The gender gap in pro-environmental political participation among older adults

Citizens are increasingly concerned with environmental issues and some of them take contentious political actions or adapt their lifestyles to reduce their environmental footprint. Research finds that there is an eco-gender gap in everyday environmental behaviours, with women more active than men. However, studies of the eco-gender gap have infrequently looked at other forms of pro-environmental political behaviours and focused mostly on young people. We contribute to the literature by examining to what extent older women and men differ in a range of pro-environmental political behaviours, using a unique dataset based on a survey of individuals 64 years and older. We find strong evidence of a gender gap in everyday behaviours and political consumerism, but not in relation to contentious forms of political participation. This gender gap in relation to everyday behaviours and political consumerism diminishes with age.     

Poverty or riches: who benefits from the booming tourism industry in Botswana?

ABSTRACT

Botswana is a key tourism destination in Southern Africa mainly because of the rich wildlife resources and scenic beauty it sustains. Since the 1990s, the growth of wildlife-based tourism in Botswana has stimulated the development of a variety of tourism infrastructure and facilities. This paper asks if these qualify as sustainable tourism. Using both primary and secondary data sources, the study reveals that foreign-owned safari companies and investors dominate Botswana’s tourism industry, leading to the repatriation of tourism revenue, domination of management positions by expatriates and lower salaries for citizen workers. Tourism also fails to significantly contribute to rural development in Botswana due to its weak linkages with the domestic economy. Promoting more inclusive and beneficial policies and strategies would allow tourism to become more sustainable, making a significant contribution to local development, and allowing citizens to finally see real benefits from an industry which is sustained by their local environment.     

Coming of age in peace,prosperity, and connectivity: Cambodia’s young electorate and its impact on the ruling party’s political strategies

Cambodia’s youthful population is significantly responsible for a recent unexpected decline in the popularity of the Cambodian People’s Party, which has governed since the end of the Khmer Rouge regime. This increasingly young electorate has lived through an era of peace and openness with regular multi-party elections and impressive economic growth resulting in rapid structural change in the economy. Compared to their parents’ generation, this younger generation is better educated, highly mobile, aspires to salaried employment, and is well connected to new sources of information and technology. Because of this, their expectations, aspirations, opportunities, as well as challenges they face are remarkably different from those of older generations. However, Cambodia’s institutions of governance, dominated by personalized and patron–client networks that have been propped up by the ruling elite, has effectively marginalized this emerging youth population. This marginalization from political and economic resources has produced alienation and discontent, which represents a significant political problem for the ruling party’s political strategies.     

经济发展理论的新古典政治经济学与发展经济学的创新

发展经济学经历了三个发展阶段,即结构主义阶段、新古典主义复兴阶段和新古典政治经济学阶段,而在以新古典政治经济学为标志的发展经济学新阶段,发展经济学从研究视角、方法到内容都出现了全面的创新,对于我们认识包括中国在内的众多发展中国家的经济发展问题具有重要意义。     

由扶汉到附莽：西汉后期士人政治取向的转变

西汉后期,在董仲舒五德终始说的影响下,士人阶层的政治取向经历了由扶持刘汉政权到依附王莽的转变,刘向、刘歆父子是这种转变的代表人物。在当时的历史下,看似矛盾的现象却是合乎逻辑的发展。     

公民政治参与与巩固党执政地位的关系

建设社会主义政治文明本质上要求扩大公民政治参与,为党提供丰富的政治资源,增强党长期执政的合法性;而公民主动、有序地政治参与则会保证党的政策、主张更能体现公民的意志和利益,党的政治意图能更好地贯彻、实现。扩大公民的政治参与必须在党的领导下有序进行,实现公民政治参与的规范化、制度化。     

对新时期做好边检队伍思想政治工作的思考

转制以来,上海边检队伍的思想政治工作按照“政治建警、制度管警、科教强警、从优待警”的工作思路,有力地推进了上海边检工作的开展。但我们也应清醒地看到在思想政治工作方面存在的差距,找出存在问题的原因,加强思想政治教育,正确处理好四种关系。只有这样,新时期边检思想政治工作才会有生命力。     

Dynamics of regime personalization and patron–client networks in Russia, 1999–2014

Many comparative scholars classify personalist regimes as a distinct category of nondemocratic rule. To measure the process of regime personalization, and to distinguish such a process from overall authoritarian reversal, is difficult in comparative context. Using the Russian political regime in 1999–2014 as a case study, we examine the dynamics of regime personalization over time. Relying on original data on patron–client networks and expert surveys assessing the policy influence of the key members of the ruling coalition, we argue that having more clients, or clients who are more powerful, increases the power of patrons – and that where the patron is the ruler, the resulting measure is an indication of the level of personalization of the regime. We trace regime personalization from the changes in political influence of the president's associates in his patron–client network versus that of other elite patron–client networks. We find that as early as 2004, the Russian regime can be regarded as personalist, and is strongly so from 2006 onward.     

The Media as a Window on the Past? The Impact of Television and Newspaper Consumption on Knowledge of the Democratic Transition in Portugal

This study seeks to expand our understanding of how the media increase the level of political information, by focusing on an understudied yet important learning outcome: knowledge of the political past. The article explores the factors underlying variation in the recognition of the leading actors in the transitional process in Portugal. The results show that television news and newspaper exposure foster recognition of these actors, but that media use interacts with personal experience of the transition (stronger effects among younger cohorts) and party identification (stronger impact on those who do not feel close to a political party).     

Bringing the Past Back in: How Attitudes towards the Democratic Transition Influence the Portuguese Voter

Abstract

This article analyses the way in which attitudes towards the transition to democracy explain party identification and ideology in Portugal. This question is important because the transition to democracy in Portugal was a turbulent process marked by a rupture with the past and institutional fluidity. It has also conditioned the main political parties’ relationships with the electorate and each other since 1974. I compare the same explanatory model results from two surveys, conducted in 2004 and 2014, respectively, to understand the extent to which perceptions about the transition help characterise the Portuguese voter over the last decade.