Staying sincere: an experimental analysis of non-strategic voting in South Korea

Under ideal conditions, when do voters switch from sincere to strategic voters? Despite a large literature on strategic voting and Duverger’s Law, few studies assess when individuals shift from sincere to strategic nor what factors may encourage or discourage defecting from one’s first choice. Through an experimental web survey analysing district voting in South Korea’s National Assembly, this study measures the effect of partisan cues and the margin of error. Not only did a non-negligible number of respondents remain sincere voters despite conditions favourable to strategic voting, but supporters of smaller parties and those without partisan identification were more likely to defect from their sincere vote when given an additional prompt about the margin of error. The results suggest the contextual influence on the strategic vote calculus.     

Implicating ‘fisheries justice’ movements in food and climate politics

Abstract

While much debate on climate change has emerged around food, forest and land politics, the fisheries sector has only recently become more visibly implicated in these discussions. Similarly, in comparison to food and agrarian movements, fishers’ resistance to intensified mitigation efforts and resource exclusion is still significantly understudied academically, and receives little attention in political spheres. This highlights a critical gap in both food and climate politics literature, which this paper aims to present a framework for addressing. To do so, it contextualises the emergence of overlapping processes of exclusion in global fisheries, and explores the implications global food system transformations have had in the fisheries sector, and the reactions this has spurred from South African fishers. It then traces the convergence of fishers’ movements with other resource justice movements, and how this has contributed to the rise of ‘fisheries justice’. Finally, it presents four interlinked propositions – highlighting food sovereignty, resource access and conflict, climate change and mitigation, convergences between movements, and alternatives proposed by fishers – as a framework for how incorporating fisheries and fishers’ movements can broaden our understanding of transnational social movements, and expand the depth and scope of food and climate politics.     

论冷战后南亚地区合作——基于新地区主义的考察

冷战结束后,地理空间的认同取代了意识形态的认同,导致新地区主义兴起。作为一种多边主义形式．新地区主义的出现反映了地区范畴内从相互依存与国家合作到一体化、认同与社会聚合的相互作用进程。可以以新地区主义考察为分析视角,认识合作安全是南亚地区合作的基本范式。     

Regional power South Africa: Co-operative hegemony constrained by historical legacy

This article argues that regional powers can be distinguished by four pivotal criteria: claim to leadership, power resources, employment of foreign policy instruments, and acceptance of leadership. Applying these criteria to the South African case, the crucial significance of institutional foreign policy instruments for the power over policy outcomes at the regional and global level is demonstrated. But although Pretoria is ready to pay the costs of co-operative hegemony (capacity building for regional institutions and peacekeeping for instance), the regional acceptance of South African leadership is constrained by its historical legacy. Additionally Pretoria's foreign policy is based on ideational resources such as its reputation as an advocate of democracy and human rights and its paradigmatic behaviour as a ‘good global citizen’ with the according legitimacy. The Mbeki presidency was more successful in converting these resources into discursive instruments of interest-assertion in global, than in regional bargains. In effect the regional power's reformist south-oriented multilateralism is challenging some of the guiding principles of the current international system.     

韩国劳资关系:从对抗走向协商

1987年之前,韩国政府直接扶植企业发展、压制工会。民主化运动爆发后,劳资矛盾出现井喷现象,形成了劳资对抗的传统。90年代韩国的政治、经济、社会环境开始期待协商型劳资关系,但是政府缺乏经验和能力、企业和工会没有彻底完成意识转变。1997年金融危机以及全球竞争的压力为韩国建立协商型劳资关系提供了契机。在工会较为信任的"进步阵营"执政的情况下,在全社会都认识到了劳资对抗、僵硬的劳资关系的负面影响后,韩国政府倡导建立了自上而下的劳资政协商机制。尽管韩国还未彻底走出劳资矛盾的泥潭,但劳资关系向协商转换的趋势已经非常明显,而且在2008年的经济危机中又有了发展。     

The Gendered and Racialised Division in the Korean Labour Market: The Case of Migrant Workers in the Catering Sector

Based on the empirical analysis of migrant women employed in the catering sector, this paper examines the gendered and racialised division in the Korean labour market. Given limited labour protection and the flexibilisation of the migrant workforce in the labour market, South Korea has been able to reduce possible economic and social costs and, at the same time, enjoy the benefits of the significant economic contribution of migrant workers. By looking at gender relations and racial discrimination in the catering sector, and inconsistent government policies, this paper underlines that migrant women are marginalised in the labour market owing to their ‘multiple vulnerability’ as women, migrants and undocumented workers.

Trends of Marxian Ratios in South Korea, 1980–2014

ABSTRACT

This article explores the dynamics and contradictions of capital accumulation in South Korea from 1980 to 2014 by analysing the rates of surplus value and profit and criticises two theses of financialisation and income-led growth. The rate of surplus value soared after 2000 because the real wage growth was contained by the neo-liberal onslaught against workers. The profit rate consistently declined after 1987, paving the way for the 1997 crisis and its main driver was the rising organic composition of capital. After the 1997 crisis, the profit rate rebounded for six years thanks to the intensified exploitation of workers. From 2002 until the 2008 global financial crisis, the rate of profit dropped again. However, contrary to the financialisation thesis, there has been no substantial transfer of surplus value from the real sector to the financial sector. Our results also show that the accumulation rate determined income distribution, not vice versa, contradicting the income-led growth strategy, now popular among the Korean progressives. Marxian macro-dynamics is operating as usual in Korea.     

Evaluation of the Enhanced Computational Methods of Estimating Age-at-Death Using the Pubic Symphyses of a White South African Population

To address problems of reproducibility related to current age estimation methods, the enhanced computational Methods (ECM) were previously developed using a sample of white North American male pubic symphyses and showed promise in improving current techniques. However, given the evidence of sex and population differences in the onset of age markers, this study set out to test the ECM on a white South African sample. The sample consisted of 184 well-preserved os coxae from individuals of known age and sex. Pubic symphyseal surfaces were scanned using the Artec Spider 3D scanner, processed using Artec Studio 10 and analyzed using forAge. Point estimates of age were then compared to the true age of each individual. Results indicate that the ECM performed poorly in a white South African population, with consistent underestimation of age-at-death and weak positive correlations with true age. Despite the low correlations, the ECM did, however, reduce observer error.     

India 2025: the public distribution system and National Food Security Act 2013

The Government of India introduced the National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013 to strengthen the public distribution system (PDS) in India. Extending the PDS service network is a contentious issue, especially for India’s rural regions. This article aims to estimate the level of expansion of the PDS network, additional food grain requirement, and increased storage facilities required to serve the growing population of India up to 2025. The statistical analysis highlights the need for significant changes in the PDS to meet NFSA, and the findings can aid policy-makers to design a more robust PDS.     

Does the longer tenure of local government heads affect the performance of local governments? The Korean case

The relationship between the length of tenure of elected heads of local governments (HOLG) and performance of local governments remains ambiguous, with few empirical studies on it. Korea presents a compelling case in that it has limited HOLG to serve only three consecutive terms based on the untested belief that longer tenures have a negative effect on local governments. To address these gaps, this study applies the fixed effect panel model, using the Korean government data from 2008 to 2014. Our findings reveal a negative relationship between tenure length and efficiency, particularly among local governments demonstrating a low level of efficiency. The relationship between the length of tenure and integrity is also negative, especially among local governments with low levels of integrity. However, given that these relationships disappear when factors specific to local governments are controlled, our findings should be interpreted cautiously.