Hurdles to peace: a level-of-analysis approach to resolving Sudan’s civil wars

Why do some peace agreements end armed conflicts whereas others do not? Previous studies have primarily focused on the relation between warring parties and the provisions included in peace agreements. Prominent mediators, however, have emphasised the importance of stakeholders at various levels for the outcome of peace agreements. To match the experience of these negotiators we apply a level-of-analysis approach to examine the contextual circumstances under which peace agreements are concluded. While prominent within the causes of war literature, level-of-analysis approaches are surprisingly scant in research about conflict resolution. This article compares two Sudanese Peace Agreements: the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (2005) that ended the North–South war and led to the independence of South Sudan, and the Darfur Peace Agreement (2006) which failed to end fighting in Darfur. We find that factors at the local, national and international level explain the different outcomes of the two agreements. Hence, the two case studies illustrate the merit of employing a level-of-analysis approach to study the outcome of peace agreements. The main contribution of this article is that it presents a new theoretical framework to understand why some peace agreements terminate armed conflict whereas others do not.     

The Origins of the European Coalition for Vision: Exploring the Formation of a Network

Despite growing interest in EU-level transnational networks, there is little understanding about how these form. This article investigates the formation of one network—the European Coalition for Vision (ECV). Using document analysis of 100 email exchanges, 12 semi-structured interviews, and observation of 5 ECV meetings, it identifies environmental and organizational triggers, most important to the creation of the ECV. Findings show that while environmental triggers played a role in ECV formation, organizational triggers were crucial. In particular, the presence of network leaders, a network entrepreneur and a network mentor were vital for the successful creation of the network.     

Agency Problems, the 17th Amendment, and Representation in the Senate

A prominent change in American electoral institutions occurred when the 17th Amendment to the Constitution established direct election of U.S. Senators as of 1914. How did this change the political agency relationship between the mass electorate and U.S. Senators? We develop theoretical expectations about the representational effects of direct election by a relatively inexpert mass electorate and indirect election by a relatively expert political intermediary, based on principal‐agent theory. The chief predictions are that the representative will be more responsive to the mass electorate under direct election, but will also have more discretion to pursue his or her own ends. We use the 17th Amendment as a quasi‐experiment to test the predictions of the theory. Statistical models show strong support for both predictions. Moreover, the 17th Amendment is not associated with similar changes in the U.S. House of Representatives—as expected, since the amendment did not change House electoral institutions.     

基于精英策略的多目标进化算法的研究

针对基于精英策略的多目标进化算法NSGAⅡ[1]解的多样性降低的缺点,提出了一个分布函数改进其精英策略.通过调节分布函数中的参数,控制精英解的选取范围,使一部分非精英解也能参与到遗传操作中,增加了解的多样性.实验结果表明,改进的多目标进化算法无论在解的多样性方面还是解的收敛性方面都有较大改观,性能明显优于NSGAⅡ.     

城市治理模式:类型与变迁分析

摘要:在城市治理的发展过程中,其治理结构、治理的重点、治理目标等都存在很大的差异.西方学者在研究中根据不同的标准,将城市划分为不同的城市治理模式.这些模式在行为主体、目标、手段等方面都各有特点,也存在着不足之处.然而这些模式很难照搬到中国的实践中.中国城市管理体制的变迁有着特殊的轨迹,从政府职能转变的角度来看可以清晰地把握从城市管制模式到城市经营模式,再到多中心治理模式的变迁历程.     

关于社会监督的几点思考

党中央提出要"充分发挥各监督主体的积极作用",其中包括要"切实加强社会监督".对此,从这种监督的主体和客体、地位和作用、对策和思路等三方面进行思考,必须准确回答三方面的问题:一是思考社会监督的主客体,解决的是谁来监督和监督谁的问题,即社会监督的主体是社会,而政党、国家(政府)则是社会监督的客体;二是思考社会监督的地位和作用,回答的是为什么监督的问题,相对于政党和国家内部的监督,社会监督是外部监督、自下而上的监督和多数人的监督,更是直接监督和积极监督,人民群众是开展监督的"依靠力量";三是在思考社会监督的对策和思路中,要推进社会主义民主政治建设,落实社会监督.     

The Interplay of Adolescents’ Aggression and Victimization with Friendship and Antipathy Networks within an Educational Prosocial Intervention

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - How the interplay between peer relationships and behaviors unfolds and how this differs between classrooms is an understudied topic. This study examined whether...     

Gendertyping sports: social representations of masculine,feminine, and neither-gendered sports among US university students

Sport is shifting from being hegemonically masculine but it is unclear how sports are viewed as gender segregated or gender integrated. Previous quantitative studies of gendertyping sports have reported mixed findings. Gendertyping constructs social representations that shape institutional and individual sport activities. This study examined how particular sports are represented as masculine, feminine and/or neither-gendered in one sample of 310 students at a US university. Qualitative open-ended recall questions asked students to name three masculine, feminine and neither masculine nor feminine sports. Results revealed that most students were aware of and used hegemonic gendertyped terms to describe sports. Recall questions elicited 2515 namings of 80 different sports that were arrayed as a spectrum of social representations of gendertyped sports ranging from masculine to neither-gendered to feminine. Some representations were hegemonic segregated masculine sports, many were integrated neither-gendered sports, and fewer were segregated feminine sports. Gendertyped social representations of sports offer cultural toolkits for calibrating the practices of doing and redoing gender in sport.