How economic crises affect political representation: declining party‒voter congruence in times of constrained government

How do economic crises affect political representation in times of constrained government? Our paper shows that among voters salience of economic issues increases during economically harsh times. However, parties respond only to a limited degree to economic shocks, with the result that congruence between parties and voters decreases. We theorise the incentives and disincentives different political parties have in choosing a saliency strategy and we provide evidence on the extent to which congruence depends on the severity of economic shocks and the government/opposition status of the party. We draw on cross-national data to measure issue salience for parties (CMP) and voters (CSES). While our findings clearly indicate a decline of congruence in times of economic crisis, we also find that it remains best for government and office-seeking opposition parties. We substantiate this finding by unpacking the ways in which incumbent and office-seeking opposition parties address the economy in their manifestos.     

Community Consultation in Victorian Local Government: A Case of Mixing Metaphors?

This article draws on a three-year collaborative research project investigating how community consultation is practised by Victorian councils, especially in relation to multiple publics and groups that councils can find 'hard to reach'. Based on an analysis of consultation documents, this article looks at councils' understanding of community consultation and underlying assumptions, the expected outcomes and how this is translated into guidance for practice. The research demonstrates that councils aim to consult to provide a range of outcomes, but there is a lack of clarity about how to choose and use the appropriate combination of consultation tool(s) and public(s) to facilitate these. Councils are also unclear about how the outcomes of consultation feed into existing decision-making processes and the implications of this for democratic legitimacy. This is in part due to the fact that the conceptual tensions around consultation and the democratic process are apparent not so much by virtue of what is said about them, but of what is not said. The article begins by outlining the conceptual and definitional problems associated with consultation using typologies of public participation. We investigate how typologies inform the consultation documents developed by councils and in how far they support practice. We then address the need to involve multiple publics and the vexed issue of who is hard to reach and why they should be consulted.     

Preadolescents’ and Parents’ Dietary Coping Efficacy During Behavioral Family-Based Weight Control Treatment

Developmentally relevant high-risk dietary situations (e.g., parties where tempting foods are available) may influence overweight youth’s weight control, as they increase risk for overeating. Better self-efficacy for coping with these situations—which preadolescents may learn from their parents—could foster successful weight control. Overweight preadolescents (N = 204) ages 7–12 years (67% female), each with one parent, separately completed the Hypothetical High-Risk Situation Inventory (HHRSI) pre- and post-weight loss treatment. The HHRSI assesses temptation to overeat and confidence in refraining from overeating in response to four high-risk dietary scenarios. Participants generated coping strategies for each scenario. Coping strategies and confidence increased and temptation decreased from pre- to post-weight loss treatment. Parents’ increase in confidence from pre- to post-treatment was associated with preadolescents’ and parents’ weight loss. Tailoring treatments to enhance parents’ coping skills (e.g., building strategies, targeting high temptation/low confidence scenarios) may maximize preadolescents’ weight control.     

Psychosocial Correlates of Shape and Weight Concerns in Overweight Pre-Adolescents

Shape and weight concerns among overweight pre-adolescents heighten risk for eating disorders and weight gain. Treatment and prevention efforts require consideration of psychosocial factors that co-occur with these concerns. This study involved 200 overweight pre-adolescents, aged 7–12 years (M age = 9.8; SD = 1.4), presenting for family-based weight control treatment. Hierarchical regression was used to examine the influence of pre-adolescents’ individual characteristics and social experiences, and their parents’ psychological symptoms, on shape and weight concerns as assessed by the Child Eating Disorder Examination. Findings revealed that higher levels of dietary restraint, greater feelings of loneliness, elevated experiences with weight-related teasing, and higher levels of parents’ eating disorder symptoms predicted higher shape and weight concerns among overweight pre-adolescents. Interventions addressing overweight pre-adolescents’ disordered eating behaviors and social functioning, as well as their parents’ disordered eating behaviors and attitudes, may be indicated for those endorsing shape and weight concerns.     

postcolonial criticism,transnational identifications and the hegemonies of dancehall's academic and popular performativities

Despite the unprecedented freedoms that decolonization has brought for many Black people – especially in specific regions of the African Diaspora – freedom and its fulfilment, adequate signs and contested meanings remain a preoccupation within Black cultural discourses and practices. At the same time, while political and cultural nationalisms have led to greater political and civil rights, racism has not been eradicated. Furthermore, the new postcolonial globalizations of capital, people and cultures have destabilized the collective identities that framed twentieth-century struggles for national sovereignty and equal citizenship, without necessarily erasing them. Instead, they remain, no longer securely anchored in their old homogenous appearances, but re-configured through the inner differences and contradictions of gender, sexuality, ethnicity and religion. This article addresses these internal differences and the ways in which they produce new contestations over race, the meaning of Black representation and postcolonial freedom, negotiations that are increasingly traced on the intimate contours of the body and the self, through practices of personal consumption, erotic hedonism and style as key performances of freedom. It achieves this through examining two localized moments in the transnational and diasporic circulation of Jamaican dancehall culture, understood as a privileged public space for the performance of Black identifications and personal freedom. It argues that the eroticized discourses of ethnicity, race and gender found in dancehall culture articulate the dominance of neo-liberal conceptions of freedom at the same time as they express, resist and comment on new cultural hegemonies not reducible to racism or the power of the West; that is how dancehall expresses the new problematizations of postcoloniality.     

Government of Canada's teleworking and hybrid policies in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic

This article analyzes the evolution of teleworking and hybrid work policies in the public sector over the last two decades. It focuses on the Government of Canada, concentrating on the paradigmatic shifts brought about by COVID-19, particularly the impact on the development of teleworking and the transformation of the workplace into a hybrid model. Based on a historical neo-institutionalism approach, this article suggests that the pandemic has propelled the expansion of telework reforms, becoming a key driver in altering the application of both telework and hybrid policies. However, this article argues that, despite the general recognition in the effectiveness of telework and hybrid policies, there are still headways to be made, predominantly because there is still disagreement as to how these policies should be defined and ultimately applied in the federal public sector.     

Blunt force regulation and bureaucratic control: Understanding China's war on pollution

In the past decade, China has increasingly resorted to top‐down, “blunt force” solutions to environmental problems; officials forcibly shutter or destroy factories to reduce pollution, at immense cost to local growth and employment. Why would a high capacity state like China resort to such a costly method of pollution control? I argue that blunt force enforcement is targeted at overcoming principal–agent problems in the bureaucracy. When institutions are too weak to hold bureaucrats accountable, political leaders increase oversight by drastically reducing the number of steps and resources required to produce a regulatory outcome—resulting in blunt force measures. I illustrate this logic through case studies from China's multiyear war on pollution. Using original data on blunt force measures, I then show how localities with lower bureaucratic compliance face greater blunt force pollution enforcement. These findings reveal that when bureaucratic accountability is weak, states pay a very high cost for cleaner air.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the Healing After Gender-Based Violence Scale: An Instrument for Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Assessment of Recovery Progress for Women-Identifying Survivors

Journal of Family Violence - The Healing after Gender-based Violence Scale (GBV-Heal) was developed to measure the holistic recovery processes of woman-identifying survivors of gender-based...     

Analysis of Dental Case Reports in the Context of Court Decisions: Causal Nexus and Aspects of Fault

The purpose of expert reports is to support the judge in his decisions, by providing technical information. However, it remains uncertain as to what extent the content of these reports is used, and if they are effectively associated with judicial decisions. The aim of this study was to perform a qualitative analysis of case reports in relation to the judicial decisions rendered in association with these reports, by determining the connection between causal nexus and aspects of fault. The case reports included lawsuits against dentists, issued by the Medical Justice Department of the State Court of Appeals of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, between 2010 and 2013. Comparing the percentage of agreement between case report and judicial decision, causal nexus was 79.9% and fault was 86.7%. The high percentages of agreement found in relation to fault and causal nexus highlight the relevance of expert reports in weighing the judge's decision.