Balancing friends and foes: Explaining advocacy styles at global diplomatic conferences

The growing attempts by non-state interests to influence global policy processes has attracted much scholarly interest in recent years. One important question thereby is what characterizes and explains the interactions of non-state advocates with policymakers. In order to clarify this matter, we analyse the advocacy strategies of non-state actors, more precisely whether and why they address opponents instead of more like-minded policymakers. For this purpose, we analyse evidence collected through 228 interviews with advocates who attended the WTO Ministerial Conferences (Geneva 2012) and the United Nations Climate Conferences (Durban 2011; Doha 2012). Our results show that transnational advocates predominantly target like-minded policymakers and that their activities are much less focused on their opponents. Variation in advocacy towards opponents or like-minded policymakers is explained by the alignment of non-state actors with policymakers, the salience of topics on the political agenda, group characteristics, and whether or not advocates hail from democratic countries.     

How Europe Shapes the Nature of the Belgian Federation: Differentiated EU Impact Triggers Both Co-operation and Decentralization

This paper disentangles the impact of various dimensions of European integration on different aspects of the Belgian federal polity. We discern two opposite trends. While the institutional embeddedness of Belgium as an EU member state results in domestic centralizing tendencies and co-operative political practices, economic integration stimulates political pressures for regional autonomy, contributing to further divergence and hollowing out of the federal level. We conclude by arguing that the EU clearly affects territorial politics in Belgium, but, as the European causes are multidimensional, that also the effects, albeit substantial, will be diverse.     

Domestic European Union Coordination and Interest Group Mobilization in Three Member States: Looking Beyond the Formal Mechanisms

One conclusion in the literature on domestic European Union (EU) coordination is that the formal institutional properties of countries—devolved versus centralized or unitary—affect the nature of coordination practices. Basically, the view has emerged that domestic coordination is a largely bureaucratic process in which political control mechanisms remain relatively weak. Instead of only looking at public authorities and their formal networks, this article relies on a data set that allows us to analyse informal political-administrative networks and look at how societal interests mobilize and target policymakers in order to shape the position governments defend at the EU level. One of our conclusions is that despite devolution in Belgium, its intergovernmental coordination shows a considerable level of network centralization, even when compared to unitary countries such as France and the Netherlands, meaning that there are large differences between the three states with respect to the connectedness of the actors involved.     

Stakeholder consultations and the legitimacy of regulatory decision-making: A survey experiment in Belgium

Agencies consult extensively with stakeholders such as industry associations, nongovernmental organizations, and trade unions. One rationale for consultations is that these improve procedural legitimacy and lead to greater acceptance of regulatory outcomes by citizens and the regulated industry. While this presumption of a positive relation between stakeholder consultations and the legitimacy of agencies is widespread, research analyzing this relationship remains scarce. Using a survey experiment, we examine the effect of open and closed consultations on the acceptance of procedures and regulatory outcomes in the field of environmental politics. The results demonstrate that consultation arrangements positively affect the acceptance of decision-making procedures, especially when regulators grant access to different types of stakeholders. However, although the consultation arrangement itself does not directly affect acceptance of the regulatory outcome, procedural legitimacy matters, as it increases decision acceptance among individuals who are negatively disposed toward government regulation.     

Families, Foreignness, Migration

Introducing the special issue on ‘Families, Foreignness and Migration. Now and Then’, this essay starts from the observation that in Western Europe migrating with or without one's family in the last century was increasingly shaped by state policies. As a result, migrants' identities and family experiences not only depended, and still depend, on their cultural backgrounds but also on very time-specific politics of foreignness and citizenship. The essay's main argument is that comparing and deconstructing perceptions, policies and practices of ‘family’ and migration help to overcome the limited attention given to age and kin in the study of gender and migration. From an overview of contributions to this interdisciplinary issue, it is clear that deconstructing ‘family’ in migration studies should be developed further along three axes: child migration, the multi-level analysis of family and migration, including societies of origin and migrant organizations, and the comparison of ‘visible’ and ‘invisible’ migrants, which contributes to uncovering the relationship between foreignness, gender and age.     

Exploring the Association Between Insecure Attachment Styles and Adolescent Autonomy in Family Decision Making: A Differentiated Approach

The present investigation focuses on the associations between adolescents’ insecure attachment styles (i.e., anxiety and avoidance) and their autonomous functioning in family decision making. In line with recent insights in the construct of adolescent autonomy, we combined two perspectives on autonomy, differentiating between the degree of independent versus dependent functioning and the self-endorsed and pressuring motives underlying (in)dependent functioning. A longitudinal sample of 327 adolescents (age range = 13–20 years; 64 % girls) completed questionnaires on attachment to the mother and father and on both autonomy operationalisations on two measurement moments spanning a 1-year interval. Structural equation modeling showed that attachment avoidance generally was unrelated to the degree of independent decision making and the motives underlying independent decision making, but related to more pressuring motives for dependent decision making. Anxiety, on the other hand, was associated with a lower degree of independent decision making as well as with more pressuring motives for both independent and dependent decision making. Cross-lagged paths were generally in line with these findings. Theoretical implications are outlined in the discussion.     

Families,Foreignness, Migration

Introducing the special issue on ‘Families, Foreignness and Migration. Now and Then’, this essay starts from the observation that in Western Europe migrating with or without one's family in the last century was increasingly shaped by state policies. As a result, migrants' identities and family experiences not only depended, and still depend, on their cultural backgrounds but also on very time-specific politics of foreignness and citizenship. The essay's main argument is that comparing and deconstructing perceptions, policies and practices of ‘family’ and migration help to overcome the limited attention given to age and kin in the study of gender and migration. From an overview of contributions to this interdisciplinary issue, it is clear that deconstructing ‘family’ in migration studies should be developed further along three axes: child migration, the multi-level analysis of family and migration, including societies of origin and migrant organizations, and the comparison of ‘visible’ and ‘invisible’ migrants, which contributes to uncovering the relationship between foreignness, gender and age.     

Examining the Light and Dark Sides of Emerging Adults�� Identity: A Study of Identity Status Differences in Positive and Negative Psychosocial Functioning

Identity is a critical developmental task during the transition to adulthood in Western societies. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate an empirically based, cluster-analytic identity status model, to examine whether all four of Marcia's identity statuses (diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, and achievement) would emerge empirically, and to identify different patterns of identity formation among American college-attending emerging adults. An ethnically diverse sample of 9,034 emerging-adult students (73% female; mean age 19.73?years) from 30 U.S. universities completed measures of identity exploration (ruminative, in breadth, and in depth) and commitment (commitment making and identification with commitment), identity synthesis and confusion, positive and negative psychosocial functioning, and health-compromising behaviors. The identity status cluster solution that emerged provided an adequate fit to the data and included all four of Marcia's original identity statuses, along with Carefree Diffusion and Undifferentiated statuses. Results provided evidence for concurrent validity, construct validity, and practical applicability of these statuses. Implications for identity research are discussed.     

Longitudinal Dynamics of Depressogenic Personality and Attachment Dimensions in Adolescence: An Examination of Associations with Changes in Depressive Symptoms

Depressogenic personality and attachment are two major factors related to the development of adolescents’ depressive symptoms. However, no previous longitudinal studies have examined simultaneously both vulnerability factors in relationship to depressive symptoms. The present study examined associations between intra-individual change in adolescents’ depressogenic personality orientations (i.e., sociotropy and autonomy), dimensions of mother–adolescent attachment (i.e., anxiety and avoidance), and depressive symptoms. The sample of the present research consisted of 289 high school students (mean age = 12.51 years at Time 1, 66 % female) participating in a 3-wave cohort-sequential design. Latent growth curve modeling revealed no significant intra-individual change in depressogenic personality orientations but significant changes in dimensions of attachment and symptoms of depression. Initial levels of sociotropy were not related significantly to changes in attachment dimensions and depressive symptoms. High initial levels of autonomy were associated with increases in attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and depressive symptoms. In addition, results suggested that the association between initial levels of autonomy and increases in depressive symptoms was mediated by increases in attachment anxiety and avoidance. The discussion focuses on the status of depressogenic personality and attachment as risk factors for depression.     

The Jingle–Jangle Fallacy in Adolescent Autonomy in the Family: In Search of an Underlying Structure

The construct of autonomy has a rich, though quite controversial, history in adolescent psychology. The present investigation aimed to clarify the meaning and measurement of adolescent autonomy in the family. Based on theory and previous research, we examined whether two dimensions would underlie a wide range of autonomy-related measures, using data from two adolescent samples (N = 707, 51 % girls, and N = 783, 59 % girls, age range = 14–21 years). Clear evidence was found for a two-dimensional structure, with the first dimension reflecting “volition versus pressure”, that is, the degree to which adolescents experience a sense of volition and choice as opposed to feelings of pressure and coercion in the parent–adolescent relationship. The second dimension reflected “distance versus proximity”, which involves the degree of interpersonal distance in the parent-adolescent relationship. Whereas volition related to higher well-being, less problem behavior and a secure attachment style, distance was associated mainly with more problem behavior and an avoidant attachment style. These associations were not moderated by age. The discussion focuses on the meaning of adolescent autonomy and on the broader implications of the current findings.