The Myth of the Democratic Advantage

Existing research points to a democratic advantage in public good provision. Compared to their authoritarian counterparts, democratically elected leaders face more political competition and must please a larger portion of the population to stay in office. This paper provides an impartial reevaluation of the empirical record using the techniques of global sensitivity analysis. Democracy proves to have no systematic association with a range of health and education outcomes, despite an abundance of published empirical and theoretical findings to the contrary.     

Suzanne E. Scoggins,Policing China: Street-Level Cops in the Shadow of Protest

Journal of Chinese Political Science -     

Abnormal heart rate response during newborn sucking behavior study: Subsequent sudden infant death syndrome with cardiac conduction abnormality

This report concerns a four-month-old white female infant who exhibited abnormal feeding behavior and EKG irregularities during a newborn sucking behavior study. The immediate post-birth history showed an irregular heart rate on two occasions, but a cardiac consultation elicited no unusual findings. During sucrose sucking conditions, the heart rate increased with a beat-to-beat variation of 50 beats per minute, noted to be due to premature atrial beats. At 39 days, an EKG showed a marked sinus tachycardia of 156, a PR interval of 0.08, QRS of 0.05 and a QT of 0.26. The infant was diagnosed as a sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) following an unexpected death at home. Subsequent cardiac pathology revealed an anomalous tract between the right atrium and the atrioventricular (AV) bundle which formed an extensive bypass of the AV node (atrio-His tract), and two accessory AV connections between the left atrium and posterior left ventricle. These findings are consistent with the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome type A. Only further studies can determine whether such abnormal feeding behavior with EKG irregularities can be used to identify infants who are at high risk for sudden death.