The Effects of California's Paid Family Leave Program on Mothers’ Leave‐Taking and Subsequent Labor Market Outcomes

This analysis uses March Current Population Survey data from 1999 to 2010 and a differences‐in‐differences approach to examine how California's first in the nation paid family leave (PFL) program affected leave‐taking by mothers following childbirth, as well as subsequent labor market outcomes. We obtain robust evidence that the California program doubled the overall use of maternity leave, increasing it from an average of three to six weeks for new mothers—with some evidence of particularly large growth for less advantaged groups. We also provide evidence that PFL increased the usual weekly work hours of employed mothers of 1‐ to 3‐year‐old children by 10 to 17 percent and that their wage incomes may have risen by a similar amount.     

Constructive Ambiguity: Comparing the EU’s Energy and Defence Policies

This article explores the paradox of constructive ambiguity. Based on a focused, longitudinal comparison of the European Union’s energy and defence policies, it analyses the role played by strategies of ambiguity in European integration. Ambiguity is found to be an attractive strategy for political entrepreneurs when member state preferences are heterogeneous and the EU’s legal basis is weak. It is likely to be effective, however, only if it is embedded in an institutional opportunity structure – that is, a formal-legal context – that entrepreneurs can fold into their strategic repertoire of ideas. While ambiguity can be strategic in circumstances where clarity would create strong opposition, it is not sufficient to entrench a European policy if it does not rest on an institutional basis. This suggests that European political entrepreneurs should be wary of relying on coalition building by ambiguity only.     

Feeling the Heat? Anticorruption Mechanisms in Comparative Perspective

This article addresses the implications of political executives losing control over corruption investigations of senior officeholders following the creation of anticorruption mechanisms (e.g., commissions, special prosecutors, independent counsels, investigating judges). When investigations hit close to home, the ensuing political fallout makes political executives eager to look for ways to derail such investigations, especially when investigators proceed with an uncharted mandate. Against this background, two hypotheses are investigated: (i) the striking outcome of this process is a concerted move by targeted political executives to undermine the credibility of anticorruption mechanisms and, when deemed necessary, to terminate their operation, and (ii) the extent to which the prosecutors are successful depends on both institutions and media accessibility: the more centralized and fused political power is, and the less media accessible the government is, the harder it will be to carry out an investigation. These hypotheses are strongly supported by a comparative analysis of five anticorruption mechanisms in the United States, the Soviet Union, Italy, and Australia (Queensland and New South Wales.)     

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES ON SOCIAL CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY: THE ROLE OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

The political and the economic spheres increasingly overlap. Consumption is viewed not only as an economic act, but also as an act of political and moral significance. Due to the blurring of the commercial and the political spheres, consumers use their purchasing power as a carrot and a stick for corporations to comply with corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards. As a consequence, corporate communication strategies tend to highlight commitment to CSR standards, portraying companies as “good corporate citizens.” Conversely, other stakeholders expose unethical business practices so as to induce corporate change. Both sides tend to invoke freedom of expression with a view to opposing limitations on their communication strategies. Taking two well-known examples as a starting point, the present article explores the role of freedom of expression as a means to incite corporate actors to both adopt and comply with CSR standards from a comparative perspective. Using an economic framework, it argues that non-commercial expression critical of corporate practices deserves a higher level of protection than corporate communication strategies.     

Motives for maternal filicide: results from a study with female forensic patients

The objective of this study was to examine different motivational factors, leading mothers to commit neonaticidal, infanticidal or filicidal acts. This study was based on data gathered through a retrospective chart review of all filicidal women admitted to the Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in New York State (MHFPC) between 1976 and 2000 (n=57). Because our sample was drawn from MHFPC records it excludes filicidal mothers who went directly to prison. Our women were either found not competent to stand trial, or found not guilty by reason of insanity, or were convicted offenders who were seriously mentally ill and were not sent to prison. Fourteen percent committed neonaticide, meaning that they killed their child within the first day of its life; 21% killed the child after the first day but before it reached its first birthday (infanticide); and 65% committed filicide by murdering a child older than one. Two groups of women could be identified as having different motivational profiles: The neonaticidal mothers were mostly troubled by psychosis and social problems while the filicidal women were defined as severely depressed, with a history of self-directed violence and a high rate of suicide attempts following the filicidal offense.