Is Mexican democracy consolidated?

In the wake of Mexico's electoral watershed of 2 July 2000, many scholars are willing to classify the country as an electoral democracy, yet debate persists over whether Mexican democracy is consolidated. This article seeks to advance this debate by clarifying the meaning of the term democratic ‘consolidation’ and how it should be operationalised. It argues that the concept should refer exclusively to a regime with a low probability of democratic breakdown. This avoids the conceptual confusion created by viewing consolidation as any change that improves the quality of democracy. In terms of measuring consolidation, it maintains the importance of placing greater weight on the proximate cause of regime instability, anti‐democratic behaviour, and discounting more remote causes of democratic breakdown, including economic performance, institution building, and attitudinal support. Based on this understanding, the article explains why Mexican democracy is fully consolidated.     

Gender Differences in Worry About a Terrorist Attack: A Cross-National Examination of Individual- and National-Level Factors

Prior research has found gender to be associated with worry about crime and terrorism. We used World Values Survey data to assess gender differences in worry about terrorism across 54 nations. Analyses also examined the influence of individual- and national-level factors. Women were significantly more worried about terrorism in 22 of the 54 nations. Men in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and New Zealand were significantly more worried about terrorism than women. Individuals were more likely to worry about terrorism as the nation’s average mortality count in terrorist incidents increased. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Social Institutions,Theory Development,and the Promise of Comparative Criminological Research

This paper highlights the ways in which recent comparative criminological research has begun to advance theory development by directing systematic attention to the role of institutional structure. The overarching thesis is that sensitivity to the institutional context in recent criminological studies, especially those conducted in Asia, has paved the way for the productive elaboration of two highly influential theories: Routine Activities Theory and the General Theory of Crime (or self-control theory). Such theoretical elaboration promises to enhance the explanatory power of these theories by placing individual behavior in a multilevel, institutional context. The paper also outlines a transformed variant of self-control theory that posits two distinctive forms of self-control, which are likely to have differential impacts on criminal offending depending on features of the institutional structure of societies.     

Social security in the european community: co-ordination,harmonization or thirteenth state?

As the magical date December 31, 1992 is drawing closer full economic integration in the European Community is becoming a reality. At the same time it is getting clear that the future economic union has no social counterpart. International, as well as European social security law has been developed along the lines of two different techniques: co-ordination and harrnonization. While the former technique leaves the national legislation intact, only regulating cases with international aspects, the latter does have consequences for national law. The co-ordination of national social security law within the European Community is ruled by co-ordination Regulations 140817 1 and 574172. The mere amendment of the existing Regulations seems insufficient to create a social dimension within the European Community.Moreover, the co-ordination technique seems handicapped by its intrinsical complexity. A genuine harmonization, on the other hand, seems both for political and technical reasons impossible

in the short run. The Thirteenth State scenario aims both at offering an alternative for the complexity of co-ordination and providing a first impetus towards harmonization. This scenario was elaborated by a team of specialists at the University of Leuven, Belgium. The result of this research is an extensive blue-print for a European Community social insurance scheme.The authors offer an overview of the main goals of the scenario and a number of basic choices that have been made in develop-ing it. Finally they give some comments on the legal grounds for a European social insurance scheme and on the problems concerned with the elaboration of the administrative structure for such a scheme.     

Institutions or Contingencies? A Cross‐Country Analysis of Management Tool Use by Public Sector Executives

Management tools are often argued to ameliorate public service performance. Indeed, evidence has emerged to support positive outcomes related to the use of management tools in a variety of public sector settings. Despite these positive outcomes, there is wide variation in the extent to which public organizations use management tools. Drawing on normative isomorphism and contingency theory, this article investigates the determinants of both organization‐oriented and client‐oriented management tool use by top public sector executives. The hypotheses are tested using data from a large‐N survey of 4,533 central government executives in 18 European countries. Country and sector fixed‐effects ordinary least squares regression models indicate that contingency theory matters more than normative isomorphism. Public executives working in organizations that are bigger and have goal clarity and executive status are more likely to use management tools. The only normative pressure that has a positive impact on management tool use is whether public sector executives have a top hierarchical position.