Notes on contributors

Abstract

In his article for this issue of Economy and Society, Narayanan (2008 Narayanan, S. 2008. On the stalling of the Malaysian industrialization project. Economy and Society, 37(4): 595–601. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) presents a critique of our earlier work on Malaysian industrialization (Henderson &; Phillips 2007). Narayanan's objections are entirely empirical and they take the form of suggesting that had we looked at the ‘right’ data or ‘properly’ interpreted the data we provide, we would have seen that our hypothesis that Malaysia's industrialization project was ‘stalling’ was either wrong, or, if plausible, was unproven. In this response, we show that Narayanan is largely mistaken in his critique. While his contribution contains errors of interpretation, we argue that he is mistaken predominantly because he has misunderstood the methodological basis of our analysis. Specifically, he has failed to grasp our theoretical object and thus has been unable to identify the appropriate empirical terrain for assessing its significance and condition.     

Recognition,reification and (dis)respect

Abstract

Axel Honneth Honneth, A. 1982. Moral consciousness and class domination: Some problems in the analysis of hidden morality. Praxis International, 2(1): 12–24.  [Google Scholar] was already recognized as the leading figure in the ‘third generation’ of critical theory, long before he took up, in 1996, Habermas's chair in philosophy at Frankfurt and the directorship of the Institut für Sozialforschung. He has for a long time been reconceptualizing Frankfurt critical theory in terms of an originally Hegelian conception of recognition, and associated notions of respect and disrespect – a model which brings out a concern with human suffering which was a strong feature of the first generation of critical theorists. This volume of translated essays, together with a recent volume in German and his 2005 Tanner Lectures on reification, provides a good opportunity to triangulate Honneth's developing work.     

Is an Early Start the Best Start?: Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Political Science Summer Bridge Program

Summer bridge programs are supposed to connect a graduating high school senior’s summer to their first semester in college, easing the transition away from home and into a university setting. Although research is plentiful on the programs, assessments regarding the overall effectiveness of such programs have been mixed (e.g., Cabrera, Miner, and Milem 2013 Cabrera, Nolan, Danielle Miner, and Jeffrey Milem. 2013. “Can A Summer Bridge Program Impact First-Year Persistence And Performance?: A Case Study Of The New Start Summer Program.” Research in Higher Education 54(5): 481–498.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Douglas and Attewell 2014 Douglas, Daniel, and Paul Attewell. 2014. “The Bridge and the Troll Underneath: Summer Bridge Programs and Degree Completion.” American Journal of Education 121(1): 87–109.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Grayson 2003 Grayson, J. Paul. 2003. “The Consequences of Early Adjustment to University.” Higher Education 46(4): 411–429.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). As Cabrera, Miner, and Milem (2013 Cabrera, Nolan, Danielle Miner, and Jeffrey Milem. 2013. “Can A Summer Bridge Program Impact First-Year Persistence And Performance?: A Case Study Of The New Start Summer Program.” Research in Higher Education 54(5): 481–498.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) note, many of the studies collect data from participants in a one-time satisfaction survey and/or do not have an equivalent group of students who did not participate in the program from which to compare effectiveness. Our proposed study mitigates these flaws by employing a nonequivalent-groups quasi-experiment (NEG). Our bridge program—called Early Start (ES)— tapped into social, emotional, and academic engagement, as we sought to integrate the students into the university and school communities while holding high expectations and actively involving them in their own learning (Tinto 2004 Tinto, Vincent. 2004. Student Retention and Graduation-Facing the Truth, Living with the Consequences. Washington, DC: The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education. [Google Scholar]). Results suggest that not only were students enrolled in our program better socially and emotionally integrated into the university during their first year but they also scored better on content-based political science questions at the end of the fall semester, compared to their non-Early Start peers. Finally, aggregated data indicate an increase in retention for Early Start participants.     

Mobile Trust,Enacted Relationships: Social Capital in a State-Level Policy Network

ABSTRACT

What holds a policy network together? Our previous work on policy networks and “network systems” (Rethemeyer 2005 Rethemeyer , R. Karl. 2005 . “Conceptualizing and Measuring Collaborative Networks.” . Public Administration Review 64 ( 6 ): 62 – 66 . [Google Scholar]; 2007a,b; Rethemeyer and Hatmaker 2008 Rethemeyer , R. Karl and Deneen M. Hatmaker. 2008 . “Network Management Reconsidered: An Inquiry into Management of Network Structures in Public Sector Service Provision.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 18 : 617 – 646 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) suggests that personal social capital, organizational social capital, and resource dependence are complementary bases for cohesion in policy networks. In this article we take up the challenge issued by Ibarra, Kilduff, and Tsai (2005 Ibarra , Herminia , Martin Kilduff , and Wenpin Tsai. 2005 . “Zooming In and Out: Connecting Individuals and Collectivities at the Frontiers of Organizational Network Research.” . Organization Science 16 ( 4 ): 359 – 371 .[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 359) to “bring the individual back in” to network studies by examining the dynamics between individual and organizational social capital (a process that has not been fully developed in the literature) and to tighten the connection between social capital and resource dependence. Although researchers acknowledge that personal social capital contributes to organizational social capital (Knoke 1999 ——— . 1999 . “Organizational Networks and Corporate Social Capital.” Pp. 17 – 42 in R. T. A. J. Leenders and S. M. Gabbay , eds., Corporate Social Capital and Liability . Boston : Kluwer Academic Publishers . [Google Scholar]; Burt 1992 Burt , Ronald S. 1992 . Structural Holes . Cambridge , MA : Harvard University Press . [Google Scholar]), to our knowledge, no studies have examined how it contributes in a longitudinal, interorganizational policy network study.In this paper we present findings from a longitudinal case study of an adult basic education policy network between 1998 (“Wave 1”) and 2005 (“Wave 2”) in a state we have pseudonymed “Newstatia.” Using the theoretical framework from the first section and the case findings in section three, we weave together social capital and resource dependence to present the concept of “enacted interorganizational relationships.”     

Limits of the Game of Masks: Class,Ethno-religious Identities,and the Rise of Salafi-Jihadism in Northern Nigeria

Epigram

The intermediary bourgeois (our ruling elite) cannot claim political leadership openly on the grounds that he is, or wants to be, an exporter, shareholder, rentier or rich bureaucrat. He has to take over as a Muslim or Christian. He has to take over as an Ibo, Hausa, Idoma or Efik.… The manipulation of religion in Nigeria today is essentially a means of creating the context for this fancy dress ball, for this charade of disguises. This game of masks. (Yusuf Bala Usman 1979 Usman, Y.B. 1979, For the Liberation of Nigeria, New Beacon Books Ltd, London. [Google Scholar]: 88–89)     

Transcendental institutionalism and global justice

In The Idea of Justice (2009 Sen, A. 2009. The idea of justice, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Amartya Sen distinguishes between ‘transcendental institutional’ approaches to justice and ‘realization-focused comparisons,’ rejecting the former and recommending the latter as a normative approach to global justice. I argue that Sen’s project fails for three principal reasons. First, he misdiagnoses the problem with accounts that he refers to as transcendental-institutionalist. The problem is not with these kinds of accounts per se, but with particular features of prominent approaches. Second, Sen’s realization-focus does not account well for the value of institutions of global justice. And even Sen agrees that reforms to institutions are urgently needed. And third, the distinction between transcendentalism and comparative approaches is implausible. I close by suggesting a strategy for an alternative institutionalist approach that can offer the kind of guidance for reforming the global order that Sen rightly takes as urgent.     

European Culture and the European Union's ‘Turkey Question’

This article attempts to discern whether Turkey belongs to Europe's emerging pan-European cosmopolitan culture and investigates the political implications of Turkish cultural ‘otherness’. The article revisits Laitin's (2002 Laitin, David D. 2002. ‘Culture and National Identity: “The East” and European Integration’. West European Politics, 25(2): 56–80. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) suggestion that social mobility in contemporary Europe requires individuals to possess 2 ± 1 cultural repertoires. Then, drawing on analysis of Eurobarometer, World Values Survey, European Values Survey, and original datasets, it compares the cultural repertoires of citizens from four groups of European countries – the EU's founding members, countries that joined the Communities between 1973 and 1995, countries of the 2004/2007 enlargement wave, and Turkey itself. The data support the conventional wisdom that Turkey is culturally quite different from EU norms. Still, the article concludes by interrogating the political implications of this difference and suggesting that Turkey's cultural alterity does not necessarily preclude the possibility of smooth Turkish integration into the EU.     

A New Measure of Red Tape: Introducing the Three-Item Red Tape (TIRT) Scale

ABSTRACT

Much empirical red tape research utilizes the General Red Tape (GRT) scale, which asks respondents to rate the level of red tape on a scale of 0 to 10 (Rainey, Pandey, and Bozeman 1995 Rainey, H. G., S. K. Pandey, and B. Bozeman. 1995. “Research Note: Public and Private Managers’ Perceptions of Red Tape.” Public Administration Review 55(6): 567–574.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Because “popular usage of the term ‘red tape’ requires no precision” (Bozeman and Feeney 2011 Bozeman, B. and M. K. Feeney. 2011. Rules and Red Tape: A Prism for Public Administration Research and Theory. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. [Google Scholar], 3) and the GRT scale “assumes that respondents understand the terms to which they are responding” (101), evaluating red tape in this way may be theoretically disadvantageous. This article proposes a new measure—the Three-Item Red Tape (TIRT) scale—consisting of three items drawn from previous rules research on rule characteristics to which respondents characterize organizational rules by how burdensome, unnecessary, and ineffective they are. This measure has several advantages over existing measures: it includes several indicators; it does not include the term “red tape”; and it is drawn directly from Bozeman's (1993 Bozeman, B. 1993. “A Theory of Government ‘Red Tape.'” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 3(3): 273–303. [Google Scholar]; 2000 Bozeman, B. 2000. Bureaucracy and Red Tape. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. [Google Scholar]) operational definition of red tape. Using structural equation modeling to model survey data from two local government organizations (n = 1,666), this article evaluates the theoretical and empirical validity of this TIRT scale, compares it with the GRT scale, tests its relationship with formalization, which is known as a distinct concept, and addresses implications of this scale on red tape theory.     

An Empirical Assessment of the Municipal Financial Situation in Spain

ABSTRACT

Public finance theories state that both political and socioeconomic factors must be considered in order to explain governments' finances. On the one hand, “partisan politics matters” thesis argues that progressive parties contribute to increase public deficit. On the other hand, Roubini and Sachs' weak government hypothesis (1989a Roubini , N. and J. D. Sachs . 1989a . “Political and Economic Determinants of Budget Deficits in the Industrial Democracies.” European Economic Review 33 : 903 – 938 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1989b Roubini , N. and J. D. Sachs . 1989b . “Government Spending and Budget Deficits in the Industrial Countries.” Economic Policy: A European Forum 8 : 99 – 132 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) states that the higher the government fragmentation, the higher spending, deficit and debt. Accordingly, our work evaluates whether municipal ideology and political strength have an impact on public expenditures and taxes. With this aim, we analyze a representative sample of Spanish municipalities (2,729) for the year 2005. We find an influence of the size of the political majority on the municipal financial situation. However, we do not find evidence of the impact of the government's political ideology. Economic and population variables are found highly significant. Our data also show a “flypaper” effect in the Spanish municipal sector.     

Appeals to the Hispanic Demographic: Targeting through Facebook Autoplay Videos by the Clinton Campaign during the 2015/2016 Presidential Primaries

By looking at the autoplay videos posted and shared on Hillary Clinton’s Facebook account during the 2015 Facebook. 2015. “The Value of Video for Brands.” Webpage Accessed 28 April 2017. https://www.facebook.com/business/news/value-of-video [Google Scholar]/2016 Clinton, H. 2016. “A Special Moment during a Meeting with the Union of Peasants. Yes You Can! Watch the Video. Facebook Status Update.” Retrieved 20 November 2016. https://www.facebook.com/hillaryclinton/posts/1090969694292892 [Google Scholar] primary election season, this article offers much needed insight into the communication aspect of campaign targeting. Using data analysis extracted from the leading social media platform, the article examines what groups of Hispanic Facebook users were attracted to Clinton’s targeted autoplay videos, what elements within these videos best enticed these people into liking the videos, and if the Clinton campaign appeared to learn what types of autoplay videos were most effective over the course of the primary season.     

Time to Discuss: Data to Crunch or Problems to Solve? A Rejoinder to Robert Thomson

Testing the insights from qualitative case studies (Falkner et al. 2005 Falkner, G., Treib, O., Hartlapp, M. and Leiber, S. 2005. Complying with Europe. EU Harmonisation and Soft Law in the Member States, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) in quantitative models is a challenging task (see Thomson 2007). This article argues that in political science, our evaluation standards for quantitative analyses need to go far beyond the sophistication of calculations. They should include the quality of assumptions imputed, of data used, and of reasoning as to the political – as opposed to statistical – significance of regressions. When presenting statistical findings that counter solid qualitative work, scholars therefore are under an obligation also to present reasoned arguments for their case, taking into full account the qualitative findings on processes and mechanisms unveiled in these empirical studies.     

The Purpose and Perception of Learning Objectives

Much of existing assessment and instructional design strategies revolve around the use of learning objectives. Learning objectives are used by faculty, by instructional designers, by accreditors, by assessment offices, and by students. But even as the use of learning objectives becomes more widespread, the definition and purpose have remained unclear. Instructional designers argue that learning objectives exist to provide a focused mindset for students engaging in the content, while faculty often view learning objectives as an administrative requirement that has little impact on teaching or student performance. Existing research on the subject is primarily normative and/or qualitative in nature (Harden 2002 Harden, Ronald M. 2002. “Learning Outcomes and Instructional Objectives: Is There a Difference?” Medical Teacher 24 (2):151–155.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Torrance 2007 Torrance, Harry. 2007. “Assessment as Learning? How the Use of Explicit Learning Objectives, Assessment Criteria and Feedback in Post-Secondary Education and Training Can Come to Dominate Learning.” Assessment in Education 14 (3):281–94. doi:10.1080/09695940701591867.[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). In this article, the researchers seek to use empirical evidence to examine the definitions, purpose, and impact of learning objectives on student performance. We find that there is no shared understanding of definitions and purpose, and using an experimental design, we find that learning objective wording and use in the classroom does not affect student performance.     

How do Voters' Strategic Behaviors Mediate the Impact of Electoral Systems on the Effective Number of Electoral Parties? An Experimental Study

This article presents the results of an experiment that looks at the relationship between electoral systems, strategic voting and the effective number of electoral parties. The study is based on experiments conducted with groups of 21 participants. The experiments consisted of a series of elections involving four parties. Two main treatments were applied. First, four different voter distributions were created. Second, there were two kinds of electoral systems under which the subjects voted. The analysis indicates that voters do not coordinate on the same parties under different electoral rules. Importantly, we find that the classic type of strategic voting identified by Duverger (1954 Duverger, Maurice (1954) Political Parties (New York: Wiley). [Google Scholar]) is reinforced by a different type of strategic voting identified by Cox (1997 Cox, Gary W. (1997) Making Votes Count – Strategic Coordination in the World’s Electoral Systems (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), namely “strategic amplifying voting”. The results show that classic strategic voting reduces the effective number of electoral parties while strategic amplifying voting increases the latter. Overall, we show that voters' strategic behaviors mediate the impact of the electoral system on the effective number of electoral parties.     

On the stalling of the Malaysian industrialization project

Abstract

In a recent article in this journal, Henderson and Phillips (2007 Henderson, J. and Phillips, R. 2007. Unintended consequences: Social policy, state institutions and the ‘stalling’ of the Malaysian industrialization project. Economy and Society, 30(1): 78–102.  [Google Scholar]) argue that Malaysian industrialization is ‘stalling’ because it is locked into low- to medium-technology operations. They attribute this to an affirmative policy that sidelined the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) capable of benefiting from linkages with transnational corporations (TNCs) and an immigration policy that provided cheap foreign labour and weakened the pressure on firms to upgrade themselves. While not disputing these explanations, this paper shows that the evidence they provide is unconvincing and, sometimes, undermines their case. Their argument is further weakened because they fail to explain why the proportion of high-tech exports in total Malaysian manufacturing exports is surprisingly high, unlike that of an economy concentrating on low- or medium-tech production.     

Neither the T Index nor the D2 Score Measure “Two-Partyness”: A Comment on Gaines and Taagepera

This comment critiques the paper by Gaines and Taagepera (2013 Gaines, Brian J. &; Taagepera, Rein (2013) How to operationalize “two partyness”, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. Digital online version, available at <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2013.770398> (accessed 23 March 2013). [Google Scholar]) outlining two new measures that compare how far election outcomes diverge from a particular ideal of “perfect two-partyness” (one in which all votes are divided equally between the top two parties). Their first proposed T index is an unstable amalgam of two different measures, one linear and the other not. Applied to analysing sets of election outcomes, it systematically mis-signals “two-partyness” in its accepted meaning, producing perverse results. Their second index, D₂, has a varying minimum size level depending on the size of the largest party (P₁) and the number of observable parties competing. In many circumstances D₂ scores bifurcate – the same scores are produced by both very low and very high P₁ levels. Applied to distributions, the D₂ score artefactually homogenizes very dissimilar distributions, again misreads even two-party configurations, and always overstates “two-partyness” in multi-party systems. I conclude that neither the T nor D₂ indices are fit for purpose. They should not be further used in electoral analysis.     

Using Active-Learning Pedagogy to Develop Essay-Writing Skills in Introductory Political Theory Tutorials

Building on prior research into active learning pedagogy in political science, I discuss the development of a new active learning strategy called the “thesis-building carousel,” designed for use in political theory tutorials. This use of active learning pedagogy in a graduate student-led political theory tutorial represents the overlap of several currents of political science education research. First, the graduate teaching assistant-led tutorial is a common complement to large lecture-based introductory courses in political theory. Second, where International Relations has led the expansion of active learning in political science, political theory has lagged behind other subfields (Archer &; Miller 2011 Archer, Candace C. and Melissa K. Miller. 2011. “Prioritizing Active Learning: An Exploration of Gateway Courses in Political Science.” PS: Political Science &; Politics 44(2): 429–434.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The thesis-building carousel is designed to develop skills necessary for political theory classes—essay writing and peer review. The article concludes with a discussion of how active learning activities designed for specialized spaces can be modified for use in traditional classroom settings, with the example of three forms of “summary carousels.”     

There is No Debriefing Without Prior Briefing: Writing a Briefing Memo as a Preparatory Activity to Make the Most of the Pedagogical Potential of Simulations

Simulations are traditionally divided into three phases, namely preparation, interaction, and debriefing. This article argues that the first phase has been neglected. The preparation phase is indeed widely seen as necessary but merely instrumental to the interaction phase of simulations rather than as a self-contained activity that may also provide an opportunity to make the most of their pedagogical potential. This article explains how writing a briefing memo to prepare a simulation challenges this taken-for-granted view. After outlining the reasons why I asked the students of my Introduction to International Relations module to write a briefing memo about the conflict in South Sudan in preparation for a simulation of the negotiation of a peace agreement, the article explains how it can be used to generate a stimulating class discussion. It then emphasizes how the three phases of the simulation fruitfully complement each other and allow teachers to go beyond the instrumentalist conception of the preparatory phase. Finally, the conclusion reflects about the “portability” (Kollars and Rosen 2016 Kollars, Nina and Amanda Rosen. 2016. “Bootstrapping and Portability in Simulation Design.” International Studies Perspectives 17(2): 202–213.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) of the briefing-negotiation-debriefing format outlined in this article.     

Time to Comply: National Responses to Six EU Labour Market Directives Revisited

This paper examines variation in the timing of compliance with European directives. It formulates and tests the hypothesis that member states' policy-based incentives to deviate from the content of directives influence delay in compliance. This hypothesis is tested along with other factors that are posited to influence compliance, including the amount of discretion directives give member states, the level of misfit between national and European-level laws, and characteristics of member states. The hypotheses are examined in a quantitative research design using arguably the best available information on compliance: national responses to six labour market directives investigated by Falkner et al. (2005 Falkner, Gerda, Trieb, Oliver, Hartlapp, Miriam and Leiber, Simone. 2005. Complying with Europe: EU Harmonisation and Soft Law in the Member States, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) for Complying with Europe. The present study develops Falkner et al.'s analysis in two respects. First, it identifies new theoretically important variables and offers measures of these, notably member states' policy-based incentives to deviate and the amount of discretion granted by directives. Second, it tests these hypotheses using multivariate analysis, while Falkner et al. applied bivariate tests only. In contrast to Falkner et al.'s conclusions, the findings indicate that misfit between national and European laws significantly reduces the likelihood of timely compliance. While political opposition at the time of a directive's adoption is not linked directly to compliance, member states tend to oppose directives that do not fit existing national laws. Compliance is more timely for directives that grant more discretion.