat dan efektif dalam bentuk desosialisasi dan dehumanisasi. Simianisasi adalah versi dari strategi ini, yang secara historis merupakan kombinasi mematikan dari seksisme dan rasisme.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Bersama Silvia Sebastiani, Wulf D. Hund dan Charles W. Mills menyunting satu volume Buku Tahunan Analisis Rasisme tentang <a href="http://www.academia.edu/16269162/Simianization._Apes_Gender_Class_and_Race_ed._Wulf_D._Hund_Charles_W._Mills_Silvia_Sebastiani_">“Simianisasi. Kera, Gender, Kelas, dan Ras”</a>. Zürich, Berlin, Wien, Münster: Lit 2015/16 (ISBN 978-3-643-90716-5).</em></p>
<p>Charles Mills meninggal dunia pada 2021. Obituari dan informasi lebih lanjut tentang filsuf yang telah berpulang ini dapat ditemukan <a href="https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/memoriam-distinguished-professor-charles-w-mills-philosopher-who-changed-conversation-about-race-us">di sini:</a></p>
<hr>
<p><em>Rahma Sekar Andini dari Universitas Negeri Malang menerjemahkan artikel ini dari bahasa Inggris</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Para penulis tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi di luar afiliasi akademis yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Animalisasi tetap merupakan bentuk dehumanisasi yang jahat dan efektif. Simianisasi adalah versi dari strategi ini, yang secara historis merupakan kombinasi mematikan dari seksisme dan rasisme.Wulf D. Hund, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Department of Socioeconomics, University of HamburgCharles W Mills, John Evans Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2111722023-08-21T12:25:01Z2023-08-21T12:25:01ZSocial media algorithms warp how people learn from each other, research shows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543348/original/file-20230817-21-haki9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5455%2C3612&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Social media pushes evolutionary buttons.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IndiaNewInternetRules/c9d25794d9254a9ab63672ec0e896af5/photo">AP Photo/Manish Swarup</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People’s daily interactions with online algorithms <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.06.008">affect how they learn from others</a>, with negative consequences including social misperceptions, conflict and the spread of misinformation, my colleagues and I have found.</p>
<p>People are increasingly interacting with others in social media environments where algorithms control the flow of social information they see. Algorithms determine in part which messages, which people and which ideas social media users see.</p>
<p>On social media platforms, algorithms are mainly <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-testified-that-the-companys-algorithms-are-dangerous-heres-how-they-can-manipulate-you-169420">designed to amplify information that sustains engagement</a>, meaning they keep people clicking on content and coming back to the platforms. I’m a <a href="https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/brady_william.aspx">social psychologist</a>, and my colleagues and I have found evidence suggesting that a side effect of this design is that algorithms amplify information people are strongly biased to learn from. We call this information “PRIME,” for prestigious, in-group, moral and emotional information.</p>
<p>In our evolutionary past, biases to learn from PRIME information were very advantageous: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S1090-5138(00)00071-4">Learning from prestigious individuals is efficient</a> because these people are successful and their behavior can be copied. Paying attention to people who violate moral norms is important because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.90.4.980">sanctioning them helps the community maintain cooperation</a>.</p>
<p>But what happens when PRIME information becomes amplified by algorithms and some people exploit algorithm amplification to promote themselves? Prestige becomes a poor signal of success because people can fake prestige on social media. Newsfeeds become oversaturated with negative and moral information so that there is conflict rather than cooperation. </p>
<p>The interaction of human psychology and algorithm amplification leads to dysfunction because social learning supports cooperation and problem-solving, but social media algorithms are designed to increase engagement. We call this mismatch <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.06.008">functional misalignment</a>.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>One of the key outcomes of functional misalignment in algorithm-mediated social learning is that people start to form incorrect perceptions of their social world. For example, recent research suggests that when algorithms selectively amplify more extreme political views, people begin to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01582-0">think that their political in-group and out-group are more sharply divided</a> than they really are. Such “false polarization” might be an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.07.005">important source of greater political conflict</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Social media algorithms amplify extreme political views.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Functional misalignment can also lead to greater spread of misinformation. A recent study suggests that people who are spreading <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/tms0000136">political misinformation leverage moral and emotional information</a> – for example, posts that provoke moral outrage – in order to get people to share it more. When algorithms amplify moral and emotional information, misinformation gets included in the amplification.</p>
<h2>What other research is being done</h2>
<p>In general, research on this topic is in its infancy, but there are new studies emerging that examine key components of algorithm-mediated social learning. Some studies have demonstrated that <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.16941">social media algorithms clearly amplify PRIME information</a>.</p>
<p>Whether this amplification leads to offline polarization is hotly contested at the moment. A recent experiment found evidence that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20191777">Meta’s newsfeed increases polarization</a>, but another experiment that involved a collaboration with Meta <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abp9364">found no evidence of polarization increasing</a> due to exposure to their algorithmic Facebook newsfeed.</p>
<p>More research is needed to fully understand the outcomes that emerge when humans and algorithms interact in feedback loops of social learning. Social media companies have most of the needed data, and I believe that they should give academic researchers access to it while also balancing ethical concerns such as privacy.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>A key question is what can be done to make algorithms foster accurate human social learning rather than exploit social learning biases. My research team is working on new algorithm designs that increase engagement <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.06.008">while also penalizing PRIME information</a>. We argue that this might maintain user activity that social media platforms seek, but also make people’s social perceptions more accurate.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Brady does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Social media companies’ drive to keep you on their platforms clashes with how people evolved to learn from each other. One result is more conflict and misinformation.William Brady, Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2111662023-08-11T12:37:11Z2023-08-11T12:37:11ZWho likes Donald Trump? Lots of Republicans, but especially Hispanic voters, plus very rural and very conservative people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542000/original/file-20230809-31833-26pa2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former President Donald Trump greets supporters following a 2020 campaign rally in Arizona.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-gestures-to-supporters-following-a-news-photo/1282738179?adppopup=true">Isaac Brekken/Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite multiple <a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-investigations-other-charges-b8b064a00caad4306fb54d2f6a320468">state and federal indictments</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/31/us/politics/2024-poll-nyt-siena-trump-republicans.html">recent polling</a> indicates that former President Donald Trump retains a commanding lead in the race for the 2024 Republican Party presidential nomination. </p>
<p>So it seems useful to understand who, exactly, supports Trump – and whether the multiple criminal indictments against the former president have had any effect on his nomination prospects.</p>
<p>We are a multiuniversity team of social scientists that has been <a href="https://www.covidstates.org/">regularly polling</a> Americans in all 50 states since April 2020.</p>
<p>Our most recent survey, which ran from June 29, 2023, to Aug. 1, 2023, included 7,732 Republicans or Republican-leaning independents. We explored who, among these respondents, supports Trump in the 2024 Republican primary and how they reacted to his June 2023 indictment for <a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-documents-maralago-politics-florida-charges-bee867f48da593d351c5a91e87c356a9">withholding classified documents</a>. </p>
<p>Since <a href="https://www.politico.com/interactives/2023/republican-candidates-2024-gop-presidential-hopefuls-list/">no other Republican candidate</a> in our survey received more than 5% support, we focus on Trump and his nearest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.</p>
<p>Consistent with <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/national/">recent polls</a>, we found that Trump has a commanding 40-point lead over DeSantis. </p>
<p>While Trump leads DeSantis across nearly all major demographic categories, his advantage is especially large among Hispanic voters. The same is true when considering Republicans who said that they do not have higher education degrees and those who are very conservative, live in very rural places or are lower-income. </p>
<h2>Very conservative voter support</h2>
<p>People who identified as “very conservative” comprised 14% of the Republicans in our survey. Their support for Trump in 2024 is overwhelming: They support Trump over DeSantis by a 69-12 margin.</p>
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<p>A recent <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump-polls-very-conservative-voters-2016-2024/">FiveThirtyEight report</a> showed that the most conservative Republicans were not always such strong supporters of Trump, but their support has risen substantially since Trump’s election in 2016. </p>
<p>Very conservative respondents were also the most likely to say that they were sure about which 2024 candidate they support. Just 5% of this group said they have not yet made up their mind, relative to 19% of moderate Republicans who were unsure of who they would vote for.</p>
<h2>Younger support</h2>
<p>Despite the 77-year-old Trump’s being more than three decades older than DeSantis, he enjoys significantly higher levels of support among younger Republicans. </p>
<p>About 53% of Republicans ages 25 to 44 said they support Trump, while just 9% of these people said they would vote for DeSantis. And 48% of even younger Republicans, ages 18 to 24, preferred Trump, as compared with 7% who support DeSantis. </p>
<p>In contrast, the gap between the two candidates is smaller among Republicans ages 65 and older. While 53% of this group supports Trump, 14% said they prefer DeSantis. </p>
<p>That said, Republicans ages 18 to 24 were significantly more likely than people in other age groups to select a candidate other than Trump or DeSantis, or to say they were not sure who they would vote for if the election were held today.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541992/original/file-20230809-15-53bwna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two young white women wear Trump hats and take a selfie, in front of a crowd of people wearing winter clothing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541992/original/file-20230809-15-53bwna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541992/original/file-20230809-15-53bwna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541992/original/file-20230809-15-53bwna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541992/original/file-20230809-15-53bwna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541992/original/file-20230809-15-53bwna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541992/original/file-20230809-15-53bwna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541992/original/file-20230809-15-53bwna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Members of the New York Young Republicans group rally for former president Donald Trump outside of the Manhattan district attorney’s office in May 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-new-york-young-republicans-and-the-long-news-photo/1248914377?adppopup=true">Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Hispanic and white voters</h2>
<p>Trump has a large advantage over DeSantis across all racial and ethnic groups we surveyed, but especially among Hispanic and white Republicans. </p>
<p>We found that Trump has a 45-point advantage over DeSantis among Hispanic Republicans, who are more likely to support him than any other racial and ethnic group we investigated.</p>
<p>About 52% of white Republican people we polled, meanwhile, said that they support Trump, compared with 12.1% who preferred DeSantis. The gap in preference for Trump over DeSantis among other ethnic groups, including Asian Americans and Black people, was smaller. </p>
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<h2>No geographic or socioeconomic boundary</h2>
<p>Trump has a commanding lead over DeSantis across all geographic areas, but his lead is particularly strong among Republicans in very rural communities. </p>
<p>Trump enjoys a massive 51-point lead over DeSantis among those who describe the area in which they live as “very rural.” Trump’s vote share among rural Americans <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/06/30/behind-bidens-2020-victory/">increased from 2016 to 2020</a> and remains a strong base of his support leading into the 2024 primary. </p>
<p>Trump also holds a large lead over DeSantis regardless of socioeconomic status, but the gap widens among lower-income and less-educated Republicans.</p>
<p>Among Republicans with a college or graduate degree, for example, Trump led DeSantis by a 45-15 margin, which jumped up to 55-9 among those without a college degree. Trump holds a 47-point advantage among white respondents without a college degree, which shrinks to 29 points for white respondents with college degrees. </p>
<h2>Trump’s legal woes aren’t a deciding factor</h2>
<p>We randomly embedded an experiment into our survey in which we asked a series of questions about Trump’s recent indictment in the Mar-a-Lago classified document case before or after asking Republicans their preferred 2024 candidate. </p>
<p>Our goal was to test whether prompting them to think about the indictment affected respondents’ support for Trump. </p>
<p>Trump’s indictment has given some Republican voters pause, but this concern is not leading them to support DeSantis.</p>
<p>Republicans who saw Trump’s indictment as justified were significantly less likely to support Trump in the 2024 primary, but they were not more likely to support DeSantis as a result. </p>
<p>The effect of answering questions about Trump’s indictment immediately before, rather than after, asking about preferences for the 2024 primary was strongest among self-identified moderate Republicans, who make up 29% of the Republicans in our survey. </p>
<p>Among those moderate Republicans, answering questions about Trump’s indictment before the 2024 Republican primary candidate preference question decreased support for Trump by 6 percentage points.</p>
<p>Among the 18% of Republicans who felt that Trump’s indictment was justified, only 10% reported supporting DeSantis in 2024, compared with 25% who still backed Trump. </p>
<p>For conservative and very conservative Republicans, however, being prompted to think about Trump’s indictment immediately before answering the 2024 candidate preference question increased support for Trump by 3 percentage points. </p>
<p>This lends credence to the idea <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3927731-republicans-see-indictment-as-boon-for-trump-in-2024/">some Republicans</a> have articulated that indictments could benefit Trump, but only among the most conservative Republicans.</p>
<h2>The bigger picture</h2>
<p>Our survey results show Trump with a commanding advantage over the field at this stage of the race for the 2024 Republican Party nomination.</p>
<p>That said, Trump’s support is not uniform across all Republicans – it is, for instance, notably higher among Republicans who identify with some of these characteristics – being less wealthy or educated, rural, older, Hispanic or white, or very conservative. </p>
<p>Moderate Republicans’ shift away from Trump after we reminded them about the classified documents indictment raises the possibility that additional indictments – such as the second one the Justice Department announced on Aug. 2, 2023, regarding attempts to overturn the 2020 election results – could negatively affect Trump’s campaign for the Republican nomination, particularly among moderate voters. </p>
<p>Of course, our findings also suggest that they may further invigorate his ideologically conservative base.</p>
<p>Overall, potential indictment effects notwithstanding, our findings represent a picture of overwhelming domination by Trump across virtually all facets of the Republican Party.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew A Baum receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Schulman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New findings by political scientists at Northwestern University and Harvard Kennedy School provide a clearer picture of which demographic groups support Trump.Jonathan Schulman, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, Northwestern UniversityMatthew A Baum, Professor of Global Communications and Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2061742023-05-28T17:15:23Z2023-05-28T17:15:23ZDebt ceiling negotiators reach a deal: 5 essential reads about the tentative accord, brinkmanship and the danger of default<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528698/original/file-20230528-145930-1dir73.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C437%2C7766%2C4957&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Biden speaks to reporters about the tentative accord. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/DebtLimit/5f4e2743ebcf4b4795d386cd54ea90d4/photo?Query=debt%20ceiling&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1041&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Susan Walsh</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on May 27, 2023, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-28/white-house-republicans-reach-deal-to-avert-historic-us-default">agreed in principle to a tentative deal</a> that would raise the debt ceiling while capping some federal spending at current levels.</p>
<p>The accord, if approved by both houses of Congress, would avert an unprecedented default that threatens to derail the economy and put hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work. Negotiators agreed to lift the ceiling for two years – past the 2024 presidential election – while putting a temporary cap on most nondefense spending at 2023 levels. It would also reduce planned funding for the IRS, impose new work requirements on some people who receive benefits from the federal program known as SNAP and claw back billions of unspent funds from pandemic relief programs.</p>
<p>The Conversation has been covering the debt ceiling drama since January, when Republicans took over the House, raising fears that brinkmanship would lead to an economic catastrophe. Here are five articles from our archive to help you make sense of a couple key aspects of the tentative deal and provide context on the debt ceiling fight.</p>
<h2>1. What is the debt ceiling?</h2>
<p>First some basics. The debt ceiling was established by the U.S. Congress in 1917. It limits the total national debt by setting out a maximum amount that the government can borrow.</p>
<p>Steven Pressman, an <a href="https://ww4.newschool.edu/nssr/faculty/steven-pressman/">economist at The New School</a>, explained the original aim was “to let then-President Woodrow Wilson spend the money he deemed necessary to fight World War I without waiting for often-absent lawmakers to act. Congress, however, did not want to write the president a blank check, so it limited borrowing to US$11.5 billion and required legislation for any increase.”</p>
<p>Since then, the debt ceiling has <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-america-has-a-debt-ceiling-5-questions-answered-164977">been increased dozens of times</a>. It currently stands at $31.4 trillion – a figure reached in January. The Treasury has taken “extraordinary measures” to enable the government to keep borrowing without breaching the ceiling. Such measures, however, can only be temporary – meaning at one point Congress will have to act to lift the ceiling or default on its debt obligations, which is expected to happen by June 5, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/yellen-moves-forecast-earliest-potential-us-default-date-june-5-2023-05-26/">according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen</a>, if the deal isn’t approved in time.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-america-has-a-debt-ceiling-5-questions-answered-164977">Why America has a debt ceiling: 5 questions answered</a>
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<h2>2. The trouble with work requirements</h2>
<p>One of the biggest sticking points toward the end of negotiations was work requirements for recipients of government aid. The tentative deal would raise the age for existing work requirements from 49 to 54 years on able-bodied adults who have no children. This is less than what Republicans had earlier sought. There are exceptions for veterans and the homeless. </p>
<p>But if the goal is to help people find jobs and make more money, work requirements <a href="https://theconversation.com/snap-work-requirements-dont-actually-get-more-people-working-but-they-do-drastically-limit-the-availability-of-food-aid-204257">don’t actually do the job</a>, wrote <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Zoc5_aMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Kelsey Pukelis</a>, a doctoral student in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School who has studied the issue. Rather, they make it much harder for people who need food aid to get it. </p>
<p>“Our findings do suggest that work requirements restrain federal spending by reducing the number of people getting SNAP benefits,” she explained. “But our work also indicates that in today’s context, these savings would be at the expense of already vulnerable people facing additional economic hardship at a time when a new recession could be around the corner.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/snap-work-requirements-dont-actually-get-more-people-working-but-they-do-drastically-limit-the-availability-of-food-aid-204257">SNAP work requirements don’t actually get more people working – but they do drastically limit the availability of food aid</a>
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<h2>3. IRS funding takes a hit</h2>
<p>The deal also takes aim at a big boost in spending Congress gave the Internal Revenue Service beginning in 2022 to crack down on tax cheats and upgrade its software. Democrats agreed to a Republican demand to cut the extra IRS funding from $80 billion to $70 billion. </p>
<p>Back in August 2022, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=J_S5pkkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Nirupama Rao</a>, an economist at the University of Michigan, <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-the-inflation-reduction-act-actually-reduce-inflation-how-will-the-corporate-minimum-tax-work-an-economist-has-answers-188786">explained why Democrats included all that funding</a> in their Inflation Reduction Act and how it would help the IRS collect more tax revenue, since the agency does not fully collect all the taxes that are owed.</p>
<p>“The main target of this spending is the so-called tax gap, which is currently estimated at about $600 billion a year,” she wrote. “While an $80 billion investment that returns $204 billion already sounds pretty impressive, it may be possible that it’s a conservative estimate.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-the-inflation-reduction-act-actually-reduce-inflation-how-will-the-corporate-minimum-tax-work-an-economist-has-answers-188786">Will the Inflation Reduction Act actually reduce inflation? How will the corporate minimum tax work? An economist has answers</a>
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<h2>4. The hard road to compromise</h2>
<p>It took a long time for Republicans and Democrats to get the current agreement. </p>
<p>Yellen warned in January that the government was about to hit the debt limit and would be unable to pay all its bills by May or June. McCarthy and House Republicans, who hold a razor-thin majority, appeared unwilling to raise the debt ceiling unless they could extract <a href="https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-bill-house-republicans-kevin-mccarthy-f73e6c2fce8abdfab4973c727ea79517">deep spending cuts</a>. Meanwhile, Biden <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-will-talk-budget-wont-negotiate-debt-ceiling-congress-meeting-white-house-2023-05-02/">refused to negotiate</a>, insisting on a clean debt ceiling bill. Both of those positions were dropped during negotiations. </p>
<p>Why did it take so long for them to reach a compromise? </p>
<p>Blame political trends that have been accelerating for decades, explained <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cfH3-8sAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Laurel Harbridge-Yong</a>, a specialist in partisan conflict and the lack of bipartisan agreement in American politics at Northwestern University. Many Republicans come from very safe districts, which means their primary against other conservatives is more important than the general election. <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-voters-want-compromise-in-congress-so-why-the-brinkmanship-over-the-debt-limit-206465">This makes it more important to stand firm</a> and fight until the bitter end. </p>
<p>“So you now have many Republicans who are more willing to fight quite hard against the Democrats because they don’t want to give a win to Biden,” she wrote. “Democrats are also resistant to compromising, both because they don’t want to gut programs that they put in place and also because they don’t want to make this look like a win for Republicans, who were able to play chicken and get what they wanted.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/voters-want-compromise-in-congress-so-why-the-brinkmanship-over-the-debt-ceiling-206465">Voters want compromise in Congress -- so why the brinkmanship over the debt ceiling?</a>
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<h2>5. Latest in a long line of fiscal crises</h2>
<p>This was hardly the first fiscal crisis the U.S. government has faced. In fact, there have been many – including 22 government shutdowns since just 1976. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymond-scheppach-19b98536">Raymond Scheppach</a>, a professor of public policy at University of Virginia, <a href="https://theconversation.com/link-205178">offered a brief history</a> of recent crises and the damage they’ve caused – and why a default would be far more consequential than past crises.</p>
<p>“While these were very disruptive and damaged the economy and employment, they pale in comparison to the potential effects of failing to lift the debt ceiling, which could be catastrophic,” he wrote. “It could bring down the entire international financial system. This in turn could devastate the world gross domestic product and create mass unemployment.”</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-debt-ceiling-crises-and-the-political-chaos-theyve-unleashed-205178">A brief history of debt ceiling crises and the political chaos they've unleashed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives. Portions of this article originally appeared in <a href="https://theconversation.com/yellen-puts-congress-on-notice-over-impending-debt-default-date-5-essential-reads-on-whats-at-stake-204863">a previous article</a> published on May 2, 2023.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206174/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The deal would raise the ceiling for two years, cap some federal spending and impose new work requirements on certain federal benefits. It still needs the blessing of Congress.Bryan Keogh, Managing EditorMatt Williams, Senior International EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2064652023-05-26T15:02:29Z2023-05-26T15:02:29ZVoters want compromise in Congress – so why the brinkmanship over the debt ceiling?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528424/original/file-20230525-17-jqufsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C25%2C8575%2C5665&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, left, meets with President Joe Biden to discuss the debt limit in the White House on May 22, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BidenDebtLimit/6f1e6ced06ab4a0b81026f02e69825f6/photo?Query=debt%20limit&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1596&currentItemNo=307">AP Photo/Alex Brandon</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>There’s progress on the debt limit. There’s no progress. Conservatives have revolted. Liberal Democrats are angry. Negotiators actually <a href="https://twitter.com/elwasson/status/1659250606370848773">ate a meal together</a>. That’s a good sign. No it isn’t. Who’s up? Who’s down?</em></p>
<p><em>Much of the breathless news coverage of the debt limit crisis relies on leaks, speculation, wishful thinking and maybe even the reading of tea leaves. The Conversation decided to tap an expert on congressional behavior, Northwestern University political scientist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cfH3-8sAAAAJ&hl=en">Laurel Harbridge-Yong</a>, and ask her what she sees when she looks at the negotiations. Harbridge-Yong is a specialist in partisan conflict and the lack of bipartisan agreement in American politics, so her expertise is tailor-made for the moment.</em> </p>
<h2>What do the debt limit negotiations look like to you?</h2>
<p>The difficulty that Congress and the White House are having in reaching compromises highlights two aspects of contemporary politics. The first: Since the 1970s, both the House and Senate have <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/">become much more polarized</a>. Members of the two parties are more unified internally and further apart from the opposing party. You don’t have the overlap between parties now that existed 50 years ago.</p>
<p>Even as we’ve had rising polarization, we still have <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/356174/democrats-big-political-tent-helps-explain-stalemate.aspx">important differences within the parties</a>. Not every Democrat is the same as another and not every Republican is the same. </p>
<p>This relates to a second point: Members’ individual and collective interests shape their behavior. For <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/05/06/republicans-debt-ceiling-mccarthy-freedom-caucus">Republicans in more competitive districts</a>, their own individual electoral interests probably say, “Let’s cut a deal. Let’s not risk a default that the Republicans get blamed for, and which is going to run really poorly in my district.” </p>
<p>On the other hand, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-house-hardliners-could-try-block-debt-ceiling-deal-without-robust-cuts-2023-05-18/">House Freedom Caucus Republicans</a> come from really safe districts, and they care more about their primary elections than they do their general elections. So their own electoral interests say, “Stand firm, fight till the bitter end, try to force the hand of the president.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528422/original/file-20230525-23265-9vbnei.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A gray haired man in suit and tie talking to reporters under a chandelier." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528422/original/file-20230525-23265-9vbnei.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528422/original/file-20230525-23265-9vbnei.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528422/original/file-20230525-23265-9vbnei.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528422/original/file-20230525-23265-9vbnei.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528422/original/file-20230525-23265-9vbnei.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528422/original/file-20230525-23265-9vbnei.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528422/original/file-20230525-23265-9vbnei.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., center, said on May 25, 2023, that he is optimistic that White House and GOP negotiators can reach a deal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/speaker-of-the-house-kevin-mccarthy-speaks-with-reporters-news-photo/1257988628?adppopup=true">Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>These kinds of electoral interests occur at the individual and collective levels for members of a party. Since the 1980s, and accelerating into the 1990s, there’s been <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-polisci-072012-113747">a lot more competition for majority control</a>, and as a result the two parties don’t want to do things that let the other party look good. They don’t want to give the other party a win in the eyes of the voter. </p>
<p>So you now have many Republicans who are more willing to fight quite hard against the Democrats because they don’t want to give a win to Biden. </p>
<p>Democrats are also resistant to compromising, both because they <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2023/05/24/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-35/">don’t want to gut programs</a> that they put in place and also because they don’t want to make this look like a win for Republicans, who were able to play chicken and get what they wanted. </p>
<p>These dynamics, layered on top of policy interests, all contribute to the problems that we’re seeing now. </p>
<h2>What’s the role of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/19/1149861784/debt-ceiling-brinksmanship">brinkmanship in this conflict</a>?</h2>
<p>When I think of brinkmanship, I’m thinking about negotiating tactics that push things until the very last minute to try to secure the most concessions for your side. Right now that means <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/05/24/debt-ceiling-gop-demands/">coming to the edge of potential default</a> on the debt. </p>
<h2>Does brinkmanship work?</h2>
<p>I was looking back at some of the previous government <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-debt-ceiling-crises-and-the-political-chaos-theyve-unleashed-205178">shutdowns as well as debt ceiling negotiations</a>. In some instances concessions were granted, so brinkmanship paid off. In other instances it was less obvious that there was a win, and in some instances there was perhaps a penalty, when the parties couldn’t agree and there was a government shutdown. </p>
<p>One party may be banking on the fact that the other party’s going to get blamed by the public while their own party reputation won’t be hurt. In the 1990s, it seemed like it was the <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/voters-blamed-gop-for-1995-shutdown_n_842769">Republicans who took the brunt</a> of the blame for a government shutdown. </p>
<p>There have been instances in which parties get something out of brinkmanship, as in the government shutdown at the beginning of the Trump administration over <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/25/trump-shutdown-announcement-1125529">funding for the border wall</a>. The Democrats ended up giving some money for the border wall. It wasn’t all of what Trump wanted, but it was part of what Trump and the Republicans wanted.</p>
<p>Brinkmanship and gridlock are disproportionately consequential for Democrats, who generally <a href="https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/">want to expand government programs</a>, versus for Republicans, who tend to want to <a href="https://prod-static.gop.com/media/Resolution_Platform.pdf?_gl=1*gor9yy*_gcl_au*MTY3NTEyMDk2NC4xNjgyNTE4Nzc1&_ga=2.185781033.1441572001.1685048771-688242051.1682518780">constrict government programs</a>. So gridlock or forced spending cuts are easier for Republicans to stomach than Democrats. It may be part of why we see Republicans going harder on this kind of brinkmanship. </p>
<h2>How does the public see brinkmanship?</h2>
<p>On the whole, I think the public doesn’t like it. </p>
<p>My own work has shown that the <a href="https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/documents/policy-briefs/harbridge-policybrief-2020.pdf?linkId=84025998">public does not like gridlock</a> on issues in which people agree on the end goal. The public, on average, even prefers a victory for the other side over policy gridlock. </p>
<p>A win for their own side is the best outcome, a compromise is next best, a win for the other side is next best after that. Gridlock is the worst outcome. </p>
<p>The place where it gets a little bit more challenging is that how people understand and interpret politics is heavily <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.10.072805.103054">shaped by how politics is framed to them</a>. </p>
<p>Conservative politicians and media spin the debt ceiling very much as <a href="https://lucas.house.gov/posts/lucas-statement-on-house-gop-plan-addressing-debt-ceiling-applauds-passage-of-limit-save-grow-act">fiscal responsibility</a>, saying this is just like a family’s personal budget at home or that it’s really important to not just raise the debt limit without <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/us/politics/debt-limit-vote-republicans.html">spending concessions</a>. </p>
<p>Those on the Democratic side are hearing that the Republicans are <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5072354/congressional-democrats-accuse-republicans-holding-economy-hostage-debt-limit-talks">holding the country hostage</a>, we can’t give in to them, <a href="https://democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/speaker-mccarthy-puts-nation-s-economy-at-risk">this will gut really important programs</a>, and so forth.</p>
<p>So on the one hand, the public doesn’t like gridlock – especially gridlock when the consequences are so bad, as default would be. On the other hand, voters in each party’s base are hearing the story framed in very different ways. Both sides may <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/debt-ceiling-crisis-democrats-gop">end up blaming the other side</a>. They’re not necessarily going to be calling their legislators and asking them to compromise.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528421/original/file-20230525-29-5qs03s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Many people in business clothing on a stage with signs that say 'MAGA Republicans' BAD DEAL.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528421/original/file-20230525-29-5qs03s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528421/original/file-20230525-29-5qs03s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528421/original/file-20230525-29-5qs03s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528421/original/file-20230525-29-5qs03s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528421/original/file-20230525-29-5qs03s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528421/original/file-20230525-29-5qs03s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528421/original/file-20230525-29-5qs03s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., speaks about the debt limit and negotiations to reach a deal on May 24, 2023, in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/congressional-progressive-caucus-chair-rep-pramila-jayapal-news-photo/1257785190?adppopup=true">Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Democracy is about representation. As they conduct these negotiations, do lawmakers see themselves as representing voters?</h2>
<p>Many conservative Republicans who are holding firm may believe that they are good representatives of what the base wants. They represent very strongly partisan districts who may agree with them that they need to fight for concessions. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/rejecting-compromise/01F2DA900C72ACF02E1B3ECF4EED43D3">the recent book</a> that I wrote with Sarah Anderson and Daniel Butler, we found that legislators believe their primary voters want them to reject compromises. </p>
<p>But in today’s crisis, those constituents may not really understand the consequences of default. Sometimes good representation doesn’t just mean doing what the public wants – legislators have better information or understanding of how things work and should do what’s in the best interests of their constituents. </p>
<p>However, even if individual members are trying to represent their districts or their states, when we think about this at a more aggregate or collective level, we don’t see great representation. Individual legislators may be thinking they’re representing constituents, but that leads to an aggregate that is not representative of the country as a whole. </p>
<p>What the public as a whole – which tends to be more moderate – wants is compromise and resolution of this issue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurel Harbridge-Yong has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, Unite America, the Electoral Integrity Project, and the Dirksen Congressional Center.</span></em></p>Brinkmanship means coming to the edge of potential default on the US debt ceiling. Are lawmakers negotiating the debt limit representing the wishes and interests of their voters?Laurel Harbridge-Yong, Associate Professor of Political Science, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2038542023-05-04T05:37:03Z2023-05-04T05:37:03ZBerapa gaji dosen? Berikut hasil survei nasional pertama yang memetakan kesejahteraan akademisi di Indonesia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524109/original/file-20230503-14-eabdaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C3295%2C2529&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/graduation-silhouette-water-color-painting-531382432">Rsinha/shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Artikel ini kami terbitkan untuk memperingati Hari Buruh (1 Mei) dan Hari Pendidikan Nasional (2 Mei).</em></p>
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<p>Media kerap memotret profesi dosen sebagai <a href="https://edukasi.sindonews.com/read/680357/211/gaji-dosen-pns-dan-tunjangan-bisa-sampai-ratusan-juta-rupiah-1644314562?showpage=all">pekerjaan yang menjanjikan secara finansial</a>. Namun hal ini ini sangat bertentangan dengan apa yang disuarakan <a href="https://twitter.com/trilogy_30/status/1585087137783091200?s=20">oleh para dosen</a>. </p>
<p>Di tengah tuntutan yang semakin meningkat seiring keharusan universitas <a href="https://theconversation.com/pemeringkatan-kampus-praktik-imperialisme-budaya-yang-menjebak-perguruan-tinggi-dalam-perlombaan-kosong-178536">mengikuti logika pasar</a>, menumpuknya <a href="https://www.kompas.id/baca/humaniora/2023/04/26/birokratisasi-dosen-mengundang-senjalaka-indonesia">beban administrasi</a>, serta <a href="https://www.jawapos.com/pendidikan/01312382/dongkrak-kualitas-kampus-dosen-harus-bergelar-doktor">syarat kualifikasi yang semakin tinggi</a> bagi akademisi, tingkat kesejahteraan dosen di Indonesia adalah isu yang masih <a href="https://www.kompas.id/baca/humaniora/2023/02/14/berjuang-sejahtera-di-tengah-tuntutan-dosen-super">belum benar-benar dituntaskan</a>.</p>
<p>Di Indonesia, ada sekitar 300 ribu dosen yang tersebar di sekitar <a href="https://pddikti.kemdikbud.go.id/pt">4.600 perguruan tinggi</a> dengan <a href="https://pddikti.kemdikbud.go.id/asset/data/publikasi/Statistik%20Pendidikan%20Tinggi%202020.pdf">bermacam-macam status kepegawaian dan ikatan kerja</a>. Keberagaman ini kerap menyebabkan <a href="https://theconversation.com/pakar-menjawab-seperti-apa-potret-gaji-dan-realitas-kesejahteraan-dosen-di-indonesia-193044">ketidakjelasan mengenai standar pengupahan</a> mereka.</p>
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Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pakar-menjawab-seperti-apa-potret-gaji-dan-realitas-kesejahteraan-dosen-di-indonesia-193044">Pakar Menjawab: Seperti apa potret gaji dan realitas kesejahteraan dosen di Indonesia?</a>
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<p>Tanpa rujukan yang jelas, dosen berada dalam posisi <a href="https://theconversation.com/bersyukur-atau-berkumpul-menilik-urgensi-serikat-dosen-di-indonesia-204149">rawan</a> untuk digaji di bawah standar upah minimum masing-masing daerah.</p>
<p>Sayangnya, hingga kini, kita masih kesulitan membaca fenomena ini karena belum ada data tentang penghasilan dosen di Indonesia yang bisa menjadi rujukan awal untuk membedah persoalan.</p>
<p>Oleh karena itu, kami melakukan studi untuk mencoba mengisi kesenjangan tersebut. Tim kami – yang terdiri dari akademisi Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Universitas Indonesia (UI), dan Universitas Mataram (Unram) – berupaya memetakan kondisi kesejahteraan dosen melalui sebuah survei nasional yang kami luncurkan secara daring pada April 2023. </p>
<p>Survei kami diikuti hampir 1.200 partisipan dosen aktif, yakni tidak sedang melaksanakan tugas atau izin belajar lanjut.</p>
<p>Secara gender, mereka berimbang antara perempuan dan laki-laki, dengan mayoritas berada di rentang usia 26-40 tahun (80,6%). Sebagian besar berpendidikan terakhir S2 (82,2%) dan telah bekerja selama 0-10 tahun (79,8%).</p>
<iframe src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13627158/embed" title="Interactive or visual content" class="flourish-embed-iframe" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="width:100%;height:400px;" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<div style="width:100%!;margin-top:4px!important;text-align:right!important;"><a class="flourish-credit" href="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/13627158/?utm_source=embed&utm_campaign=visualisation/13627158" target="_top"><img alt="Made with Flourish" src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/made_with_flourish.svg"> </a></div>
<p>Berikut merupakan temuan-temuan utama dalam survei kami.</p>
<h2>Upah dosen masih jauh dari layak</h2>
<p>Secara umum, dosen menerima pendapatan yang relatif tetap dari institusinya. Ini bisa terdiri dari gaji pokok, tunjangan fungsional, tunjangan profesi, dan beragam jenis honor (seperti honor mengajar, membimbing, praktikum dan sebagainya). Dosen yang memiliki jabatan di universitas, juga mendapatkan tambahan dari tunjangan jabatan struktural.</p>
<p>Sebanyak 42,9% dosen menerima pendapatan tetap di bawah Rp 3 juta per bulan.</p>
<iframe src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13626756/embed" title="Interactive or visual content" class="flourish-embed-iframe" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="width:100%;height:500px;" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<div style="width:100%!;margin-top:4px!important;text-align:right!important;"><a class="flourish-credit" href="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/13626756/?utm_source=embed&utm_campaign=visualisation/13626756" target="_top"><img alt="Made with Flourish" src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/made_with_flourish.svg"> </a></div>
<p>Di luar itu, sebagian dosen menerima pendapatan variabel (tidak tentu) seperti honor narasumber, insentif publikasi, dan honor insidental lainnya. Bagi lebih dari setengah partisipan (53,6%), jumlah pendapatan tidak tentu ini masih di bawah Rp 1 juta per bulan. </p>
<p>Sebagai catatan, rata-rata upah minimum provinsi (UMP) di Indonesia berkisar pada angka <a href="https://www.cnnindonesia.com/ekonomi/20221202101457-537-881806/daftar-ump-2023-lengkap-tertinggi-dki-jakarta-rp49-juta">Rp 2.910.632 pada 2023</a>. </p>
<p>Banyak orang mengira bahwa semua dosen menerima tunjangan profesi – yang dikenal dengan sebutan <a href="http://dikti.kemdikbud.go.id/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/82_-Salinan-101_E_KPT_2022.pdf">sertifikasi dosen (serdos)</a> – dengan nominal yang besar. Padahal, kenyataannya <a href="https://theconversation.com/pakar-menjawab-seperti-apa-potret-gaji-dan-realitas-kesejahteraan-dosen-di-indonesia-193044">tidak semua dosen</a> menerima komponen ini.</p>
<p>Jika pun mereka menerimanya, besarannya hanya sebesar satu kali gaji pokok sesuai golongannya, biasanya baru bisa diurus setelah bekerja minimal sekitar 4 tahun, dan sering kali tak sepadan dengan kualifikasi mereka.</p>
<p>Bahkan, untuk dosen Pegawai Negeri Sipil (PNS) dengan kualifikasi sekaliber S3 dengan jabatan fungsional Lektor (<em>Assistant Professor</em>), tunjangan serdos mereka dipatok pada angka Rp 2.802.300. Angka ini jauh tertinggal, misalnya, jika dibandingkan <a href="https://jdih.kemenkeu.go.id/fullText/2014/156TAHUN2014PERPRES.pdf">tunjangan kinerja di Kementerian Keuangan (Kemenkeu)</a> untuk lulusan S1 yang sebesar Rp 3.980.000.</p>
<p>Apakah pemasukan para dosen ini terbilang layak?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/wages/minimum-wages/setting-adjusting/WCMS_439251/lang--en/index.htm">Menurut Organisasi Perburuhan Dunia (ILO)</a>, pendapatan yang “layak” memenuhi tak hanya upah minimum, tapi juga keamanan sosial. Selain biaya kebutuhan dasar seperti pangan dan hunian, ini juga berarti menghitung pengeluaran penting lain seperti kesehatan, pendidikan anak, dan ongkos partisipasi kehidupan sosial masyarakat. Keamanan sosial juga harus <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_067588.pdf">mempertimbangkan dana darurat</a> ketika menghadapi potensi kehilangan pekerjaan dan risiko kecelakaan.</p>
<p>Perlu menjadi catatan bahwa 73,7% partisipan riset kami mengaku harus menanggung biaya hidup keluarganya.</p>
<p>Di antara mereka, sebagian besar (55,4%) menyatakan harus mengeluarkan biaya hidup per bulan sebesar Rp 3-10 juta. Bahkan, ada (12,2%) yang kebutuhan bulanannya lebih dari Rp 10 juta.</p>
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<h2>Periode awal karier dosen adalah masa-masa kritis</h2>
<p>Senada dengan narasi yang banyak muncul di <a href="https://twitter.com/trilogy_30/status/1585087137783091200?s=20">media sosial</a>, kami menemukan bahwa dosen yang berpenghasilan di bawah Rp 3 juta rupiah per bulan biasanya masih pada tahap awal karier mereka.</p>
<p>Banyak di antara partisipan kami berusia 26-35 tahun (63,5%), bergelar S2 (82,2%), dan bekerja selama kurang dari 3 tahun (39,4%).</p>
<p>Karena belum lama bekerja, selain belum mendapat tunjangan serdos, banyak di antaranya pun belum bisa mendapat tunjangan tambahan berkaitan dengan jabatan fungsional mereka. Biasanya, dosen baru mulai mendapat <a href="https://peraturan.bpk.go.id/Home/Details/42121/perpres-no-65-tahun-2007">tunjangan</a> pertama ini (sekitar <a href="https://www.detik.com/edu/perguruan-tinggi/d-6261857/daftar-gaji-rektor-dan-dosen-di-perguruan-tinggi-plus-tunjangan-per-bulan">Rp 375.000</a>) ketika naik jadi Asisten Ahli (AA) setelah 2-3 tahun.</p>
<p>Tak ayal, sebagian besar (71,6%) partisipan pun harus mengejar pemasukan tak rutin dari berbagai aktivitas kepanitiaan, dana hibah penelitian, atau dengan mengampu jabatan struktural di universitas mereka. Jumlahnya? Lebih dari setengah mengatakan tak lebih dari Rp 1 juta per bulan.</p>
<p>Dari 583 partisipan yang memberikan respons terhadap pertanyaan apakah mereka memiliki pekerjaan tambahan, sebanyak 45,8% mengakui bahwa mereka memperoleh pemasukan selain dari profesi dosen di institusi tempat mereka bekerja.</p>
<p>Ini termasuk menjadi konsultan, tenaga ahli, guru bimbingan belajar, dan bahasa asing, hingga membuka usaha sendiri dan berdagang. Namun pemasukan yang mereka dapatkan dari sumber tersebut masih di bawah Rp 3 juta tiap bulannya – hanya 3% dari partisipan mengaku mendapat pemasukan hingga Rp 6-10 juta per bulan dari luar institusi mereka. </p>
<p>Dosen-dosen muda dalam rentang usia 26-35 tahun pun berada dalam masa-masa membangun rumah tangga, membayar cicilan hunian, atau membiayai sekolah anaknya yang tentunya membutuhkan ongkos yang tak sedikit. </p>
<p>Para dosen muda yang baru menyelesaikan studi lanjut seharusnya berada dalam masa emas produktivitas riset. Namun, kenyataannya justru mereka – khususnya dosen junior – kerap <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1360080X.2023.2191169">dibebankan dengan tugas administratif</a> yang tinggi yang mematikan gairah penelitian.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sepak-terjang-peneliti-muda-indonesia-berkembang-pesat-tapi-masih-terbentur-banyak-tantangan-174408">Sepak terjang peneliti muda Indonesia: berkembang pesat tapi masih terbentur banyak tantangan</a>
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<h2>Kinerja terhambat gaji</h2>
<p>Pada akhir survei, kami menanyakan persepsi dosen tentang penghasilan mereka.</p>
<p>Hasilnya cukup sesuai dugaan: mayoritas dosen (80%) merasa pendapatannya tidak sesuai dengan beban pekerjaan yang diberikan.</p>
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<p>Dosen, misalnya, harus mengemban beban SKS mengajar yang banyak. Upaya efisiensi dan <a href="https://theconversation.com/turunnya-jumlah-mahasiswa-baru-karena-pandemi-berdampak-pada-keuangan-perguruan-tinggi-apa-yang-bisa-dilakukan-149441">penghematan biaya operasional</a> kerap membuat perguruan tinggi mempekerjakan sesedikit mungkin dosen untuk mengampu banyak kelas.</p>
<p>Selain itu, dosen juga dituntut membimbing mahasiswa, meneliti, menulis publikasi ilmiah, dan melaksanakan kegiatan pengabdian masyarakat. Tugas administratif dosen juga bertambah dengan adanya pemantauan kinerja lewat <a href="https://www.kompas.id/baca/humaniora/2023/04/26/birokratisasi-dosen-mengundang-senjalaka-indonesia">aplikasi-aplikasi yang sangat menguras tenaga dan waktu</a>. Tak sedikit dosen menerima limpahan pekerjaan administratif dari atasan atau senior karena kurangnya sumber daya manusia (SDM) di kampus. </p>
<p>Pada akhirnya, ini semua mempengaruhi tingkat kepuasan dosen terhadap profesinya dan <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-015-9910-x">bagaimana ia mengalokasikan waktunya untuk menekuni profesi dosen</a> dibandingkan pekerjaan lain yang lebih menghasilkan secara ekonomi.</p>
<p>Tidak heran bila kita sering menemukan keluh kesah dosen maupun mahasiswa tentang kualitas pengajaran yang tidak optimal – misalnya kelas-kelas perkuliahan yang dibatalkan karena dosen harus membagi waktunya dengan pekerjaan sampingan mereka.</p>
<p>Selain itu, tekanan pekerjaan dan ekonomi yang dialami dosen sangat mungkin menjadi faktor penjelas mengapa mereka bisa menjadi sosok yang temperamental dan kurang empati, salah satu gejala dalam <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/affective-capitalism-in-academia">krisis kontemporer universitas</a>.</p>
<p>Dalam studi <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hequ.12221">lintas negara dan disiplin di 11 negara Eropa</a>, terdapat juga korelasi yang jelas antara tingkat penghasilan akademik yang tinggi dengan performa riset yang tinggi pula. Tentu, ini bisa berdampak pada proses produksi pengetahuan yang kemudian cenderung homogen karena <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/issj.12429">hanya segelintir akademisi elit saja</a> yang menghasilkan riset berkualitas.</p>
<p>Beberapa akademisi mengungkap bahwa satu penyebab beban dan ketimpangan dosen di atas yang terus dilanggengkan, adalah <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cag.12261">neoliberalisasi pendidikan tinggi</a> yang terjadi di berbagai belahan dunia. Institusi pendidikan tinggi terus bergerak mengikuti logika pasar bebas dan kompetisi, sehingga para dosen pun dituntut untuk <a href="https://theconversation.com/dosen-adalah-buruh-pengakuan-ini-adalah-langkah-pertama-dalam-memperjuangkan-kesejahteraan-akademisi-204209">menghasilkan riset di jurnal bereputasi internasional</a> demi menggenjot peringkat kampus – kadang hingga <a href="https://theconversation.com/efek-kobra-dosen-indonesia-terobsesi-pada-indeks-scopus-dan-praktik-tercela-menuju-universitas-kelas-dunia-105808">melakukan kecurangan</a> atau <a href="https://theconversation.com/mengurai-sistem-indeks-kinerja-peneliti-sinta-lebih-banyak-mudarat-atau-manfaatnya-bagi-produksi-riset-indonesia-201573">mencari jalan pintas</a>.</p>
<p>Sebagai upaya menghadapi berbagai situasi ini, dosen di banyak negara – khususnya di Inggris, Australia, dan Amerika Serikat (AS) – kini <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2023/03/15/new-era-union-activism-higher-ed-opinion">bergerak lewat wadah serikat pekerja</a> untuk memperjuangkan hak-hak akademisi bersama elemen kampus lainnya.</p>
<p>Para akademisi Indonesia dapat mempertimbangkan untuk <a href="https://theconversation.com/bersyukur-atau-berkumpul-menilik-urgensi-serikat-dosen-di-indonesia-204149">membentuk wadah serupa</a> demi mengadvokasi sejumlah isu kesejahteraan yang mereka hadapi, termasuk mengkalkulasi upah layak yang sepatutnya mereka terima sesuai beban kerja dan kebutuhan hidupnya. </p>
<p>Apalagi, 87,5% partisipan survei kami menyatakan siap bergabung jika serikat dosen terbentuk – yang hingga kini masih absen di Indonesia.</p>
<p>Riset ini semestinya tak hanya sekadar mengisi kekosongan data dan meluruskan persepsi tentang dosen yang kerap dianggap makmur. Namun, temuan ini sepatutnya juga menjadi momentum untuk perbaikan kesejahteraan pengajar di perguruan tinggi – profesi yang sangat menentukan kualitas pendidikan dan riset Indonesia, sekaligus <a href="https://theconversation.com/dosen-adalah-buruh-pengakuan-ini-adalah-langkah-pertama-dalam-memperjuangkan-kesejahteraan-akademisi-204209">kelompok buruh</a> yang rentan dan memerlukan perlindungan. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bersyukur-atau-berkumpul-menilik-urgensi-serikat-dosen-di-indonesia-204149">Bersyukur atau berkumpul? Menilik urgensi serikat dosen di Indonesia</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203854/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Para penulis tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi di luar afiliasi akademis yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Riset terbaru memaparkan realita kesejahteraan dosen di Indonesia dan menangkis persepsi publik bahwa profesi tersebut menjanjikan. Di tengah beban kerja yang berat, banyak dosen digaji sebatas UMR.Kanti Pertiwi, Assistant Professor in Organisation Studies, Universitas IndonesiaAstri Ferdiana, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas MataramShofwan Al Banna Choiruzzad, Associate professor, Universitas IndonesiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2004172023-04-25T12:27:16Z2023-04-25T12:27:16ZWhite power movements in US history have often relied on veterans – and not on lone wolves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512087/original/file-20230223-4425-vmxhup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A member of the Ku Klux Klan shouts at counterprotesters during a July 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Va., calling for the protection of Southern Confederate monuments.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/member-of-the-ku-klux-klan-shouts-at-counter-protesters-news-photo/810860866?phrase=white%20supremacists%20rally&adppopup=true">Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>For decades, the white power movement has gained steady momentum in the U.S. <a href="https://history.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/core-faculty/kathleen-belew.html">Kathleen Belew</a> is an expert on the history of the white power movement and its current impact on American society and politics. Her book “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286078">Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America</a>” examines how the aftermath of the Vietnam War led to the birth of the white power movement.</em></p>
<p><em>In March 2023, Belew spoke at the <a href="https://www.imaginesolutionsconference.com/">Imagine Solutions Conference</a> in Naples, Florida, about how the narrative of the “lone wolf” actor distracts from the broader threat of the white power movement in America. The Conversation asked Belew about her work. Her edited answers are below.</em></p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Kathleen Belew speaks at the 2023 Imagine Solutions Conference.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>What is the white power movement?</h2>
<p>The white power movement is an array of activists that is, in all ways but race, remarkably diverse. Since the late 1970s, it has convened people of a wide variety of belief systems, including <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/ku-klux-klan">Klansmen</a>, <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/neo-nazi">neo-Nazis</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/77.3.1221">white separatists</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/01/883115867/white-supremacist-ideas-have-historical-roots-in-u-s-christianity">proponents</a> of white supremacist religious theologies, and, starting in the late 1980s, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0031322X.2016.1243349">racist skinheads</a> and militia movement members. These activists represent a <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286078">wide range</a> of class positions. The movement has long included men, women and children; felons and religious leaders; high school dropouts and holders of advanced degrees; civilians and veterans and active-duty military personnel. They have lived in all regions of the country, including suburbs, cities and rural areas.</p>
<h2>How has the legacy of US warfare fueled white power groups?</h2>
<p>After every major American war, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286078">the historical record</a> shows a surge in membership and activity among extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. In each example, <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/military-police-and-rise-terrorism-united-states">these groups also adopt</a> elements of military activity, like uniforms, weapons and the latest military tactics. But this doesn’t mean that these surges are entirely composed of veterans. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Violence-Military-Social-Weapons-ebook/dp/B00PSSF7UC?ref_=ast_author_dp">All measures of violence rise after warfare</a>, including acts carried out by women, children and older people. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan have been able to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bring-War-Home-Movement-Paramilitary/dp/0674237692/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678477040&sr=8-1">use this postwar opportunity</a> for their own purposes: recruitment and radicalization.</p>
<h2>When and why did the white power movement emerge in the US?</h2>
<p>The white power movement <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/us/the-secret-history-of-white-power.html">came together</a> in the late 1970s around a <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/605661710">shared narrative of the Vietnam War</a>. In this narrative, the war exemplifies the failure of government, the betrayal of the American people by the government and the betrayal of American men by the state. </p>
<p>Disillusioned veterans and civilians alike mobilized around a number of other <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Backlash-Undeclared-Against-American-Women/dp/0307345424">social grievances, such as dissatisfaction</a> with changes caused by feminism, the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/eyesontheprize-responses-coming-civil-rights-movement/">Civil Rights Movement</a> and other movements at home, as well as frustrations with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/00021482-74.2.366">economic changes like the farms crisis</a> and the general move to financialization in the 1970s that made it harder to find and keep a working-class job.</p>
<p>This disaffection allowed for the white power movement to recruit in two different ways: narrative force – the story that was used to hold these activists together; and contextual force – the social grievances many of them had in common.</p>
<h2>What role do women play in the white supremacist movement?</h2>
<p>People often think of the white power and militia movements as men’s movements. It’s true that the <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/white-supremacy-returned-mainstream-politics/">majority of media reports heavily feature men</a>; that’s because those who participate in public demonstrations and those who get arrested because of underground activity tend to be men. But this is a movement that has relied in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190204204.013.37">extraordinarily heavy ways on women</a>. </p>
<p>Women have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190265144.003.0013">been tasked with normalizing</a> and legitimating violence, orchestrating recruitment and maintaining the relationships that allow this movement to operate as a social network. Take, for instance, the <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286078">Aryan Nations World Congress</a>, a 1983 meeting in which the white power movement declared war on the United States. This meeting featured men’s speeches and ideological activities, a cross burning and a swastika burning. But it also featured matchmaking and a big spaghetti dinner, which socially bound activists together to enable the organization of violence. Women were indispensable for arranging these kinds of activities and for maintaining strong relationships between groups.</p>
<h2>Where do US veterans fit in?</h2>
<p>Veterans are specifically targeted for recruitment into white power groups because they and active-duty service members have a set of experiences and expertise that is very much in demand by these groups. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/24/us-military-white-supremacy-extremist-plot">Veterans have tactical training</a>, munitions expertise and weapons training that the white power movement wants because it is trying to wage war on the American government – in fact, this movement has <a href="https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/113968/witnesses/HHRG-117-VR00-Wstate-JonesS-20211013.pdf">directed recruitment</a> specifically aimed at veterans and active-duty troops. </p>
<p>While very few veterans returning from war join white power groups, the groups still feature an <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/02/06/signs-of-white-supremacy-extremism-up-again-in-poll-of-active-duty-troops/">enormous percentage of people who are veterans</a> or active duty – or falsely claim to be. This is because those military roles are in high demand among these groups – and their command structure within the movement mirrors military organization. </p>
<h2>How can the US address its lack of care toward veterans?</h2>
<p>The white power movement is one example of a broader social failure to support veterans and to reckon with the cost of warfare. This movement is able to <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2022/06/23/military-veterans-targeted-by-extremists-preying-on-patriots/">opportunistically mobilize disaffected people</a> in the aftermath of war because <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Failing-Our-Veterans-Vietnam-Generation/dp/0814724876">our society lacks robust social structures</a> to reintegrate people after warfare and to have a real public discourse about the price of war. </p>
<p>Before <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/10/magazine/fall-of-kabul-afghanistan.html">the fall of Kabul</a> in Afghanistan, my undergraduate students at Northwestern and the University of Chicago had been at war for their entire living memory. These are kids who don’t remember 9/11. And yet that war has not featured prominently even in the list of the top five or 10 crises facing our nation. In the recent past, war has not been at the center of our political conversation. We <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167629612001178">don’t reckon with the massive impact</a> the people who serve in our armed forces shoulder for the nation. </p>
<p>In all of these ways, the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/war-on-terror-timeline">global war on terror</a> has <a href="https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/113968/witnesses/HHRG-117-VR00-Wstate-Miller-IdrissC-20211013-U1.pdf">continued the cycle</a> of generating a recruitment opportunity for extremist groups. We are now in the middle of a <a href="https://acleddata.com/2022/12/06/from-the-capitol-riot-to-the-midterms-shifts-in-american-far-right-mobilization-between-2021-and-2022/">massive groundswell of white power</a> and militant right activity, both underground and in public-facing actions.</p>
<h2>What are you working on now that people might not be aware of?</h2>
<p>My next project departs from the white power movement to examine gun violence in America, specifically the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/1990s/columbine-high-school-shootings">Columbine shooting</a> – which happened when I was in high school, not far from where I was in high school – as a fulcrum point between the 20th century and the 21st. There were mass shootings at schools and elsewhere before Columbine. But Columbine really marks the moment when mass shootings became normalized. I think the event signals major fissures in the social fabric and reflects other massive changes in how society thinks about place, politics and violence – not only in Colorado but in the nation as a whole.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200417/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An expert in American history explains the white power movement, its impact on veterans and women and how the Vietnam War was the impetus for extremist groups to gain new members.Kathleen Belew, Associate Professor of History, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1991072023-02-07T12:07:49Z2023-02-07T12:07:49ZLa comparaison des Noirs aux singes a une longue et sombre histoire simiesque<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507883/original/file-20230202-7181-a0kapm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Le point culminant de la simianisation populaire a été le classique à succès de l'usine à horreurs d'Hollywood, King Kong.</span> </figcaption></figure><p><em>Cet article est un essai de base. Il s'agit d'un essai plus long que d'habitude, qui aborde de manière plus large une question sociale importante.</em></p>
<p>Dans l'histoire des cultures européennes, la comparaison des humains aux primates et aux singes a été dénigrante dès le début.</p>
<p>Lorsque Platon - en citant Héraclite - a déclaré que le plus beau des singes est laid si on le compare à l'espèce humaine et les hommes sont apaisés par rapport aux dieux, cela a été une maigre consolation pour les singes. Cela les déconnectait transcendantalement de leurs co-primates humains. Les Pères de l'Église sont allés un peu plus loin : Saint Grégoire de Nazianze et Saint Isidore de Séville ont comparé les païens à des singes.</p>
<p>Au Moyen Âge, le discours chrétien reconnaissait les simiens comme des figures diaboliques et des représentants de comportements lascifs et pécheurs. Comme les femmes faisaient l'objet d'une diffamation analogue, les choses se sont déroulées comme on pouvait s'y attendre. Au 11e siècle, le cardinal Pierre Damian a raconté l'histoire d'un singe qui était l'amant d'une comtesse de Ligurie. Le simien jaloux a tué son mari et a engendré son enfant.</p>
<p><strong>Un foyer de monstres</strong></p>
<p>Plusieurs siècles plus tard, en 1633, John Donne, dans sa <a href="http://www.luminarium.org/editions/metempsycosis.htm">Métempsycose</a>, laisse même une des filles d'Adam se faire séduire par un singe dans une liaison sexuelle. Elle lui rendit la pareille avec empressement et devint désespérément accrochée à lui.</p>
<p>Dès lors, la manifestation sexiste de la simianisation fut intimement mêlée à sa dimension raciste. Déjà Jean Bodin, doyen de la théorie de la souveraineté, avait attribué les rapports sexuels entre animaux et humains à l'Afrique au sud du Sahara. Il caractérisait cette région comme un foyer de monstres, nés de l'union sexuelle des humains et des animaux.</p>
<p>L'histoire d'un récit d'Antonio de Torquemada montre comment, dans ce processus, les Africains ont été diabolisés et les démons racialisés. Dans la première version du récit (1570), une Portugaise est exilée en Afrique où elle est <a href="https://sapientia.ualg.pt/bitstream/10400.1/1610/1/11-12-Dodds.pdf">violée</a> par un singe et elle lui fait des bébés.</p>
<p>Un siècle plus tard, l'histoire est entrée dans le domaine de la grande pensée philosophique européenne lorsque John Locke, dans son essai de 1689 intitulé <a href="http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/locke-the-works-vol-1-an-essay-concerning-human-understanding-part-1?q=drills#Locke_0128-01_907">Concerning Human Understanding</a>, a déclaré que “les femmes ont conçu par forage ovarien”. Ses contemporains intellectuels savaient bien que le théâtre de cette transgression de l'histoire d'amour et de viol était l'Afrique car, selon la sagesse de l'époque, les auteurs de ce forage ovarien vivaient en Guinée.</p>
<p>Au cours des siècles suivants, la simianisation fera son entrée dans différentes sciences et humanités. L'anthropologie, l'archéologie, la biologie, l'ethnologie, la géologie, la médecine, la philosophie et, surtout, la théologie sont quelques-uns des domaines concernés.</p>
<p><strong>Le racisme des films King Kong</strong></p>
<p>La littérature, les arts et le divertissement quotidien se sont également emparés de la question. Ils ont popularisé sa combinaison répugnante de représentations sexistes et racistes. Le point culminant a été le classique à succès de l'industrie du divertissement d'Hollywood, King Kong.</p>
<p>À l'époque de la production de King Kong, le public américain était fasciné par un procès pour viol. Les <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/scottsboro/timeline/">Scottish Boys</a> étaient neuf adolescents noirs accusés d'avoir violé deux jeunes femmes blanches. En 1935, un récit en images réalisé par l'artiste japonais Lin Shi Khan et le lithographe Toni Perez est publié. “Scottsboro Alabama” était préfacé par Michael Gold, rédacteur en chef du journal communiste New Masses.</p>
<p>L'une des 56 images montrait le groupe des jeunes gens accusés à côté d'un journal portant le titre “Coupable de viol”. Le reste de l'image était rempli d'une monstrueuse figure simiesque noire montrant ses dents et entraînant une jeune fille blanche sans défense.</p>
<p>Les artistes ont parfaitement compris l'interaction entre l'idéologie raciste, les reportages réactionnaires et l'injustice du Sud. Ils savaient que le public blanc avait été profondément conditionné par la violence déshumanisante des comparaisons avec des animaux et des représentations simiesques, comme dans le racisme de King Kong.</p>
<p><strong>L'étiquette de la maladie</strong></p>
<p>L'animalisation et même la bactérialisation sont des éléments répandus de la déshumanisation raciste. Elles sont étroitement liées à l'étiquetage des autres avec le langage de la contamination et de la maladie. Les images qui mettent les hommes sur le même plan que les rats porteurs de fléaux épidémiques font partie de l'escorte idéologique du racisme anti-juif et anti-chinois.</p>
<p>L'Afrique est étiquetée comme un continent contagieux, foyer des pestes de toutes sortes dans les jungles chaudes et humides, propagées par des personnes imprudentes et sexuellement débridées. Le Sida, en particulier, trouverait son origine dans les rapports imprudents des Africains avec les simiens, qu'ils mangent ou dont ils utilisent le sang comme aphrodisiaque.</p>
<p>Ce n'est là que le dernier chapitre d'une longue et affreuse série de stéréotypes dirigés contre des personnes différentes, comme les <a href="http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/28/irish-apes-tactics-of-de-humanization/">Irlandais</a> ou les <a href="https://po394.wordpress.com/wartime-propaganda/">Japonais</a>, et contre les Africains et les <a href="http://www.authentichistory.com/diversity/african/3-coon/6-monkey/">Africains Américains</a> en particulier. Jeter des bananes devant des sportifs noirs est une provocation raciste courante, même aujourd'hui.</p>
<p><strong>Pourquoi les Noirs sont-ils maltraités ?</strong></p>
<p>Qu'est-ce qui explique cette association désastreuse de personnes noires considérées comme simiesques ? Une combinaison de facteurs pourrait en être la cause :</p>
<ul>
<li><p>la prévalence d'une variété de grands singes en Afrique, dont la taille est la plus proche de celle de l'homme. La population de grands singes asiatiques est plus limitée, tandis qu'aux Amériques, on trouve des singes, mais pas de grands singes ;</p></li>
<li><p>l'ampleur de la “distance” esthétique entre les Blancs et les Noirs, leur degré plus élevé, du point de vue des Blancs, d’“altérité” physique (déviant non seulement par la couleur de la peau et la texture des cheveux, mais aussi par les traits du visage) par rapport aux autres races “non blanches” ;</p></li>
<li><p>la plus grande estime que les Européens accordent généralement aux civilisations asiatiques par rapport aux civilisations africaines ;</p></li>
<li><p>et surtout l'impact psychique de centaines d'années d'esclavage racial dans la modernité, qui a fait des “Nègres” des sous-personnes permanentes, des esclaves naturels, dans la conscience mondiale.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>L'esclavage à grande échelle exigeait de réduire les gens à des objets. C'est précisément pour cette raison qu'il a également nécessité le type de déshumanisation le plus complet et le plus systématique dans la théorisation de cette réalité.</p>
<p><strong>L'origine des espèces</strong></p>
<p>Bien avant que le “racisme scientifique” post-darwinien ne commence à se développer, on constate que les Noirs étaient décrits comme plus proches des singes sur la grande chaîne des êtres. Prenons l'Amérique du milieu du 19e siècle, dans des milieux où la polygénèse (origines distinctes pour les races) était prise au sérieux. </p>
<p>Les grands scientifiques de l'époque, Josiah C. Nott et George R. Gliddon, dans leur ouvrage <a href="https://archive.org/details/typesmankindore01pattgoog">Types of Mankind</a> (1854), ont documenté ce qu'ils considéraient comme des hiérarchies raciales objectives, à l'aide d'illustrations comparant les Noirs aux chimpanzés, aux gorilles et aux orangs-outans.</p>
<p>Comme le commente Stephen Jay Gould, ce livre n'était pas un document marginal, mais le principal texte américain sur les différences raciales.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112520/original/image-20160223-16416-8wueiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Darwin n'a pas discrédité le racisme scientifique avec ‘On the Origin of Species’ - il l'a juste affiné.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>L'ouvrage révolutionnaire de Darwin, De l'origine des espèces (1859), n'a pas discrédité le racisme scientifique, mais seulement ses variantes polygéniques. Le darwinisme social, triomphalement monogénétique, allait devenir la nouvelle orthodoxie raciale. La domination blanche mondiale est considérée comme la preuve de la supériorité évolutive de la race blanche.</p>
<p>S'il fallait maintenant concéder que nous étions tous apparentés aux singes, on pouvait néanmoins insister sur le fait que la consanguinité des Noirs était beaucoup plus proche - peut-être une identité directe.</p>
<p><strong>Tarzan = peau blanche</strong></p>
<p>La culture populaire a joué un rôle crucial dans la diffusion de ces croyances. Il est peu probable que le profane américain moyen ait lu des revues scientifiques. Mais ils lisaient certainement H. Rider Haggard (auteur des Mines du roi Salomon et de Elle) et Edgar Rice Burroughs (créateur de Tarzan). Ils allaient chaque semaine au cinéma, y compris dans le genre “films de la jungle”. Ils suivaient des bandes dessinées quotidiennes comme The Phantom - le super-flic blanc d'Afrique, le Fantôme-qui-marche.</p>
<p>L'Afrique et les Africains occupaient une place particulière dans l'imaginaire blanc, marqué par les déformations les plus éhontées. Burroughs allait devenir l'un des auteurs les plus vendus du 20e siècle. Non seulement par ses nombreux livres, mais aussi par les films qui en ont été tirés et par les diverses déclinaisons en bandes dessinées et en comics de sa création la plus célèbre, <a href="http://weareorlando.co.uk/page13.php">Tarzan</a> des singes.</p>
<p>Tarzan allait ancrer dans l'esprit des Occidentaux l'image indélébile d'un homme blanc régnant sur un continent noir. “ Tar-zan ” = “ peau blanche ”, nous informe l'impressionnant polyglotte Burroughs. C'est un monde dans lequel les humains noirs sont bestiaux, simiesques, tandis que les singes actuels sont presque humains.</p>
<p>L'œuvre de Burroughs est sans précédent par l'ampleur de son succès, mais pas du tout inhabituelle pour l'époque. Elle a plutôt consolidé une iconographie manichéenne omniprésente dans le monde occidental colonial de la première moitié du XXe siècle et qui perdure encore aujourd'hui. Dans ce conflit entre la lumière et l'obscurité, les Européens blancs dominent des sous-personnes noires simiesques.</p>
<p><strong>Les propos de Lumumba</strong></p>
<p>La série Tintin du dessinateur belge Hergé, par exemple, comprend le tristement célèbre livre <a href="https://www.tintin.com/fr/albums/tintin-au-congo">Tintin au Congo</a> qui dépeint également les Africains comme des créatures inférieures ressemblant à des singes.</p>
<p>Sans surprise, “macaques” (singes) était l'un des termes racistes utilisés par les Blancs du Congo belge pour désigner les Noirs, tout comme “macacos” en Afrique portugaise. Dans le discours qu'il a prononcé en 1960 à l'occasion de la fête de l'indépendance, le dirigeant congolais Patrice Lumumba a dénoncé l'héritage oppressif du colonialisme belge (à la surprise et à l'indignation du roi des Belges et de sa coterie, qui s'attendaient à une déférence reconnaissante de la part des indigènes). Il est réputé avoir conclu :</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/tag/patrice-lumumba/">Nous ne sommes plus vos macaques !</a> (Nous ne sommes plus vos singes)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>L'histoire semble être apocryphe - aucune documentation n'a été trouvée à son sujet - mais sa large diffusion témoigne de l'aspiration décoloniale de millions d'Africains. Hélas, en moins d'un an, Lumumba sera mort, assassiné avec la complicité des Occidentaux, et le pays passera sous la domination néocoloniale.</p>
<p><strong>Alliances racistes entre classes sociales</strong></p>
<p>L'utilisation de la simianisation comme injure raciste à l'encontre des Noirs n'est pas encore terminée, comme l'a montré <a href="https://www.voaafrique.com/a/racisme-sur-la-toile-l-afrique-du-sud-agitee-par-ses-demons-22-ans-apres-la-fin-de-l-apartheid/3136544.html">le tollé</a> suscité en Afrique du Sud par Penny Sparrow, une femme blanche, qui s'est plainte des fêtards noirs du Nouvel An :</p>
<blockquote>
<p>À partir de maintenant, je m'adresserai aux Noirs d'Afrique du Sud en les appelant des singes, car je vois les mignons petits singes sauvages faire la même chose, ramasser et jeter des ordures.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>L'emportement public de Sparrow indique l'enracinement profond des préjugés et des stéréotypes raciaux.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112508/original/image-20160223-16425-q1vd0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Le couple présidentiel d'Amérique, Barack et Michelle Obama, a fait l'objet de simianisation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Kevin Lamarque</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cela ne s'arrête pas aux frontières des classes sociales. L'internet a débordé de comparaisons avec des singes depuis que Barack et Michelle Obama ont emménagé à la Maison Blanche. Même un journal social-libéral, comme le belge De Morgen, a jugé assez amusant de simaniser le <a href="https://www.7sur7.be/home/de-morgen-publie-une-caricature-des-obama-en-singes%7Ea7660a1e/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F">couple présidentiel</a>.</p>
<p>Les alliances entre classes sociales contre les autres déclassés sont une caractéristique du racisme.</p>
<p>Theodore W. Allen l'a défini un jour comme “la mort sociale de l'oppression raciale”, c'est-à-dire :</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… la réduction de tous les membres du <a href="http://clogic.eserver.org/1-2/allen.html">groupe</a> opprimé à un statut social indifférencié, inférieur à celui de tout membre du <a href="http://clogic.eserver.org/1-2/allen.html">groupe oppresseur</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>L'animalisation reste un instrument malveillant et efficace de cette forme de désocialisation et de déshumanisation. La simianisation est une version de cette stratégie, qui a historiquement manifesté une combinaison mortelle de sexisme et de racisme.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Avec Silvia Sebastiani, Wulf D. Hund et Charles W. Mills ont édité un volume du Racism Analysis Yearbook sur <a href="https://www.academia.edu/16269162/Simianization._Apes_Gender_Class_and_Race_ed._Wulf_D._Hund_Charles_W._Mills_Silvia_Sebastiani_">La simianisation. Singes, genre, classe et race</a>. Zürich, Berlin, Vienne, Münster : Lit 2015/16 (ISBN 978-3-643-90716-5).</em></p>
<p><em>Charles Mills est décédé avant la traduction de cet article. Un hommage à ce brillant universitaire peut être trouvé ici : <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/charles-mills-radical-generosity/">The Radical Generosity of Charles Mills</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199107/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>L'animalisation reste une forme malveillante de déshumanisation. La simianisation est une version de cette stratégie, qui a historiquement manifesté une combinaison de sexisme et de racisme.Wulf D. Hund, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Department of Socioeconomics, University of HamburgCharles W Mills, John Evans Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1975752023-01-17T13:34:02Z2023-01-17T13:34:02Z50 years after Roe, many ethics questions shape the abortion debate: 4 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504340/original/file-20230112-14-sf3ro2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C9%2C1008%2C669&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anti-abortion protesters demonstrate in front of the Supreme Court in 1985, the 12th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/washington-d-c-anti-abortionists-demonstrate-in-front-of-news-photo/515955026?phrase=1973%20abortion&adppopup=true">Bettmann/Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jan. 22, 2023, marks the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that recognized a constitutional right to abortion. That stood for nearly half a century, until a majority of justices <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1102305878/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade-decision-overturn">reversed it</a> in June 2022’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision. </p>
<p>People <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-is-no-one-religious-view-on-abortion-a-scholar-of-religion-gender-and-sexuality-explains-184532">with a broad range of views on abortion</a> often say their faith tradition helps inform their opinions. But beyond religion, many other ethical and moral questions shape Americans’ perspectives on the topic. </p>
<p>Here are some of The Conversation’s most thought-provoking articles on the underlying philosophical and bioethical issues involved in abortion debates.</p>
<h2>1. Rethinking ‘personhood’</h2>
<p>Activism for and against abortion rights often gets summed up into two simple-sounding terms: “pro-life” and “pro-choice.”</p>
<p>But “‘life’ and ‘choice’ are not, in and of themselves, really the issue,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-person-different-cultures-have-different-answers-186015">wrote Robert Launay</a> of Northwestern University. “The central question is what – or who – constitutes a person.”</p>
<p>As <a href="https://anthropology.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/launay.html">an anthropologist</a>, Launay studies that question in terms of culture. Different religions and societies think about personhood in different ways, he explained. Ideas about personhood in the U.S., for example, often stem from Christian ideas about the soul and are black and white – something is or isn’t considered a person. </p>
<p>In some of the Indigenous African traditions where he has done research, meanwhile, “many view personhood as a process rather than a once-and-for-all phenomenon” – something humans gradually acquire over time, through relationships, or through rituals.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A baby sucking its thumb lies on its back on a patterned blanket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504387/original/file-20230113-26-h05j76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504387/original/file-20230113-26-h05j76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504387/original/file-20230113-26-h05j76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504387/original/file-20230113-26-h05j76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504387/original/file-20230113-26-h05j76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504387/original/file-20230113-26-h05j76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504387/original/file-20230113-26-h05j76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 4-month-old baby girl is tended by her grandmother inside a church in Duekoue, Ivory Coast, in 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IvoryCoast/db6beed455e1419cb9bf3e92533c8370/photo?Query=baby%20cote%20d%27ivoire&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=5&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-person-different-cultures-have-different-answers-186015">What does it mean to be a 'person'? Different cultures have different answers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Moral status</h2>
<p>Even within a single society, defining “personhood” can be complex and controversial. </p>
<p>Personhood is a key concern in bioethics, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-personhood-the-ethics-question-that-needs-a-closer-look-in-abortion-debates-182745">wrote</a> University of Washington philosopher <a href="https://phil.washington.edu/people/nancy-s-jecker">Nancy Jecker</a>. In that context, being a “person” isn’t necessarily the same as being “human” – and it’s not an easy concept to nail down.</p>
<p>“When philosophers talk about ‘personhood,’ they are referring to something or someone having exceptionally high moral status, often described as having a right to life, an inherent dignity, or mattering for one’s own sake,” she explained. Personhood implies that someone or something can make strong moral claims, such as a claim against being interfered with. In abortion debates, Jecker added, “no one disputes the fetus’s species, but many disagree about the fetus’s personhood.” </p>
<p>Americans hold three main views of when personhood begins – at conception, at birth, or sometime in between – which is a central part of the country’s inability to agree about abortion rules. But the implications of how societies define personhood go much further, Jecker said, influencing areas like care for the environment and end-of-life treatment.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-personhood-the-ethics-question-that-needs-a-closer-look-in-abortion-debates-182745">What is 'personhood'? The ethics question that needs a closer look in abortion debates</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. Breaking down bioethics</h2>
<p>Given Americans’ diverse views about religion and personhood, are there other concepts that can help forge consensus?</p>
<p>In another article, Jecker <a href="https://theconversation.com/abortion-and-bioethics-principles-to-guide-u-s-abortion-debates-184916">broke down four key bioethics terms</a>, four bedrock principles in the field: autonomy; nonmaleficence, or “do no harm”; beneficence, or providing beneficial care; and justice. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman in a white shirt sits in bed beside a doctor wearing a stethoscope who holds her hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504390/original/file-20230113-18-q1l7ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504390/original/file-20230113-18-q1l7ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504390/original/file-20230113-18-q1l7ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504390/original/file-20230113-18-q1l7ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504390/original/file-20230113-18-q1l7ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504390/original/file-20230113-18-q1l7ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504390/original/file-20230113-18-q1l7ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Four basic principles guide the field of medical ethics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-a-female-nurse-holding-hands-for-royalty-free-image/1315654897?adppopup=true">goc/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People disagree about how to interpret those principles: Someone in favor of abortion rights, for example, might be most concerned about harm to pregnant women, while someone who opposes them could be more concerned about harm to a fetus.</p>
<p>Understanding how people see those principles in play, though, is at least a constructive step. Jecker suggested that, short of reaching a moral consensus, “articulating our own moral views and understanding others’ can bring all sides closer to a principled compromise.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/abortion-and-bioethics-principles-to-guide-u-s-abortion-debates-184916">Abortion and bioethics: Principles to guide U.S. abortion debates</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Beyond ‘my body, my choice’</h2>
<p>For decades, one other phrase has dominated the U.S. abortion debate: the slogan “my body, my choice.”</p>
<p>At this point, the catchphrase is practically synonymous with the movement for reproductive rights. It’s profoundly shaped how people think about abortion rights: as an issue of privacy, decisions that women should make for themselves with their doctors.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An activist seen holding a placard that says, 'My body My Choice.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414171/original/file-20210802-18-7zo3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4992%2C3330&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414171/original/file-20210802-18-7zo3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414171/original/file-20210802-18-7zo3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414171/original/file-20210802-18-7zo3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414171/original/file-20210802-18-7zo3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414171/original/file-20210802-18-7zo3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414171/original/file-20210802-18-7zo3kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protester holds aloft a ‘my body, my choice’ placard in a 2021 demonstration in Alabama.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-activist-seen-holding-a-placard-that-says-my-body-my-news-photo/1145542984?adppopup=true">Ronen Tivony/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But “my body, my choice” <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-abortion-heading-back-to-the-supreme-court-is-it-time-to-retire-the-my-body-my-choice-slogan-163770">doesn’t fully capture the key ideas</a>, argued <a href="https://med.uc.edu/landing-pages/faculty-profile/Index/Pubs/lanphieh">Elizabeth Lanphier</a>, a moral philosopher and bioethicist at the University of Cincinnati. Reproductive rights aren’t just about a lack of interference, what philosophers call “negative liberty.” Abortion is also about the right to access health care. </p>
<p>“‘My body, my choice’ suggests that because people own their bodies, they get to control them,” she wrote. But self-ownership isn’t so valuable without also having “positive liberty,” the freedom to do something.</p>
<p>“My research suggests ‘my body, my choice’ was a crucial idea at the time of Roe to emphasize ownership over bodily and health care decisions,” Lanphier concluded. “But I believe the debate has since moved on – reproductive justice is about more than owning your body and your choice; it is about a right to health care.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-abortion-heading-back-to-the-supreme-court-is-it-time-to-retire-the-my-body-my-choice-slogan-163770">With abortion heading back to the Supreme Court, is it time to retire the 'my body, my choice' slogan?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Looking at the underlying philosophical and moral questions involved in abortion debates can help explain why it’s such an intensely divisive issue.Molly Jackson, Religion and Ethics EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1935502022-11-08T02:03:33Z2022-11-08T02:03:33ZEmpat masalah tentang kebakaran hutan yang bisa mengganjal target emisi Indonesia 2030<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493445/original/file-20221104-20-gjo36b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C381%2C3254%2C1978&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pixnio</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indonesia bermaksud mengurangi emisi dari kebakaran hutan dan lahan <a href="https://kemlu.go.id/oslo/en/news/21256/indonesia-and-norway-signed-a-new-partnership-to-reduce-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-forestry-and-other-land-use">hingga 80% dibandingkan pada 2015.</a> </p>
<p>Rencana ini bagian dari <a href="http://pustandpi.or.id/download/rencana-operasional-indonesias-folu-net-sink-2030/">target ambisius</a> Indonesia untuk menekan emisi ke titik impas, bahkan minus, dari sektor kehutanan dan lahan yang tertuang dalam kebijakan Forestry and Other Land Uses (FOLU) Net Sink 2030. </p>
<p>Secara historis, kebakaran berkali-kali menyumbang emisi karbon yang fantastis seperti yang terjadi pada tahun <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/23840">1997-1998 dan 2015.</a> </p>
<p>Kebakaran hebat juga terjadi pada 2019, <a href="https://theconversation.com/alternative-data-setting-the-record-straight-on-the-scale-of-indonesias-2019-fires-173593">yang menurut studi,</a> telah menghanguskan 3,11 juta hektare hutan dan lahan. Insiden ini menjadikan sektor kehutanan dan lahan Indonesia sebagai <a href="http://ditjenppi.menlhk.go.id/reddplus/images/adminppi/dokumen/igrk/LAP_igrk2020.pdf">penyumbang emisi gas rumah kaca terbesar pada tahun yang sama.</a></p>
<p>Berdasarkan pengamatan saya pada kebijakan dan praktik terkait kebakaran sejak 2015, ada setidaknya empat hal yang perlu diperhatikan pemerintah agar rencana pengurangan emisi sektor kehutanan berjalan efektif.</p>
<h2>1. Kebakaran tak hanya tentang sumber api</h2>
<p>Salah satu hal genting, tetapi jarang dibahas, adalah kebakaran bukan hanya tentang sumber api, tetapi juga terkait peran manusia dalam menciptakan lingkungan yang mendukung. </p>
<p>Tidak mengherankan apabila para aktivis dan pemerhati lingkungan menyoroti rencana-rencana pemerintah yang berpotensi mengikis integritas hutan, mengganggu ekosistem gambut, atau hal lainnya yang menjadikan hutan dan lahan rentan terbakar. Sebab, program pembangunan berpotensi menihilkan upaya perbaikan lingkungan yang tengah berjalan.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/daDzRLPXqrc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Salah satu contohnya adalah program <em>food estate</em> di empat provinsi yang <a href="https://www.mongabay.co.id/2021/03/22/food-estate-di-hutan-alam-dan-gambut-rawan-perburuk-krisis-iklim/">merambah hutan alam seluas 1,57 juta ha</a>. Para pegiat lingkungan menganggap program ini berlawanan dengan rencana pengurangan emisi dan komitmen pelestarian hutan pemerintah.</p>
<p>Narasi yang seakan mendukung deforestasi juga melemahkan kepercayaan publik terhadap program pengurangan emisi sektor hutan dan lahan.</p>
<p>Barangkali masih segar dalam ingatan masyarakat Indonesia ketika Siti Nurbaya, Menteri Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan, menyatakan bahwa “pembangunan besar-besaran era Presiden Jokowi tidak boleh berhenti atas nama emisi karbon atau atas nama deforestasi”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1455762628035289090"}"></div></p>
<p>Pernyataan ini semestinya tidak keluar dari pemerintah. Sebab, upaya pencegahan dan penanggulangan kebakaran membutuhkan dukungan luas dari masyarakat.</p>
<h2>2. Masih berfokus pada pemadaman api</h2>
<p>Saya mengapresiasi inisiatif pemerintah membentuk lembaga-lembaga untuk pencegahan kebakaran seperti pasukan Manggala Agni, Badan Restorasi Gambut dan Mangrove (BRGM), hingga Masyarakat Peduli Api (MPA). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493455/original/file-20221104-21-7pexen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493455/original/file-20221104-21-7pexen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493455/original/file-20221104-21-7pexen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493455/original/file-20221104-21-7pexen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493455/original/file-20221104-21-7pexen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493455/original/file-20221104-21-7pexen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493455/original/file-20221104-21-7pexen.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pasukan Manggala Agni sedang memadamkan api.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">KLHK</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pemerintah pun menyiapkan <a href="https://berkas.dpr.go.id/puskajianggaran/buletin-apbn/public-file/buletin-apbn-public-67.pdf">dana penanggulangan bencana</a> bagi Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB) dan kementerian serta lembaga, termasuk untuk untuk penanganan kebakaran.</p>
<p>Sayangnya, kebijakan turunan pemerintah justru masih kental dengan urusan yang bersifat penanggulangan, bukan pencegahan. Misalnya, <a href="https://www.kemitraan.or.id/kabar/rekomendasi-kemitraan-untuk-pencegahan-karhutla-dalam-rdpu-dengan-komisi-iv-dpr">dana taktis pencegahan kebakaran BNPB masih diutamakan untuk pemadaman</a> – karena berpedoman pada peningkatan status antara siaga hingga darurat. </p>
<p>Terkait dengan itu, kompensasi bagi para petugas lapangan juga lebih ajeg di <a href="http://bpbd.sumselprov.go.id/asset/uploads/Dokumen_Kontinjensi_Karhutla_2021.PDF">perencanaan pasca-terbakar</a> alih-alih sebelum terbakar. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/riset-angka-kebakaran-hutan-2019-jauh-lebih-besar-dibanding-data-pemerintah-174787">Riset: angka kebakaran hutan 2019 jauh lebih besar dibanding data pemerintah</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Sementara itu, belum ada dana tanda jasa ataupun insentif lainnya yang langsung diterima masyarakat desa ketika mereka berhasil mencegah potensi kebakaran. Padahal skema ini juga layak diimplementasikan agar warga semakin gencar mencegah kebakaran di sekitarnya. </p>
<p>Sayangnya, jangankan insentif, pemerintah desa sendiri masih kebingungan untuk menganggarkan pos pencegahan kebakaran karena terbentur regulasi dana desa yang ketat. </p>
<h2>3. Proporsi kuantitas/kualitas tenaga belum optimal.</h2>
<p>Pemerintah memang memiliki segudang <a href="https://www.menlhk.go.id/site/single_post/4705/operational-plan-indonesia-s-folu-net-sink-2030">kebijakan operasional untuk pengurangan emisi,</a> salah satunya terkait dengan kebakaran. Namun, ujung tombak tercapainya kebijakan ini berada di tingkat kecamatan dan desa.</p>
<p>Selama ini, mereka kerap tergopoh-gopoh mengejar target yang disusun pemerintah pusat.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493456/original/file-20221104-16-8hvtc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493456/original/file-20221104-16-8hvtc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493456/original/file-20221104-16-8hvtc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493456/original/file-20221104-16-8hvtc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493456/original/file-20221104-16-8hvtc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493456/original/file-20221104-16-8hvtc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493456/original/file-20221104-16-8hvtc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Polisi hutan di Taman Nasional Gunung Ciremai, Jawa Barat, bersama masyarakat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">KLHK</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Misalnya, kendala paling lazim ditemui di tingkat tapak selama ini adalah antara jumlah dan kualitas personel dengan wilayah yang perlu dijaga. Sebagai gambaran, <a href="https://www.forestdigest.com/detail/1154/apa-itu-kawasan-hutan">rasio jagawana</a> (polisi hutan) yang ideal dengan luas hutan adalah 1:1000 hektare. </p>
<p>Namun, dengan luas hutan mencapai 125,2 juta hektare, rasio riilnya saat ini mencapai <a href="https://www.forestdigest.com/detail/1154/apa-itu-kawasan-hutan">1:18.000 hektare, sehingga jumlah personel yang tersedia jauh dari ideal.</a></p>
<p>Di sisi lain, keterampilan anggota Masyarakat Peduli Api juga belum merata. Sejatinya mereka memang tenaga sukarela yang, karena keterbatasan pemerintah atau faktor kedekatan mereka dengan wilayah rawan terbakar, menjadi tulang punggung pencegahan kebakaran. Perlu investasi yang lebih serius jika memang kebijakan kebakaran hutan dan lahan akan dibebankan pada mereka.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/umur-hutan-primer-gambut-sumatra-dan-kalimantan-hanya-tersisa-50-tahun-lagi-bila-laju-kebakaran-tak-diturunkan-168778">Umur hutan primer gambut Sumatra dan Kalimantan hanya tersisa 50 tahun lagi bila laju kebakaran tak diturunkan</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Apabila program kebakaran memang berorientasi pada pencegahan, pemerintah perlu berhitung ulang untuk memastikan kecukupan dan kecakapan sumber daya manusia yang diperlukan.</p>
<p>Dalam keadaan normal, dan tentunya cuaca yang berpihak, semua memang tampak baik-baik saja. Namun, ketimpangan ini akan terekspos ketika terjadi kebakaran seperti pada 2015 atau 2019.</p>
<h2>4. Penegakan hukum yang tak berimbang</h2>
<p>Para pakar menyatakan, kebakaran tahun 2019 banyak terjadi di wilayah konsesi perusahaan. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZVTaJBYLM">Ini terjadi karena</a> tingkat kepatuhan perusahaan terhadap aturan pemulihan lahan dan pencegahan-penanganan kebakaran masih sangat rendah. Perusahaan juga dianggap mengelak dari tanggung jawab untuk mencegah daerahnya tak dilalap api.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493458/original/file-20221104-17-d3qqqk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493458/original/file-20221104-17-d3qqqk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493458/original/file-20221104-17-d3qqqk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493458/original/file-20221104-17-d3qqqk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493458/original/file-20221104-17-d3qqqk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493458/original/file-20221104-17-d3qqqk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493458/original/file-20221104-17-d3qqqk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Warga berupaya memadamkan kebakaran lahan gambut di desa Pulau Semambu, Ogan Ilir, Sumatera Selatan, Selasa 6 Agustus 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ahmad Rizki Prabu/Antara</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Sialnya, sulit sekali memproses pelanggaran hukum oleh korporasi. Sebagai gambaran, <a href="https://betahita.id/news/detail/4478/gelombang-unjuk-rasa-bela-peladang-tradisional-terjadi-di-sejumlah-daerah-di-kalteng.html.html">di Kalimantan Tengah</a>, dari 161 kasus perorangan (kebanyakan di antaranya adalah peladang tradisional), sebanyak 121 di antaranya menjadi tersangka. Sementara, dari 20 kasus korporasi, hanya 2 di antaranya yang menjadi tersangka. </p>
<p>Sebagai salah satu dari delapan aksi utama dalam target pengurangan emisi sektor kehutanan dan lahan, penegakan hukum tidak boleh tajam ke bawah tapi tumpul ke atas. Efek takut dan jera sepatutnya juga diharapkan ke pelaku industri, bukan hanya kepada para peladang tradisional yang tak berdaya didera teror larangan membakar.</p>
<h2>Butuh konsistensi dan sinergi</h2>
<p>Indonesia tidak kekurangan pengetahuan maupun pengalaman tentang kebakaran. Negara pun banyak berbenah melalui beragam program atau inisiatif, terutama setelah kebakaran hebat tahun 2015.</p>
<p>Kini, pekerjaan besar bersandar pada dua hal, yakni konsistensi dan sinergi antarlembaga. </p>
<p>Konsistensi yang dimaksud terkait dengan upaya menjadikan pencegahan kebakaran sebagai isu strategis nasional. </p>
<p>Pemerintahan Presiden Joko Widodo sudah memulai langkah ini, misalnya melalui apel siaga kebakaran hutan dan lahan dengan aparat kementerian dan lembaga terkait. Sikap ini kemudian terasa hingga ke tingkat lokal ketika Babinsa, Bhabinkamtibmas, dan MPA aktif melakukan patroli. Konsistensi ini akan diuji dalam beberapa tahun ke depan, terutama ketika mengalami El-Niño yang mengakibatkan kemarau panjang di Indonesia. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mengapa-memadamkan-kebakaran-hutan-di-indonesia-begitu-sulit-sebuah-kisah-personal-pakar-hutan-122476">Mengapa memadamkan kebakaran hutan di Indonesia begitu sulit: sebuah kisah personal pakar hutan</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Pemerintah juga perlu memastikan program terkait kebakaran yang tersebar di kementerian dan lembaga seperti KLHK, BNPB, BRGM, Manggala Agni, dan pemerintahan daerah kompak dalam hal perencanaan dan pelaksanaan. </p>
<p>Contoh kecil yang perlu dipertimbangkan adalah menyelaraskan perkakas para petugas agar semua yang terlibat, tidak hanya Masyarakat Peduli Api, bisa menggunakan infrastruktur sumur bor di wilayah rawan terbakar ketika nantinya dibutuhkan.</p>
<p>Patut diingat bahwa, pencegahan dan penanggulangan kebakaran adalah bagian dari komitmen iklim pemerintah untuk mengurangi emisi gas rumah kaca bersama negara-negara di dunia. Artinya, rencana ini amat penting berdampak pada kelangsungan bumi ke depannya.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sofyan Ansori menerima dana dari Indonesian Scholarship and Research Support Foundation, International Dissertation Research Fellowship-Social Science Research Council, Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, dan American-Indonesian Cultural & Educational Foundation untuk penelitian disertasinya</span></em></p>Secara historis, kebakaran berkali-kali menyumbang emisi karbon yang fantastis. Ada 4 hal yang perlu diperhatikan pemerintah agar rencana pengurangan emisi sektor kehutanan berjalan efektif.Sofyan Ansori, PhD Candidate, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1936992022-11-04T16:21:21Z2022-11-04T16:21:21ZWhat’s at stake this Election Day – 7 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493337/original/file-20221103-13-5pz4zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People volunteer at a Native Alaskan voting station on Nov. 2, 2022 in Anchorage. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/people-participate-in-voting-in-the-upcoming-midterm-elections-at-a-picture-id1244447058?s=612x612">Spencer Platt/Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Election Day closes in, uncertainty and concern about potential chaos – from violence at polling sites to candidates refusing to accept defeat – <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63494618">continue to rise</a>. </p>
<p>Problems that have historically plagued the U.S. electoral and political system – like voter intimidation – are cropping up ahead of the midterms. But so, too, are less familiar issues, like how previously run-of-the-mill state election positions are becoming opportunities for political activism.</p>
<p>Here are seven key issues that affect the midterm elections, drawn from stories in The Conversation’s archive.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493338/original/file-20221103-19-xv0h1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white older man in a dark blue suit stands next to two American flags, and a third very large flag over a blue backdrop. A Black man in a suit stands on the other side of the American flag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493338/original/file-20221103-19-xv0h1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493338/original/file-20221103-19-xv0h1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493338/original/file-20221103-19-xv0h1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493338/original/file-20221103-19-xv0h1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493338/original/file-20221103-19-xv0h1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493338/original/file-20221103-19-xv0h1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493338/original/file-20221103-19-xv0h1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">President Joe Biden spoke on Nov. 2, 2022, warning of the need to preserve and protect democracy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/president-joe-biden-arrives-to-deliver-remarks-on-preserving-and-as-picture-id1244440371?s=612x612">Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>1. Who is voting</h2>
<p>Voter participation during midterm elections is typically low – though <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/11/01/turnout-in-u-s-has-soared-in-recent-elections-but-by-some-measures-still-trails-that-of-many-other-countries/">some experts say</a> that there could be heavy turnout this year. But the question of who actually heads to the polls will also be critical, as races in key <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/">swing states tighten</a>. </p>
<p>Young voters are much less likely to vote during midterms than older people, as opposed to their higher turnouts during presidential elections, American University government scholar <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1XMWY78AAAAJ&hl=en">Jan Leighley</a> wrote. Young voters are also more likely to identify as Democrats. </p>
<p>“So if younger voters are underrepresented in the November 2022 elections, more Republicans may be elected, as well as candidates less likely to reflect younger citizens’ views on key issues,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/young-voters-are-more-likely-to-skip-midterm-elections-than-presidential-races-192314">Leighley wrote.</a> </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/young-voters-are-more-likely-to-skip-midterm-elections-than-presidential-races-192314">Young voters are more likely to skip midterm elections than presidential races</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This year, meanwhile, record numbers of Latinos are also expected to turn out to vote. In 2020, most Latinos voted for President Joe Biden – but increasing numbers of Latino voters are also supporting GOP candidates, including former president Donald Trump, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gop-made-gains-among-latino-voters-in-2020-but-democrats-remain-the-party-of-choice-for-upcoming-midterms-192679">wrote University of Tennessee social work</a> scholar <a href="https://experts.utk.edu/experts/mary-lehman-held/">Mary Lehman Held.</a></p>
<p>One reason is that Latino voters have different backgrounds, values and priorities. And not all would be turned off by Republican candidates’ restrictive immigration politics. </p>
<p>“Immigration policies only affect a subset of Latinos, most notably Mexicans, followed by Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Hondurans,” Lehman Held explained.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gop-made-gains-among-latino-voters-in-2020-but-democrats-remain-the-party-of-choice-for-upcoming-midterms-192679">The GOP made gains among Latino voters in 2020 but Democrats remain the party of choice for upcoming midterms</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>2. What voters want</h2>
<p>It’s the economy, stupid, <a href="https://politicaldictionary.com/words/its-the-economy-stupid/">as the famous</a> 1992 political adage about voters’ top concern goes. </p>
<p>Soaring inflation <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-inflation-will-likely-stay-sky-high-regardless-of-which-party-wins-the-midterms-193416">rates top voters’</a> concerns this year, even though neither political party has been found particularly more effective at tackling the issue and bringing down inflation, as Texas State University finance scholar <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=eP0xZ1kAAAAJ&hl=en">William Chittenden wrote.</a></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-inflation-will-likely-stay-sky-high-regardless-of-which-party-wins-the-midterms-193416">Why inflation will likely stay sky-high regardless of which party wins the midterms</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There was a flurry of political activism around the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18">Roe v. Wade</a> in June 2022, undoing the federal right to an abortion. But just four months later, men and women both say that abortion politics are not bringing them to the polls, according to Harvard Kennedy School and Northwestern University social science scholars <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vUKLlG4AAAAJ&hl=en">Matthew A. Baum</a>, <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/alaunasafarpour/home">Alauna Safarpour</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=P_3neYQAAAAJ&hl=en">Jonathan Schulman</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0JH3YoUAAAAJ&hl=en">Kristin Lunz Trujillo</a>. </p>
<p>“The Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision may have initially mobilized some voters in June and July, particularly women, but its effects appear to have diminished when we asked Americans about their intentions to vote again in August and October,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/abortion-is-not-influencing-most-voters-as-the-midterms-approach-economic-issues-are-predominating-in-new-survey-191836">they wrote.</a></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/abortion-is-not-influencing-most-voters-as-the-midterms-approach-economic-issues-are-predominating-in-new-survey-191836">Abortion is not influencing most voters as the midterms approach – economic issues are predominating in new survey</a>
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<h2>3. Elections aren’t what they used to be</h2>
<p>Gone are the days when election administrators were considered low profile, conducting essential – but not flashy – work, like organizing voter lists, staffing polling places and counting election results. </p>
<p>Overall mistrust in elections is high in the U.S. following the 2020 elections – and former President Trump’s refusal to accept his defeat. It’s a new era in politics, where it is not necessarily a given that “elections happen, votes are counted, the winners are declared and democracy moves on,” wrote Arizona State University’s <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=FdltMX4AAAAJ&hl=en">Thom Reilly</a>, a public governance scholar and former state election official. </p>
<p>One complicating factor is that the U.S. is the only democracy that elects many of its election officials, and high-ranking members of the Republican or Democratic parties usually oversee elections at the state level. </p>
<p>“That partisan system largely worked until now because, in essence, each party checked the other party’s ability to influence election outcomes. As long as states were politically diverse, members of the two major parties acted in good faith, and this model functioned – albeit imperfectly,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/good-faith-and-the-honor-of-partisan-election-officials-used-to-be-enough-to-ensure-trust-in-voting-results-but-not-anymore-189510">wrote Reilly</a>. </p>
<p>But there’s already evidence that newly minted and highly partisan poll workers and election observers plan to disrupt the elections, potentially diminishing public faith in this essential democratic institution and weakening democracy itself. And a high number of candidates running for state election administration roles are election deniers. If they win, wrote Reilly, that will further erode public confidence in election integrity. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493339/original/file-20221103-24-oya9b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large white sign says 'Vote!' People walk past the sign outside, in what appears to be a green campus with trees." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493339/original/file-20221103-24-oya9b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493339/original/file-20221103-24-oya9b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493339/original/file-20221103-24-oya9b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493339/original/file-20221103-24-oya9b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493339/original/file-20221103-24-oya9b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493339/original/file-20221103-24-oya9b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493339/original/file-20221103-24-oya9b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Young people pass a voting information sign on the Emory University campus in Atlanta on Oct. 14, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/young-people-pass-a-voting-information-sign-on-the-emory-university-picture-id1244204492?s=612x612">Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/good-faith-and-the-honor-of-partisan-election-officials-used-to-be-enough-to-ensure-trust-in-voting-results-but-not-anymore-189510">Good faith and the honor of partisan election officials used to be enough to ensure trust in voting results – but not anymore</a>
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<h2>4. Black voters face possible intimidation</h2>
<p>Amid warnings from the Department of Homeland Security about political violence on Election Day – which University of Maryland, Baltimore County security researcher <a href="https://cybersecurity.umbc.edu/richard-forno/">Richard Forno</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/political-violence-in-america-isnt-going-away-anytime-soon-193597">recently explored</a> – there’s an increased risk that polling sites will become yet another place for political violence. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/political-violence-in-america-isnt-going-away-anytime-soon-193597">Political violence in America isn't going away anytime soon</a>
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</em>
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<p>The threat brings to mind <a href="https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/elections/right-to-vote/voting-rights-for-african-americans/">long-standing efforts</a> by white supremacists to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/10/27/voter-intimidation-surging-2020-protect-minority-voters-column/6043955002/">intimidate and</a> threaten Black voters. </p>
<p>Georgia is one place with a long history of voter intimidation that is rolling out election reform laws, making it actually harder for voters – especially people of color – to vote. One part of this new law, called SB 202, removes some voting drop boxes, which people of color predominantly use. This comes as Black voters gain number and power in Georgia – and the tightened voting rules are reminiscent of the 1940s and other times when white conservatives cracked down on voting rights in response to rising Black political strength.</p>
<p>“The almost immediate passage of new election laws at a time of growing Black political strength suggests the persistence of a white backlash in Georgia,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/georgias-gop-overhauled-the-states-election-laws-in-2021-and-critics-argue-the-target-was-black-voter-turnout-not-election-fraud-192000">wrote</a> Emory University <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard-Doner-2">political science scholar Richard Doner</a>. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/georgias-gop-overhauled-the-states-election-laws-in-2021-and-critics-argue-the-target-was-black-voter-turnout-not-election-fraud-192000">Georgia's GOP overhauled the state's election laws in 2021 – and critics argue the target was Black voter turnout, not election fraud</a>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Voter demographics and policy priorities are two recurrent, big issues on Election Day – but shifts in election administration and voting laws are new challenges influencing the midterms.Amy Lieberman, Politics + Society Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1918362022-11-01T12:47:52Z2022-11-01T12:47:52ZAbortion is not influencing most voters as the midterms approach – economic issues are predominating in new survey<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492595/original/file-20221031-7897-9dl1xs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=129%2C40%2C2295%2C1742&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Amy Cox, a Democratic candidate running to be an Ohio state representative, speaks with a potential voter on Oct. 23, 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/amy-cox-democratic-candidate-for-ohio-state-representative-speaks-a-picture-id1244280877?s=612x612">Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the Supreme Court’s June 2022 <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/19-1392">Dobbs v. Jackson</a> decision overturning the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/19-1392">constitutional right to abortion</a>, election observers have raised questions about whether and how the issue of abortion will influence the outcome of the November midterm elections. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/press-release/abortion-access-rises-as-a-voting-issue-and-motivator-especially-among-democrats-and-reproductive-age-women-but-inflation-continues-to-dominate-as-americans-worry-about-bills/">early survey evidence</a> from May to July suggested a surge in support among Democrats and reproductive-aged women for abortion rights. So too did the results from an <a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-abortion-vote-recount-e874f56806a9d63b473b24580ad7ea0c">August 2022</a> Kansas referendum on abortion, where voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have banned abortion. Democrats also overperformed compared with 2020 – that is, earning a higher proportion of the vote than they did in the 2020 election – in a series of congressional <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/24/democrats-special-election-momentum/">special elections</a> following Dobbs. </p>
<p>More recent <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1675/most-important-problem.aspx">evidence</a>, however, suggests that voter concern <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/us-inflation-wages-employment-cost-index-q3-2022-11666925660">over inflation</a> may trump abortion as a motivating issue.</p>
<p>We are a multi-university team of social scientists that has been <a href="https://www.covidstates.org">regularly polling</a> Americans in all 50 states since April 2020. Four times over the past six months we surveyed 22,000 to 27,000 Americans – in March and April, June and July, August and September, and then in more detail in October 2022 – to explore the likely effects of abortion politics on voter attitudes and behavior. </p>
<p>Following the Dobbs decision, we found no clear evidence of a change in Americans’ preferences for which party should control the House and Senate after the election. We conducted this research using generic ballots – polls that ask people about their political party preference, but not specifically about which candidate they support. </p>
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<h2>The Dobbs effect – or lack thereof</h2>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/9/4/23333329/roe-voter-registration-dobbs-midterms-democrats">evidence suggests</a> that women initially responded more strongly than men to the Dobbs decision. Young women, in particular, grew more likely to register to vote. </p>
<p>Yet, when we separately assess men and women, we see little evidence of a post-Dobbs spike in preferences for Democrats in the generic ballot among either men or women. While men hover near a 50-50 split in preferences between Republicans and Democrats, majorities of women across each survey wave prefer Democrats to Republicans. The consistency over time suggests that the Dobbs decision did not notably increase preferences for Democrats.</p>
<p>But what about turnout? Would the Dobbs decision prompt more people to cast a ballot?</p>
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<p>Among Republicans and independents, self-reported likelihood of voting appears relatively unaffected by the Dobbs decision.</p>
<p>We did see a small – 1.6 percentage points – spike among Democrats reporting that they were “very likely” to vote immediately after the Dobbs ruling. The increase was twice as large – 3.2 points – among Democratic women. However, both numbers returned to their pre-Dobbs levels in our August-September survey.</p>
<p>In our October survey, the likelihood of voting rose across all groups, presumably due to a combination of the rising intensity of election campaigns and the inclusion of respondents who report already having voted.</p>
<p>When we break likelihood of voting out by gender, we do see a jump among women, across parties, reporting that they were very likely to vote immediately after the Dobbs decision – rising from 54.8% to 58% of Democratic women from early June, just prior to Dobbs, to late June, just after the Dobbs decision. </p>
<p>Just below 58% of Republican women, meanwhile, said that they were very likely to vote prior to Dobbs, rising to 60% immediately following the Dobbs announcement. And 29.9% of independent women said that they would vote prior to Dobbs, up to 32.5% following the announcement of the ruling. </p>
<p>However, once again, the bounce appears fleeting. </p>
<p>By August, all three partisan subgroups had reverted to pre-Dobbs levels of vote intention. Among men, in turn, we see no bounce at all.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492594/original/file-20221031-8081-frgo43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white woman with brown hair holds up a Rosie the Riveter poster that says 'Vote yes for life'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492594/original/file-20221031-8081-frgo43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492594/original/file-20221031-8081-frgo43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492594/original/file-20221031-8081-frgo43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492594/original/file-20221031-8081-frgo43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492594/original/file-20221031-8081-frgo43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492594/original/file-20221031-8081-frgo43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492594/original/file-20221031-8081-frgo43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kentucky Right to Life Executive Director Addia Wuchner attends a rally to add a permanent ban on abortion to Kentucky’s constitution on Oct. 1, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/kentucky-right-to-life-executive-director-addia-wuchner-a-former-picture-id1243948821?s=612x612">Stefan Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dobbs or no Dobbs</h2>
<p>We also included an experiment in the October survey wave to explore whether prompting people to think about the Dobbs decision would affect their vote preferences or likelihood of voting. We showed a random subset of survey participants a paragraph about the Dobbs decision, while the rest of the survey respondents did not receive a paragraph about Dobbs. We then asked how likely they were to vote in the 2022 midterm elections and how much abortion mattered for their candidate choice in the election.</p>
<p>We find that survey respondents who read about Dobbs - that is, who we primed to think about it - were no more or less likely to say they intended to vote than those who did not read about Dobbs. </p>
<p>They were also no more or less likely to say that abortion was important for their choice of candidates. This pattern emerges regardless of party, gender or personal importance of the abortion issue. </p>
<p>Perhaps most important, the results from our experiment are consistent with the trends over time that we reported above, further suggesting that the Dobbs decision may not increase turnout or substantially alter vote preferences.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision may have initially mobilized some voters in June and July, particularly women, but its effects appear to have diminished when we asked Americans about their intentions to vote again in August and October.</p>
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<h2>Small margins could change the game</h2>
<p>Notwithstanding our survey results, it remains possible that abortion may affect the 2022 midterm results.</p>
<p>Elections, especially in swing states, are <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Election_results,_2020:_Congressional_margin_of_victory_analysis">often decided</a> by very small margins, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-021-09767-x">potentially too small to be detected in surveys</a>. A difference of half a percent in vote shares caused by abortion attitudes, for instance, could sway the result of a consequential election.</p>
<p>When we asked Americans to name the most important problems facing the nation in our October survey, overall, abortion was not among the top five issues mentioned, with inflation, the economy, crime and violence, health care and climate change ranking as more important.</p>
<p>However, abortion remained notably important among Democrats – mentioned by nearly 24% of those we polled – and women – mentioned by nearly 19%. </p>
<p>So, while we cannot offer firm predictions regarding the effect of the Dobbs decision on the 2022 elections, and we found no clear evidence of such an effect, the possibility remains that abortion could motivate enough voters to influence outcomes in at least some key races.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191836/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew A Baum has received funding from the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alauna Safarpour, Jonathan Schulman, and Kristin Lunz Trujillo do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New surveys carried out by a team of social scientists find no evidence that Democrats, Republicans and independents are more likely to vote because of the Supreme Court’s abortion decision in June.Matthew A Baum, Marvin Kalb Professor of Global Communications & Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy SchoolAlauna Safarpour, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Kennedy SchoolJonathan Schulman, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, Northwestern UniversityKristin Lunz Trujillo, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Kennedy SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1865752022-08-01T13:55:00Z2022-08-01T13:55:00ZHow used clothes became part of Africa’s creative economy – and fashion sense<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474835/original/file-20220719-12-z5sje2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Second-hand clothes, locally known as mitumba, on display in a shop in Nakuru, Kenya.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent years the global secondhand apparel market for clothing and shoes has grown exponentially. In 2002 used clothing exports were <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/used-clothing?yearSelector1=tradeYear1">worth</a> US$1.4 billion. Despite a slowdown during the COVID-19 pandemic exports were close to US$4 billion in <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/used-clothing?yearSelector1=tradeYear19">2020</a>. </p>
<p>Some of this growth has been driven by well known brands and high street retailers developing in-house clothing resale and establishing partnerships with digital secondhand platforms to find new uses for preloved fashions, especially luxury fashions. </p>
<p>In the west, secondhand clothing has acquired a new cachet for its sustainability and its role in <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview">circular economies</a>. A circular economy links production and consumption to minimise waste through reusing, repairing, refurbishing, recycling as well as sharing and leasing. This has driven a trend that by far surpasses the growth of the overall apparel market. </p>
<p>In addition to reuse and upcycling in the west, substantial volumes of used clothing donated to charitable organisations continue to be exported to countries in the global south, among them in Africa. </p>
<p>But the west’s over-consumption of clothing and the export it gives rise to is not without problems. Firstly, secondhand clothing imports in Africa generate millions of tonnes of <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-international-stateless/2022/04/9f50d3de-greenpeace-germany-poisoned-fast-fashion-briefing-factsheet-april-2022.pdf">textile waste</a>. Secondly, the popularity of the secondhand clothing trade has prompted arguments about its <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4810517_Used-Clothing_Donations_and_Apparel_Production_in_Africa">adverse effects on domestic textile and clothing industries</a>. </p>
<p>Time and again, controversies arise over whether to <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/business/region-wrestles-with-proposals-to-ban-imports-of-used-clothes-3854868">ban imports</a>. But smuggled imports of used clothing flow readily across Africa’s porous boundaries, making bans largely ineffective. </p>
<p>I <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3644128.html">wrote</a> about the international secondhand clothing trade in a book published in 2000. My research was focused largely on Zambia. In the book I examined the interplay between environmentalism, charity, recycling and thrift. I also explored how secondhand clothes were about more than imitating Western styles. And traced how items were altered into garments that fitted into local cultural norms of etiquette.</p>
<p>Over the last two decades several processes with global scope have changed the landscape in unimaginable ways. This is true in Africa too. Despite these changes, I still think that, rather than representing fashion dumping, current clothing practices demonstrate some of the cultural and socioeconomic benefits of the used clothing trade. Holding significant value for those who create and pursue them, such clothing projects have transformative potentials that are far from trivial.</p>
<h2>Changes in the global clothing landscape</h2>
<p>The first big change has been the digital age which brought internet access and new inspirations from transnational images, products and styles. It has also facilitated internet commerce and innovations in both new and secondhand markets.</p>
<p>Secondly, fast fashion has affected clothing markets everywhere. </p>
<p>Thirdly, the <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---emp_ent/---ifp_seed/documents/publication/wcms_117697.pdf">expiration</a> in 2005 of the World Trade Organisation’s Multi-Fibre Arrangement enabled tariff-free entry for clothing and textiles manufactured in China into previously restricted markets on an <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227979723_China's_Textile_and_Clothing_Exports_in_a_Changing_World_Economy">unprecedented scale</a>. Concerns about the growing import from China soon eclipsed the public criticism of imported secondhand clothing, which continued to fill its own popular market niche. </p>
<p>And fourthly, new actors entered the global export of secondhand clothing. Among these were <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/used-clothing?yearSelector1=tradeYear12">India</a> and <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/used-clothing?yearSelector1=tradeYear11">China</a>. </p>
<p>For a while, the global COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced or closed production of clothing and apparel almost everywhere. Problems at many points of the global commodity circuits and their upstream and downstream supply chains came into glaring view along with widespread retail closures and the piling up of excess inventory. </p>
<p>At <a href="https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/southeast-asia-sees-factory-shutdowns-and-massive-lay-offs-due-to-covid-19-outbreak-2/">one end</a>, in South and Southeast Asia, poorly remunerated garment workers were not paid. At <a href="https://fashionlawjournal.com/why-do-luxury-fashion-brands-burn-their-own-unsold-goods/">another</a>, in France and elsewhere, some luxury brands incinerated unsold goods to prevent devaluing the brand name on resale markets. And brand retailers in the US and Europe sold deadstock (unsold inventory) to upcyclers to use in their design rather than ending as waste in landfills. </p>
<h2>Survival strategies</h2>
<p>Today in Zambia as elsewhere in Africa, small-scale tailors and fashion entrepreneurs operate in a segmented clothing market that is far less competitive than it is interactive as they diversify and shift their activities to get by. The secondhand clothing seller, the retailer of ‘Chinese clothing’, the upscale boutique operator in the shopping mall along with the tailor, the seamstress, and the up-and-coming designer are serving the different needs of their fashion-conscious customers. </p>
<p>At the same time they all are contributing to that overall well-dressed presentation and stylistic innovation for which many African countries are so well known. Their work entails an ongoing economic and creative struggle to make a living and professionalise the fashion scene. Most operate within their country’s huge informal economy, lacking substantive state support or enduring sponsorships. </p>
<p>The fashion potential from the creative clothing economy in African countries has not been tapped. At the same time, secondhand clothing has not fallen away from popular dress practice. Quite the contrary. Used clothes are being repurposed but with fresh fashionable spins. This sometimes involves turning recycled garments into upcycled outfits. Open-air tailors and seamstresses working from markets and homes as well as aspiring designers in fashion studies in Africa and beyond are busy sourcing readily available secondhand clothes for alteration and creative redesign into new garments and accessories. </p>
<p>There is also a practical and economic aspect involved in this reuse of secondhand clothing. Consumers in many African markets consider imported garments from China to be of inferior quality to the clothes they find in secondhand markets. </p>
<p>Attracting customers from diverse economic and ethnic backgrounds has developed as an accepted part of the overall clothing market. Select secondhand clothing enters a special niche as vintage clothing while damaged garments are shredded and creatively repurposed. They are recycled into knotted and crocheted toys and woven into baskets, for example, and objects for interior decoration such as table runners and pillowcases.</p>
<p>And pop-up shops with creatively styled used clothing outfits appear during special events, attracting fashion conscious customers. </p>
<p>In addition, everyday fashions are changing as young people challenge constraining gender and religious dress norms, for example by wearing tight and short clothing in public, playing out their desire to dress as they like. Adapting imported used clothes to their cultural sensibilities about bodies and dress, they localise them in the process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Tranberg Hansen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Used clothes are being repurposed but with fresh fashionable spins.Karen Tranberg Hansen, Professor Emerita, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1875142022-07-26T07:20:47Z2022-07-26T07:20:47ZPakar Menjawab: Perlukah peneliti saintek belajar ilmu soshum, dan juga sebaliknya?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476016/original/file-20220726-15-zvt1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash/Jesse Orrico)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pertanyaan seputar ilmu sains-teknologi (saintek) dan ilmu sosial-humaniora (soshum) – mulai dari rumpun mana yang lebih superior hingga sepenting apa peneliti menguasai keduanya – merupakan perdebatan yang telah berlangsung lama.</p>
<p>Beberapa waktu lalu, perdebatan ini mencuat kembali di jagad Twitter. </p>
<p>Sebuah utas <a href="https://twitter.com/arinaveda/status/1542557105328394240?s=24&t=SuWSktLO85x4QVQB8KH6aA">mengkritisi seruan</a> bagi peneliti teknik untuk belajar ilmu sosial dan hak asasi manusia (HAM). Dalam komentar lanjutan, sang penulis utas mengatakan bahwa tiap rumpun “punya spektrumnya sendiri”.</p>
<p>Tapi, cukupkah jika tiap peneliti fokus mendalami rumpunnya masing-masing saja? </p>
<p>Berbagai penulis The Conversation menyiratkan bahwa pendekatan ini bisa jadi kurang ideal.</p>
<p>Misalnya, pendewaan sains alam, rekayasa, dan teknologi sebagai solusi pamungkas untuk segala masalah – atau sering disebut <a href="https://books.google.co.id/books/about/To_Save_Everything_Click_Here.html?id=fdggBahA1qsC&redir_esc=y"><em>techno-solutionism</em></a> – kerap membuat peneliti dan pembuat kebijakan <a href="https://theconversation.com/sains-butuh-ilmu-humaniora-untuk-beri-solusi-perubahan-iklim-121871">gagal melihat faktor penting lain</a> seperti budaya, kesenjangan, hingga keadilan hukum di tengah masyarakat.</p>
<p>Sebaliknya, seorang peneliti sosial yang abai terhadap teknologi dan kemajuan digital bisa jadi <a href="https://theconversation.com/teknologi-digital-berpotensi-memicu-revolusi-sains-dalam-penelitian-sosial-80698">melewatkan berbagai metode</a> yang berpotensi membuat risetnya lebih efektif, akurat, dan tidak bias.</p>
<p>Mengingat hal ini, beberapa akademisi juga mendorong supaya peneliti dibekali dengan <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-more-innovation-try-connecting-the-dots-between-engineering-and-humanities-42800">wawasan lintas disiplin</a> sejak di bangku pendidikan tinggi.</p>
<h2>Dari krisis iklim, banjir, hingga ideologi: krusialnya wawasan lintas disiplin</h2>
<p>Steven D. Allison dan Tyrus Miller dari University of California-Irvine di Amerika Serikat (AS) menjelaskan bagaimana <a href="https://theconversation.com/sains-butuh-ilmu-humaniora-untuk-beri-solusi-perubahan-iklim-121871">upaya penanganan krisis iklim</a> adalah salah satu contoh pentingnya peneliti memiliki wawasan lintas disiplin.</p>
<p>“Banyak orang menganggap perubahan iklim adalah masalah sains, yang hanyalah soal sistem fisika, biologi, dan teknis belaka,” kata mereka.</p>
<p>Bahkan – meski dalam dua dekade ke depan kenaikan iklim bumi bisa melampaui 1,5°C sejak revolusi industri dan <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/09/humans-have-caused-unprecedented-and-irreversible-change-to-climate-scientists-warn">menyebabkan bencana dahsyat</a> bagi manusia – <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch">laporan terbaru panel PBB untuk perubahan iklim (IPCC)</a> hanya membahas etika iklim, keadilan, sosial, dan nilai-nilai kemanusiaan <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_chapter3.pdf">tak lebih dari 10 halaman</a>.</p>
<p>“Dalam pandangan kami, menyelesaikan permasalahan iklim dunia memerlukan kemampuan lebih dari sekadar sains,” tambah Allison dan Miller.</p>
<p>Salah satu faktor sosial yang menurut mereka penting dipahami peneliti iklim, misalnya, adalah bagaimana kebudayaan masyarakat memengaruhi laju emisi karbon.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Peneliti iklim bisa merancang solusi yang lebih ampuh dengan ilmu sosial dan humaniora.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(UC Irvine School of Humanities)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Produk budaya – dari novel hingga televisi – menghasilkan mitologi ‘<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/living-oil-9780199899425?cc=us&lang=en&"><em>petro-utopia</em></a>’ di AS . Sejak abad ke-20, kebebasan mengonsumsi bahan bakar fosil terkait erat dengan identitas khas Amerika seperti kemandirian, kebebasan, mobilitas, hingga impian yang tinggi.</p>
<p>Krisis iklim pun memiliki dampak yang tidak merata terhadap masyarakat. Ada berbagai kelompok tertentu yang jauh lebih parah merasakan efeknya; negara <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-fuelled-wave-patterns-pose-an-erosion-risk-for-developing-countries-184064">'Selatan’</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/worldwide-climate-change-is-worse-news-for-women-49668">perempuan</a>, hingga <a href="https://minorityrights.org/wp-content/uploads/old-site-downloads/download-524-The-Impact-of-Climate-Change-on-Minorities-and-Indigenous-Peoples.pdf">masyarakat adat</a>.</p>
<p>Sehingga, mengatasi krisis iklim di level masyarakat menjadi lebih ampuh jika peneliti bisa lebih memahami berbagai unsur sosial dari masalah ini.</p>
<p>Sementara, di beberapa negara termasuk Indonesia, agama dan kepercayaan menjadi faktor sosial yang juga penting bagi peneliti iklim untuk memahami motor penggerak aksi hijau di masyarakat.</p>
<p>Dalam <a href="https://theconversation.com/bagaimana-agama-dan-kepercayaan-membentuk-gerakan-peduli-lingkungan-hidup-di-indonesia-126782">analisisnya</a>, Jonathan D. Smith dari University of Leeds di Inggris mengamati banyaknya aksi iklim inisiasi kelompok agama yang berhasil mendorong partisipasi warga – dari ‘<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277947475_Faiths_from_the_Archipelago_Action_on_the_Environment_and_Climate_Change">masjid hijau</a>’, peran pemuka Kristiani dalam Gerakan <a href="https://thegeckoproject.org/articles/saving-aru-the-epic-battle-to-save-the-islands-that-inspired-the-theory-of-evolution/"><em>Save Aru Islands</em></a>, hingga penolakan umat Hindu atas reklamasi Teluk Benoa yang <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/the-coral-triangle/2016/mar/22/mounting-opposition-to-bali-mass-tourism-project">mengancam situs suci</a> di Bali.</p>
<p>Riset dari peneliti kebencanaan <a href="https://theconversation.com/bagaimana-ilmuwan-dan-masyarakat-dapat-bekerja-sama-untuk-menangani-banjir-pelajaran-dari-indonesia-164328">Erich Wolff dan Diego Ramirez-Loveling</a> di Makassar juga menunjukkan bagaimana memahami kebudayaan lokal di Indonesia – seperti pola kehidupan bertetangga – bisa jadi kunci dalam merancang strategi mitigasi banjir.</p>
<p>Sebaliknya, ada manfaat yang bisa didapat oleh peneliti sosial yang mendalami tentang teknik (<em>engineering</em>), teknologi, dan platform digital.</p>
<p>Roby Muhamad dari Universitas Indonesia <a href="https://theconversation.com/teknologi-digital-berpotensi-memicu-revolusi-sains-dalam-penelitian-sosial-80698">mengatakan</a> bahwa riset sosial kebanyakan menggunakan instrumen kualitatif dan survei ketimbang eksperimen. Hal ini terkadang membawa kelemahan; responden riset mereka bisa saja bias, berbohong, atau punya ingatan yang lemah. Ia mengatakan bahwa teknologi digital bisa menambal beberapa kekurangan ini.</p>
<p>Kawan Roby di Princeton University di AS, yakni sosiolog <a href="https://sociology.princeton.edu/people/matthew-j-salganik">Matthew Salganik</a>, misalnya, melakukan percobaan untuk meneliti bagaimana produk budaya menjadi populer. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Penelitian sosial berbasis teknologi digital dapat membantu ilmuwan memahami manusia lebih dari manusia memahami diri mereka sendiri.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock/Montri Nipitvittaya)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Salganik membuat beberapa ruang virtual dan merancang sistem untuk mengamati dan mencatat pola pendengaran dan pengunduhan musik dari partisipan risetnya, terutama terhadap musisi tidak dikenal. Ia menemukan bahwa alasan lagu-lagu populer menempati tangga teratas bukan karena kualitasnya, tapi karena banyak orang mengunduhnya – partisipannya cenderung mengikuti selera pasar (<em>going with the herd</em>).</p>
<p>Menurut Roby, dengan riset sosial berbasis teknologi digital dan pengolahan data yang canggih, “ilmuwan akan dapat memahami manusia lebih dari mereka memahami diri mereka sendiri”.</p>
<p>“Lagu tampak tidak berbahaya. Namun, percobaan ini bisa saja direplikasi pada ideologi dan sistem kepercayaan selama kita memiliki alat mengukur perilaku yang pasti,” katanya.</p>
<h2>Menanamkan semangat lintas disiplin sejak pendidikan tinggi</h2>
<p>Berkaca pada pentingnya hal tersebut, Anto Mohsin dari Northwestern University menegaskan pentingnya pendidikan tinggi di Indonesia <a href="https://theconversation.com/belajar-dari-amerika-kurikulum-lintas-disiplin-bisa-dongkrak-kualitas-universitas-dan-sarjana-indonesia-120346">menerapkan kurikulum lintas disiplin</a> – biasanya populer disebut <a href="https://www.internationalstudent.com/study-liberal-arts/"><em>liberal arts</em></a> di AS. Liberal arts bisa meliputi ilmu-ilmu humaniora, sosial, sains, dan seni.</p>
<p>Anto mencontohkan bahwa pada saat ia berkuliah program S1 jurusan teknik mekanika di City College of New York (CCNY), ia harus mengambil beberapa mata kuliah seperti ilmu politik, sejarah, sastra, dan seni sebagai syarat kelulusan. Ini juga berlaku sebaliknya bagi mahasiswa dari fakultas ilmu sosial.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pendidikan lintas disiplin mengajarkan bahwa ilmu pengetahuan tidak berkembang di ruang hampa dan berkaitan erat dengan konteks sosial dan kultural.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock/M-SUR)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kurikulum <em>liberal arts</em>, menurut sosiolog <a href="https://www.warren-wilson.edu/people/siti-kusujiarti/">Siti Kusujiarti</a> yang mengajar di AS, melatih mahasiswa untuk berpikir holistik, sistemik, dan mendasar. Pendidikan ini mengajarkan bahwa ilmu pengetahuan tidak berkembang di ruang hampa dan berkaitan erat dengan konteks sosial dan kultural.</p>
<p>Bahkan, sekadar menerapkan kurikulum tersebut bisa saja tidak cukup. </p>
<p>Tim dari University of Florida <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-more-innovation-try-connecting-the-dots-between-engineering-and-humanities-42800">menekankan</a> pentingnya kampus “menghubungkan” antara wawasan teknik (<em>engineering</em>) dengan humaniora dalam kurikulum yang terintegrasi, dan bukan hanya mata kuliah terpisah.</p>
<p>Staf fakultas dari teknik material dan juga <em>liberal arts</em> di kampus mereka, bekerja sama dengan organisasi akademik <a href="http://www.mrs.org/home/"><em>Materials Research Society</em> (MRS)</a>, merancang mata kuliah bernama “<a href="https://www.mrs.org/impact-of-materials-on-society-subcommittee-goals/">Dampak Material Bagi Masyarakat</a>” yang diampu dosen teknik, sejarah, antropologi, sosiologi, hingga sastra. Kelas ini menjelajahi berbagai hal – dari bagaimana ketergantungan terhadap material mengubah pola interaksi sosial hingga bagaimana eksploitasi sumber daya material bisa membawa risiko konflik politik.</p>
<p>Salah satu mahasiswa teknik yang mengikuti mata kuliah ini berpendapat, “Kelas ini semakin membuktikan bahwa kita harus belajar berbagai aspek dari cara kerja dunia, tidak hanya ilmu teknik, untuk menjadi insinyur yang baik.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Cukupkah tiap peneliti fokus mendalami rumpunnya masing-masing saja? Berbagai penulis The Conversation menyiratkan pendekatan ini bisa jadi membuat kontribusi mereka ke masyarakat kurang berdampak.Luthfi T. Dzulfikar, Youth + Education EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1860152022-07-12T12:34:36Z2022-07-12T12:34:36ZWhat does it mean to be a ‘person’? Different cultures have different answers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473236/original/file-20220708-17-hneez1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C17%2C3864%2C2592&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A 4-month-old baby girl is tended by her grandmother inside a church in Duekoue, Ivory Coast, in 2011. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IvoryCoast/db6beed455e1419cb9bf3e92533c8370/photo?Query=baby%20cote%20d%27ivoire&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=5&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Opponents and proponents of abortion rights often frame their positions in terms of two fundamental values: “<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-youre-pro-life-you-might-already-be-pro-choice-146654">life” or “choice</a>.” </p>
<p>However, many defenders of “life” are comfortable with taking human life in situations such as war or <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/12/how-often-do-views-capital-punishment-abortion-align/">capital punishment</a>. Many on the side of “choice” advocate for government regulation of guns or mandates on masking and vaccines. </p>
<p>As I see it, “life” and “choice” are not, in and of themselves, really the issue. The central question is what – or who – <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-personhood-the-ethics-question-that-needs-a-closer-look-in-abortion-debates-182745">constitutes a person</a>.</p>
<p>This question has long preoccupied anthropologists, particularly those <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Beyond_the_Stream.html?id=SHM8irdZJ9EC">like me</a> who specialize in the study of non-European religions. Some ideas usually taken for granted in the United States and Europe about what it means to be a person are, quite simply, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118783665.ieicc0258">not shared</a> with followers of other religious traditions and cultures.</p>
<p>Ideas about personhood in U.S. culture are largely a product of Christianity, <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-is-no-one-religious-view-on-abortion-a-scholar-of-religion-gender-and-sexuality-explains-184532">in which personhood</a> is inextricably tied to <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-what-do-the-5-great-religions-say-about-the-existence-of-the-soul-156205">the notion of the soul</a>. Only a being who possesses a soul is a person, and personhood is treated as a black-and-white matter: Either a being has a soul or it does not.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A carving on the side of a church shows many small human figures with Jesus seated in the middle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473221/original/file-20220708-17-uaj3a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473221/original/file-20220708-17-uaj3a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473221/original/file-20220708-17-uaj3a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473221/original/file-20220708-17-uaj3a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473221/original/file-20220708-17-uaj3a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473221/original/file-20220708-17-uaj3a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473221/original/file-20220708-17-uaj3a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A detail of the facade of a church in Conques, France, illustrates Christian teachings about salvation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/d%C3%A9tail-du-tympan-de-la-fa%C3%A7ade-de-labbatiale-sainte-foy-de-news-photo/1142187689?adppopup=true">Photo by JARRY/TRIPELON/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Beyond_the_Stream.html?id=SHM8irdZJ9EC">a specialist of religion in Africa</a>, I have become aware of religious traditions that treat personhood in very different and more nuanced ways. The majority of people in Africa <a href="http://www.globalreligiousfutures.org/explorer/custom#/?subtopic=15&chartType=bar&religious_affiliation=all&answer=all&data_type=percentage&year=2010&gender=all&age_group=all&regions=Sub-Saharan%20Africa">identify as Muslim or Christian</a>, but indigenous religions remain widespread, and many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630120065310">view personhood as a process</a> rather than a once-and-for-all phenomenon.</p>
<h2>Gradual personhood</h2>
<p>This is well illustrated by beliefs about babies in the Beng culture of Côte d’Ivoire, which <a href="https://anthro.illinois.edu/directory/profile/ajgottli">anthropologist Alma Gottlieb</a> details in her <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/305023.html">remarkable 2004 ethnography</a>, “The Afterlife Is Where We Come From.”</p>
<p>For Beng, all babies are reincarnations of people who recently died. They emerge from a place called “wrugbe,” which is simultaneously the afterlife and a sort of before-life. </p>
<p>The idea that babies are reincarnations, especially of ancestors, is hardly specific to the Beng – <a href="https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/ehrafe/citation.do?method=citation&forward=browseAuthorsFullContext&id=ol06-006">or to African religions</a>, for that matter. Indeed, a newborn has not really left “wrugbe” until her cut umbilical cord has dried out and fallen off. Only then is the infant considered in any sense a person. If she dies beforehand, she does not receive any sort of funeral. Even afterward, until children are several years old, people believe they remain poised between “wrugbe” and the world of ordinary humans.</p>
<p>For Beng and many other peoples, <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801491016/the-forest-of-symbols/#bookTabs=1">rituals mark the development of personhood</a>. Some cultures believe children do not fully have a gender until they have undergone initiation. The process of initiation itself is a symbolic death and rebirth, as though the initiate becomes a new person. In some societies – for example <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511557996">Tallensi of northern Ghana</a> – if an individual ever achieves full personhood, it is only after death, when they become an ancestor, fully involved in the lives of their descendants.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young man in sunglasses sings and holds a baton." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473233/original/file-20220708-25-e1k85c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473233/original/file-20220708-25-e1k85c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473233/original/file-20220708-25-e1k85c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473233/original/file-20220708-25-e1k85c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473233/original/file-20220708-25-e1k85c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473233/original/file-20220708-25-e1k85c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473233/original/file-20220708-25-e1k85c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Initiates are welcomed back from an initiation school by their friends and families in Orange Farm, South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/initiates-are-welcomed-back-by-their-friends-and-families-news-photo/461041642?adppopup=true">Lucky Maibi/Daily Sun/Gallo Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Not just humans</h2>
<p>“Persons” are not even necessarily human. In Mande cultures in West Africa, such as <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/traders-without-trade/50A7BC3AED0B95909DFC01C4D8D17C9A">the Dyula</a> communities where I have done research, every clan is associated with a “ntana,” a large and dangerous wild animal species: lions, leopards, elephants, crocodiles or pythons, for example. Members of the species are considered persons, but only for individuals in the associated clan.</p>
<p>Each one has a story about the origins of their relationship with their ntana – typically of how the ancestor of the species rescued the ancestor of the clan, such as by pulling him out of a pit into which he had fallen. Members of the clan must not kill or eat their ntana, and contact with or even sight of the remains of the dead animal is considered dangerous.</p>
<p>Two aspects of personhood stand out in particular when we compare how paradigms vary from culture to culture.</p>
<p>First, personhood is sometimes viewed as a process, not a steady state, and is not something each individual automatically possessed. Second, personhood is not a purely individual phenomenon, but intrinsically <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/698432">caught up in social relationships</a> – especially between parents, siblings and children; between spouses and in-laws; and between the living and the dead. Christianity, on the other hand, emphasizes the soul and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zv93rwx/revision/3">individual salvation</a>: A being either possesses a soul or doesn’t, and this soul’s salvation or damnation <a href="https://www.cardinaljohnhenrynewman.com/human-responsibility/">is the individual’s responsibility</a>.</p>
<p>In Christian-majority societies, it may not always be apparent to what extent our taken-for-granted notions of personhood derive from a Christian foundation, until they’re compared with other religious traditions. From my perspective, to embed these ideas into law – notably by banning abortion or even allowing its prohibition – is to embed theology into legal principle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186015/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Launay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The fundamental issue at stake in abortion debates is personhood, which is viewed differently around the world, an anthropologist writes.Robert Launay, Professor of Anthropology, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.