Beyond quota seats for women in the Tanzanian legislature

To assess the utility of quota experience in winning open seats, this article examined the factors explaining why only a small number of quota members of parliament (MPs) switch to non-quota seats in the context of Tanzania, where quota seats for women have been in place for three decades. Despite the socioeconomic and political forces offsetting the advantages of quota seats, special seats, if used effectively, are instrumental to winning constituency seats. To materialize a switch to a constituency seat, an early decision to run, strategic selection of a constituency, a track record of service to the target constituency, and mobilization of grassroots women are essential for special-seat women. The findings of this study, therefore, shed some light on how women’s parliamentary representation can move beyond the dependence on gender quotas.     

Decentralization,Government Capacity,and Environmental Policy Performance: A Cross-National Analysis

This study examines how decentralization and government capacity interactively shape national environmental policy performance. Despite the extensive literature on the policy consequences of decentralization, what remains deficient is a proper understanding of the role that government capacity may play in the process. This study advances an integrative proposition that decentralization can improve policy performance if the government is equipped with capable, efficient and trustworthy administrative apparatus. Findings from a cross-national analysis on national environmental policy performance lend strong support for the general argument by revealing that such positive effects of decentralization are significantly strengthened by the quality of government capacity.     

中国对韩国直接投资情况的研究

自中韩建交并确立合作伙伴关系以来,两国的经贸关系迅速发展。但是,近期以两国间贸易和相互直接投资情况为主的经贸关系出现了一些新的变化,在中国企业的海外投资快速发展的情况下,中国企业对韩国的直接投资却出现了减少的趋势。为了实现中韩两国的共同发展和整个东北亚的繁荣,需要探索加深中韩两国间的经贸关系,推动中韩在经济领域更高更深层次合作的新的方案。     

Law From Below: Women's Human Rights and Social Movements in New York City

Despite the ambivalent history of the domestic application of human rights in the United States, human rights increasingly offer important resources for American grassroots activists. Within the constraints of U.S. policy toward human rights, they provide social movements a kind of global law "from below": a form of cosmopolitan law that subalterns can use to challenge their subordinate position. Using a case study from New York City, we argue that in certain contexts, human rights can provide important political resources to U.S. social movements. However, they do so in a diffuse way far from the formal system of human rights law. Instead, activists adopt some of the broader social justice ideas and strategies embedded within human rights practice.     

Heat-related mortality in selected United States cities, summer 1999.

As part of a public health response to severe heat waves in the midwestern and northeastern United States in the summer of 1999, the authors actively solicited the number of heat-related deaths from 38 medical examiner and coroner jurisdictions comprising 35 metropolitan areas to enumerate heat-related deaths in areas affected by heat waves. They also determined the usefulness of these data for surveillance and rapid investigation of heat-related deaths. A total of 334 heat-related deaths were reported during the study period of July 1 - August 31. Minor changes in data collection and diagnostic criteria in some medical examiner and coroner jurisdictions would allow for greater comparability among jurisdictions. The National Association of Medical Examiners' position paper on heat-related mortality diagnosis provides important guidance to medical examiners and coroners regarding the certification of heat-related deaths and may require some refinement to address certain issues. Among these are certifying manner of death and classifying potential causes of heat-related death not involving hyperthermia or heat stroke, but where heat is a potential contributing factor to death. Medical examiners and coroners are an important resource for heat-related mortality research, and improvements in data collection and reporting could yield tremendous benefits to our understanding of and interventions for heat-related deaths.     

Defamilialization of Childcare,Commodification of Mothers,and Poverty： Recognition of New Social Risks in Korea

This study analyzed the relationship between new social risks and poverty in Korea, with specific foci on the changes in the family and in the labor market. Through the analysis, this study maintains that the expanding welfare state in Korea requires policies responding both to NSRs （new social risks） and to traditional social risks. The findings of this study are as follows： First, care responsibilities within the household were strongly associated with the poverty status of household. Second, dual-breadwinner households were less likely to fall into poverty than households with a single male breadwinner. Third, the flexible labor market that leads to poverty not only influences irregular or part-time workers but regular workers as well. These findings show that households of self-employed workers were even worse off than those of irregular workers, who were previously identified as the group who suffered most due to the flexible labor market.     

Screening for Corticosteroid Adulterants in Korean Herbal Medicines

The objective of this study was to determine the presence of corticosteroids in illegal herbal medicines using ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. We collected 212 herbal medicine samples that were advertised as being effective for treatment of joint pain and bone aches. Samples were from the Korean commercial market during a span of four years (2010–2013), and the method was validated. The limits of quantification ranged from 0.47 to 15.0 ng/mL, and recoveries ranged from 80.6% to 119.5%. The intra‐ and interday precision ranged from 0.18% to 8.82% and from 0.09% to 8.96%, respectively. Among the samples, three samples (1.4%) were identified as adulterants. Dexamethasone was the only compound detected in the adulterated products. As the corticosteroid–adulteration of herbal medicines may become a major problem and lead to side effects, the continued development of screening procedures for herbal medicines is critical.     

A contextual analysis of crime rates: The Korean case<Superscript>⋆</Superscript>

During recent attempts to understand crime in relation to its environments, studies have focused on a single aspect of either economic or organizational context. Furthermore, scant attention has been given to the independent role of the political influence on response to criminal activity. This study examines the relative roles of economic conditions, organizational constraints of police, and political climate in explaining changes in crime rates by incorporating these three contexts into a single study. By using a variety of official statistics, we conducted time-series analyses to examine the social context of crime over the past three decades in South Korea. Findings indicate, first, that the unemployment rate is the best predictor of changes in crime rates; it consistently increased the level of both property and violent crimes. Second, organizational capacity, as indicated by police per capita, is found not to have any consistent effect on crime rates. Third, the impact of political repression, measured by the presence of extraordinary laws and the number of political prisoners, also shows inconsistent effects on crime. However, crime rates were somewhat lower during the past three military regimes, which support the argument that authoritarian governments exercised more punitive sanctions to deter crimes. Implications are discussed and suggestions are offered for future research on this topic.This work was supported by Korean Research Foundation Grant (KRF-2004-003-BO0142). An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 mettings of the American Society of Criminology. We would like to thank Ivan Sun for his insightful comments and helpful suggestions.     

South Korean Environmental Foreign Policy

Korea's environmental foreign policy has developed in a dual-track fashion. In global environmental negotiations, Korea emphasizes environmental preservation but implementation patterns clearly prioritize its own economic interests. When it comes to regional environmental cooperation in Northeast Asia, however, Korea has often acted in the interest of the environment as the country has taken a leading role in promoting and developing environmental cooperation. It is an interesting question how Korea, a middle power in the region that acts on its own economic interests in global environmental negotiations, has taken a leading role in regional environmental cooperation. Analysis suggests that Korea's leading role in regional environmental cooperation results from its regional geopolitical situation, as well as its diplomatic efforts. Besides, Korea's vital environmental, political, and economic interests related to regional cooperation further motivate the country to take an active stance as well.