'Sharing the Proceeds of Growth': Conservative Economic Policy under David Cameron

Upon becoming Conservative leader, David Cameron, and his Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, initially sought to compete with Labour by pledging increased expenditure on education and the NHS, and thereby insisting that tax cuts would have to wait. Rather than cutting taxation overall, the emphasis was on restructuring and simplifying Britain's tax system, and shifting the burden towards the better off, mainly thorough promoting environmental taxes. However, the economic collapse at the end of 2008 has prompted the Conservatives to modify this new economic stance, by insisting that they will no longer match Labour's planned increases in public expenditure, but, instead, will increase it at a lower rate. This is intended to reduce the need to increase government borrowing during the recession, and thereby ensure that when the economy recovers, the proceeds of economic growth can be shared between higher public expenditure and lower taxation, rather than being spent on repaying government debt for many years ahead.     

Who sets the agenda and who responds to it in the Danish parliament? A new model of issue competition and agenda‐setting

Inspired by the agenda‐setting literature, this article outlines a model of issue competition focusing on the interaction between government and opposition parties through the party‐system agenda. Unlike previous studies of issue competition, the model makes it possible to answer questions such as why some parties have greater success than others in forcing other parties to address unpleasant issues. One of the central implications of the model is that opposition parties are freer to focus continually on issues that are advantageous to themselves, whereas government parties more often are forced to respond to issues brought up on the party‐system agenda. Using data on issue competition in Denmark covering 25 years and 23 issue categories, the issue competition model is evaluated and finds strong support in a set of cross‐sectional time‐series analyses.     

The Recent Appearance of Favelas in São Paulo City: an Old Problem in a New Setting

Abstract— While favelas have been an important feature of many Brazilian cities over the past 50 years, they were relatively insignificant in São Paulo until the mid- 1970s. Since then, São Paulo's favelas have experienced a dramatic expansion and some estimates now put their total population in the region of two million. This article examines potential explanations for this sudden change, including migration, changes in the housing market, relative prices and state intervention.     

CONTROL THEORY REEXAMINED: Race and the Use of Neutralizations Among Institutionalized Delinquents

A theoretical challenge to the socio-structural analysis of delinquency was posited by Sykes and Maria over two decades ago. Since then, relatively few studies have addressed the several issues inherent in neutralization theory. The present research explores the association between socialization and neutralization as this relationship pertains to racial differences among institutionalized delinquents. Significant differences for socialization and neutralization scores on the basis of race were noted. Lack of significant differences between races in terms of the hypothesized direction of the socialization/neutralization correlation was interpreted as a function of the nonlinearity of the data.     

The redistribution of regulatory powers between governments and international organisations: the case of European airline deregulation

Abstract. This paper looks at the issues raised when deregulation is also accompanied with redistribution of the residual regulatory powers between governments and international organisations by focusing on the experience of deregulation of the airline industry in the European Community. The paper starts by applying a model of the political market for protection to the specific circumstances of the European airline industry in an effort to clarify the difficulties raised when redistribution of regulatory powers between different levels of government takes place. The findings of this analysis are then used to elucidate the European experience and in particular to explain the gap between the original proposals of the Commission and the final compromises worked out in the Council of Ministers.     

NONSOCIAL REINFORCEMENT AND HABITUAL CRIMINAL CONDUCT: AN EXTENSION OF LEARNING THEORY *

Drawing on a diverse literature, we explain how criminal behavior is maintained through a process of nonsocial reinforcement, and show that some persons find criminal behavior particularly rewarding. We test our assumptions using surveys of 295 incarcerated adult felons and 150 male college students and intensive focus groups with 40 habitual offenders currently serving time. Results suggest that the experience of committing nonviolent and, particularly, violent crime is intrinsically rewarding and tends to reinforce such behavior among habitual criminals. The endogenous rewards identified center on (1) the neurophysiological high such acts produce and (2) the symbolic meaning of the behavior as it relates to self-concept and identity formation. Findings from the surveys and the focus groups suggest that habitual criminality is sustained partly through the positive sensations (physiological and psychological) those crimes activate within the offender and that those sensations are instrumental in the maintenance and reinforcement of criminal careers. Based on what is known in the literature and what has been learned from our research, it seems that an effective way of integrating this knowledge lies in the direction of a nonsocial reinforcement arm of learning theory.