The scope of political jurisdictions and violence: theory and evidence from Africa

Public Choice - Is there more violence in areas with many small countries or only a single large one? I build on Bernholz (The international game of power: past, present and future 1985) to create...     

Ladies against women: Explaining the political participation of traditional- and modern-role females

Data from the 1980 National Election Study are used to examine how well participation theory variables and group consciousness variables account for the nonvoting political activity of traditional-role women. Of the little variance in this activity that is explained by a regression analysis among these women (.070 after adjustments for number of respondents and variables, compared to .240 among modern-role women), most is due to two participation theory variables: party identification and efficacy. However, a discriminant function analysis emphasizes two group consciousness variables (gender consciousness and religious consciousness) and only one participation theory variable (political ideology) as the main forces that distinguish active traditional-role from active modern-role women. These findings indicate the need to make clear which comparison group — other traditional-role women or politically active modern-role women — is being used in efforts to understand traditional-role women's political conduct. The findings also call for new theoretical directions about traditional-role women's nonvoting participation, because of the weak explanatory ability exhibited by all fourteen variables together.     

Gender,actors, and institutions at the local level: Explaining variation in policies to address violence against women and girls

Research on gender equality policy has generally focused on actors and institutions at the national and international levels. This article considers the role of local‐level actors and institutions in explaining different policy responses to violence against women and girls (VAWG). The literature on gender policy trajectories identifies the particular importance of executive actors in influencing “status policies” like VAWG. Quantitative data are analyzed to show how local Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales have responded to demands for policy action. The focus is on the interaction between the 41 elected commissioners and the new institutional arrangements for police governance introduced in 2012. The article shows that variation in policy outcomes is related (a) to the gender of executive actors and (b) to the way in which actors interpret elements of the institutional framework, regardless of their own gender.     

Mothers and militias: Islamic state construction of the women citizens of Northern Sudan*

As the only Sunni Islamic Republic in the world, Sudan's middle‐class, modernist Islamist revolution can be seen as a model for the mobilization of public consciousness about citizenship in an Islamic state. That this citizenship is consciously and conspicuously gendered is the main theme of this paper. In the north, where mobilization has been most successful, Sudanese women have both been constructed and have constructed themselves as the woman citizen— mother, Muslim, and soldier. A brief historical background reveals complicated shifts in national, local, and gender identities, from the colonial state to the present. The crux of the paper is an exploration of state hegemonic strategies, including the manipulation of gender and other identities, especially as these are manifested in the fashioning of the ‘new Muslim woman’. Women's complicity in and resistance to these constructions are among the dynamics of contemporary northern Sudan. The paper also explores the waning of ‘Arab’ identity claims in the face of state emphasis on Islamic identity and the relevance to Islamist women. Interview statements by Islamist women attest to both their complicity in and resistance to their construction as members of the Islamic nation/community.     

The changing politics of women: gender and political alignment in 11 nations

Abstract. Although there has been considerable research on the changing politics of women in advanced industrial societies, there has been little consistent, cross-national research to identify the sources of these changes. This paper uses closely comparable data collected in 11 countries in the early 1980s to examine gender differences in political alignments. The results show that in 10 of the 11 countries, women are more conservative than men, by differing degrees. The exception is Australia, where women are more leftwing than men. The sources of these gender differences are shown to be differential levels of workforce participation and religiosity between men and women. Once these and other factors are taken into account through multivariate analysis, women follow the Australian pattern and emerge as more leftwing than men in six of the 10 countries. In the remaining four countries, greater female conservatism is substantially reduced once these factors are taken into account. Various explanations to account for these patterns are discussed.     

Views from the periphery: Changing the political agenda for women in the republic of Ireland and in Scotland

The representation of women as Members of Parliament in the Republic of Ireland and in Scotland is low by European standards. It is argued that two separate political events ‐ the election of Mary Robinson as Ireland's first woman president and pressures for constitutional change in Scotland ‐ could provide the opportunity to change the political agenda for women in these two countries. We record the response of the political parties to the demands for greater representation of women through ‘promotional’, ‘active intervention’ and ‘status quo’ strategies.     

以解放思想为轴:论思想政治工作是深化政治体制改革的“生命线”

以前我们谈解放思想,几乎强调的力度都体现在经济领域。我们现在以当今中国政治制度自我完善和政治体制改革为背景、呼吁解放思想的同时,直接把解放思想和思想政治工作关联起来研究,并对它们之间的关系作了探索,创新性地指出思想政治工作是深化政治体制改革的生命线,以期对我国深化政治体制改革、促进社会主义制度的自我完善和发展有所裨益。     

The political costs of tax increases and expenditure reductions: Evidence from state legislative turnover

This paper estimates the political costs of increasing taxes and cutting expenditures for members of a legislature. It is found that both costs are individually significant, but that they are not significantly different. This coincides with the first order condition for maximization of the probability of reelection. Republican legislatures have a higher political cost for taxes, thus the party's relative bias toward smaller government is founded in stronger constituent preferences against taxes, not for lower spending. Additionally, by being ideologically conservative, Republicans lower the political costs of taxes, while by being more liberal, Democrats lower the cost of cutting expenditures.     

On the political and fiscal determinants of income redistribution under federalism and democracy: evidence from Germany

Several recent studies suggest that transfers from central to regional governments are motivated by political considerations. In this paper we examine if this is also the case for transfers from regional to central governments in the context of the German fiscal equalization system. We examine the factors that contribute to differences in tax revenues across German states. The evidence indicates that both fiscal incentives and political factors can explain these differences, although in Germany the former are more important. Moreover, accounting for fiscal institutions has important consequences for the empirical assessment of political influences on taxation. Overall we find that the political affiliation of the state governor is an important factor in explaining differences in state tax revenues. Thus, the right-wing party (CDU/CSU) is effective in relaxing the tax burden at the state level. In contrast, partisan alignment between the state government and the federal government loses its importance once fiscal conditions enter the empirical model.     

The contextualist turn and schematics of institutional fit: Theory and a case study from Southern India

The policy literature has long recognized the inherent need for a program to fit the unique conditions found in a certain context. We present a theory of institutional contextualism that focuses on the mechanisms by which actors adapt a policy design to fit a situation. We conceptualize institutions as phenomena that are constituted by a constant dialectic between text (the general blueprint) and context (the particular setting). The first half of this dialectic, which is the diffusion of the constitutive text or norm onto the institutional setting, has been discussed in the literature. Our research focuses on the second half, and we delineate, in concept, mechanisms for fitting the program to the local context. We then use a case study of improvised microfinance programs in Tamil Nadu, India, to illustrate how this occurs in reality. The research underscores the unexamined link between effective governance and contextual fit and offers a typology of mechanisms for fit that should inform future research.     

Large firms as political actors: A comparative analysis of the chemical industry in Britain,Italy and West Germany

Large firms as political actors are compared in the chemical industry in three countries. In West Germany, co‐ordinated action through the industry associations is important, but firms are developing their own political capabilities. In Italy links with political parties are important, but the operating environment of firms has become less politicised. Britain conforms more to a ‘company state’ model, with the government relations divisions of firms playing a key role. The greatest divergence between the three countries is in terms of relationships with political parties. In general, there is a trend towards greater convergence in government‐business relations in the industry in the three countries, internationalisation being a key factor.     

Productive specialization,peaceful cooperation and the problem of the predatory state: lessons from comparative historical political economy

Public Choice - This paper reconceptualizes and unbundles the relationship between public predation, state capacity and economic development. By reframing our understanding of state capacity theory...     

Subnational political opportunity structures and the success of the radical right: Evidence from the March 2004 regional elections in France

Abstract.  This article attempts to explain the impact of department-level political opportunity structures on the electoral success of the French Front National (FN) in the 2004 regional elections. The concept of 'political opportunity structure' refers to the degree of openness of a particular political system and the external institutional or socio-economic constraints and opportunities that it sets for political parties. Comparative analysis across subnational units is conducted where the 94 departments of mainland France are the units of analysis. The significance of electoral institutions (district magnitude), party competition (effective number of parties), electoral behaviour (turnout) and socioeconomic conditions (immigration and unemployment) on the ability of the FN to gather votes across the departments is assessed by means of multiple regression. The empirical results show that the subnational political opportunity structures have been of great importance for the FN. Some four out of the five independent variables are statistically significant and explain a great deal of the variance in the two dependent variables (electoral support for FN list and index of electoral success). Turnout and district magnitude are negatively correlated with the electoral fortunes of the FN, while unemployment and the effective number of party lists are positively correlated with the success of the FN in the regional elections. The variable that indicates the share of non-European immigrants does not provide additional explanatory power in a statistically significant way.     

Broadening Benefits from Natural Resource Extraction: Housing Values and Taxation of Natural Gas Wells as Property

We study the effects of the property tax base shock caused by natural gas drilling in the Barnett Shale in Texas—a state that taxes oil and gas wells as property. Over the boom and bust in drilling, housing appreciation closely followed the oil and gas property tax base, which expanded the total tax base by 23 percent at its height. The expansion led to a decline in property tax rates while maintaining or increasing revenues to schools. Overall, each $1 per student increase in the oil and gas property tax base increased the value of the typical home by $0.15. Some evidence suggests that the cumulative density of wells nearby may lower housing values, indicating that drilling could reduce local welfare without policies to increase local public revenues.     

确立并践行新理念是形式主义问题的治本之策——以新冠肺炎疫情防控为例

形式主义是个老大难问题,治理起来相当困难。在新冠肺炎疫情防控过程中,尤其是在初期和一些地方,形式主义问题不仅存在还比较严重。在防控疫情这一“准战时”状态下,形式主义问题危害性更大。形式主义问题的根源是官僚主义,而官僚主义的形成有体制和思想两个层面的原因。从这两个层面施治,都属于治本之策,其中思想或理念层面的引领尤为重要。党的十八大以来,习近平总书记倡导并形成了三大新理念,即问题导向、结果导向和民意导向。与新理念相对立的旧理念正是形式主义问题的思想根源。新理念不只是理念,还是一套行动指南。只要确立并践行新理念,就能有效抑制形式主义问题的滋生,从而起到重要的治本作用。