THE PERCEIVED SIZE OF SMALL BUSINESS BANKING MARKETS

Definition of markets is fundamental to any analysis of competitionand is the first step in enforcement of antitrust statutes.In the banking industry, geographic market definitions havebeen the subject of considerable discussion in recent years.This paper utilizes a survey conducted by the National Federationof Independent Business Research Foundation in 2001. The surveyasked a variety of questions relating to American small businesses'experience with financial institutions, including a questionasking how many banks were in the market area where the smallfirm did most of its business. Using the zip code of the surveyrespondent, this answer was compared with the number of banksin the same county, in the same metropolitan area, or in thelocal banking market as defined by the Federal Reserve. Theresults show that both urban and rural markets as perceivedby small businesses are considerably smaller than markets asdefined by either the US Department of Justice or the FederalReserve.     

Testing proximity versus directional voting using experiments

A long-running debate about how voters use issues to evaluate candidates pits the proximity theory of voting against directional theory. Using surveys, both sides of the debate have found support for their preferred theory, but disagreement remains because of differing ways of analyzing the data. Lewis and King (2000) point out that these researchers make assumptions that bias results in favor of their theory. To avoid these difficulties, our approach creates fictitious candidates with controlled positions, presents these candidates to randomly-assigned subjects, and examines the relationship between subjects’ evaluations of these candidates and their ideological beliefs as a neutral test of proximity and directional theory. Our results provide reasonably strong support for proximity theory but little for directional theory.     

Reinventing Pluralism: Consensus,Hegemony, and the Politics of Affirmation

As inequalities in the United States have intensified in recent decades, Washington, DC’s advocacy system has thrived. Why has this proliferation of interest groups failed to deliver more substantive equality? The dominant response to this question typically cites the advocacy realm’s “upper-class accent,” portraying interest group representation as imbalanced and unresponsive to a broad range of voices. Yet this prevailing account—which I term “post- pluralist”—does not sufficiently explore the inegalitarian ways that neoliberalism shapes contemporary political advocacy. To this end, this article builds upon post-pluralist and post-Marxist insights to outline the advocacy system’s “politics of affirmation.” Using recent antigay legislation to explore this concept, I argue that today’s political advocacy circumscribes, rather than enlivens, prevailing standards of democratic participation by mobilizing hegemonic, neoliberal expressions of democratic citizenship. The article concludes by outlining how groups might pursue a transformative politics in order to destabilize neoliberalism’s hegemony.     

The Diffusion of Human Trafficking Policies in the Post-Soviet Region: A Comparative Analysis of Policy Adoption in Ukraine,Latvia, and Russia

This paper analyzes how human trafficking policies diffused in the post-Soviet region. By adapting the diffusion of innovation framework to fit the international context, I examine whether human trafficking adoptions in the post-Soviet region were due to internal determinants and/or diffusion effects. A comparison of Russia, Latvia, and Ukraine found that internal determinants such as state commitment to human trafficking policy and interest group strength were more important to policy adoption than external pressures from the international community while state capacity and bureaucratic restructuring impeded policy adoption. I argue that policymaking, even in authoritarian regimes, is more nuanced than blind compliance with international treaties and shows that interest groups and policy entrepreneurs work within the constraints of national policymaking to adopt human trafficking policies.     

Why it Never Really was About Authenticity

Critics of the concept fail to note that staged authenticity is not authenticity but its opposite or negation. This error is illustrated referencing Ed Bruner’s reading of The Tourist in his recent book Culture on Tour.

冷战后美国对华战略转变的根本逻辑与手段——兼论奥巴马政府的对华政策

奥巴马政府对华战略的变化,更多的是冷战后美国对华战略转变的一个延续。冷战后,美国不断开辟新领域,试图将中国塑造为敌人或对手,但屡战屡败,导致多届美国政府对华战略在任期内和问题领域内的双重起伏。美国对华战略转变背后的根本逻辑是美国民族主义化的爱国主义,其具体手段是安全化理论所论述的安全化/非安全化。它曾经并将继续主导美国的对华战略转变。在两国共建21世纪积极合作全面的中美关系和应对共同挑战的伙伴关系的同时,这一逻辑和手段可能导致双方在三个领域内的潜在争端:双边关系领域内的气候变化与能源—环境、中国制造产品等议题;多边关系中中美关系涉及的第三方因素;中美在国际体系规范领域的斗争。     

WATER RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Both the federal and state governments have strong constitutional daims and political resources with which to influence the allocation of water resources. Until the 1970s. federal agencies were able to dominate kr setting goals and objectives. However, when the federal government attempted to implement a national water policy in the 1970s, effective opposition was mounted by the states. Both the states and the federal government now exert decisive influence in water policy.     

Court improvement of foster care and adoption projects:Ncjfcj Survey Report

Officials from 48 states and the District of Columbia in 1994 accepted federal funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to help improve courts' handling of cases involving child abuse, neglect, foster care and adoption. Through a survey of participating states, members of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges have been analyzing common themes found in state Court Improvement of Foster Care and Adoption Projects. This article examines key survey results.