Regionalisation of migration policies and its limits: Europe and North America compared

Migration policies in both the European Union and North America converge in substantial and formal ways. Such convergence can be explained by neoliberal restructuring that affects strategies and the geography of production, as well as state forms. But neoliberal transformation does not homogenise migration policies completely. Both regions exhibit significant differences that can be explained by the ways in which space is occupied by social forces. An examination of social forces in the regions allows us to account for the specificities of the two regions in terms of migration policies.     

Children's and adults’ realism in their event-recall confidence in responses to free recall and focused questions

Abstract

Two experiments examined the realism in the confidence of 8–9-year-olds, 12–13-year-olds and adults in their free recall and answers to focused questions after viewing a short video clip. A different video clip was shown in each experiment and the focused questions differed in difficulty. In both experiments the youngest age group, in contrast to the two other age groups, showed no overconfidence in their confidence judgements for the free recall. The free recall results also showed that the youngest group had lower completeness but similar correctness as the adults. There was a tendency, over both experiments, for the participants to show poorer realism for the focused questions than for the free recall, especially when questions with content already mentioned in the free recall were excluded from the analyses of the focused questions in Experiment 1. The study shows the importance of question format when evaluating the credibility of the confidence shown by 8–9-year-old children in their own testimony.     

Incitement of Racial Hatred

Legislation on incitement of racial hatred is an essential instrument for counteracting racist and anti-Semitic spoken or written communications. In Sweden, the various provisions, which are not only to be found in the Penal Code but also in the Ordinance on Freedom of Expression and in constitutional law on the freedom of expression, are fundamental elements of the legislation against racism, anti-Semitism and similar forms of agitation. In these provisions the legislator has set limits to the freedom of expression as far as racism, anti-Semitism, etc., are concerned. This is true regardless of whether the communication is expressed orally, as printed matter, through other media or in other ways. It is not necessary for the communication to have been disseminated publicly for punishment to be incurred; it suffices that dissemination has taken place within a limited circle. The provision appeared in its initial form in 1948. With the advent of the 1965 Penal Code it was transferred from the former Punishment Law to the new Code and has subsequently been modified in 1970, 1982 and 1988. It should be noted, however, that there is no provision for prior censorship. Each text, each symbol, each slogan, and so forth, must be adjudged by a court. The law in its basic form was sanctioned in 1956. The present article touches on trends concerning reported offences, trials and convictions during the 1990s. Unfortunately, it is not possible here to present statistics going further back in time, since the offence of incitement of racial hatred was not coded specifically in the crime statistics before that time. In the opening passages of the article, the advent of the law and important cases during the post-war period are discussed. The aim here is to describe how and why legislation has been used as well as the changes that have taken place over the past ten years.     

Elections and the structure of taxation in developing countries

This article analyses the impact of the electoral calendar on the composition of tax revenue (direct versus indirect taxes). It thus represents an extension of traditional political budget-cycle analyses assessing the impact of elections on overall revenue. We appeal to the opportunistic political budget model of Drazen and Eslava (2010) to predict the relationship between taxation structure and elections. Panel data from 56 developing countries over the 1980–2006 period reveals a clear pattern of electorally-related policy interventions. Taking the potential endogeneity of election timing into account, we find robust evidence of lower indirect taxes being applied by incumbent governments in the period just prior to an election. Indirect tax revenue in election years is estimated to be 0.3 GDP percentage points lower than in other years, corresponding to a fall of about 3.4% of the average figure in the sample countries, while there is no such relationship with direct tax revenue.     

Dead or Alive? Explaining the Long-Term Survival Chances of Interest Groups

Interest groups are crucial for the representation of interests in politics. An important aspect is not only which groups are formed, but also which groups survive over time. This paper outlines and empirically investigates hypotheses about which factors explain interest group survival. The empirical literature on survival has been limited by the lack of actual survival data and has instead relied on self-assessment data on the likelihood of survival. The article examines survival using a unique dataset that covers a population of interest groups, spans over three decades (1976–2010), and contains data on interest group characteristics and information about whether the groups survived. As expected, resources such as members and employees increase the probability of survival. However, a privileged position in the decision-making process, a largely neglected factor in previous studies, also affects survival. This implies that insider groups are likely to be overrepresented in interest group populations.     

The Rise of Citizen Groups? The Mobilization and Representation of Danish Interest Groups, 1975–2010

Over the last several decades, a number of societal changes can be expected to have led to the increased mobilization of interest groups representing citizen interests. For this mobilization to be effective, citizen groups need to win access to relevant political arenas. This article investigates the development of the Danish interest group system and the representation of interest groups in political arenas. While replicating findings of increasing citizen mobilization from other countries is expected, it is argued here that the development of groups’ political representation as a consequence of this mobilization depends on the dynamics of resource exchange in different political arenas. This argument is tested on a unique dataset of Danish interest groups in 1975 and 2010 which includes data on group populations and group access to the administration and the media. The analysis demonstrates that citizen groups must overcome not only the challenge of organizing, but also persistent logics guiding the inclusion of, interest groups in different political arenas. Citizen groups have been more successful in increasing their representation in the media than in the administrative arena.     

Political Myths in Climate Leadership: The Case of Danish Climate and Energy Pioneership

Climate leadership is important for the transition to a low‐carbon economy, where some countries are seen as leaders because of their ambitious climate and energy policies. Climate leadership is dynamic and evolves over time to become a political myth, however, which governments use in their policy strategies. Changes in governments lead to new climate and energy strategies that affect the respective countries' leadership positions. This article links the growing literature on environmental/climate leadership and the political myth literature. Specifically, it draws on the environmental/climate leadership framework to analyse the connection between political myths and the climate and energy policy strategies of governments to understand how the changing interpretation of the political myth influences leadership. The article uses Denmark as a case study because of the consensus in the literature on it being a climate and energy policy pioneer. This article analyses how Danish governments interpret the political myth of Danish climate and energy pioneership and how their policies influence the Danish leadership position, concluding that whilst the continued reinterpretations of the political myth of leadership do not always reflect the original myth, the myth remains important for government claims to leadership.     

Participatory system dynamics modelling for dairy value chain development in Nicaragua

The use of system dynamics tools can add valuable insights when identifying and evaluating priorities for pro-poor value chain upgrading. However, to better understand the complex systems in agricultural value chains and to develop useful models, a participatory modelling process is important. This article highlights the group model building process of the dairy value chain in Matiguás, Nicaragua, one of a few examples of participatory model building in developing countries. The results confirm several benefits with participatory system dynamics modelling, including team learning, a greater understanding of the value of modelling, and a tool for decision-making and priority setting.