Political Ideology,Public Policy and Human Development in India: Explaining the Gap Between Gujarat and Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Four decades ago the Indian states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu had identical scores on the human development index. Both states have since experienced similar rates of economic growth and Gujarat has received more foreign investment, but Tamil Nadu has witnessed much stronger advances in human development. What explains this divergence? Through comparative historical, statistical and public policy analysis and interviews, we conclude that the implementation of government policies as a manifestation of political ideology and the quality of public administration have played a defining role in explaining Gujarat’s more lopsided and Tamil Nadu’s more balanced human development trajectories. Our findings suggest that a more egalitarian ideology and higher quality of public administration have been crucial to Tamil Nadu’s success in simultaneously improving human and economic development.     

环境污染、集体抗争与行动机制：以长三角地区为例

长三角地区环境污染引发的集体抗争事件说明,任何一种抗争事件的发生不仅包含内在机理：道义先占、利益影响、行动联盟和政治机会结构,还包括行动机制：触发机制、动员机制、扩散机制和回应机制。抗争事件将政府卷入其中,考验政府预防和化解此类事件的能力。政府可以从事件发生的基础性机理和情境性机制的不同环节人手,建构一套治理集体抗争事件的完整有效的框架模式。     

Witnessing an Accidental Shooting at the Police Training Academy

Abstract

After an accidental shooting at a police training academy, outcomes of the class involved (n = 45) were compared with those of several comparison classes (n = 154) immediately and one year later. Results revealed a modest impact, but an increase in PTSD symptomology was observed from academy training to the one-year follow-up. Recruits in the affected class demonstrated more prejudicial attitudes toward women in law enforcement, perhaps because the shooter was a woman. The findings suggest that mistakes made by women within law enforcement may be generalized as stereotypes, and that further research is needed on the psychological impact of becoming a police officer.     

The Effect of NEA Grants on the Contributions to Nonprofit Dance Companies

Affirmative action and diversity can serve as a powerful framework for helping arts management educators address the challenge of diversity in the arts. This article encourages arts management educators to use affirmative action and diversity to proactively recruit diverse students into academic degree programs.     

行政行为分类的逻辑考量

行政行为分类是行政法学研究的重要内容,但对其研究却是极其薄弱。受法学研究路径的束缚,目前行政行为分类的现状极为混乱,所表现出来的症结为前提模糊、方式混乱、立场局限。从逻辑学的角度,以分类标准、分类规则、分类类型为参数对行政行为的分类现状进行梳理和探讨,有利于促进对行政行为研究的深化和扩展。行政行为的分类应当面向司法实践,使得理论研究与实践应用相统一。     

“Willing the Event”

Abstract

A major problem threatens Deleuze’s project in The Logic of Sense. He makes an ontological distinction between events and substances, but he then collapses a crucial distinction between two kinds of events, namely, actions and mere occurrences. Indeed, whereas actions are commonly differentiated from mere occurrences with reference to their causal dependence on the intentions of their agents, Deleuze asserts a strict ontological distinction between the realm of causes (including psychological causes) and the realm of events, and holds that events of all types are incorporeal happenings which are inseparable from expressed sense. For Deleuze, what counts as one’s action thus does not depend on one’s intention, but rather on a process of “making sense” of that action. Nevertheless, Deleuze continues to speak of the need to “will” the event. In order to resolve this apparent contradiction, I will read a conception of “expressive agency” into The Logic of Sense.     

Social capital,voluntary associations and collective action: Which aspects of social capital have the greatest ‘civic’ payoff?

Abstract

Despite a great variety of theoretical approaches, empirical analyses of social capital are surprisingly similar. Virtually all of them treat membership in voluntary associations as the chief indicator of community involvement while neglecting another form of community involvement: participation in elite-challenging actions. Likewise, authors readily attribute manifold civic benefits to associational life, while hesitating to attribute such benefits to elite-challenging activity. We question these views on two grounds. Firstly, we argue that elite-challenging action reflects social capital, even though this is a specific form of it: an emancipative form typical of self-assertive publics. Secondly, we use data from the Value Surveys to demonstrate that elite-challenging action is linked with greater civic benefits, at both the individual and societal level, than is membership in voluntary associations. This finding confirms the concept of human development, which suggests that emancipative forms of social capital are more civic in their consequences than others. Following this concept, we show that mass self-expression values nurture emancipative social capital, in motivating elite-challenging action. Finally, we locate self-expression values and elite-challenging actions in a theory of emancipative social capital.     

Understanding European asylum cooperation under the Schengen/Dublin system: a public goods framework

Abstract

Recent developments in European Union (EU) asylum cooperation raise important questions about the nature of cooperation and the potential problems facing collective action in the realm of EU internal security. The emergence and the subsequent stability of the Schengen/Dublin system is especially puzzling, given the highly inequitable distribution of costs and benefits that this system entails among the participating states and begs the question as to why those states that are likely to face a disproportionate ‘burden’ under the system would have agreed to it. This article seeks to provide an alternative approach to answering this question by drawing on a public goods framework. We argue that a simple focus on free-riding and exploitation dynamics, as emphasized in the traditional collective action literature, falls short as an explanation and instead demonstrates how more recent theoretical contributions to the public goods literature can offer new insights into the origin and evolution in cooperation in this sensitive policy area.     

When a pariah party exploits its demonised status: the 2019 Finnish general election

Abstract

The governing Centre and Conservative parties played the ‘economy’ card – we’ve got Finland ‘back into shape’; the green parties, the Greens and Left Alliance, played the ‘climate change’ card, demanding action to go with the talk; the Social Democrats played the ‘caring’ card and the need for a Finland that cares for the elderly, the low-paid and young persons; the Finns Party in contrast played the ‘no one likes us, we don’t care’ card, seeking to exploit its pariah status for electoral gain. The adoption of a siege mentality strategy, designed to capitalise on its ostracised position, served to mobilise protest support and the Finns Party came within a whisker of beating the Social Democrats into second place. The Social Democrats then turned the clock back and put together the type of left?centre (‘red mud’) coalition that had characterised Finnish governments for half a century from the mid-1930s onwards.     

International support for action on climate change and democracy: exploring complementarities

International support for democracy and climate action (mitigation; adaptation; addressing climate loss and restoring damage) are two distinct spheres: motivations, purposes, activities and the relevant literatures exist independently of one another. This article challenges this separation by investigating the scope for policy complementarities that potentially could further both democracy support’s objectives and climate action. Findings that address possible future scenarios where global warming exceeds safe limits or where democracy and democratisation are threatened by climate change impacts are worth exploring. The article’s provisional findings are mixed but provide grounds for believing that democracy support and democratisation potentially could gain from taking support for climate action into consideration and that climate action might benefit too.