Inequality and Human Rights: Who Controls What, When, and How

This article tests the empirical relationship between inequality and the protection of personal integrity rights using a cross-national time-series data set for 162 countries for the years 1980–2004. The data comprise measures of land inequality, income inequality, and a combined factor score for personal integrity rights protection, while the analysis controls for additional sets of explanatory variables related to development, political regimes, ethnic composition, and domestic conflict. The analysis shows robust support for the empirical relationship between income inequality and personal integrity rights abuse across the whole sample of countries as well as for distinct subsets, including non-communist countries and non-OECD countries. The hypothesized effect of land inequality is also born out by the data, although its effects are less substantial and less robust across different methods of estimation. Additional variables with explanatory weight include the level of income, democracy, ethnic fragmentation, domestic conflict, and population size. Sensitivity analysis suggests that the results are not due to reverse causation, misspecification or omitted variable bias. The analysis is discussed in the context of inequality and rights abuse in specific country cases and the policy implications of the results are considered in the conclusion.     

How “institutionalization” can work. Structuring governance for digital transformation in Italy

Public policy scholars have recently focused on the mechanisms accounting for the sustainability of major policy changes. Among the strategies by which policy entrepreneurs may try to avoid future backlash institutionalization is certainly one of the most used. Yet, it can foster ossification and eventually jeopardize policy effectiveness. Such a potential trade-off between institutionalization and long-term effectiveness is particularly intense in policies concerning technological innovation because the necessity to create winning coalitions can undermine the required absorption capacity needed by government to engage the innovation ecosystems. This paper explores such a trade-off with a case study on the Italian policy for public sector's digital transformation. The case is theoretically promising because over three decades institutionalization has always represented the main overall strategy adopted by policymaker, but only the 2016 initiative emerged as a “success.” In this sense, the case study can focus on the mechanisms activated by policy entrepreneurs to trigger and entrench change.     

Macroscopic,Microscopic, and Chemical Assessment of Gunshot Lesions on Decomposed Pig Skin

Abstract: Very little literature exists on gunshot wounds on decomposed material. In this study, seven pig heads underwent a shooting test. Entrance wounds from the first head underwent neutron activation analysis (NAA) and histological testing immediately after the firing test; the other six heads were exposed to two different environments (open air and soil) and analyzed by radiochemical and histological tests every 15 days. Gunshot wounds in air maintained their morphological characteristics, and those in soil showed severe alteration after 5 weeks. Microscopic testing verified positive results for lead in all gunshot wounds in open air, whereas in most of those in soil lead could not be detected. Radiochemical analysis performed by NAA yielded for all gunshot wounds but one antimony quantities in the range of 0.07–13.89 μg. In conclusion, it may be possible to detect residues of antimony even in degraded tissues.     

The Role of Power in EU–Russia Energy Relations: The Interplay between Markets and Geopolitics

Abstract

Energy trade is an essential factor in EU–Russia relations. This essay argues that Russia and the European Union have deployed two types of power in their post-Cold War energy relationship. Russia has predominantly exerted geopolitical power through the sale of its vast energy resources and selected strategies to channel them to partners. With a large market but lacking fossil fuels, the EU attempted to achieve its aims mostly through regulatory power. However, both the Russian and the EU external energy policy strategies have recently become more nuanced. This evolution in their approaches has resulted in Russia’s gradual acceptance of the regulatory and market principles promoted by the EU.     

Perilous presidentialism in Southeast Asia?

ABSTRACT

Regional patterns have long been crucial to debates about presidentialism starting with the Latin American cases in which presidential systems were seen to have contributed to political instability. This special issue examines four cases of presidentialism in Southeast Asia. Both the ‘first’ wave of the presidentialism literature which focuses on ‘pure’ cases of presidentialism, and the ‘second’ wave, which concentrates on a complex mixture of presidentialism and other institutions, are relevant to Southeast Asia. Among ‘pure’ presidential systems, the Philippines appears to provide support to ‘the perils of presidentialism’ thesis given the collapse of democracy there several decades ago and periodic instability since then. But Indonesia, despite ostensibly having the additional institutional perils of multipartism, has proved stable. Among the hybrid cases of presidentialism, both Myanmar and Timor Leste have forged elite accommodation through creating presidential-style institutions, including one considered particularly unpromising for achieving political stability in the literature. Because presidentialism has been associated both with elite accommodation and stability as well as political conflict and instability, the Southeast Asia cases do not clearly demonstrate the dangers of presidentialism. They point instead to the relative lack of explanatory power of this institutional arrangement in understanding political stability.     

Beyond “Socially Constructed” Disasters: Re-politicizing the Debate on Large Dams through a Political Ecology of Risk

Questions of dam safety and hazard potential most often do not take center-stage in contestations and articulations concerning large dams. Through a comparative study of two of Europe’s most emblematic dam disasters – Vajont (Italy) and Ribadelago (Spain) – and the ongoing conflict over the safety of the Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project in Northeast India, this article argues that the damage caused by dam disasters is often not unavoidable or unforeseen but instead allowed to happen. Our cases show that power relations, economic pressures and profit influence “risky” dam management decisions, often disregarding the vernacular knowledge of concerned communities and silencing critical voices that do not fit dominant narratives of modernization and progress. We posit that an essential requirement for re-politicizing the question of dam safety is to unpack the apolitical notion of “socially constructed disasters,” thinking instead about “capital-driven destructions.” By emphasizing resistance against dam projects and against dominant risk discourses across space and time, this article seeks to underline the legitimacy of past and ongoing struggles surrounding the construction of large dams.     

Seizures of Clandestinely Produced Tablets in Santa Catarina,Brazil: The Increase in NPS from 2011 to 2017

Ecstasy is the name given to a large group of substances known as “club drugs” traded in the form of tablets, powder and liquid that present a varied composition, including mainly 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and analogous substances, in addition to the growing presence of new psychoactive substances. Based on this, clandestinely produced tablets (“ecstasy tablets”) seized by police in Santa Catarina in the period from 2011 to 2017 were analyzed. During the study period, 3472 seizures occurred, which resulted in total 498,443 tablets seized. Seventy nine substances were identified. In the year 2011, about 90% of the tablets contained MDMA. This number decreased to 66.6% in 2017. On the other hand, there was an increase in the number of tablets that mainly contained synthetic cathinones, as well as tryptamine and piperazine derivatives. Police seizures in the metropolitan region of Florianópolis and on the coast prevailed over the rest of the state.     

Foreign Fighters and the Radicalization of Local Jihad: Interview Evidence from Swedish Jihadists

Modern jihadism has experienced two distinct crises. The present study analyzes recent developments in jihadism, which can be seen in connection with efforts to solve the latest recruitment crisis of global jihad, and is based on comparative interviews with eight Swedish jihadists defined as foreign fighters. The study identifies three new trends evident in the interviews comparing jihadists active in Syria with those who fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia: socialization to global jihad, normalization of jihad, and an increasing use of the doctrine of takfir (i.e., ex-communication). This can be described as indicating the radicalization of local jihad, as the territorially based jihad, championed by Abdullah Azzam, and the global jihad of Osama bin Laden meet in the territorial realities of Syria and Iraq.     

Campaign Individualisation before and after the Bailout: A Comparison between Greece and Portugal

The elections that took place in Greece and Portugal before and after the intervention of the so-called Troika allow us to examine to what extent the austerity period has affected the nature and style of electoral campaigns, especially in terms of individualisation. Our results show that campaigns in Greece and Portugal were quite different and that Greek candidates supported by the two main parties are more likely to emphasise their role. Yet the short-term impact of the crisis has been negligible, as there have been insignificant shifts in the communicative focus on the personalisation of the agendas and on the means used in the campaign after the intervention of the Troika.