Comment on Roberto G. Quercia and George C. Galster's “The challenges facing public housing authorities in a brave new world”

Abstract

We find Quercia and Galster's article on reforming public housing an intriguing academic exercise that contains some key insights useful to practitioners. However, the article fails to consider several key elements in the provision of assisted housing that make their “constrained quadrilemma” much less problematic than they assume.

The article ignores the tenant‐based certificate/voucher approach to meeting the housing needs of low‐income and very low income persons and households. This is a significant oversight, in that many public housing authorities (PHAs) manage a larger portfolio of certificates than of PHA‐owned housing. If the litmus test of the success of public housing's “reinvention” is the extent to which it is able to maximize both the number of low‐income households served and their social and geographic integration, then public housing's extensive use of certificate/voucher programs demonstrates a road out of the quadrilemma.     

Interpreting the dynamics of public housing: Cultural and rational choice explanations

Abstract

This article uses culture of poverty and rational choice theories of poverty to explain how quickly nonelderly household heads leave public housing. Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics serve as the basis for the analysis.

Although a significant proportion of all household heads have public housing spells lasting five or more years, the majority have spells lasting less than five years. The availability of other housing options has a strong impact on how quickly individuals move out of public housing. Family structure and human capital play a more modest role. To the extent that one's childhood experiences affect the likelihood of exiting public housing, they appear to do so mostly through their effect on the acquisition of human capital. Finally, the evidence presented is inconsistent with the notion that public housing is a trap from which it is more difficult to escape the longer one lives in it.     

What Can Pro-Democracy Activists in Arab Countries Expect from the European Union? Lessons from the Union's Relations with Israel

In this article, we analyze the European Union's (EU) approach to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, showing that there is a wide gap between its normative opposition to the occupation, Israel's expanding settlement project, and the EU's foreign trade policy. Our argument is not only that there is no evidence of norm diffusion from the EU to Israel, but that within the EU itself there is no diffusion from the normative political stance to the EU's economic interests. The Israeli case suggests that the pro-democracy activists of Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria should be aware that the trade interests of the EU Member States will ultimately trump the EU's political declarations.     

The effect of congruence in policy priorities on electoral participation

This paper proposes that voters are more likely to turn out at elections if candidates and parties address their issue concerns in the election campaign. Voters with high levels of congruence in policy priorities should perceive the campaign as more interesting and the election as more relevant. In addition, the costs associated with the vote choice should be lower if voters' policy priorities are salient. The effect should be weakened by party identification, which acts both as a mobilising force and as a heuristic to the vote choice, making information costs less detrimental to turnout. The analysis, which links voter survey data with candidate survey and media content data from the 2009 German federal election, confirms the hypotheses.     

我国县城城镇化政策的适配性研究——基于政策文本分析的视角

党的十九届五中会提出"推进以县城为重要载体的城镇化建设".在国际国内发展双重压力的现实需求下,县城成为新时代中国城镇化转型升级的关键钥匙.基于政策文本分析视角,引入"适配性"概念,构建了"政策工具——政策建设场域——政策力度"三维分析框架,对60份中央和省级县城城镇化政策文本进行分析.研究发现:我国县城城镇化建设正处于...     

Qualitative Evaluation and Optimization of Public Service Policies for Pre-school Children Aged 0-6 Based on PMC-Index

In the context of Two-Child Policy and a more extensive fertility policy, the state has continuously introduced policies to develop pre-school education and care services for promoting the development of childcare public services. The results show that the subtotal of 31 polices have a good overall performance, of which 2 are perfect, 16 are excellent, and 13 are acceptable.The direction of policy development has gradually shifted the focus from education to service. However, the internal differentiation of the policies is obvious with less response to the current imbalance between the supply and demand of childcare public services. To further optimize the policy, the following suggestions are made: clarify the responsibilities of the government and society in childcare public services by legislation, treat the different policy needs of infants aged 0-3 and children aged 3-6, create favorable policy conditions for the balance of supply and demand of childcare public services by resource integration strategies, and keep the country's complementary characteristics for family care functions.     

European Regional Policy and Backward Regions: Implications Towards EU Enlargement

In this paper we show that the success of the EU Regional Policy, in terms of boosting growth in objective 1 regions, will mean a big opportunity for Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) and hence the increases in competition arising from an enlarged European market combined with a suitable regional development policy should in the future boost the growth of those countries. In the last part of the paper we made a simulation for the funding envelope from 2007, based on the 2000–2006 budget. We show that the figures of the Agenda 2000 provide enough financial support for 90% of the total CEEC population and for 75% of current objective 1 population.     

South Africa's Economic Diplomacy: Constructing a Better World for All?

The article raises questions such as: 'Is South African "economic" diplomacy primarily "economic"?' and 'how altruistic in intention are the diplomatic efforts currently being undertaken by South Africa?' These questions flow from the interplay between the premise that economic diplomacy seeks to serve economic interests through diplomatic means, and the pronouncements made by South African decision makers that point to a broader, more altruistic agenda being pursued. In exploring the political and economic elements of current South African economic diplomacy, some pertinent aspects of South Africa's foreign and economic policies are highlighted, and South African economic diplomacy is broadly sketched. The focus is on the post-1994 period, but developments are put in historical perspective. The article concludes that current South African economic diplomacy serves both economic and political interests and that it is deployed in an extremely complex environment in which it is virtually impossible to disentangle the economic from the political and the altruistic from self-interest.     

A Problem Postponed: Britain and the Future of Austria-Hungary, 1914-18

Imperial security and the need to contain Germany drove British policy towards Austria-Hungary during the First World War more than its view of the Dual Monarchy itself, and shifts in the course of that policy reflected the changing fortunes of war. Given its strategic interests, Britain had less scope to sustain Austria as a great power than Paul W. Schroeder has argued. Those priorities also limited the role of specialists like R.W. Seton-Watson and Sir Lewis Namier to advising on the implementation of policies made by the war cabinet rather than shaping decisions themselves. Development of wartime policy towards Austria cast the priority Britain placed on Central and Eastern Europe into sharp relief, helping to explain trends in its approach to the region through the 1940s.     

从马加爵杀人案谈犯罪预防

原云南大学学生马加爵因打牌时受同学诬蔑作弊,遭受“嘲笑”,在三天内将四名同学杀死于宿舍。不良的生活背景致使马加爵个性压抑、人格异常,这是构成暴力犯罪的内在起因,被害人的消极作用是暴力犯罪的导火线。具有类似马加爵“异常人格”的人,预备犯罪具有极强的隐蔽性,实施犯罪具有极强的突发性。预防这类犯罪的对策是学校要加强对学生心理健康教育,矫正学生的性格缺陷,提醒学生注意防范。