Controlling Local Environmental Performance: an analysis of three national environmental management programs in the context of regional disparities in China

Whether government has the political will and capacity to control pollution is crucial for environmental outcomes. A vast country such as China, with centralized policymaking but idiosyncratic local implementation of environmental regulations and drastic regional disparities in wealth, raises the question of how does the central government stimulate local environmental commitment to accommodate such diversity? In exploring this issue, this paper compares three national environmental management programs that are used as influencing and bargaining tools between the central and local governments of China: Quantitative Examination of Comprehensive Control of Urban Environment (1989), Model City for Protecting the Environment (1997) and pilot Green Gross Domestic Product (2005). Although the introduction of these schemes represents an important step forward in addressing demanding environmental issues their impact is found to be mixed. However, each scheme also has something important to offer to this particular realm of environmental management and by recognizing and compiling their comparative advantages a number of policy implications for future local commitment towards and capacity for environmental protection can be provided.     

Parenting education: Primary prevention in a rural community

SUMMARY

The present paper describes the educational background and current role of a community psychologist conducting tobacco control studies at a research institute affiliated with a university medical school. This includes how the author originally became interested in community psychology as an undergraduate, chose a graduate training program and postdoctoral fellowship, and how this training was instrumental in obtaining the current position.     

The Politics of European Referendum Outcomes and Turnout: Two Models

This survey briefly examines the EU accession process for the countries included in this collection and considers the distinctive features of this set of referendums, particularly the comparatively high levels of Yes vote and low levels of turnout. It argues that, although they represent a distinctive sub-type of European referendum, they can be used as a basis to draw at least tentative comparative and theoretical conclusions. Consequently, it then posits causal models that both provide an analytical framework for this collection and, more broadly, attempt to explain the results and turnout in these and, potentially, other (European) referendums.     

The second European elections: 14–17 June 1984

Social Democratic Parties in Western Europe. Edited by William E. Paterson and Alastair H. Thomas. London: Croom Helm, 1977. Pp. 444. £9.95.

Policy Making in the European Communities. Edited by H. Wallace, W. Wallace and C. Webb. London: Wiley, 1977. Pp. xiv+341. £10.50.

La Politique Militaire de la Ve République. By Lothar Ruehl. Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (Cahiers de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques No. 193), 1976. Pp. xi+130. Fr. 76.

Fascism. By Martin Kitchen, London: Macmillan, 1976. Pp. xi+106. £2.95.

Sozialpolitik im Dritten Reich: Arbeiterklasse und Volksgemeinschaft. By Timothy W. Mason. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1977. Pp. 374, DM. 19,80.

Writers and Politics in Modern France. (1909–1961). By J. E. Flower. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977. Pp. vii+78. £1.50.

Le discours communiste. By Dominique Labbe. Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1977. Pp. 205. Frs. 80.

Western Europe: The Trials of Partnership. Edited by David Landes. Critical Choices for Americans, Vol. VIII. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books (D. C. Heath), 1977. Pp. xix+406. £12.50.

The Jekyll and Hyde Years: Politics and Economic Policy since 1964. By Michael Stewart. London: Dent, 1977. Pp. 272. £8.50.

From Summit to Council: Evolution in the EEC. By Annette Morgan. London: Chatham House‐PEP, 1976. Pp. 75. £1.50.

The Politics and Economics of European Monetary Integration. By Loukas Tsoukalis. London: Allen and Unwin, 1977. Pp. 192. £8.50.

National Attitudes and the Financing of Industry. By Yao‐Su Hu. London: Chatham House—PEP, 1975. Pp. v+71. £3.00.

The Deferential Worker: A study of farm workers in East Anglia. By Howard Newby. London: Allen Lane, 1977. Pp. 462; £9.00.

The European Policy of the SPD. By Juliet Lodge, Sage Research Paper, Contemporary European Studies, Vol. 5, 1977 $3.00.

Der Rechtsstatus des Landes Berlin. Eine Untersuchung nach dem Viermachte‐Abkommen vom 3. September 1971. By Ernst R. Zivier, Berlin: Berlin‐Verlag, 3rd. ed., 1977. Pp. 399 (incl. Dokumentation); DM 36.

Die DDR zwischen Ost und West von 1961 bis 1976. By Peter C. Ludz. Munich: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1977. Pp. 367; DM 19,80.     

The constitutional court in Italian politics

The Italian constitutional court was established as an extra‐political guardian of the constitution, but it has assumed an important role in policy‐making which is far removed from its original, intended functions. This article describes the political background to its development and analyses the variety of ways in which the court has to take decisions of considerable political sensitivity with increasing frequency. The court is most in the public eye when it carries out its functions in the referendum procedures, but its involvement is more continuous, more creative and more positive than this might suggest. The article concludes that the court has to take action in areas for which it lacks the proper instruments, and that us relationship with other institutions in the policy‐making process is worthy of more attention than such relationships often receive.     

Legitimacy through referendum? The nearly successful domino‐strategy of the Eu‐referendums in Austria,Finland, Sweden and Norway

The end of the Cold War made it possible for some neutral countries to join the European Union. However although the European integration promotes economic co‐operation it also reveals problems concerning national and regional identity. In order to legitimise EU‐membership, the new potential member states Austria, Finland, Sweden and Norway conducted referendums on whether or not they should join EU. These referendums, although different in some national aspects, are an example of an international synchronisation of the political establishments. This synchronisation is discussed in light of a ‘Domino‐Strategy’ of the referendums. Furthermore, the article describes some aspects of the referendum campaigns by stressing the importance of geographical differences, organisational standpoints, public opinion and discourse which shows astonishing similarities but also decisive differences.     

Oxytocin and the Biological Basis for Interpersonal and Political Trust

Political scientists have documented the many ways in which trust influences attitudes and behaviors that are important for the legitimacy and stability of democratic political systems. They have also explored the social, economic, and political factors that tend to increase levels of trust in others, in political figures, and in government. Neuroeconomic studies have shown that the neuroactive hormone oxytocin, a peptide that plays a key role in social attachment and affiliation in non-human mammals, is associated with trust and reciprocity in humans (e.g., Kosfeld et al., Nature 435:673–676, 2005; Zak et al., Horm Beh 48:522–527, 2005). While oxytocin has been linked to indicators of interpersonal trust, we do not know if it extends to trust in government actors and institutions. In order to explore these relationships, we conducted an experiment in which subjects were randomly assigned to receive a placebo or 40 IU of oxytocin administered intranasally. We show that manipulating oxytocin increases individuals’ interpersonal trust. It also has effects on trust in political figures and in government, though only for certain partisan groups and for those low in levels of interpersonal trust.     

The British general election of 2010 under different voting rules

The 2010 British election resulted in what the British refer to as a “hung Parliament” for the first time in over a generation. This result further heightened the debate over the fairness and utility of the nation’s centuries-old first-past-the-post (FPTP) system. Survey data are used to simulate the election outcome under four different electoral systems beyond FPTP: round-robin pair-wise comparisons, the Borda count, the alternative vote, and Coombs' method. Results suggest that in 2010, the Liberal-Democrats were Condorcet preferred to all other parties and would have won a national election under every tested method except the alternative vote, the method supported by the Liberal-Democrats during the referendum in May 2011 and, of course, FPTP as actually used.     

How does the economy shape policy preferences?

How do changes in the economy translate into shifts in aggregate preferences for a more or less activist government in the U.S.—a construct referred to as “policy mood”? Existing theories pose alternative explanations based on either a Maslow Hierarchy of Needs model, where citizens prefer an activist federal government to expand the social safety net when the economic future looks bright (Durr, 1993), or a Phillips Curve model (Erikson et al., 2002), in which the objective economic maladies of inflation and unemployment drive policy mood. We show that neither of these explanations withstands empirical scrutiny when analysis is extended beyond the time period of the original authors' work, suggest the existing wisdom tying the economy to policy mood is wrong, and offer some alternative avenues to pursue in search of an answer to the question: What moves policy mood?