Discover York Academics Deposits

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/41808

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Access status: Open Access ,
The Imperative of a Deeply Ingrained Liberal Political Culture to the Protection of Civil Liberties
(Lamintang Education and Training Centre, 2025-03-25) Karimi, Sirvan
Civil liberties encompass a broad range of human values that bolster individual freedom and human dignity. The indispensability of vibrant civil liberties to a healthy and well-functioning society lies in the grounds that they provided for citizens to participate in the democratic process, criticize their respective governments, and hold their governments accountable. Civil liberties are not luxuries but inalienable entitlements that are essential and imperative for human development and society's socioeconomic progress. Consequently, civil liberties protection has emerged as the most fundamental and cherished human aspiration in developed, developing, and underdeveloped countries. Within the existing literature on human rights protection, it has been the conventional wisdom that effective protection of civil liberties requires the entrenchment of a Bill or the Charter of Rights in the constitution. In addition to signing or ratifying the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, almost all countries across the world have with varying degree entrenched civil liberty protection mechanisms in their respective constitutions. While constitutional protection of civil liberties is believed to be a necessary mechanism to safeguard individual rights, it can be argued that it is society’s political culture shaped by deeply ingrained liberal values and principles fostering constitutionalism, not mere written words of the constitution, that can effectively function as a bulwark against state encroachment of civil liberties.
Access status: Open Access ,
Economic Restructuring, Class Reconfiguration and the Canadian State
(Political Science Graduate student association, 2002) Karimi, Sirvan
In the long run, the state can serve class hegemony by itself granting certain material demands of the popular masses-demands which, at the moment of their imposition, may assume a quite radical significance (free and universal public education, social security, unemployment benefits, etc.). Once the relationship of forces has changed, these popular gains can be progressively stripped of their initial content and character in a covert and mediate fashion.
Access status: Open Access ,
The Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of Modernization Theory
(PLUS COMMUNICATION CONSULTING SRL, 2026-01-07) Karimi, Sirvan
Out of the intellectual fermentation of the post-World War II era, modernization theory emerged as a pervasive theoretical force to exercise a spectacular hegemony for three consecutive decades. The enchanting appeal of modernization theory emanated from its theoretical claim to have discovered an emancipatory formula that could allegedly extricate economically backward nations from the gravitational force of underdevelopment. Despite the ubiquity of the concepts of modernity and progress in socio-economic discourse, which is an indication of the continuing influence of modernization theory, the strength of modernization theory began to dwindle by the 1980s. It will be demonstrated that modernization theory was based on structural functionalism, which itself had been shaped by the Eurocentric assumptions of historical transformation. With the emergence of economic crises in the 1970s, which contradicted the theoretical foundations of modernization theory, the edifice of both structural functionalism and modernization theory began to crumble. Despite the eclipse of modernization theory’s appeal, its modified versions continue to be used by students of democratization and economic development.
Access status: Open Access ,
Balancing Inclusion and Diversity with Upholding Free Speech Rights in Canadian Universities: Challenging but Feasible
(2021) Karimi, Sirvan
The tension emanated from deeply polarized socio-cultural values has found its way into the Canadian university campuses. In their endeavour to strike a balance between promoting diversity, inclusion and respecting free speech, the Canadian higher educational institutions have encountered formidable challenges. Central to the contention revolving around the free speech debate is an assertion that institutional pressures for consolidating a culture of political correctness is believed to have the potential to curtail and stifle freedom of expression which has in turn triggered governmental intervention in certain Canadian provinces. The lack of a proper balance between the quest for promoting inclusion, diversity and free speech can in the long run undermine the socially vital mission of universities, and hence corroding the public trust in the higher educational institutions. Obviously, there is no single solution that can function as panacea to surmount theses pressing demands faced by the Canadian universities. However, it will be argued that the extension of constitutionally protected freedom of expression to the Canadian universities is not only geared to address the shortcomings of academic freedom, but it is also conducive to harmonizing the pursuit of promoting diversity and inclusion with upholding free speech principles.
Access status: Open Access ,
Public Administration and Democracy: The Virtue and Limit of Participatory Democracy as a Democratic Innovation
(PLUS COMMUNICATION CONSULTING SRL, 2021-01-09) Karimi, Sirvan
The expansion of public bureaucracy has been one of the most significant developments that has marked societies, particularly Western liberal democratic societies. Growing political apathy, citizen disgruntlement and the ensuing decline in electoral participation reflects the political nature of governance failures. Public bureaucracy, which has historically been saddled with derogatory and pejorative connotations, has encountered fierce assaults from multiple fronts. Out of these sharp criticisms of public bureaucracy that have emanated from both sides of the ideological spectrum, attempts have been made to popularize and advance citizen participation in both policy formulation and policy implementation processes as innovations to democratize public administration. Despite their virtue, empowering connotations and spirit-uplifting messages to the public, these proposed practices of democratic innovations not only have their own shortcomings and are conducive to exacerbating the conditions that they are directed to ameliorate but they also have the potential to undermine the traditional administrative and political accountability mechanisms.
Access status: Open Access ,
From Progressive Radicalism to Democratic Degeneration: The Trajectory of John Locke's Political Theory
(2021-03-11) Karimi, Sirvan
As an organic intellectual of the emerging propertied class in 17th century England, John Locke has made an enduring contribution to the prevailing ideas shaping the socio-political order in Western societies and beyond. Through invoking the law of nature and natural rights which were nothing more than what he had abstracted from the socio-economic conditions of the seventeenth century and had projected back into the state of nature, Locke assiduously embarked on justifying the separation of civil society from the state, naturalizing class inequalities identifying the preservation of property as the fundamental function of the state, and rationalizing the subordination of propertyless classes to the emerging liberal democratic political order geared to preserve the interests of economically hegemonic classes.
Access status: Open Access ,
Liberalism, Law and Social Rights: The Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Era of Welfare State Restructuring
(2022-03-29) Karimi, Sirvan
Despite expanding the boundary of formal equality, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is conducive to rationalizing liberalism's conception of the role of the state. Contrary to the hasty expectation of social rights advocates who hoped that they can utilize the Charter to advance social rights in Canada, the Charter has in fact been interpreted by the courts in a manner that justifies the subordination of the social rights to the vicissitudes in the economic sphere, which has historically been ingrained as an overriding tenet of liberalism. In line with a long-held liberal principle that the real threat to individual liberty emanates from the state, not private property relations which are indeed the basis for socio-economic inequalities, the Charter interpretations by the courts have, in fact, reinforced a legal rationalization for the neoliberal-motivated forces of welfare state retrenchment which are reflected in the courts’ refusal from imposing any positive obligation on the state to provide the basic means of subsistence for citizens as a matter of right. Thus, judicial interpretation of the Charter reflects and reinforces the nineteenth-century liberal tenet that the judiciary can restrain but cannot compel the state to take positive actions.
Access status: Open Access ,
Liberal Democracy, Citizenship and Class: Unresolved Contradictions of Capitalism
(2009-07-14) Karimi, Sirvan
With the post-war expansion of the welfare state, which provided a material basis for the adoption of social right as complementary to civil and political rights components of citizenship, there emerged an omnipresent conviction to assume that the institutionalization of citizenship in liberal democratic societies has not only deflected the threat of social instability but it has also eclipsed social class struggle from the plane of history. Contrary to this prevailing interpretation, which has failed to take into account the fragile nature of the social right component of citizenship, it will be demonstrated that the establishment of citizenship has not surmounted the inveterate contradictions of capitalist social relations.
Access status: Open Access ,
Contradictions of Capitalism and Their Ideological Counterparts: The Neo-Liberal Project and the Concept of 'Social Capital'
(2011-06-23) Karimi, Sirvan
Even though the concept of social capital has been around for a long time, it has recently gained a growing currency in academic literature on social and economic development. Numerous theorists, policy analysts, government officials and even international institutions such as the World Bank have attempted to theorize social capital as an indispensable prelude to economic development and democratization. Contrary to this line of argumentation, there is in fact a weak positive correlation between social capital, economic development and a vibrant democracy. The ascendancy of social capital lies in its potential to facilitate the consolidation of neo-liberal project. Social capital is conducive to externalizing the inherent contradictions of capitalist market economy, blurring the unequal power relations, and re-personalizing social responsibilities for economic outcomes which are the main objectives of neo-liberalism.
Access status: Open Access ,
Strikes in the Canadian Higher Education Sector: The Feasibility of Compulsory Binding Arbitration
(Sciedu Press, 2019-12-27) Karimi, Sirvan
The prevalence of labour disruptions in the Canadian education sector requires a comprehensive analysis of the adverse implications of strikes for stakeholders and Canadian society in general. Education is a kind of public good that generates positive externalities and strikes in Canadian universities and colleges engender negative externalities as manifested in the infliction of psychological and financial harms on students who become hostages to the hostility between unions and academic administrators. The overriding interests of students, families, faculty, educational institutions, and the broader community necessitate that impasses in collective bargaining negotiations be resolved without resorting to strike. Therefore, there are compelling, justifiable grounds to consider integrating compulsory binding arbitration in collective bargaining agreements as a mechanism to tackle and resolve impasses in collective bargaining negotiations in the higher education sector.
Access status: Open Access ,
The Democratisation Failure in the Middle East: Causes and Prospects
(2024-01-16) Karimi, Sirvan
It has almost become conventional wisdom among analysts and experts on Middle Eastern politics to relate the fate of the democratisation process and its failure in the region to the foreign policy platforms of the USA and its Western allies. Contrary to the prevailing interpretations of democratisation failure in the Middle East, it will be argued that the historical proclivity of leftist organisations and parties to conflate anti-imperialism with fostering hostility towards liberal values, the limited scope of industrialisation, and culturally and religiously ingrained competing loyalties are factors that have cumulatively made a significant contribution to the cultivation of a socio-political environment that is not receptive to democracy.
Access status: Open Access ,
Populism and the quest for political power: the pitfalls to populist electoral success in Canada
(Springer Nature, 2024-02-06) Karimi, Sirvan
Recent electoral inroads by anti-establishment political parties in Europe and around the world have led to the resurgence of the debate on populism. Within the burgeoning theoretical and analytic interpretations of the surge of populism, competing arguments have been deployed. Economic dislocation and the demographic shift within liberal democratic societies have provided fertile ground for the rise of populism. However, the success of these populist political parties, particularly the radical right populist parties, in utilizing prevailing societal resentment is to a great extent conditional upon a perceived threat to national identity. While the vestiges of political distrust and social and economic indignation can be found in Canadian society, the absence of a historically ingrained strong sense of nationhood, consolidation of multiculturalism, the eclipse of class from national political discourse, and the implausibility of resorting to Anti-Americanism as a mobilizing tactic has made it difficult for both Canadian right and left-populist forces to replicate the success of their international counterparts at the national level.
Access status: Open Access ,
Instead of a universal basic income, governments should enrich existing social programs
(2021-02-14) Karimi, Sirvan
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the idea of a universal basic income (UBI) has been touted by those across the political spectrum as a prospective model of social security that would provide guaranteed cash to citizens. But while UBI is desirable in principle, it’s not a magic solution to the intricate and perennial problems of poverty and income inequality. Furthermore, its implementation in Canada is not financially, administratively, politically or constitutionally feasible.
Access status: Open Access ,
The Formidability of Constitutional Challenges to Quebec’s Laicity Law
(2025-11-01) Karimi, Sirvan
The debate over Quebec’s Laicity law has recently permeated the Canadian national and constitutional discourse. In his brief filed with the Supreme Court of Canada on the Quebec’s Bill 21, the Federal Attorney General, Sean Fraser has urged the Supreme Court justices to set limits on the application of the section 33, known as the Notwithstanding Clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These remarks have sparked an immediate backlash from Quebec and certain other provinces such as Alberta and Ontario. The federal government’s expectation that the Supreme Court should restrict the invocation of section 33 reveals its lack of viable options to challenge Quebec’s Bill 21. Relying on the Supreme Court to place restrictions on the application of section 33 is not only an infeasible approach, but it also is conducive to triggering a constitutional crisis and intensifying federal/provincial conflict.

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