Abstract
(a) Central institutions/Institutions centrales
64.4338 ADAMS, Carolyn —
This article examines whether freedom of information (FOI) legislation should apply to those agencies working to support parliaments. In the past, FOI legislation was characterized as a mechanism to allow greater scrutiny of the executive branch by parliament and the community. On this analysis, there was no reason to extend the legislation to the agencies of the legislative branch. But the role of FOI legislation has developed so that it now forms part of a wider integrity framework of government. The need to ensure integrity is a concern for all three branches of government and this article asks whether there are any convincing reasons in principle or practice to exclude the parliamentary departments from the FOI regime. [R]
64.4339 ÁGH, Attila —
The paper focuses on the Hungarian administrative reforms in the East-Central European context in order to show that the Hungarian developments have been the worst-case scenario of Europeanization. The bumpy road character with its ups and downs appeared in the first twenty years but this feature of administrative reforms has been reinforced by the latest developments in the second V. Orbán government (2010–2014) when the former patronage system in public administration has been turned into a complete “merger”: i.e., the whole public administration has been over-politicized. The invasion of politics into all levels of public administration with the appointments of loyal party soldiers to the top administrative positions has led to a drastic decline in governance capacity and effectiveness. [R, abr.]
64.4340 AIDUKAITE, Jolanta —
This paper [examines] possible impacts of globalization and Europeanization on social security reforms in a new EU member state — Lithuania. It is based on 67 expert interviews conducted with the political elite, academics, journalists, senior civil servants, interest group representatives and the economic elite. It highlights the higher influence of globalization through the activities of such supranational agencies as the World Bank and the IMF compared to the impact of cognitive Europeanization on social security reforms. [R]
64.4341 AMÉDRO, Jean-François —
The constitutional law of 23 July 2008, which modifies article 24 of the French Constitution, adds the evaluation of policies to the traditional parliamentary functions of legislation and Government control. This evaluation aims to judge the efficacy of public policies and the aforementioned law creates new public bodies and mechanisms in order to it carry out. Political responsibility is notoriously weak in the Fifth Republic, but parliamentary evaluation will partially re-establish the constitutional balance, through reinforcement of the Government's accountability. However, neither positive law nor the doctrine clearly determine the notion of parliamentary control and its relation to accountability.
64.4342 AMORIM NETO, Octavio; COSTA LOBO, Marina —
This article analyzes the degree to which diffusion of Portugal's semi-presidential constitution occurred within lusophone countries following their move to multipartism in the 1990s. We first identify the main characteristics of the 1976 Portuguese constitution. Next, the constitutional choices made in Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and East Timor are mapped. Using existing typologies, we classify these regimes and contrast them with their European and francophone African counterparts. Finally, we investigate the effective dynamics of lusophone semi-presidential systems by focusing on how heads of state deal with heads of government and parliamentary majorities. We claim there is a “family resemblance” among lusophone semi-presidential regimes. [R, abr.]
64.4343 ARRIGNON, Mehdi —
Active social policies try to “make work pay better than welfare”. These policies have been tested since 1997 in Europe; in the early 2000s, they did not succeeded in accelerating the return to work. During the latest crisis, the results were even worse. How to explain the persistence of such ineffective strategies? Analyzing European institutions and comparing three member states in Europe, we argue that institutional, cognitive and political factors can explain the inertia of public policies in periods of crisis. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4834]
64.4344 ARRIOLA, Leonardo R.; JOHNSON, Martha C. —
No study has assessed the extent to which the politicization of ethnicity — a cleavage that shapes political life in many countries — affects women's cabinet appointments. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, we argue that women are less likely to become cabinet ministers where incumbents use such appointments to build patronage-based alliances with politicians who act as advocates for ethnic constituencies. Using an original dataset on the composition of cabinets in 34 African countries from 1980 to 2005, we show that women's share of cabinet appointments is significantly lower in countries where leaders must accommodate a larger number of politicized ethnic groups, but it rises with higher levels of democracy and greater representation of women in parliament. [R, abr.]
64.4345 ASTENGO, Francesca —
This article explores the issue of the mandatory display of the crucifix in Italian public schools, regulated by acts dating back to the 1920s. Italian jurisprudence on the matter has been oscillating, while the Constitutional Court has repeatedly refused to take a position on this issue. [In] 2011, the European Court of Human Rights argued that the decision as to whether a crucifix should be displayed in public classrooms belongs to each European state. By doing so, it renounced a universalistic role in favor of national constitutional systems. However, questions remain: e.g., the presence of religious symbols in public spaces; their relationship with the notions of a democratic, pluralistic, secular society and neutrality of the state; and the limits to both freedom of religion and freedom from religion at individual and collective levels. [R, abr.]
64.4346 AYDINGÜN, Ismail; AYDINGÜN, Ayşegül —
This article explores the post-Soviet political transformations experienced in Kyrgyzstan and argues that there are structural reasons for the political instability, which places obstacles to nation- and state-building. The fragility of the political situation is explained with reference to the 1990 and 2010 Osh riots as well as to the popular revolts of 2005 and 2010. In addition, the political and legal reforms of the post-Soviet period are evaluated. Structural reasons for the political instability, the recent transition to parliamentary system and the future of parliamentary democracy are discussed in the light of domestic and global dynamics and the sociopolitical history of the country. [R]
64.4347 BAILEY, Jeremy D.; ROTTINGHAUS, Brandon —
Recent debate on the use of unilateral presidential directives suggests that a [US] president's ability to shape and act without the consent of Congress is largely unchecked by traditional institutional arrangements while other research shows that presidents are more likely to be restrained by Congress. This article contributes to this debate by examining the source of authority used in unilateral orders. Using a new database of unilateral orders and a new theory, we reexamine when presidents use unilateral orders. We find that orders that invoke congressionally based sources of authority are used when Congress is stronger while those that are presidency-based are used when Congress is weaker. These findings allow us to be more precise about how presidential unilateral strategy is shaped by institutional forces. [R]
64.4348 BALLESTEROS, Ana —
The election to the National Assembly of May 2013 implies a small stabilization facing non-democratic institutions, but the different results depending on the province show a very weak federal system and a low social cohesion. The Pakistan Muslim League, headed by Nawaz Sharif, has won the election, although the party's influence outside Punjab is scarce. Pakistan's future depends on its relationship with the US and on Afghanistan, but Imran Khan's Pakistan Movement for Justice (Islamic and anti-American) has won on the key territory Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on the Afghan border. A qualification of Pakistan as a terrorist state by Washington would seriously damage Pakistani economy, as Nawaz Sharif is perfectly aware.
64.4349 BARELLA, Xavier —
The French Fifth Republic has undermined the influence of parliamentary assemblies. To compensate this loss of power, the latter attempt to preserve their autonomy, which can be understood both as a facet of their external independence and as an internal competence that allows them to have their own organizational rules. In either case, autonomy is regarded as a necessity to accomplish the chambers’ constitutional missions, but the requirement of immunity linked to the notion of autonomy is questionable, especially concerning strictly administrative acts. As administrative courts tend to admit more appeals, it would be convenient to give entitlement to legal action for disputes over parliamentary acts of an administrative nature.
64.4350 BARRERO ORTEGA, Abraham —
The legalization of same-sex marriage in Act 13/2005 sparked in Spain one of the most important constitutional debates of recent years. Some authors supported the constitutionality of the Act; other authors questioned its constitutionality. The debate has been recently settled in 2012 by the Spanish Constitutional Court, as the Constitutional Court upheld the constitutionality of gay marriage. The author analyzes the decision in the context of the global debate over same-sex marriage. [R, abr.]
64.4351 BARTOLUCCI, Valentina —
This article first analyzes some of the main features of the political discourse on terrorism interlinked with the counterterrorism discourse as first instantiated under the G.W. Bush administration. It then focuses on the appropriation of the US-led discourse by the Moroccan government as well as on some of its major effects, going beyond the formulation and acceptance of the counterterrorism strategy known as the War on Terror. It sees terrorism primarily as a discourse and underlines some of the effects deriving from the appropriation of the discourse. It focuses especially on the furthering of domestic agendas as well as the targeting of certain individuals and groups in the name of security [and] wider societal effects. [R, abr.]
64.4352 BATES, Stephen R., et al. —
This article provides a comparative analysis of the opening sessions of Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) for the last five Prime Ministers in order to test a general perception that PMQs has become increasingly a focal point for shallow political point-scoring rather than serious prime ministerial scrutiny. Our data appear to confirm that PMQs has become both rowdier and increasingly dominated by the main party leaders. It also indicates that Prime Ministers are increasingly expected to be able to respond to a wider range of questions, female MPs are as likely to ask helpful questions but less likely to ask unanswerable questions than male counterparts, and MPs are less likely to ask helpful questions and more likely to ask unanswerable questions the longer their parliamentary tenure. [R, abr.]
64.4353 BAYÜLGEN, Okşan —
A careful study of Turkey's energy policy demonstrates that the main challenge to renewable energy reforms in Turkey is not technological or even financial but rather political. Despite external pressures for reform, political stability, favorable public opinion, and a certain level of civic activism in support of renewable energy, the Turkish government has not been able to reduce the dominance of fossil fuels in its energy policy. Populist decision-making, geostrategic calculations and a political reluctance to reduce the state's dominance in the energy sector have led to the slow and limited development of renewable resources. Lack of vision and forward planning in the bureaucracy as well as collective action problems among business and environmental groups have also contributed to the inertia that is preventing a radical shift in Turkey's energy orientation. [R, abr.]
64.4354 BEDOCK, Camille; SAUGER, Nicolas —
Among the large family of mixed electoral systems, systems with a majority bonus have been largely overlooked. Based on a comparison of regional elections in France and Italy, this article shows that these systems fit well into the typology as mixed systems. Their impact on the patterns of electoral competition can be viewed as mixed, leading to a bipolar but fragmented competition and to intermediate levels of disproportionality in between proportional and majoritarian systems. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4366]
64.4355 BEGO, Ingrid —
This article seeks to improve our understanding of how women are gaining access to political power in third-wave democracies. I extend the study of factors that affect the supply of and demand for female cabinet ministers from Latin America to Central and Eastern Europe, analyzing twelve new democracies from 1992 to 2008. I find that a high percentage of women's enrollment in higher education correlates not only with the high percentage of women appointed to ministerial positions but also with a higher rate of appointments to prestigious posts. [R]
64.4356 BÉLAND, Daniel —
Focusing on institutional factors and the strategies of political actors, this article studies institutional change in the field of pension policy in the US and Canada since the early 1980s. In pension reform as in other policy areas, it is appropriate to compare these two “liberal” countries which, while leaving a large role to the market, have developed distinct political institutions and social programs. The article emphasizes both the weight of some of these institutional differences and the existence of common reform strategies in the two countries under study. Focusing on public pension systems while taking into account savings and private pensions, the article takes a historical approach by contrasting three periods in each country: the Reagan (1981–1989) and the Mulroney years (1984–1993), the Clinton (1993–2001) and the Chrétien years (1993–2003), and the G. W. Bush (2001–2009) and the Harper years (2006—). [R]
64.4357 BÉLAND, Daniel; LECOURS, André —
This article looks at the Canadian case and analyses the multidimensional relationship between equalization policy and Québécois nationalism. It explains how a key motivation behind the creation of Canada's fiscal equalization program in 1957 was to “end” the institutional and political isolation of Québec and how equalization may have, thereafter, contributed to making Québec's secession less appealing to a good number of Quebeckers than it would have been in the absence of this program. Simultaneously, the article discusses how equalization may have contributed to a certain political backlash against Québec in the other provinces, thus providing mixed evidence in the assessment of the accommodation potential of equalization policy. [R, abr.]
64.4358 BÉLAND, Daniel; VERGNIOLLE DE CHANTAL, François —
Since the 1980s, both American political scientists and historians have been rediscovering their “state” and its specificities, especially its relative invisibility and its high degree of fragmentation. This debate paralleled the rise of new methodologies in political science, such as historical institutionalism and American Political Development (APD). This introduction summarizes the key elements of these methodologies while presenting the articles making up this special issue. [R] [Introduction to a thematic issue on “The state in the US: new looks”. See also Abstr. 64.4388, 4444, 4468, 4492]
64.4359 BELCO, Michelle; ROTTINGHAUS, Brandon —
In the [US] legislative process, presidents may negotiate with Congress or use unilateral action as a bargaining tool. When presidents issue a unilateral order during the legislative process, do these orders “preempt” or “support” legislation? We match unilateral orders with related legislative activity and find presidents are more likely to use unilateral orders to “preempt” legislation when the issue is on the president's agenda or in the second half of their second terms but “support” legislation when of the same party as the bill sponsor. These findings suggest that presidents not only take advantage of Congressional incapacity but also exert unilateral power in support of legislation. [R]
64.4360 BENNETT, Huw —
Baha Mousa died in September 2003 in British Army custody in Basra [Iraq]. A public inquiry reported in September 2011, and allows for the first assessment of British military detention and interrogation policy in the War on Terror. This article explains the Inquiry's remit and findings, showing how the failure to institutionalize a ban on interrogation methods in 1972 led to them re-appearing in 2003. Poor policy, doctrine and training meant soldiers were ill-prepared for dealing with detainees when Iraq was invaded in 2003. The article assesses the army's efforts to learn from the mistakes of Iraq, including reforms to policy, doctrine and training on interrogation and detention. It assesses the limitations to these reforms in practice in Afghanistan, arguing that there are still important areas demanding improvement to prevent future abuses. [R]
64.4361 BERNAUER, Julian; MUNZERT, Simon —
In Germany's compensatory mixed electoral system, alternative electoral routes lead into parliament. We study the relationship between candidates’ electoral situations across both tiers and policy representation, fully accounting for candidate, party and district preferences in a multiactor constellation and the exact electoral incentives for candidates to represent either the party or the district. The results (2009 Bundestag election data) yield evidence of an interactive effect of closeness of the district race and list safety on candidates’ positioning between their party and constituency. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4366]
64.4362 BERRY, Craig; BERRY, Richard —
Gus O'Donnell's vision of “better government” [“Better government”, ibid. 84(3), Oct. 2013: 80–387; Abstr. 64.1976]. is presented as a critique of party politics, most specifically the short-termism, selfishness and incompetence of elected politicians. He questions the legitimacy of the democratic system which gives rise to party politics. His article outlines several mechanisms by which the exercise of power by elected ministers could be constrained by a managerialist accountability framework, without addressing the question of who determines the appropriate framework for ministerial performance. O'Donnell also praises apparently “depoliticized” policy-making processes, overlooking the inherently political constitution of such processes. In doing so, O'Donnell claims to be challenging party politics on behalf of voters/taxpayers, but instead seeks to dismantle any possibility of the public expressing a collective will via the ballot box that might challenge the immutability of the market economy. [R, abr.]
64.4363 BHATTACHARYA, Kaushik; MITRA, Subrata K. —
A large number of candidates has become a regular feature of Indian elections. Given the regulatory concerns the problem has evoked, this article reviews the process of candidate entry in select developed countries. The review reveals the presence of diverse approaches, ruling out the necessity for extreme options like debarring fringe candidates — a course suggested by several Indian expert groups. Among various policy options, India had largely relied on electoral deposit. Our results suggest that an increase in deposits had a significant negative impact on candidate entry in India. However, for an effective deterrence, India needs to continue to keep deposits at a very high level compared to the current international benchmark, discriminating political participation of genuinely underprivileged groups. [R, abr.]
64.4364 BIRNBAUM, Norman —
The US is no longer capable of combining internal prosperity with a military and political expansionism. Domestic issues are influencing the Obama administration's foreign policy, especially due to defence budget cuts. The Army exerts a great influence on international issues, and the Government has reached a compromise with the military, which explains, amongst other things, why the troops still have not left Afghanistan, one of the main disasters of Barack Obama's presidency. The President has been ambivalent in the Egyptian crisis and towards Israel, but has succeeded in negotiations with Iran and prevented an American intervention in Syria. The US is now reconsidering its implication in the Middle East and increasing its military presence in the Pacific, but this could tense relations with China.
64.4365 BOCHSLER, Daniel —
Mixed-member proportional systems (MMP) are a family of electoral systems which combine district-based elections with a proportional seatallocation. Positive vote-transfer systems belong to this family. This article explains why they might be better than their siblings, and examines under which conditions full proportionality is reached. A formal model shows that full proportionality depends on the number of compensation mandates available, and on the degree of coordination among voters and parties. The model is applied to six elections in Hungary. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4366]
64.4366 BOCHSLER, Daniel; BERNAUER, Julian —
The study of strategic behavior and the impact of institutions on elections has mainly focused on simple and conventional electoral systems: listproportional electoral systems (PR) and the plurality vote. Less conventional systems are not on the agenda of comparative studies, even though no less than 30% of countries use unconventional electoral systems for their national parliamentary elections, such as the Single Transferable Vote, PR with majority bonuses, or mixed electoral systems. Often, they provide for unusual combinations of different institutional incentives, and hence to particular actor strategies. [R] [Introduction to a thematic issue of the same title. See Abstr. 64.4169, 4354, 4361, 4365, 4406, 4474, 4498, 4782]
64.4367 BOHLE, Dorothee —
This article explores the tensions P. Mair identified between responsible and responsive government in relation to the constraints and opportunities of an internationally integrated and instituted economy. Drawing on the example of the short period of democratic stability and its subsequent breakdown in the Weimar Republic, the article argues that in Weimar Germany's “golden twenties”, governments could bridge the gap between responsibility — defined as a commitment to deep international integration — and responsiveness to its citizens mainly through the availability of cheap credits. With the onset of the Great Depression, responsible government became tantamount to increasingly drastic austerity policies. These policies were not only an economic failure, they also made the gap between responsible and responsive government unbridgeable. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4563]
64.4368 BRADLEY, Katharine W. V.; CHEN, Jowei —
Why do legislators sometimes engage in behavior that deviates from the expressed policy preferences of constituents who participate in politics at high rates? We examine this puzzle in the context of Democratic legislators’ representation of their senior citizen constituents on the [US] Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). We find that legislators’ roll-call votes on the ACA did not reflect the stated preferences of their respective senior constituents; by contrast, these roll-call votes did reflect the preferences of non-senior adults. We draw upon a theoretical framework developed by Mansbridge to explain this apparent nonresponsiveness to seniors on the ACA. This framework distinguishes between promissory representation, whereby legislators merely respond to constituents’ preferences, and anticipatory representation, whereby legislators respond to constituents’ underlying policy interests, even when such interests conflict with expressed preferences. [R, abr.]
64.4369 BRECHLER, Josef; GERŠL, Adam —
Politicians’ efforts to stay in office may lead to the occurrence of political cycles in legislation activity. This article analyzes the political legislation cycles in a post-socialist economy of a young democracy: the Czech Republic. Our estimation of the relationship between the number of approved laws and various explanatory variables suggests that the timing of elections has an impact on legislation activity. As an electoral term matures and upcoming elections approach, an increase is observed in legislation activity through which an incumbent government seeks to maximize its chances of re-election. [R]
64.4370 BRIFFAULT, Richard —
[The US] legal system has long been of two minds about lobbying. As far back as the Jacksonian Era, courts anxiously viewed the use of paid agents to influence government decision-making as a source of corruption. Yet courts have also long recognized a legitimate interest in having professional assistance when trying to affect government. Moreover, since the mid-20th c., the Supreme Court has emphasized that lobbying is protected by the First Amendment. The law of lobbying grows out of these conflicting views of lobbying as both corrupting and legitimate, constitutionally protected yet requiring regulation. Lobbying regulation today reflects four goals: protecting the right to lobby; preventing improper influence; restricting some unfair opportunities for influence; and promoting transparency of lobbyists’ activities. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4504]
64.4371 BUI, Thiem H. —
Over the past two decades, efforts by the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) to build a “socialist” rule of law through legal and judicial reforms have contributed to the vibrant constitutional politics in the country. During the process of amending the 1992 Constitution, the socialist theoretical foundations of the Constitution quietly shifted as a result of new thinking and values. The complex interactions of old and new ideological precepts were prominently reflected by the changing discourse of human rights during debates about amendments to the 1992 Constitution. This article investigates the development of the “socialist” rule of law and the changes taking place in the discourse of human rights during the constitutional reform process in Vietnam. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4396]
64.4372 BULMER, William Elliot —
This article discusses Malta's constitutional system as a variation on the “Westminster model”. Despite proportional representation, Malta maintains a strictly majoritarian core of “delegation and accountability”, from the people, through Parliament, to the Government, structured through a two-party system. This majoritarian core is balanced, however, by peripheral institutions (such as the Constitutional Court, Ombudsman, President, and Electoral Commission), which partially constrain the exercise of majoritarian power. Using a typology developed by M. Glover and R. Hazell [Constitutional Futures revised: Britain's constitution to 2020, Basingstoke, 2008], Malta is presented as an example of a “Westminster Constitutionalized” polity, combining majoritarian rule and concentrated powers with entrenched, legal constitutionalism. [R]
64.4373 BURKE, Brendan F. —
This article reviews D. Wright's textbook, Understanding Intergovernmental Relations [Pacific Grove, CA, 1988], and assesses its current relevance to its field of coverage. This article, after describing significant lessons from the textbook, summarizes Wright's related research and commentary from the following two decades, and also analyzes three current intergovernmental topics based on four of Wright's most important metaphors and historical observations. The 1988 book remains relevant to intergovernmental relations today, though it only tangentially informs the more cross-sectoral turn that the field has taken in recent years. [R, abr.]
64.4374 BYRKJEFLOT, Haldor; CHRISTENSEN, Tom; LAEGREID, Per —
Welfare reforms involve trade-off between different accountability types, such as political, administrative, legal and social accountability. This variety of accountability types is used to investigate consequences of reforms in three different welfare services in Norway: social services, hospitals and immigration. The study finds that more complex, dynamic and layered accountability forms are emerging, but that there are some differences across reform areas. The reforms in immigration seem to change accountability relations the most in hospitals, administrative and political accountability is up against professional accountability, and we see that politicians lack overall capacity and have to rely on administrative accountability in social services. In order to analyze how reforms affect accountability relations one has to study both the formal and informal changes, as well as the relationship between politics and professionalism. [R]
64.4375 CAIN, Bruce E.; DRUTMAN, Lee —
In 2007, [the US] Congress passed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA) in an attempt to slow the revolving door between Congress and the Washington lobbying industry with one year bans on contacts between the ex-staffers and their former colleagues in the Congress. The variation in the Senate and House rules and a complete set of congressional staff panel data between 2001 and 2011 allow us to assess the effectiveness of the revolving door provisions of HLOGA and the relative importance of different factors that contribute to congressional staffers’ employability as lobbyists. Using a difference-indifferences quasi-experimental design on data from Legistorm, we find evidence that the HLOGA realized some of its intended effect. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4504]
64.4376 CARTER, Neil; JACOBS, Michael —
An innovative framework combining the “multiple streams” (MS) and “punctuated equilibrium” (PE) models of agenda-setting is used to explain the transformation of UK climate change and energy policy under the Labor Government between 2006 and 2010. The coupling of the problem, politics and policy streams by policy entrepreneurs (MS), and changes in policy image and institutional venues (PE), were critical in opening a policy window, disrupting the existing policy monopoly and enabling radical policy initiatives. The case study suggests two revisions to the models: (1) policy windows can remain open far longer than either model typically predicts; and (2) party politics, especially where party competition generates a “competitive consensus”, can be important for both initiating and prolonging policy change in parliamentary systems. [R, abr.]
64.4377 CASAL BÉRTOA, Fernando„ et al. —
Party regulation in new democracies in general, and in the Spanish political system in particular, has not been a matter of concern until very recently. In order to fill this gap, this article explores the way political parties have been regulated not only in the Constitution, but also in the main laws regulating party foundation, organization, dissolution and, not least, funding: namely, the 1978 and 2002 political party laws as well as the 1985 and 2007 party funding laws. The empirical part explores the impact such regulation has had on the Spanish party system and on the life of its party organizations. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4508]
64.4378 CHAMBERS, Paul —
This article examines two country cases of “defective” democracies. In each case, security forces have become more integrated under the constitutions of civilian-led regimes. This study [asks:] (1) how did the institutionalization of security forces under civilian-led constitutions occur? (2) How did these experiences vary? (3) To what extent do these security forces today possess differing degrees of enshrined powers? (4) Based upon these experiences, how might civilian control be sustained over time? The article argues that constitutional change acceded to by security forces more often than not results from informal bargaining and concessions by civilians. However, the initial bargain can later transform itself towards more or less security force interventionism depending upon three variables: the heritage of authoritarianism; the relative unity of civilians as opposed to the security forces; and threat environments. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4396]
64.4379 CHANDLER, Andrea —
During a regime transition, are citizens more likely to appeal to the courts to protect their rights, or less likely? The study examines 107 decisions of the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court on social welfare, passed between 1991 and 2010. As the political system became more authoritarian under President V. Putin, citizen petitions to the Supreme and Constitutional Courts greatly increased, reflecting discontent with the content and implementation of social welfare reforms. Furthermore, citizen petitioners won a surprisingly large number of their cases. The analysis reveals the Constitutional Court to be a strong defender of social rights overall, while establishing an implicit hierarchy of groups entitled to special protection. [R, abr.]
64.4380 CHARRAD, Mounira M.; ZARRUGH, Amina —
The Arab Spring has inaugurated a new form of politics that represents a shift from a “politics from above” to a “politics from below” in regard to gender policy in Tunisia. Discourse surrounding state policy on gender, formerly the purview of elite groups, has recently been shaped and driven by popular organizations and associations. This article draws on J. Habermas to argue that the shift has been facilitated by the emergence of a new public sphere and engaged civil society following the fall of the Z. Ben Ali regime in 2011. To demonstrate the emergence and diversity of Tunisian civil society, we focus on the promulgation of a new constitution and the debate surrounding Article 28, which has been contested by some Tunisians as reducing women's status to “complementary”. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.5123]
64.4381 CHENG Yi-Wen; NGO Tak-Wing —
This paper questions the categorization of good/bad governance and argues that such a stylized conception fails to capture the ambivalence of responsibilities and accountabilities in a political system characterized by multiple layers of authorities. Using a case study of the tobacco monopoly in China, the paper shows the contradictory goals and outcomes in different modes of operation that defy a stylized categorization. [R, abr.]
64.4382 CHERIET, Boutheina —
This paper contends that the construction of citizenry in post-colonial Algeria is far from being a universal enfranchisement. Indeed, despite a frank declaration in favor of a modernist state- and nation-building after national independence in 1962, the elites in power have shown clear hesitations at cutting ties with the patriarchal order of traditional society, both in the public arena of an open unconditional democracy, and the private arena of the family structure, where gender roles have been approached along a mythical interpretation of scriptural Islamic laws marred with traditionalist mores regarding gender equality. The end result is the perpetuation of an ambiguous authoritarian political system whereby citizenship rights and the practice of open democracy are far from being universal. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.5123]
64.4383 CHIRKIN, Veniamin E. —
An analysis of the provisions of the Russian Federation's Constitution (the preamble, the first, and second chapters in particular) in addition to the 20-year-old practice of realization of constitutional norms, allows for an examination of the Constitution's basic values from three different positions. Firstly, as a value resulting from its adoption by referendum in 1993, which signified the first steps of transition from confrontation to civil peace and concord in Russia. Secondly, as a basic law which has supreme force, laying down the foundations of the legal status of individual, social, and state order. And lastly, as a political and ideological document, containing the principal provisions and foundations of legal expression of values that define society’ mentality.
64.4384 CHIVA, Cristina —
The paper investigates women's representation in the EP delegations of the new member states by bringing together three distinct strands of scholarship: the second-order elections model, feminist theories of candidate recruitment and the literature on party positions on European integration. It tests three hypotheses explaining women's selection as candidates in European elections: the impact of electoral systems; the impact of political parties’ left-right placement and the impact of party positions on European integration. The key finding is that gendered patterns of candidate recruitment in the new member states are best explained as a function of political parties’ positions on European integration, with electoral systems and left-right placement having only a limited impact on the selection of women candidates. [R]
64.4385 CHRISTENSEN, Jørgen Gronnegaard; KLEMMENSEN, Robert; OPSTRUP, Niels —
This article of top civil servants in Danish central and local government sheds new light on politicization. A survival analysis shows that since 1970, the risk that a top civil servant will be replaced has increased. There is no evidence of politicization in central government while city managers’ risk of replacement increases both when a new mayor, representing another party and holding an absolute majority, and when the shift of mayor takes place within the same party. We interpret these results as evidence of the adaptability of the merit civil service and political executives’ stronger insistence on their authority to make discretionary replacements. [R]
64.4386 CLEGG, Liam —
This paper contributes to the literature on the mechanics of change in global economic governance. By synthesizing an empirically driven case-study with conceptual insights from the existing literature, I highlight three intervening variables that enabled the Legislative Mandates passed by the US Congress in 2009 on the use of social-spending targets (education and health expenditure ring fences) in IMF concessional lending to be rapidly translated into operational change. The intervening variables that stood between US domestic action and rapid operational change are: (1) the existence of effective enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance from the US Executive Director with the Mandate; (2) preference congruence between other primary principals and the content of the Mandate, and (3) the existence of effective enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance from IMF staff with the principals’ collectivelysanctioned goal. [R, abr.]
64.4387 CLINTON, Joshua D.; LEWIS, David E.; SELIN, Jennifer L. —
Does the [US] president or Congress have more influence over policymaking by the bureaucracy? Despite a wealth of theoretical guidance, progress on this important question has proven elusive due to competing theoretical predictions and severe difficulties in measuring agency influence and oversight. We use a survey of federal executives to assess political influence, congressional oversight, and the policy preferences of agencies, committees, and the president on a comparable scale. Analyzing variation in political influence across and within agencies reveals that Congress is less influential relative to the White House when more committees are involved. While increasing the number of involved committees may maximize the electoral benefits for members, it may also undercut the ability of Congress as an institution to collectively respond to the actions of the presidency or the bureaucracy. [R]
64.4388 CONLAN, Timothy J. —
From a long historical perspective, American federalism has undergone a secular trend toward governmental centralization. State and local governments continue to play vital roles in politics, policy-making, and policy implementation in the US, but the balance of power and resources has shifted toward Washington. Masked within this long-term trend have been many shorter cycles of political centralization and decentralization, however. This article examines the intergovernmental implications of the national policy changes adopted over the past thirty years, with a particular focus on the interactions between American federalism and the welfare state. It discusses the political forces that appear to have increased the volatility of centralizing and devolutionary cycles in American politics, and it places these changes into broader historical perspective. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4358]
64.4389 COUTINHO, Diogo R. —
This paper analyzes the Bolsa Família Program (BFP) from the point of view of its political and institutional arrangement — that is, the set of rules, organizations and processes that define the way stakeholders and interests are coordinated in the implementation of a specific public policy. In particular, it considers the program from the perspective of its dynamic relationship with the social assistance field, discussing the connection between the political and institutional arrangements of these two policies “at the bottom” (i.e., at a local level) and on the “top” (i.e., at a federal level). To do that, it draws on the categories of administrative capabilities (associated with the measure of effectiveness) and political capabilities (associated with the measure of legitimacy). [R, abr.]
64.4390 CROISSANT, Aurel —
This article analyzes eleven cases of constitution-making in eight Southeast Asian countries since 1986. It investigates design choices and actors’ interests, the link between the form of the political regime and the extent to which process designs matter for the legitimacy of the constitutional orders in the region. It demonstrates that the link between the form of the political regime and the extent to which constitution-making is inclusive or participatory is less clear-cut. While we would expect better opportunities for public participation and broader inclusion of extra-parliamentary actors in constitution-making in democratic environments, the empirical evidence is mixed. If and how this matters for public support for a constitution and the social acceptance for the constitutional order is not clear. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4396]
64.4391 DARDANELLI, Paolo —
To what extent and in what way does European integration fuel state restructuring? While the theoretical literature suggests a positive link between the two, previous empirical studies have reached contrasting conclusions. The article offers an alternative testing of the proposition, centered on the role of party strategies as a causal mechanism, analyzed across space and time. On the cross-sectional axis, it focuses on parties in Flanders and Wallonia (Belgium), Lombardy and Sicily (Italy), Catalonia and Andalusia (Spain), and Scotland and Wales (UK). On the cross-temporal axis, it focuses on four critical junctures connecting integration and state restructuring. It analyzes the degree to which “Europe” has been strategically used in connection to state restructuring and which conditions have been necessary and/or sufficient to that outcome. [R, abr.]
64.4392 DE MEDICI, Marino —
B. Obama's “leading from behind” foreign policy, has suffered several defeats and therefore hardly influenced his re-election. The Obama administration will be forced to adopt a new strategic position that should face issues, such as building a new relationship with Egypt, the Syrian Civil War, the reorganization of American presence in Libya and the reactivation of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. Although the US's main concern is a nuclear agreement with Iran, American diplomacy should also focus on the prospect of a civil war in Afghanistan after US troops leave the territory. Obama's second term offers him the chance to act unhesitatingly without being aggressive.
64.4393 DEATH, Carl —
Global interest in the “green economy” has heightened since 2008, and this article elaborates on (1) four alternative, and sometimes competing, discourses of the green economy, and (2) the particular politics of the green economy in South Africa. Most research on the green economy tends to focus on European and North American countries; however, in the context of a changing global economy and the “rise of the South”, the politics of the green economy in countries like South Africa is of increasing importance. South Africa faces many challenges in pursuing a transition to a more sustainable development path, yet has been cited as a global green economy leader. This article argues that this is related to the particular discourse of “green growth” and proposes two significant lines of critique of this discourse. [R, abr.]
64.4394 DEINLA, Imelda —
Drawing on recent scholarship in the field of judicial politics, and presenting a case study of the Philippine Supreme Court after the transition to democracy in 1986, this article explores the conditions under which the Court has exercised its powers in the context of a democratizing state such as the Philippines. It shows how strong public support has enabled the Court to exercise its judicial review powers and its authority over contending political actors. In drawing attention to the understudied link between public support and judicial assertiveness, the paper advances existing scholarship by going beyond existing indicators of judicial independence and providing new insights into the dynamics of evolving constitutional practice in the region through the interaction of the courts with the public. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4396]
64.4395 DMITRIEV, Jurij A. —
There are at least fifteen different aspects of the 1993 Russian Constitution that can be attacked on a variety of grounds and need to be fixed. Some of these include: the problem of increasing the efficiency with which the Constitution's norms are applied today; the correct formulation and updating of chapters about the bases of civil society and the number and functioning of different branches of state power; the issue of federal relations; the extent of the president's power; the procedure of impeachment of the president; and the number of federal constitutional laws.
64.4396 DRESSEL, Bjorn; BÜNTE, Marco —
Despite the numerous formal changes, actual constitutional practice in the region has been highly uneven. Four areas are particularly contested: constitutional drafting and design; individual and religious rights; the role of the military in constitutional politics; and the rule of law, courts and justice. How states in Southeast Asia resolve unfolding conflicts in these four areas will be critical to how constitutionalism evolves. Replacing traditional legal scholarship with a new perspective on how constitutional politics are contested in the region, this article advances the scholarly debate by delving into the dynamics that underpin unfolding constitutionalism trajectories and assessing whether countries in the region are actually deepening constitutional practice in a Western liberal sense or whether the model that seems to be emerging is quite different. [R] [First of a series of articles on “Constitutional politics in Southeast Asia. See also Abstr. 64.4371, 4378, 4390, 4394, 4711]
64.4397 DRESSEL, Björn —
To address the relative lack of empirical observation and more closely investigate the nexus between courts and governance, this article first presents a basic typology of judicial politics and then applies it to Thailand, Singapore, [South] Korea and Japan. The intent is to: (1) provide a much-needed and more nuanced view of the unfolding judicialization phenomenon; and (2) urge closer attention to how specific patterns of judicial behavior in Asia relate to dimensions of governance. The study thus offers an opportunity to illuminate larger issues at the intersection of judicial engagement and political governance and to advance a theoretical understanding of both. [R, abr.]
64.4398 EBZEEV, Boris S. —
The 1993 Constitution marked a great chance for Russia, but it also meant different opportunities for the different parties involved. For some, it was a chance to preserve and renovate the Russian state, while for others it meant the achievement of the social structure they had aspired for. Others still saw the Constitution as an opportunity to satisfy their own selfish interests. The concept of the democratic, social, and lawful state is impossible to imagine without an adequate solution to the personality problem, which is one of the most important issues considered by modern social science. State and individual are inseparably linked just as our rights and responsibilities define us as individuals.
64.4399 ECONOMY, Elizabeth —
After three decades of rapid economic growth, environmental degradation is now one of the most significant issues facing the Chinese government. China ranks poorly when compared with other emerging nations. Formal government institutions have failed to address adequately the people's concerns. Beijing's system of decentralized authoritarianism lacks the political processes and incentives needed to implement meaningful national reform and to encourage local governments and polluting factories to enforce laws and regulations. The Chinese government now faces growing pressure from civil society, as NGOs, internet activism, and protests compel the government to proactively address environmental issues. Beijing would do well to increase engagement between the government and its citizens, rather than relying on its current crisis-management style of environmental governance. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.5106]
64.4400 EDWARDS, Barry C. —
The US Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down a key component of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) closes one of the most successful chapters in the history of civil rights enforcement. Based on analysis of congressional elections from 1960 to 2010, I assess the central holding of Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, and other controversial areas of VRA enforcement. My results support the Court's finding that the Act's historic coverage formula does not accurately reflect current political conditions. However, my results challenge prevailing views. I conclude that uniform standards are problematic because redistricting guidelines that improve opportunities for African-American voters are likely to diminish opportunities for Latino voters (and vice-versa). [R, abr.]
64.4401 EIMER, Thomas R. —
As part of an increasing scientization of political processes, epistemic communities have been identified as a unique category of social actors, who exclusively rely on their knowledge resources to shape the preferences of decision-makers. Whereas most authors expect that an expertdriven policy process facilitates the implementation of technically complex policies, critical scholars hint to an evolving technocracy, whose scientific dogmatism may end up in policies that aggravate social problems. In this paper, these countervailing assumptions are empirically assessed for the epistemic community on biodiversity and its role in Brazil and India. At least in this case, it seems that the impact experts’ influence depends on the configuration of the policy arena. [R, abr.]
64.4402 EMERSON, Blake —
This article reviews two recent US Supreme Court decisions concerning civil rights: Shelby County v. Holder [2013], and United States v. Windsor [2013]. In Shelby, the Court invalidated an important section of the Voting Rights Act, which designated certain jurisdictions as requiring “preclearance” for changes in their election laws. In Windsor, the Supreme Court found unconstitutional a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act which defined marriage as between a man and a woman for the purpose of federal law. This article identifies two points of commonality between these two decisions: an emphasis on federalism, and on a formal conception of equality. It suggests that certain aspects of the decision in United States v. Windsor might point towards a more substantive conception of equality. [R]
64.4403 ENNSER-JEDENASTIK, Laurenz —
While commonly regarded as a democratic pathology, party patronage can also be understood as an inherent feature of party government and thus as a linkage mechanism between political parties and the government executive. Therefore, theories of government formation, portfolio allocation and coalition governance can potentially add analytical leverage to the study of party patronage. Starting from this presumption, this article derives a number of hypotheses from the field of coalition theory and tests them on an original data set of over 2,000 appointments made to managerial boards in 92 Austrian state-owned enterprises between 1995 and 2010. The empirical analysis strongly supports the hypotheses, showing that patronage appointments vary with the partisan composition of government, the allocation of portfolios and junior ministers, as well as the importance of corporations. [R]
64.4404 ERSAN, Meltem —
Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, human trafficking has emerged as one of the major trans-national phenomena affecting Turkey. This paper argues that such trafficking is connected to a number of cross-cutting issues such as gender, labor, development, and human security. The paper assesses current responses in the light of these issues, identifying gaps in actual prevention and protection efforts in the global context. The Turkish government's recent reforms regarding migration management have been intended to respond to new migration dynamics. The article provides policy recommendations to address the cross-cutting issues to counter human trafficking in a holistic and comprehensive manner. [R, abr.]
64.4405 EVANS, Alexander —
How should government be organized to support long-term strategy, how can the right people be found to staff it and how can political leaders make time for longer-term policy-making given the challenge of the immediate? The policy planning staff in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have traditionally had the task of supporting longer-range, broader foreign policy. A small group of diplomats — later leavened by externals from the media, non-profit and private sectors — was meant to generate an improved approach to British interests and policy. Policy planning can be intellectually rich without being the source of actionable strategic thinking about the long-term national interest. This article suggests that a greater focus on people rather than systems might help to foster more strategic, anticipatory and innovative thinking about the national interest. [R, abr.] [First article of a thematic issue on “British foreign policy and the national interest”, introduced and edited by Timothy EDMUNDS, Jamie GASKARTH and Robin PORTER. See also Abstr. 64.4808, 4827, 4856, 4902, 4958, 4966, 4970, 5014, 5059]
64.4406 FARRELL, David M.; KATZ, Richard S. —
For an electoral system that is so rarely used, the Single Transferable Vote is prone to considerable variation both in its mechanics and in how parties and voters operate strategically under it. This article examines how such variations can affect the proportionality of electoral outcomes. Our findings indicate that they can have quite powerful impacts. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4366]
64.4407 FERNANDEZ, Adriela; VERA, Marisol, eds. —
Editors’ introduction, “The Bachelet presidency and the end of Chile's Concertación era”, pp. 5–18. Articles by Ricardo CAMARGO, “Dealing with income inequality during the Bachelet administration: a critical analysis of the discourse of Chilean political elites”, pp. 19–33; Guy BURTON, “Hegemony and frustration: education policy making in Chile under the Concertación, 1990–2010”, pp. 34–52; Ş. Ilgü ÖZLER, “The Concertación and homelessness in Chile: market-based housing policies and limited popular participation”, pp. 53–70; Carlos RUIS, “New social conflicts under bachelet”, pp. 71–84; Diego BARRJA TRAVERSO, Eduardo ARAYA MORENO and Oscar DROUILLAS, “Removed from the bargaining table: the CUT during the Bachelet administration”, pp. 85–101; Fernando LEIVA, “Flexible workers, gender, and contending strategies for confronting the crisis of labor in Chile”, pp. 102–128; Linda S. STEVENSON, “The Bachelet effect on gender-equity policies”, pp. 129–144; Alejandra BRITO PEÑA, Beatriz E. CID AGUAYO and Carla DONOSO ORELLANA, “Ruling the womb: the sexual and reproductive struggle during the Bachelet administration”, pp. 145–162; Alex LATTA and Beatriz E. CID AGUAYO, “testing the limits: neoliberal ecologies from Pinochet to Bachelet”, pp. 163–180; Claudia SEPÚLVEDA and Pablo VILLARROEL, “Swans, conflicts, and resonance: local movements and the reform of Chilean environmental institutions”, pp. 181–200; Diane HAUGHNEY, “Defending territory, demanding participation: Mapuche struggles in Chile”, pp. 201–217.
64.4408 FIRSING, Scott —
Peacekeeping has grown in significance over the years within international relations, yet only a few analyses have applied the frameworks of IR theory to the issues of peacekeeping. This paper [examines] three African countries that have contributed significant resources over the years to help restore peace on their continent: Nigeria, Ethiopia and Rwanda. It analyzes these countries from the point of view of their military capabilities, including sources of training and equipment, after assessing the motivations, challenges and opportunities of each to contribute to peacekeeping in Africa. From that basis, it assesses the positive and negative impacts these militaries bring to the region's conflicts, as well as the impact of their troops for the sending nations. [R, abr.]
64.4409 FISHER, Jonathan —
This article suggests that the aid-dependent government of Uganda has increased its room for maneuver with donors by emphasizing the degree of instability in the north of the country. By using this notion of state fragility, the Ugandan regime has successfully persuaded donors to continue their support, despite its domestic transgressions. The article also explains the regime's use of a contradictory, but equally persuasive, international discourse that presents Uganda as stable, strong and secure. In exploring how Kampala has successfully employed both narratives to carve out greater agency with donors, the article emphasizes the significance of donors’ physical detachment from the Ugandan “periphery” in this dynamic. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4150]
64.4410 FRANCHINO, Fabio —
This article analyzes the social bases underpinning the widely different trajectories of nuclear energy policies across Western European countries. Employing a set of surveys carried out in the last thirty years, it examines the conditional effects of ideology and geographical proximity to a nuclear power plant on attitudes toward nuclear energy, as well as the long- and short-term dynamics of belief updating after the occurrence of major accidents. Results highlight how proximity can strengthen, weaken or have no effect on the ideological component of these attitudes. Moreover, the publics of most countries with experience in nuclear energy display the traits of Bayesian dynamics of belief updating, especially in the vicinity of a plant. The article also shows the fairly exceptional traits of French public opinion. [R, abr.]
64.4411 FRANÇOIS, Abel; MAGNI-BERTON, Raul —
The article assesses the consequences of the 2001 change in French regulation regarding the cumul des mandats, or multi-holding mandates, which restricted the opportunity to simultaneously hold several elective mandates. Comparing before and after the implementation of the new Law, empirical descriptions show that (1) candidates in legislative elections adapted to the new rules by reducing the local mandates held; (2) candidates also showed a tendency to change the nature of the mandates held. These results can give some insight into the future consequences of the law currently being debated. [R]
64.4412 GARCÍA VIÑUELA, Enrique; GONZÁLEZ DE AGUILAR, Carmen —
This paper examines the relationship between the public financing of parties and rent seeking activities, setting it in the context of the party funding reforms passed by the Spanish parliament in 2007 and 2012. Since the enacted reforms did not constraint the power of officeholders to create and distribute political rents, we should not expect a decline in the resources that the private sector commits to capture those rents. However, due to the new subsidies created by the reform laws to pay for the running expense of parties, a greater share of the illegal funds originating in the political rent creation process may be transferred from parties’ coffers to the politicians who take the decisions that generate those rents. The thesis of this paper is that public subsidies to parties have curbed neither their illegal financing nor political corruption. [R, abr.]
64.4413 GARRY, John —
There is an emerging scholarship on the emotional bases of political opinion and behavior and, in particular, the contrasting implications of two distinct negative emotions — anger and anxiety. I apply the insights in this literature to the previously unresearched realm of the emotional bases of voting in EU referendums. I hypothesize that anxious voters rely on substantive EU issues and angry voters rely on second-order factors relating to domestic politics (partisanship and satisfaction with government). Focusing on the case of Irish voting in the Fiscal Compact referendum, and using data from a representative sample of voters, I find support for the hypotheses and discuss the implications of the findings for our understanding of the emotional conditionality of EU referendum voting. [R]
64.4414 GERKEN, Heather K.; TAUSANOVITCH, Alex —
The deep continuities between lobbying and campaign finance all stem from the fact that we have “privatized” an essentially public function. In the US, two of the most important activities a democracy requires to function — funding campaigns and providing the information necessary to legislate — are largely carried out by private actors. The paper argues that the constitutional obstacles to regulation in both areas are similar precisely because both activities fall in roughly the same place on the public/private continuum. Once we understand lobbying and campaign finance regulations to be addressing the same kind of problem, we can apply the insights from one domain to the other. The paper proposes a “leveling-up” approach to lobbying, one that uses public funds to reduce legislators’ susceptibility to the disproportionate influence of private monies. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4504]
64.4415 GLENCROSS, Andrew —
Drawing on an interdisciplinary analysis of law, political science, and IR theory, three strands of Euro-pessimism are identified: realist, federalist, and social-democratic. The analysis of these varieties examines how the grounds for Euro-pessimism differ and how these can be applied to understand the causes and consequences of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. This application reveals how Euro-pessimism finds its vindication while also exposing evolution in how pessimistic each analytical tradition is. Indeed, whereas realism has never been optimistic about integration the article shows how federalism and social democracy are associated with optimistic or transformative visions of integration. Yet, the analysis shows the increasing pessimism of the social democratic tradition alongside the enduring optimism of federalism. [R, abr.]
64.4416 GLENN, Ted —
This article examines the communications function in Canadian government using the results of a pilot study on the governments of Canada, Ontario and the City of Toronto. It first defines what government communication is, explains what activities are included within the function, and then explains how and for what purposes government communications are used. It also provides a high-level overview of how communications within the federal, provincial and municipal governments are managed and administered. The article concludes with some observations about the nature of government communications in Canada and thoughts about future research in the area. [R]
64.4417 GOLDSTEIN, Judith; GULOTTY, Robert —
According to conventional wisdom, delegation to the president in 1934 sheltered Congress from constituent pressure thereby facilitating the opening of the US economy and the emergence of the US as a world power. This article suggests a revision to our understanding of just how that occurred. Through a close study of the US tariff schedule between 1928 and 1964, focusing on highly protected products, we examine which products were subject to liberalization and at what time. After 1934, delegation led to a change in trade policy, not because Congress gave up their constitutional prerogative in this domain but because presidents were able to target the potential economic dislocation that derives from import competition to avoid the creation of a congressional majority willing to halt the trade agreements program. [R, abr.]
64.4418 GRAY, Freddy —
Slippery and unctuous, D. Cameron is the very model of a modern prime minister. He stands for everything and means nothing. Who is the real David Cameron? We'll probably never know, and he may not either. [R]
64.4419 GRAZIANO, Paolo R.; JACQUOT, Sophie; PALIER, Bruno —
We analyze the political mechanisms thanks to which the EU plays a part in the social policy changes of its member states. In order to understand how the EU influences [such] reforms, it is necessary to look at the usages of European resources and constraints by national actors and to focus on how they transform them in political opportunities. We show that Europe contributes to change national welfare systems, making them more “employment-friendly”. However, this change does not result from a direct pressure on national government, but rather from the availability of different resources that national actors can use in order to attain their aims. They [thus] participate [in] incorporating ideas and norms defined at the EU level into the national debate and policy process, thus contributing to the Europeanization of domestic welfare reforms. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4830]
64.4420 GRIEBEL, Jörn —
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the Charter) are two human rights instruments that have exerted decisive influence on the German legal system. This article analyses and explains the different reception of one text and the other in Germany before and after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, as well as their status in the jurisprudence of the Federal Constitutional Court. In effect, the Court has not applied the same criteria when interpreting the ECHR and the Charter, and has not fulfilled the guarantees of the latter required by EU legislation.
64.4421 GUIDI, Mattia —
This article explains why, [although] all national competition authorities (NCAs) in EU member states enforce the same law, relevant differences exist in the degree of independence that these agencies enjoy. The author advances an original theoretical framework according to which the decision on the independence of NCAs depends on the structure of the economic system of a country. In particular, it is hypothesized that the means by which firms operate in the national market affects the tendency of national legislators to delegate more or less independence to the NCA. The statistical analysis carried out shows that both countries with low and high levels of employer density tend to have less independent competition authorities than those of other countries. [R, abr.]
64.4422 GÜRBEY, Gülistan —
The AKP government's democratization policy is marked by the ambivalence of a limited internal liberalization and the simultaneous preservation of an authoritarian tradition and leadership. A significant cause for this ambivalence rests in the instrumental and not value-based democratic approach which characterizes the mode of AKP governance. Democracy is tolerated only if it complies with the authoritarian conception of statehood and governance as well as a conservative religion while contributing to the consolidation and enlargement of power. Increasing demands from Turkish society for a more democracy and participation — which culminated in the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul in Summer 2013 — require an adjustment to the “Zeitgeist” and a development towards a value-based conception of democracy. This adaption process further includes the final farewell to traditionally authoritarian contents and structures. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4984]
64.4423 HALBERSTAM, Michael; LAZAR, Stuart —
We link a proposed tax reform with a substantive disclosure requirement to promote the kind of “information subsidy” that serves the public interest, while mitigating to some extent the distortion that may result from the imbalance of financial resources on the business side and other institutional constraints identified in the literature. We argue that businesses that lobby should be encouraged to disclose the information that serves as a basis for their positions by allowing business taxpayers to deduct lobbying expenses, but only to the extent that the information subsidy that a taxpayer's lobbying supplies in fact educates lawmakers on policy issues. Business lobbying can be considered to supply an informational public good only where such information is made available to all participants in the legislative process through full and timely publication. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4504]
64.4424 HALL, Matthew E. K. —
Numerous studies have found that elite and popular preferences influence decision-making on the US Supreme Court; yet, uncertainty remains about when, how, and why the Court is constrained by external pressure. I argue the justices are constrained, at least in part, because they fear non-implementation of their decisions. I test this theory by utilizing a recent study of judicial power, which finds the Court enjoys greater implementation power in “vertical” cases (those involving criminal and civil liability) than in “lateral” cases (all others). I find that Court constraint is strongest in important lateral cases — those cases in which implementation depends on support from nonjudicial actors. My findings suggest that Supreme Court constraint is driven by the justices’ fear of non-implementation and is, therefore, dependent on institutional context. [R, abr.]
64.4426 HARTMANN, Jürgen —
The German Basic Law contains mandatory statements that establish a fixed ranking of the authorities of the Federal Republic which, in some cases, go back to the early modern period. However, the order of precedence has always given rise to disputes, which are gaining in importance since the protocol principles established in the Basic Law are increasingly infringed. The result is an insecurity concerning ranks in private associations and public institutions that affects the highest authorities of the Federal Republic. The order of precedence carried out by the latter is clearly incompatible with the statements of the Basic Law.
64.4427 HEIDUK, Felix —
This article illustrates how discourses on “state fragility” have been instrumentalized by the Indonesian military in order to consolidate its political and economic power after the fall of Suharto. In the wake of Indonesia's transition to democracy violent conflicts escalated in East Timor, Aceh, Papua, the Moluccas and Sulawesi. Most notably East Timor's successful secession spawned fears over the potential “balkanization” of Indonesia. In this context the Indonesian military, which had been shunned for its involvement in Suharto's New Order, managed to re-establish itself as the “guardian of the nation”. Based on fieldwork in Indonesia, the article describes how post-9/11 [2001] discourses over a potential break-up of Indonesia were used by the Indonesian military to reconsolidate its power in the post-Suharto era. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4150]
64.4428 HELLMANN, Olli —
This article argues that major cases of electoral reform across democracies in Asia in recent years can be explained as institutional measures aimed at curbing corruption and “money politics”. More specifically, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand rid themselves of their extreme candidate-centered electoral systems as a means to encourage politicians to invest in “clean” collective party labels, while Indonesia discarded its extremely party-centered electoral system to increase the accountability of individual politicians. The article thus disagrees with scholars who argue that recent electoral reform should be understood as part of a wider project by Asian governments to engineer a majoritarian form of democracy. Instead, the comparative analysis shows that democracies across Asia, in line with global trends in institutional design, have been “normalizing” their electoral systems, moving them closer towards the ideal of electoral “efficiency”. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4924]
64.4429 HERWARTZ, Helmut; THEILEN, Bernd —
Several recent studies suggest that transfers from central to regional governments are motivated by political considerations. We examine if this is also the case for transfers from regional to central governments in the context of the German fiscal equalization system. We examine the factors that contribute to differences in tax revenues across German states. The evidence indicates that both fiscal incentives and political factors can explain these differences, although in Germany the former are more important. Moreover, accounting for fiscal institutions has important consequences for the empirical assessment of political influences on taxation. Overall we find that the political affiliation of the state governor is an important factor in explaining differences in state tax revenues. [R, abr.]
64.4430 HERWARTZ, Helmut; THEILEN, Bernd —
We examine whether partisan influence on social expenditure in the OECD has decreased over the past three decades. We analyze whether a reduced partisan influence is due to more trade openness, larger budget deficits or the creation of new supranational institutions. Our empirical approach distinguishes between the effects on the long-run growth of social expenditures and its short-run adjustment to violations of the long-run equilibrium linking social spending with macroeconomic and demographic trends. We find that partisan motives, indeed, play an important role in the explanation of short-run dynamics in social spending. [R, abr.]
64.4431 HOLMAN, Craig —
This article analyzes the convergence of campaign finance law and lobbying law that began in earnest under the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA) of 2007. Though the [US] laws governing the field of campaign finance have historically been quite distinct from the laws governing lobbying — the former focused on regulating behavior, while the latter emphasized disclosure — the two have begun to merge in some key areas following the ethics and lobbying scandals associated with the Jack Abramoff era. The manuscript documents the history and nature of HLOGA, analyzes where HLOGA merged campaign financing with lobbying regulation, shows the impact of the Citizens United decision, and measures the law's successes and failures in this effort. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4504]
64.4432 HSU, Jennifer Y. J.; HASMATH, Reza —
This article examines the Chinese state's interactions and influences on the development of NGOs through a corporatist framework. It suggests that not only is the central state actively involved in the development of NGOs, but increasingly the successes of NGOs are determined by their interactions with the local state. We profile NGOs in Shanghai, of varying sizes, budgets and issue-areas, as a case study to understand the interplay between NGOs and the local state. The article further discusses reasons behind the growing shift from central to local state influences, and the potential future implications for state-NGO relations in China. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4943]
64.4433 IM Hyun; KIM Hee-Kang —
According to the Constitutional Court ruling in 2007, overseas Koreans must be able to exercise their voting rights based on the constitutional principles of democracy and protection of fundamental rights. This study critically examines the Constitutional Court's decision of 2007 by focusing on a theoretical understanding of democratic principles and the fundamental rights theory. With regard to the principles of democracy, overseas Koreans may be constitutionally deprived of their voting rights if the range of demos is determined based on the democratic value of the rule of law. In terms of fundamental rights, the limitation of suffrage is generally subject to a strict constitutional review, but a less stringent process may be involved in voting restrictions of overseas Koreans because restrictions are generally reflected in the political values between countries. [R, abr.]
64.4434 JACOB, Suraj; SCHERPEREEL, John A.; ADAMS, Melinda —
What role does the international diffusion of gender norms play in determining recent increases in women's political representation? We argue that norm-diffusion has larger positive effects on women's cabinet representation than on women's legislative representation. We also show that within cabinets, norm-diffusion affects low-prestige appointments more than high-prestige appointments. We test these arguments using an original database of ministers from 1979 to 2009 and find that the association of women's representation with three separate indicators of international diffusion — levels of women's representation among neighboring states, levels of women's representation among intergovernmental organization partners, and time since ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women — is consistent with our arguments. [R]
64.4435 JACOBSMEIER, Matthew L. —
I examine the hypothesis that race affects citizens’ perceptions of candidates’ ideologies. In the past, systematic tests of this hypothesis have relied almost entirely on data drawn from experiments. [However], the extent to which [such] research is externally valid is open to question. Moreover, experimental approaches are not well-suited to estimating the magnitude of the effects of stereotypes in real-world situations, especially in the context of complex political phenomena such as election campaigns. I develop a statistical model of the effects of race on perceptions of candidates’ ideologies and estimate the model using data on incumbent candidates from the American National Election Studies. I discuss the implications of [my] findings with respect to descriptive representation in the US, the accountability of office-holders, and the study of voting behavior. [R, abr.]
64.4436 JAMES, Toby S. —
The UK government intends to replace household electoral registration with individual electoral registration (IER). This article assesses the likely effects of the reform using an innovative methodology. A thematic analysis of extensive qualitative interviews with local election officials, conceived as “street-level bureaucrats” responsible for implementing elections, was undertaken. Their local knowledge provides evidence that IER might improve the security of the registration process. However, it is likely to lead to a considerable decline in levels of electoral registration, which might be highest amongst the young, elderly and minority populations; is a more resource-intensive method of compiling the electoral register; will pose new issues with data and technology for election officials; and, is likely to have a number of further “spill-over” effects on other aspects of election administration. [R, abr.]
64.4437 JAURSCH, Julian —
The negotiating powers of regional authorities in the EU have become more evident, especially with decentralization and regionalization happening across Europe. This empirical case study of regional interest representation offers a comparative analysis of the negotiations for the 2007–2013 and 2014–2020 EU Structural Funds. Based on qualitative interviews with German subnational officials, this paper explores how the German federal states (Länder) represented their interests at the federal and supranational level. I show that the modes of interest representation changed, which can largely be attributed to social learning. This article contributes to existing literature by illustrating the move towards cooperative interest representation with intra-state subnational mobilization. [R]
64.4438 JESSOULA, Matteo; GRAZIANO, Paolo R. —
Due to the Bismarckian imprint and the Southern European character of the Italian welfare regime, Italian employment and social policies have traditionally presented a marked misfit with the emerging European social policy structure. In the last two decades, consequent adaptational pressures have led to the adoption of various reforms prompted by “external constraints” and especially European inputs. The most recent phase of “national emergency” since 2009 has allowed Italian policy-makers to adopt two major pension and employment policy reforms: these have been “pushed through” by political actors despite unions’ reluctance and opposition, and de facto “imposed” by making claims to Brussels on an increasingly Euro-skeptical Italian population. European constraints have thus recently turned into “sufficient conditions” for social reforms in Italy while national actors’ leverage in the field has significantly declined. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4830]
64.4439 JORDANA, Jacint —
This article examines the distributive implications of dismantling strategies applied to public policies in order to confront the multiple crises in Spain since 2008. The hypotheses concern the logic of dismantling, while considering different theoretical alternatives. First, it is suspected that the configuration of social groups and business interests affects how dismantling strategies are chosen: the corporatist state selectively protects its closer clientele. Second, the characteristics of policies and instruments are discussed, with the suggestion that there was a preference for dismantling those that were less costly for the politicians. To assess these interpretations, variations across policy sectors in Spain during the period 2008–2012 are analyzed and different areas of regulatory and expenditure policies are considered. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4869]
64.4440 KANG Myung-koo —
This article explores why the Japanese government did not decisively intervene on behalf of bank bailouts at the early stage of the banking crisis of 1997–1998 and investigates the institutional and political context behind the use of fiscal money for bank bailouts in 1997–1998, 1998–1999, and 2001–2005. In contrast with prevailing views, which emphasize the conflicts of interest or differences in policy preferences between politicians and bureaucrats and their captured nature either by bankers’ special interests or political/bureaucratic interests, this article argues that Japanese policy-makers shared a congruent policy preference — minimizing the disruptions in the existing institutional arrangement in government-bank-firm relations — and this congruence in policy preference (or “cognitive capture”) compelled the government to take a creditorcentered approach to the banking problem — i.e., letting banks resolve their own problems. [R, abr.]
64.4441 KIM Won Sub; CHOI Young Jun —
This article provides an understanding of the dynamics of pension politics in South Korea with a particular focus on the role of bureaucrats. In order to explain the reforms, this research examines how the expertise and legitimacy of civil servants, together with their institutional positioning, have affected their power and role in the policy-making process. It argues that bureaucrats, particularly the welfare bureaucracy, attained their major reform goals by associating and competing with other political actors in two major reforms. [R]
64.4442 KIM Young Soo —
In response to urgent call for international cooperation against HIV/AIDS, all members of Development Assistance Committee (DAC) converged in foreign-aid policy decision for the health crisis within a relatively short period of time-frame. However, there also existed variations among the DAC with respect to developing pattern of global AIDS funding. The research explores both convergence and divergence in the policy choices of global AIDS funding of DAC countries. When it comes to the convergence, it is the mechanism of norms-teaching that encouraged the DAC to make financial contributions for the global fight against HIV/AIDS based on the sense of obligation and urgency. I examine the cases of Norway and Belgium, both of which converged in the decision of the foreign aid yet varied in the policy choices of funding increase. [R, abr.]
64.4443 KOTHARI, Jayna —
A vast majority of states have formally committed to respect, protect, and progressively fulfill the right to social security by ratifying human rights and ILO conventions. Accordingly, social security systems should guarantee indiscriminate access to health services, provide benefits in the case of work losses due to illness, disability, death of family members, old age, unemployment, and maternity, and further support families, children and adult dependents. However, social security systems in developing countries usually benefit only a minority of the population. From a human rights perspective, enormous efforts are necessary to increase the coverage of social security systems, reaching people in the informal sector and from poorer parts of the population. The contribution highlights how important the implementation of right to social security is for developing countries. [R]
64.4444 KOUSSER, Thad —
American federalism is constantly in flux. The “devolution revolution” of the mid-1990s gave states tremendous power to rewrite the rules of their welfare programs, changed the fiscal incentives that states face, and initiated a massive health insurance expansion funded primarily by the federal government but implemented, with great latitude, by states. How did states react? How did this change the social safety net in the US, and how did it reshape the nation's distinct brand of federalism? This essay explores these questions, both through a close focus how devolution played out in California and through a broader look at trends across the states. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4358]
64.4445 KULCZYCKI, Andrzej —
In Brazil and South America, religion, custom, and law have long made abortion taboo and forced it underground. Major changes sweeping the region are now making abortion increasingly discussed and contested. This article uses conceptual heuristics, theoretical insights, and comparisons across contexts to understand this situation. It explains why legal reforms have occurred in some settings (Colombia, Mexico City) but not in others (Brazil, Chile, Peru), and how incremental policy changes are making abortion safer and less common. It stresses the importance of building issue networks to mobilize capacity and exploit policy windows for securing further bolder reforms in this deeply controversial health care field. [R]
64.4446 KUZEMKO, Caroline —
This article explores one set of conditions under which a policy area, energy, became politicized. It also explores the relationship between concepts of “speaking security”, which claim that the language of security is politically potent, and notions of (de-) politicization. It argues that the framing of energy supply as a security issue influenced an opening up of UK energy, which had been subject to processes of depoliticization since the late 1980s, to greater political interest and deliberation. Speaking security about energy had a high degree of cognitive authority and was instrumental in revealing a lack of policy-making capacity in energy. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4130]
64.4447 LAFFAN, Brigid —
This paper addresses one of the growing causes of tension between responsiveness to electorates and responsibility to partners by analyzing the new rule-bound system of economic governance that is evolving within the euro area in response to the crisis. It argues that the nature and depth of the external constraints agreed since 2010 represent a step-change in the intrusion of external actors in the domestic government and politics of the euro states. Responsibility to the collective has emerged as the central norm of the framework of economic governance that is evolving. The norm is backed by a strong regulatory framework including sanctions. The paper analyzes the likely impact of the new system on domestic politics and political parties under the rubric of the politics of constrained choice. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4563]
64.4448 LANGHI, Zahra’ —
The Libyan Revolution marks a watershed moment in Libyan history and more specifically in the history of women's participation in the public space. Women were at the forefront of the demonstrations as protesters, medical workers, and aid-providers, as well as organizing behind the scenes and in the diaspora calling for political change and a just inclusive transition to democracy. However, they have been systematically excluded from the public sphere facing intense de-politicization and silencing at a crucial moment in their national political transformation process. The Libyan Revolution appears here, similar to other Arab revolutions, to present a “gender paradox”. Women are the politically empowered agents of the Revolution and change. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.5123]
64.4449 LANSLEY, Stewart —
Is “predistribution” as championed by E. Miliband, or old fashioned “redistribution” as adopted by Labour, the best way to create greater equality? Some critics have argued that a strategy of predistribution — closing the income gap before the application of taxes and benefits — would not work and that it will be necessary to rely mainly on redistribution. This article examines the potential impact of weak and more radical predistribution-style measures on one of the key drivers of inequality — “wage compression”. It argues that reliance on traditional redistribution would face its own set of constraints and that creating a more equal distribution of the cake, before taxes and benefits, is a necessary condition for lowering the risk of continuing economic crisis. [R, abr.]
64.4450 LEE, Daniel J. —
This paper assesses the influence of the electoral threat of third parties on major-party roll-call voting in the US House. Although lowdimensionality of voting is a feature of strong two-party politics, which describes the contemporary era, there is significant variation across members. I hypothesize that major-party incumbents in districts under a high threat from third-party House candidates cast votes that do not fit neatly onto the dominant ideological dimension. This hypothesis is driven by (1) third-party interests in orthogonal issues, and (2) incumbents accounting for those interests when casting votes in order to minimize the impact of third parties. An empirical test using data from the 105th to 109th Congresses provides evidence of this effect. [R]
64.4451 LESTON-BANDEIRA, Cristina —
Political disengagement and declining trust have become main areas of concern for parliaments in Europe, leading to a considerable reinforcement of public engagement activities. The EP is a prime example of an institution where the need to strengthen the link with citizens became a key priority, in particular following the Lisbon Treaty's reinforcement of the parliament's powers and visibility. This article analyzes the decision-making processes this Parliament has put in place to meet the public engagement agenda. It is mainly based on elite interviews with officials and representatives. We show that political will was key to move forward the public engagement agenda, and that new media have become a core element of this strategy. [R]
64.4452 LJUBLINSKIJ, Viktor V. —
The experience of social policy in the countries of the West is generalized in the article, with possibilities of application in Russia being taken into account. Social policy is considered in the context of the changing conditions of development, of the new approaches and practices. Attention is given to factors of competitiveness, os social justice, of inequality, and of incomes differentiation. [R]
64.4453 LODGE, Guy —
In July 2013, the UK's coalition government published “The Civil Service Reform Plan — One Year on”, reporting on progress against minister F. Maude's objectives to shake up the civil service. This followed various reported disagreements between ministers and civil servants over policy implementation, and a research report commissioned by the government from think tank IPPR into lessons from overseas for civil service reform. This trio of short articles reviews the government's proposals from three perspectives: that of the lead author of the IPPR report, a former senior civil servant, and the chair of the House of Commons Public Administration Committee (PASC) which oversees the civil service. The authors take differing views on the proposals, which include introduction of “extended ministerial offices”, and greater control by ministers over choosing their civil servants. [R, abr.] [See also the articles of Leigh LEWIS, “Civil service reform — trust on trial”, pp. 84–86 and Bernard JENKIN, “Accountability and leadership in twenty-first century Whitehall”, pp. 87–89]
64.4454 LONAR, Zoran —
Given the specific nature of contemporary ministerial functions, the institute of ministerial responsibility has to be regulated by enacting special legislation on this issue. However, ministerial responsibility is a complex legal institute whose regulation requires a substantially different approach depending on the type of ministerial responsibility at issue. A well-regulated system of ministerial responsibility is very important for every state. It is also an essential legal presumption for a successful exercise of the ministerial office. In that context, the author points out the diverse option available in regulating the institute of ministerial responsibilities, and specifically explores some practical issues that might have an impact on the regulation of ministerial responsibility. [R]
64.4455 LORENTZEN, Peter —
While it is often assumed that authoritarian regimes inevitably fear and restrict media independence, permitting watchdog journalism can actually help such regimes maintain power by improving governance. Yet such a strategy risks facilitating a coordinated uprising if discontent is revealed to be widespread. A formal model shows that under some conditions, a regime optimally permits investigative reporting on lower-level officialdom, adjusting how much reporting is allowed depending on the level of underlying social tensions. This strategy yields many of the benefits of free media without risking overthrow. An extension shows why an increase in uncontrollable information, such as from the internet, may result in a reduction in media freedom. [R, abr.]
64.4456 LYBERAKI, Antigone; TINIOS, Platon —
Can European welfare states survive a sustained and deep crisis and still fulfill basic functions? This article argues that we must look at the interplay between “formal” and “informal”, family-based, social protection. Social protection services in all countries, but especially in Southern Europe, have always been provided by a hybrid system comprised of state-based and residual family-based systems, where gender plays a critical role. Austerity tests the capacity of formal welfare provision, and so eats into the liquidity of the informal support system. The crisis is thus transmitted from the state to the family. By examining the case of Greece, the article underlines the need for a joint analysis of both parts of the welfare state in the context of the unfolding crisis. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4869]
64.4457 MAGGETTI, Martino —
Networks are considered increasingly important for policy-making. The literature on new modes of governance in Europe suggests that their horizontal coordination capacity and flexible and informal structures are particularly suitable for governing the multilevel architecture of the European polity. However, empirical evidence about the effects of networks on policy-making and public policies is still quite limited. This article uses the case of the European network of energy regulators to explore the determinants of the position of network members and, in turn, the domestic adoption of soft rules developed within this network. The empirical analysis, based on multivariate statistics and semi-directive interviews, supports the expectation that institutional complementarities increase actors’ centrality in networks, while arguments based on organizational resources and age are disproved. [R, abr.]
64.4458 MAHLER, Vincent A.; JESUIT, David K.; PARADOWSKI, Piotr R. —
This study explores the relationship between electoral participation and income redistribution by way of social transfers, using data from the European Social Survey, the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, and the Luxembourg Income Study. It extends previous research by measuring the income skew of turnout rather than using average turnout as a proxy for its income bias. We find that, controlling for a number of other variables, the income skew of turnout is negatively related to transfer redistribution and that electoral participation by those in poverty is positively associated with redistribution in their favor. [R]
64.4459 MAJONE, Giandomenico —
Globalization is an important reason for the current interest in the harmonization of national policies. In the European Community/Union, harmonization of the national laws and policies of the member states was one of three legal techniques the Rome Treaty made available for establishing and maintaining a common market. The long history of policy harmonization in the EC/EU provides a good empirical basis for a more general analysis of the benefits and costs of a centralized approach to transnational policymaking. The main alternative to centralized harmonization is competition among different approaches to comparable policy problems. [R] [See also Claudio M. RADAELLI, “Majone's cathedral”, pp. 22–27]
64.4460 MAKSIMOVA, Dar'jana D. —
The article examines the actual Canada's policy on indigenous peoples. It considers the main events leading up to the emergence of a new protest Idle No More movement and the issues in the relationship between the Canadian government and aboriginal people. [R]
64.4461 MARŠČENKO, Mikhail N. —
A critical analysis of the text of the Russian Federation's Constitution and its applications motivates the observation that many of the Constitution's provisions are neither realistic, nor truly national. A closer look at both the internal and the external factors that played a role in the Constitution's formulation as well as a redefinition of the term “constitutionalism” suggest that the 1993 Constitution was in fact a Constitution of the elite, or the first Russian president's circle, rather than a constitution of the Russian people. It can therefore be more adequately characterized as a legal-positivist than as a natural law.
64.4462 MARTYŠIN, Orest V. —
The 1993 Constitution combines mostly liberal elements with some conservative ideology. The last decade, however, has been marked by a revival of the conservative trend. Is it possible for the state to do without an ideology? All Soviet constitutions were distinctly ideological in nature. In what ways is the 1993 Constitution different and similar to previous constitutions? What are the aspects of the 1993 Constitution's ideological content? A close textual analysis of some parts of the Constitution in relation to some recent attempts at the elaboration of a state-supportive ideology provides the key to addressing such questions.
64.4463 MAYER, Lloyd Hitoshi —
In the US, it is taken for granted that members of the public should have access to information about their government. This access takes many forms, including the ability to obtain copies of government documents, the ability to attend meetings of government officials, and the related obligations of government officials to document their activities and to reveal certain otherwise private information. This access also is often limited by countervailing concerns, such as the privacy of individual citizens and national security. Nevertheless, the presumption both at the federal level and in every state is to provide such access. Now, however, a number of public debates raise the issue of whether this right to know should extend beyond government-government and private-government interactions to also reach private-private interactions that indirectly attempt to influence government officials. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4504]
64.4464 MELE, Valentina; ONGARO, Edoardo —
The article addresses two principal questions: how public management reforms develop in a context of high government turnover, and how, [in] these circumstances, features of the specific area of public management policy affect the dynamics of the reform and in particular its “technical feasibility”. The research questions are addressed through the case study of the Italian administrative context between 1992 and 2007, a period marked by tumultuous government turnovers. The article presents reforms in two policy areas of public management: civil service reform and innovation, over a three-period time span covering 15 years. The brief duration of political leadership represents a threat to the approval and implementation of policy interventions irrespective of the political salience of the issue and the need for legal enactment. [R, abr.]
64.4465 MICHAEL, Gabriel J. —
Studies of rule-making often conclude that members of the public participate infrequently, while businesses participate actively and are more likely to influence final rules. I analyze a series of five Copyright Office rule-makings spanning the years 2000–2012. In contrast to the existing literature, I find high levels of public participation and a lack of influence by businesses. Instead, legal representation is the key predictor of influence over final rules. I also argue that the existing literature has wrongly theorized about how to measure public participation in rulemaking, thereby mischaracterizing the rule-making process as undemocratic. [R]
64.4466 MILLARD, Frances —
Poland maintained its open-list PR system but introduced gender quotas in the 2011 parliamentary elections in order to increase the number of women deputies. This change had only a limited impact on women's representation. The 2011 election confirms that “favorable” electoral laws provide opportunities for women, but cannot guarantee that women will be elected. In particular, the use of quotas alone is not sufficient to ensure high levels of women's representation. The most important factors in explaining the Polish result were (1) the absence of a “zipper”, a list ordering that alternates men and women candidates, thus ensuring high list-places for women (2) the parties’ favoring of men in their list placement (3) the relative size of the political parties and (4) voters’ support for list leaders and incumbent deputies. [R, abr.]
64.4467 MILLER, Susan M.; OVERBY, L. Marvin —
While complementary in many ways, the cartel and the conditional party government (CPG) theories of legislative party power have disparate expectations for the stability of the majority party's negative agenda control. Cartel theorists contend that negative agenda control is relatively constant over time, while CPG proponents suggest that this type of vetopower varies with intra-party preference cohesion and inter-party preference distinction. We enter this debate by considering an alternative and under-explored indicator of negative agenda control: participation in discharge petition efforts. Our findings demonstrate the instability of the majority party's ability to control discharge efforts, with majority party (co)sponsors showing a significantly greater likelihood of “waffling” during periods of stronger party unity and more vigorous leadership power. [R]
64.4468 MORGAN, Kimberly J. —
Congress presents an array of hurdles to potential legislation. This paper reconsiders that view in light of some important changes made to health policy in the past three decades. The passage of these reforms reflects changes in the functioning of Congress, including the construction of greater bureaucratic capacity and centralization of power in the hands of party leaders. The paper's findings have implications for scholars of the American state, who tend either to ignore Congress or to view it as a source of political fragmentation. Congress should be thought of as an important component of the overall state apparatus and it is not only a veto-player, but also at times an agent of reform. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4358]
64.4469 MUELLER, John; STEWART, Mark G. —
In the case of counterterrorism policy-making, it is important to evaluate the degree to which any gains in security afforded by counterterrorism measures have been great enough to justify their cost. Risk-analysis is an aid to responsible decision-making that does exactly that. We deal with four issues central to this approach, applying them to the hazard presented by terrorism: the cost per saved life, acceptable risk, costbenefit analysis, and risk-communication. We also assess the degree to which risk-analysis has been coherently applied to counterterrorism efforts in the US in making or evaluating decisions that have cost taxpayers many hundreds of billions of dollars over the past dozen years. [R, abr.]
64.4470 NIELSEN, Peter Heyn —
Denmark has upheld a pure merit civil service, but an ever increasing workload is burdening the ministers, forcing the permanent secretaries to take part in a large part of the political work, which ideally would be assigned only to the ministers. This article explores who the persons were, that held office as permanent secretaries in Denmark during the Liberal-Conservative governments from 2001 to 2011 in a historical perspective. Data show that on several criteria these permanent secretaries differ significantly from what has been the Danish tradition. The greatest changes have taken place in education, age of leaving office, terms in office and former careers. [R]
64.4471 NOVAK, Stéphanie —
The crisis of the Eurozone has drawn public attention on the increasing role of the European Council. Can we, however, argue that European governance is now mainly driven by an intergovernmental dynamic? The article analyzes the recent extension of the Community method and the growing role of the European Council in the coordination of policies. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4826]
64.4472 NUNDY, Madhurima —
Health insurance has been one of the major forms of health financing in China since the 1950s, [and] has seen dramatic shifts given the different economic and political contexts. From an almost universal coverage and access to health services in the pre-reforms period, China witnessed tremendous inequities in access with the breakdown of its collective financing structures and rising costs of health care in the 1980s and 1990s in both rural and urban areas with the onset of economic reforms. As a result policies in the late 1990s and 2000s shifted towards universalizing access by introducing different insurance schemes for the urban and rural population. This article traces this transformation in insurance schemes through three distinct phases and draws lessons for access to health services. [R]
64.4473 ODGAARD, Liselotte; NIELSEN, Thomas Galasz —
China's counterinsurgency strategy in Tibet and Xinjiang relies heavily on hard power and imposition. Well-functioning vertical coordination in the security sector of China's political system and assimilationist nationality dynamics combine to favor the use of force against ethnic groups that do not accept the political legitimacy of China's Communist Party. Transnational links contribute to China's difficulties with implementing counterinsurgency in Tibet and help China implement its strategy in Xinjiang. Development strategies aimed at improving living standards are crowded out due to a lack of horizontal coordination between civilian and security agencies and a bias towards unitary nation-building in Chinese nationalism. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4943]
64.4474 OHMURA, Tamaki —
Mixed-member proportional systems have been implemented assuming a mandate divide. Using individual-level voting data from the 15th to 17th Bundestag (2002–2013), this article argues that the divide occurs according to candidacy strategy (pure district, pure party-list or dual) and reelection probability rather than the type of electoral mandate obtained. Emphasizing votes of constituency interests, it questions the assumption that the motivation behind deviating from the parliamentary party group line is rooted in serving the respective MP's constituency. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4366]
64.4475 PANNiCK, Lord —
The Parliamentary debates on the clause which became section 31 of the [UK] Growth and Enterprise Act 2013 (allowing employees to agree to sign away employment rights for shares in the employing company) show that scrutiny by the House of Commons is very poor, and that scrutiny by the House of Lords is intense and very well-informed. If the Government loses the argument on a Bill in the House of Lords, it will lose the vote. However, during Parliamentary ping-pong (the back-andforth process of amendment of a Bill between the two Houses) the Commons, and the Government, will normally get their way, however weak the policy proposal, provided that concessions on detail are made, unless the issue is regarded by the Lords as one of fundamental principle. [R]
64.4476 PATTIE, Charles; JOHNSTON, Ron —
American presidential elections are indirect, reflecting popular support for the candidates through the institution of the Electoral College to choose the President. In common with other plurality-based electoral systems, the College tends to exaggerate the apparent mandate received by the winner of the popular vote but, on occasion, can deliver victory to the second-placed candidate. Despite a sizeable literature on its operation and vagaries, however, relatively little attention has been paid to the question of systematic bias in the College: does one party receive a consistent advantage over the other from the College's operation? The paper examines the evidence for such a bias in each presidential election since 1960. Although biases have occurred and in some cases were substantial, neither major party is a consistent beneficiary. [R, abr.]
64.4477 PÉREZ DE LAS HERAS, Beatriz —
World energy demand could double in the next two decades as a result of population growth and economic expansion in emerging countries. Fossil fuels will continue to be the dominant energy sources, which will increase the greenhouse gas emissions and the geopolitical risks posed by climate change. To address these global challenges and their energy dependence, both the EU and the US are currently involved in a process of transformation of their energy systems. Despite their different political profiles and economic strategies, both powers converge towards the same goals of energy security, sustainability and technological innovation. This convergence strengthens transatlantic cooperation established in this area, while projecting it as an example for setting a more sustainable energy model at global level. [R]
64.4478 PFLIEGER, Géraldine —
In Europe, the rise of the regulatory state was accompanied by a broad diffusion of research on the processes of privatization, liberalization, and re-regulation of utilities, previously managed directly by the state. This article offers an empirical and theoretical discussion of the paradigm of the regulatory state. It evaluates the transformation of the actual functions of the welfare state in a context of reforms of network industries over the last twenty years. Relying on cases from the electricity and railways sectors, it studies the changing balance between the traditional functions of the welfare state and the new regulatory functions introduced by the reforms. It explains how, alongside the strengthening of regulatory functions, states maintained and developed powerful redistribution functions. [R, abr.]
64.4479 PICCIO, Daniela R. —
What factors drive the evolution of party regulation? And do political and societal changes have an impact on how legislators shape policy reforms? This article answers these questions by observing the evolution of the regulation of political parties in Italy from 1948 to 2012. Through an in-depth analysis of the major sources of party law of the country, the author shows that corruption scandals and societal pressure, alone, may be insufficient to influence the parties’ legislative behavior. Responsive reforms instead appear to take place when a broader number of factors are involved, most importantly the emergence of a new — truly challenging — political competitor. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4508]
64.4480 PODDER, Sukanya —
This article explores the potential for mainstreaming wartime rebel governance structures into post-conflict state-building efforts. Through a study of the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement's (SPLA/M) efforts at state-building in South Sudan (1994–2011), it examines the oftneglected linkages between rebel governance and post-conflict legitimacy. Findings highlight three pitfalls of mainstreaming non-state roles without sufficient analysis of the sources of legitimacy underlying rebel governance frameworks. [R, abr.]
64.4481 PORRAS-GÓMEZ, Antonio-Martín —
Using as an empirical base the 2006–2008 reform of the EU Structural Funds financial execution, this paper explores control mechanisms of multi-level governance frameworks. The empirical evidence provides a representative case of initial metagovernance deficit and the subsequent, relatively successful, institutional response reinforcing metagovernance. The purpose is to clarify the conceptual dimensions of metagovernance, setting it in a categorical scheme that identifies forms of exercise of political power: government, governance and multi-level governance. Specifically, the paper argues for a conceptualization of metagovernance that highlights a sense of sovereignty by which governmental entities vested with legal legitimacy advance public interests. [R]
64.4482 RADIN, Dagmar —
I summarize the current status of health care in the EU and the reasons behind the failure to create a stronger legislative framework around health care issues and its consequences. I find that the absence of more meaningful hard laws has stimulated the creation of alternative soft law practices to harmonize health systems across the Union, with uncertainty about its impact on health outcomes in new member countries, including Croatia. [R, abr.]
64.4483 RIAUX, Gilles —
This article deals with MPs standing in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French National Assembly. It aims to examine the relations between political career and the sector division in parliamentary work. This study is based on a statistical survey of the representatives who were member of the Foreign Affairs Committee between 1997 and 2012. Additional data has been collected from interviews of a sample of representatives sitting in this committee. Representatives specialized in diplomatic matters have a higher number of parliamentary mandates and ministerial positions during their political career. The Foreign Affairs Committee draws mainly politicians who have a long and successful career behind them and can justify the necessary skills to deal with foreign policy. The sector division of labor in the National Assembly participates in maintaining the differentiation between high and low politics in the polity. [R]
64.4484 RIDAO I MARTÍN, Joan —
The emergence of public-private partnerships for the provision of infrastructure services and public interest is due to the budgetary constraints faced by public administrations in the current context of acute economic crisis. The advantages of this collaboration are specified in the dialogue between the public and the private sectors to agree on the funding and implementation of projects, good value and a treatment in terms of public accounting that determines a zero impact on the debt. However, the European regulatory framework and poor state, both in recruitment and incentive for the acquisition of financial assets, are a drag. There should therefore be a new framework encouraging the proper structuring of projects, contracts and risk-sharing schemes and providing incentives for participation. [R, abr.]
64.4485 RUIZ GUERRERO, Manuel —
This paper analyzes the legal structures and the power concentration that developed after the creation of the first revolutionary organs. It examines the Fundamental Statute of the Republic of Nicaragua, the Council of State, the Statute on the Rights and Guarantees of Nicaraguans, the Statute of the National Assembly and the decrees issued by the executive and legislative branches. The paper describes the arduous route that led to the consolidation of the governmental institutions in Nicaragua. This process took place while the Reagan administration funded armed groups known as contrarevolucionarios. The analysis emphasizes the inconsistencies and confusion of the legal instruments involved and, on the other hand, the gestation of a reinforced presidentialism that mutilated the independence of the other branches. Both are seen noticed in the 1987 Constitution. [R]
64.4486 SÁNCHEZ-MARTÍN, Miguel Eduardo; ARCE, Rafael de; ESCRIBANO, Gonzalo —
This paper identifies the main determinants of FDI in Latin America during the period 1990–2010. Evidence points to positive influences on FDI inflows of trade openness, maintaining low short-term debt levels and presenting a BOP deficit, government stability and low expropriation risk. Countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela, in which the investment framework has become relatively less stable over the last decade, are finding it more difficult to attract foreign investors. From a risk-management perspective, both public solutions (such as sovereign guarantees) and private institutions have important roles to play in reducing the uncertainty involved in foreign investment decisions. [R, abr.]
64.4487 SCHERMANN, Katrin; ENNSER-JEDENASTIK, Laurenz —
This study analyzes policy-making in three Austrian coalition governments between 1999 and 2008. Drawing on the party mandate literature, a manually coded textual analysis of election manifestos is conducted that yields a dataset containing over 1,100 pledges. The fulfillment of these pledges is taken as the dependent variable in a multivariate analysis. The results indicate that institutional determinants (adoption in the coalition agreement, ministerial control, and policy status quo) significantly influence the chances of pledge fulfillment and thus present a powerful predictor of coalition policy output. By contrast, factors related to parties’ preferences (consensus between parties, policy distance, pledge saliency, and majority support in parliament) do not have an impact. [R, abr.]
64.4488 SEIJAS MACÍAS, J. Antonio —
The presence of the divergence between the distribution of seats by electoral districts and the theoretical distribution in function of the population is known in the literature as malapportionment. Its presence is a constant in most systems of democratic representation where the distribution of seats is based or the electoral districts. We analyzed the various degrees of presence of malapportionment in the Spain's regional assemblies. [R, abr.]
64.4489 SEIZELER, Éric —
The Army's decisions are subordinated to the Government. In Japan, where imperial armies so often imposed their will, this seemingly obvious rule was introduced by Americans after World War II. The principle of civilian control is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, but it is fundamental in the Japan's postwar political system. It is convenient to redraw its main outlines, like the occupation of responsibility positions by civilians and the exclusion of the military from the Cabinet, especially since recent institutional reforms have marked a turning point in the organization and operation of civilian control.
64.4490 SERRAFERO, Mario D. —
This paper has two objectives: (1) to advance in the analysis of presidential resignations and their various types, in the frame of the theory of presidential falls; (2) the presidential resignations have been considered a mechanism of flexibility in the third wave of democratization, taking for granted the affirmation of J. Linz, on the difficulty and improbability of a president resigning while facing a situation of institutional crisis. This paper argues that it has been an institutional resource used by some historical presidentialisms to overcome, on some occasions, severe political crises similar to those occurred during the third wave of democratization. [R]
64.4491 SEVIM, Huseyim —
This article investigates the way the national administration in Turkey has modified its organizations and modes of action under the influence of the European integration process. It focuses on Turkish ministries in order to examine this impact on three different levels: inter-organizational (macroadministrative scale), intra-organizational (meso-administrative scale) and regarding human resources (micro-administrative scale). It also highlights the impact of European integration process on the modes of action of Turkish ministries so as to illustrate more concretely the effects of Europeanization on their “ways of doing”. If the implementation of European integration process has created new styles and modes of action within each administration, it also contributed to the emergence in the Turkish administrative area of shared governance in European policy. [R]
64.4492 SHEINGATE, Adam —
This essay examines public-sector employment in order to grasp the distinctive character of the American state. Looked at comparatively, the American state is anything but small or weak. Rather, befitting a federal system, public authority in the US is exercised largely through state and local government. What is distinctive about the American state is the concentration of public-sector employment in three areas: education, defense, and public safety. This pattern reflects a historical legacy of American state-building. The result has been a set of institutions that hides or conceals public authority in various ways. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4358]
64.4493 SKOURAS, Spyros; CHRISTODOULAKIS, Nicos —
We present detailed empirical evidence from Greece that around elections, misgovernance results in significant increases in wildfires and tax evasion, [which] have led to the destruction of property or loss of government revenue estimated at 8% of GDP. There are two plausible reasons why misgovernance might intensify around elections: (1) attention and effort of elected officials is directed to campaigning instead of governing; and (2) the misgovernance may benefit special interests and serve as a pork barrel transfer that is hard to monitor or control. Empirically, we find that redistributive politics are likely a dominant cause of electoral misgovernance. In the case of wildfires we also find evidence that political competition tends to increase electoral misgovernance; furthermore, electoral misgovernance helps incumbents get re-elected. [R, abr.]
64.4494 SOUSA, Luís de —
After a decade of successive changes to its political financing regulatory framework, and a cumbersome dual monitoring system, Portugal has decided to adopt a single supervisory body — the Entity for Accounts and Political Financing (EAPF). Notwithstanding these improvements, the diffused perception of the existing political financing regulatory and supervisory arrangements remains overall negative. This article discusses the scope and impact of the new Portuguese political financing supervisory body, by focusing on its format, location, mission, competences, composition, resources and performance and proposes alternative integrated solutions for improving its enforcement capacity. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4508]
64.4495 SPIESER, Catherine —
The crisis has led to question the appropriateness of the “flexicurity” paradigm in times of economic recession. Since 2008, social partners and policy-makers have been facing a new agenda of fighting the employment crisis all across Europe. The comparative study of negotiated policies in Germany, France and Italy shows the limited scope of Europeanization and the resilience of national models in this domain. We look into the stances of trade unions and employers organizations, their practice of social dialogue and collective bargaining and the use of relevant policy instruments. This article outlines three paths of reconfiguration of industrial relations in the face of the crisis, and provides evidence of three different ways in which domestic actors adapt the idea of flexicurity to the context of the crisis. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.4834]
64.4496 STARKE, Peter; KAASCH, Alexandra; VAN HOOREN, Franca —
Based on empirical findings from a comparative study on welfare state responses to the four major economic shocks (the 1970s oil shocks, the early 1990s recession, the 2008 financial crisis) in four OECD countries, this article demonstrates that, in contrast to conventional wisdom, policy responses to global economic crises vary significantly across countries. What explains the cross-national and within-case variation in responses to crises? We discuss several potential causes of this pattern and argue that political parties and the party composition of governments can play a key role in shaping crisis responses, albeit in ways that go beyond traditional partisan theory. We show that the partisan conflict and the impact of parties are conditioned by existing welfare state configurations. [R, abr.]
64.4497 STEPHENSON, Mary-Ann —
Many of the claims made in the [UK] Independent Review of the Public Sector Equality Duty are not supported by the evidence submitted to the review. In addition the report fails to reflect key barriers to the successful implementation of the PSED which are raised in the same submissions. This raises questions about the legitimacy of the review process, which has resulted in recommendations which may damage the working of the PSED. [R]
64.4498 STOFFEL, Michael F. —
Recently, the behavior of individual legislators as a response to electoral systems has been a main objective of research on representation. However, as indicators of electoral incentives have been bound to particular electoral systems, comparisons across systems are hindered. This article solves the problem by presenting a unified way of measuring electoral incentives through re-election probabilities. Using the example of Germany, it is shown how such probabilities are estimated and how their analysis contributes to our understanding of representation. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4366]
64.4499 SUNDELL, Anders —
Informal payments for public services such as health care are a major problem in many countries around the world. Explanations for their prevalence include cultural factors, lack of enforcement as well as insufficient funds and low wages for public employees. This paper analyzes the phenomenon from an economic perspective, arguing that they are a logical consequence of low wages in the public sector. However, informal payments from citizens to public employees for services may be preferable to a situation in which no services are delivered. Given that the informal payments thus can be seen to have a functional element, and that reforms aimed at eliminating them largely have been unsuccessful, formalization and legalization rather than increased enforcement may be a way forward. [R, abr.]
64.4500 SWITZER, Tom —
Prime Minister T. Abbott is the personification of old-fashioned conservatism, representative of the virtues of prudence, continuity and measured change. He is a model to which conservatives in Britain and America should pay close attention. [R]
64.4501 SZMER, John; GINN, Martha Humphries —
Focusing on litigators or amicus curiae, [much] scholarship has examined the impact of information on Supreme Court decision-making. Taking into account that justices have varying degrees of substantive expertise across issues, we model the interaction of justice expertise with these external sources of information. Specifically, we test whether justices are more likely to be influenced by attorney capability in cases where they have less substantive legal expertise. We also explore whether justices’ reliance on amici is conditional on their own expertise, as well as the overall quality of the litigants’ attorneys. As anticipated, this research finds that as the justice's legal expertise increases, the influence of attorney capability tends to decrease. Moreover, as the expertise of the judge and/or the quality of the attorneys increase, the impact of amici tends to decrease. [R]
64.4502 TATHAM, Michaël —
Although talk of a “Europe of the regions” has come and gone, regions have come to Brussels but stayed. While such mobilization has not led to the emergence of a “third level”, regional officials in Brussels sometimes outnumber their peers from their country's permanent representation. Considering the perseverance and size of such a presence, we explore what factors best account for it. To this end, a series of multi-level models inform us about its determinants. Controlling for a number of economic and demographic factors, we find that different dimensions of regional authority matter when accounting for regional presence in Brussels. These findings stress the importance of domestic institutional factors when analyzing the extent to which regions project themselves supranationally. [R]
64.4503 TAYLOR-GOOBY, Peter; WAITE, Edmund —
The UK is often considered a leader in multiculturalism. However, recent statements by British politicians, community leaders, and academics question the multiculturalist direction in policy-making. This article reports interviews about multiculturalism, national identity, social cohesion, and future policy directions with leading figures in the debate, including Home Affairs Select Committee members, authors of major reports, experts, researchers, and academics. The attitudes expressed when discussing overall policy directions in most cases indicate disquiet at the assumed segregative effects of current policies. However, when specific issues (sharia law, faith schooling, dress codes including veiling, dietary practices, political representation) are considered, most interviewees express a concern to accommodate differences in cultural and traditional standpoints through dialogue. [R, abr.]
64.4504 TEACHOUT, Zephyr —
For most of American history, until the 1950s, courts treated paid lobbying as a civic wrong, and lobbying contracts were not enforced. Paid lobbying threatened the integrity of individuals, legislators, lobbyists, and the integrity of society as a whole. Inasmuch as there was a personal right to either petition the government, or share views with officers of the government, this right was not something one could sell — it was not, in the term used by one court, a “vendible”. In general courts enforced contracts where the thing being sold was expertise to be shared in a public forum, while refusing to enforce contracts where the thing being sold was personal influence to be shared in private meetings. This article tells the history of this earlier approach toward lobbying. [R, abr.] [First article of a thematic issue on “Under the influence? Lobbying and campaign finance”, introduced by Paul GRONKE and Michael HALBERSTAM. See also Abstr. 64.4370, 4375, 4414, 4423, 4431, 4463, 4556, 4564, 4653]
64.4505 TOSHKOV, Dimiter Doychinov —
This article studies the dynamic reciprocal effects between asylum applications and recognition rates in 29 European countries over 24 years. Furthermore, it explores the impact of the national economic and political context on these two aspects of asylum policy. Using a wide range of statistical models and approaches, the article reveals that asylum applications exert a negative effect on recognition rates, and recognition rates exert a positive effect on applications. However, despite their statistical significance, the effects are rather small and mostly related to between-country rather than within-country variation, which implies that they are of limited practical significance. [R, abr.]
64.4506 TRIANDAFYLLIDOU, Anna —
During the past two years Greek migration policy has seen important developments concerning the legislative framework for irregular migration/asylum management and migrant integration. Given that several among these developments are related to the transposition of related EU directives, one obvious answer might be that of Europeanization: these developments had less to do with the Greek government's plans about migration; rather, they were the direct impact of Europeanization; Greece simply transposed relevant EU directives. I argue for a more careful reading of the Europeanization effect which not only distinguishes the differential impact of Europeanization on policies and discourses, but also actually shows how Europeanization tendencies at different level can contrast one another. The findings highlight that Europeanization involves also resistance to Europe especially at times of crisis. [R, abr.]
64.4507 VAN AELST, Peter; LOUWERSE, Tom —
This study uses the recent institutional crises in Belgium to study parliamentary behavior in the absence of a government with full powers. Cabinet-formation in Belgium has proved to be protracted in recent years, leading to long periods of government formation in both 2007–2008 and 2010–2011. Such circumstances provide a unique comparison between normal situations of parliament in the presence of government, and exceptional situations of prolonged periods of caretaker government. The article looks at three aspects of parliamentary behavior that are usually linked to executive-legislative relations: legislative initiatives, voting behavior and party unity. The general hypothesis is that prolonged periods of government-formation gave parliamentarians more opportunities to influence the legislative process and more (ideological) freedom. [R, abr.]
64.4508 VAN BIEZEN, Ingrid; CASAL BÉRTOA, Fernando —
Despite its increasing importance, the phenomenon of party regulation has hitherto received relatively little systematic and comparative scholarly attention. The contributions to this issue fill part of this lacuna by evaluating the various dimensions of party regulation and their impact on the parties and the party systems in post-authoritarian Southern Europe. This introduction discusses the main sources of party regulation — Constitutions, Party Laws and Party Finance Laws — and provides some preliminary conclusions on the cartelization of party organizations and party systems. [R] [Introduction to a series of articles on “The regulation of party politics in Southern Europe”, edited by the authors. See also Abstr. 64.4377, 4479, 4494]
64.4509 VAN VEEREN, Elspeth —
The literature working at the intersection of security and visual studies [has under-theorized] how these visualities are produced, especially with respect to materialities and their capacity to compel meanings. Analyzing the tours of Joint Task Force Guantánamo, which have been arranged by the US military for VIP visitors, this article argues that the selective organization and presentation of specific matter was image-making and therefore meaning-making. Through efforts to produce a spectacle of detention, Guantánamo was deliberately constructed as “safe, humane, legal, transparent” — in the process shifting the meaning of these very concepts. Guantánamo's tours as visual and material practices were therefore used to produce meaning in the debate over the future of the site and how best to secure the US state post-9/11 [2001]. [R, abr.]
64.4510 VANEBO, Jan Ole; ANDERSEN, Jon Aarum —
In the Scandinavian countries, policy documents have been developed to strengthen leadership practices in the public sector. The policy documents “Code for Chief Executive Excellence” (Denmark) and “Leadership in Norway's Civil Service” pertain to how the public sector ought to be managed. This article addresses two problems concerning these documents. To what degree does New Public Management (NPM) influence them? To what degree does management and leadership theory and research support the principles proposed by these documents? This article concludes that NPM has had a significant impact on public management in the Scandinavian countries. [R, abr.]
64.4511 VASU, Norman; CHEONG, Damien D. —
This article takes a critical look at the corporatist narrative of governance in Singapore and argues that the corporatist narrative is losing its narrative rationality. Narrative rationality is being lost through large-scale immigration to Singapore. The implication of this loss of narrative rationality is significant for continued rule by the People's Action Party (PAP), which will have to struggle to either repair the narrative rationality of corporatism or seek another alternative narrative that is more intelligible in order to continue to maintain the party's narrative dominance of the political space in Singapore. [R] [See Abstr. 64.5083]
64.4512 WALLACH, Philip A. —
A growing body of scholarship explores processes of gradual but transformative institutional change, classifying patterns of change into several categories. I argue that policy-makers themselves actively contest the appropriate institutional frames for understanding changes as they seek to guide institutional change, and show that judicial determinations of statutory meaning are sensitive to judgments about which institutional perspective is most compelling. A process-tracing examination of institutional changes in the [US] Glass-Steagall Act over the law's whole life span, from 1933 to 1999, provides a concrete example of how the dynamics of contestation can play out. [R, abr.]
64.4513 WARE, Alan —
In autumn 2013, large minorities in Italy and the US fermented crises that badly disrupted the government of the two countries. These cases were widely understood as instances of dysfunction in established democracies that would rarely be replicated elsewhere. However, while all the conditions that generated the crises are unlikely to be evident in other established democracies three important factors that caused the disruptions in the American and Italian political processes are also sources of political conflict in Britain. They are the powers of the second legislative chamber, the weakening links between parties and social groups, and the redrawing of electoral boundaries. All of them present problems for political reform in Britain, and understanding the role they played in the two political crises of 2013 is important for future reform in Britain. [R]
64.4514 WEST, Karleen Jones; LEE, Hoon —
Veto-player models generally rely on two assumptions: (1) collective actors like political parties behave as individual actors; and (2) all actors influencing policy production are domestic. Yet these are often violated by empirical reality. Under certain institutions, parties are less cohesive and may not behave as individuals, and international regimes can have considerable influence over legislation. Using data on labor-law production in Europe, we find that the effects of veto-players are conditional on both party cohesion and international regimes. Future conceptualizations of veto-players should be more sensitive to both internal and external institutional configurations. [R]
64.4515 WILSON, Walter Clark; ELLIS, William Curtis —
This article proposes a theory of transnational surrogate representation to explain the representation of African interests in the US Congress. The argument is supported through analyses of bill sponsorship and committee hearings between 1979 and 2008. Compared with non-African-American members of Congress, black representatives sponsored significantly more bills related to African issues, and black committee chairs held significantly more hearings on African issues. These findings suggest affective ties associated with transnationalism motivate black representatives to act for an international black constituency. This extends the concept of surrogate representation beyond geopolitical borders, and implies that legislative diversity influences the content of Congress's foreign-policy agenda. [R]
64.4516 WYLDE, Christopher —
The post-crisis administration of N. Kirchner (2003–2007) saw significant changes in the political economy of Argentina. After characterizing these changes, this article places the evidence within an appropriate metatheoretical interpretation. It concludes that while elements of historical forms of political economy exist in Kirchner's regime — elements of populism, elements of neoliberalism — in its entirety, one must look to other explanations not traditionally associated with Latin America: the developmental regime. Such a conclusion facilitates both an enhanced understanding of post-crisis Argentine political economy, and an opportunity to further develop a developmental regime approach. [R]
64.4517 ZINK, James R. —
Americans today may take the Bill of Rights for granted, but its inclusion in the US Constitution originally was controversial. To understand why, I turn to James Wilson, a leading statesman of the founding era and the chief opponent of the Bill of Rights. Among other things, Wilson thought a bill of rights would bind future generations to an incomplete list of rights and deprive them of the right to define individual rights over time. His arguments against a constitutional bill of rights also offer a useful view of the complexity and diversity of American founding era thought. [R]
64.4518
A series of articles on the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Articles by Stefan MEISTER; Claus KRESS, Christian J. TAMS and Wolfgang ISCHINGER; Yevhen HLIBOVYTSKY; Birgit BRAUER; Andreas RINKE.
(b) State, regional and local institutions/Institutions locales et régionales
64.4519 ANDREWS, Rhys; ASHWORTH, Rachel; MEIER, Kenneth J. —
Representative bureaucracy theory assumes that representative organizations are better able to represent the needs of particular citizens and groups of service-users and that they may perform especially well on their core tasks. In particular, recent work suggests that street-level bureaucrats are more likely to become active representatives than upper-level bureaucrats for whom a critical mass of representation is required to influence policy outcomes. The positive contribution of street-level bureaucrats may also be enhanced where they are accorded greater discretion or are better able to draw upon their connections with clients. We test these hypotheses by exploring the relationship between gender and minority ethnic representation and the performance of fire authorities in England [UK]. Our study reveals that more representative fire authorities tend to be more effective organizations. [R, abr.]
64.4520 BEIENBURG, Sean —
The author examines attempts at amending state constitutions in the 2011 and 2012 elections and finds that they were efforts to influence the interpretation of the US Constitution. He argues that some elected state officials see themselves as legitimate challengers of Supreme Court decisions. In addition, he finds that national interest groups use state constitutions as platforms for federal constitutional politics, and that such efforts were predominantly, though not exclusively, conservative in the last two election cycles. [R]
64.4521 BEVERIDGE, Ross; NAUMANN, Matthias —
This article makes an important contribution to the depoliticization literature by switching the focus on to how strategies and forms of depoliticized governance are repoliticized. At present, there is an absence of empirical research on how issues move from depoliticized to politicized arenas and the role of non-state actors in these processes. This article addresses these gaps through an exploration of the partial remunicipalization of the Berlin Water Company in 2012. The case study reveals the potential for dynamic interplay between processes of depoliticization and politicization and the continuing possibility for political agency despite the constraints in urban politics. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4130]
64.4522 BORDIGNON, Massimo; TURATI, Gilberto —
Local finance offers an important testing ground for analyses of fiscal policy and political economics. The sheer number of local communities and the fact that many institutional features [are] common across localities inside a single country make the results of empirical analysis of local governments more convincing than either single case studies or inter-country comparisons. Moreover, local governments are often affected by reforms that can be taken as exogenous with respect to the local community. Hence, one can hope to use these episodes to cast light on important and unresolved issues in economics. Italy is a good case in point. At the beginning of the 1990s, local finance in Italy was affected by two reforms that deeply changed both the politics and the funding of local governments. [R]
64.4523 COWELL, Richard; DOWNE, James; MORGAN, Karen —
This article assesses the impact of ethics regulation on the conduct of English local politicians using Foucauldian perspectives on government, power, and resistance. The research finds that ethics regulation encountered problems when politicians resisted the models of political identity and behavior that it was perceived to promote. Particular concentrations of misconduct complaints were identified in which politicians believed that changes to political management structures, designed to make local governance more effective, caused a loss of voice for elected representatives. Ethics regulation itself sometimes served as a device for controlling others and effecting resistance. The article concludes with reflections on how far we should expect political conduct to be managed by such regulatory practices. [R, abr.]
64.4524 DODEIGNE, Jérémy —
This article proposes a new analytical framework for the study of political careers in multi-level systems. I argue that the study of vertical movements between political arenas, which constitutes the prevalent methodological approach in the literature on political careers, should be complemented by the study of horizontal movements within political arenas. Based on a longitudinal analysis of individual political careers, the micro-approach developed allows the comprehension of all territorial dynamics of political careers in multi-level systems. Based on an in-depth case-study of all 419 Walloon careers in Belgium, four career patterns are identified: national, regional, multi-level and discrete. Although Belgium presents an integrated structure of opportunity, I demonstrate that key evidence underlines the prevalence of a regional and a national political class along [with] highly integrated political elites. [R]
64.4525 ENTWISTLE, Tom„ et al. —
Since the UK began its devolution program in 1999 governments operating at four different territorial scales — embracing the EU, the UK, the national and the local — have played a part in the governance of Wales. Multi-level governance of this type can be likened to a layer cake, in which each government operates in its own distinct jurisdiction, or to a marble cake in which governments have overlapping and interlaced responsibilities. Drawing on a survey that asked senior officers in Welsh local government to rate the impact of different levels of government, this article finds support for both interpretations of multi-level governance. Although largely discredited as a description of American federalism, the layer cake simile may have a new lease of life in the analysis of Europe's devolved nations and regions. [R]
64.4526 FEWSMITH, Joseph; GAO Xiang —
Social instability and general societal disaffection have continued to grow even as the economy has developed. [Although] the government has diverted increasing resources to raising the income of villagers and providing social services to the urban and rural population alike, public protests continued unabated. This article argues that the structure of central-local relations leads local governments to discount the interests of residents on the one hand, and distort central policies to the benefit of the local government on the other. The “party manages the cadres” principle, through which the central government exerts vertical control, prevents horizontal and bottom-up accountability, and thus ends up setting the interests of local cadres against those of local residents. The central government's interest in preserving its own power makes it reluctant to reform the central-local relationship, thus perpetuating crises. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 64.5106]
64.4527 FILLA, Jackie A.; DeLONG, Deborah F. —
This article examines the influence of constituent demographics on the frequency and success of local initiative contests. We find that local initiatives are more common and more successful in cities with higher levels of white racial prevalence, but that racial diversity replaces these effects as racially homogenous cities will qualify and pass more initiatives. We also find that racial diversity interacts with population size as the most qualified initiatives occur in larger racially homogenous cities. These findings contribute to our understanding of how modern racial relations in American cities may impact the growing prevalence of direct democracy in municipal politics. [R]
64.4528 FONG, Brian C. H. —
This article attributes the dysfunction of the executive-dominant system after 1997 to Beijing's resistance to the development of party-based government in Hong Kong. By marginalizing political parties in the organization and policy-making process of the HKSAR government, the executive and legislature have become disconnected since 1997, and the coalition between the non-partisan Chief Executive and pro-government parties remains fragile. In order to get Hong Kong out of the existing political quagmire, the development of some form of party-based government in Hong Kong is a critical issue that the Chinese government and the HKSAR government must confront. [R, abr.]
64.4529 FONG, Brian C. H. —
English version: see Abstr. 64.4528
64.4530 FOREMNY, Dirk —
This paper empirically examines how fiscal rules and tax autonomy influence deficits of sub-national sectors across European countries. I use a new panel data-set to measure tax autonomy and the stringency of fiscal rules for EU15 regional and local government sectors over the period 1995 to 2008. I apply an instrumental variables approach to obtain an unbiased estimate of the impact of fiscal rules on deficits. I use political variables describing the central governments characteristics as instruments for fiscal rules at the sub-national level. The results show that the effectiveness of fiscal rules and tax autonomy depends on the constitutional structure. [R, abr.]
64.4531 GREEN, Andrew D. —
Even though local option sales taxes have significant impacts on a county's ability to fund programs and services, little has been written about the decisions of [US] counties to place such taxes on the ballot. Using demographic, fiscal, and political variables, a model is developed that explains the decision to place a county transportation sales tax on the ballot. Modeling and analysis reveal that counties behave strategically as the impact of demographic, fiscal, and political factors on the decision to place a local option sales tax on the ballot is shaped by whether the county is making an initial attempt to adopt, a subsequent attempt to adopt after voter rejection, or a renewal attempt when an existing local option sales tax is nearing its sunset date. [R, abr.]
64.4532 GUCCIO, Calogero; MAZZA, Isidoro —
We study the distribution of funds in Sicily (the Autonomous Sicilian Region) to the heritage authorities of regional governments. Using data uniquely available for the nine provinces of Sicily for the period of 1992–2002, we find that the allocation of funding for cultural heritage conservation activities was politically motivated and influenced by the prominence of representatives of the ruling coalition in a district and the loyalty of voters to the main party. [R]
64.4533a HALL, Melinda Gann —
This research capitalizes on the analytical opportunity created by mandatory retirement provisions to explore the nature of the electoral connection in [US] state supreme courts and to illustrate how changes in institutional context can modify the decisional propensities of political elites and reshape their fundamental roles. Specifically, this work demonstrates that mandatory retirement obviates the representative function by disconnecting key mechanisms through which public preferences are translated into judicial votes: threat conditions that elevate the risk of electoral censure. In state supreme courts, popular votes are in part strategic and result from a complex interaction of goals, institutions, and external pressures. [R]
64.4533b HANSEN, Sune Welling; HOULBERG, Kurt; PEDERSEN, Lene Holm —
Improved fiscal management is a frequent justification for promoting boundary consolidations. This article investigates if fiscal outcomes are improved when municipalities are merged. The basic argument is that the conceptualization of fiscal management in political science is often too narrow, as it focuses on the budget and pays hardly any attention to balances in the final accounts and debts — elements of management which are central to policy-making. On this background, the causal relationship between municipal mergers and fiscal outcomes is analyzed. Measured on the balance between revenues and expenses, liquid assets and debts, municipal mergers improve the fiscal outcomes of the municipalities in a five-year perspective, although the pre-reform effects tend to be negative. The testing ground is the recent mergers of Danish municipalities, which constitute a quasi-experiment. [R, abr.]
64.4534 HASSIM, Shireen —
Drawing on a comparison between local government quotas in India and South Africa, the article argues that the persistent underlying institutional formations and cultures of politics have a profound impact on the ways in which quotas are inserted into political systems. Applying a feminist lens to literature on women's experiences of entering local government institutions in India and South Africa, the article considers the relationship between women's representation and the broader political system in which they are inserted. It argues that the presence of women may have democratizing effects on political systems, but that these effects depend as much if not more on the extent to which there is democratic mobilization outside of the elected bodies. [R, abr.]
64.4535 HAYO, Bernd; NEUMEIER, Florian —
This paper investigates whether the socio-economic status of the head of government helps explain fiscal performance. Applying sociological research that attributes differences in people's ways of thinking and acting to their relative standing within society, we test whether the social status of German prime ministers can help explain differences in fiscal performance among the German Länder. Our empirical findings show that the tenures of prime ministers from a poorer socioeconomic background are associated with higher levels of public spending and debt financing. Social mobility has an asymmetric influence. [R, abr.]
64.4536 JOCHIMSEN, Beate; THOMASIUS, Sebastian —
The role and influence of the finance minister within the cabinet are discussed with increasing prominence in the theoretical literature on the political economy of budget deficits. It is generally assumed that the spending ministers can enhance their reputation purely with new or more extensive expenditure programs, whereas it is the sole interest of the finance minister to balance the budget. Using a dynamic panel model to study the development of public deficits, we test several personal characteristics of the finance ministers that could influence budgetary performance in the German Länder between 1960 and 2009. [R, abr.]
64.4537 KIRKLAND, Justin H. —
The collective nature of legislating forces legislators to rely on one another for information and support. This collaborative activity requires a choice about partnerships in an environment of uncertainty. The basic size and organization of a legislature amplifies this uncertainty in relational choices. Analysis of collaborative patterns between all the US state legislators in 2007 corroborates this expectation, indicating that large legislatures have highly partisan collaborative networks with generally low density, while larger legislative committees mitigate these effects. Thus, even when the attributes of legislators do not change, the organizational size of the legislature can shape how those legislators interact. [R]
64.4538 KISS, Simon J. —
This article examines the rise of more strategic, professional and politically sensitive communications in the Government of Alberta and argues that citizen demands for transparency and participation are also reasons for the increased importance of strategic government communications. Accommodating these demands in the context of traditional representative democracy requires politically sensitive staff who can manage processes without jeopardizing the government's re-election or policy agenda. This article draws on analyses of government documents, interviews and the archives of premiers Getty and Klein. [R]
64.4540 LEONARD, Meghan E.; ROSS, Joseph V. —
The opinion-writing process is a vital yet understudied aspect of judicial decision-making on [US] state supreme courts. We argue that this process is influenced by the political context and particularly by institutional rules that serve to reactivate and reinforce divisions among justices, leading to less cooperation on the court. We test our theory with original data comprising all education cases decided from 1995 to 2005 in all 50 states and find evidence to support our theory. Specifically, we find that elections lead to fewer unanimous decisions and more separate written opinions, indicating that judicial elections may have a more pervasive effect on the daily work of these courts than previously thought. [R]
64.4541 MOU, Haizhen; ATKINSON, Michael M.; Ul-MUNIM, Ata —
Debates about the size of government, which are often debates about what government should or should not do, need to be joined by a concern for the relative cost of government. Since 1981, the price in the public sector has grown faster than the price for GDP. We decompose the ratio between the price index for the public sector and that for GDP in the Canadian provinces and capture the governments’ price advantage/disadvantage in different spending categories. Our analysis shows that governments with lower debt ratios and weaker fiscal rules are more vulnerable to rising costs, particularly during periods of higher commodity prices. [R]
64.4542 NGANJE, Fritz —
Over the years, the logic that decentralization is the territorial twin of democracy has been employed in the domain of foreign policy to advocate for the transfer of international relations prerogatives to subnational governments (SNGs). Proponents of this argument contend that, because of the proximity of SNGs to local communities, the territorial decentralization of elements of foreign policy, or paradiplomacy, has the potential to engender greater citizen awareness, interest and participation in international affairs, and thus contribute to the democratization of foreign policy. This paper draws insight from the paradiplomacy of three South African provinces to assess the extent to which the foreign relations of provincial governments represent a model process that contributes to the democratization of foreign policy. [R, abr.]
64.4543 PETRARCA, Ilaria —
This paper studies the link between the diffusion of news and spending decisions. We exploit a dataset of Italian Regions from 1984 to 2008, approximate the spread of information with the diffusion of newspapers, and estimate the effect of the news before and after 1995. In the mid-1990s, two reforms introduced the direct election of the governor, autonomous taxing powers and incentives for fiscal discipline at the regional level. We test the following hypotheses: (1) the diffusion of newspapers affects public expenditures close to elections; (2) the more newspapers are diffused, the larger is the reduction of the electoral cycle; (3) before the reform, the diffusion of newspapers constrained the increased size of expenditures; (4) after the reform, the diffusion of newspapers leaves unaffected the size of expenditures. [R, abr.]
64.4544 SCHRAFF, Dominik —
This research note elaborates on the role of electoral mobilization in the allocation of EU structural funding. Revising current findings on the German Länder, I show that stronghold regions with a high level of electoral mobilization receive more money. This strategy is conceptualized as “rewarding loyalists”. The article argues that due to temporally stable turnout levels, incumbents have incentives to favor stronghold regions with high turnout rates. Hence, incumbents use differences in the level of electoral mobilization to make distributive decisions among their many core constituencies. To test for spatial interdependencies and autocorrelation, I use a spatial autoregressive model as a robustness check. Even though the data show spatial interdependencies, the results remain the same. [R]
64.4545 SELJAN, Ellen C. —
Previous scholarship has shown that Tax and Expenditure Limits (TELs) often fail to constrain government growth. This paper views the implementation of TELs as a principal-agent problem. Agency theory predicts that delegation is affected by the preferences of agents and the costs of monitoring those agents. Using panel data for the US states from 1970 through 2008, I conduct an empirical test of the validity of the principal-agent model for TELs. I find that state spending limitations are effective at cutting the growth of state and local spending only under the direction of agents who have a preference for limited government. Additionally, state property tax limitations are effective only when monitoring does not require costly coordinated action. These findings contradict an alternative theory of TEL implementation that looks towards the policy's origin. [R, abr.]
64.4546 THOMPSON, Lisa —
For citizenship to have any meaningful content for ordinary people, especially those who historically have been denied political and socioeconomic rights, the promise of participatory democracy must lead to perceptions of ability to influence. Through the use of a survey instrument constructed to gauge perceptions of efficacy and responsiveness of local governance institutions, this article explores how citizens in Khayelitsha, Langa and Delft experience governance and service-delivery in relation to their perceived ability to exercise either a direct or indirect form of agency in relation to decision-making. The article illustrates that in relation to the ordinary person in the street, perceptions of agency are weak, with corresponding levels of dissatisfaction in democracy. [R, abr.]
64.4547 VERHELST, Tom„ et al. —
This article applies a multifaceted typology developed by R. B. Andeweg and J. J. A. Thomassen [“Modes of political representation: toward a new typology”, Legislative Studies Quarterly 30(4), Nov. 2005: 507–528; Abstr. 56.4917] to study political representation in Belgian local governance. It empirically outlines the notions of 856 local councilors on political representation at the attitudinal and behavioral level. Furthermore, it explains variation in the latter according to councilors’ political and personal profile, their contact pattern, and the local government context. The article paints a balanced picture. Councilors’ personal profile and contact pattern seem the most important determinants of political representation. [R, abr.]
64.4548 VONNAHME, Greg —
In state legislative elections, some candidates attract contributions from many donors whereas other candidates have much smaller donor pools. Why? What are the origins of these disparities? This paper conceptualizes contributions as a type of attachment between the donor and the state legislative candidate. To model the formation of these attachments, I propose a variant of the Barabasi-Albert preferential attachment model. The theoretical model is tested with data on over one million contributions to state legislative candidates in 2008. The paper also derives implications for macro-level inequities across candidates which are tested by comparing the observed inequities to simulations of the preferential attachment model. The results provide strong support for the hypotheses. [R, abr.]
64.4549 WANG Chunyu; YE Jingzhong; FRANCO, Jennifer C. —
Chinese economic and social development in the past three decades has been typically state-led, in which capital and government officials are gradually allied through guanxi — a social psychological network that connects individuals with continued exchanges of favors, emotions and resources. This transforms many traditional characteristics of guanxi and encodes it with new features deeply rooted in institutional settings in contemporary China, which we term as “neo-guanxilism”. Although “local state corporatism” has strong explanatory power in analyzing the alliance of enterprises and local government, we argue that this type of “neo-guanxilism” could fill the gap uncovered by local state corporatism, mainly through emphasizing government officials as interdependent actors instead of viewing the local state as a collective, capturing not only the developmental but also the predatory aspects of local governments. [R] [See Abstr. 64.4943]
64.4550 WILLETT, Joanie; GIOVANNINI, Arianna —
Within the context of the devolution process in England, Cornwall and the North-East stand out in contrasting comparison. The North-East was given the opportunity to vote for a regional assembly, which it rejected in 2004, while the strong popular movement for an assembly in Cornwall was ignored by central government. This is reflected in the literature on the English question and regionalism in the UK, which focuses on the example of the North-East, and largely overlooks the grassroots support in Cornwall and the opportunities for understanding regionalism that this could provide. We explore why this might be the case, developing a comparison between the two areas in the context of the campaigns for setting up directly elected assemblies. [R, abr.]
64.4551 YARAŞ, Sezen —
In Turkey, important decentralization measures were taken after the 1980s. The new administrative model gave local governments the role of dealing with social exclusion while financing social welfare expenditures through entrepreneurial investment of their non-material resources. This study discusses how such a challenge for local governments has been resolved through the analysis of gendering impacts of three decentralization reform programs. [R]
64.4552 ZINGHER, Joshua N. —
I develop a framework that explains how party ideology, party control of the legislature, and electoral conditions affect the likelihood that a state legislature will adopt policies that increase immigration enforcement. I test my arguments using state immigration policy-adoption data, from 2005 to 2011. I find that conservative Republican state parties are more likely to pass legislation enhancing immigration enforcement — on the condition that the Republican Party controls the state's legislative institutions. However, the willingness of Republican-controlled legislatures to pass immigration reform is often tempered by electoral concerns. Republican-controlled legislatures in states where Latinos make up a large proportion of the electorate are significantly less likely to adopt new legislation that targets undocumented migrants. [R, abr.]