A Bridge in Flux: Narratives and the Policy Process in the Pacific Northwest

Policy narratives play an important role in the policy process. Often policy narratives originate from advocacy coalitions seeking increased support from the public for their policy stance. Although most Narrative Policy Framework studies have focused on national policy issues, this study examines a state and local economic development project by exploring the policy narratives from competing coalitions in favor and opposed to the project. Specifically, in the Portland–Vancouver area of Oregon and Washington, local policy discussions have been dominated by a proposal for a new mega bridge on Interstate‐5 connecting the two cities across the Columbia River. A new government agency (CRC—Columbia River Crossing) was formed for the implementation of this project. Upon approval of a proposal, CRC experienced heavy backlash from citizens, local businesses, community leaders, and other stakeholders leading to the formation of two competing coalitions in opposition and support of the bridge. This study, using content analysis of 370 public documents, finds that competing coalitions utilize policy narratives in strategic ways to characterize the opposing coalition, themselves, and other actors in the policy subsystem. This study also suggests that the strength and cohesion of a coalition's narrative contributes to its policy success and the winning/losing status of a coalition potentially determines the types of strategies they will use. Last, this study introduces and tests a new narrative strategy called the impotent shift testing a coalition's strategic use of the victim character.     

Government Promotion of Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from the EU Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme

Governments play an active role in promoting corporate social responsibility and specifically environmental management system (EMS) programs, but few studies have examined the impact of such support on the decision of businesses to adopt EMS programs. We ask two questions in this paper: how does government support for EMS programs affect adoption of such programs? Second, what effect does this government support have on the pace of adoption of such programs? The answer to the first question can reveal how effective government programs are in boosting membership in EMS programs. The answer to the second reveals to what extent businesses within EU member states are converging upon particular EMS standards. We examine these questions in the context of the European Union’s Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), 2010–2014. There is significant variation in government support of EMAS across the EU and at the same time, EMAS competes for business attention with the more established ISO 14001. Our quantitative and qualitative analyses therefore reveal the effectiveness of government programs in boosting adoption, but also to the extent to which such programs cause convergence upon EMAS in the face of a competing standard such as ISO 14001.     

Carlos Saúl Menem: variations on the theme of populism

The labels neopopulist and/or neoliberal have been attached to Latin American political leaders in an effort to understand the post‐transition to democracy experiences. This article examines the appropriateness of such labels in the Argentine context in the 1990s. It is argued that describing Carlos Menem as either neopopulist or neoliberal obscures rather than illuminates the vicissitudes along the path to establishing the institutions of liberal democracy, a commitment the Argentine electorate made in 1983. An old‐style populist at heart, Menem's pragmatic embrace of the neoliberal zeitgeist can only be understood in the context of the social, political and economic upheavals of the 1980s in Argentina.     

Reviews

Books reviewed:
Sampson Vera Tudela, Colonial Angels: Narratives of Gender and Sprituality in Mexico
Archer, Wars of Independence in Spanish America
Bergad, Slavery and the Demographic and Economic History of Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1720–1888
McFarlane and Posado-Carbó, Independence and Revolution in Spanish America: Perspectives and Problems
Earle, Spain and the Independence of Colombia, 1800–1825
Zimmermann, Judicial Institutions in Nineteenth-Century Latin America
Nugent, Modernity at the Edge of Empire: State, Individual, and Nation in the Northern Peruvian Andes
Chowning, Wealth and Power in Provincial Mexico: Michoacán from the Late Colony ti the Revolution
Benjamin, La Revolució: Mexico's Great Revolution as Memory, Myth, and History
Spenser, The Impossible Triangle: Mexico, Soviet Russia, and the United States in the 1920s
Buve and Weisebron, Procesos de Integración en América Latina: Perspectivas y Experiencias Latinoamericanas y Europeas
Edelman, Peasants Against Globalisation: Rural Social Movements in Costa Rica
Pelupessy and Ruben, Agrarian Policies in Central America
Harvey, The Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy
Hite, When the Romance Ended: Leaders of the Chilean Left
Aguirre and Buffington, Reconstructing Criminality in Latin America
Craske, Women and Politics in Latin America
Beverley, Subalternity and Representation: Arguments in Cultural Theory
Breiner, An Introduction to West Indian Poetry
Goslinga, Caribbean Literature: A Bibliography
San Román, Onetti and Others: Comparative Essays on a Major Figure in Latin American Literature     

营造云南旅游产业软环境的思考

政府主导下的软环境营造问题已经成为旅游产业发展的关键。云南在营造旅游社会环境方面发挥了积极的主导作用,取得了显著的成效。当前,要紧紧围绕转变政府职能、培育市场主体、健全法规体系和营造社会旅游氛围等四个方面,采取综合有效的措施营造云南旅游产业的发展软环境。     

再论附赠式有奖销售中的若干法律问题

目前,由附赠式有奖销售引发的法律纠纷已占相当比重,但我国相关的立法仍不完善。文章从借鉴其它国家关于有奖销售的立法出发,提出我国的立法构想,并对附赠式有奖销售的法律性质进行详细的论述,得出附赠式有奖销售在商家与顾客间产生了两种合同关系,即买卖合同关系与赠与合同关系。     

Local Renewable Energy Initiatives in Germany and Japan in a Changing National Policy Environment

Our article explores the contribution of local initiatives to the creation of path dependencies for energy transition in Germany and Japan in the face of resistance from entrenched incumbents at the national level. We use a process‐tracing methodology based partly on interviews with local participants. In particular, we explore the role of local initiatives in securing “socio‐political space” for the expansion of renewable energy (RE) and in embedding themselves in “ecosystems” of public and private institutions. German energy activists were more successful than their Japanese counterparts in expanding this space and creating positive feedback in part because they were able to build horizontal networks that anchored the energy transition firmly in local communities. Although problems with grid technology have led to retrenchment in both cases, Japanese activists' reliance on vertical networks has limited their ability to weather a backlash from national government and utility actors. Our study demonstrates the interaction of political, economic/technological, and legitimation paths to energy transition and highlights the importance of the latter two.     

Power Sector Reforms and Technical Performance: Good News from an Instrumental Variable Analysis

Over the past three decades, various power sector reforms have overhauled the governance of electricity generation, transmission, and distribution in almost a hundred countries. Have these reforms produced benefits? Using instrumental variables, we improve upon earlier studies and demonstrate that power sector reforms enacted between 1982 and 2008 have both had large positive effects on the availability of generation capacity and reduced transmission and distribution losses. We also show that the positive effects on generation capacity are pronounced in developing countries and that hybrid reforms falling short of privatization and free competition are effective in improving generation capacity in particular. Overall, the results show that these reforms are an effective tool to remove an important constraint on economic growth.     

Institutional Collective Action on Drugs: Functional and Vertical Dilemmas of Unused Pharmaceuticals

The authors use the Institutional Collective Action Framework to analyze the barriers, opposition, and opportunities for residential pharmaceutical disposal programs in the United States via a case study on a series of take‐back programs pioneered in the state of Washington by local and state governments, as well as the corresponding backlash from federal agencies. While successful in some ways, these innovative solutions directly challenged the competing federal policy regimes controlled by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and, to a lesser extent, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Findings from case studies suggest that functional dilemmas created by existing institutions with entrenched regulatory regimes are a key challenge to finding efficient solutions to vertical ICA dilemmas. Conclusions, then, connect to the broader ICA research agenda, and implications for multi‐level governance issues.