Exploring Aggregate vs. Relative Public Trust in Administrative Agencies that Manage Spent Nuclear Fuel in the United States

Trust is a key component of democratic decision‐making and becomes even more salient in highly technical policy areas, where the public relies heavily on experts for decision making and on the information provided by federal agencies. Research to date has not examined whether the members of the public place different levels of trust in the various agencies that operate within the same policy subsystem, especially in a highly technical subsystem such as that of nuclear energy and waste management. This paper explores public trust in multiple agencies operating within the same subsystem, trust in each agency relative to aggregate trust across agencies that operate within the nuclear waste subsystem, and trust in alternative agencies that have been suggested as possible players in the decision‐making process. We find that trust accorded to different federal agencies within the nuclear waste subsystem varies. The variation in trust is systematically associated with multiple factors, including basic trust in government, perceptions about the risks and benefits of nuclear energy/waste management, party identification, and education. These findings have significant implications for research on public trust in specific government agencies, alternative policy entities, and for policy makers who want to design robust and successful policies and programs in highly technical policy domains.     

Do Municipal Mergers Improve Technical Efficiency? An Empirical Analysis of the 2008 Queensland Municipal Merger Program

Municipal mergers remain an important instrument of local government policy in numerous countries, including Australia, despite some concerns surrounding its efficacy. We consider the claim that amalgamations enhance the technical efficiency of the merged entities by examining the 2008 Queensland compulsory consolidation program that reduced the number of local authorities from 157 to 73 councils. To test the claim, we conduct locally inter‐temporal data envelopment analysis over the period 2003–2013 inclusive. Our evidence suggests that (1) in the financial year preceding the mergers, there was no statistically significant difference in the typical efficiency scores of amalgamated and non‐amalgamated councils and (2) 2 years following the mergers, the typical technical efficiency score of the amalgamated councils was well below the non‐amalgamated cohort. We argue this may be attributed to increased spending on staffing expenses, although comparatively larger operational expenditure also served to diminish efficiency.     

Analysing labels,associations, and sentiments in Twitter on the Abu Sayyaf kidnapping of Viktor Okonek

This article investigates Twitter data related to the kidnapping case of two German nationals in the southern region of the Philippines by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG). It explores perceptions of the ASG, along with associated organizations and sentiments indicated in the tweets together with statistically significant relationships. Findings revealed that: “Rebel” and “Militant” were the most frequently used labels for the ASG; a majority of the tweets contained sentiments that assess threats such as abduction and kidnapping of hostages; and almost half contained words that indicate negotiation or concession to the demands of the captors. Logistic regression analyses on “Rebel” and “Islamist” revealed positive coefficients for these sentiments used as predictors. This meant that people who assessed threats and expressed sentiments that responders should concede to the captors’ demands were more likely to use the “Rebel” or “Islamist” labels. Rather than the two longstanding dominant narratives of the ASG as terrorists and criminals, the emerging rebel and militant labels suggest a more domestically and politically sensitive Twitter commentary than is represented in the work of the Al-Qaeda-centric paradigm exponents. These findings, along with the complex associated political and policy contexts and implications, are discussed in this article.     

Perceptions of Relatedness with Classroom Peers Promote Adolescents’ Behavioral Engagement and Achievement in Secondary School

Secondary school is a vulnerable time where stagnation or declines in classroom behavioral engagement occur for many students, and peer relationships take on a heightened significance. We examined the implications of adolescents’ perceptions of relatedness with classroom peers for their academic learning. Participants were 1084 adolescents (53% female) in 65 middle and high school classrooms. Multilevel cross-lagged path analyses found that adolescents’ perceived relatedness with classroom peers subsequently predicted their increased self-reported behavioral engagement in that classroom from fall to winter and again from winter to spring. Higher engagement in spring predicted higher end of year objective achievement test scores after statistical control of prior year test scores. Implications are discussed for increasing classroom peer relatedness to enhance adolescents’ achievement.     

e-Government Development and Government Effectiveness: A Reciprocal Relationship

To explain the positive reciprocal relationship found between e-Government Development and Government Effectiveness, a five-level model is constructed to track the paths that must be taken for public servants to be trusted to enact e-Government Development. A combination of reform, discretionary and adaptive contributions by public servants can lead to the establishment of public service bargains at the third level. ‘Post-New Public Management’ reforms and exceptional adaptive leadership are, however, required to move countries to the fourth level where public servants are trusted to act across the range of role identities required to enact e-Government.     

Gender and locational dimensions of shocks on household welfare: empirical evidence from Nigeria

Many households in developing countries are exposed to numerous adverse events. The absence of a complete market for insurance and imperfect risk-sharing among households can lead to a significant effect on household welfare from shocks. This article examines the heterogeneous effects of income shocks on household welfare using two waves of the Nigerian General Household Survey Panel datasets from 2010/11 and 2012/13. The study adopted the household fixed effects approach, and the results show that households in the top quintile experienced an increased consumption expenditure compared to those in the bottom quintile in terms of rainfall distribution. There are also heterogeneous effects of income shocks on the gender and locational characteristics of the households.     

Destabilizing Effects of Terrorism on Party System Stability

In democracies with stable party systems, voters can more easily trace policy decisions from parties and representatives within the government to specific policy outcomes. Consequently, party system stability (PSS) has been reportedly linked to a variety of factors including economic conditions, democratic performance, political institutions, and socioeconomic cleavages. While informative, these lessons offer precious little insight into other factors that can destabilize a party system. In this work, we surmise that terrorist attacks have important implications for two commonly used measures of PSS. The results of a pooled, cross-sectional time series analysis confirm our hypothesis: deadly attacks proximate to elections destabilize party systems, even when controlling for multiple standard controls. In addition, the level of democratic consolidation within states also influences the degree that fatal terrorist attacks affect party system stability. These findings are based on terrorism data collected from the Global Terrorism Database and from PSS data compiled by the authors.     

The Asian economic crisis and bureaucratic development: a veto player analysis

The Asian economic crisis ravaged numerous economies in thelate 1990s. Significant social and political disruption followedthe fall in Asian currency prices. The newly industrializedstates of Asia were particularly hard hit, yet some also experiencedswift turnarounds, reaching pre-crisis currency rates and economicoutput. The enduring puzzle of the crisis is the role of bureaucratic-businessties as a background cause of the crisis and determinant ofgovernmental policy responses. In this paper, we adapt Tsebelis'veto player model to include bureaucracy as a formal actor inthe adjustment process. We argue that states that minimizedthe control of developmental bureaucracies over finance anddirect managerial decision-making weakened the institutionalcapacity of bureaucrats to veto adjustment policies, both beforeand after the 1997 crisis. Moreover, we find that a traditionof strategic regulatory guidance is associated with favorableeconomic performance, provided that bureaucrats had subjectedprivate firms or state-owned enterprises to competition (oreven business failure) historically, and where the risks associatedwith financial decisions were not socialized by the state.     

Inflexible Parents, Inflexible Kids: A 6-Year Longitudinal Study of Parenting Style and the Development of Psychological Flexibility in Adolescents

Parenting behaviors have been linked to children's self regulation, but it is less clear how they relate to adolescent psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility is a broad construct that describes an individual's ability to respond appropriately to environmental demands and internal experiences in the service of their goals. We examined the longitudinal relationships between perceived parenting style and psychological flexibility among students at five Australian schools (N= 749) over 6 years, beginning in Grade 7 (50.3% female, mean age 12.39 years). Parenting style was measured in Grades 7 and 12, and psychological flexibility from Grade 9 through 12. Psychological flexibility decreased, on average, with age. Multi-level modelling indicated that authoritarian parenting (low warmth, high control) in Grade 7 predicted later (low) psychological flexibility. Moreover, increases in authoritarian parenting and decreases in authoritative parenting (high warmth and control) were associated with adolescent psychological flexibility across the high school years. Change in parenting predicted future psychological flexibility but did not predict change over time. Structural Equation Modelling revealed that adolescent psychological flexibility in Grade 9 predicted later decreases in authoritarian and increases in authoritative parenting. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding how parenting changes and the consequences of such change for the development of psychological flexibility.     

Running dry: international law and the management of Aral Sea depletion

The Aral Sea disaster is the result of Soviet-era irrigation policy. The collapse of the Soviet Union left the issue under the purview of international law. This essay addresses how this shift has affected attempts to slow or reverse the sea's depletion. Treaties on the non-navigation use of international watercourses and on the prevention of desertification have had little effect. While a number of regional instruments and arrangements have been brought to bear, they have also done little to reverse damage to the sea. Finally, attempts to regulate the issue through domestic law, as evidenced in the case of Kyrgyzstan, have done little as well. While some progress has recently been made under the auspices of the World Bank, it is not a result of international law. The conclusion is that the shift from domestic to international law has little improved the situation, and may have made matters worse.