Walking a tightrope: democracy versus sovereignty in ASEAN's illiberal peace

Abstract

Since 1967, ASEAN has established intramural relations that forsake war as a means for resolving conflict. While this is a remarkable achievement for the region, it must be balanced against a concomitant hindrance of democratic reform. I argue in this paper that ASEAN's nascent security community must be seen as an ‘illiberal peace’. Underlying ASEAN's peaceful community are the same principles that support illiberalism in the region, namely sovereignty and non-interference. While sovereignty has historically been a cherished norm for developing countries, ASEAN lags behind other regions, particularly Latin America, in attempting to reconcile tensions between democratic norms and the respect for sovereignty. This tension is most evident in ASEAN's relations with Myanmar. Recent events indicate that ASEAN's non-interference norm may no longer be sacrosanct, but the association is a long way from shunning illiberal politics for the sake of democratic values.     

Basic Values Transform Political Interest into Diverse Political Values,Attitudes and Behaviors

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Since politically interested adolescents do not necessarily present humanistic, environmental and democratic values, this study addresses the hitherto ignored...     

Validation of powder X-ray diffraction following EN ISO/IEC 17025

Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) is used widely in forensic science laboratories with the main focus of qualitative phase identification. Little is found in literature referring to the topic of validation of PXRD in the field of forensic sciences. According to EN ISO/IEC 17025, the method has to be tested for several parameters. Trueness, specificity, and selectivity of PXRD were tested using certified reference materials or a combination thereof. All three tested parameters showed the secure performance of the method. Sample preparation errors were simulated to evaluate the robustness of the method. These errors were either easily detected by the operator or nonsignificant for phase identification. In case of the detection limit, a statistical evaluation of the signal-to-noise ratio showed that a peak criterion of three sigma is inadequate and recommendations for a more realistic peak criterion are given. Finally, the results of an international proficiency test showed the secure performance of PXRD.     

Entrepreneurial human capital, complementary assets, and takeover probability

Although acquisitions of high-tech entrepreneurial firms are of great popularity within the technology transfer process, the limited empirical evidence on this type of technology transfer shows that these acquisitions often lead to dismal results in that a large number of acquired key inventors leave their companies after an acquisition and those that remain exhibit poor performance. This study aims at explaining this phenomenon and adds additional empirical results and explanations to the matching theory of ownership changes. Using a hand collected dataset of all German IPOs from 1997 until 2006, this study shows that the probability of ownership in a young and high-tech firm??s assets being reallocated by means of a takeover significantly decreases with the amount of intangible and complementary assets that are owned by the owner-manager.     

Reflections on experimentalist governance

This article critically engages with Sabel and Zeitlin's important notion of experimentalist governance (EG). It is cast as a “recursive process of provisional goal‐setting and revision based on learning from the comparison of alternative approaches to advancing them in different contexts.” This is a useful heuristic device to capture policymaking and implementation in complex, dynamic, and highly diverse political entities. This article discusses the micro‐foundations underpinning EG, how it relates to hierarchical modes of governing, and how well it captures the distinctive traits of the EU. It also discusses EG from a democratic perspective. In democratic terms EG is understood as a form of direct deliberative polyarchy. This article notes that the question of EG's contribution to democratization cannot, however, be adequately addressed unless we pay more systematic attention to representation and representative democracy.     

How do disciplinary tribunals evaluate the "gut feelings" of doctors? An analysis of Dutch tribunal decisions, 2000-2008

A sense of alarm, which is a form of "gut feeling" sometimes plays a part in the decisions of medical disciplinary tribunals in The Netherlands. Since these judgments are regarded as setting standards for professional attitudes in The Netherlands, the question arises how Dutch tribunals have evaluated gut feelings, and how tribunals in other European countries deal with them. An exploratory study searched two Dutch digital databases (2000-2008) and asked 26 national representatives of the European General Practice Research Network for information about the role of gut feelings in tribunals' decisions. A sense of alarm was mentioned in judgments in 34 Dutch cases. Defendants were hardly ever reproached for missing the correct diagnosis, but mostly for not acting in a professional manner. The sense of alarm was referred to as a diagnostic tool to assess a patient's situation, although the judgments indicate that it must be followed by further diagnostic steps. The role of gut feelings in decisions of disciplinary tribunals in Europe is unclear. The authors conclude that the sense of alarm as a diagnostic tool has been taken seriously by Dutch tribunals. Its timely development is considered to be an element of the professional standards for doctors.     

The Rise and Decline of Turnout in Congressional Elections: Electoral Institutions,Competition, and Strategic Mobilization

Considerable debate exists over the impact of electoral institutions on turnout in U.S. national elections. To address this debate, I exploit the rich variation in electoral rules present throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Using a newly constructed dataset of district‐level turnout results for the U.S. House from 1840 to 1940, I find that electoral institutions and political competition jointly provided incentives, and by the turn‐of‐the‐century disincentives, for political leaders to mobilize the electorate. The results demonstrate that changes in electoral institutions and varying levels of political competition help explain congressional turnout across districts and over time.     

Effects of Mental Strength Training for Police Officers: a Three-Wave Quasi-experimental Study

Police officers are frequently confronted with various stressors that may affect their mental health. Psychological resilience may protect against these effects. For this purpose, a Mental Strength Training (MST) was developed by the Dutch Police Academy aimed at psychological resilience enhancement. The present three-wave study examined efficacy of this training using a quasi-experimental study design among police officers (N ^Total ?=?305, n ^Experimenal ?=?138, n ^Comparison ?=?167). Additionally, we compared between officers in the experimental and comparison group recently confronted with a potentially traumatic event (N ^Total ?=?170, n ^Experimenal ?=?74, n ^Comparison ?=?96). Questionnaires on resilience (Mental Toughness Questionnaire-48 (MTQ-48) and Resilience Scale-nl (RS-nl)), mental health disturbances (Symptoms CheckList 90-R (SCL-90-R) and Self-Rating Inventory for PTSD (SRIP)), were administered pre-training, and about 3 and 9 months post-training. Mixed-effects models showed training effects on Interpersonal Confidence. Similar analyses among officers with recent potentially traumatic event experience showed significant training effects for the RS-nl subscale of Acceptance of Self and Life, MTQ-48 total score, and the MTQ-48 subscale of Interpersonal Confidence. However, all effects yielded small effect sizes according to Cohen’s d, and are therefore of limited practical relevance. Officer’s appraisal of training benefits on resilience enhancement was largely negative. We found no indications that 4-day training substantially improved officer’s psychological resilience or mental health.