Cycles and instability in politics. Evidence from the 2009 Danish municipal elections

Social choice theory predicts that political processes are prone to instability or outright chaos, yet the evidence that actual politics is dominated by the phenomena identified in the literature is somewhat anecdotal and widely contested. In order to systematically assess the degree to which politics is affected by cyclicality or chaos as predicted by social choice theorists we study the outcome of the 2009 municipal elections in Denmark. This yields a total of 97 cases, which allows for a systematic assessment of the frequency of cycling through a large-n study. Evidence of four cyclical results is presented.     

Lost in Translation: A Multi‐Level Case Study of the Metamorphosis of Meanings and Action in Public Sector Organizational Innovation

This paper explores the early implementation of an organizational innovation in the UK National Health Service (NHS) – Treatment Centres (TCs) – designed to dramatically reduce waiting lists for elective care. The paper draws on case studies of 8 TCs (each at varying stages of their development) and aims to explore how meanings about TCs are created and evolve, and how these meanings impact upon the development of the organizational innovation. Research on organizational meanings needs to take greater account of the fact that modern organizations like the NHS are complex multi‐level phenomena, comprising layers of interlacing networks. To understand the pace, direction and impact of organizational innovation and change we need to study the interconnections between meanings across different organizational levels. The data presented in this paper show how the apparently simple, relatively unformed, concept of a TC framed by central government is translated and transmuted by subsequent layers in the health service administration, and by players in local health economies, and, ultimately, in the TCs themselves, picking up new rationales, meanings and significance as it goes along. The developmental histories of TCs reveal a range of significant re‐workings of macro policy with the result that there is considerable diversity and variation between local TC schemes. The picture is of important disconnections between meanings, that in many ways mirror Weick's (1976) ’loosely coupled systems’. The emergent meanings and the direction of micro‐level development of TCs appear more strongly determined by interactions within the local TC environment, notably between what we identify as groups of ’idealists’, ’pragmatists’, ’opportunists’ and ’sceptics’ than by the framing (Goffman 1974) provided by macro and meso organizational levels. While this illustrates the limitations of top down and policy‐driven attempts at change, and highlights the crucial importance of the front‐line local ’micro‐systems’ (Donaldson and Mohr 2000) in the overall scheme of implementing organizational innovations, the space or headroom provided by frames at the macro and meso levels can enable local change, albeit at variable speed and with uncertain outcomes.     

Sovereignty at Sea: States and Security in the Maritime Domain

The oceans present a variety of perils to both states and private actors, ranging from smuggling to direct attacks on vessels. Yet, a disconnect exists between states’ maritime power and sovereign fleets due to the emergence of open shipping registries in the 20th century. How have great powers like the United States responded to threats generated by transit of the oceans for legitimate and illicit purposes? The nature of peacetime security threats that states confront at sea has shaped divergent responses. The main maritime powers draw a distinction between threats aimed at states and threats to commerce. Where perceived threats to the state are concerned, great powers have sought to revise understandings of the protections sovereignty provides—specifically, by seeking expanded interdiction rights—to further their own security goals. When maritime powers perceive that international commerce is under threat, they delegate the sovereign protection function both upward to internationally sanctioned maritime coalitions and outward to private security firms. These policies are responses to the security challenges that result from the decoupling of sovereign power and the merchant fleet that followed the emergence of open shipping registries.     

"濠梁之辨"新探

对“濠梁之辨”的重新解读应立足于辨明“惠施”一词为指称还是指代。当“惠施”一词作为指称时，“濠梁之辨”中惠施的论证与其所持的哲学思想相互冲突；当“惠施”一词作为指代时，“濠梁之辨”中惠施因混淆概念而违反同一律的要求。     

论股东表决权制度的完善

股东表决权的行使是股东参与公司管理的重要手段,也是股东对公司管理者进行有效制衡的重要途径。我国公司法对股东表决权的诸多具体问题未做详细规定,为完善股东表决权制度,拟从累积投票制、利益股东表决权回避制、股东表决权代理制三个方面予以探讨。     

Childhood Maltreatment Experiences and Child Abuse Potential: Temperamental Sensitivity as Moderator?

This study aimed to examine the relationship between negative experiences in childhood (physical-, sexual-, and emotional abuse and emotional neglect) and the risk for an individual to become a perpetrator of child maltreatment in adulthood. Participants were 337 female college students who completed self-report measures of childhood trauma and temperament. Risk for child abuse was assessed with the Child Abuse Potential Inventory. Results showed experiences of emotional neglect significantly predicted higher child abuse potential. Additionally it was shown that experiences of physical abuse significantly predicted higher child abuse potential but only in those individuals with high temperamental orienting sensitivity. These results underline the potentially damaging long-term effects of emotional neglect in childhood and indicate temperamental sensitivity may moderate the relationship between being abused as a child and being at risk for maltreating one’s own offspring.