Japanese Foreign Policy: No Longer Reactive?

This article revisits the thesis put forward by Kent Calder that Japan's foreign policy is made by a reactive state incapable of sustained, innovative policy. Reviewing six recent books, we find that, while the reactive state thesis continues to inform scholarsip on the subject, new frameworks offer possibilities for seeing Japan's foreign policy as innovative and at times strategic. This article considers the strengths and weaknesses in recent attempts to create a more proactive foreign policy.     

Unemployment and Party Choice in Norway

By the late 1980s, the absolute number of jobless in Norway had reached the same level as that during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unemployment in the 1930s is known to have had an impact on party choice. Among those hit by unemployment in the 1980s, however, we no longer find a strong correlation between unemployment and party choice. This situation constitutes the point of departure for this article. The relationship between joblessness and party choice is investigated on the basis of four hypotheses: (i) The incumbency thesis , which suggests that the incumbent party receives support in accordance with fluctuations in economic conditions - i. e. it is punished in bad times and rewarded in prosperous times, (ii) The policy thesis , which predicts that voters concerned about unemployment prefer the Labour Party, (iii) The social composition thesis , which argues that the fluctuations between unemployment and party choice are simply due to changes in the social composition of the unemployed, (iv) The generation thesis , which underscores that the impact of unemployment on party choice varies according to historical generation. Confronted with empirical evidence, the social composition thesis is rejected. Likewise, support for the policy thesis has gradually vanished. Some empirical support is given to the incumbency thesis . In the end, however, the generation thesis appears to be the most relevant.     

Legitimacy,citizenship and state redress

This article explores how state redress programmes work to legitimate the state. The primary thesis concerns how state redress aims to restructure citizenship identity. This restructuring enables civic identification by victims of state wrongdoing which in turn enables greater legitimacy. Consequently, redress constitutes a movement by the state from lesser to greater legitimacy. The article illustrates the legitimating thesis by examining two Canadian responses to state wrongdoing with regard to indigenous peoples, Gathering Strength (1998) and the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat). This context provides material for contrasting the legitimating thesis with a competing approach – redress as ‘therapy’.     

The decision to exclude agricultural and domestic workers from the 1935 Social Security Act

The Social Security Act of 1935 excluded from coverage about half the workers in the American economy. Among the excluded groups were agricultural and domestic workers-a large percentage of whom were African Americans. This has led some scholars to conclude that policymakers in 1935 deliberately excluded African Americans from the Social Security system because of prevailing racial biases during that period. This article examines both the logic of this thesis and the available empirical evidence on the origins of the coverage exclusions. The author concludes that the racial-bias thesis is both conceptually flawed and unsupported by the existing empirical evidence. The exclusion of agricultural and domestic workers from the early program was due to considerations of administrative feasibility involving tax-collection procedures. The author finds no evidence of any other policy motive involving racial bias.     

Democracy in the Light of Security: British and French Political Discourses on Domestic Counter-Terrorism Policies

This article aims to question the relationship between security and liberty that lies at the heart of the current debates on European counter-terrorism policies. It analyses the statements reported in the press made by defenders of the emergency rules thesis and their rivals in the UK and France from September 2001 to June 2003. The findings reveal that, in both cases, the legitimation of the emergency measures rests upon a set of sovereignty-related arguments that reframe the notion of freedom and the place of human rights in contemporary democracies. The defenders of the human rights thesis denounce the reframing of civil liberties but fail to address the freedom issue.     

Testing the Decline of Parliament Thesis: Ireland, 1923–2002

There is a long-standing argument that in Westminster-style systems parliaments are in decline. The frequency with which the head of government intervenes in parliament is one indicator of this supposed decline. Studies conducted in Britain and Canada show that the frequency of prime ministerial interventions has declined over time, suggesting that the decline of parliament thesis holds true in this regard at least. This article examines the Irish case and shows that the situation is different. As in Britain and Canada, there has been a decline in particular forms of activity. However, the overall level has increased over time. These findings suggest that in the Irish case at least and on the basis of this one indicator the decline of parliament thesis does not hold true. Moreover, when we contextualise the findings, particularly on the basis of a qualitative analysis of the changing nature of the presentation of the Order of Business over the last 30 years, we find that the decline of parliament thesis is weakened further. Thus, this article suggests that the decline of parliament thesis is not applicable to all examples of Westminster-style parliamentary systems.     

What would John Griffith have made of Jonathan Sumption's Reith Lectures?

In his 2019 Reith Lectures on the rise of law and decline of politics, Jonathan Sumption presents a thesis that, on its face, seems identical to that of J.A.G. Griffith's defence of the political constitution. Given the radical differences in their views on equality, democracy, and redistribution—with Griffith working in the tradition of democratic socialism espoused by the Webbs, Tawney and Laski, and Sumption expressing the libertarian philosophy underpinning Thatcherite policies—this is puzzling. This article sets their views in historical and political context and argues that the similarities are superficial, whereas the differences are profound. It then proceeds to show the weaknesses in Sumption's defence of his thesis.     

Functional Hypotheses of Party Decline: The Case of the Scandinavian Social Democratic Parties*

Functional hypotheses of party decline define parties as fulfilling specific functions in the political system and relate party decay to the inability or diminished capacity of parties to perform these functions. This article examines two major hypotheses of this sort by assessing their relevance in the case of the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish Social Democratic parties. First, it deals with the thesis of the declining functionality of the mass membership party. Second, it discusses the rival structure hypothesis which argues that rival forms of political organization pose a threat to parties by encroaching upon their functions. These arguments are confronted with available empirical data. In several instances, the empirical evidence points to inadequacies in the hypotheses, or directly confutes them. These weaknesses of the hypotheses are discussed, and alternative interpretations are offered.     

The untouchables of law

This paper discusses two main theses in Ronald Dworkin’s legal theory: (i) law is institutionalized political morality and (ii) there is pervasive theoretical disagreement about how to fix truth conditions for the propositions of law. The author argues that the first thesis is compatible with the distinction between the law as it is and the law as it should be. Regarding the second thesis, the author attempts to show that the need for a fulcrum of disagreement requires accepting that law contains certain institutional parts whose role makes them unsuitable subjects for a moral reading.     

The Portuguese 2005 legislative election: Return to the left

According to the ‘decline of parliaments’ thesis that dominates the literature, the executive branch has increased its powers vis-à-vis the legislature. However, at the same time most studies indicate that the parliaments in the Nordic region are on average stronger than their counterparts in central and southern European countries. This article examines the validity of the ‘decline of parliaments’ thesis in the context of Finland, a country where recent constitutional reforms have strengthened parliamentarism by reducing the powers of the president and empowering the government and the parliament. Analysing the constitutional balance of power between state organs, the interaction between the government and the opposition, and the ability of the parliament to hold the cabinet accountable, this article argues that despite its stronger constitutional position, the Eduskunta faces considerable difficulties in controlling the government.     

Why Political Science Needs Political Theory

Normative political theory and empirical social science have a reciprocal relationship. This thesis is illustrated by taking up two topics: one is social exclusion; the other is ethnicity and discrimination.     

Candidate status, presidential approval, and voting for US senator

This research tests whether the effects of assessments of presidential performance on the senate voting decision are largest for out-party incumbents and smaller for out-party incumbents and candidates in open-seat contests, a pattern suggested by the restricted in-party culpability thesis. Analysis of data from the 1988–1990–1992 Pooled Senate Election Study reveals that the effects of appraisals of presidential performance are greatest in open-seat contests and those with in-party incumbents, contrary to the restricted in-party culpability thesis. For incumbents of the out-party and candidates in open-seat contests, the effects of assessments of presidential performance are principally a function of the competitiveness of the contest. Assessments of presidential performance shape the voting decision in contests with in-party incumbents regardless of the level of electoral competitiveness.     

Globalisation and the Study of British Politics

The study of British politics has focused on the nation state as a self-contained entity. The globalisation thesis challenges this perspective. Nation states are seen as weak and irrelevant in the face of the power of footloose finance capital. This article explores the relevance of the globalisation thesis for the student of British politics. It argues that the frame of reference does need to embrace the impact of external constraints. But it is critical of the structuralism integral to the globalisation thesis because it robs politicians of control and responsibility at the same time as it minimises the importance of the domestic story.     

ELECTRICITY PLANNING IN TASMANIA AND NEW ZEALAND: POLITICAL PROCESSES AND THE TECHNOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE

Abstract: This paper considers but rejects a thesis that there is some sort of 'technological imperative' in operation in the process of electricity planning which requires the integration of electricity generating systems with large industrial consumers. It is argued that there is nothing about the technical features of electricity generation and supply that does not translate into costs and benefits (which can be subsequently paid, enjoyed or ignored by decision-makers). Instead a Galbraithian thesis of technocracy is examined, but this is found to be insufficient to explain fully the electricity planning process in Australia and New Zealand and the relationship of that process to electricity-intensive industry. After examining cases of forecasting and planning in New Zealand and Tasmania (both predominantly reliant on intensive hydro-electric systems), it is concluded that a full appreciation requires an understanding of the relationship between government and business, a relationship which is rooted long ago in the colonial origins of both countries.     

The Racial Bureaucracy: African Americans and the Federal Government in the Era of Segregated Race Relations

This article employs archival research to examine how the segregationist order was introduced and maintained in the Federal civil service between the 1890s and 1945. In the article a racial bureaucracy is defined by two characteristics. First, one group of employees was placed in a subordinate position to others, both formally and informally, as a consequence of their "race." Second, physical working conditions and daily routines were constructed around the segregation of one group of employees because of their race and, furthermore, advancement and promotion within the bureaucracy was delimited by race. This framework is used first, critically to assess two common views of the composition of the US federal government (the local race state thesis and the weak state thesis), and second, to illustrate how segregation impinged directly upon African American employees in a range of agencies and positions.     

Disciplinary projects and carceral spread: Foucauldian theory and Chinese practice

This paper has a dual object: Fist, utilizing Foucault;s definiation of ‘disciplinary power’, the paper demon-strates the disciplinary nature of China's Reform through labour (laogai) system. It is suggested that laogai is an extension, deepening and modification of certain nineteeenth-century Western utilitarian penal themes designed to ‘reform the criminal mind’ and produce 'obedient subjects'. Second, having established the disciplinary nature of the laogai project, the paper then goes on to examine the (neo-Foucauldian) 'disciplinary dispersal thesis'. This thesis suggestes a gradual spread of carceral technologies which led to the formation of a disciplinary society. this paper suggests that there are a number of theoretical problems in this thesis, not the least of which is its rather ambiguous relationship to the work of Foucault.     

The prohibition-repeal amendments: A natural experiment in interest group influence

The pattern of state support for Prohibition (18th Amendment, 1919) and Repeal (21st Amendment, 1933) is analyzed and compared. This comparison is important because Prohibition is the only amendment ever to be repealed. The main thesis is that there was no wholesale change in preferences of citizens. Instead, producer interests failed to mobilize effectively in 1919, and the coupling of moral and economic arguments that worked in 1919 broke apart in 1933. Regression analysis is conducted on state legislatures (for Prohibition) and state referenda on convention delegates (for Repeal), so states are observations in the cross-sectional regression analysis. The results broadly support the main thesis.     

Learning from the Danish case: A comment on Palle Svensson's critique of the Franklin thesis

Abstract. Palle Svensson in this issue of EJPR has objected to the characterisation of Danish voters made by Franklin and others who, in various publications, expounded the thesis that on issues of low salience, referendum votes tend to follow party lines. Svensson finds evidence that the Maastricht Treaty was not an issue of low salience to Danish voters in the ratification referendums conducted there, and gives other details of the evolution of public opinion regarding Europe that clarify the circumstances in which our thesis should apply. In the light of his arguments, this Comment presents a more nuanced version of the thesis that learns from the Danish case, and should be of greater utility than our earlier version in helping to interpret the role of government standing in referendum outcomes.     

The politics of unemployment: Rates of unemployment and labour market policy

This article analyses the claims advanced by Robert McKenzie about the distribution of power in British political parties. It considers McKenzie's mode of analysis (with particular reference to Labour), his definition of terms, selection of evidence and interpretation of it. The major argument is that McKenzie over‐generalised from the events of the 1950s and 1960s and that subsequent events have severely undermined his thesis.     

“科学是年轻人的游戏”?——对科研人员年龄与论文产出之间关系的研究

本文基于一项全国范围内的抽样调查,考察了科研人员的年龄与其论文产出之间的关系,并分析了影响二者关系的个体学术地位(职称、导师资格等)、学科差异和单位属性(类型、科研实力、规模)等诸多因素。研究发现,论文产出并不存在"年轻人优势",反而是年长者的产出更多,这一现象在理工科中更为明显;研究人员所处的单位科研实力越强,其论文产出越多;科研产出的年龄差异更多地可以通过年龄背后的社会性因素加以解释。