Partisan Infighting Among House Republicans: Leaders,Factions, and Networks of Interests

Congressional parties are commonly viewed as unified legislative teams, but recent intraparty battles have revealed serious ideological divisions within the House Republican caucus. Using annual ratings from nearly 300 interest groups, we estimate the ideological locations of Republican legislators in order to map their party's factional structure. Based on the distribution of interest‐group support from 2001 to 2012, we detect three Republican factions that we characterize as worker oriented, pro‐business, and ethno‐radical. We find that Republican leaders block bills by legislators in the worker and ethno‐radical subgroups and that they advance bills by members in the corporate faction.     

A CHAMPION OF GLOBALIZATION

<正>Xi Jinping emphasizes China's global leadership at the Beijing forum By Jon TaylorPresident Xi Jinping's keynote address to the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation laid out a bold vision for a new era of international cooperation by positioning China as a champion of a more inclusive and balanced form of globalization.     

Worlds Apart

正As the G7 falters,the SCO Qingdao Summit offers a new model of regional cooperation On June 9 and 10,the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit was held in Qingdao in east China’s Shandong Province.The leaders of the participating countries released a series of documents codifying     

Managing North Sea Pollution Effectively:Linking International and Domestic Institutions

Most pollution problems arise as by-products of domestic activity. The effectiveness of international environmental regimes thus depends on the operations of domestic political and administrative institutions. However, the study of regime effectiveness tends to overlook the operation of domestic institutions as well as the interests and preferences of sub-national non-state actors. In this article, a framework for combining the study of regime effectiveness with domestic institutions and actors is initially presented. The merits of this framework within the context of the North Sea regime is then explored. The article concludes that the effectiveness of this regime depends on the operation of both international and domestic institutions. Of particular importance are those sub-national actors actually causing the problem in the first place as well as domestic institutions influencing the behaviour of target groups.     

Cap-and-trade or carbon taxes? The feasibility of enforcement and the effects of non-compliance

One of the proposed alternatives to Kyoto’s cap-and-trade approach is a regime based on an internationally harmonized carbon tax. In this paper, we consider and compare the enforcement problems associated with a tax regime and a cap-and-trade regime, respectively. The paper tries to convey two main points. First, both types of regime require an_. effective enforcement mechanism. However, such a mechanism is unlikely to be adopted as part of a regime with full participation, because the political process leading up to its adoption tends to water down the enforcement mechanism to a point where it no longer has much bite. And even if this is somehow avoided, countries expecting compliance to be difficult or costly will almost certainly decline to sign—not to mention ratify—the resulting agreement. Second, the implications of non-compliance in a tax regime differ in important ways from the corresponding implications in a cap-and-trade regime. In a cap-and-trade regime emissions trading can make inaction legitimate for buyers of emission permits. In particular, overselling of permits by one (or a few) permit exporting countries might completely undermine the regime’s environmental effect. In a tax regime, by contrast, one country’s non-compliance can not make inaction by other countries legitimate. It follows that an agreement based on a harmonized carbon tax will always have some effect, provided that at least one country complies.     

Elementary Grade Retention in Texas and Reading Achievement Among Racial Groups: 1994–2002

Students who failed the Texas mandatory third grade reading test were followed through their sophomore year in high school. Comparisons of reading scores between third grade students who repeated the grade and their socially promoted classmates revealed that the positive effect of retention persisted over time. Retention in third grade benefited low‐performing readers regardless of race. Supplemental analyses found that the results are not likely attributable to selection biases, differential attrition of students from the panel, changes in the special education status of students, and regression to the mean effects. Making students repeat a grade, when supplemented with additional educational assistance, can benefit academically challenged children.