Economic voting: The effect of political context, volatility and turnout on voters' assignment of responsibility

Abstract.  This study analyses macroeconomic conditions and the electoral fortune of incumbents in 21 parliamentary Western countries between 1950 and 1997 in 266 national elections. Voters' assignment of responsibility for the state of the national economy is assumed to vary according to the context of the election. Building on previous research, the importance of the political context – clarity of responsibility and availability of alternatives – is analysed. The study also breaks new ground by introducing two new contexts of importance: volatility, seen from a systemic perspective, and the trend in turnout. The contextual hypothesis is confirmed. The universal economic effect as such is very weak indeed. However, given a favourable political and institutional environment (clear responsibility structure and availability of alternatives), an economic effect appears. Tests including the new contexts created on the basis of behavioural patterns in the electorate (system volatility and turnout trend) identify elections where the economic effects are even stronger.     

家政工生存状况研究:基于北京、济南被访者驱动抽样调查

市场化照料在满足中国家庭照料需求方面发挥着日益重要的作用。然而,由于对女性再生产劳动的忽视和对家政工进行抽样的困难,既有研究缺乏对家政工群体的全面呈现。本文基于2019年在北京、济南开展的家政工被访者驱动抽样调查数据发现,以农村进城务工女性和城市下岗女工为主体的家政工群体的工作条件、劳动过程、劳动保障与权益、工作—家庭责任平衡及身心健康状况不容乐观,尤其是住家家政工群体。本文提出加强对有偿照料劳动的社会嵌入性和价值、照料劳动进程和工作—家庭冲突对照料劳动者的影响等议题的研究,并推进倡导性别平等的照料政策的制定。     

Epistemic emotions in prosecutorial decision making

The article examines epistemic emotions as part of the emotive-cognitive processes of prosecutors’ knowledge seeking and decision making in preliminary investigation and court proceedings. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and shadowing of prosecutors in Sweden, we show how emotions motivate and orient prosecutors’ inquiries and the fundamental role of the ‘certainty–doubt spiral’ for ‘doing objectivity’. In conclusion, we discuss the centrality of emotions for conscientious and well-considered decisions in legal work. The study contributes to the field of law and emotion by exploring the epistemic quality of emotions, notably the certainty–doubt spiral, in legal work.     

Investigating road safety issues and deaf people in the United kingdom: an empirical study and recommendations for good practice

Very little research has been carried out in the United Kingdom or other countries on the views and experiences of deaf people on road safety and other aspects of travel. Historically, there has been little specific attention to either the issue of road safety for deaf people or more general travel issues affecting deaf people. Deaf-specific support, guidance, or advice on road safety from the police or other agencies has been sparse. This has led to a situation where support for deaf pedestrians, drivers, and other deaf road users has been developed on an ad-hoc basis, and available measures have not been uniformly adopted across the United Kingdom. Furthermore, although the United Kingdom police force has aimed to provide some support to deaf and hard of hearing people, this has mainly concentrated on communications support in the form of note-taking, interpreters, and video-based information. This article aims to fill the gap in knowledge of road safety issues for deaf and hard of hearing people by reporting empirical research carried out with deaf people in the United Kingdom and making recommendations to improve their road safety.     

Reforming Indian agriculture and the rise of farmer's protest in India: Tracing the discourse and the way ahead

The Indian government unveiled new farm legislation on September 27, 2020, with the goal of empowering the farming community. According to the government, new farm regulations will reduce the reliance of indigenous farmers on the mandi (market yard) system, which is now in place and is quite exploitative and full of middlemen and legal cartels. The regulations made contract farming lawful with the intention of luring private sector investment in bolstering agricultural supply chains and infrastructure to give farmers better pricing. But these rules are referred to as repressive and anti-farmer by the farming community. Farmers believe that eliminating the mandi system will eliminate the minimum support price (MSP) mechanism and that contract farming will ultimately be damaging, enticing major corporations and private investors to bind them to unfair contracts that will result in exploitation. Farmers' demonstrations have begun as a result in the former territory of the green revolution. In order to determine if the new farm regulations introduced by the central government are indeed beneficial to the rural community or not, the article followed the debate among many academics, policy makers, economists, researchers, stakeholders, and politicians (the government's spokesman). The article's main focus is on analysing the farmers' demand for the new farm rules to be repealed and the economic justification for their opposition. Additionally, it contends that new farm rules will encourage capitalistic farming and endanger the viability of farming communities, particularly small and marginal farms (S&M).     

长爪沙鼠颌下腺免疫球蛋白A的定位分布

采用免疫组织化学方法对不同日龄的长爪沙鼠颌下腺IgA的定位分布进行了研究。结果表明,长爪沙鼠的颌下腺由导管部和分泌部构成,分泌部主要由浆液腺构成,导管部包括闰管、纹管、颗粒曲管和小叶间导管等。DAB显色结果表明,IgA阳性细胞主要分布于浆液性腺泡、闰管、纹管、颗粒曲管和小叶间导管,并可分布于腺泡和腺管间结缔组织,IgA阳性产物的分布具有不均一性,无明显随年龄变化的规律性。阳性产物分布于胞质中,胞核呈阴性,对照组阴性。提示从浆细胞产生或循环而来的IgA先经结缔组织进入颌下腺组织,进而定位分布于浆液腺泡和各级导管,导管部有较多的IgA分布。     

Pathologies of Development Practice: Higher Order Obstacles to Governance Reform in the Pakistani Electrical Power Sector

Development actors are regularly aware of the shortcomings of governance interventions before, during, and after development assistance is introduced, yet those programmes continue and are even revisited. Why? This paper uses the Pakistani experience with power sector reforms to illustrate how the donor-led reform agenda had readily apparent shortcomings. A new wave of development thinking responds to such failures by drawing on complexity theory and moving toward more local, iterative and experimental approaches. However, by highlighting how the awareness of problems with reforms isn’t sufficient to avoid them, this paper points to a higher order of obstacles which remain unaddressed.