Democracy and bureaucracy in newly industrialized countries: A systematic comparison between Latin America and East Asia

This article analyzes the political-institutional determinants of bureaucracy quality among a group of newly industrialized countries in Latin America and East Asia democratized in the Third Wave. Four causal conditions are examined for the occurrence of higher levels of bureaucratic “weberianess” in the selected cases: historical sequence, political parties' institutionalization, electoral competition, and ethnic politics. The study employs the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to explore the expectation that each of these conditions' implications depends on other conditions' presence or absence. The findings disconfirm claims about the critical role of party system institutionalization for Weberian bureaucracies in new democracies. Besides, the analysis did not declare a professional public administration's prior existence before democratization as a necessary or sufficient condition for the outcome of interest. Finally, although the electoral competition was declared necessary for the outcome occurrence, it does not imply the same result if combined with ethnic politics.     

Interpretation and mutability: socio-legal texts of the Quran; three accounts from contemporary Iran

Since the advent of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, radical changes have taken place in the views of many Iranian scholars regarding the nature of religious belief. In particular, the issue of the compatibility or incompatibility of Islam's socio-legal precepts and the challenges of time and space have become a crucial matter for numerous Iranian intellectuals. This paper discusses how three prominent Iranian intellectuals of the post-revolutionary era, namely Mostafa Malekian, Mohsen Kadivar and Hasan Yousefi-Eshkevari, have put forward arguments in favor of the contingent nature of the Quran's socio-legal passages. The paper argues that these scholars challenge the notion of the immutability of the Quran's socio-legal texts, claiming that they could be applied differently depending on the specific time and place. In this sense, the paper establishes the groundwork for showing how these scholars have re-examined traditional understandings of religion in light of the new challenges that are arising in the modern world.     

Retraction Note to: Economic and legal regulation of the use and development of renewable energy sources

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics -     

Moral duties,compliance and polycentric climate governance

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Contributions to the climate governance literature have highlighted the importance of recognizing its new polycentric nature,...     

Third Party Funding in Arbitration: Questions and Justifications

Utility of third party funding is an undeniable fact, especially where a party is under financial strain, yet its increased usage in private arbitration has given rise to a number of substantive and procedural issues. In view of this, the present paper attempts to map the growing utility or otherwise of the mechanism of third party funding, and analyses its various nuances and legal sustainability within the framework of international arbitration. Further, an attempt is made to analyse the ways and means of ameliorating the utility of third party funding and for enhancing its acceptance in the global arbitration community.

     

Haplotype frequencies of eight Y-chromosome short tandem repeats loci in four Amerindian populations (state of Hidalgo, Mexico)

Population: Amerindian populations: Huastecos (n=97), Otomies de la Sierra (n=41), Otomies del Valle (n=40), and Tepehuas (n=13).     

Brazil at a Crossroads

Marcus André Melo and Carlos Pereira, Making Brazil Work: Checking the President in a Multiparty System. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index, 232 pp.; hardcover $100, paperback $95, ebook $69.99. Marcos Mendes, Inequality, Democracy, and Growth in Brazil: A Country at the Crossroads of Economic Development. London: Elsevier, 2014. Glossary, index, 280 pp.; paperback $49.95. Jeffrey D. Needell, ed., Emergent Brazil: Key Perspectives on a New Global Power. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015. Figures, tables, bibliography, index, 322 pp.; hardcover $79.95. Oliver Stuenkel and Matthew M. Taylor, eds., Brazil on the Global Stage: Power, Ideas, and the Liberal International Order. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Figures, tables, bibliography, index, 245 pp.; hardcover $100, ebook $79.99.     

From Consensus to Dissensus: The Politics of Anti-austerity Activism in London and Its Relationship to Voluntary Organizations

This article examines how activism against austerity is organized and manifested in London. Given that anti-austerity activists are addressing issues related to social welfare, we examine whether there are alliances between the activists and voluntary organizations (VOs) that are working in that field. Examining the challenges involved in creating and sustaining alliances, we argue that the regulatory context alone is an insufficient explanation as to why activist–VO alliances are difficult to establish and maintain. We contend that more significantly, it is VOs’ and activists’ divergent and at times irreconcilable stances, which we refer to as the consensus and dissensus stances, respectively, which impede activist–VO alliances, beyond episodic interactions, from developing.