Authoritarian Regimes and Their Permitted Oppositions: Election Day Outcomes in Cuba

Electoral opposition to long‐established authoritarian regimes may be loyal or rejectionist. Loyal oppositionists vote to send a selective signal to rulers; rejectionist oppositionists vote blank or void the ballot in full disapproval. In Cuba, the number of candidates equals the number of seats, yet voters may vote blank, void, or selectively (choosing some but not all candidates on the ballot), although the Communist Party has campaigned for all candidates. This article uses a unique dataset for Cuba's 2013 National Assembly elections to study aggregate opposition outcomes. It shows the emergence of a loyal opposition, which sometimes votes for and sometimes against Communist Party candidates. The rejectionist opposition, stable over time, never votes for Communist Party candidates; it is found where the Communist Party behaves monopolistically. This combined opposition has better national‐level political information; it comes from more educated or larger urban areas or areas closer to Havana.     

Changes in Teachers’ Involvement Versus Rejection and Links with Academic Motivation During the First Year of Secondary Education: A Multilevel Growth Curve Analysis

Research consistently shows that the learning environment plays an important role for early adolescents’ learning and outcomes and suggests that good teacher–student relationships can serve as a protective factor for maintaining young adolescents’ interest and active engagement in learning. However, less is known about the dynamic nature of teacher–student relationships and how they link with academic motivation development. Furthermore, little is known about the nature and the effects of teacher–student relationships in a cross-national context. The present study investigated changes in two components of teacher–student relationships (teachers’ involvement vs. rejection) and examined links with students’ academic motivation during the first grade of secondary school. Ten Dutch and ten Indonesian teachers (65 % female) from 24 classes were videoed 12 times across the school year, and four videos for each class were selected randomly and coded on teachers’ involvement versus rejection. A total of 713 students (52 % girls) completed four-wave measures of their academic motivation after each video observation. Multilevel growth curve modeling revealed that the teacher’s involvement changed in a curvilinear way and decreased across the first year of secondary education, while changes in the teacher’s rejection did not follow a linear time function. Academic motivation changed in an undesirable way: controlled motivation increased, while autonomous motivation decreased over time. Teachers’ involvement had a unique contribution in preventing high levels of controlled motivation in both countries. Findings suggest that teacher–student relationships (teachers’ involvement) play an essential role in early adolescents’ motivation regardless of the nations and should be a priority for schools.     

Determining Factors of E-government Development: A Worldwide National Approach

ABSTRACT

The implementation of e-government aims at simplifying and improving the relationships and transactions between public administrations and their users or customers. In this vein, the objective of this work is to analyze the factors that promote the development of e-government in the national governments of 192 countries worldwide, differentiating between developed and developing countries. Our findings emphasize that the development of e-government requires that countries have a degree of economic development that enables their citizens to have a certain standard of living, both economic and cultural, as well as important internal government reforms which promote administrative effectiveness. Once these essential factors are fulfilled, the national government's online presence is favored by governments that rule with a majority in their parliaments and with an important fiscal capacity.     

Power,Paradise and Fantasy

Change: Threat or Opportunity for Human Progress? / Üner Kirdar. ‐ New York : United Nations, 1992.‐5 v.

Contents: vol. 1. Political change; vol. 2. Economic change; vol. 3. Globalization of markets; vol. 4. Changes in the human dimension of development, ethics and values; vol. 5. Ecological change: environment, development and poverty linkages. ISBN 92–1–126029–9. ‐ ISBN 92–1–126024–8 (vol.1). ‐ ISBN 92–1–126025–6 (vol.2). ‐ ISBN 92–1–126026–4 (vol.3). ‐ ISBN 92–1–126027–2 (vol.4). ‐ ISBN 92–1–126028–0 (vol.5)

Le commerce des armes / par Romain Yakemtchouk. ‐ Bruxelles : Institut Royal des Relations Internationales. Centre interuniversitaire de recherche independant, 1992. ‐ 320 p. ‐(Studia diplomatica; 1–3)

Droga, problema europeo : una “terza via” fra proibizionismo e legalizzazione? / Andrea Chiti‐Batelli. ‐ Milano: F. Angeli, copyr. 1992. ‐ 239 p. ‐ ISBN 88–204–7440–9

L'economia italiana net mondo che cambia : 1990–911 / a cura di Franco Bruni e Fabrizio Onida. ‐ Bologna: il Mulino, copyr.1992. ‐ 291 p. ‐ ISBN 88–15–03655–5

L'elmo di Scipio : studisutmodello di difesa italiana a cura di Carlo M. Santoro. ‐ Bologna: iI Mulino, copyr. 1992. ‐ 297 p. ‐ ISBN 88–15‐ 03656–3

L'Europe et le Monde arabe : cousins, voisins / Bichara Khader. ‐ Paris : Publisud; Ottignies : Quorum, 1992. ‐ 254 p. ‐ (Horizons euro‐arabes). ‐ ISBN 2–86600–644–5 (France). ‐ ISBN 2–930014–06–7 (Belgium)

Le Grand Maghreb et l'Europe: enjeux et perspectives I Bichara Khader. ‐ Paris : Publisud; Ottignies : Quorum, 1992. ‐ 263 p. ‐ (Horizons euro‐ arabes). ‐ ISBN 2–86600–643–7 (France). ‐ ISBN 2–930014–02–4 (Belgium)

Le interrelazioni fra iniziativa esagonale e Alpe‐Adria in un’ Europa che cambia : prima riunione degli Istituti di relazioni internazionali dell'iniziativa del Centro‐Europa = Die Wechselbeziehungen zwischen “Esagonale” un “Alpen‐Adria” in einem sich wandelnden Europa : erstes Treffen der Institute für internationale Beziehungen der mitteleuropäischen Initiative = Inter‐relations between the “Esagonale” and the “Alps‐Adria” initiatives in a changing Europe : first workshop of the institutes of international affairs of the Central‐European initiative : Trento ‐24.1.19921 a cura del Servizio studi della Regione autonoma Trentino‐Alto Adige. ‐ Trento : Regione Autonoma Trentino‐Alto Adige, 1992. ‐197 p.

The Pentagonal/Hexagonal experiment: new forms of cooperation in a changing Europe / Hanspeter Neuhold (ed.). ‐Wien : W.Braumüller, copyr.1991. ‐145 p. ‐ (The Laxenburg papers; 10). ‐ ISBN 3–7003–0945–7

Red Microchip : Technology Transfer, Export Control and Economic Restructuring in the Soviet Union / Daniel L. Bughart. ‐ Aldershot : Dartmouth, copyr. 1992. ‐ x, 250 p. ‐ ISBN 1–85521–308–7

Vers une nouvelle Europe? l publié sous la direction de Mario Telò. ‐ Bruxelles : Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 1992. ‐ XIV, 561 p. ‐ (Etudes européennes). ‐ ISBN 2–8004–1055–8

Les voix du soulèvement palestinien 1987–1988 : édition critique des communiqués du Commandement National Unifié du Soulèvement et du Mouvement de la Résistance Islamique / Jean‐François Legrain; traduction française en collaboration avec Pierre Chenard. ‐ Le Caire : CEDEJ, 1991. ‐ 270, 351 p. ‐ (Dossiers du CEDEJ). ‐ ISBN 2–905838–23‐X

Western Europe and the Gulf : a Study of West European Reactions to the Gulf War / carried out under the auspices of the Institute for Security studies of Western European Union; edited by Nicole Gnesotto and John Roper. ‐ Paris : WEU. The Institute for Security Studies, 1992. ‐ viii, 219 p. ‐ ISBN 2–909567–00–1     

Designing Fiscal and Monetary Institutions for a European Monetary Union

This paper explores the conditions under which aEuropean Monetary Union (EMU) is an optimum currencyarea. The scope for an EMU increases with theconvergence of structural and fiscal policies, smallmoney holdings, a conservative European Central Bank,and dependent national central banks. How nationalpolicies affect the rest of the union once the EMU hasbeen established is also investigated. The case forsurveillance of national structural and fiscalpolicies appears to depend mainly on the monetaryarrangements in the union.