Varieties of vigilantism: conceptual discord,meaning and strategies

The practice of vigilantism raises a number of broader provocative questions regarding state–society relations. But before pursuing these questions, we must first ask a critical conceptual question: what is vigilantism? In this article, I offer a conceptual analysis of vigilantism to identify and analyse the points of conceptual discord that make vigilantism an essentially contested concept. To address these challenges, I establish the concept’s core definitional dimensions and range of attributes. I then develop a root concept of vigilantism as the collective use or threat of extra-legal violence in response to an alleged criminal act. The root concept better positions researchers to effectively utilise different strategies to amend the concept for varying theoretical and empirical ends, avoid analytical pitfalls that beset existing conceptualisations and pursue promising new research questions.     

Using an evolutionary perspective to understand the relationship between physical aggression and academic performance in late adolescents

In this study, we applied an evolutionary perspective to analyze the relationship between aggressiveness, academic performance, and sociality in a population of 528 adolescents of both sexes. In men, we expect physical aggression (PA) and sociality to be negative predictors of academic performance. However, in women, PA would be a negative predictor of academic performance, and sociality a positive one. Our results report a negative association between academic performance and PA in both sexes. As we expected, social effect derived from the use of PA seems to be different for each sex, where men could display a rebellious attitude to increase chances of finding a mate. In contrast, results for women are not conclusive, because no relationship between academic performance and any aggressive mechanism, were predicted by sociality. We conclude that an evolutionary framework, which includes sex-specific hypotheses, is appropriate to obtain a holistic perspective of this phenomenon.     

Postmortem vitreous humor beta-hydroxybutyrate: its utility for the postmortem interpretation of diabetes mellitus

Ketoacidotic coma is one of the most serious complications arising from diabetes mellitus, especially type I, and may be the cause of sudden death especially in diabetes type I. Since beta-hydroxybutyrate (beta-OHB) serum concentrations might provide more information on the severity of ketoacidosis, the aim of this study was to evaluate the concentrations of beta-OHB in vitreous humor and its correlation with other biochemical parameters during postmortem examination. We intended to ascertain the sensitivity and the specificity of these markers for diagnosing diabetes mellitus and the presence of ketoacidosis. This study involved 453 cadavers with a mean age of 57.6 years (S.D. 20.7) and a mean postmortem interval of 17.8 h (S.D. 9.6, range 2-61 h). Cases were assigned to two diagnostic groups according to the antemortem diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, based on the patients' medical records. In vitreous humor statistically significant differences were found in biochemical marker concentrations between the two diagnostic groups, the highest values being obtained in the group of subjects with a previous diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. The measurement of beta-OHB in vitreous humor may be a useful alternative to using blood during postmortem analysis. The presence of high levels of beta-OHB may help interpret the cause of death in diabetics when the autopsy result is negative.     

Institutional Context, Cognitive Resources and Party Attachments Across Democracies

e-mail: jdh39{at}columbia.edu e-mail: gck2001{at}columbia.edu e-mail: ell2002{at}columbia.edu This paper develops and tests arguments about how national-levelsocial and institutional factors shape the propensity of individualsto form attachments to political parties. Our tests employ atwo-step estimation procedure that has attractive propertieswhen there is a binary dependent variable in the first stageand when the number of second-level units is relatively small.We find that voters are most likely to form party attachmentswhen group identities are salient and complimentary. We alsofind that institutions that assist voters in retrospectivelyevaluating parties—specifically, strong party disciplineand few parties in government—increase partisanship. Theseinstitutions matter most for those individuals with the fewestcognitive resources, measured here by education.     

Employment Effects of FDI in Mexico's Non-Maquiladora Manufacturing

This paper analyses whether foreign direct investment (FDI) has contributed to employment generation in Mexico's non-maquiladora manufacturing sector. Drawing on highly disaggregated FDI and employment data, we estimate dynamic labour demand functions for blue and white collar workers, including FDI as well as its interaction with major industry characteristics. FDI has a significantly positive, though quantitatively modest impact on manufacturing employment in Mexico. This applies to both white collar and blue collar employment. The employment enhancing effects of FDI are larger in export oriented industries. In more capital-intensive industries, the employment effect of FDI remains positive for blue collar workers but not white collar ones.     

Voluntary environmental agreements in developing countries: the Colombian experience

Voluntary agreements (VAs) negotiated between environmental regulators and polluters are increasingly popular in developing countries. According to proponents, they can sidestep weak institutions and other pervasive barriers to conventional mandatory regulation in such countries. Yet little is known about the drivers of their use and their effectiveness in poor countries. The considerable literature on voluntary initiatives in industrialized countries, where both VAs and socioeconomic conditions differ, may not apply. Using a conceptual framework drawn from the economics literature, we examine four prominent VAs in Colombia, a global leader in the use of this policy. We find that the main motive for using VAs has been to build capacity needed for broader environmental regulatory reform and that partly as a result, VAs’ additional effect on environmental performance has been limited. These findings contrast with those from industrialized country studies, which typically conclude VAs are used as a low-cost substitute for impending mandatory regulation and have few benefits because of weak regulatory pressure. Our findings suggest that in developing countries, VAs may be best suited to capacity building, not environmental management per se.     

Measuring Quality of Life in Spanish Municipalities

Abstract

Measuring quality of life in municipalities entails two empirical challenges. First, collecting a set of relevant indicators that can be compared across the municipalities in the sample. Secondly, using an appropriate aggregating tool in order to construct a synthetic index. This paper measures quality of life for the largest 237 Spanish municipalities using Value Efficiency Analysis (VEA) to derive comparative scores by combining the information contained in 19 partial indicators. VEA is a refinement of DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) that imposes some consistency in the weights of the indicators used to construct the aggregate index. The indicators cover aspects related to consumption, social services, housing, transport, environment, labour market, health, culture and leisure, education and security. The results show that the Northern and Central regions in Spain attain the highest levels of quality of life, while the Southern regions report low living conditions. Education is the variable that requires the largest improvement in low performing municipalities, followed by health and culture facilities, pollution and crime. Population density, growth and ageing seem to relate positively to quality of life.     

Improved estimation of postmortem interval based on differential behaviour of vitreous potassium and hypoxantine in death by hanging

Many formulae are available to estimate the relation between the potassium ([K+]) and hypoxantine ([Hx]) concentration in the vitreous humour and the postmortem interval (PMI). Typically these have been based on a correlation test and linear regression using the postmortal interval as the independent variable and [K+] or [Hx] as the dependent variable in order to estimate the confidence interval. However, a recent study has shown that a more precise measurement of PMI can be obtained if [K+] is used as the independent variable. The regression lines obtained from the most recent deceased subjects with forensic relevance received for autopsy in the Institute of Legal Medicine are [K+] = 5.589 + 0.174PMI and [Hx] = 26.459 + 3.017PMI, by changing the variables, we obtain PMI=3.967[K+] - 19.186 (R2 = 0.688, P < 0.001) and PMI = 0.172 [Hx] + 0.170 (R2 = 0.518, P < 0.001). In this paper we propose the cause of death as an extra factor which modifies the relationship and gives even greater precision in estimating PMI. In cases of death by hanging the results are considerably improved with [K+] = 5.224 + 0.225PMI and [Hx] = 15.161+4.957PMI, respectively, and consequently, PMI = 3.631[K+] - 17.334 (R2 = 0.818, P< 0.001) and PMI = 0.153[Hx] - 0.368 (R2 = 0.757, P < 0.001): the slope is less and the precision is obviously enhanced.     

Extending the “voting with the feet” proposition: the impact of local economic development actions on immigration across Mexican municipalities

Tiebout's “voting with the feet” proposition directs attention to the role of local authorities in delivering public services, and the implications of their decisions in people's choice of place of residence. Similarly, the bottom-up approach to economic development places a relevant role of local governments in promoting higher standards of living. By considering the latter, the former can be extended as citizens can choose a jurisdiction not only on the basis of a combination of taxes and public services but a broader mix of public goods. This paper analyses the effects of the fundamental features of the bottom-up or local economic development (LED) approach on population mobility among Mexican municipalities. This study finds significant evidence of a positive impact of LED elements on immigration during the period between 1990 and 2005.