Consequences of Forced Residential Relocation: Early Impacts of Urban Renewal Strategies on Forced Relocatees’ Housing Opportunities and Socioeconomic Outcomes

Policymakers have actively pursued urban renewal and dispersal programs to deconcentrate poverty in urban neighborhoods. Relocation strategies lead to new housing opportunities and may encourage employment opportunities for relocated residents if resourceful contacts and job information become more easily available after the move. This study provides an innovative evaluation of the early impacts of involuntary relocation programs in the Netherlands on the housing careers, earnings and employment rates of forced relocatees. It establishes a quasi-experimental design by employing unique longitudinal individual-level population registry data from Statistics Netherlands: forced relocatees are tracked and matched to a control group consisting of similar residents that were not forced to move. A difference-in-difference design shows that forced relocatees are living in less deprived neighborhoods after the move. However, we find no conclusive evidence that this upgrade in housing leads to more socioeconomic opportunities for the forced relocatees.     

Space Traffic Management at the National and International Levels

The number of objects in Earth’s orbit has continued to grow since the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. The historical “few objects, large space” principle left satellite operations a relatively benign environment, but that construct has shifted significantly due to the advent of the commercial space sector, the small satellite industry boom, and the resurgence of the desire for human space flight. The regulations for space operations both at the international and national level have always been sparse, but there is a large desire for more now that commercial capital is at stake. The purpose of this article is to bring to the surface available regulations for on-orbit operations to identify the gaps to fill and highlight the change for the Department of Defense. The international community and commercial sector recognize the need for a state like the United States to set a standard to influence the international community. This national-to-international framework is a technique used in other arenas, such as maritime traffic management and air traffic management, and the lessons learned from these fields are applicable to the space domain.     

Democratization and women’s representation in presidential cabinets: evidence from East and Southeast Asia

This article examines patterns of women’s cabinet representation across all presidential democracies in East and Southeast Asia since democratization. It demonstrates how the choice of female ministers differs across career backgrounds in presidential systems and further examines why young presidential systems in Asia are conducive to women’s access to ministerial power through professional career tracks. We argue that despite women’s successful performance in national legislative elections, women have been restricted to access the power resources necessary to target other political goals, such as cabinet positions, whereas democratic transition has provided broader avenues for women to emerge as professionals outside party politics. By analyzing original data on female ministers in East and Southeast Asia, the study finds that the share of women among professional ministers has increased over time, but women’s share among political ministers has not changed significantly. Additionally, the different qualifications of female politicians and professionals also make them eligible for appointment to different types of policy areas in terms of prestige and gender. Our analysis suggests that women’s cabinet representation has improved overall since democratic transition in Asia, but this improvement disguises contrasting outcomes in women’s cabinet status according to their career backgrounds.     

The culture of skilled work in a Norwegian shipyard, 1945–90

We anatomise the culture of skilled work in the Solheimsviken shipyard in Bergen, Norway, from 1945 to 1990, linking it to democratic impulses within the workforce. This independent culture had strong if bounded democratic elements that were ultimately reflected in the institutions of a worker’s cooperative which operated from 1985. However, a shift away from shipbuilding immediately preceded the cooperative’s foundation and eroded the position of the older skilled workers who had carried the culture, undermining it even before the cooperative’s collapse.     

建筑行业农民工劳动关系确认的理论瓶颈与突破——以非标准劳动关系理论为出路

司法实践对于建筑行业农民工劳动关系确认的理论瓶颈在于我国当前的标准劳动关系模式与建筑行业农民工的用工实际不符。以非标准劳动关系理论为突破口多元化劳动关系认定模式是解决上述瓶颈的出路。在非标准劳动关系理论下,建筑行业农民工劳动关系确认的标准简化为业务从属标准,在具体判断上需要确立三项基本原则:中间自然人不阻碍劳动关系原则;劳动关系不突破民事合同关系原则;基于法律技术考量的连带责任原则;同时,建筑行业农民工劳动关系体系应着重确立三种特殊规则:口头劳动合同+不实否认劳动关系的双倍工资支付规则;灵活工时制+法定、行业工资基准规则;劳动者自由离职+用人单位结清待遇无因解除规则。     

Does China’s middle class prefer (liberal) democracy?

Many surveys show that China’s political regime, under the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian rules, enjoys a high level of public support. However, it is still uncertain whether China’s emerging middle class will become the “agent of democratization” as suggested by modernization theory. Using the data of Asian Barometer Survey conducted in China in 2011, this article demonstrates that the relationship between class identity and preference for liberal democracy in China may be inverted U-shaped. The Chinese middle class shows a higher preference to features of liberal democratic regimes than its counterparts of the lower- and upper-class. Members of the Chinese middle class also tend to regard democracy as the best form of government. Thus, the middle class has the potential to initiate democratization in China if the Chinese government fails to keep satisfying the middle class’ quest for economic well-being and protection of property rights.