Identity Change and Rebel Party Political Success

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 454-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Ishiyama

Does a rebel party’s identity change impact its political success after civil wars end? Most work on political parties examines why parties change identities but does not examine the effects of such changes. In this article I examine whether identity change (indicated by party name changes and the official renunciation of violence) affects the political success of rebel parties in terms of seat shares won in the legislature, and inclusion into the executive. Using an original data set on rebel party identity change, I conduct both Prais–Winsten and logit regression analyses and find that although name changes have little impact on political success, renunciation of violence significantly increases the likelihood of both increased seat shares and inclusion in the executive. This finding has important implications regarding the impact of identity change and the transformation of rebel groups into political parties.

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Provost ◽  
Brian J. Gerber

AbstractEnvironmental justice (EJ) has represented an important equity challenge in policymaking for decades. President Clinton’s executive order (EO) 12898 in 1994 represented a significant federal action, requiring agencies to account for EJ issues in new rulemakings. We examine the impact of EO 12898 within the larger question of how EO are implemented in complex policymaking. We argue that presidential preferences will affect bureaucratic responsiveness and fire alarm oversight. However, EJ policy complexity produces uncertainty leading to bureaucratic risk aversion, constraining presidential efforts to steer policy. We utilise an original data set of nearly 2,000 final federal agency rules citing EO 12898 and find significant variation in its utilisation across administrations. Uncertainty over the nature of the order has an important influence on bureaucratic responsiveness. Our findings are instructive for the twin influences of political control and policy-making uncertainty and raise useful questions for future EJ and policy implementation research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (9) ◽  
pp. 2071-2097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Kalah Gade ◽  
Michael Gabbay ◽  
Mohammed M. Hafez ◽  
Zane Kelly

When rebels make alliances, what informs their choice of allies? Civil wars are rarely simple contests between rebels and incumbent regimes. Rather, rival militant networks provide the context in which these fragmented conflicts unfold. Alliances that emerge within this competitive landscape have the power to alter conflict trajectories and shape their outcomes. Yet patterns of interrebel cooperation are understudied. The existing scholarship on rebel alliances focuses on why rebels cooperate, but little attention is given to the composition of those alliances: with whom rebels cooperate. We explore how power, ideology, and state sponsorship can shape alliance choices in multiparty civil wars. Employing network analysis and an original data set of tactical cooperation among Syrian rebels, we find compelling evidence that ideological homophily is a primary driver of rebel collaboration. Our findings contribute to an emerging literature that reasserts the role of ideology in conflict processes.


2020 ◽  
pp. 089976402097768
Author(s):  
Noah D. Drezner ◽  
Oren Pizmony-Levy

Although Sense of Belonging has long been an important construct in understanding student success in higher education, it has not been examined in the alumni context. In this article, we explore the association between graduate students’ Sense of Belonging and alumni engagement. We draw on an original data set ( n = 1,601) that combines administrative records on alumni giving and data from a 2017 survey. Using multivariate analyses, we show that alumni with a stronger Sense of Belonging are more likely to give to their alma mater and to hold pro-philanthropic attitudes. Furthermore, Sense of Belonging is positively associated with other forms of alumni engagement and participation, including volunteering. Our findings highlight the need to examine the link between unintentional social interactions and alumni engagement and giving.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmela Lutmar ◽  
Lesley Terris

AbstractThe emergence of civil wars as the predominant type of conflict in the twenty-first century has prompted scholars to reformulate and revisit many of the questions treated in the interstate conflict literature. One of these questions concerns the impact of leadership changes on policy decisions within the realm of war and peace. Studies have suggested that in interstate disputes, the coming to power of new leaders in one or both of the disputing governments increases the prospects of war termination. We argue that within the context of intrastate disputes this relationship is more complex and multilayered due to factors that are characteristic of rebel groups and civil wars. We suggest that leader overturns in rebel groups are likely to lead, under certain conditions to more, rather than less, hardline conflict positions, at least in the short term, thus hindering possible negotiation processes. We test our hypothesis on a dataset of leadership changes and agreements ending civil wars in Africa, 1975–2007.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Østergaard-Nielsen ◽  
Irina Ciornei

A growing number of countries have granted their emigrant citizens the right to vote in homeland elections from afar. Yet, there is little understanding of the extent to which emigration issues are visible in the subsequent legislative processes of policymaking and representation. Based on an original data set of parliamentary activities in Spain, Italy, France and Romania, this article analyses why political parties pay attention to emigrants. To that end, we propose a conceptual framework which draws on both theories of issue salience and substantive representation. Bridging these two frameworks allows us bring in both parties (salience) and constituencies (representation) in the analysis of the linkage between electorates and parliaments at a transnational level. We test a series of hypotheses and find that parties are more likely to focus on emigration issues the stronger their electoral incentives and in the context of electoral systems allowing the emigrants to elect special emigrant representatives.


Author(s):  
Jan Zglinski

This book investigates the phenomenon of deference to Member State authorities in EU free movement law. It enquires into the decision-making latitude which the European Court of Justice grants national institutions by means of two deference doctrines: the margin of appreciation and decentralized judicial review. At the same time, it sheds light on a number of broader developments in European law. These include changes in the intensity of judicial review, the relationship between centre and periphery, the interaction between political and adjudicative processes, and the division of powers between EU and Member State courts. Drawing on an original data set of free movement cases from 1974 to 2013, the book examines how and which decisions the Court defers to national institutions. It tests the impact of twelve variables on the practice of judicial deference. The results reveal that free movement law and the internal market have substantially changed over the past four decades. The Court has scaled down its involvement in and reduced its control over Member State affairs. The book argues that these new-found ‘passive virtues’ are linked to the legal, political, and institutional changes that have taken place in the EU.


2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Moore

How do foreign fighters affect civilian victimization in the civil wars they join? Scholars of civil war have gone to great lengths to explain why states and insurgent groups victimize civilians, but they have not explicitly examined the impact of foreign combatants. Furthermore, while contemporary conventional wisdom attaches an overwhelmingly negative connotation to foreign fighters, history shows that the behavior of those who travel to fight in wars far from home varies significantly, especially when it comes to interacting with local populations. To address this variation, I demonstrate how differences in the embeddedness of foreign fighter populations combine with incentives that foreign fighters face to remain in the conflict zone over the long term to shape tendencies towards civilian victimization. My findings from an analysis of insurgent groups from 1990 to 2011 suggest that, overall, foreign fighters lead to escalations in violence against civilians. When comparing across groups that recruit foreign fighters, however, levels of violence differ depending on foreign fighter populations’ coethnicity to the rebel groups they join, and the distances they travel to reach a conflict zone. Specifically, the presence of coethnic foreign fighters leads to fewer escalations in violence, relative to the recruitment of non-coethnic individuals from non-neighboring states. The study provides empirical support to the claim that degrees of embeddedness across foreign fighter populations are important indicators of when and where their presence is likely to pose significant dangers to local populations.


2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (05) ◽  
pp. 893-907 ◽  
Author(s):  
YIANNIS G. SMIRLIS ◽  
DIMITRIS K. DESPOTIS

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a nonparametric linear programming technique for measuring the relative efficiency of decision making units (DMUs) on the basis of multiple inputs and outputs. DEA assessments, however, are proved to be sensitive to extreme units that deviate substantially in their input/output patterns. In this paper we introduce an approach for handling extreme observations in DEA, i.e., observations that exhibit irregularly high values in some outputs and/or low values in some inputs. Unlike the usual practice of removing such observations, we retain them in the production possibility set reducing their impact on the other units. Our modeling approach is based on the concept of diminishing returns, assuming that the contribution of an output (input) to the efficiency score diminishes as the output increases beyond a pre-specified level, i.e., the level beyond which a value is characterized as extreme. According to our approach the original data set is transformed to an augmented data set, where standard DEA models can then be applied, remaining thus in the grounds of the standard DEA methodology. We illustrate our approach with a numerical example.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 370-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Felipe Mantilla

How does a history of participation in secular authoritarian regimes shape the trajectory of religious political parties after transitions to democracy? This article examines the contrasting experiences of Catholic political parties in Latin America in order to assess whether and under what conditions pre-transition participation has a positive effect on post-transition electoral performance. It develops a theoretical account that emphasizes the relative costs and benefits of participation in secular authoritarian politics for religious parties. Empirically, it uses an original data set covering 22 Catholic parties that participated in 104 elections across Latin America as well as in-depth case studies of Mexico and Peru. It finds that Catholic parties that participated in authoritarian politics were more likely to emerge as significant players after transition, but that this effect is contingent on the competitiveness of the authoritarian regime.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayo Tajima

Purpose This study aims to analyze whether and how condominium shared utilities and facilities (e.g. community spaces), of which buyers assume a share of the ownership upon acquisition of a residential unit, affect the condominium unit price over time. Design/methodology/approach The transaction price of each unit reflects the quality of the residential unit and the properties of the shared facilities. Based on the hedonic pricing method, this study assesses the impact of shared amenities on unit resale prices, using an original data set on condominium unit resale transactions and the status of housing characteristics for both condominium units and condominium buildings. Findings Results show that holding other conditions constant, a meeting room and an external space that can host events increase the unit resale price by approximately 7 and 16 per cent, respectively. Some community amenities such as a meeting room may increase its impact later in the condominium’s lifetime. Research limitations/implications Because of the proprietary nature of data, the analysis focuses on high-end condominium properties in central Tokyo. Although it is difficult to single out the shared amenities’ effects on condominium resale prices from potentially confounding factors, this study partially overcomes this issue by including explanatory geographical variables (e.g. ground heights). Practical implications The results suggest that a shared facility that hosts social interactions among residents significantly affects the resale market value of housing units and that their magnitudes may change over time. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study provides the first empirical evidence of the impacts of shared structures on condominium unit sales using micro-level transaction data in Japan.


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