The Cambusters: The Conservative European Union Referendum Rebellion of October 2011

The backbench rebellion that hit the Coalition government in October 2011 was one of the largest Commons revolts of the postwar era, on any issue. But it was not just its size that was noteworthy. This article outlines ten points about the origins of the vote, its timing, its composition, and the nature of the divisions it revealed. Facilitated by recent procedural innovations in the Commons, the rebellion was both evidence of a longer‐term rise in dissent amongst MPs of all parties, as well as other medium‐and short‐term factors within the Conservative party. It leaves the Prime Minister caught in an impossible triangle, attempting to satisfy his pro‐European Liberal Democrat partners in the Coalition, while keeping his Euro‐sceptic rebels happy, and yet retaining enough credibility in European capitals to negotiate successfully.     

Migration Pessimism and the Subjective Well‐Being of Migrant Households in Mexico

A new migration pessimism argues that the economic benefits of international labour migration for migrant households may not justify the social costs. This article provides a test of this argument based on the author's survey of 304 households in Jerez municipio (municipality), Zacatecas, Mexico, in 2009. The results indicate that active households (those with at least one migrant abroad) perceived their economic situation to have improved more, but both their social cohesion and their happiness to be less than those of non‐active households. Social cohesion (family unity and maintenance of values) is shown to be pivotal in the happiness differential enjoyed by the non‐active households.     

A Message of Hope for a Stricken World

AN annual gathering of business people and government representatives from the Asia Pacific region and beyond each year at the B oao Forum for Asia in south China's Hainan Island is always an occasion to gain fresh insights into economic development in the region and the rest of the world.Since taking the helm of the country,President Xi Jinping has addressed the forum's annum conference multiple times.The theme of this year's conference is' A World in Change:Join Hands to Strengthen Global Governance and Advance Belt and tRoad Cooperation."In the backdrop of the major tensions between China and the U.S.and the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that has ravaged the world over the past year,President Xi,in his speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the 2021 conference,presented a pathway forward for the region and the world,based on cooperation and mutual respect between nations rather than on unilateral decisions of individual countries,while emphasizing the principle of extensive consulta-tion,joint contribution,and shared benefits.     

When Oil Prices were Low: Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA) and Economic Policy-making in Venezuela since 1989

Abstract — There has been a considerable literature on the role of institutions in economic performance in general, in Latin America as a whole, and in Venezuela in particular. Venezuelan state institutions have been seen as highly patrimonialist and poorly performing, despite the advantages of long-standing democracy and large-scale resource wealth. This discussion calls attention to the highly significant 'special case' of the oil sector where the state company, PdVSA, has been bureaucratically autonomous and relatively efficient. Such a situation creates rather unusual policy-making problems given the fact that the economy is structured around oil income, in many respects to its disadvantage. There has been a considerable literature on economic policy reform in Venezuela which has hardly mentioned the oil sector at all. This article discusses the oil industry under Presidents Perez (1989–93) and Caldera (since 1994) to rectify the balance and to use insights derived from the study of the oil sector to offer some fresh perspectives on Venezuelan political history since 1989.     

Public Finance,Governance, and Cash Transfers in Alleviating Poverty and Inequality in Chile

As the Chilean government seeks to reduce poverty and inequality through cash transfers to poor households, local governments are responsible for both identifying the poor and allocating transfers. Until recently, however, evaluating the effectiveness of local governments in enacting these policies has been restricted by data limitations. This paper builds on recent evidence that cash transfers have highly variable impacts on poverty and inequality at the county level. In particular, we explore how local public finance and the strength of the governing mandate influence the efficiency of cash transfers. With a richly specified model, we find that public spending on goods and services, the fraction of available subsidies claimed by the local government, and the share of county land that is zoned for industrial purposes are all correlated with considerable reductions in poverty and inequality. In addition, the strength of the governing mandate weakly influences the efficiency of transfers in reducing poverty, but not inequality. These results demonstrate that a better understanding of such institutions can lead to more efficient targeting for social programs.     

Under the Knife

Last summer, I decided my impending move to Beijing should coincide with a shift in emphasis to health.Gone would be the     

U.S. National Identity,Political Elites,and a Patriotic Press Following September 11

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001, U.S. government and military leaders often articulated distinctly pro-American themes in their public communications. We argue that this national identity discourse was at the heart of the U.S. government's attempt to unite the American public and to mobilize support for the ensuing "war on terrorism." With this perspective, we content analyzed Time and Newsweek newsmagazines for the five weeks following September 11 to identify potential communication strategies employed by government and military leaders to promote a sense of U.S. national identity. Findings suggest (a) that government and military officials consistently emphasized American core values and themes of U.S. strength and power while simultaneously demonizing the "enemy," and (b) that journalists closely paralleled these nationalist themes in their language.     

Looking for the Pattern: Al Qaeda in Southeast Asia--The Genealogy of a Terror Network

The aim of this study is to analyze the process by which Al Qaeda has sought to co-opt essentially localized struggles in Southeast Asia into an evolving network of worldwide jihad. The article illustrates how, long before it was appropriate to speak of an entity called Al Qaeda, Islamists have been thinking transnationally since the 1980s. The argument attempts to piece together available evidence to reveal a plausible explanation of the origins, growth and direction of the main Islamist grouping in Southeast Asia, Jemaah Islamiyah, and its deepening relationship with Al Qaeda. The article suggests that the roots of a Southeast Asian terror network can be traced to two geographically separate ethno-religious struggles in the Philippines and Indonesia. The analysis demonstrates that these guerrilla groups orchestrating their distinct struggles were eventually combined through the auspices of Al Qaeda and the globalized franchising opportunities it exploited from the early 1990s.‐