The Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion: Chinese Dual-Pension Regimes in the Era of Labor Migration and Labor Informalization

2020 ◽  
pp. 003232922092455
Author(s):  
Yujeong Yang
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
National Level ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Informal Workers ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Local Officials

Why do some Chinese local governments include informal workers in their welfare systems while others exclude them? This article argues that local officials attempt to balance multiple, conflicting, top-down career-evaluation criteria by developing different inclusion mechanisms. The central mandate to build an inclusive welfare regime incentivizes local officials to embrace welfare “outsiders” (informal workers and nonlocal workers). However, other top-down policy goals and the locally defined citizenship ( hukou) system disincentivize the full integration of outsiders. Faced with this political dilemma, local officials have strategically incorporated different types of outsiders into their welfare regimes. Their strategies depend on local labor market structures—specifically, the extent to which informal workers overlap with nonlocal workers. This hypothesis is tested using an original data set derived from thirty-one Chinese provinces, covering the period between 2005 and 2015, as well as two rounds of national-level survey data. Findings suggest that recent Chinese welfare expansion has ironically consolidated, even exacerbated, regional inequality.

scholarly journals Calling referendums on domestic policies: how political elites and citizens differ

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergiu Gherghina ◽  
Nanuli Silagadze
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
National Level ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Institutional Variables ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Neighboring Country ◽  
Domestic Policies

AbstractMost national level referendums in Europe since 1793 are initiated either by political elites or by citizens. It remains unclear why these two types of initiators call for referendums. This article aims to explain under what circumstances political elites and citizens call referendums on domestic policies. The analysis is conducted at country level using an original data set that covers 461 national level referendums in Europe between 1793 and 2019. It tests the influence of four institutional variables that in theory are expected to have a divergent effect for the two types of initiators. The experience with direct democracy increases the likelihood to have referendums called by elites and reduces the incidence of citizen-initiated referendums. More authoritarian countries and longer time passed from referendums in a neighboring country explain why political elites initiate referendums. Coalition governments are more prone to citizen-initiated referendums on domestic policies compared to single-party governments.

scholarly journals Loyalists, Localists, and Legibility: The Calibrated Control of Provincial Leadership Teams in China

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-234
Author(s):  
David J. Bulman ◽  
Kyle A. Jaros
Keyword(s):  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Leadership Teams ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Standing Committee ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Local Leadership ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
Personnel Control

Selecting provincial leaders is a fraught task for authoritarian regimes. Although central authorities more readily trust provincial leaders with close ties to the center, such loyalists may lack the local knowledge and connections necessary to govern adeptly. Using an original data set on the tenures and backgrounds of China’s provincial party standing committee members, this article explores how Beijing fine-tunes provincial leadership teams to resolve this dilemma. The analysis challenges the conventional wisdom that Beijing exerts its tightest personnel control in strategically important provinces. It shows that Beijing tolerates significant embeddedness of local leadership in provinces with complex governance challenges even when these provinces are important. Moreover, it finds that when the center reasserts control through appointments of loyalist personnel during times of crisis, it does so in a balanced manner. These calibrated personnel strategies highlight the extent to which authoritarian systems rely on local expertise and experience as well as top-down control.

scholarly journals DEMOCRATIZING LOCAL GOVERNMENT: WHAT MALAYSIA CAN LEARN FROM MEXICO AND INDIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 183-194
Author(s):  
Sheila Murugasu
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
National Level ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Citizen Empowerment ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
Election Manifesto

The Pakatan Harapan 2018 election manifesto, had as one of its commitments, to strengthen the authority of local government and to make local councils more accountable. Many took this to mean that local government elections would resume, after an absence of more than 60 years. While Pakatan Harapan’s tenure as Malaysia’s ruling government was short-lived, their rise to power did put local government back in the spotlight, as well as raise the prospect of the resumption of local government elections in the country. There are a number of reasons why a more democratic and participatory approach to local government is to be hoped for in Malaysia. These include the view that it discourages public malfeasance and produces local officials that are more responsive to the needs of the citizens they serve. There are however challenges that come with introducing a more democratic form of local government, especially for countries which are attempting to transition from authoritarianism to a democracy at the national level and which have a diverse multi-ethnic population of differing socio-economic backgrounds. In order to better understand what these challenges are and how they can be overcome, I examine two case studies, that of Mexico and India, which have some similarities to Malaysia in terms of regime-type and demographics. I consider the evolving approach taken by these two countries towards local government, in terms of their structure and practices, with a view to gleaning potential lessons for Malaysia. This paper begins with a brief historical overview of the system of local government in Malaysia up to the present day. This is then followed by a discussion of Mexico and India’s own uneven experience with democratizing their local governments. What these case studies reveal is the manner in which countries with an authoritarian past often undergo a transitional period, in which even as structures of local governance become more democratic, local officials and citizens remain trapped in old authoritarian modes of behavior. And that unless interventionist steps are taken, democratizing local government structures alone, does not necessarily lead to greater citizen empowerment, especially for those from the more marginalized sections of society.

scholarly journals Welfare States Matter for Democracy: Income-based Participatory Inequality in Post-WW 2 Western Democracies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantin Manuel Bosancianu ◽  
Carsten Q. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Original Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Participatory Inequality

Poorer citizens generally participate less in politics; at the same time, the income-based gap in participation is not the same across democracies. Whereas in Denmark in 1977 turnout among poorer citizens was 6 percentage points higher than among wealthier ones, in the United States in 1988 the gap is reversed: turnout among wealthier Americans is 31 percentage points higher than among their poorer peers. Existing attempts at understanding the sources of this variation point to macro-level factors, such as compulsory voting, ballot complexity, or income inequality (Gallego, 2015; Solt, 2008). Though important, we argue that existing accounts aren't successful in explaining temporal variation in this participation gap, over periods of time in which the institutional framework is stable. We propose instead a largely neglected, yet plausible, reason for why a differential effect of income on political participation exists: the characteristics of the welfare state. In addition to providing resources relevant to participation, welfare state arrangements also create political constituencies that can be mobilized around a shared goal by political entrepreneurs. Building on Schneider and Makszin's (2014) education-based analysis we inductively develop, with the use of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), various welfare regime types that condition patterns of income-based participatory inequality in democracies. These are produced based on an original data set of roughly 150 merged surveys from 19 OECD members, between 1960 and 2010. We label these types the supportive and mobilizing welfare regimes, along with their non-mobilizing and non-supportive counterparts. These welfare state regimes correspond to different mechanisms through which welfare state characteristics shape participatory patterns: (1) resource endowments available to individuals for participation and (2) unions' and parties' ability to politically mobilize and inform their members. We complement our aggregate-level QCA analysis with individual-level tests of these hypothesized mechanisms. Relying on six cross-national survey programs, such as the European Social Survey or the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, we find consistent support for the mobilization-based mechanisms, while revealing mixed evidence that they also spill over into attitudinal factors which underpin participation. Only weaker evidence is found for our resource-based mechanisms. Overall, our results indicate the effect of welfare state characteristics on political participation gaps in advanced industrial democracies. Welfare state reforms, and in particular retrenchment, are likely to have (damaging) consequences for democracy.

Rotational Characteristics of the Green Solar Corona: 1947-1991

1994 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 139-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Rybák ◽  
V. Rušin ◽  
M. Rybanský
Keyword(s):  
Solar Corona ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Rotation Period ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Coronal Emission ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The World ◽  
Coronal Emission Line ◽  
Homogeneous Data

AbstractFe XIV 530.3 nm coronal emission line observations have been used for the estimation of the green solar corona rotation. A homogeneous data set, created from measurements of the world-wide coronagraphic network, has been examined with a help of correlation analysis to reveal the averaged synodic rotation period as a function of latitude and time over the epoch from 1947 to 1991.The values of the synodic rotation period obtained for this epoch for the whole range of latitudes and a latitude band ±30° are 27.52±0.12 days and 26.95±0.21 days, resp. A differential rotation of green solar corona, with local period maxima around ±60° and minimum of the rotation period at the equator, was confirmed. No clear cyclic variation of the rotation has been found for examinated epoch but some monotonic trends for some time intervals are presented.A detailed investigation of the original data and their correlation functions has shown that an existence of sufficiently reliable tracers is not evident for the whole set of examinated data. This should be taken into account in future more precise estimations of the green corona rotation period.

Entrepreneurship Management at the Local Government Level: The Experience of the Cities for Entrepreneurs Program

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 388-407
Author(s):  
Patricio Gigli ◽  
◽  
Donatela Orsi ◽  
Marisel Martín Aramburú ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
National Level ◽  
Development Issue ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Government Level

This paper aims at describing the experience of the Cities for Entrepreneurs Program (Ciudades para Emprender or CPE) of the National Directorate of Community and Human Capital (which belongs to the SEPYME), National Ministry of Production. This paper starts from the premise that entrepreneurship takes place at the most micro level of the offer and, therefore, is a concept associated with the characteristics of the environment closest to that offer: the local territory. However, there is little history in the country of public policies relating the issue of entrepreneurship with the local management. That is why we take as a starting point the conceptualization of the chosen framework: local governments and the development issue, seen from the perspective of entrepreneurships. Moreover, an overview is given on the structural characteristics of municipalities in Argentina. In addition, some international experiences and attempts to promote entrepreneurship at a national level are analyzed. Finally, the Cities for Entrepreneurs Program (CPE) is outlined, based on a summary of the diagnoses of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystems of the selected cities and the tools used and their execution status at the time of publication of this paper.

Electing the Senate

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy J. Schiller ◽  
Charles Stewart III
Keyword(s):  
Original Data ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Senate Elections ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Seventeenth Amendment ◽  
The People ◽  
Election Process

From 1789 to 1913, U.S. senators were not directly elected by the people—instead the Constitution mandated that they be chosen by state legislators. This radically changed in 1913, when the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving the public a direct vote. This book investigates the electoral connections among constituents, state legislators, political parties, and U.S. senators during the age of indirect elections. The book finds that even though parties controlled the partisan affiliation of the winning candidate for Senate, they had much less control over the universe of candidates who competed for votes in Senate elections and the parties did not always succeed in resolving internal conflict among their rank and file. Party politics, money, and personal ambition dominated the election process, in a system originally designed to insulate the Senate from public pressure. The book uses an original data set of all the roll call votes cast by state legislators for U.S. senators from 1871 to 1913 and all state legislators who served during this time. Newspaper and biographical accounts uncover vivid stories of the political maneuvering, corruption, and partisanship—played out by elite political actors, from elected officials, to party machine bosses, to wealthy business owners—that dominated the indirect Senate elections process. The book raises important questions about the effectiveness of Constitutional reforms, such as the Seventeenth Amendment, that promised to produce a more responsive and accountable government.

The Problem of Policy Coordination in a Newly Decentralised Government: A Study of Policy Implementation in the Province of Bali, Indonesia

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 83-95
Author(s):  
Luqman H. Zainuri
Keyword(s):  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Political System ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
National Level ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Policy Coordination ◽  
Politics And Government ◽  
Government Relations ◽  
Societal Needs

Abstract The aim of this article is to describe inter government relations resulted from disorganized political change from Autocratic political system to the Democratic one. This purpose is described through a challenge against Governor’s moratorium policy in 2010 made by three Heads of Districts within the province of Bali over the issuance of principle of building permit of new hotels and tourist accomodations. The method by which this research is conducted is exploratory. The research found that the problems of coordination in the policy emanate from a radical change in politics and government from centralised to decentralised government and termination of President Soeharto from the office. The un-coordinated political transition at the national level being faced by Indonesia has brought about serious problems on coordination of inter government institutions of the local governments. In effect, to the large extent, the performance of local governments -as it has been the case in the province of Bali-is contra productive in fulfilling societal needs of public services as well as local-economic development.

The Swiss Case. Main Results of the Sustainability Assessment of Swiss Forest Policy and its Merits in an International Context

2000 ◽  
Vol 151 (12) ◽  
pp. 480-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pekka Patosaari
Keyword(s):  
Economic Efficiency ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Expert Panel ◽  
Forest Policy ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
International Context ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Areas Of Concern

Mandated by the Swiss Forestry Agency, a group of internationally recognised experts drew up a sustainability assessment of Swiss forest policy. In this paper, the author, himself a member of the expert panel, presents the main results of this study. The strong protection regime of forests, for instance, is seen as one of the strengths of Swiss forest policy, whereas the lack of economic efficiency as well as the lack of clear policy goals with corresponding evaluation criteria have been identified as areas of concern.

scholarly journals Comparison of Spectroscopic Techniques Combined with Chemometrics for Cocaine Powder Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (8) ◽  
pp. 851-860
Author(s):  
Joy Eliaerts ◽  
Natalie Meert ◽  
Pierre Dardenne ◽  
Vincent Baeten ◽  
Juan-Antonio Fernandez Pierna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gas Chromatography ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Classification Model ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Spectroscopic Techniques ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Promising Tool ◽  
Powder Analysis ◽  
Mir Spectra

Abstract Spectroscopic techniques combined with chemometrics are a promising tool for analysis of seized drug powders. In this study, the performance of three spectroscopic techniques [Mid-InfraRed (MIR), Raman and Near-InfraRed (NIR)] was compared. In total, 364 seized powders were analyzed and consisted of 276 cocaine powders (with concentrations ranging from 4 to 99 w%) and 88 powders without cocaine. A classification model (using Support Vector Machines [SVM] discriminant analysis) and a quantification model (using SVM regression) were constructed with each spectral dataset in order to discriminate cocaine powders from other powders and quantify cocaine in powders classified as cocaine positive. The performances of the models were compared with gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and gas chromatography with flame-ionization detection (GC–FID). Different evaluation criteria were used: number of false negatives (FNs), number of false positives (FPs), accuracy, root mean square error of cross-validation (RMSECV) and determination coefficients (R2). Ten colored powders were excluded from the classification data set due to fluorescence background observed in Raman spectra. For the classification, the best accuracy (99.7%) was obtained with MIR spectra. With Raman and NIR spectra, the accuracy was 99.5% and 98.9%, respectively. For the quantification, the best results were obtained with NIR spectra. The cocaine content was determined with a RMSECV of 3.79% and a R2 of 0.97. The performance of MIR and Raman to predict cocaine concentrations was lower than NIR, with RMSECV of 6.76% and 6.79%, respectively and both with a R2 of 0.90. The three spectroscopic techniques can be applied for both classification and quantification of cocaine, but some differences in performance were detected. The best classification was obtained with MIR spectra. For quantification, however, the RMSECV of MIR and Raman was twice as high in comparison with NIR. Spectroscopic techniques combined with chemometrics can reduce the workload for confirmation analysis (e.g., chromatography based) and therefore save time and resources.

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