The facts of lending discrimination cannot be argued away by examining default rates

Abstract

This article argues that interracial differentials in mortgage default rates are an unreliable indicator of racial discrimination in mortgage markets.

First, minority applicants may be approved at nondiscriminatory institutions and thereby end up in the pool of mortgagors, even though they were first discriminated against at other institutions. Second, even with no mortgage discrimination, the expected default risk of minority mortgagors overall is probably higher than that of white mortgagors overall. Thus, even if discrimination eliminated some of the riskier minority applicants, it is not necessarily true that the default rate of minority mortgagors will be lower than that of whites.     

Political judgments,perceptions of facts,and partisan effects

We test two competing hypotheses about the impact of partisanship and information on people's political judgments and perceptions of facts using Canadians' reactions to a major scandal. Our findings with respect to subjective political judgments confirm the argument that partisan predispositions are crucial. But there is no evidence to support the argument that the polarizing effect of partisanship is most evident among the most informed. When it comes to perceptions of “objective” facts, the results are consistent with Zaller's reception axiom: the more informed people are, the more likely they are to correctly perceive objective facts. Partisanship does not appear to affect these perceptions.     

When complex facts threaten court reviews: Litigation over navigation projects

The capacity of the U.S. courts to provide effective review of cases involving complex scientific and economic analysis is declining. Rational action in such cases requires three things: a general rule by which to judge the appropriateness of actual or proposed actions; a set of facts sufficient for determining the consistency of the action with the general rule; and an independent review institution with power to enforce actions under the rule. Where the issues are complex, however, government agencies increasingly have tended to cloak their decisions in needlessly technical formulations and to buttress their presentations in masses of impenetrable data. Courts tend to avoid involvement in the complexities, resting instead on a presumption that government reports are accurate and government actions appropriate; this is a tendency we label “judicial math block.” Two cases taken from the complex area of public navigation investment illustrate the problem.     

Science governance and the politics of proper talk: governmental bioethics as a new technology of reflexive government

Abstract

The article examines the emergence of governmental bioethics in Great Britain, France and Germany, i.e. bodies, discourses and procedures meant to guide policy-making in terms of ethical considerations. It argues that governmental bioethics, marked by openness, transparency and participation, can be understood as a form of reflexive government in the realm of science governance. It grew out of the problematization of older forms of science governance based on ideas of effectiveness, scientific expertise and system stability, and operates through structuring and managing proper talk rather than intervening in processes of techno-scientific development. Yet, rather than challenging the commitment to techno-scientific ‘progress’, it stabilizes it through mechanisms of inclusion, involvement and mobilization: within the framework of proper ethical talk, participation can be employed to pursue rather than oppose system stability.     

The consents of The Calculus

I study a game where two agents bargain on an agreement to replace the status quo. For their agreement to come into effect, they need the approval of a third agent. The preferences of this third agent is private information, but there is communication among agents. I study this game in the context of international agreements to provide an explanation for involuntary ratification failures. I show that under certain assumptions, the informational deficiency is incurable due to incentives to misrepresent preferences, and that a parliament whose majority is more hawkish than their executive prefers the executive to be risk averse.     

The Significance of The Administrative State

To mark the 60th anniversary of the appearance of The Administrative State by reexamining the politics–administration debate is confining and ignores Waldo's grand enterprise to describe the unique context in which American public administration emerged and developed. Instead of bemoaning or strategizing the reconciliation of a supposed schism, modern scholars should appreciate what is, in fact, a natural and necessary tension.     

论第四个货币时代的到来

纸币制度推动了人类社会商品经济飞速发展,但纸币制度存在严重缺陷,带来了多种形态的经济危机,纸币制度还不是人类终极的货币制度。 电子货币时代正在向我们走来。尽管今天的电子货币还只是作为纸币的代用物形式出现,就像历史上纸币一开始也曾以金属货币代用物形式出现一样,最终电子货币会     

The report of The International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur: The question of genocide

The crisis in Darfur (Sudan), which sparked in February 2003, only caught the United Nations’ attention in Spring 2004. Questions emerged as to whether the conflict between the rebels and the government was simply insurgency warfare or, in fact, concealed a genocide carried out by the Arab, Muslim-led government against the Animist and Christian-African population. The issue became so divisive that the Security Council requested the creation of an investigation team, the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, which amongst other tasks had to examine whether genocide had taken place. This article analyzes the facts as well as the legal reasoning that guided the International Commission of Inquiry in drawing the conclusion that a governmental policy to commit genocide had not been formed.     

《有闲阶级论》的理论成就

凡勃伦的《有闲阶级论》是现代消费社会学的开山之作,至今仍是这一领域最值得认真阅读的著作。本文试从三个方面讨论这本经典著作,其一,《有闲阶级论》并非如其表面那样容易阅读,及其理由何在?其二,《有闲阶级论》一书包含三个上下连贯的组成部分:凡勃伦的社会哲学和方法论(一般理论);关于有闲阶级的系统理论;对有闲阶级现象的系统观察;其三,从分析社会学的理论视角看《有闲阶级论》的理论得失。     

君子人格与人的现代化

当今中国正走在社会现代化的道路上,而社会现代化的关键在于人的现代化。人的现代化的核心是人的素质的现代化,这也是形成现代人格的前提条件。孔子提出的"君子人格"是先秦儒家的理想人格,是具有中国特色的符合中国民族性格和文化传承的基本人格,同时也符合现代价值观,对于现代人格的形成有不可或缺的作用。     

白寿彝先生的民族关系史观浅论

白寿彝先生是我国当代著名的民族史史学家。在民族关系史研究中,白寿彝先生强调注重民族团结、民族协作、汉族的主体性等在民族关系发展中的地位与作用等,极大的促进了我国的民族关系史史学理论的进步与发展。     

The Policy Sciences: The Challenge of Complexity

This essay reviews some of the recent criticisms of positivist science. It interprets this criticism, more generally, as directed towards the complexity of social science phenomena and the difficulty of dealing with complexity epistemologically and methodologically. Rather than ignoring complexity, changing the subject matter or explaining it away, we argue that complexity may be acknowledged and studied systematically withn the context of post-positivist approaches. The essay than proposes several strategies for conceptualizing and researching complexity (at a "meta-level" from substantive policy research) that are based in systems theory.