scholarly journals A systems framework for remedying dysfunction in US democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (50) ◽  
pp. e2102154118
Author(s):  
Samuel S.-H. Wang ◽  
Jonathan Cervas ◽  
Bernard Grofman ◽  
Keena Lipsitz
Keyword(s):  
General Level ◽  
Electoral Institutions ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Judicial Appointments ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Emergent Phenomena ◽  
Party Control ◽  
Low Dimensionality ◽  
Systems Framework

Democracy often fails to meet its ideals, and these failures may be made worse by electoral institutions. Unwanted outcomes include elite polarization, unresponsive representatives, and the ability of a faction of voters to gain power at the expense of the majority. Various reforms have been proposed to address these problems, but their effectiveness is difficult to predict against a backdrop of complex interactions. Here we outline a path for systems-level modeling to help understand and optimize repairs to US democracy. Following the tradition of engineering and biology, models of systems include mechanisms with dynamical properties that include nonlinearities and amplification (voting rules), positive feedback mechanisms (single-party control, gerrymandering), negative feedback (checks and balances), integration over time (lifetime judicial appointments), and low dimensionality (polarization). To illustrate a systems-level approach, we analyze three emergent phenomena: low dimensionality, elite polarization, and antimajoritarianism in legislatures. In each case, long-standing rules now contribute to undesirable outcomes as a consequence of changes in the political environment. Theoretical understanding at a general level will also help evaluate whether a proposed reform’s benefits will materialize and be lasting, especially as conditions change again. In this way, rigorous modeling may not only shape new lines of research but aid in the design of effective and lasting reform.

The Appointment and Removal Process for Judges in Argentina: The Role of Judicial Councils and Impeachment Juries in Promoting Judicial Independence

2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-58
Author(s):  
Rebecca Bill Chávez
Keyword(s):  
Executive Control ◽  
Judicial Independence ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Judicial Appointments ◽  
Removal Process ◽  
Independent Judiciary ◽  
Party Control ◽  
Judicial Autonomy

AbstractThis article explores the conditions that allow judicial councils and impeachment juries to promote judicial autonomy. In theory, these bodies intervene in the appointment and removal of judges in order to reduce executive control over court composition, thereby promoting judicial independence. Using the case of Argentina at the federal and the subnational levels, this study demonstrates that competitive politics enhances the capacity of judicial councils and impeachment juries to bolster judicial autonomy. Interparty competition provides incentives for the executive to develop a meaningful system of checks and balances, which includes an independent judiciary that can check executive power. In contrast, monolithic party control—defined as a prolonged period of unified government under a highly disciplined party—permits the executive to maintain a monopoly on power and thereby control judicial appointments and removals.

Past, Present and Future of Analytical Stems

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (S2) ◽  
pp. 182-183
Author(s):  
C. Colliex
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Electron Microscopy ◽  
Quantitative Information ◽  
General Level ◽  
Chemical Mapping ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Fundamental Limits ◽  
Cornell University ◽  
Resolution Imaging ◽  
First Time ◽  
Major Emphasis

Twenty five years ago, in august 1976, a specialist workshop gathered in Cornell University, at John Silcox's invitation, scientists covering a broad spectrum of interests to assess the potential of analytical electron microscopy, as to instrumentation, fundamental limits, general level of data processing and current theoretical understanding. If the STEM instrument had already been existing for a few years in Crewe's laboratory, its major emphasis, in spite of the existence of an EELS spectrometer, had focused on new modes of high resolution imaging. At the first Cornell workshop, the STEM instrument was for the first time recognized as a potentially formidable analytical instrument because of the possibility of extracting all available signals simultaneously. Furthermore it was directly suitable for digital computer processing and therefore for providing quantitative information. It was also pointed out that a major advantage of the STEM would be its potential to record EELS spectra from every point in the field of view as one scans an area to form an image, thus offering the capability of "chemical" mapping beyond "elemental" mapping.

Attitudes and Attitude Change

2018 ◽  
pp. 439-464
Author(s):  
Dolores Albarracín ◽  
Man-pui Sally Chan ◽  
Duo Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Attitude Change ◽  
Belief Change ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
General Level ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Specific Level ◽  
Personality Research ◽  
Multiple Behaviors ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter discusses the definition of attitudes as evaluations, with beliefs, intentions, goals, and behaviors as the psychological building blocks of attitude-relevant processes. These considerations can take place at both the specific level of a single behavior (e.g., smoking) or at the general level of a pattern of behaviors (e.g., multiple behaviors). Classic and contemporary attitude scholarship have provided a theoretical understanding of prediction and change in behavior at both the specific and broad levels of analysis. Personality instruments have contributed to identifying trait associations with specific attitude processes, including structure, functions, and bases, as well as attitude and belief change. Future personality research, however, would benefit from adopting attitude models that clearly distinguish psychological building blocks rather than confound feelings, thoughts, and behaviors as being equivalent or equally close to behavior end points.

scholarly journals The Implications of a Supreme Law Bill Of Rights for New Zealand Judicial Appointments

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 495
Author(s):  
Juliet Bull
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Canadian Charter ◽  
Judicial Appointments ◽  
The Creation

The enactment of a supreme law Bill of Rights in New Zealand would have significant implications for the process of appointing judges. This article considers whether the present judicial appointments system should be retained were New Zealand to amend the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 to have supreme law status. It contends that the present appointments process is insufficiently transparent and offers too few checks and balances to safeguard the apolitical nature of appointments. Canada's experience after enacting the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is drawn upon to demonstrate the need for reform. After various options are considered, it is ultimately contended that the adoption of a supreme law Bill of Rights in New Zealand should be accompanied by the creation of a judicial appointments commission.

Checks and Balances Revisited

2018 ◽  
pp. 84-95
Author(s):  
Mukul Rohatgi
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Judicial Appointments ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Law ◽  
Law And Justice

This essay examines the role that the executive, represented by the Union Minister in-charge of Law and Justice, was expected to play on the National Judicial Appointments Commission. The author charts a history of what the Constituent Assembly envisaged the role of the executive to be and how this role eventually unfolded in the appointments process. The description of the history culminates with the observation about how the collegium system of appointments, meant to counteract executive interference in appointments, has come to be mired in controversy itself. This essay then engages with the judgment in the NJAC Case, and how the bench frowned upon the presence of the Law Minister on the NJAC. This essay contests that the Supreme Court’s apprehension that the Law Minister could cloud the views of the other members of the NJAC was based on conjectures and surmises.

INSULATING OXIDES IN LOW DIMENSIONALITY: A THEORETICAL REVIEW

2001 ◽  
Vol 08 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 121-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
CLAUDINE NOGUERA
Keyword(s):  
Ultrathin Films ◽  
Magnetic Interactions ◽  
Cohesion Energy ◽  
Electronic Excitations ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Stepped Surfaces ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Low Dimensionality ◽  
Small Clusters ◽  
Equilibrium Geometries

In the light of recent studies, we summarize our present theoretical understanding of insulating oxides in low dimensionality, including unsupported clusters, planar or stepped surfaces and ultrathin films. We review the various theoretical approaches, their efficiency in calculating ground and excited state properties, and their applications to the present systems. We discuss the forces at work which determine the atomic structure around under-coordinated atoms (equilibrium geometries of very small clusters, bond lengths, relaxation and rumpling at surfaces), the energetics associated with low dimensionality (surface energies and mean cohesion energy in clusters), the electronic properties, such as electron distribution, magnetic interactions and ordering, and electronic excitations (ionization potentials, electron affinity, quasiparticle spectra, d → d and charge transfer excitations).

Dissociated Σ=27 boundaries in silicon

1988 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 624-625
Author(s):  
A. Garg ◽  
W.A.T. Clark ◽  
J.P. Hirth
Keyword(s):  
Electron Diffraction ◽  
Local Minimum ◽  
Boundary Energy ◽  
Coincidence Site Lattice ◽  
Boundary Plane ◽  
Low Energy ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Site Lattice ◽  
Kikuchi Pattern ◽  
Analysis Techniques

In the last twenty years, a significant amount of work has been done in the theoretical understanding of grain boundaries. The various proposed grain boundary models suggest the existence of coincidence site lattice (CSL) boundaries at specific misorientations where a periodic structure representing a local minimum of energy exists between the two crystals. In general, the boundary energy depends not only upon the density of CSL sites but also upon the boundary plane, so that different facets of the same boundary have different energy. Here we describe TEM observations of the dissociation of a Σ=27 boundary in silicon in order to reduce its surface energy and attain a low energy configuration.The boundary was identified as near CSL Σ=27 {255} having a misorientation of (38.7±0.2)°/[011] by standard Kikuchi pattern, electron diffraction and trace analysis techniques. Although the boundary appeared planar, in the TEM it was found to be dissociated in some regions into a Σ=3 {111} and a Σ=9 {122} boundary, as shown in Fig. 1.

Where’s the fat? Freeze-fracture analysis of ingredient interactions in food systems

1993 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 48-49
Author(s):  
Jean Fincher
Keyword(s):  
Lipid Droplets ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Freeze Fracture ◽  
Food Science ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Fat Reduction ◽  
Important Trend ◽  
Conventional Foods ◽  
Whipped Cream

An important trend in the food industry today is reduction in the amount of fat in manufactured foods. Often fat reduction is accomplished by replacing part of the natural fat with carbohydrates which serve to bind water and increase viscosity. It is in understanding the roles of these two major components of food, fats and carbohydrates, that freeze-fracture is so important. It is well known that conventional fixation procedures are inadequate for many food products, in particular, foods with carbohydrates as a predominant structural feature. For some food science applications the advantages of freeze-fracture preparation procedures include not only the avoidance of chemical fixatives, but also the opportunity to control the temperature of the sample just prior to rapid freezing.In conventional foods freeze-fracture has been used most successfully in analysis of milk and milk products. Milk gels depend on interactions between lipid droplets and proteins. Whipped emulsions, either whipped cream or ice cream, involve complex interactions between lipid, protein, air cell surfaces, and added emulsifiers.

Effects of Monetary Incentives on Task Switching

2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 216-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Kleinsorge ◽  
Gerhard Rinkenauer
Keyword(s):  
Task Switching ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
General Level ◽  
Monetary Incentives ◽  
Switch Costs ◽  
Expectancy Effect ◽  
Reward Expectancy ◽  
Trial Basis

In two experiments, effects of incentives on task switching were investigated. Incentives were provided as a monetary bonus. In both experiments, the availability of a bonus varied on a trial-to-trial basis. The main difference between the experiments relates to the association of incentives to individual tasks. In Experiment 1, the association of incentives to individual tasks was fixed. Under these conditions, the effect of incentives was largely due to reward expectancy. Switch costs were reduced to statistical insignificance. This was true even with the task that was not associated with a bonus. In Experiment 2, there was a variable association of incentives to individual tasks. Under these conditions, the reward expectancy effect was bound to conditions with a well-established bonus-task association. In conditions in which the bonus-task association was not established in advance, enhanced performance of the bonus task was accompanied by performance decrements with the task that was not associated with a bonus. Reward expectancy affected mainly the general level of performance. The outcome of this study may also inform recently suggested neurobiological accounts about the temporal dynamics of reward processing.

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