Incumbency Effects under Proportional Representation: Leaders and Backbenchers in the Postwar Italian Chamber of Deputies

We study incumbency effects for individual legislators from two political parties (Christian Democracy and the Italian Socialist Party) in Italy's lower house of representatives over 10 legislatures (1948–92) elected using open‐list proportional representation. Our analysis finds no reelection advantage for the average incumbent legislator. Only a tiny elite in each party successfully creates an incumbency advantage. We find incumbents advantaged for reselection by their political party. We interpret reselection advantage as a party loyalty premium. Our study depicts a political environment monopolized by party leaders who reward party loyalty but hamper legislators in appealing directly to voters.     

Intimate Partner Victimization and Depressive Symptoms: Approaching Causal Inference Using a Longitudinal Twin Design

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - While a wealth of research reports a robust association between intimate partner victimization and depression, the relationship has not been tested using...     

Anand Patwardhan: Social Activist and Dedicated Filmmaker

In this essay—an earlier version of which was delivered as a lecture at a session cosponsored by Critical Asian Studies and the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea (ASCK) at the annual conference of the Association for Asian Studies, San Diego, California, on 23 March 2013—the author argues the need to go beyond the current state of perilous confrontation and volatility on the Korean Peninsula and examine how and why the current division of the peninsula into North and South has evolved into a “division system.” The author contends that “civic participation” (broadly defined to include business entrepreneurs, corporations, NGOs, and private citizens) is necessary to deal with the durable enormity of the division system. He calls this body of nonstate actors the “third party” (the first two parties being those of North and South Korea). Going beyond strictly Korean affairs, this third party, the author concludes, can play a crucial role in creating a larger framework of East Asian cooperation and solidary.     

Have Lower Real Wages Helped Industrial Restructuring in Romania?

A reduction in real wages arising from price liberalisation has been a standard feature of economies undergoing industrial restructuring. In this article, the impact of real wages on industrial performance is examined using a panel dataset of Romanian industries from 1990-96. Using both static and dynamic panel estimation, real wages are found not to be negatively associated with either output or employment. These results are consistent with a view that an institutionalist approach, aimed at improving productivity, may be more likely to achieve the long-term objective of successful industrial restructuring than standard adjustment programmes based on neo-classical theory.     

The Effects of Dog-Training Programs: Experiences of Incarcerated Females

Dog-training programs (DTPs) in prisons have grown increasingly popular throughout the United States, but very little is known about their effects on both prisons and their participants. Furthermore, with increasing rates of female imprisonment, the demand for programs that address the needs of female offenders is high. Using interview data from female offenders, program coordinators, and prison staff (N = 27), this study examined the effect of DTPs on how female offenders experience prison. The present study found that DTP participation alleviated the pains of imprisonment that women offenders face, including problems in psychological and emotional health, motherhood, transferable skills, security, trust, and serving time. An assessment of which female offenders appear to benefit the most is outlined, and the broader implications of these findings are discussed.