The role of expectations and promises in land use decisionmaking

Land use disputes are often at their center disagreements about the expectations of different parties, public and private, concerning permissible land uses and activities. Expectations are influenced by numerous factors, from broad economic and social trends to specific public planning policies and decisions. One source of land use expectations are promises issued by public planning and decisionmaking bodies. Two types of promises arise: explicit promises (e.g. statements of intention found in an officially-adopted comprehensive plan, publicly issued resolutions, etc.) and tacit promises (e.g. created by a series or pattern of public decisions, or by the clear unwillingness of the public to take actions in the past where opportunities existed to do so). It is argued that public officials and planners should be concerned with promises and that they should be given some degree of moral consideration when debating and resolving land use conflicts. Other things being equal, public planning agencies and decisionmaking bodies ought to acknowledge that the expectations of individuals are influenced by such promises and seek to respect them. Private land use expectations based on public promises are not sacred, however, as many situations arise where land use officials are confronted with conflicting moral demands. Situations where public land use promises may need to be overruled or qualified are considered. At a minimum, public land use officials have an obligation to clarify expressions of land use policy so that the formation of false private land use expectations is minimized.     

The role of the state in voluntary environmental reform: A case study of public land

Conventional environmental reform is characterized by the compliance of firms with direct regulatory pressure from the state. Scholars are now turning their attention to alternative modes of reform where firms proactively improve their operations through the implementation of voluntary environmental strategies (VES). While previous research on VES has typically focused on the manufacturing sector, this study explores challenges to corporate greening in the natural resource extractive sector when strategies are undertaken on public land. Findings from two case study regions in the Canadian province of Alberta suggest that VES undertaken on public land are significantly constrained by certain features of the system of environmental governance and the regulatory regime, particularly the reluctance of the state to be involved as a co-regulator of public land. The importance of solid leadership from the state in environmental reform – including cases of voluntary corporate initiatives – is discussed.     

Delegate interactions at the 1984 national party conventions: The Tennessee delegations

This study compares the activities of the Democratic and Republican delegations from Tennessee to the 1984 national nominating conventions. Although the two delegations were quite similar in personal attributes, their activities varied contextually with the different circumstances surrounding the two conventions. While the Democratic convention was a genuinely decision-making assembly making for wide dispersion of delegation members' activities, the Republican convention turned the delegates into recipients of party appeals for unified support of the presidential as well as congressional and gubernatorial candidates. The decision of the Republicans to conduct their 1988 convention under the same rules as in 1984, in contrast to the Democrats' decision to have a commission create new rules for 1988, was inevitable given the different contexts of the two conventions.     

A salt on the land: A narrative analysis of the controversy over irrigation-related salinity and toxicity in California's San Joaquin Valley

A narrative network analysis of the seeming paralysis of efforts to deal with the problem of toxic elements in agricultural drainage in California's San Joaquin Valley shows irrigation agencies to be caught in a dilemma. Despite pressures to reduce uncertainty about treatment methods, reducing this uncertainty risks increased political polarization over agricultural subsidies. As a result, policy-makers are reluctant to move in any action-forcing direction, and continue to order further studies. We sketch out those areas of contention that must be addressed if real progress is to be made, demonstrating that the issues are primarily organizational and political rather than technical. We also discuss our experience in presenting these findings, along with our recommendations for structural separation of drainage functions from present irrigation agencies, to the relevant policy audience.     

Women's Authority in Patriarchal Social Movements: The Case of Female Salafi Preachers

How do women gain authority in the public sphere, especially in contexts where patriarchal norms are prevalent? I argue that the leaders of patriarchal social movements face pragmatic incentives to expand women's authority roles when seeking new movement members. Women authorities help patriarchal movements by making persuasive, identity-based arguments in favor of patriarchy that men cannot, and by reaching new audiences that men cannot. I support this argument by examining the rise of online female preachers in the Islamist Salafi movement, using interviews, Twitter analysis, and automated text analysis of 21,000 texts by 172 men and 43 women on the Salafi-oriented website saaid.net. To show the theory's generality, I also apply it to the contemporary white nationalist movement in the United States. The findings illustrate how movements that aggressively enforce traditional gender roles for participants can nevertheless increase female authority for pragmatic political reasons.     

The Development of Local Discretionary Authority in New York

Central control of cities was established policy during thecolonial period. The policy was continued after independence.By 1839, all cities were allowed to elect their mayors, anda movement commenced to limit the powers of the legislatureover local governments. An 1874 constitutional amendment forbadethe legislature to enact a special or local bill in seven areas,and the 1894 constitution allowed a city to veto a special cityact, subject to repassage by the legislature. Although constitutionalamendments in 1923, 1935, 1938, and 1963 broadened local powers,the Court of Appeals in the 1920s and 1930s tended to restrictthe powers of local governments. The most important changesin the powers of local governments have occurred since 1980as the result of advisory opinions, issued by the attorney generaland state comptroller, broadening the powers of local governments.Nevertheless, the legislature retains the authority to enactgeneral laws imposing mandates and restraints upon local governments.Such mandates and restraints are responsible for New York beingranked thirty-fifth in terms of discretionary authority grantedto local governments.     

Widows and neighbors,cornfields and magueys. The impact of population increase in the Toluca Valley: the case of Tenango del Valle during the eighteenth century

The author examines the effect of rapid population growth due to migration on the parish of Tenango del Valle, Mexico, during the eighteenth century. She gives special consideration to the impact on quality of life in indigenous villages, especially for widows and female heads of households who were impoverished as a result of discriminatory land transactions. Data are mainly from the parish register for 1770.     

非权力性权威:民营企业党组织建设的导向

民营企业党建工作的特殊性,决定了其党组织的建立和运作应以非权力性权威为导向,科学合理地确定自己的功能定位,创新工作方式方法,找准开展工作的着力点和切入点,形成新的环境下保持旺盛生命力的新机制。     

Why International Trusteeship Fails: The Politics of External Authority in Areas of Limited Statehood

International trusteeship is widely touted as a solution to the problem of failed states, an extreme form of limited statehood. Current theories of legitimacy and statebuilding suggest that trusteeships should produce more capable states. These theories, however, fail to take into account the self‐interest and political strategies available to trustees and politicians within new states. We pose a more political model of statebuilding by the international community, the trustee, and national politicians that predicts that trusteeship will fail to produce states with greater capacity. We test for the effects of trusteeship on state capacity, measured by service provision, by creating a matched sample of countries. We find that there is no evidence that states under trusteeship develop greater capacity leading to better provision of public goods than comparable states not under trusteeship. Would‐be statebuilders must be more aware of the political incentives of all parties involved in the process.     

Retaining agricultural activities under urban pressures: A review of land use conflicts and policies

From a national perspective it is unclear whether the continued expansion of urban development seriously affects America's potential food production over the long run. Yet there are clearly regional biases toward conversion of farmland to urban uses and locally important changes in the appearance of the landscape at the rural—urban fringe. Urbanization also generates spillover effects causing the idling of farmland and the shifting from one type of agriculture to another.Land use controls aimed at directly addressing the use of the land may be effective in preventing some conversion of farmland to urban uses but the methods are costly and possibly very complex. Incentives to farmers to keep land in agriculture are generally too weak to be effective in retaining agricultural land in the face of strong urban pressures.This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Research Applied to National Needs) to the Regional Science Research Institute.     

A Question of Authority: Religion and Cultural Conflict in the 2004 Election

In this study I adopt a view of cultural conflict that extends beyond the usual set of controversial “moral” issues like abortion and gay rights to include symbolic issues related to patriotism and group affect. Using a set of survey items asking about respondents’ preferences in child-rearing, I create a measure of individuals’ orientations toward authority that proves to be a potent predictor of attitudes on cultural issues, affect toward social groups, party identification, and vote choice. This authority effect persists even in the presence of extensive multivariate controls for demographic and religious variables. I find that both authority measures and religion measures shape political attitudes, suggesting the need for a multi-faceted approach to understanding cultural conflict.

Legislator Success in Committee: Gatekeeping Authority and the Loss of Majority Control

In multiparty legislatures, the largest party or coalition may fall short of controlling a majority of plenary seats. However, plurality‐led congresses generally endow the largest parties with extensive agenda‐setting prerogatives, even when plenary majorities are lacking. In this article, we present a model and compelling evidence describing changes in the strategic behavior of committee chairs when majority control is lost. Using a dataset that includes all the bills proposed to the Argentine House in the last 25 years, we estimate success in committee in majority‐ and plurality‐led congresses. We provide extensive evidence that the loss of majority control reduces the importance of the median voter of the plurality party while improving the success of the median committee voter.     

Sexual Harassment: The Nexus Between Gender and Workplace Authority: Evidence from the Australian Public Service

Sexual harassment in the workplace is commonly portrayed as the male supervisor harassing female subordinates. Within this popular characterization, the unequal distribution of formal, organizational power is believed to be a necessary precondition for sexual harassment. The traditional cultural image of harassers and targets has however not kept pace with changing workplace realities. Research has indeed found that female supervisors may in fact be more likely to be subjects of sexual harassment. This article uses survey data from the Australian Public Service to explore this kind of contrapower harassment. Results indicate that a strong link between gender, workplace authority, and sexual harassment exists, but also that this relationship is strongly influenced by age.     

新权威主义对大学生的影响及其应对

新权威主义是当下我国存在的一个重要社会思潮,其根本主张在于通过政治强权来发展自由经济。大学生往往是社会思潮最直接的接受者和传播者,难免也会受到新权威主义的影响。新权威主义对大学生的影响具有两面性,特别是其消极影响不容忽视。必须认清新权威主义存在的合理性,又谨慎地看待其消极影响,牢固树立马克思主义的意识形态主导地位,引领大学生正确地认识与应对新权威主义。     

教师权威发展的特性和构建的基本原则

教师权威是客观存在的,它不断受到时代语境变迁和代际关系变化的挑战,它有其自身的内在变化逻辑和发展特性、发展原则。教师权威不是先验的,也不是一成不变的,我们应树立动态的权威观。而且从根本上说,高校教师权威的变化是社会的发展对教师提出的新要求,也是提高教育质量、实现教育目标的必然要求。