Why people want something for nothing: The role of asymmetrical illusions

Abstract. This article examines if and why mechanisms exist at the individual citizen level that may contribute to public sector growth — and whether such mechanisms can be altered through provision of information about the costs of public services.We test and find empirical support for the theory of fiscal illusion according to which citizens underestimate the costs of public services and therefore demand more public spending than if they had been fully informed. We also develop and find empirical support for a theory of asymmetrical illusions. This theory claims that producers and users of public services are more spending–minded than ordinary taxpayers — and that limited rationality contributes to this difference. However, the provision of information about the unit costs of public services can weaken these mechanisms of fiscal illusion and asymmetrical illusions. The test is based on tabular, logit, and experimental analysis of survey data from Odense, a Danish city with 175,000 inhabitants.     

Failures in agricultural innovation due to poor understanding of farmers’ predispositions

Development projects in Madagascar have increased and evolved for half a century, yet they have failed to enhance farmers’ performances. Related literature attributes the causes of failure as external to the project instigators, who are mostly institutions and funders. This article aims to highlight the role of development agents and their responsibility in unsuccessful projects. Participant observation of participatory learning and action research conducted in the Malagasy highlands revealed that non-consideration of the target audience’s rationale makes the innovation processes provided by development projects obsolete.     

The Changing Faces of Contemporary Tourism

Tourism, a domain of considerable importance in the contemporary world, has long been overlooked by social scientists, but has recently become a field attracting a growing body of research. In sociology, the relation between tourism and modernity at first constituted the issue of principal interest, the discourse focusing on the extent to which modern Western tourists seek authentic experiences on their trip. The article discusses the changes in the terms of the discourse, contingent upon the growing similarity of the world in the wake of globalization, the emergence of the “post-tourist,” and the diversification in the composition of tourists, with the growth in the number of travelers from non-Western countries. The question of the limits of the future expansion of the tourist system is raised in conclusion.

The Limits of Partisan Loyalty

Political Behavior - While partisan cues tend to dominate political choice, prior work shows that competing information can rival the effects of partisanship if it relates to salient political...     

Dealing with the Aftermath of Japan’s Triple Disaster: Building Social Capital Through Crime Prevention

After the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster that struck Japan in March 2011, overall rates of reported crime, already low in international comparative terms, went further down. A relative absence of crime was accompanied, however, by a great awareness of the possibility of crime—as illustrated by emergency policies and numerous crime prevention initiatives and activities by both the police and groups of (local) volunteers. This article will show that the large scale and persistence of crime prevention campaigns and activities can be understood against the background of more general, persistent preoccupations with, and concerns about crime. Based on statistics, media reports, and interviews with (former) inhabitants of the struck Tōhoku area as well as members of NGO’s, it will furthermore show that crime prevention activities, that up until now have received hardly any scholarly attention, were purposely employed to strengthen community ties, as well as to bring about ties between members of communities torn apart by the disasters. Focusing on crime and crime prevention activities after March 11, 2011 in Miyagi prefecture and specifically the town of Ishinomaki, this article will show that amidst overwhelming loss and uncertainty crime constituted and constitutes an opportunity for the (re-)building of social capital.     

Hague Case Law — Latest Developments

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Newspaper Theft,Self-Preservation and the Dimensions of Censorship

One of the most common yet understudied means of suppressing free expression on college and university campuses is the theft of freely distributed student publications, particularly newspapers. This study examines news accounts of nearly 300 newspaper theft incidents at colleges and universities between 1995 and 2008 in order to identify the manifestations and consequences of this peculiar form of censorship, and to augment existing research on censorship and tolerance by looking, not at what people say about free expression, but at what they do when they have the power of censorship in their hands. Among the key findings is that men commit nearly 70% of newspaper thefts, which is inconsistent with much of the existing research on censorship and gender, and that those who censor college newspapers are far more concerned with their own self-preservation than with shaping public dialog on controversial social or political issues.