Gender quotas and placement mandates in open and closed lists: Similar effects,different mechanisms

In this paper, we argue that placement mandates, that is, regulations for gender ordering in party lists, enhance gender quotas' effectiveness in proportional representation electoral systems, independently of list type. In closed-list systems, placement mandates increase women's representation automatically as a result of the electoral rules, and, for this reason, we call this effect mechanical. In open-list systems, the effect is also strong due to systematic patterns of electoral behavior. We call this effect psychological. In order to demonstrate this, we analyze 140 Latin American legislative elections carried out between 1990 and 2018. Then, we compare the two most similar cases of open-list systems with different rules for placement mandates to illustrate the occurrence of the psychological effect. This is the first article to argue that placement mandates have similar effects in both kinds of lists as a function of distinct mechanisms.     

Fit bodies,strong races,modern nations

The Introductory Essay places the articles collected in the dossier within current debates on race, gender and nation. First, it examines the notion of “Latin” eugenics, both as a non-hereditarian approach to race improvement and a form of Fascist cultural diplomacy based on the export of Italian racial knowledge. Second, it explores the way in which the visual representation of women's bodies shaped the “eugenics gaze” of an idealized racial nation, as well as her racial “others”. Third, it analyses the racialization of immigration by looking at how dominant groups established eugenics preferences for certain foreigners based on popular assumptions of moral worth and physical strength.     

Using ‘Public Health Crossings’ to Create Community‐Based Rural Healthcare in Mexico: The Case of Two Health Centres in Xochimilco

Health centres established in Xochimilco, Mexico during the 1930s and 1940s represent a larger shift in the national health agenda from training medical students in rural health to addressing the specific health challenges of rural communities. While the 1935 centre offered urban students practical experience in rural environments, it did not adequately address the area's health problems. In contrast, the 1947 centre utilised improved community exchanges to enhance the region's health and sanitation. This decade of transformation resulted from a network of politicians, international organisations, and health professionals who helped to establish broader community‐based public health programmes in rural Mexico.     

Orchestrating silence,winning the votes: Explaining variation in media freedom during elections

Restrictions on media freedom play a prominent role in the survival of incumbents in hybrid regimes. But while scholars agree that governments limit media freedom to punish opponents and mobilize supporters, less is known about the electoral incentives that explain the timing and location of restrictions. Using original microdata on government attempts to prevent the dissemination of information from Venezuela (2002–2015), I show that electoral competition at the local and national levels shape patterns of government-led restrictions on media freedom. At the local level, I find that differences in the opposition's strength incentivize governments to use restrictions to demobilize opponents where they are strongest, target marginal districts during local elections, and maintain dominance in their strongholds. At the national level, I show that as threats to the government party's primacy increase, so does the effect of local electoral competition on the hazard of restrictions.     

Exploring the role of migrants’ remittances in the UN's nation building and development management in Haiti

Remitting outweighs foreign aid by a rate of more than eight times, resulting in a skewed perception of the Haitian economy and consequent hindrance to development. Endowing Haitian state institutions and civil society by strengthening the potential role of migrants’ remittances in regional socio-economic reconstruction could prevent some of the mistakes uncovered in previous development policies from recurring in current nation-building initiatives. The funding gap of the United Nations’ short term funded projects could be bridged with a long term commitment of a new migrant class of investors to finance productive projects and endow regional participatory institutions.     

Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate for a post-racial America: perspectives from Asian America and Hawai‘i

ABSTRACT

Okamura reviews the 2008 US presidential campaign and the election of Barack Obama as a ‘post-racial candidate’ in terms of two different meanings of ‘post-racialism’, namely, colour blindness and multiculturalism. He also discusses his campaign and election from the perspective of Asian America and Hawai'i given that Obama has been claimed as ‘the first Asian American president’ and as a ‘local’ person from Hawai‘i where he was born and spent most of his youth. In both cases, Obama has been accorded these racialized identities primarily because of particular cultural values he espouses and cultural practices he engages in that facilitate his seeming transcendence of racial boundaries and categories generally demarcated by phenotype and ancestry. Okamura contends that proclaiming Obama as an honorary Asian American and as a local from Hawai‘i inadvertently lends support to the post-racial America thesis and its false assertion of the declining significance of race: first, by reinforcing the ‘model minority’ stereotype of Asian Americans and, second, by affirming the widespread view of Hawai‘i as a model of multiculturalism.     

美国的司法独立及其相对性

美国是世界上最早赋予司法独立以完整内涵并真正实施的国家,因而研究美国的司法独立具有重要意义。美国司法独立的理论基础是权力的分立与制衡理论。为保障司法独立的贯彻,美国确立了法官个人意义上的司法独立性和制度层面上的司法独立性,但该原则并非绝对,而是相对的。     

美国对女性卖淫犯罪人的社区矫正制度及其借鉴意义

美国对女性卖淫犯罪人一般定轻罪或微罪，并且多数采取社区矫正制度，包括常规社区矫正和居住式社区矫正，其中居住式社区矫正机构与民间组织合作开展了很多针对卖淫女性的矫正项目并取得了良好的效果。我国可以借鉴美国的经验，将卖淫行为有限犯罪化，在刑法中建立轻罪序列，并对其适用社区矫正。     

Public Opinion Surveys and USA Foreign Policy Towards Latin America in the Second World War

In this paper, the roles of public opinion polls and agency in foreign policymaking are examined. Based on documents uncovered from the National Archives and Rockefeller Archive Center, this paper presents a more comprehensive picture of the history of public opinion surveys and the shaping of US bureaucracy in their relation to foreign affairs. Further, the paper contends that policymakers are interested in public views pertaining to foreign policy issues, but that private interests (serving their own interpretations of national interest) shape public views, using new techniques as guiding tools.     

Causes of absenteeism at the secondary level in Jamaica: parents' perspectives

This article examines parents' views on the causes of students' absenteeism at the secondary level, using a sample of 221 parents from nine schools across Jamaica. The key factors identified as causes are little value for education, lack of resources, and factors within the immediate school environment. Apart from improvements to the school environment, the article underscores the need to provide employment-generating opportunities to enable parents to meet the needs of their children, and emphasises that efforts to address students' absenteeism must involve multi-agency partnerships including parents, community members, and social workers.