Facebook, Territory, and the Demos

"The reason we think that territorial or historical or national groups ought make decisions together is that, typically if not invariably, the interests of individuals within those groups are affected by the actions and choices of others in that group. Those common reciprocal interests in one another’s actions and choices are what makes those groups appropriate units for collective decisionmaking, at least in a rough-and-ready way.  Rough-and-ready, because (as flagged by the recurring qualifier, 'typically if not invariably') the correlation between territoriality or nationality or history and shared interests is far from perfect. Not every person who lives in a given territory is affected by the actions and choices of every other person in that territory; not every person in the territory is affected by every collective decision of the demos constituted on the basis of residence in that territory. Ditto for historical or national groups. Constituting a demos on the basis of shared territory or history or nationality is thus only an approximation to constituting it on the basis of what really matters, which is interlinked interests."

Robert Goodin
"Enfranchising All Affected Interests, and Its Alternatives"
Philosophy & Public Affairs 35/1 (2007), pp. 40-68

Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Peace Prize

Bjoern Amland
AP 12.10.2010

Liu Xiaobo

"China was infuriated when the prestigious prize was awarded to the 54-year-old literary critic, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence on subversion charges brought after he co-authored a bold call for sweeping changes to Beijing's one-party communist political system. Beijing described the award as an attack on its political and legal system and has placed Liu's supporters, including his wife Liu Xia, under house arrest to prevent anyone from picking up his prize. On Friday, uniformed and plainclothes officers guarded the entrance to the compound in central Beijing where Liu Xia has lived since the October announcement that her husband would receive the prize. China also tightened a wide-ranging clampdown on dissidents and blocked some news websites ahead of the awarding ceremony. China has also pressured foreign diplomats to stay away from the Nobel ceremony...17 other countries have declined to attend, including Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba...China warned that attending the ceremony would be seen as a sign of disrespect."

State of Peace

The Global Peace Index methodology uses 23 measures of peace:

Measures of Ongoing Domestic & Intl Conflict

• Number of external and internal conflicts fought: 2002-07
• Estimated number of deaths from organized conflict (external)
• Number of deaths from organized conflict (internal)
• Level of organized conflict (internal)
• Relations with neighbouring countries

Measures of Social Society and Security

• Perceptions of criminality in society
• Number of displaced people as a percentage of the population
• Political instability
• Level of disrespect for human rights (Political Terror Scale)
• Potential for terrorist acts
• Number of homicides per 100,000 people
• Level of violent crime
• Likelihood of violent demonstrations
• Number of jailed population per 100,000 people
• Number of internal security officers and police per 100,000 people

Measures of Militarization

• Military expenditure as a percentage of GDP
• Number of armed services personnel per 100,000 people
• Volume of transfers (imports) of major conventional weapons per 100,000 people
• Volume of transfers (exports) of major conventional weapons per 100,000 people
• Funding for UN peacekeeping missions: outstanding contributions versus annual assessment to the budget of the current peacekeeping missions
• Aggregate number of heavy weapons per 100,000 people
• Ease of access to small arms and light weapons
• Military capability/sophistication