Abstract The author of the article focuses on investigating the relationship between the outbreak of irregular migration to Europe and the increasing importance of transnational criminal networks. The starting point is the assumption that the transnational economy of crimigration (TEC) is driven by the illicit activity of private actors (the supply side) and potential migrants who create the demand for this kind of services, often not realizing the full extent of the consequences of entering into contractual relationships with groups of smugglers (the demand side). It is also assumed that the dynamics of the transnational economy of crimigration is one of the main causes of the rising wave of irregular migration and the migration crisis in the European Union.
AbstractLord Durham was sent to Canada to investigate the causes of the Rebellions of 1837–1838 and to propose constitutional reforms to restore stability in the province. In his report, presented to the Colonial Office on February 4, 1839, he recommended the legislative union of the two Canadas, as well as the implementation of responsible government. He also noted that the proper functioning of such a government required the creation of a system of municipal institutions. This article offers a new reading of Lord Durham’s recommendations concerning municipal institutions, included in the last section of his famous report. By placing the document in the context of the debates raised by the constitutional and administrative reforms conducted in Britain during the 1830s, it shows that its author understood autonomous municipalities as an essential components of a modern mixed government. Such language was then employed by reformist Whigs in order to justify the policies which they thought were necessary to strengthen the country’s political institutions by adapting them to changing social circumstances. The analysis presented here challenges the interpretation provided by most contemporary commentators on the report. Many of them have concluded that Lord Durham’s understanding of local institutions is based on a liberal conception of political life, found in the writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. These studies tend to reduce early British liberalism to philosophical radicalism. They seek to demonstrate that liberals wish to deprive local communities of their political autonomy by integrating their institutions into the juridical structure of a highly centralized state. By focusing on the rhetoric used by Lord Durham to write his report, this article allows us to appreciate the heterogeneity of the definition of the municipality developed by liberalism.
When is a family poor? We examine what factors are emphasized when people judge whether a family is poor or not. The article is based on a factorial survey with 356 respondents who study social work, nursing, nursery teaching and nutrition and health. Based on theories of poverty, we study what aspects of a family’s life situation are accentuated when people judge whether the family is poor or not. The respondents primarily emphasize income in their poverty judgements. Some deprivations also enter into the judgements, while the duration of deprivations, gender and labor market participation have no or minimal significance for the judgements.
AbstractThe aim of this article is to examine the role of ministerial officials in an integrated European multilevel administrative order. This study argues that organizational variables at the national level constitute a decisive filtering factor regarding how decision premises emanating from European Union (EU)-level institutions are received by domestic government institutions and officials. The study contributes to the literature in two main ways: Empirically it provides a comprehensive study of the role of Norwegian ministerial officials in the EU multilevel administrative order over a time period of 20 years (n = 3562). Secondly, it applies an organization theory approach to explain variation in actual decision-making behavior. The article discusses factors of general relevance to political science applicable beyond the case at hand. The study shows that ministerial officials are deeply involved with the EU multilevel administration. Moreover, it confirms the pivotal role of organizational factors in public governance processes.
AbstractIn a multilevel corporate social performance model we examine the effects of three different regulatory scenarios on corporate environmental performance (CEP) (relating to compliance and beyond compliance behaviors) as a measure of CSR. The empirical state defined as a “cooperative regulator” is assessed against three simulated scenarios: a “coercive regulator” (more punitive), a “demanding regulator” (strengthened standards) and a “lax regulator” (less punitive and less demanding). The relative effect of different regulatory scenarios is examined within a multilevel multivariate model. The model allows for the estimation of the role of regulatory strategies in relation to other CEP antecedents. The model includes the principal driving factors effecting CEP and incorporates three levels of analysis: institutional, organizational, and individual. The multilevel nature of the design allows for the assessment of the relative importance of the levels and their components in the achievement of CEP. Included in the institutional level are stakeholder expectations, regulatory demands and regulatory power. Included in the organizational level are corporate organizational culture, CSR orientation of managers and organizational leadership. Included in the individual level are personal workplace behaviors and norms, namely: job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. The simulation of regulatory scenarios shows that the empirical “cooperative regulator” has the strongest positive effect on CEP. Contrarily, coercive regulatory practices reduce the internal motivation for compliance and beyond compliance action, although they may increase the external incentives. Laxer regulatory practices reduce the credibility of the normative effect of the regulatory regime and weaken the internal motivation for CEP. While findings show that regulation does play a key role in CEP performance, the organizational level has the strongest and most positive significant relationships with CEP. Organizational culture and manager’s attitudes and behaviors are significant driving forces. Generally, the individual level, depicting workers’ attitudes toward their workplace, is found as insignificant in promoting CEP.
Abstract This article analyses the Italian National Strategy for Inner Areas (NSIA) as a new policy for local development only partially linked to the European cohesion policy. It focuses on its innovative contents (vision, governance and methodology), and mainly on the transfer of innovation to lower levels of government and between local administrations. As an empirical study of policy transfer and policy innovation in a system of multilevel governance it shows an unexpected transfer of the NSIA methodology to another policy field: that of post-earthquake reconstruction in Central Italy. The article concludes by applying the typology of policy transfer developed in its first part to the analysis of the case-study as a whole.
Abstract Why are some regions more peaceful than others? Some regions are particularly plagued by traditional power politics and political tensions, while the danger of war between major actors has significantly declined in other regions. The conventional literature would answer the question from a dyadic perspective—a region with many states with certain set of traits, such as democracy, should be peaceful. However, it is ultimately an empirical question whether the prevalence of power politics and conflict can be solely explained by the type of states and dyads in a region. I argue that the nature of international interactions is shaped by regional-level environment. Due to local security externalities, dyadic politics and conflict is dependent on conditions in a local neighborhood. More specifically, this study focuses on the role of regional-level alliance structure. A region can be situated in various types of alliance configuration depending on global geopolitical climate. I argue that conflict is unlikely in a region in which a global power establishes hegemonic domination through alliance ties with local states. The presence of an external global power dominating a region provides a local enforcement mechanism and reassurance for local states, which in turn reduces hostile interactions among local states. To examine how the regional-level conditions influence dyadic-level politics among local states, this paper empirically analyzes political events data (Integrated Data for Events Analysis) applying multilevel modeling, aiming at contributing the literature by explicitly modeling the influence of regional-level variables on local politics beyond militarized disputes. Empirical analysis revealed that a regionally shared “patron” can promote peace between local states. However, the effect of regional hierarchy turned out to be indirect. Regional dominance structured by an external global power does not exert an overarching influence over an entire region by shifting the region-specific intercept. Rather, the regional-level global power domination in terms of defense pacts particularly influences powerful states in a region while not quite reducing hostility among “minor” local states. Thus, international conflict and hostility is indirectly constrained in a region under hegemonic domination by a global power. This study has empirically explored an argument that it is fruitful to go beyond a purely dyadic analysis of international conflict. The independent effect of a spatial environment means that even similar dyads may behave differently depending on the conditions surrounding them. It shows a need to reexamine some of the important findings about international conflict from a spatial perspective, taking into account macro-regional contexts within which states operate. Moreover, the introduction of regional contexts potentially bridges a gap between quantitative studies of international conflict and more area-specific studies.
Abstract In this article, we argue that self-management should not be understood only as an economic project, but rather as a political form based on the transformation of the core principles of modern capitalist societies. We start from the supposition that self-management does not imply an economic, but primarily a political recomposition of society, which is why it is necessary to draw attention to the economic reductionism in the discussions on self-management. The purpose of this article is three-fold: first, we recover the original meaning of self-management, its forgotten, anarchist (pre)history, and elaborate on the anarchist theory of organisation that has dynamised the idea/practice of self-management throughout history. Second, we analyse Yugoslav self-management through the categories and concepts of Praxis philosophy, which leads us to the conclusion that the Yugoslav model of self-management was above all a non-political form that remained in the framework of liberal democratic theory. Finally, we explore the global mass assembly movement Occupy, building on the recent academic attention devoted to the notion of non-state spaces. We analyse the encampments and occupied squares as self-managed exilic spaces in which protesters (in)voluntarily escaped from both state regulation and capitalist accumulation.
AbstractThis article combines Multiple Stream Framework and stage model to analyse developments in the European Union regulation of pesticides. In so doing the purpose of this article is threefold: first, it contributes to the theoretical literature by providing an argument in support of the merits of integration of approaches. Second, it provides a refinement of the Multiple Stream Approach by extending it from the original agenda setting stage to the entire policy process. Third, it explains policy changes in a crucial but under-researched area of EU regulation.
Abstract The article proposes a typological framework of myths which applies to empirical research on political thought. The framework introduces three typologies of myths distinguished by a subject criterion. Their subjects are things, people, and animals. Each typology consists of the dyads of antinomic ideal types located on continua by the extent of the valuation of the myth’s subject. The tool will help researchers identify the processes for understanding the revaluation and devaluation of the myth’s subject over time. Furthermore, it enables researchers to determine the extents of the diversification of mythical political thought as well as to distinguish between myths in their morphology. This research tool applies to empirical research because it encompasses the objectively identifiable and verifiable theoretical models consisting of the essential features of myths.
Abstract In the last decade, the propensity-to-vote (PTV) measure is being increasingly used in the research of electoral behavior. The purpose of this article is to explore the advantages and methodological issues of this measure, applying it for the analysis of the determinants of party choice in the 2016 Lithuanian parliamentary elections. In particular, the article explores the implications of using OLS regression for analysing a generic party with a stacked data matrix instead of cross-classified multilevel modeling.
Working-class support for social democratic parties has declined in Denmark and Western Europe generally. What role have social democratic parties played in the class demobilization? While existing work has considered policy positions, this article focuses instead on the group-based appeals of the Social Democrats. Based on content analysis of six party programs between 1964 and 2015, I find that class appeals have largely been replaced by appeals targeting non-economic groups. Also, the appeals that do concern class-related groups increasingly target businesses at the expense of traditional constituencies like workers, tenants and pensioners. Results imply that party strategy matters for the decline of class politics but also suggest that scholars should adopt a group perspective in future work.
Abstract: The purpose of the article is to identify the conditions that affect the success of the European Parliament’s amendments in the ordinary legislative procedure. In the first step, hypotheses were delineated predicting the impact of specific factors on the effectiveness of EP demands. Subsequently, they were verified using the logistic regression. The results revealed that the EP is more likely to be successful in this procedure if it applies the following negotiation techniques. First, it bundles several legislative proposals in one package. Second, it persuades the European Commission to support its amendments. Third, it negotiates the legislative proposals in trilogues. Fourth, it is cohesive during negotiations. Fifth, it prolongs negotiations with the Council until the end of parliamentary term. Sixth, it designates a rapporteur from a country acting at the same time as the Council Presidency. Seventh, it negotiates with the Council when the Presidency legislative workload is high.
AbstractThis article defines public governance as the overall process of decision-making and implementation in solving public problems in a country, where public agencies or institutions initiate the process or are at least partially involved in the process. Under this definition, public governance can be classified into three modes according to the outcome: legal governance, performance-based governance, and consensus-oriented governance. Legal governance is a mode of governance close to Max Weber’s bureaucracy. Performance-based governance has focuses on how effectively and/or efficiently policy goals are achieved through decision-making and implementation. Finally, consensus-oriented governance is a mode of governance that calls for a political process to deal with various and conflicting interests. These three modes are different in terms of: who decides; the role of bureaucrats; the methods of decision making; and the nature of the interactions among actors. The critical factors that have a significant impact on the outcome of governance vary with each mode. Although in the real world, these three modes are often mixed and interrelated, it is necessary to distinguish them because it helps systematically analyze the phenomenon of governance. These three modes are particularly useful for understanding and analyzing the reality of governance in Korea and developing countries.
Abstract Climate change is one of the major challenges of our time, and particularly so for agriculture. Agriculture is a significant contributor to climate change and, according to projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), will experience alterations in production conditions in the future. The Norwegian government’s 2009 White Paper on climate policy for agriculture is based on the point of view that the agricultural sector can and should contribute to Norway fulfilling its climate policy commitments. This requires changes in farm operations and production methods, making the farmer an important agent when it comes to the implementation of climate change mitigation measures. In this article, I study Norwegian farmers’ climate change perceptions and priorities, and examine what it would take for them to consider implementing mitigation measures on their own farms. The analysis is based on a survey focusing on climate change from a representative sample of Norwegian farmers in 2011, the only survey of its kind conducted on this group so far. The results show that even if farmers perceive climate change as real and manmade, they do not appear to experience the changes as requiring immediate action. Moreover, farmers seem to view adapting to new environmental policy as a greater challenge than adapting to climate change itself. Farmers also appear to place production-related goals and managing the farm economy higher on the agenda than curbing emissions. Financial incentives, in the form of public support schemes or higher prices for food produced in a more environmentally friendly way, are factors which could increase the likelihood of implementing environmental measures on their own farms. A majority of farmers also believe that sectors other than agriculture should contribute more to cuts in greenhouse gases. Factors that most clearly explain the variation in attitudes to climate change are education levels, political or ideological factors, and the feeling of proximity; that is to say, to what extent one perceives climate change to be something that will affect one’s own productivity in the future. In order to fulfill environmental policy commitments in the agricultural sector, farmers’ motivation must be strengthened, and the focus should be placed on measures that view productivity goals, farm economies and mitigation measures in a wider context.
Abstract It appears to be beyond dispute that Brazilian politics is overwhelmingly White. Recent surveys indicate that the proportion of people of colour in the federal parliament is around 20%. But despite such obvious marginalisation, little is known about the causes of this political under-representation. This paper attempts to shed light on the main filters driving out non-Whites, i.e. Blacks and Browns, from Brazilian politics. To this end, we have carried out a survey of the skin colour of candidates to a seat in the City Council of Brazil’s two largest cities: São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, in the 2012 elections. Given the lack of official records on the race or skin colour of these candidates, we chose to submit their photos, made publicly available by the Supreme Electoral Court, to classification by a team of researchers. The results have allowed us to gauge the extent to which the political alienation of non-White Brazilians is due to: (a) bias in party recruitment; (b) differences in educational capital and personal wealth between White and non-White candidates; (c) inequalities in the distribution of party and electoral resources; or (d) the electoral preferences of voters themselves. Apparently, the electoral opportunities of Blacks and Browns reflect the difficulties that these groups face when trying to ascend to the small elite of candidates that have the biggest funding and the most votes.
Abstract In the post-Cold War international society, third-party intervention has become increasingly common across various spheres. What were previously assumed to be domestic or bilateral issues have become of great interest to foreign governments and international organizations. Disputes over history, whose intensification in many parts of the world is also a recent political phenomenon, are no exception. Regarding past atrocities by one country upon another, the “victim” side seeks recognition and redress from third parties, while the “perpetrator” side tries to prevent such interference. This paper investigates the causes of such intervention and the consequences of it for bilateral relations between the intervenor and the “perpetrator” country, using the conflict between Armenia and Turkey over the recognition of the 1915–1916 Armenian Massacre as genocide as a case study. The results reveal that countries with a Christian majority and a large Armenian population typically conduct such intervention, and that although third-party intervention affects bilateral relations negatively, the effect is only temporary.
AbstractThe article criticises current conceptual frameworks focused on the evaluation of the performance of electoral systems. It offers a new tool allowing researchers to measure the size of the deviation of electoral outcomes from theoretical expectations. The index d=log[NS/(MS)1/6] is built on the Seat Product (Taagepera, Rein (2007b)Predicting Party Sizes: The Logic of Simple Electoral Systems. New York: Oxford University Press) and captures the deviations of electoral outcomes from predictions solely on the basis of two institutional factors – average district magnitude (M) and size of assembly (S). The theoretical background of index d is explained, and its reliability is further supported by conventional econometric methods based on empirical data.
AbstractThe voter strength of right-wing populist parties is regularly attributed either to a feeling of threat from a high proportion of local foreigners or to the lack of opportunities for contact between the majority and the minority. This contribution is theoretically based on a synthesis of these perspectives, known as the Halo effect. Accordingly, it is not so much the local size of the local population, which is perceived as foreign, but rather its relative proportion in the surrounding countryside, which leads to a diffuse feeling of threat. The electoral success of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) at the level of the Swiss municipalities serves as a basis for the empirical investigation, which is conducted alternatively with the proportions of the foreign and Muslim population. For both groups, spatial multilevel regression models provide indications of a coexistence of direct negative effects of minority populations on the share of the SVP (in the sense of the contact hypothesis) and of Halo effects, with the direct effects appearing to be somewhat more pronounced. Socio-structural factors can reduce these correlations (high unemployment neutralises the negative effect of the proportion of foreigners) or intensify these correlations (a higher income level accentuates the Halo effect for Muslims).
AbstractThis paper analyses the systemic framework of the operation of the Intelligence and Security Service – ISS, and the parliamentary supervision of its operations. It takes as its focus a case that occurred last year and was related to the Defence Minister’s commissioning of working materials from the Service on the effects that the privatization of the national telecommunications provider – Telekom Slovenije would have on the operation of the Service in the light of Slovenia’s defence interests. This work also presents a linguostylistic analysis of the media reports covering this case. The findings show that while after 25 years as an independent state Slovenia has established the institutional framework for the operation of the ISS and regulated parliamentary supervision of its work, it has not as yet managed to achieve the harmonized operation of all state policies in the field of national security. Rather than contributing to the solution of certain dilemmas regarding the legal, political and professional aspects of the operation of this civil intelligence and security service in the context of Slovenian national defence, the media reporting used a selection of foregrounded (marked) linguistic means in headlines to characterize the event as a scandal, and designate the ISS as a military intelligence service.
