MPs' Responses to a Proposed New Constituency Map: Electoral Prospects,Community Ties and Party Organisation

Until new legislation was passed in 2011, community ties and continuity of representation were the major criteria deployed by the United Kingdom's Boundary Commissions when defining parliamentary constituency boundaries. Equality of electorates is now the paramount criterion, and the Commissions' first proposals using that new format substantially fractured many of the existing constituencies. MPs were able to respond to the Commissions' proposals under the altered public consultation procedures. Only a small majority did so, however: there were significant differences across the political parties in both response rates and the nature of the responses, the majority of which used community ties as the main grounds for either supporting or opposing the Commissions' proposals.     

An analysis of the changing social bases of America's political parties: 1952–2008

In this article I address two interrelated questions: have the group bases of the American political parties changed over time and what factors have lead to the observed changes? I determine social group memberships significantly influence individual partisanship with a multivariate analysis using 56 years of ANES data. I then measure how many votes each politically relevant social group contributed to the party coalitions in each presidential election from 1952 to 2008. I discuss how group contributions have changed over time and establish the demographic and behavioral causes of group contribution change. I find that the party coalitions have been restructured as a result of groups' changing voting behavior and the changing ratio of groups in the electorate.     

From International Relations to Global Governance Theory: Conceptualizing NGOs after the Rio Breakthrough of 1992

Abstract

This essay systematizes the ontology of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the processes of their inclusion in world politics. It tracks conceptualizations of NGOs, their integration into IR theory, and the resultant move toward global governance (GG) theory. First, I provide an interdisciplinary ontological evolution of NGOs in international relations (IR): as international interest groups, then transnational social movement organizations, then transnational advocacy networks, and most recently as global civil society. All stress different features of NGO activism, but none have successfully replaced the term ‘NGO.’ Second, this new ontology requires a new process for participation in world politics—GG. GG theory expands on IR theory to include NGOs in multi-actor, issue-driven relationships.     

The size principle and the strategic basis of an alliance: Formalizing intuitions

At the end of the Cold War, attention is keenly turned towards predicting alliance behavior in the international system. As such the lessons from past history are important in helping us guide our expectations. One recent lesson, Schweller (1993), argued that the strategic basis of a coalition was decisive in determining the size of coalitions; offensive coalitions would be minimum winning while defensive coalitions would be maximal. We show that by formalizing in game theoretic terms what ‘seems reasonable,’ in fact does not yield these predictions. We find no support for the strategic basis of a coalition being determinate in predicting the size of a coalition. As such, formalizing the intuitions from the lessons of the past help guide us in our search for usable lessons in alliance formation.     

A tale of two states: how U.S. state legislatures consider restorative justice policies

This paper explores recent state legislative processes in Colorado and Texas related to bills proposing support for restorative justice as a juvenile diversion tool for criminal courts. It uses two maximum variation case studies to explore issue statements related to theoretically-supported factors likely to influence the adoption of restorative justice legislation, and draws conclusions about the importance of political partisanship, economic strain, and key figures such as policy entrepreneurs, advocacy coalitions, and interest groups in legislative decision-making. Emerging themes suggest that support for restorative justice policies is at least sometimes bipartisan and is unlikely to be motivated by economic interests. Collaborative processes within a traditionally adversarial system distinguished successful restorative justice decision-making in Colorado.     

Reaching African American Battered Women: Increasing the Effectiveness of Advocacy

This study reports findings from interviews with 242, primarily African American, battered women in Detroit. Most of the women rated domestic violence advocacy as very or somewhat helpful. Satisfaction with police and receiving referrals from the legal system were significantly associated with ratings of advocates helpfulness. Receiving information, being emotionally supported, and having advocates readily available and accessible were the most common reasons why women rated advocates as helpful. Women who gave advocates low helpfulness ratings described them as unavailable, unsympathetic, or ineffective in legally sanctioning abusers. Less than half of the women who experienced severe violence in the focal incident reported that advocates helped them with safety planning, and there was a low rate of follow-up on referrals provided by advocates. This analysis suggests that advocacy can be satisfying for urban, African American women, but more intensive services should be provided to make a significant contribution to their safety.     

How do voters react when their party forms a coalition they dislike?

Abstract

While coalitions are conventionally seen as opportunities for parties to realise their policy preferences or to secure their control over political offices, recent studies show that citizens have preferences for coalitions which influence their vote choice. However, these studies do not consider how party and coalition preferences influence each other. This study uses panel data from the German Longitudinal Election Study from the 2009, 2013 and 2017 German elections to determine whether voters punish the party for which they voted for being in a coalition they dislike or, alternatively, whether they become more supportive of that coalition. We find weak evidence for the former but strong evidence for the latter.     

推进中国共产党反腐倡廉建设科学化对策研究

提高反腐倡廉建设科学化水平,是提高党的建设科学化水平的重要方面。中国共产党反腐倡廉建设的主要任务,就是要认真分析我国当前经济社会发展和反腐倡廉的新形势,正确把握反腐倡廉工作的新特点和新规律,不断提高反腐倡廉建设的科学化水平。     

Mind the (Mobilization) Gap: Comparing Climate Activism in the United States and European Union

The barriers to concerted political action on climate change mitigation are steep, especially in multilevel systems where power is diffused and authority contested. This article seeks to explain how mobilization—galvanizing resources and people to participate actively—occurs in complex multilevel systems. It compares two different polities—the United States and the European Union—to tease out the key features of multilevel systems and how they affect climate activism and mobilization. To capture this dynamic, it proposes a three‐staged model of mobilization: awareness building, alliance building, and network creation. The latter stage features “mobilization networks”—stakeholder networks able to transcend levels and institutional inertia and steer polities toward particular climate goals. The article demonstrates how each stage of mobilization is highly contingent on stakeholders' ability to exploit—or at least navigate—multilevel institutional barriers.     

Social Work with West Indian Families

SUMMARY

This conceptual analysis explores the psychosocial and cultural experiences of English-speaking West Indians in the United States. Relevant factors include family role changes; parent/child conflicts; prolonged separation from and reunification with parents; finding suitable employment and education-related issues. The challenge for social work is to develop programs for these families that contribute to their social and economic integration. Given the extent to which social, economic and related policies impact on the needs of this population, the author suggests that a multilevel approach which utilizes the micro skills associated with individual intervention and the macro strategies of intervening at the societal and institutional levels is needed. This approach necessarily includes activities such as advocacy and empowerment.