25 Years of Transparency Research: Evidence and Future Directions

This article synthesizes the cross‐disciplinary literature on government transparency. It systematically reviews research addressing the topic of government transparency published between 1990 and 2015. The review uses 187 studies to address three questions: (1) What forms of transparency has the literature identified? (2) What outcomes does the literature attribute to transparency? and (3) How successful is transparency in achieving those goals? In addressing these questions, the authors review six interrelated types of transparency and nine governance‐ and citizen‐related outcomes of transparency. Based on the findings of the analysis, the authors outline an agenda for future research on government transparency and its effects that calls for more systematically investigating the ways in which contextual conditions shape transparency outcomes, replicating studies with varying methodologies, investigating transparency in neglected countries, and paying greater attention to understudied claims of transparency such as improved decision making and management.     

Between Truth,Legitimacy, and Legality in the Post-truth Era

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - The post-truth regime is a regime in which certain central categories of modernity seem to be...     

Detection of Pb,Ba, and Sb in Cadaveric Maggots and Pupae by ICP-MS*

The concentrations of lead (Pb), barium (Ba), and antimony (Sb), characteristic of GSR, were determined in soil sediments and immature (larvae) of cadaveric flies of the family Calliphoridae, by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). This research refers to a case study from two real crime scenes in which the corpses were in an advanced state of decomposition. In case 1, the victim had holes similar to gunshot wounds, and in case 2, there was no evidence of perforations in the corpse. Soil sediment collection was performed at three different points of the terrain, at a minimum distance of 10 m from the corpse, for cases 1 and 2. In relation to the collection of immatures, larvae were collected in regions of the mouth, nose, and orifices similar to the entry of firearms projectile into the body, for case 1, and collection of larvae and pupae, located on the body and underneath it, for case 2. It was possible to detect and quantify the three elements of interest (Pb, Ba, and Sb) by ICP-MS in both sediment and cadaveric larvae. Concentrations of 4.44, 8.74, and 0.08 μg/g were obtained for Pb, Ba, and Sb, respectively, in the soil for case 1. For the case 2, the concentrations in Pb, Ba, and Sb were from 16.34 to 26.02 μg/g; from 32.64 to 57.97 μg/g and from 0.042 to 0.30 μg/g, respectively. In the larvae, Pb, Ba, and Sb were quantified in cases 1 and 2 with a concentration of 6.28 and 1.78 μg/g for Pb, 1.49 and 2.94 μg/g for Ba, 0.50 μg/g and <LD for Sb, respectively. These new results present the detection of characteristic elements of GSR in cadaveric larvae in humans in a real crime scene, besides highlighting the importance of the study of immature flies, using the ICP-MS technique in forensic analysis.     

The political cost of public–private partnerships: Theory and evidence from Colombian infrastructure development

Infrastructure public–private partnerships (PPPs) eschew traditional public management to provide distributive goods worldwide. Yet, in Colombia, the context of our study, both the promise of and voters' experience with PPPs hinder incumbent parties in elections when theories of distributive politics expect otherwise. We argue that negative experiences with PPPs introduce a sociotropic turn in individual voting: bad experience crowds out the possibility that promising a new project will improve a voter's own welfare. Studying what are, to our knowledge, all 109 Colombian PPP projects between 1998 and 2014, and over 8,700 individual survey responses, our evidence shows that vote intention for the incumbent executive or his party decreases as experience with more PPPs in respondents' districts increases. Our analysis and results introduce an important agenda for research into the political significance of these legacies of new public management.     

Soft Power With Chinese Characteristics: China’s Campaign for Hearts and Minds

Journal of Chinese Political Science -     

Arbiters with guns: the ambiguity of military involvement in civilian disputes in the DR Congo

Based on extensive field research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), this article elucidates the logics, processes and readings surrounding certain ‘extra-military’ practices enacted by the Congolese army, namely the processing of various types of disputes between civilians. Exceeding the boundaries of the domain of ‘public security’, such activities are commonly categorised as ‘corruption’. Yet such labelling, founded on a supposed clear-cut public–private divide, obscures the underlying processes and logics, in particular the fact that these practices are located on a blurred public–private spectrum and result from both civilian demand and military imposition. Furthermore, popular readings of military involvement in civilian disputes are highly ambiguous, simultaneously representing it as ‘abnormal’ and ‘harmful’, and normalising it as ‘making sense’ – reflecting the militarised institutional environment and the weakness of civilian authorities in the eastern DR Congo. Strengthening these authorities will be vital for reducing this practice, which has an enkindling effect on the dynamics of conflict and violence.