An Examination of Local Climate Change Policies in the Great Plains

As the United States struggles with national solutions to address climate change, state and local governments have become leaders in both mitigation and adaptation policy. Although a significant and growing body of research targets these policies, most studies have assumed common factors motivating both adaptation and mitigation policy adoption. There remains a need for more research on cities of all sizes, their adoption of specific local policies, the factors motivating those choices, and whether the influences for mitigation differ from those that motivate adaptation. The paper uses data from a new survey of over 200 local governments in eleven states of the Great Plains region, including measures distinguishing between mitigation and adaptation policies. These data are employed to test the relative influence of factors from three areas: the policy environment, the attitudes of governmental actors, and community atmosphere, in explaining observed variation in the adoption of climate change policies.     

Changing occupant characteristics in rural public housing in the Great Plains: 1977 to 1996

Abstract

Housing quality and affordability are growing concerns in rural areas, particularly in regions affected by economic restructuring and population decline. This article uses data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to assess changes in the characteristics of nonmetropolitan public housing residents in the Great Plains between 1977 and 1996.

Results indicate that public housing occupants were younger and more racially diverse in 1996 than in 1977. Also, a larger proportion received welfare benefits in addition to housing supplements. (In 1977, few households received both types of assistance.) Regression models reveal a significant positive relationship between changes in county population, unemployment rates, and economic designation and minority representation in public housing. Implications include the need for flexible measures that meet the changing needs of subsidized households. The characteristics of these households in the Great Plains region indicate the need for both region‐specific and coordinated housing and welfare policies.     

The Communal Basis of Swiss Liberty

This article examines the relationship between liberty and itscommunal basis in Switzerland. The author identifies the basiccultural values shared by the Swiss that have served to guaranteea republican form of government. These values are an expectationof "nonpersonalized" government and a preference for small-scaleorganization. These, together with the multilingual compositionof the country, have combined to produce Swiss republicanismfrom which liberty is a byproduct. More recently, the Swissnotion of liberty has evolved from communal liberty into onethat is oriented toward individual rights, which has also certainnegative implications.     

Communal Democracy and its History

Communes and communal thought are an essential part of the history of democracy. By recognizing this we can re-discover the connection between democracy and local, small-scale self-government, and see that democracy has a communitarian as well as a liberal foundation.     

Rethinking Representation from a Communal Perspective

Most foundational theories of congressional representation were developed during an era of less polarized and less partisan politics. These theories viewed the incumbency advantage as buttressed by the fact that some constituents were willing to support legislators from the opposite party because of their “home styles.” But in an era of policy immoderation in Congress, this perspective leads to an assumption that citizens evaluate their members of Congress based on what those legislators do for them individually, rather than what they do for their districts more broadly. In this paper, we ask whether citizens take the interests of their fellow constituents into account when evaluating their members of Congress. Using both survey data and an experiment, we uncover support for the notion that citizens take a more communal view of representation as at least part of their evaluations of their representatives. This suggests individuals may have a more nuanced understanding of representation than purely self-interested approaches tend to assume.     

义门郑氏的礼法实践及其当代启示

浦江义门郑氏家族文化的内容结构体现为诚心正意、尚廉主德的立身品格,孝悌为本、敬宗收族的家族道义,广施仁爱、赈济乡里的睦邻意识,廉洁奉公、执政为民的政治操守。其实践路径在于:以礼仪与教化强化道德自觉,自律自治与协作监督并重,始终抱持与时俱进的通变思维。囿于历史的局限性,义门郑氏的礼法实践在价值取向、族人参与及规则约束等方面还存有不足。当前中国特色社会主义廉政文化建设在汲取传统家范智慧之时,需根据时代要求赋予其新的内涵,进行创造性转化。     

Communal Democracy and Liberal Democracy: An Outside Friend's Look at the Swiss Political Tradition

This article offers a brief overview of the history of Swisscommunal liberty. The author traces the development of key conceptsand practices, especially the use of covenant, that were employedto strengthen and expand the federation. The author then explainshow the cultural background of the peoples that settled Switzerlandcontributed to the formation of the polity. In a comparativeanalysis between liberal democracy and communal democracy, theauthor notes that the struggle to synthesize the conflict betweenthe theories and practices of these two forms of democracy hasbeen at the heart of Swiss politics for the last 200 years.     

“大跃进”运动探源

中国共产党对社会主义道路的探索是一个漫长而艰辛的过程,道路上充满了各种挑战和考验。1958年以来,有两大考验阻碍着中国社会主义道路的前进,即社会主义条件下的阶级斗争考验和社会主义建设过程中规模速度考验。这两大考验相互交织,使中共探索社会主义道路进程更加曲折多变。"大跃进"运动就是在这两大考验的影响下发动起来的,给我们深刻的教训。关于"大跃进"运动的起源,从两方面分析,即为什么要发动"大跃进"?何以能够发动"大跃进"?