Japan's political trust deficit

Abstract

This introductory article to the special issue on ‘Trust and Mistrust in Contemporary Japan’ lays out key trust concepts used in social science research. It then turns towards the Japanese case, summarizing important research on the notion of trust and Japanese politics and society, according to which trust levels are comparatively low. The subsequent part provides an overview on the case studies that scrutinize issues related to political trust in particular. As the contributions invariably point to low levels of political trust, we finally reflect on problems in Japan's politics in relation to the notion of trust.     

An ecological path model of use of violence among African American adolescents

This cross-sectional study used an ecological framework to understand the risk and protective factors associated with use of violence among African American adolescents ages 12–17 years (N = 2,328). Using data from the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the authors study identified different direct paths in predicting use of violence among African American adolescents. The authors then computed a multigroup analysis to determine whether significant gender differences exist in use of violence. Path analysis results suggest micro, meso, and macro factors significantly predicted violence use. The strongest predictor of use of violence among African American youth was parental conflicts. The multigroup analysis suggests that the pathways to use of violence significantly differ between African American boys and girls. Among African American boys, the strongest predictor of increased use of violence was parental conflicts; among African American girls, it was negative peer influence. Findings suggest that all 3 ecological domains and gender differences should be accounted for when developing prevention or intervention services that target use of violence among young African Americans.     

Threat Perception and American Support for Torture

When do Americans support the government’s use of torture? We argue that perceptions of threat undermine the extent to which American public opinion serves as a bulwark against government torture. Although surveys demonstrate that a slim majority of the American public generally opposes torture, using a nationally-representative survey experiment, we show that Americans are considerably more supportive of government abuse when it is directed at individuals who they perceive as threatening: specifically, when a detainee has an Arabic name and when the alleged crime is terrorism. Given the malleability of public opinion as a potential constraint on abuse, our results underscore the importance of institutional protections of human rights.     

Offline and Online Civic Engagement Among Adolescents and Young Adults from Three Ethnic Groups

Levels of civic engagement are assumed to vary according to numerous social and psychological characteristics, but not much is known about online civic engagement. This study aimed to investigate differences and similarities in young people’s offline and online civic engagement and to clarify, based on Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB), associations between motivation for civic engagement, peer and parental norms, collective efficacy, and civic engagement. The sample consisted of 755 youth (native German, ethnic German Diaspora, and Turkish migrants) from two age groups (16–18 and 19–26; mean age 20.5 years; 52 % female). Results showed that ethnic group membership and age moderated the frequency of engagement behavior, with Turkish migrants taking part more than native Germans, who were followed by ethnic German Diaspora migrants. Analyses based on TPB showed good fit for a model relating intention for offline and online civic engagement to motivation for civic engagement, peer and parental norms, and collective efficacy. Ethnic group moderated the findings for offline civic engagement and questioned the universality of some model parameters (e.g., peer and parental norms). This study showed the utility of the TPB framework for studying civic engagement but also reveals that the predictive utility of peer and parental norms seems to vary depending on the group and the behavior under study. This study highlights the importance of including minority samples in the study of civic engagement in order to identify between-group similarities and differences.     

Prosperity in crisis and the longue durée in Africa

ABSTRACT

Understanding the evolution and tenacity of particular ways of envisaging economic growth and development for Africa requires a form of analytical history that examines how conceptual structures function over the longue durée. Such an approach is more than simply empirical analysis through time or a set of abstractions based on the self-understandings of historical agents. It involves the development of a hypothetical analytic structure which through its own forms of transformation eventually comes to play a role in shaping the lived world of participants, including researchers, policymakers and ordinary citizens. This article uses research from Kenya and Zambia to demonstrate how a long-running – but temporally and spatially variable – focus on agricultural productivity has shaped the character of rural life in Africa, and why it has consistently failed to deliver enlarged forms of prosperity based on quality of life and ecological well-being.     

Concurrent Trajectories of Change in Adolescent and Maternal Depressive Symptoms in the TORDIA Study

Depression has a heightened prevalence in adolescence, with approximately 15 % of adolescents experiencing a major depressive episode by age 18. Depression in adolescence also poses a risk for future distress and impairment. Despite treatment advances, many adolescents relapse after initial remission. Family context may be an important factor in the developmental trajectory of adolescent depression, and thus in enhancing treatment. This study examined concurrent change over time in adolescent and maternal depressive symptoms in the context of the Treatment of Resistant Depression in Adolescents study. Participants were 334 adolescents (mean age: 16; SD: 1.6; 70 % female, 84 % Caucasian), and their mothers (n = 241). All adolescents were clinically depressed when they entered the study and had received previous selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) treatment. Adolescents received acute treatment for 12 weeks and additional treatment for 12 more weeks. Adolescent depression and suicidal ideation were assessed at 0, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 weeks, while maternal depressive symptoms were assessed at 0, 12, 24, 48 and 72 weeks. Latent basis growth curve analyses showed a significant correlation over 72 weeks between trajectories of maternal and adolescent depressive symptoms, supporting the hypothesis of concurrent patterns of change in these variables. The trajectories were correlated more strongly in a subsample that included only dyads in which mothers reported at least one depressive symptom at baseline. Results did not show a correlation between trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms and adolescent suicidal ideation. These findings suggest that adolescent and maternal depressive symptoms change in tandem, and that treatment for adolescent depression can benefit the wider family system. Notably, most mothers in this sample had subclinical depressive symptoms. Future research might explore these trajectories in dyads with more severely depressed mothers.     

Predation and dispossession in Africa: enabling constructive contestation over natural resources

The ‘right to contest’ is an internationally recognised principle, embodied in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The issue posited by this paper is whether and how contestation can occur, in resource-rich countries in Africa, constructively or destructively. Constructive contestation in Africa is particularly important in relation to natural resources, those under the land, on the land and perhaps most importantly in relation to the land itself. Without the political and social spaces to contest decisions regarding those resources constructively, violence or other forms of destructive contestation may ensue. In Africa, the problem of contestation is exacerbated by the predation of resources – its illicit taking by more dominant parties – and consequent territorial dispossession, loss of culture and identity, and the often justified feelings of betrayal and anger. If one accepts that contestation in a constructive manner ought to be provided for, the questions then arise as to who can legitimately contest and on what basis.     

Beyond Boom and Bust: External Rents,Durable Authoritarianism,and Institutional Adaptation in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Drawing on recent critiques and advances in theories of the rentier state, this paper uses an in-depth case study of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to posit a new “supply and demand” approach to the study of external rents and authoritarian durability. The Jordanian rentier state is not exclusively a product of external rents, particularly foreign aid, but also of the demands of a coalition encompassing groups with highly disparate economic policy preferences. The breadth of the Hashemite coalition requires that the regime dispense rent-fueled side payments to coalition members through constructing distributive institutions. Yet neither rent supply nor coalition demands are static. Assisted by geopolitically motivated donors, the Hashemites have adapted institutions over time to tap a diverse supply of rents that range from economic and military aid to protocol trade, allowing them to retain power through periods of late development, domestic political crisis, and neoliberal conditionality.

Localizing Peacebuilding: The Arizona Market and the Evolution of U.S. Military Peacebuilding Priorities in Bosnia

ABSTRACT

This article examines peacebuilding localization, in particular how encounters with local contexts and actors shape external peacebuilders' priorities and practices. My vehicle for exploring this dynamic is the rapid emergence of a massive black market in northeast Bosnia, the ‘Arizona’ market, which developed on territory controlled by U.S. peacekeeping forces. I argue that the military's relationship with the market contributed to a shift from an initially minimalist, peacekeeping-centric, conception of the peacebuilding process toward the embrace of broader post-war political and economic initiatives, and identify three factors that influenced its unfolding in the case of Arizona: adaptation, embeddedness and place.