The decentralisation of city government and the restoration of political trust

Abstract

‘Local politics’ has specific features that are conducive to the generation of trust, more so than ‘centralised politics’. Local politics is characterised by processes that occur on a small scale, within institutions that enjoy a certain autonomy, that are imbedded in a social community with which the citizens can identify, and that offer the possibility of more democratic participation. Where is the threshold between local and central politics? Clearly, if a city grows to the size of almost half a million inhabitants, as was the case in the port city of Antwerp, it becomes too large for local politics. It also becomes vulnerable to the lure of political distrust, as was manifested by the amazing rise of the extreme right in the 1990s. At least this was the theory that prompted the political leaders of the city to introduce a certain degree of decentralisation. To a certain extent they were right. Our evidence shows that the district councils generate more trust than the city council. Moreover they generate trust among sections of the population that were and remain distrustful of central politics. Will this capital of local political trust overflow into the trust in the higher authorities? Some of the data point in that direction but they are far from conclusive. Anyway it is too early to tell. The decentralisation reform in Antwerp is an interesting experiment but a very recent one.     

Using the Investment Model to Understand Battered Women's Commitment to Abusive Relationships

We replicate and extend research using the Investment Model (Rusbult, 1980, J. Exp. Social Psychol., 45, 101–117) to understand battered women's commitment to abusive relationships. The Investment Model is a nonpathologizing theory that views commitment as a function of one's satisfaction with, alternatives to, and investments in the relationship. These factors were examined in a shelter-based sample of battered women. Investment model variables, particularly satisfaction, were also examined as mediators of the relationship between abuse exposure and commitment. Both Investment Model and abuse exposure constructs were assessed using instruments more fully developed than in previous research. Results indicated that each of the Investment Model factors contributed uniquely to women's commitment, and that relationship satisfaction mediated the relationship between psychological (but not physical) abuse and commitment. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed.

SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS IN CHINA

ABSTRACT This article examines a neglected area of reform in China: service organizations. It discusses the structural features of service organizations and the institutional constraints on eflorts to reform them.     

Race,ethnicity, and social change: The democratization of middle‐class crime*

Since the mid‐1970s, the percentage of non‐White people convicted of white‐collar type crimes in the federal judicial system has been growing steadily. In 2015, non‐Whites accounted for more than half of all convictions for certain white‐collar type crimes, but the increase in non‐White participation has not occurred evenly across all race and ethnic groups. Asians and Latinos have increased their participation in white‐collar crime more so than Blacks. Using data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the U.S. Census, we investigate whether the differential increase among race and ethnic groups in white‐collar type crimes can be explained by their differential increase in middle‐class occupations. The findings have implications for opportunity, cultural, and race‐centered perspectives on crime, as well as institutional anomie theory, and they suggest that low‐level white‐collar crimes are being democratized along lines of race and ethnicity.     

The Timeline Followback Interview to Assess Children’s Exposure to Partner Violence: Reliability and Validity

This study evaluated psychometric properties of the Timeline Followback interview—Children’s Exposure to Partner Violence (TLFB-CEPV), an event history calendar interview designed to assess children’s exposure to daily patterns of intimate partner violence. Participants were men (N = 107) entering batterer’s treatment, their female partners, and a custodial child (6–16 years). The TLFB-CEPV asked about days of partner physical aggression and children’s exposure to these episodes, and was administered to partners at pretreatment, posttreatment, 6 and 12 months. At each assessment, the percentage of days of any child exposure (PAE) and of children’s direct exposure (PDE) to violence were calculated. Parents completed measures of partner aggression and social desirability; parents, teachers, and children completed measures of children’s adjustment. TLFB-CEPV scores had excellent temporal stability and strong evidence of concurrent, discriminant, and criterion validity. Interrater agreement for TLFB-CEPV scores was moderate at initial assessment, but high at subsequent follow-up interviews. This project was supported, in part, by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA12189, Fals-Stewart), the Alpha Foundation, and Old Dominion University.     

Japan’s Quest for “Soft Power”: Attraction and Limitation

Japan is seeking to project its “soft power” through the allure of manga and anime in its public diplomacy. The production, diffusion and global consumption of manga and anime are driven by market forces and consumer tastes and not by the Japanese state. However, the latter is seeking to harness this popular culture to burnish Tokyo’s international image. Despite the attractiveness of Japanese pop culture and other more traditional forms of public diplomacy, Tokyo’s pursuit of “soft power” and a good international image is undermined by its failure to overcome its burden of history.

Maternal Predictors of Noncoital Sexual Behavior: Examining a Nationally Representative Sample of Asian and White American Adolescents Who Have Never had Sex

Current research in adolescent sexuality has largely focused on vaginal-penile intercourse, with less attention to noncoital sexual activity. This study examined how maternal factors influence the transition from virginity to noncoital behavior among White and Asian American youth who have never experienced vaginal intercourse. We conducted logistic regression analyses to examine whether traditional maternal predictors of coital sex were important in understanding noncoital sexual activity of these two populations. Waves 1 and 2 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were utilized. For White Americans (n = 3,926), direct and indirect maternal factors were associated with noncoital sexual involvement: maternal support, control, mother–child communication about sex, and adolescents’ perceptions of maternal approval of sex. In contrast, only maternal support was associated with the onset of noncoital sexual behavior for Asian Americans (n = 611). The study underscores the need to explore culturally specific factors that may influence Asian American adolescent noncoital sexual behaviors.

Has Television Personalized Voting Behavior?

Scholars and political observers have suggested that television has “personalized” voting behavior in American presidential elections by encouraging citizens to cast ballots on the basis of candidate image and personality. Though an oft-heard assertion, little solid evidence exists that this is true, and the reinvigoration of partisanship and the persistence of ideological conflict suggest personalization may be less pervasive than supposed. In this paper, I use National Election Studies data to examine whether voters are more concerned with candidates’ personal characteristics now than they were at the outset of the television era. I find, however, that voters are no more likely today to mention candidate personality as a reason for their vote choice than they were in the 1950s and 1960s. Moreover, while personality affects voting behavior, its influence on candidate choice is not significantly larger than it was a half-century ago. The results are not contingent on exposure to television or political awareness and are insensitive to different measures of perceptions of candidate image. The findings are consistent with the resurgence of partisan voting in American elections and suggest that some concerns about TV’s effects on political judgment are exaggerated.