Community Characteristics and Death by Homicide,Suicide and Drug Overdose in Italy: The Role of Civic Engagement

A number of recent theories suggest that high civicness, civic participation and social capital protect a community from deviant behavior. Most empirical studies of this hypothesis have been conducted in North America. This paper examines to what extent this hypothesis applies to Italy and to three forms of violent death: homicide, suicide, and drug overdose, using the Putnam concept of civicness. Official statistics on civicness, unemployment, per capita G.D.P., urbanization, couples’ separation and age group concentration from the 95 sub-regions (provinces) of Italy were used as predictors of violent death. Among regions, homicide and suicide rates were negatively correlated. Southern provinces had more homicides, while northern provinces had more suicides and deaths from drug overdose. Analyses of interactions among independent variables revealed that certain relationships, which at first sight appeared to concern the whole of Italy, in reality concern only the north or only the south. This suggests the existence of specific effects, whereby some independent variables are only triggered in the particular conditions encountered in the north or in the south of Italy. Civicness was negatively associated with homicide only in the south, where it was also positively associated with suicide. Death by drug overdose was mostly explained by wealth. The overall pattern of results was more complex than present theories suggest.     

比较犯罪学：目的、方法与结论

在以往的三十年内 ,比较犯罪学已经由一种经验性操作转变为一门理论学科。比较犯罪学的多项研究是在 2 0世纪八九十年代进行的 ,这些研究显示 ,犯罪形态上的差异在很大程度上取决于社会、经济、国家政治结构、宗教以及文化等方面的差异 ,而且 ,可以发现 ,社会经济发展与犯罪增长之间存在联系。由于许多国家 (尤其是亚洲国家 )目前正在由传统农业社会向工业社会转型 ,认识这一点显得至关重要。本文要讨论的是比较犯罪学的目的、方法及其理论 ,但对于拉美国家的“解放者犯罪学”运动特别给予了关注。     

Partisanship,Ethnic Identification,and Citizen Attitudes toward Regime and Government on Taiwan

While Taiwan continues to enjoy a liberal, consolidated democratic regime, citizen discontent continues to be directed at regime, government, and the governing. Identifying the scope and degree of dissatisfaction is an initial step in ascertaining whether discontented citizens might be more or less amenable to destabilizing change at the regime level or more procedural changes at the government levels. Taiwan's 2004 elections topped off four years of mud slinging, legislative gridlock, and a number of serious battles over constitutional jurisdictions and powers. This research note compares survey items from the Taiwan Election and Democratization Study (TEDS) surveys taken in 2001 and 2003 to measure levels of support for a democratic regime and governance within this environment. As party and ethnic identification are key cleavages on Taiwan, this study seeks to establish the relative strengths of the association between partisan and ethnic identification and attitudes towards regime and government. The main findings are: (1) dissatisfaction with regime and governance are more strongly associated with partisan identification than ethnic identification; (2) there exists a surprisingly low satisfaction and commitment to democracy; and (3) alienation from government exists at a moderate level.     

Gotham unbound Dutch style

An inquiry committee of the Dutch parliament concluded that the capital Amsterdam – and especially the famous Red light district – is a centre of national and international organized crime. The city of Amsterdam set up a project to develop and implement an administrative approach to combat the organized crime problem: the Van Traa-project. This project is internationally recognized as a successful example of such an approach. Elaborating on an evaluation study this article critically analyses the policy theory and the effects of this project. This analysis shows that the assumptions that underlie the project are debatable, or proved hard to employ in practice. Despite the fact that in the policy plans the necessity of a multi-agency approach is stressed, external parties such as the police and the public prosecutors department take a rather passive stand, preventing the administrative approach of becoming a part of a truly integrative approach to organized crime. Furthermore, this article proves that it is hard to confirm this successfulness in a sound scientific manner. Many positive results can be observed, but it remains unclear to what extent these results have an impact on organized crime. Although some indications of a plausible impact of the measures taken in the Van Traa-project on organized crime were found, this article also refers to some indications of counterproductive effects.     

The United Nations Organization and Global Power Politics: The Antagonism between Power and Law and the Future of World Order

The dilemma faced by the United Nations Organization at thebeginning of the 21st century lies in its inability to reconcilethe structural realities of power politics in a unipolar worldwith the requirements of the international rule of law. Thepaper analyses the normative contradictions in the UN Charterthat result from the antagonism between power and law and reviewsthe prospects for a fundamental reform of the United NationsOrganization that would guarantee its survival under the radicallydifferent circumstances of the post-Cold War environment. Inthat regard, the paper emphasizes the need for a new paradigmof international organization that will do away with the ideaof special privileges accorded to the great powers of 1945,and emphasizes the need for a better regional balance in thedecision-making processes at the United Nations.     

Symbolische Grenzziehungen und nationale Herkunft. Eine explorative Studie über Distinktionsprozesse an einer multinationalen Schule in Brüssel

Despite processes of globalization and Europeanization, countries continue to differ not only in terms of their economic resources and political power, but also in terms of their reputation or “symbolic capital”. Drawing on the research literature on symbolic boundaries, the paper investigates to what extent the national origin of students at a multinational school shapes symbolic boundaries between them. The analysis is based on qualitative group interviews with students of a European School in Brussels, a uniquely Europeanized institution with the aim of educating the future citizens of Europe. It is shown that students draw symbolic boundaries in two steps. First, students classify their schoolmates in terms of categories specific to youth culture, including: (a) a specific youth lifestyle, (b) effortless academic achievement, (c) cosmopolitan values and (d) belonging to a dominant language group. In a second step, these primary categories are attributed to different national groups. As a consequence, a status hierarchy between countries emerges, primarily between Northwest-European and Eastern European countries. The results of this study point to the ongoing effects of national symbolic capital for processes of status differentiation, even within highly Europeanized contexts.     

In the Shadow of Brexit: The 2019 European Parliament Elections as First‐Order Polity Elections?

European Parliament (EP) elections have traditionally been described as ‘second‐order national elections' in which campaigns are fought by national parties on national issues. We argue that the 2019 elections should instead be considered ‘first‐order polity' elections. It is not EU‐level party politics or policy issues that are debated, but rather the legitimacy of the EU itself. Firstly, the EP elections have transformed into an EU ‘blame game' in which national governments are punished or rewarded over their stance on European integration. Secondly, the 2019 election was about the EU's fundamental values, not only with respect to multiculturalism, but also gender equality and LGBTQ rights. Finally, these first‐order polity elections are driven in large part by traditional news and social media platforms. While this is a long way from the patterns of the early EP elections, they still fail in fulfilling the function of holding MEPs and European party groupings adequately to account.     

Decolonisation and development in Burma

Over the last decade, economists have conducted numerous studies concerning trade barriers posed by national tariffs. In spite of this interest, few comprehensive analyses of transport barriers have been attempted. This seems surprising since transport costs, like tariffs, influence the magnitudes of trade flows, and types of goods exchanged internationally.

Recent changes in United States import statistics permit estimation of the incidence of international transport and insurance charges by product and by country. Using these records, this study shows that the overall ad valorem incidence of India's transport costs is approximately 14 per cent, or more than double current MFN tariffs. However, the spread between transport charges and tariffs is greater on some products of special export interest to India.

Analysis of the transport charges by processing stages shows that these costs escalate with increased fabrication. Thus, freight costs, like “tariffs, retard the growth of processing industries in India. This, plus the fact that India is at a sizeable cost disadvantage relative to its competitors, stresses the need for policies aimed at lowering the incidence of transport costs, or directing future export ventures, to areas where the shipping cost differential is less imposing.