Sweetening the US Legislature: The Remarkable Success of the Sugar Lobby

The US sweetener industry comprises the production and processing of sugarcane, sugar beet and corn and, more recently, non-caloric products. The industry has always been protected by federal legislation. Such legislation has had positive and negative impacts on domestic sugar prices, which have remained relatively stable but well above the world price. José Alvarez discusses three factors behind that protective status: the industry's economic importance, the large representation of sweetener-producing states in the US Congress, and a powerful and successful lobby. Under current conditions, no change in the status quo should be expected. The major potential contingency on the horizon could be an agreement reached at the World Trade Organization eliminating existing levels of worldwide protection. Free trade negotiations have added new pressures to the US support programme. Time will tell whether or not the domestic success of the US sweetener industry can be duplicated in the international arena.     

The Private Interests of Public Officials: Financial Regulation in the US Congress

Legislators' private financial holdings affect policy decisions. Due to financial self‐interest, we theorize that legislators whose personal investment portfolios include equities from firms affected by proposed policies vote for legislation that benefits those firms. We also theorize that legislators with greater personal exposure to equity investments support policies that benefit equities markets generally. We create a novel data set of legislators' personal stock investments and examine major congressional actions since the 1990s on financial deregulation and market intervention. US House members who own stocks in firms who benefit from financial deregulation vote for deregulation. House members with greater exposure to financial and automotive stocks support the financial and auto bailouts, respectively. General exposure to equities markets is also associated with support for key legislation boosting markets. The normative implications are significant, as legislators' private interests influence decisions in the public sphere.     

The political economy of the Trans-Pacific Partnership: a US perspective

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), signed in February 2016, is the most ambitious free trade deal of the postwar era. The 12 TPP countries account for nearly 40 percent of the world's economy. Coupled with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership—which is still being negotiated between the United States and the European Union—the TPP represents an attempt by the Obama Administration to lead in promoting regional trade and investment arrangements despite the failure of the Doha Round to reach a comprehensive global trade deal under the auspices of the World Trade Organization. Although the agreement among the 12 TPP countries has been reached, ratification by their legislatures is pending. Ratification by the US Congress remains uncertain due to complex economic and political factors in the United States, including the presidential election of 2016.     

Immoderation: comparing the Christian Right in the US and pro-Islamic movement-parties in Turkey

This article will discuss the “immoderation” of religious political actors – defined as the continuation of a relatively closed and rigid worldview – through a cross-religious comparison of the Christian Right coalition within the Republican Party in the US with the pro-Islamic movement-parties in Turkey. By adapting a “most different systems approach”, this study will question the similar evolution of two religious political actors in two dissimilar political regimes. In particular, it will question the processes and types of immoderation by looking into (1) “behavioural immoderation”, immoderation for the strategic purpose of forming a small yet ideologically pure supporter base, and into (2) “ideological immoderation”, immoderation as a result of a continued advocacy for a moral role for the state without a full embrace of political pluralism. In this, it will argue that religious political actors are strategic actors who try to guarantee their organizational survival amidst changing costs and benefits of moderation vis-à-vis immoderation. Through its discussion of “immoderation” and through its cross-religious comparison, this study will aim to contribute to the inclusion-moderation literature.     

中美警察治安调解比较研究

治安调解是我国主要的基层公安工作之一,具有明显的中国警务特色。在美国,随着社区警务运动的兴起,对治安问题进行调解也正扩展为警察的新职能。比较研究中美警察治安调解发展过程中的特点,有利于借鉴西方国家的成功经验,进一步发挥调解对维护社会治安起到的优势作用,探索建立适合中国国情的治安调解体制,促进中国和谐社会的建设。     

Protecting digital identity in the cloud: Regulating cross border data disclosure

Widespread use of cloud computing and other off-shore hosting and processing arrangements make regulation of cross border data one of the most significant issues for regulators around the world. Cloud computing has made data storage and access cost effective but it has changed the nature of cross border data. Now data does not have to be stored or processed in another country or transferred across a national border in the traditional sense, to be what we consider to be cross border data. Nevertheless, the notion of physical borders and transfers still pervades thinking on this subject. The European Commission (“EC”) is proposing a new global standard for data transfer to ensure a level of protection for data transferred out of the EU similar to that within the EU. This paper examines the two major international schemes regulating cross-border data, the EU approach and the US approach, and the new EC and US proposals for a global standard. These approaches which are all based on data transfer are contrasted with the new Australian approach which regulates disclosure. The relative merits of the EU, US and Australian approaches are examined in the context of digital identity, rather than just data privacy which is the usual focus, because of the growing significance of digital identity, especially to an individual's ability to be recognized and to transact. The set of information required for transactions which invariably consists of full name, date of birth, gender and a piece of what is referred to as identifying information, has specific functions which transform it from mere information. As is explained in this article, as a set, it literally enables the system to transact. For this reason, it is the most important, and most vulnerable, part of digital identity. Yet while it is deserving of most protection, its significance has been largely under-appreciated. This article considers the issues posed by cross border data regulation in the context of cloud computing, with a focus on transaction identity and the other personal information which make up an individual's digital identity. The author argues that the growing commercial and legal importance of digital identity and its inherent vulnerabilities mandate the need for its more effective protection which is provided by regulation of disclosure, not just transfer.     

US and EU Human Rights and Democracy Promotion since the Arab Spring. Rethinking its Content,Targets and Instruments

The momentous changes in the Middle East and North Africa have brought the issue of human rights and democracy promotion back to the forefront of international politics. The new engagement in the region of both the US and the EU can be scrutinised along three dimensions: targets, instruments and content. In terms of target sectors, the US and EU are seeking to work more with civil society. As for instruments, they have mainly boosted democracy assistance and political conditionality, that is utilitarian, bilateral instruments of human rights and democracy promotion, rather than identitive, multilateral instruments. The content of human rights and democracy promotion has not been revised.     

European political parties: A (timidly) rising actor in the EU political system

The Lisbon Treaty sets ambitious goals for the Union in the field of external relations, but makes limited changes in the pursuit of these goals. The role of the High Representative is reinforced and an External Action Service will be set up, but decisions on the common foreign and security policy are still to be taken by consensus. The Representative and the Service will seek to facilitate the emergence of such consensus and to increase the effectiveness of its external implementation. But this can only be a gradual process, the success of which will depend largely upon the continuing political will of the member states.     

The US–Russian security ‘reset’: implications for Central-Eastern Europe and Germany

Abstract

The article examines the reactions of selected European states to the US-performed ‘reset’ in relations with Russia and explores the ways in which they have been adapting to the new set-up. The article is divided into three parts: after the discussion of the substantive continuity and limited change in US foreign and security policy (USFSP), the multilateral and bilateral dimensions of USFSP procedure are examined through John Ruggie's theoretical observations. The second part of the article deals with implications of the USFSP for Central-Eastern European countries. This part begins with a discussion of Russian attempts to wheedle Europe into embracing its plans for new European security architecture. The next section sheds light on the unexpected process of strategic realignment of the region (USA/NATO/EU/CSDP) and simultaneous transformation of the special relationship with the USA into ‘normal life’. The third part of the article tackles the implications of heightened US–Russian bilateralism for Germany. Authors' findings, many of them based on conducted elite interviews, suggest the contrary process, namely Germany's strengthened multilateral commitment to the EU and specifically to European Security and Defence Policy, limiting the bilateral option to energy trade with Russia. What follows are concluding remarks.