Alternate Paths to Power? Women's Political Representation in Nicaragua

Political alternate positions (otherwise known as substitutes) can have important effects on women's abilities to enter politics. Using the case of Nicaragua, this study assesses whether these alternate positions are being used to increase women's political representation or as a tool to undermine women's advancement into positions of power. By examining patterns of women's representation as candidates in the 1996, 2001, and 2006 elections for the National Assembly and as elected officeholders (as both alternates for those assembly members and titleholders), the article analyzes how various political parties are utilizing these alternate positions. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this study finds no evidence that these alternate positions are used to undermine women's political progress.     

Monetary transmission and the financial sector in the Czech Republic

In this paper, we (1) examine the interactions of financial variables and the macroeconomy within the block-restriction vector autoregression model and (2) evaluate to what extent the financial variables improve the forecasts of GDP growth and inflation. For this reason, various financial variables are examined, including those unexplored in previous literature, such as the share of liquid assets in the banking industry and the loan loss provision rate. Our results suggest that financial variables have a systematic and statistically significant effect on macroeconomic fluctuations. In terms of forecast evaluation, financial variables in general seem to improve the forecast of macroeconomic variables, but the predictive performance of individual financial variables varies over time, even though it strengthens during the 2008?C2009 crisis. The results give some support for the risk-taking channel of monetary policy, as the level of the monetary policy rate is positively associated with the loan loss provision rate of commercial banks. Finally, a more stable financial system is found to contribute to faster economic growth.     

Explanatory factors of the relationship between gender diversity and corporate performance

In recent years a growing interest in gender diversity has arisen in the business context, and a significant number of research studies have analysed its effect on corporate performance. Nonetheless, these studies have not led to conclusive results, perhaps owing to the complexity of the relationship. The present work focuses on analysing two possible justifications of the contradictory effects of gender diversity on company performance: the business context and the optimum size of the female presence in decision-making bodies. The results obtained show that when working conditions and academic background are similar, women achieve better performance in sectors traditionally dominated by men. Moreover, to take the best advantage of gender diversity it is recommended that boards of directors should be balanced or have a slightly higher female presence.     

International Norms and National Indigenous Politics: Mapuche Demands for Territory in Chile

Indigenous movements have increasingly turned to the global arena to achieve their political goals at the national level. Using the norm diffusion model, the present article analyzes the relationship between the international indigenous rights regime (IRR) and the conceptualizations of indigenous territory used by four Mapuche organizations in Chile over the last 10 years. We find that the organizations draw on the IRR to frame their demand for autonomous territories based on historical Mapuche practices. We identify two conceptualizations: (1) a larger territory with political but not economic autonomy and (2) a smaller natural-cultural space characterized by a distinctive economic logic.     

A free market bailout alternative?

It has been more than 3 years since the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers and the beginning of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Most recently, the sovereign debt crisis in Europe has led to the bailout of the governments of Ireland, Portugal and Greece. A main reason behind these bailouts is to support European banks loaded with government bonds on their balance sheet. In this article we analyze the detrimental consequences of the public bailout in 2008 and argue that a free market alternative existed. The alternative of a private bailout outlined in this article, consisting of the conversion of liabilities into equity and a private capital increase, largely avoids the problems of a public bailout. Similarly, a public bailout of governments of the Eurozone to sustain banks may be detrimental.     

Politicization,banking experience and risk in savings banks

During the global financial crisis, criticism of the politicization and lack of professionalization of the savings banks has taken a central position in the political debate. The aim of this article is to analyze if the political presence of governing bodies in Spanish savings banks has been reflected in their various risk-taking behaviors before and during the financial crisis. We will also analyze whether the influence of the chairman’s banking experience matters. The results do not provide evidence that the composition of the boards of savings bank, or even their politicization, have played a role. However we show that savings banks run by a chairman with previous banking experience are likely to be significantly more solvent and less volatile.     

Enhancing Consistency in Sentencing: Exploring the Effects of Guidelines in England and Wales

Objectives

The development and application of methods to assess consistency in sentencing before and after the 2011 England and Wales assault guideline came into force.

Methods

We use the Crown Court Sentencing Survey to compare the goodness of fit of two regression analyses of sentence length on a set of legal factors before and after the assault guideline came into force. We then monitor the dispersion of residuals from these regressions models across time. Finally, we compare the variance in sentence length of equivalent types of offences using exact matching.

Results

We find that legal factors can explain a greater portion of variability in sentencing after the guideline was implemented. Furthermore, we detect that the unexplained variability in sentencing decreases steadily during 2011, while results from exact matching point to a statistically significant average reduction in the variance of sentence length amongst same types of offences.

Conclusions

We demonstrate the relevance of two new methods that can be used to produce more robust assessments regarding the evolution of consistency in sentencing, even in situations when only observational non-hierarchical data is available. The application of these methods showed an improvement in consistency during 2011 in England and Wales, although this positive effect cannot be conclusively ascribed to the implementation of the new assault guideline.     

About the Impossibility of Absolute State Sovereignty

State sovereignty is often thought to be absolute, unlimited. This paper argues that there is no such a thing as absolute State sovereignty. Indeed, absolute sovereignty is impossible because all sovereignty is necessarily underpinned by its conditions of possibility—i.e. limited sovereignty is the norm, though the nature of the limitations varies. The article consists of two main sections: (a) the concept of sovereignty: this section is focused on some of the limitations the concept of sovereignty itself presents; and (b) a historical account of the notion of sovereignty as it was used in the Ancient Times. The particular focus on early notions of a modern concept such as sovereignty has to do with the fact that this early notion has been anthropomorphised with societal evolution. Therein, the current concept of State sovereignty embraces the same limitations it had in its ancient form as a non-fully developed conceptual idea. The implications of understanding State sovereignty as limited rather than absolute are several, both directly and indirectly. A main immediate consequence is that sovereign States can cooperate together, limit their sovereignty and still be considered sovereign.     

Differences in Physical Fitness and Body Composition Between Active and Sedentary Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Previous research analyzing the differences in physical fitness and body composition between active and sedentary adolescents aged 12–16 has not provided...