Justification by the US and India for their border controls against illegal immigration

The US and India have strengthened their borders against illegal immigration. However, the two states have striking differences with respect to their border control methods. The US strengthened its Mexican border through fences and militarization. In sharp contrast, even though India fenced some parts of its border, it has relied on shooting practices which have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Bangladeshi immigrants. Drawing upon Narrative Policy Analysis (NPA), this paper identifies patterns in justification strategies regarding border control against illegal immigration in the US and in India. The findings indicate that in the US, border control was justified by the restoration of law at the border. To the contrary, in India, border control was associated with arbitrariness. The majority of Indian policymakers encourage arbitrary border practices by adopting the view that ‘any method’ is legitimate to curb illegal immigration from Bangladesh.     

对美军士气理论的解读

美军士气理论是美军士气培育和运用的思想基础.深入解读这一理论的基本内涵、主要特点及其对美军士气建设的影响,有助于全面认识和把握美军士气的历史、现状和未来.     

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.     

Rules and Flexibility in Public Budgeting: The Case of Budget Modernisation in Australia

This paper explores the features of public budgeting that make it resistant to efforts to balance central oversight and situational flexibility. Its aim is to help explain why systemic efforts at budget modernisation in the name of ‘devolution’ may have failed to deliver expanded budget flexibility. After defining flexibility, and briefly surveying how it can be inhibited by budget practices using the example of collaboration, the paper applies a taxonomy of general ‘budget rules’ to illustrate the trade‐offs between control and flexibility. It uses an analysis of budget reform in the Australian federal government over the last 30 years to identify a key set of ‘legacy reforms’ – all intended primarily to enable budget flexibility – to show how their design and redesign were purposed as modification to the general rules, and how, ultimately, they were constrained by them.     

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.