Design standards for laws to ensure effective democracy

Electoral suffrage and civil and political rights are insufficient to guarantee effective democracy in the age of social media and the Internet. Democracy must be upgraded to strengthen and reinforce accountability, transparency, fairness and rationality, and oversight independence. Design standards in the preparation and drafting of laws would be a major contribution to this objective.     

Differential Effects of Parental Controls on Adolescent Substance Use: For Whom is the Family Most Important?

Objective

Social control theory assumes that the ability of social constraints to deter juvenile delinquency will be invariant across individuals. This paper tests this hypothesis and examines the degree to which there are differential effects of parental controls on adolescent substance use.

Methods

Analyses are based on self-reported data from 7,349 10th-grade students and rely on regression mixture models to identify latent classes of individuals who may vary in the effects of parental controls on drug use.

Results

All parental controls were significantly related to adolescent drug use, with higher levels of control associated with less drug use. The effects of instrumental parental controls (e.g., parental management strategies) on drug use were shown to vary across individuals, while expressive controls (e.g., parent/child attachment) had uniform effects in reducing drug use. Specifically, poor family management and more favorable parental attitudes regarding children’s drug use and delinquency had stronger effects on drug use for students who reported greater attachment to their neighborhoods, less acceptance of adolescent drug use by neighborhood residents, and fewer delinquent peers, compared to those with greater community and peer risk exposure. Parental influences were also stronger for Caucasian students versus those from other racial/ethnic groups, but no differences in effects were found based on students’ gender or commitment to school.

Conclusions

The findings demonstrate support for social control theory, and also help to refine and add precision to this perspective by identifying groups of individuals for whom parental controls are most influential. Further, they offer an innovative methodology that can be applied to any criminological theory to examine the complex forces that result in illegal behavior.     

Suggested Capacities for Minister's Success: An Empirical Approach Based on Saaty's AHP

The roles of ministers are complicated, multiple, and demanding. They need to perform both as a leader of public organization and as a political actor in the Cabinet as appointed by the president or prime minister. This research empirically examines which capacities and types of ministers account for their success. It concludes that a policy capacity is the most desirable ministerial capacity. In addition, this study concludes that a political type minister is the most appropriate ministerial type for ministerial success. However, there is not one best ministerial model, or one required capacity for ministerial success. That is, this study intends to better understand the virtue and the responsibility of ministers.     

Viability of Self-Employment

Empirical studies on self-employment uniformly cite the high mortality rate in both developed and developing countries. Several studies on the entry into self-employment incorporate a savings constraint. Policy makers and international aid agencies have responded by providing credit to would-be entrepreneurs yet the mortality rate persists. We formulate a model of the viability of self-employment that incorporates the impact of cost perceptions at the time of entry. We use the ability to meet monthly loan repayment ratios as a measure of viability since loans are usually the largest explicit cost. Our results have important policy implications on the desirability of interest rate subsidies, the size of initial capital relative to market size and criteria for granting additional credit to existing enterprises.     

Public accountability in higher education and health: an international perspective

Hospitals and universities in British Columbia (BC), and indeed in Canada generally, face a serious loss of faith in the self-regulatory model of funding and external governance whereby, essentially, they are given resources and the autonomy to use them as they see fit. Generally, the last two decades in Canada have been a period of scarce resources, loss of external confidence, general funding limitations, some additional pressures in the form of increased controls and accountability requirements, but little evidence that hospitals and universities are willing to respond positively to these new pressures. The argument of the paper is that responding to pressures for improved accountability reporting may be the price of preserving autonomy and relative funding levels. An active, cooperative response to external concerns about information will enable hospitals and universities to shape the information agenda to their advantage--at the very least, having it reflect reasonably accurately their circumstances and performance. The paper argues further that hospitals should begin by addressing patient care measures and universities should begin by dealing with measures of teaching performance.     

Developers and Speculators: Housing,Ethnic Chinese Business and the Asian Financial Crisis in Malaysia

Housing has played a central role in both the Asian and global financial crises, a decade apart. While there are major differences with respect to these roles, there are also similarities, the most obvious being the links with the banking system. The impact of these crises on the housing sector has been extensively researched, but findings have been overwhelmingly based on aggregate or sector data. Using firm-level data from Malaysia on the Asian financial crisis, this article argues that such findings can yield a distorted picture of what actually occurred in real estate markets where contextual factors played a major role. A study of ethnic Chinese businesses, which dominated the Malaysian housing sector, show that the severe impact was primarily on businesses that were over-leveraged and/or that speculated on housing in the expectation of reaping quick returns. They were small compared to the large property businesses that, though affected, survived. Non-residential real estate continued unaffected, fuelled by manufacturing to meet healthy export demand. This, and a political/economic environment accentuated by affirmative action which drove ethnic Chinese businesses toward real estate development, speaks powerfully to the importance of context in understanding specific housing markets during crises.     

ASEAN's Albatross: ASEAN's Burma Policy,from Constructive Engagement to Critical Disengagement

Abstract

Following the abortive “Saffron Revolution” of autumn 2007, Burma's ASEAN partners were subject to the timeworn criticism that the grouping persistently fails to act against its pariah member due to its near-religious adherence to the norm of non-interference. Conversely, this paper argues that ASEAN's policy towards Burma has never been one of strict non-interference, but has always been premised on the claim that ASEAN can encourage political change there. Moreover, the non-interference principle has come under increasing pressure since the Asian financial crisis. The article tracks the evolution of ASEAN's policy, from the adoption of constructive engagement in 1988, through the gradual frustration of ASEAN's designs, to its present position of critical disengagement, arguing ASEAN's failure to take a stronger line has less to do with any binding “norms” than with the interests of the region's predominantly illiberal elites and the grouping's increasing difficulties in achieving meaningful consensus.

We don't set out to change the world and our neighbors. We don't believe in it. The culture of ASEAN is that we do not interfere.

(Goh Chok Tong, Prime Minister of Singapore, 1992) ¹ 1. “Myanmar's Monsters,” The Economist, February 29, 1992. All newspaper and magazine references sourced from www.lexisnexis.com except where otherwise indicated.

ASEAN is trying to democratize Myanmar.

(Nguyen Dy Nien, Foreign Minister of Vietnam, 2004) ² 2. “Japan, Vietnam, EU agree to find ways to resolve ASEM row,” Kyodo, July 2, 2004.

A Selected Bibliography on Occupied Beijing, 1937-1945

Abstract

This article examines the anti-French campaign triggered by the Laoxikai incident — a dispute in 1916–17 over lands bordering the French concession in Tianjin. The incident was a focal point for competing narratives of the nation, each drawing on traditions and inspirations that implied divergent futures for China. Constitutional monarchism, true monarchism, republicanism, and Christianity all played into the power struggles of the 1910s. This article also addresses the role of violent coercion in the incident, in which nationalism began to legitimate “punishment” of Chinese who continued working with the French. The nationalists felt shame on behalf of their nation, and through public humiliation they forced Chinese who appeared indifferent to the nation to share in the national shame. This development accelerated a trend of nationalistic violence and the discourse of “national humiliation”.     

Book Review

One of the most important influences on my perspective on justice has been my Christian faith, and, in particular, my roots in evangelical Christianity. Because of the media’s too frequent portrayal of evangelical Christianity as monolithic in its political viewpoints, many may doubt that evangelical Christianity has much to contribute to the discussion of social justice. In fact, evangelical Christianity is actually multivocal, and the evangelical left’s views on social justice have been life changing for me. This essay describes that influence.