The Consequences of Electoral Institutions for Careerism

Although electoral institutions have been shown to have a variety of effects, scholars have not investigated if certain voting rules enable politicians to enjoy longer legislative careers. I took advantage of a natural experiment—a sudden transition from a semiproportional voting rule to single‐member districts with plurality voting (SMDP)—to measure the effect of electoral institutions on careerism. My analysis revealed that voting rules have a profound influence on the dynamics of legislative careers: politicians elected under SMDP are far less likely to suffer electoral defeat or to retire than those elected via cumulative voting. The findings of this study not only provide additional insight into the seat safety of politicians elected in first‐past‐the‐post systems, but moreover offer new criteria by which to evaluate the choice of electoral institutions.     

Going Down on Good Neighbours: Imagining América in Hollywood Movies of the 1930s and 1940s (Flying Down to Rio and Down Argentine Way)

During the Good Neighbor Era of the 1930s and 1940s, the USA sought to normalise relations with Latin America in order to promote hemispheric unity, particularly so after the outbreak of the Second World War, which provoked anxiety about transatlantic trade routes and South American attitudes towards the Axis. An Office of the Co-ordinator of Inter-American Affairs was established, which in turn set up a Motion Picture Division. The Division pressed for a Latin American specialist to monitor and control representations of Latin America via the Production Code Administration. The attempt to promote positive portrayals of Latin Americans assisted a boom in musical comedies dealing with North Americans visiting their southern neighbours. This article examines an early precursor, Flying Down to Rio (1933), and a full-blown Good Neighbor movie, Down Argentine Way (1940). The article uncovers, behind the optimistic projection of neighbourliness, hidden tensions and deep-rooted anxieties about American identities.     

论仲裁员的管辖权与可仲裁性问题

针对仲裁员的管辖权与可仲裁性这两个容易混淆的问题,结合有关国际公约和各国法律分别进行深入探讨,并对中国当前存在的问题提出了建议.     

The Impact of Party and Ideology on Roll‐Call Voting in State Legislatures

To assess the relative impact of party and ideology on legislative behavior, I utilize survey‐based measures of legislator ideology to examine voting in five state legislatures. The results suggest that, although party and ideology both influence voting, the impact of party is greater. The magnitude of this impact varies, however, from chamber to chamber. The activity of parties in the electoral arena explains part of this variance, with more active parties having more influence. Thus, research on legislative behavior should focus on the context surrounding the decision‐making process in order for us to understand the influences on voting.     

POLICY ANALYSIS IN BRITISH CENTRAL GOVERNMENT: THE EXPERIENCE OF PAR

Programme Analysis and Review (PAR) was an approach to policy analysis introduced in 1970 by Edward Heaths administration as part of a systematic attempt to develop 'rational' government. In the early years some substantial reviews were completed, but from 1973 the exercise faded as less political commitment was devoted to it and institutional compromise and disillusion spread. This paper charts the life of PAR until its official demise in 1979 and analyses its experience, Above all, it suggests that PAR was unable to satisfy the technical, organizational and political preconditions for effective analysis.     

The 'Little Big Bang' in Paris: financial market deregulation in a dirigiste system

Abstract. French dirigisme since World War II has been identified at four levels: economic planning; the dominance of a neo-colbertisre civil service elite; Gaullism and the Fifth Republic; and a state-led, credit-based system for financing industry. The last of these was seen by Zysman (1977, 1983) as the strategic core of dirigisme , as in Japan, through state control of industrial purse strings. Paradoxically, it was the Socialist Governments of 1981–86, in response to deregulation elsewhere, which initiated extensive capital market reforms intended to replace the state-led, credit-based system with an 'arms-length' financial market system. These continued under the right-wing Chirac Government. However, the reform process itself has been state-led rather than market-led; and both rigidities in the markets and shortcomings in the reforms have been highlighted by the October 1987 crash. Much dirigisme of a tactical kind remains, but the state's potential for strategic intervention has been reduced.