Domestic credit and the balance of payments in Ghana: A comment

This article provides evidence from a randomised control trial conducted among potato farmers in Ecuador about the impact of mobile phone text messages on farmer knowledge about and adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) practices. Using psychological constructs, we examine competing explanations for non-standard decision-making leading to low adoption of beneficial agricultural technologies. Farmers who received text messages have significantly higher knowledge and are more likely to adopt most IPM practices than those in the control group. Findings provide evidence that text messages lead to behavioural changes by reducing inattention and sub-optimal heuristics in the face of complex decisions.     

Is Japan Really Back? The “Abe Doctrine” and Global Governance

Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has emerged as the “comeback kid” of Japanese politics and in his second term of office is now widely regarded as a rare example of strong leadership as he seeks to arrest and reverse his country’s perceived decline. The strategy to achieve these objectives has come to be known as the “Abe Doctrine,” which represents a radical but risky shift in foreign policy. This article outlines the tenets of the evolving Abe Doctrine and then applies them to the Abe administration’s behaviour in the mechanisms of global governance, a highly pertinent but overlooked example. It argues that although a more strategic and coherent approach to global governance has emerged under Abe than had been previously evident, this has been at the expense of the norm of internationalism that has traditionally shaped Japan’s role.     

The strange imputation of violence to liberation theology

Liberation theology identifies the existing distribution of power as a form of oppressive domination rooted in violence. The existing system justifies itself through a tightly woven fabric of economic, political, religious and social rationalizations. The most basic rationaliztion is the ‘paradigm of the inverted sacrifice’, wherein aggressive groups perceive harmless outsiders as ‘different’, as a threat, and ultimately sacrifices them, either through direct extermination or through oppression. In the modern era, this oppression is reflected in a ‘structure of dominance’ which guarantees the enrichment of a few and the disenfranchise‐ment of the masses. Liberation theology challenges the rationalization of the status quo on several key points: (1) the inappropriateness of using God to justify the ‘sacrifice’ of the poor and downtrodden to a system based on their exploitation; (2) the need for a fundamental redefinition of God to expunge the need for victims as the basis of the socioeconomic system; (3) the need to understand that history is a process of conflict; (4) the necessity to ‘desacralize’ all violence.

The critics of liberation theology reject these propositions either because they misunderstand them, or because they currently enjoy advantages that would be lost if these ideas were actualized. Noting the reference to violence in the literature of liberation theology, biased critics falsely assert that it preaches revolutionary violence and that liberation theologians are enemies of the poor. Over the past few years, these arguments have become less persuasive: the Vatican has recognized the need to correct structurally‐determined inequalities, and political candidates linked to liberation theology have made better showings in polls. Unfair criticism continues, but liberation theology shows promising glimmers of success in Latin America.     

Making Ends Meet After Prison

Former prisoners are at high risk of economic insecurity due to the challenges they face in finding employment and to the difficulties of securing and maintaining public assistance while incarcerated. This study examines the processes through which former prisoners attain economic security, examining how they meet basic material needs and achieve upward mobility over time. It draws on unique qualitative data from in‐depth, unstructured interviews with a sample of former prisoners followed over a two‐ to three‐year period to assess how subjects draw upon a combination of employment, social supports, and public benefits to make ends meet. Findings reveal considerable struggle among our subjects to meet even minimal needs for shelter and food, although economic security and stability could be attained when employment or public benefits were coupled with familial social support. Sustained economic security was rarely achieved absent either strong social support or access to long‐term public benefits. However, a select few were able to leverage material support and social networks into trajectories of upward mobility and economic independence. Policy implications are discussed.     

Competing Climate Change Responses: Reflections on EU Unilateral Regulation of International Transport Emissions in Light of Multilateral Developments

Netherlands International Law Review - In 2016, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Maritime Organization (IMO) made important strides towards the regulation of...     

Where Are the Women in Global Governance? Leaders,Wives and Hegemonic Masculinity in the G8 and G20 Summits

Although various studies have explored women's representation and participation in the central mechanisms of global governance such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, no similar study exists in the case of the summit meetings of the Group of Eight and Group of Twenty countries. This article begins by identifying the participation of women within these formal and informal fora of global governance and concludes that both summits represent sites of hegemonic masculinity in terms of space, style and, to an extent, substance. It then extends its focus towards an exploration and evaluation of the occasions when women have played an apparently dominant role in these summit meetings: as spouses. Whilst acknowledging the impact of their participation in terms of agenda setting and policymaking, in addition to the ceremonial roles they play through the various social events and photo opportunities organised on the periphery of these summits, the article concludes that these activities serve ultimately to reinforce the elite nature of summitry, in addition to a gendered division of labour and a hegemonic form of masculinity therein.     

Two arch criteria of the ilium for sex determination of immature skeletal remains: A test of their accuracy and an assessment of intra- and inter-observer error

Although the assignment of sex to immature skeletal remains is considered problematic, some traits have been considered useful for both forensic and bioarchaeological applications. One such trait is the arch criterion found in subadult ilia, which is defined relative to the greater sciatic notch-auricular surface area. In adults, the composite arch has also been described in relation to this area and has proven relatively successful in sex determination. This study offers an examination of the accuracy of the arch criterion and the composite arch in determining the sex of subadult skeletal remains, and an assessment of intra- and inter-observer scoring error. A sample of 97 skeletons of known sex and age (<15 years) from the Lisbon collection (Portugal) were selected and the traits were scored by three observers on orthogonal photos of each ilium. In general the agreement within (67.7–88.5%) and between (50.5–76.3%) examiners was poor and overall accuracy (26.7–52.6%) did not meet the expectations of that reported in previous studies. The authors suggest that this derives from great variation in morphology, difficulties in interpreting criteria and possibly a lack of association between the expression of the traits and sex. Careful examination of sex-related morphology in the immature skeleton and additional blind tests of so-called useful traits should continue to be carried out.     

Shared services in Brazilian local government: Urban development in small counties

In this article we break new ground by investigating cooperative agreements in urban development services, which include urban development, housing and sanitation for small local governments in Brazil (i.e., those with fewer than 20,000 residents in 2013–15). We find that public expenditure on urban development can be explained by both horizontal (intermunicipal cooperation) and vertical (public–public partnerships) cooperation. Regarding the impact of public sector cooperation on public expenditure, our results show that housing and sanitation services are less costly under intermunicipal cooperation. By contrast, urban development services are less costly when local authorities do not cooperate with other public entities. For public–public partnerships (with the state or federal government) cooperation leads to an increase in public funding, which implies that cooperative agreements might not lead to lower public expenditure. The findings in this article provide useful empirical insights into the administrative reorganization of Brazilian local government.