Sizing the government

Is there such a thing as an optimal government size? We investigate the so-called Armey curve, which claims an inverted U-shaped relationship between government size and economic performance, using non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The DEA scores are linked to control variables, such as initial per capita income, openness, population density, urbanization, country size and family size. For 23 OECD-countries we estimate the country specific efficiency scores, which reveal the extent to which a country uses excess public resources to achieve the observed growth rate of GDP.     

Blessing or Curse for Advocacy? How News Media Attention Helps Advocacy Groups to Achieve Their Policy Goals

This article asks whether and under what circumstances a presence in news media debates helps advocacy groups to achieve their policy goals in European Union (EU) legislative politics. Common wisdom holds that lobbyists eschew the public spotlight and prefer to influence policymaking from behind the scenes. This perception contrasts with the literature on media and interest groups, which typically conceives of media attention as a crucial commodity for interest groups to influence policy decisions. This article unites these seemingly contrasting stances by arguing that media attention can be both a blessing and a curse for advocacy. The central argument posited is that media attention may improve or reduce advocacy groups’ chances of preference attainment depending on how advocacy groups frame their message in the news. The analyses draw from interviews with more than 200 policy practitioners and content analysis of 3,557 media statements connected to a sample of 125 EU policy proposals. The findings demonstrate that an advocacy group’s media presence may improve preference attainment, but only when the advocacy group manages to frame its objectives in the news as aligned with the public interest.     

Replica casting of the skull base

A new technique is described of obtaining a replica cast of the human skull base by making an epoxy resin case from a silicone rubber mould of the skull base. The replica provides an accurate and permanent record of the shape and dimensions of the base of the cranial cavity, together with the location and extent of any fractures of the skull. The method gives a good correlation between these characteristics and the type and extent of brain damage.     

The Case Against Participation Income—Political,Not Merely Administrative

This article develops the position we have taken in debate with Anthony Atkinson that a participation income (PI) would be problematic from an administrative and political point of view. We argue that Atkinson remains far too optimistic about the magnitude of administrative difficulties a PI would face. Negotiating these difficulties will inevitably involve the sort of political trade‐offs PI is supposedly able to avoid when compared to its more controversial cousin, the unconditional basic income. The enduring significance of ‘The case for a participation income’, we argue, lies in the often neglected point that Atkinson intends a PI as a supplement to an eroding contribution‐based welfare state. In the current political and fiscal environment, the case for a universal support scheme set below the rate of subsistence, and supplemented by other forms of welfare support, deserves careful re‐examination.     

Attitudes toward Consent-Based and Non-Consent-Based International Law in a Regional Power Context

International legal scholars have identified and argued for and against new forms of non-consent-based international law. We study variation in Brazilian public opinion about adherence to international law created in three different ways: through a consent-based multilateral treaty, by the U.N. Security Council with the participation of Brazil, and by the U.N. Security Council without the participation of Brazil. Information that Brazil has participated in creating the international legal obligation through a multilateral treaty or membership on the Security Council yields levels of support for adherence to the legal obligation that are similar to those found when the origins of the legal obligation are generic. Information that the international legal obligation was created without Brazil’s participation, on the other hand, results in reduced support for compliance. This difference, which is particularly concentrated among highly educated respondents, is not driven by reduced concerns about reputational consequences or sanctions. Our results suggest that the increased use of non-consent-based forms of international law might be challenged by a lack of public support for compliance.     

Examining citizen participation: local participatory policymaking and democracy revisited

This article discusses developments in citizen participation and its contribution to democracy since the publication of the original article. It evaluates the continued relevance of the use of a normative framework to assess different forms of citizen participation, nuances some of the conclusions and shows how inclusion and a connection with formal decision-making remain central issues that need more scholarly attention. Moreover, the article shows how the framework has been used in advising councillors and organisers of local citizen initiatives.     

Hooliganism under the Statistical Magnifying Glass: A Belgian Case Study

In Belgium the most important football matches are statistically recorded. Therefore this case is presented to demonstrate what can be learnt from statistics and other qualitative information in order to assess hooliganism: the number of hardcore elements, their size, their maximum capacity for mobilisation, the age groups involved, the degree of activism, the number and characteristics of the incidents involved, links with political crime and/or extremism, relationships and/or rivalries with other hardcore elements, the size of the police resources deployed in order to tackle them, and the impact of certain measures in the fight against hooliganism. A number of the characteristics of the phenomenon of hooliganism (renewal, adaptation and international relationships, in particular) mean that one has to go beyond the pure and simple canvas of a questionnaire with a statistical vocation. It is for this reason that the statistical information in Belgium has, from the very start (the 1991-1992 season) been backed up by telephone interviews with special witnesses from various Belgian hardcore elements.     

城市·市场·法律——西方法律史中的“城市法”考察

本文考察了西方前近代社会历史中城市法制度的独特性质及其后来对西欧社会发展的影响等问题 ,认为从西欧社会城市法制度的经验看 ,市场、城市和法律三者之间具有十分密切的联系。其中城市法使市场和城市具有了一体性的内在关系并同时使城市成为自治实体 ,这正是使市场经济得以繁荣发展的关键。同时城市法制度的最终发展又走向极端 ,从而又成为统一市场形成的障碍 ,进而由民族国家取代城市而统一市场 ,城市法的使命终结了 ,近代法开始兴起。