The puzzle of manual harvest in Uzbekistan: economics,status and labour in the Khrushchev era

Uzbekistan has attracted international criticism for its use of child labour, defined as labour performed by youth under the Soviet legal limit of 16, to harvest cotton by hand. This article argues that manual labour, mostly performed by low-status children and women, became entrenched in Central Asian agriculture during the 1950s, and investigates the possible reasons for its persistence in the face of global trends to the contrary. The timing is a puzzle, because the 1950s were when mechanization of agriculture became a global development goal. The USSR participated in the mechanization trend. To understand better the roots of rural labour patterns in the Khrushchev period, we must consider how economic incentives and disincentives, gender relations, demographics, and state policy worked together.     

Mass murderers in the United States: predictors of offender deaths

Objective: many mass murderers appear to care more about harming others than they do about protecting themselves, and they often commit suicide or refuse to surrender and are killed by police. The present study offers the first in-depth investigation of differences between mass murderers who live and die as a direct result of their offenses. Method: data on 308 offenders in the United States from January 2006 to May 2014 are subjected to quantitative analysis, including logistic regression. Results: findings suggest that those who die are older, less likely to have co-offenders, and more likely to commit public mass killings or family killings, which corresponds with Durkheim’s theories of suicide in numerous ways. Conclusion: ultimately, several specific improvements in suicide prevention strategies could potentially help to reduce the prevalence of these high-fatality crimes.     

Financial industry mobilisation and securities markets regulation in Europe

The 2007–2009 financial crisis has led to considerable debate about the role of financial industry actors in global regulatory processes. This article seeks to contribute to this debate by assessing when and why financial industry actors mobilise in order to influence securities markets regulations. Do these mobilisation patterns suggest undue influence by a small set of powerful industry actors, or do they reflect the engagement of a more diverse set of actors representing broader public interests? It is argued that variation in mobilisation patterns is a function of: (1) institutional opportunity (the openness and accessibility of regulatory politics); and (2) demonstration effects (how crises increase the salience of regulatory issues). Empirical analyses suggest that the financial crisis diminished the diversity of mobilising actors. This trend, however, is reversed when the news media disseminate information about the costs of weak financial regulation and thereby increase the salience of regulatory issues.     

Pigeonholing Partisans: Stereotypes of Party Supporters and Partisan Polarization

Political Behavior - What comes to mind when people think about rank-and-file party supporters? What stereotypes do people hold regarding ordinary partisans, and are these views politically...