FHA restructuring proposals: Alternatives and implications

Abstract

This article evaluates problems of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) under its current structure, develops criteria for judging alternative structures, and suggests one alternative—an assigned risk pool—that encourages efficiency in the insurance function while still promoting low‐ and moderate‐income housing. A historical introduction explains how the current institutional relationships came about and created FHA's problems.

FHA's decline resulted from the mixing of a heavy social agenda with the basic insurance objective, a destructive reorganization of the Department of Housing and Urban Development that caused FHA to lose control and focus, and government's inherent inability to respond to market signals. Yet the economic rationale for government involvement in FHA functions is strong. An FHA organized as an independent government agency, a government‐sponsored enterprise, or even a privatized entity structured as an assigned risk pool could improve efficiency of underwriting, pricing, and administration while achieving the redistributional objectives.     

Integration or separation? Nationality groups in the US and the Republican Party's ethnic politics, 1960s–1980s

Using examples of American Latvians, Estonians and Ukrainians in the states of Minnesota, New Jersey and New York this article explores the ambiguous nature of integration of nationalities groups inside the Republican Party during the 1960s–1980s. Based on the analysis of available archival information, it is shown that the Republican Party intentionally brought in the ethnics during the discussed period and created the Nationalities Sections within specific electoral campaigns, Nationalities Divisions inside the state party organizations and the National Republican Heritage Groups (Nationalities) Council within the Republican National Committee in order to recruit the ethnics and engage in the partisan struggle with the Democrats. Consequently, the nationalities were given a sense of importance, but little real power to actually influence the internal processes inside the party. At the same time, the nationalities eagerly responded to the invitation to join the Republican national and state-level organizations specifically designed for the ethnics. Yet in doing this they perceived themselves primarily as ethnics with a distinct, mainly anti-communist, agenda and only secondarily thought of themselves as Americans dedicated to Republican politics. Consequently, the Republican political strategy of creating Nationalities Sections and Divisions seemed to integrate the ethnics on the surface, while in reality intensifying political separation and even ghettoization of the ethnics in American politics. This research initiates a larger project, which will compare the Republican and Democratic strategies of directly involving ethnic groups and minorities inside the party organizations in the second part of the twentieth century.     

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Mozambique's parliament is a weak, unskilled institution with an executive branch that dominates the legislative and judicial branches.     

From Cold War to Arab Spring: mapping the effects of paradigm shifts on the nature and dynamics of US democracy assistance to the Middle East and North Africa

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has articulated and implemented explicit strategies of democracy promotion by providing assistance to governments, political parties, and other non-governmental groups and organizations all over the world. One particularly challenging region has been the Middle East and North Africa, where democratic development and democracy aid opportunities have been limited and constrained by a variety of factors related to social, economic, and political characteristics of the region and policy priorities of the United States. This article examines the impact of two major paradigm shifts – the end of the Cold War (1989) and the 9/11 episode (2001) – on the nature, purposes, and consequences of US democracy assistance to the Middle East. Examining democracy aid allocations, social, democratic and political factors in the region, and other variables, the analysis traces the shifts in aid strategies, purposes, and recipients generated by these paradigm shifts and assesses the impact of such assistance on the politics of the region. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for US democracy promotion policies and the impact of the Arab Spring events as a potential third break point.     

美国法学教育和法律职业养成

美国法学教育是普通法传统下三年制研究生层次的职业教育。美国法学院力求教会学生学会在广泛学科领域中进行法律分析、掌握法律技能和理解职业价值。美国法学教育也遭到了各种各样的批评,有人批评法学院是否有效地为学生从事法律职业提供了充分准备。本文对美国法学教育作了概括介绍,分析了美国法学教育面临的挑战,并介绍了对当前的法学教育模式所提出的批评等内容。     

美国自由贸易协定研究——以生物技术内容为视角

在生物技术企业巨头的主导下,近年来美国自由贸易协定竭力维护美生物技术利益集团的利益,在食品、农业、生物多样性的私有化和商品化以及在全球范围内推广转基因生物等方面均表现出比TRIPs协议更加强烈的意图,推行更加强硬的做法,对签约国家和地区的生物安全、农业生产和粮食安全造成威胁.我国应当高度重视自由贸易协定中的生物技术内容,从维护本国生物安全的角度出发商定条款内容,保护国家生物安全和粮食安全.     

美国霸权的文化根源和理论支柱

美国霸权的形成除了依赖其强大的综合国力外,还有其深远的文化根源和历史积淀,即霸道意识、天赋使命、实用主义。美国霸权以新干涉主义、霸权稳定论、民主和平论和新帝国主义论为理论支柱。从本质上讲,这些理论的背后,是美国美国要用一切手段把他们自认为是最好的社会制度和价值观念强制推行到世界的每个角落,要在全球范围内最大限度地维护美国的国家利益。     

Yea or Nay: Do Legislators Benefit by Voting Against Their Party?

This article asks whether legislators are able to reap electoral benefits from opposing their party on one or more high‐profile issues. Using data from a national survey in which citizens are asked their own positions on seven high‐profile issues voted on by the U.S. Senate, as well as how they believe their state's two senators have voted on these issues, I find that senators generally do not benefit from voting against their party. Specifically, when a senator deviates from her party, the vast majority of out‐partisans nonetheless persist in believing that the senator voted with her party anyhow; and while the small minority of out‐partisans who are aware of her deviation are indeed more likely to approve of and vote for such a senator, there are simply too few of these correctly informed citizens for it to make a meaningful difference for the senator's overall support.     

“The big sleep: Elucidating the sequence of events in the first hours of death to determine the postmortem interval”

Recent developments on postmortem interval estimation (PMI) take an advantage of the autolysis process, pointing out to the analysis of the expression of apoptosis and autophagy genes towards this purpose. Oxidative stress plays a role in this signaling as a regulatory mechanism and/or as a consequence of cell death. Additionally, melatonin has been implicated on apoptosis and autophagy signaling, making melatonin a suitable target for PMI determination. The aim of this study was to investigate the early PMI through the analysis of the expression of autophagy genes as well as oxidative stress and melatonin receptor. Our results demonstrated a rapidly increased on the expression of autophagy genes according to the expected sequence of events, then a marked decrease in this expression, matched with the switch to the apoptosis signaling. These results revealed potential candidates to analyze the PMI in the first hours of death, helping to estimate the time-since-death.     

试论原敬对美协调外交思想的原点

原敬强调日本外交之关键在于以本国利权为本 ,对中国友善之时不忘日本国的利益。日本作为后进的资本主义国家 ,其实力更逊于各国 ,远不能和欧洲列强平起平坐 ,日本不仅要审时度势 ,认清中国的国际形势 ,而且更需要协调与欧洲列强在中国的利益关系 ,这样才能确保和扩张日本在中国最大的殖民利益。