Self-Referencing and Political Candidate Brands: A Congruency Perspective

Although political and marketing analysts commonly describe political candidates as brands, the conceptualization of political candidates as brands within academic research and popular culture is uncommon. This paper presents empirical evidence in support of viewing candidates as such. Using data from a nationwide study that measures the self concept of Mexican voters and their perceived images of the presidential candidates in Mexico's 2006 election, the paper demonstrates that voters see themselves and each candidate as a distinct brand. Furthermore, this view of a voter's self-brand influences his or her perception of a political candidate's brand image. The academic and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.     

Decentralization,Fiscal Independence,and Poverty in the Philippines

Decentralization is a common public sector reform in developing countries. Its basic rationale is that local governments have an informational advantage regarding the needs and preferences of consumers. However, decentralization also has drawbacks. Foremost is the efficiency advantage of the central government in providing public services because of economies of scale and better access to resources. This study looked at the relationship between decentralization and poverty using data from Philippine cities and municipalities. Results suggest that decentralization, as represented by fiscal independence and measured by the share of locally sourced revenues to total local government revenues, is indeed associated with lower poverty. However, this effect is not linear—the marginal effect of decentralization on poverty diminishes as decentralization increases. Moreover, decentralization moderates the positive effect of good governance on poverty reduction and the magnitude of the relationship between poverty and decentralization is stronger in poorer municipalities than in richer ones.     

Surveying support for child and youth political participation in Australia and New Zealand

Recent decades have witnessed increased empirical and policy interest in children’s citizenship, particularly since the ratification of the United Nations Declaration of Children’s Rights. However, support for children’s active citizenship is often hindered by the pervasiveness of discourses that characterise children as innocent, developing, and free from responsibility. Public and governmental decision-making largely excludes children’s consultation and contributions, often determined by age alone. To quantifiably assess the amount of public support for children’s political participation, we commissioned a Likert scale survey question on degrees of support for children and youth (across four age groups between 3 and 18 year olds) having the opportunity to influence government decisions, in the Australian and New Zealand 2016 versions of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Analysis of responses to this question in relation to demographic survey data indicate variation in preferences for different age groups, and that age, gender, and political party preference of respondents were variables of significance for both nations. These variables point to potential predictors of attitudes toward political participation of children and youth which have relevance for policymakers and educators in relation to provision of programmes that will increase the engagement of children and youth in government decision-making.     

The Determinants of Vote Intentions in Portugal

This paper offers new insights on theinteractions between economics and politicsin Portugal. We use two unexplored datasets consisting of monthly polls on voteintentions for the main political partiesin Portugal and responses to a consumersurvey containing a battery of questions oneconomic evaluations. The analysis coversthe interval from 1986 to 2001. We findthat: (1) right-wing governments arepenalized for higher inflation while theleft-wing ones are not, (2) left-winggovernments are more penalized forincreases in the unemployment rate; (3)voters base their evaluations ofincumbents' performances on perceptions ofpast and current economic conditions,rather than on expected future economicoutcomes.     

An analysis of the relationship between the additionality of CDM projects and their contribution to sustainable development

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows industrialised countries to use credits from greenhouse gas abatement projects in developing countries in order to fulfil their own emission reduction commitments. There has been mounting evidence that the CDM’s ability to fulfil its goals as stipulated by the Kyoto Protocol—contributing to the sustainable development of the host countries and delivering real, measurable and additional emission reductions—is less than satisfactory. In this article, an evaluation is made of CDM projects’ likelihood of being additional by assessing the impact Certified Emission Reductions have on the Internal Rate of Return of the individual projects. In addition, the projects’ sustainable development benefits are assessed by using a multi-criteria analysis. In a final step, the relationship between the projects’ additionality and sustainability contribution is assessed and a trade-off between these two CDM goals is established, revealing a potential inherent conflict in how the current mechanism works. The analysis is based on a systematic evaluation of 40 registered CDM projects in India.     

La economía cubana: entre voluntarismo e intentos de planifcación (1959-2012)

Throughout more than fifty years, the Cuban Revolution has been unable to implement an Economic Management System (ems) to face and overcome the traditional problems of centrally planned economies. When Cuban leaders tried to back away from the planning methods adopted in socialist countries, the economic management suffered from “voluntarism”, with invariably negative consequences. This article proposes a categorization of the economic cycle into upward phases –in which rational economic planning and organization predominate– and downward phases with a highly centralized direction of the economy. A historic-economic analysis of each phase of the cycle is presented, revealing that upward phases were characterized by good or acceptable economic outcomes, while these were poor during downward phases with a prevalence of voluntarism, unless external factors appeared.