Sex,gender, and promotion in executive office: Cabinet careers in the world of Westminster

This article provides the first analysis of gendered promotion issues for cabinet ministers using most-similar systems design for three “Westminster-style” governments: Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Using individual-level data and controlling for biographical, institutional, and country effects we find, in common with earlier literature, that women are more likely to be given less prestigious cabinet posts and be assigned to “feminine” portfolio. Using both sequence and event history analysis, we see the careers of men and women starkly diverge. We find that women are less likely to be promoted than men but find no relationship between prestigious portfolio and promotion. However, feminine portfolio assignments decrease the promotion prospects for women yet increase them for men.     

National Competitiveness in Comparative Perspective: Evidence from Latin America

The term competitiveness is widely applied as a catch‐all for investor‐friendly policies and institutions. This article argues that sloppy applications of the term ignore the possibilities of policy tradeoffs and varieties of institutional choices. Popular conceptualizations of the term describe three discernible clusters of economic policies and institutions. One cluster captures openness to international trade; a second gauges regulatory impediments to private sector competition; a third refers to public sector investments in human capital, security, and infrastructure. This essay develops three empirical indexes to operationalize these clusters and shows that these concepts are not only theoretically but also empirically distinct. In particular, the correlation between these measures is not especially high in a sample of Latin American countries. The larger economies in the region tend to be more competitive on the regulatory and public goods dimensions but fall well behind smaller economies in terms of external competitiveness, broadly conceived.     

Dumb Barter: A Seminal Form of Negotiation

Negotiation requires communication, but not necessarily verbal exchanges. Adjustments can be achieved incrementally by other means. This article will examine how some parties have managed to strike a deal in situations characterized by total distrust and even hostility, asymmetric power relations, major cultural differences, extreme logistical difficulties in reaching the place in which the trade is to be made, and several additional process risks by employing a type of bargaining known as “dumb barter.” This process presents a distinct paradigm with a specific and unique rationale. Sometimes called “silent trade,” it has been observed in many places (especially West Africa) for more than two millennia. It may well be the oldest form of trade negotiation and is still practiced in some parts of the world. An examination of this unlikely but real and effective process can also provide negotiation theorists with some useful insights into the fundamental nature of negotiation.     

中国气候外交的战略布局

近年来,气候变化问题在国际关系中的地位不断上升,成为影响国际格局走势的一个重要因素,并将引起世界各国外交领域的“气候变革”。当前,应对气候变化已成为中国“领域外交”的一项重要任务。气候外交作为中国整体外交布局的重要组成部分,是中国积极应对气候变化、优化对外战略布局的一项重要举措。认清形势并进行战略布局,积极开展气候外交,促进国民经济健康可持续发展,进一步提升国家形象,更好地履行国际责任,也是中国和平发展战略的一项重要内容。     

评析冷战后美国关于霸权问题的论争

冷战后,美国国内对其霸权的认知主要存在两种不同的观点,即＂霸权维持论＂与＂霸权衰落论＂。两种观点从不同的角度解读了美国霸权的未来。虽然两者之间存在差异,但并非根本对立。超越这些分歧,两者之间存在本质上的共识。两种观点的论争包含有美国大战略因素,为美国政府提供了冷战后时代国家战略的可能选项。     

网络舆论危机与“五重效应”化解

政府网络舆论危机既是引发政府公信力危机的＂催化剂＂,又是化解危机的＂灭火器＂。面对网络舆论,政府部门应发挥避雷针效应,做好积极引导;打破屏蔽效应,树立公开透明形象;重视首因效应,做好事件首次应对;克服激将效应,提高新闻发布水平;避免蝴蝶效应,及时迅捷处理问题。     

The urban household in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1900–2000: Patterns of family formation in a turbulent century

Starting from census data on co-residence and household composition, the authors analyse principles of family organisation and family formation in twentieth-century urban Russia and the Soviet Union. The article uses an adapted version of the classification of households developed by Peter Laslett and Eugene Hammel to study variation in household structure for successive population censuses. Changes in this variation between cross-sections are explained with the help of additional quantitative and qualitative data and are linked to the fundamental demographic, social and economic shifts which took place in Russian society in the course of the twentieth century. The article finds a family system characterised by a tendency towards nuclear family formation, but incorporating a fairly stable element of household extension. Co-residence of three generations was both an answer to a perennial housing problem and offered important advantages in the sphere of childcare and care for the elderly. Variation and fluctuation in household structure are found to be most pronounced during the turbulent first half of the century. After a period of stability during the post-war decades of Soviet rule, post-Soviet transformations provoke new changes.