Political Science » Research » Max Waltman

Max Waltman

Ph.D. Candidate

E-mail: max.waltman@statsvet.su.se

Max Waltman was enrolled as PhD Candidate at the Department of Political Science, Stockholm University, fall 2004. His current research analyzes legal challenges to pornography, suggesting pornography to be a practice of inequality, a form of prostitution, and associated with gender-based violence as well as violating sex equality and other human rights in democracies. The question is what is in the way for democracies to legally and effectively address pornography’s empirically documented production and consumption harms. The different democratic frameworks in Canada, Sweden, and the U.S. are studied in detail. Waltman has published several scholarly and popular media articles and participates at international conferences. He is consulted by legislative bodies domestically and abroad, and works with feminist groups on policy initiatives. Apart from lecturing publicly on his topic, he currently teaches political theory and comparative politics, and advises bachelor and master students. He took parental leave fall 2005, spring 2008, and has stayed at the University of Michigan Law School as a visiting research scholar twice during the period 2006-2008.

Articles in Peer-Reviewed and Law Review Journals

“Prohibiting Sex Purchasing and Ending Trafficking: The Swedish Prostitution Law,” 33 Michigan Journal of International Law 133, 133-57 (2011). Full text: WWW (SSRN) (also available on Westlaw/LexisNexis/Heinonline).

“Sweden’s Prohibition of Purchase of Sex: The Law’s Reasons, Impact, and Potential,” Women’s Studies International Forum 34, no. 5 (2011): 449–74. Full text: WWW (ScienceDirect); WWW (free; author’s revised version).

“Rethinking Democracy: Legal Challenges to Pornography and Sex Inequality in Canada and the United States,” Political Research Quarterly 63, no. 1 (2010): 218-237. Full text: WWW (SAGE); WWW (free; contributor-created version). Additional Podcasts available with Amy Mazur, co-editor of PRQ, Catharine MacKinnon, Kathleen Mahoney, William Hudnut, and Max Waltman. URL: WWW (SAGE; three parts) (available free on iTunes).

Briefs/Submissions

Petitioners et al., “[Gemensamt] Svar till Förbud mot köp av sexuell tjänst: En utvärdering 1999–2008 (SOU 2010:49) / A Response to Prohibition Against Purchase of Sexual Service: An Evaluation 1999-2008 (SOU 2010:49),” joint submission by 12 NGOs/Individuals. Officially received by the Swedish government on Feb. 2, 2011. Full text: Swedish version. Full text: English version.

Petitioners et al., Förslag till regeringens utredning av sexköpslagen / Suggestions to the Government’s Review of the Sex Purchase Act (Sweden) (2010), with 12 other NGOs/individuals. Officially received by government commissioner on March 17, 2010. Full text: Swedish version. Full text: English version.

Selected Popular Media Publications

"Criminalize Only the Buying of Sex." Room for Debate, New York Times, April 20, 2012. Full text: WWW

"The Scars of Prostitution." Op-Ed, Toronto Star, Oct. 31, 2011. Full text: WWW

”Stärk prostituerade personers möjlighet att kräva skadestånd” [Strenghten Prostituted Persons’ Possibilities to Demand Damages]. (With MP Carina Hägg (S), MEP Eva-Britt Svensson (V), Olga Persson (SKR) et al.), Op-Ed, Göteborgs-Posten, May 10, 2011. Full text: WWW

“Vårt förslag handlar inte om tvång” [Our Proposal is Not about Coercion]. (With SKR [Olga Persson], Gudrun Schyman, Luis Ramos-Ruggiero et al.), Op-Ed, SvD Opinion-Brännpunkt, Apr. 14, 2011. Full text: WWW

“Prostituerade är brottsoffer” [Prostituted Persons are Crime Victims]. (With SKR [Olga Persson], Gudrun Schyman, Luis Ramos-Ruggiero et al.), Op-Ed, SvD Opinion-Brännpunkt, Apr. 9, 2011. Full text: WWW

"Torskarna ska betala skadestånd till de prostituerade" [The Johns shall pay damages to prostituted persons"]. (With Catharine A. MacKinnon, Gudrun Schyman, et al.), Opinion, Newsmill, Nov. 4, 2008. Full text: WWW

"Ge skadestånd till prostitutionens offer" ” [Give Damages to Victims of Prostitution]. (With MP Gudrun Schyman, Spokesperson for Feminist Initiative), Op-Ed, Dagens Nyheter, DN-debatt, July 25, 2006. Full text: WWW

Past Event

Organizer of “Legal Challenges to Gender-Based Violence: An APSA Short Course sponsored by Law & Courts, Human Rights, and Women’s Politics Research’s sections.” Preconference workshop held at the annual meeting for the American Political Science Ass’n (APSA), Washington DC, September 1, 2010. Twenty two (22) scheduled presenters and interlocutors including Melissa Farley, Leslie Goldstein, Neil Malamuth, Wendy Murphy, and others. Brief content: WWW (APSA online program, including registration). Full content: WWW (pdf).

Dissertation Project

Rethinking Democracy – Pornography & Sex Inequality

The project rethinks democratic theory in light of evidence offering the analysis of pornography as a harmful practice of sex inequality, and a form of trafficking in sex – i.e., prostitution – to which democracies are not responding. Evidence has found that pornography incites rape and other violence against women, desensitizes societies to sexual abuse, and supports rape myths. Social studies documents that pornographers, a multibillion dollar industry dominated by organized crime, rely on violence and exploit inequalities to make pornography, and that its consumption, which is common, spreads violence and inequality in society. If a practice like pornography systematically reproduces and sustains a group’s domination of another, and one democratic ideal is to provide equality among citizens who may participate in self-rule, existing democracies may be regarded as insufficient to their own ideals when they do not regulate it effectively. In this light, the question becomes what, under present systems of democracy, are the obstacles to democracies addressing these problems, and what alternatives exist?

Some democracies purport to prohibit pornography criminally but no jurisdiction effectively stops it, despite many effectively criminalizing child-pornography and some addressing pornography as a civil rights violation at work. To pursue its inquiry, this study will compare events in Canada, Sweden, and the United States where laws regulating pornography and prostitution were challenged on the basis that they did not respond to their harms to women’s equality. The interplay between pornography as a social practice of sex inequality, and democracy as a political system of public government, is scrutinized to inform democratic theory.

The thesis is interdisciplinary and comparative, utilizing political theory, social science, and law. Its contribution to cumulative research consist in comparatively analyzing political responses to legal challenges in three countries where subordination based on gender – not moral notions such as “obscenity” – has been the driving rationale for change. The cases for comparison are focused on the Canadian 1989 Butler decision and its aftermath; The Swedish 1998 Act Against Purchase of Sexual Services, and state- and federal responses to antipornography civil rights legislation in the United States. This material represents similar consumption and distribution of similar pornography materials across a broad range of legal frameworks and approaches. Advisors are Catharine A. MacKinnon (University of Michigan and Harvard Law Schools) and Jonas Tallberg (Stockholm University).

Research Interest Areas

Inequality and Democratic Theory; Comparative Policy Approaches against Men’s Violence Against Women, particularly Pornography & Prostitution; Freedom of Speech/Expression and Equality Doctrines; International Law and Human Rights; Feminist Theory & Feminist Jurisprudence; Intersectionality; Judicial Politics; Political Theory.

Selected Conference Papers 2005 -

 “Challenging Inequality: Comparative Perspectives on Sexual Violence, Gender, and Law.” (organizer) Panel presented at the annual meeting for the Law and Society Ass'n, Chicago IL, May 27-30, 2010. Participants include Chair: Leslie F. Goldstein. Papers: Nicole Freiner, Ruth A Watry, Cathy Church, Carrie Doan, Max Waltman. Full content: WWW (my paper)

“Rethinking Democracy: Legal Challenges to PORNOGRAPHY & SEX INEQUALITY; Responses to Evidence of Harm in Canada, Sweden, & the U.S. – A Civil Rights & Equality Deficit.” Poster presented at the annual meeting for the American Political Science Ass’n (APSA), Toronto, Canada, Sept. 3-6, 2009. Full text: WWW (poster) WWW (paper at SSRN)

"The Civil Rights Equality Deficit: Legal Challenges to Pornography and Sex Inequality in Canada, Sweden, and the U.S." Paper presented at the annual meetings for the Canadian Political Science Ass'n, Ottawa, May 27-29, 2009, and the Law And Society Ass'n, Denver, CO, June 28-31, 2009. Full text: WWW