Does aid improve democracy and governance? A meta-regression analysis

The paper provides a systematic and quantitative review of the empirical evidence on the effects of development aid on democracy and governance. We find that aid has had, on average, a zero or negative effect on democracy, except that it has had a positive effect on democratization in European transitional economies. Aid had a positive effect on governance during the Cold War period but has had no effect on governance in the post-Cold War period.     

State Feminism and Women's Movements

This article offers a brief reflection on the emergence of the study of gender and politics over the past 30 years and its influence on European political science. It goes on to discuss the early results of a recently completed comparative project, the RNGS project (Research Network on Gender and the State) on the influence of women's movements on public policy decisions. The RNGS project reflects both developments in the sub-field of gender and politics and the influences of changes in approaches to the study of politics of the last 30 years or so.     

我国流域立法模式的合理选择与实现路径

改革开放后,随着我国法律制度的不断健全与完善,涉水立法也是活跃和不断发展的。但是,从总体看,我国以流域为尺度的立法相对薄弱。通过分析我国流域立法存在的问题,提出了"结合式"流域立法模式的概念,分析了这种立法模式面临的主要困难及其突破,探索了这种立法模式的实现路径。流域立法模式研究旨在推进和完善流域立法,使我国的水资源得到更好的保护和利用。     

Governing diversity: Dutch political parties' preferences on the role of the state in civic integration policies

This article analyses political debates about civic integration policies in the Netherlands, so as to identify different conceptions of the role of the state in ensuring social cohesion by governing diversity. Drawing on the literature on party systems, it presents an analysis of political party positions on the role of the state in civic integration along two dimensions: economic distribution on the one hand, and sociocultural governance on the other hand. I find that while the large majority of Dutch political parties adopt authoritarian positions on the sociocultural axis in favour of state intervention to protect Dutch culture and identity, their positions diverge significantly on the classic economic Left–Right dimension. The most contentious issue in Dutch civic integration politics is whether the state, the market or individual migrants should be responsible for financing and organising courses. Thus, this article proposes an innovative model for analysing the politics of citizenship, which enables us to comprehend how citizenship policies are shaped not only by views on how identity and culture relate to social cohesion, but also by diverging perspectives on socio-economic justice.     

Pension Reform and the Fiscal Policy Stance

The increased budget deficit caused by the privatization of a public pension plan does not imply a relaxation of the stance of fiscal policy. The reform's impact on the fiscal stance and national saving depends primarily on its effect on the sum of explicit and implicit public debt and on the postreform payroll tax and private system contribution rates. Its impact also depends on the difference between the rate of interest on implicit and that on explicit public debt, among other influences. Pension privatization, if not offset by fiscal consolidation, can loosen the fiscal stance in some circumstances.     

Gender symptoms,or, peeing like a man

A number of books and articles have been published on the relative merits of queer vs gay and lesbian, on the collisions and coalitions of queer, lesbian and feminist, on queering this and that; more has been written on the meaning of queer, its shifting semantic boundaries, its radical inclusiveness or assimilationist tactics (depending on the point of view), its role in the postmodern global market's commodification of sexuality. This paper, a contribution to social semiotics, does not contribute to the debate on queer, but continues the critical project of rethinking sexuality and gender.     

Do the Root Causes of Civil War Matter? On Using Knowledge to Improve Peacebuilding Interventions

Abstract

The normative and practical success of the 1990s campaign on the right and responsibility to intervene to stop civil wars should be acknowledged so that policy and research can move on to the more pressing question of how we intervene and improve on currently inadequate results. This essay confronts a standard explanation, the failure to address the root causes of a conflict. It argues from academic research on three aspects – the knowledge on causes shaping current policies, the interests of those who matter in intervention, and the new research on civil war – that a focus on root causes would not improve outcomes and could even be counterproductive.     

Two Walks: Palestine and the Peak District. A Conversation between Raja Shehadeh and Marina Lewycka, September 2008

In the summer of 2008 novelist Marina Lewycka and author and human rights lawyer Raja Shehadeh went on two walks: the first in Palestine near Ramallah near the Beit Eil Jewish settlement, the second on Kinder Scout in the Peak District, the site of the mass trespass in 1932 to reclaim the right to walk on the hills. This account of the conversation they recorded on the second walk includes observations by Marina on writing about Palestine and Israel and reflections by Raja about the effect of the Israeli occupation on the fragile Palestinian landscape. It also includes their discussions on writing, walking and the meaning it has to each of them, as well as political comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict evoked by visiting these sites. They wonder whether a similar act of resistance would be possible in Palestine and what it would mean to the future of the conflict.     

Institutional constraints on cabinet formation: Veto points and party system dynamics

Research on government formation in parliamentary democracies has presented contradicting evidence on the role of political veto institutions and parliamentary polarization on the formation of cabinet types. Institutional rules may either provide significant leeway for political parties or seriously constrain them when forming sustainable coalitions. In contrast to previous studies we argue that the effect of political institutions is conditional on the degree of polarization in parliament. We test our hypotheses using original data on 842 cabinet formations in 33 advanced democracies between 1945–2018. In line with previous research, we find that the institutional rules have a pronounced effect on the type of cabinet formed, but that institutional rules moderate the effect of party system polarization. Thus, our findings provide important new insights on cabinet formation which are particularly relevant for today's increasingly polarized parliaments.     

Look Back in Anger: Hemophilia and AIDS Activism in the International Tainted-Blood Crisis

During the 1980s, the AIDS epidemic devastated the hemophiliac population. It also fostered the emergence of hemophilia activists, who have had a profound effect on policy and politics in scores of nations. Drawing on case studies of 11 countries, this article examines the impact of this emerging interest group on politics and policy outcomes. In addition, it compares the strategies adopted by hemophilia activists and gay activists, specifically the reliance on victimization or rights as the premise of demands for public support. Although the article focuses on community mobilization around AIDS, it speaks more generally to the growing international impact of interest group (or identity) politics on policy.     

The effects of group size and income on contributions to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

This paper examines the extent to which individual contributions to public television are explained by the size of the audience which receives the individual station's television signal. It also incorporates the effects of income on contributions to public television in order to assess the combined effects of income and group size on contributions to public goods.The existing literature on contributions to public goods differs from this paper in several respects. First, this study uses field data to test the effects of group size on a public good. The majority of the existing literature on public goods contributions is based on experimental data. Most of this literature addresses the issue of free riding behavior, not the effects on contributions of different sized groups. Finally, the theory of group size developed in prior work does not address the issue of how contributions differ for groups which are very different in size.     

Interest Groups and Investment: A Further Test of the Olson Hypothesis

Mancur Olson's institutional sclerosishypothesis may be evident in the effects ofinterest groups on investment in physicalcapital. To test this proposition, we usecross sectional data on 42 countries forwhich information on the number of interestgroups is available to estimate the effectof those groups on the share of GDP thatgoes into physical investment. The resultsindicate that interest groups have adifferent effect on physical investment inOECD and non-OECD countries. In the OECDcountries, we find support for thehypothesis that interest groups harminvestment in physical capital. Indeveloping countries, interest groupseither have no effect on physicalinvestment or they have a slight beneficialimpact.     

退耕还林政策对农户生计的影响研究——基于家庭结构视角的可持续生计分析

以往关于退耕还林政策的分析,较少考虑微观的家庭人口因素。本研究在可持续生计分析框架下引入农户的家庭结构,并基于此框架使用农户模型具体分析了退耕还林政策对农户生计的影响。利用陕西周至县的农户调查数据进行实证研究,结果表明:家庭结构能够影响生计资本水平和时间配置,退耕还林政策对农户生计的作用因家庭结构而不同。退耕还林政策既没有针对生计资本贫乏的农户,也不一定能够促使农业劳动力向非农转化,并进一步提升农户的收入。有小孩但没有老年人的家庭较少从事外地打工活动,收入相对偏低,他们更依赖退耕补助。相关政策的制定和实施应当考虑家庭结构等人口因素。     

NONWHITE MINORITY ACCESS TO THE POLITICAL AGENDA IN BRITAIN

The theoretical literature on agenda-setting, largely developed in the United States, is applied to the problem of minority group access to the political agenda on race relations and immigration issues in the United Kingdom. Empirical emphasis is placed on the institutional opportunities and constraints for minority group access on major issues of concern in recent years. Nonwhite access to the political agenda in Britain remains minimal and problematic. The conclusion places these findings into the general literature on agenda setting.     

Developing Multilateral Surveillance Tools in the EU

The development of the infrastructure of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) is an unaddressed topic in scholarly debates. On the basis of secondary literature on the European Employment Strategy, it is hypothesised that a conflict between an incentive and reluctance to act on the EU level on the side of member states limits the choice for a policy instrument to the OMC, and is a driving force behind the development of its infrastructure. From empirical findings on the OMC e-Europe it shows that for the development of the infrastructure of an OMC on a policy field, a need for an instrument has to be present that can neutralise the conflict between an incentive and reluctance to act on the EU level.     

Bases of political judgments: The role of stereotypic and nonstereotypic information

Three experiments investigated the role of stereotypic and nonstereotypic criteria in judgments of political candidates. The effects of physical attractiveness, political party, and stands on specific issues on both absolute and comparative judgments of political candidates were examined to evaluate three hypotheses about stereotype and attribute use. In the absence of other information, candidates' physical attractiveness (conveyed through photographs) had a substantial influence on subjects' global evaluations of them and inferences of both their personal qualities and their political ideology. When other information about the candidates' party membership and stands on specific issues was available, however, the candidates' attractiveness had no effect on the evaluations of them. When subjects made judgments of only one candidate, subjects relied exclusively on the candidate's voting record. When subjects were asked to make comparative judgments of two candidates, however, they based their judgments on each candidate's party membership and not on their respective voting records. Implications of these results for the processes that underlie political judgments and decisions are evaluated.     

我国生态系统服务价值研究进展及现实问题探析

生态系统有价和有偿使用已成共识。通过对生态系统服务价值研究方法和主要几类生态系统的服务价值研究结果进行梳理,发现生态系统服务价值相关评估方法的科学性、数据选取的可信度和研究结果的准确性以及研究结果应用的可行性等几个方面面临一些现实问题,影响到评估结果的采纳和应用。随着可持续发展战略的深入实施,迫切需要对生态系统服务价值评估方法和现实问题进行深入探讨,重新定位生态系统的价值和价格。     

Does corruption grease or sand the wheels of growth?

This paper assesses the relationship between the impact of corruption on growth and investment and the quality of governance in a sample of 63 to 71 countries between 1970 and 1998. Like previous studies, we find a negative effect of corruption on both growth and investment. Unlike previous studies, we find that corruption has a negative impact on growth independently from its impact on investment. These impacts are, however, different depending on the quality of governance. They tend to worsen when indicators of the quality of governance deteriorate. This supports the “sand the wheels” view on corruption and contradicts the “grease the wheels” view, which postulates that corruption may help compensate bad governance.