Inter-parliamentary European Union–Latin American Caribbean (EU-LAC) relations and the increasing political convergence among Latin American regional parliaments (2006–15)

Europe and Latin America present a long-standing tradition of parliamentary diplomacy and particularly in the development of regional parliaments. Since the 1970s, inter-parliamentary relations between the two regions have been institutionalized, first by the regular dialogue of the European Parliament with the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino) and more recently, in 2006, with the creation of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat). Apart from representatives of Parlatino, EuroLat includes in the European Union-Latin American Caribbean (EU-LAC) parliamentary dialogue members of other regional assemblies created in recent decades, such as the Andean Parliament, the Central American Parliament and the Mercosur Parliament. However, recent EuroLat meetings have made evident a polarization of positions on regional politics between European and Latin American sides, especially regarding the political and human rights situation in Venezuela. In this sense, the present paper analyzes the impact of EU-LAC relations on the political convergence of Latin American parliaments concerning regional political issues. The aim is to discuss how institutionalized relations with the European Parliament, through EuroLat, increased convergence among Latin American parliamentarians. This argument is exemplified by the joint defensive position on the Venezuelan political situation adopted by Latin American parliamentarians vis-à-vis the European Parliament's condemnatory position.     

A Manifesto for Social Europe

The European Union is still far from having social legitimacy. The issue is indicative of a huge uncertainty about Social Europe. What is it? What are the principles of social justice behind it? In our view, a new social constitution of the European Union is needed. Political democratisation must be accompanied by the foundation of a social Europe. We argue that were the IGC to combine the Charter of The Fundamental Social Rights of Workers with the Maastricht Protocol on Social Policy, inserting both into the TEU, it would lay the legal foundations for a dynamic European social constitution; a Social Europe dedicated to the combating of social exclusion and the maintenance of solidarity.     

The Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales: Development and Initial Validation

This study describes the development and validation of three Attitudes Towards Male Dating Violence (AMDV) Scales and three Attitudes Towards Female Dating Violence (AFDV) Scales. These scales measure attitudes toward use of psychological, physical, and sexual dating violence, respectively, by boys and by girls. Eight hundred twenty-three students from grades 7, 9, and 11 participated in the validation study. All six scales have good internal consistencies. As predicted, students were more accepting of girls' use of violence than of boys' use of violence, and boys were more accepting of violence than were girls. The six scales were positively correlated with traditional attitudes toward gender roles and with each other, providing evidence for their construct validity. Higher scores on the AMDV Scales were related to boys' past use of violence in dating relationships and to their having aggressive friends, supporting their criterion-related validity. Higher scores on the AFDV Scales were associated with girls' past use of dating violence but not with their having aggressive friends, providing partial support for their criterion-related validity. Singly or in combination, the Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales can be used to increase our understanding of the development and maintenance of violence-supportive attitudes in adolescents of all ages.     

Is local politics local? French evidence

Abstract. In advanced democracies, are local political decisions determined by local events? Or are they really shaped by national forces? For the United States case, the evidence on this question is mixed. For the French case, the focus here, the evidence is also mixed, but less hard. In fact, for cantonal elections, in many ways archtypical local affairs, relevant systematic findings are virtually absent. We ask whether the cantonal elections of the Fifth Republic can be better understood as national, rather than local, contests. Our analysis leads us to the conclusion that the basic answer is, ‘yes’. There appear several theoretical reasons for this, which we give an account of. Further, we go on to show that cantonal races can actually serve as barometers to forecast upcoming national races.     

The Impact of Municipality Mergers on Political Participation

The citizen assembly of the Swiss canton Glarus in 2006 decided to radically reduce the historical number of communes from 25 to three. Studies show that the financial and economic consequences are surprisingly small. This paper analyzes the effects on citizens' vote participation as an indicator of their political involvement. Using the difference-in-difference and the synthetic control methods, we empirically show that vote participation dropped significantly, also compared to neighboring cantons and the rest of Switzerland.     

Cherry Picking with Synthetic Controls

We evaluate whether a lack of guidance on how to choose the matching variables used in the Synthetic Control (SC) estimator creates specification-searching opportunities. We provide theoretical results showing that specification-searching opportunities are asymptotically irrelevant if we restrict to a subset of SC specifications. However, based on Monte Carlo simulations and simulations with real datasets, we show significant room for specification searching when the number of pre-treatment periods is in line with common SC applications, and when alternative specifications commonly used in SC applications are also considered. This suggests that such lack of guidance generates a substantial level of discretion in the choice of the comparison units in SC applications, undermining one of the advantages of the method. We provide recommendations to limit the possibilities for specification searching in the SC method. Finally, we analyze the possibilities for specification searching and provide our recommendations in a series of empirical applications.     

Anthropological Measurement of the Juvenile Clavicle Using Multi‐Detector Computed Tomography—Affirming Reliability

Currently, there is no standardized protocol for multi‐detector computed tomography (MDCT) measurement of juvenile remains. Using 33 juvenile clavicles, this paper investigates a protocol to allow MDCT measurements, comparable or supplemental with traditional osteometric measurements, to be acquired for application to previously published algorithms. The results illustrate that there is no significant difference between MDCT measurements and those taken by direct osteometric methods. By presenting such a protocol, this paper takes the first steps toward validation of the process of conversion from measurement of dry juvenile bone to MDCT compatibility and allows the forensic world to take a step forward in standardizing the way MDCT is used for forensic practice. This paper assesses the limitations and potential applications of this virtual approach and offers some suggestions for where further work might progress the conversion of these new approaches into legally admissible anthropological techniques of age estimation.     

Embedded state autonomy and legitimacy: piecing together the Malaysian development puzzle

Malaysia's development trajectory has been comparatively successful, and the country arguably represents another example of the 'Asian developmental state'. However, when examined more closely, the Malaysian development experience is a deviation from the ideal-type 'East Asian success model', in that it occurred in the context of a predominantly Islamic cultural background, marked ethnic-religious heterogeneity,a relatively democratic political system, a strong reliance on FDI, abundant natural resources and a confined state autonomy. This article puts the Malaysian puzzle into perspective by giving a holistic account of the country's success against all odds and by applying an analytical framework centred on the concepts of embedded state autonomy and sociopolitical legitimacy. It is concluded that Malaysia's distinctive social, political and economic features constitute a web of countervailing forces that evolved into a positively self-reinforcing, if sometimes precarious, system of socio-economic reproduction.     

On the dynamics of legal convergence

In this paper, we study the dynamics of legal rules in a model with two nation-states playing a non cooperative game. For each country, changing the legal system is a costly process. At the same time, the existence of different legal systems is also costly for all nation-states. We show that despite the non cooperative behavior of countries, a process of legal convergence is achieved in the long run through small step by step changes. This result depends neither on the number of players in the game, nor on the time horizon of policy makers. Complete legal convergence can be obtained in a finite time. Coordinated efforts to achieve legal convergence are then unnecessary. We show that they might even be counterproductive, in the sense that the welfare of nation-states is higher under legal competition, compared to cooperative legal unification.