Fragments of Lives—The Use of Private Letters in Historical Research

When reading and interpreting private letters the historian needs constantly to be aware of the personal nature of her sources, asking herself to what extent she can use the information revealed in these letters and how far she can go in interpreting another persons' words and deeds—a life. The author argues that the small size of Icelandic society makes this especially important, because descendants or relatives of the people who are being explored and represented in the historian's work are often very sensitive to biographical work of this nature. Furthermore, the historian has to be aware of the ambiguous nature of private letters, as they are not necessarily a “true” narrative of what happened, and the meaning of the sentiments expressed can be unclear to the modern reader. Moreover, what is written in private letters can easily affect the historian emotionally. The author argues that historians must treat private letters with care and do justice to the people that once were alive and left these personal sources for posterity. However, historians must not hesitate to ask new and challenging questions—to reach as far as possible when interpreting a life. This leads the author to reflect on her own disposition in her research, to acknowledge that the boundaries between herself and her subject could become blurred. She does not, however, consider this to be a hindrance for her research but rather sees it as an opportunity to explore and discuss the nature of her sources and to reflect on how knowledge is being produced.     

Transnationalization,Social Integration,and Capitalist Diversity in the East and the South

This article analyzes the deep and shallow modes of international integration, semicore, semiperipheral, and peripheral profiles of global insertion, and the presence and absence of transformative state capacity and social cohesion, as interacting dimensions of capitalist diversity in post-socialist Eastern Europe and Latin America. On these grounds, it is argued that Cardoso and Faletto’s dependent development paradigm maintains validity. When adapted to the new conditions, their approach is able to capture the overlapping and divergent aspects of capitalist development in both regions. Recent patterns of development demonstrate that although dependency, stemming from the unequal distribution of resources, roles, and opportunities, continues to be an important aspect of the international division of labor, it ceases to contradict even complex forms of industrialization. Similarly, notwithstanding the asymmetrical power relationships characterizing them, the new transnational integration regimes allow and sometimes help formation of new nation states with improved regulatory capacities. Finally, dependency does not necessarily undermine domestic social inclusion. Rather, it is up to the democratic competition to strike a balance between the requirements of promising international and socially acceptable domestic integration.     

Labor market institutions and income inequality: an empirical exploration

This paper presents evidence on the impact of labor regulations on income inequality using a recently published database on labor institutions and outcomes as well as different panel data analysis techniques for a large sample of countries for 1970–2000. When applying our preferred technique we find that both de jure and de facto regulations improve the distribution of income although the former appear to be non-robustly associated with improving income inequality. This result partly reflects the fact that regulations are endogenous and, more interestingly, that different regulation yield distinct effects.     

Optimal central banker contracts and common agency: a comment

We explore a setting where the central bank is offered an incentive scheme by an interest group, in addition to the contract designed by the government. We prove that the inflation bias can be eliminated when principals do not cooperate and have different output or inflation objectives. These conclusions contrast with those of Chortareas and Miller (Public Choice 121:131–155, 2004). The reason is that our analysis takes into account the participation constraints of the central bank. We also show that, if principals cooperate, the inflation bias is eliminated when their output target is different but not when they disagree over the inflation objective.     

The Realization of Gender Quotas in Post-collapse Iceland

Gender quotas have become a way to increase women’s participation in leading positions in economic life. Iceland enacted corporate gender quotas in 2013, requiring a minimum of 40% of each gender. These quotas were legalized after the financial collapse in 2008, which many blamed on male dominance of the economy. The focus of this paper is the timeframe of the turn to quotas, and the media discourse and parliamentary debate regarding men and women in corporate management. Van Dijk’s theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis was employed to examine data from the period 2009–2015. Firstly, we studied 150 articles in three online newspapers: Morgunblaðið, Vísir, and Viðskiptablaðið, written between 2009 and 2015. Secondly, we examined 132 parliamentary documents in which gender quotas were proposed and debated in 2009 and 2010. Three themes were highlighted: gender difference and opportunities during critical times; women and capability; and changed discourse. In order to shed light on the struggle for women’s influence, we examine how the debate manifested the Wollstonecraft dilemma. The results show a tension between gender-neutral arguments versus arguments about women’s alleged special traits and qualifications. Arguments emphasizing the importance of women’s special capabilities for the well-being of society and companies’ profitability were at the heart of the quota legislation, and as such proved successful. However, the findings also demonstrate the risk that female candidates are viewed as a signal of change in times of crisis. Hence, we claim that arguments matter; although women-centred arguments have contributed to gender balance within the Icelandic economy, they may also create barriers for women because they support patriarchal relations. Furthermore, the results indicate that societal difficulties call for drastic changes, and it seems as though a tailwind is needed for women to receive opportunities within the economic sector to push gender equality forward.     

These rules are made for spending: testing and extending the law of 1/n

What is the influence of the rules of political representation on local spending? This research tests the law of 1/n in the Portuguese local context and finds that the law fails to apply. We suggest an alternative measure—the density of representation—to assess the impact of the rules of city council representation on local public expenditures. Density of representation is defined as the number of elected officials in the city council divided by city population. We find an S-shaped relationship between the density of representation and the level of local government expenditures. The level of municipal spending initially declines with increases in the density of representation, reflecting an increase in the ability of constituents to monitor their elected representatives. At higher levels of representation density, the relationship becomes positive, suggesting that the dynamics of the budgetary commons become salient. The relationship becomes negative again for extremely high density of representation owing to increases in the transaction costs of legislative decision-making. This paper discusses the implications of our findings for the reform of local government institutions and the rules of political representation.     

Performing Counter-Hegemonic Common(s) Senses: Rearticulating Democracy,Community and Forests in Puerto Rico

Political ecologists have developed scathing analyses of capitalism’s tendency for enclosure and dispossession of the commons. In this context commons are analyzed as a force to resist neo-liberalism, a main site of conflict over dispossession, and a source of alternatives to capitalism. In this paper we elaborate a view of the commons as the material and symbolic terrain where performative re-articulation of common(s) senses can potentially enact counter-hegemonic socio-ecological configurations. Expressly drawing on the concepts of hegemony, “common-senses” (inspired by Antonio Gramsci) and “performativity” (developed by Judith Butler), we argue that counter-hegemony is performed through everyday practices that rearticulate existing common senses about commons. Commoning is a set of processes/relations enacted to challenge capitalist hegemony and build more just/sustainable societies insofar as it transforms and rearranges common senses in/through praxis. The paper draws on the experience of an anti-mining movement of Casa Pueblo in Puerto Rico, which for the last 35+ years has been developing a project self-described as autogestion. The discussion pays special attention to Casa Pueblo’s praxis and discourses to investigate how they rearticulate common senses with regard to nature, community and democracy, as well as their implications for counter-hegemonic politics.     

Citizen Expectations and Satisfaction in a Young Democracy: A Test of the Expectancy‐Disconfirmation Model

Citizen satisfaction with public services has been shown to depend on citizens’ expectations and their perceptions of performance. If performance exceeds expectations, satisfaction is likely; if performance falls short of expectations, dissatisfaction is likely. The existing evidence on this process covers the United States and the United Kingdom. The authors generalize the idea of expectation‐driven citizen satisfaction (the “expectancy‐disconfirmation model”) theoretically and empirically to an institutional context of limited accountability and widespread citizen distrust. Using a survey of a broad cross‐section of the general adult population in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2014, this article finds support for the expectancy‐disconfirmation model in this very different context. The authors also test for an effect of the type of expectation using an embedded, randomized experiment but do not find evidence of a difference between normative and empirical expectations. Findings support the usefulness of the expectancy‐disconfirmation model in a wide range of contexts.