How to Teach Political Advice: Bringing the Daily Life of the Minister Into the Classroom

During four intensive summer weeks, 28 students were exposed to the daily life of top political leaders (ministers and city mayors), acting as their political advisors. Real-life assignments were planned in cooperation with liaisons from the personal offices of these political leaders. The cases brought the hectic, complicated and uncertain life of political leaders into the classroom, and exposed students to the real world to an extent that they had never before experienced in a classroom. They were highly stimulated, were forced to cooperate, learned a great deal, and were reactivated as committed students of political science.

The course was based on a mix of pedagogical elements to enhance student learning such as learning by doing, problem solving, critical reflection, student collaboration, prompt feedback, time on task and active learning and applies many of the recommendations of action-based and experiential learning theory.     

Can Knowledge of Islam Explain Lack of Support for Terrorism? Evidence from Pakistan

In this research note we employ the work of Wiktorowicz who suggests that persons who are knowledgeable of Islam may be more capable of critically evaluating the claims of militant recruiters and ideologues and thus be more resistant to their appeals than those who are not knowledgeable. This gives rise to an interesting research question: Does knowledge of Islam reduce support for Islamist militancy? To evaluate this research question, we employ data derived from a nationally representative survey fielded among 16,279 Pakistanis in 2011. Using several survey items, we construct a “knowledge index” to measure respondents’ basic knowledge of Islam, which is our principal independent variable. To operationalize support for militancy we use two survey items that query respondents about their support for two prominent Islamist militant groups based in and from Pakistan: the Afghan Taliban as well the sectarian group, Sipah-e-Sahaba-e-Pakistan (also known as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat). We use ordinary least squares regression to evaluate the impact of our independent variables upon support for these two groups, controlling for other relevant factors. We find that knowledge of Islam does predict less support for these two groups; however, other variables such as sectarian organization and ethnicity have greater predictive power.     

Information Dilemmas and Blame‐Avoidance Strategies: From Secrecy to Lightning Rods in Chinese Health Crises

China and other authoritarian states notoriously keep mum about disasters. Yet two recent but dissimilar Chinese responses to infectious disease epidemics show that authoritarian crisis management can shift from secrecy to openness. China maintained prolonged secrecy during 2003 SARS, yet was open from day one about 2009 H1N1 flu. To explore why, this article links crisis information dilemmas to blame avoidance concepts from democratic political theories. We argue that greater Chinese transparency about infectious disease response reflects evolution in blame avoidance, from heavy reliance on information control to insulating leaders by using technical experts and agencies as “lightning rods.” In 2003, the Chinese strategy of information containment and secrecy backfired, and the Chinese leadership eventually received blame at home and internationally for crisis mismanagement. In 2009, China put in place public health specialists and institutions as responsible for H1N1 information and responses, thereby insulating the top‐tier leadership.     

我国少年司法制度建设的重大突破

1月23日,最高人民法院在总结司法界审理未成年人刑事案件的成功经验和做法,吸收法学理论界有关未成年人刑事案件审理的丰硕研究成果的基础上,出台了“关于审理未成年人刑事案件具体应用法律若干问题的解释”,对未成年人刑事案件审理中经常遇到的一些疑难问题予以了规范。该司法解释重申了在司法审判中对于审理未成年人刑事案件应当贯彻“教育、感化、挽救”的方针和“教育为主,惩罚为辅”的原则,明确了对于未成年人行为的定罪和犯罪后从轻处理的细化标准,作出了对于未成年人犯罪适用刑罚种类的特别规定。新的司法解释的问世,能够使案件的审…     

学生安全的学校责任和制度保障

学校的安全关系到学生的生命和财产安全、家庭的幸福乃至社会的稳定,因此始终是备受人们关注的大事。但一段时期以来,学校和学校周边环境安全以及学校组织的校内外活动安全暴露出来的问题非常尖锐和突出,学生重大伤亡事件频频发生,为此,不少学校注意抓了学校安全防范问题,但着眼点常常放在学生身上,总认为学生发生伤亡     

Trade versus aid: donor generosity in an era of globalization

Why do foreign aid budgets vary across countries and over time? Existing research indicates that the same set of factors shapes commitments toward both domestic and international redistribution. While scholars have acknowledged international normative influences on aid allocations, research on levels of donor generosity has not examined how international trade influences aid budgets. This paper examines whether imports from developing countries have a ‘displacement effect’ on aid commitments. Employing a panel of nineteen OECD donor countries, we analyze aid budgets from 1980 to 2000. We find that increased imports from developing countries to donor countries are associated with aid reductions. These results persist after controlling for international and domestic variables identified in previous research, and under other estimation techniques and model specifications.