OLS is AOK for ACE: A Regression-Based Approach to Synthesizing Political Science and Behavioral Genetics Models

There is a growing interest in empirically exploring the biological underpinnings of political attitudes and behavior. Heritability studies are a primary vehicle for conducting such investigations and data sets rich in political phenotypes are becoming broadly accessible. A bottleneck exists, however, in exploiting these opportunities because they involve a statistical re-tooling for political scientists and require a conceptual shift that has substantial implications for the field’s traditional theoretical models. Methodologically, most twin studies rely on structural equation models unfamiliar to political scientists. We show this methodological bottleneck is easily navigable; it is the lesser discussed shift in theoretical assumptions poses the larger problem to integrating biological elements into the study of political attitudes and behavior. To address these issues we provide a detailed introduction to a regression-based method for analyzing genetic influence on political attitudes and behaviors that will be methodologically intuitive to political scientists with even minimum quantitative training. In doing so, we provide a platform for bridging important conceptual divides between political science and behavioral genetics.     

自主招生改革中的路径依赖与制度创新——新制度经济学的视角

我国自主招生改革是在传统统一高考制度的基础上开展的,因而在一定程度上存在对传统统一高考制度的路径依赖.要克服路径依赖,必须推进基本制度创新,为自主招生改革创造良好的制度环境.     

走向服务政府:洛克有限政府理论及其启示

随着国家治理现代化建设的推进,我国政府治理模式经历了管理型政府向服务型政府的转变。洛克有限政府理论在保护公民权利、实现政治国家与市民社会互动等方面具有积极的现实意义,但有限政府不一定等同于服务政府,在面对不同时期、不同国情下的市场失灵问题以及权衡德治与法治、自由与平等、作为与不作为等现实问题时,有限政府理论具有自身的局限性。而服务型政府必然是一个有限政府,洛克所提出的自然权利、社会契约以及权利让渡所构成的有限政府理论,对于新时代构建服务政府仍然有很强的借鉴意义。     

Beyond Marx-Weber: A Diversified and International Approach to the State

Marx initiated the definition of the development of the modern state as a process of expropriation of powers. Weber took over this idea and added to it two more definitions of the state: as the holder of a monopoly of the means of violence and as an authority based on rational-legal legitimation. These three definitions of the state held up well until after the second world war. hut since then new developments require that they he modified. Total expropriation of all powers did not take place. Instead a fusion of state and society ensued. The monopoly of violence has not proved usable and legitimation no longer matters so much in ensuring obedience. Furthermore, politics has moved to a new global international system featuring a number of different types of state: autonomous, community. Client, satellite and independent states. The combination of these five types with the previously defined three factors of expropriation, militarization and legitimacy, constitutes a theoretical approach that can relate internal structural disposition to external global position of the state.     

An Empirical Approach to Post-conflict Legitimacy: Victims' Needs and the Everyday

Abstract

An empirical study has been made of victims of conflict in Timor-Leste and Nepal seeking a qualitative understanding of local post-conflict priorities. It allows an appreciation to emerge of how the conflict-affected conceive of legitimacy and quality of governance, with victims emphasizing basic needs, an addressing of issues of marginalization and the incorporation of indigenous understandings of the meaning of peace. The data in this study motivate a victim-centred discussion of both the limitations of liberal approaches to peace and the implications for the legitimacy of post-conflict governance of prioritizing the everyday needs of the conflict-affected, in contrast to universal and institutionally rooted liberal values.     

Institutionalising a National Approach to Performance Reporting: Lessons from Two Decades of Experience with the Report on Government Services

The Report on Government Services (RoGS) to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) is considered an exemplar of benchmarking in a federal system. Published annually since 1997, RoGS provides performance reporting in the form of cross jurisdictional benchmarking on an unprecedented scale and scope. This paper argues ROGS has institutionalised a national approach to performance measurement and reporting that is now at the centre of the COAG reform agenda. The paper examines the processes and institutional structures that explain how RoGS has transformed performance reporting for social infrastructure services. The final section provides a preliminary assessment of the impact of RoGS.     

The Bureaucratic Approach to the Financial Revolution: Japan's Ministry of Finance and Financial System Reform

While all industrialized countries have enacted financial reforms over the past decade, Japan's Ministry of Finance (MoF) officials have crafted a distinctive approach to reform. They have managed to pursue their own agenda while at the same time responding to international market pressures and domestic political demands. This article examines Japan's "financial system reform," the process by which the MoF has recast the regulatory barriers between different types of financial institutions, such as banks and securities houses. Financial system reform represents an extreme case of a common Japanese policy pattern—the bureaucratic-led bargain—in which Japan's bureaucrats, rather than its politicians, organize the bargains that eventually emerge as policy. Two ministry policy councils deliberated for seven years before the Diet passed comprehensive reform legislation in 1992, and the ministry continues to redefine the reform at the stage of implementation today. While MoF officials have been forced to make concessions to industry groups and to adjust to unforeseen developments along the way, they have maintained overall control of the reform process. In fact, this article suggests that they have been remarkably successful in promoting their own peculiar interpretation of the public interest and in preserving and, in some cases, enhancing their own power.     

脱贫攻坚视域下农村协商民主 与精准脱贫关系研究

农村基层协商民主作为农村实现人民当家做主的重要形式,它保障了参与的机会平等,保障了参与的权利平等,促进了参与的积极性,促进了意见形成的公共理性。农村协商民主对精准脱贫具有时代意义,通过农村协商民主,为脱贫工作在精准识别、精准帮扶、精准管理、精准考核、精准脱贫等环节建立起新的工作机制,构建起新的模式,为精准脱贫提供制度保障。农村基层协商民主与脱贫长效机制的衔接和联动,既能够创新推进脱贫攻坚任务,又可以确保脱贫攻坚战如期打赢。     

United States' Narco-Terrorism Policy: A Contingency Approach to the Convergence of the Wars on Drugs and Against Terrorism

In recent years, terrorist organizations have become increasingly dependent on drug trafficking as one of several primary sources of revenue to fund terrorist activities. In response, the United States’ security and intelligence efforts against narco‐terrorism have increasingly merged into one unified policy approach. Moreover, the convergence of United States policy wars against terrorism and illicit drugs have produced complex and dynamic contingency factors. As a result, a relatively coherent nexus now exists between the United States’ antinarcotics and antiterrorist policies. The objective of this article is to explain and assess the contingency factors and implications resulting from this convergence and to provide policy scholars with an analytical perspective into the implications of the United States’ narco‐terrorism policy. It is believed that this article is significant to both policy practitioners and policy scholars concerned with the domestic impact of the United States’ narco‐terrorism policy.     

农地确权:化解人地矛盾的根本途径——兼谈我国农地产权制度改革的路径选择

通过农地确权化解人地矛盾以保证国家稳定,谋取社会发展,促进民生幸福,古今中外的实践验证或体现了这一规律性的认识。据此,我们提出了我国今后农地产权制度改革的路径:界定农地归村民小组集体所有;继续将土地权利"排他性"地界定给农户;鼓励农地权能分离组合,进行规模化经营;试探实行股权农地+保障农地的产权改革。     

Location, Location, Location: An MCMC Approach to Modeling the Spatial Context of War and Peace

This article demonstrates how spatially dependent data witha categorical response variable can be addressed in a statisticalmodel. We introduce the idea of an autologistic model wherethe response for one observation is dependent on the value ofthe response among adjacent observations. The autologistic modelhas likelihood function that is mathematically intractable,since the observations are conditionally dependent upon oneanother. We review alternative techniques for estimating thismodel, with special emphasis on recent advances using Markovchain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques. We evaluate a highly simplifiedautologistic model of conflict where the likelihood of war involvementfor each nation is conditional on the war involvement of proximatestates. We estimate this autologistic model for a single year(1988) via maximum pseudolikelihood and MCMC maximum likelihoodmethods. Our results indicate that the autologistic model fitsthe data much better than an unconditional model and that theMCMC estimates generally dominate the pseudolikelihood estimates.The autologistic model generates predicted probabilities greaterthan 0.5 and has relatively good predictive abilities in anout-of-sample forecast for the subsequent decade (1989 to 1998),correctly identifying not only ongoing conflicts, but also newones.     

Assessing the Effects of Immigration and Diversity in Europe: Introduction to the Special Issue

This article introduces the special issue on “Assessing the Effects of Immigration and Diversity in Europe” to the JEPOP readers. The article starts with a summary of the controversy generated by Putnam's 2007 article “E pluribus unum”. Next, it provides a brief account of the state of the art in the scholarship analysing the link between diversity, trust, social capital and social cohesion. The article continues with a discussion of a number of key problems that affect the existing scholarship, and highlights how the contributions to this special issue overcome some of these limitations. After this, the article considers the implications of this debate for the study of elections and public opinion. It concludes with a succinct overview of the contributions to the special issue and a discussion of how they help move forward the scholarship in this area.     

Toward Developing a Structured Approach to the Diagnosis and Resolution of Nonperforming Loans: The Case of China and India1

This article addresses the issue of nonperforming loans (NPLs) from a public policy perspective. The focus is on three aspects of NPLs that we consider essential for a proper analysis: the degree of the NPL problem, the causes of NPLs and the solutions adopted to address an identified NPL issue. This research analyses the diverse definitions and measurements of an NPL. Further, it introduces the distinction between systemic and situational causes of NPLs. Arguing that different causes require different cures, this study emphasizes a mix of short‐term and long‐term remedial measures as judicious in dealing with the NPL problem. This framework is then applied to two case studies: China and India. The conclusion identifies future directions of research, such as the study of a threshold level beyond which NPLs may pose a barrier to a country's growth and productivity.     

The French Fifth Republic as an Opportunity Structure: A Neo-institutional and Cultural Approach to the Study of Leadership Politics

The Gaullist settlement of 1958 reconfigured the political institutions of France, introducing into the republican mainstream a new form of leadership politics. Adapting the literature on political opportunity structure (POS) theory, and using the French left as a case study, can help us understand how political parties, ideology and leadership adapt to political institutions and norms. It also illuminates what the consequences are of such adaptation in the contemporary period, particularly as regards the institutionally bound roles of political 'character', protocol and discourse. The paper appraises the relevance and appropriateness of POS theory to leadership politics in France.     

善治视阈下的责任政府建设与社会主义市场经济治理进路

为了避免出现市场失灵和政府失效的双重困境,需要建立一个有效、有为、有力、有责的现代责任政府,促进公共利益最大化。善治为责任政府建设提供了理论前提和分析框架,而社会主义市场经济治理的现实逻辑则为责任政府建设提供了新的内涵和实践动力。当前,应在善治基础上建设理性、生态、有为、法治、民主、协作的责任政府,建立有为政府与有效市场互动、政府行政职能与社会自治功能互补的多元治理机制,形成政府主导公正、市场提高效率的治理模式,从而使政府治理体现善治要求的权力分享的内在本质属性和市场经济治理要求的公平、自由、效率、法治、生态,最终实现经济治理以及公共利益最大化的善治效果。     

Dual-Credit Courses and the Road to College: Experimental Evidence from Tennessee

Dual-credit courses expose high school students to college-level content and provide the opportunity to earn college credits, in part to smooth the transition to college. With the Tennessee Department of Education, we conduct the first randomized controlled trial of the effects of dual-credit math coursework on a range of high school and college outcomes. We find that the dual-credit advanced algebra course alters students’ subsequent high school math course-taking, reducing enrollment in remedial math and boosting enrollment in precalculus and Advanced Placement math courses. We fail to detect an effect of the dual-credit math course on overall rates of college enrollment. However, the course induces some students to choose four-year universities instead of two-year colleges, particularly for those in the middle of the math achievement distribution and those first exposed to the opportunity to take the course in eleventh rather than twelfth grade. We see limited evidence of improvements in early math performance during college.