scholarly journals Does the Conceptualization and Measurement of Democracy Quality Matter in Comparative Climate Policy Research?

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romy Escher ◽  
Melanie Walter-Rogg
Keyword(s):  
Climate Policy ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Quality Dimensions ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Cross National

Previous <em>empirical</em> research on democracy and global warming has mainly questioned whether democracy contributes to climate protection. However, there is no consensus in the <em>theoretical</em> literature on what institutional traits of democracy are crucial for climate policy. Thus, results based on indices that summarize multiple democracy quality dimensions could be misleading, as their effects could balance each other out or hide the relative importance of each institutional trait. This article examines whether the analysis of the effects of democracy quality dimensions, measured by separate indicators, contributes to a better understanding of cross-national variance in climate policy compared to the focus on the regime type difference, measured by democracy quality measures. Compared to earlier research, the results indicate that the positive effect of democracy on commitment to climate cooperation depends on the realization of political rights. We find little to support the claim that democracy quality dimensions matter for climate policy outcomes. The main implication of our findings is that it could be fruitful to use more disaggregated democracy measures for the analysis of substantive research questions.

scholarly journals You are what you eat: relative importance of diet, gut microbiota and nestmates for honey bee, Apis mellifera, worker health

Apidologie ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina Retschnig ◽  
Johannes Rich ◽  
Karl Crailsheim ◽  
Judith Pfister ◽  
Vincent Perreten ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Exposure Period ◽  
Short Exposure ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Positive Effect

AbstractIn eusocial honey bees, Apis mellifera, diet, gut microbiota and nestmates can all contribute to the health of freshly emerged individual workers, but their relative importance for longevity and body weight is currently unknown. Here, we show that diet is most relevant, followed by gut microbiota and the presence of nestmates. Freshly emerged workers were randomly assigned to eight treatments (with or without honey/pollen, protein-substitute lactalbumin, antibiotic tetracycline and nestmates for 24 h) and maintained under standardised laboratory conditions. Longevity and food consumption were measured daily and fresh body weight was assessed at day 7. The data show a significantly better survival and a higher body weight in workers supplied with honey/pollen. Survival was higher in the lactalbumin treatments compared to the ones restricted to sucrose only, but lower compared to those with honey/pollen, highlighting the importance of micronutrients. In contrast, antibiotic treatment had a significant negative effect on longevity and body weight, which may be explained by inactivated gut microbiota and/or toxicity of the antibiotics. There was no positive effect of nestmates, probably due to the short exposure period. In contrast, nestmates showed a negative effect on survival in antibiotic-treated workers, possibly by transmitting pathogens and antibiotic-induced gut dysbiosis. In conclusion, a macro- and micronutrient-rich diet appears to be the key to individual honey bee worker health. Providing an optimal diet and possibly gut microbiota appears to be a promising way to promote managed A. mellifera health.

scholarly journals Current Explanations for the Variation in Same-Sex Marriage Policies in Western Countries

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 526-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Pettinicchio
Keyword(s):  
Gay Marriage ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Heterosexual Couples ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Gay Couples ◽  
Western Countries ◽  
National Comparison ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Cross National

Abstract Over the last ten years, several western countries have recognized gay marriage either by providing gay couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, or by allowing civil unions. Other western countries have not. What accounts for this variation? This paper reviews and analyzes the key demographic, institutional and cultural arguments found in the literature on the legalization of gay marriage – especially as these pertain to cross-national comparison – and raises questions about assumptions regarding the extent to which there is variation on these variables across western countries. I argue that institutional and cultural explanations are only meaningful in explaining legalization when their combinations are specified in order to shed light on favorable (or unfavorable) circumstances for policy outcomes.

The Relative Importance of Socioeconomic and Political Variables for Public Policy

1977 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 559-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Lewis-Beck
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Path Analysis ◽  
Multiple Regression ◽  
Partial Correlation ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Statistical Techniques ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Simple Correlation ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Political Variables

Since Dawson and Robinson, a dominant issue in the quantitative study of public policy has been the relative importance of socioeconomic and political variables for determining policy outcomes. It is argued here that past efforts to resolve this issue have been unsatisfactory, largely because they relied on inadequate statistical techniques, i.e., simple correlation, partial correlation, or multiple regression. Coefficients from these techniques are irrelevant for all but the most peculiar models of public policy. In general, if the researcher wishes to assess the relative importance of independent variables, it will be necessary to resort to path analysis of a formally constructed causal model. The comparison of “effects coefficients,” derived from path analysis, is offered as the preferred means of evaluating independent variables, superior to comparisons of coefficients from simple correlation, partial correlation, or multiple regression. When the effects coefficients are actually calculated for a popular model of welfare policy, socioeconomic variables appear much more important than political variables, contrary to interpretations coming from the more traditional statistical techniques.

scholarly journals Elections and local government performance in Brazil

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (83) ◽  
pp. 580-599
Author(s):  
Pedro Luiz Costa Cavalcante
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Institutional Arrangement ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
National Analysis

Abstract The 1988 federal Constitution introduced a complex and innovative institutional arrangement that not only reestablished political rights and democratic procedures, but also reinforced decentralization as a fundamental guideline for policy implementation in Brazil. As a result, municipalities have become pivotal actors in the policymaking process. Scholars of Latin American politics have given much emphasis to the causes and determinants of decentralization, but not much has been done toward a more general understanding of how this increased decentralization has affected policymaker behavior and policy outcomes. This paper aims to do exactly that. Specifically, it investigates how institutional arrangements and electoral competition affect local government performance. The theoretical basis is the electoral democratic theory that broadly highlights elections as instruments of citizen control in retrospective and prospective voting approaches. The research employs a large-N cross sub-national analysis based on a dataset of electoral, partisan, socioeconomic and public financial information collected from over 5500 municipalities. Local governments’ performance, our dependent variables, are synthetic indicators formulated from 2009 nationwide surveys on public education, health, housing and welfare services. The OLS regression results confirm the hypothesis that politics variables do matter in how politicians make decisions and implement policy under the new Brazilian democratic Era. The empirical evidences suggest that electoral competition does not present a direct effect on government performance, however, ideology and citizen participation do. Therefore, this paper helps to expand our understanding of a political system’s impact on public policy outputs, which is extremely important not only for academic purpose but also to support policymakers’ decisions.

Integrating Ideas into Policy-Making Analysis

2002 ◽  
Vol 35 (9) ◽  
pp. 1054-1076 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Bleich
Keyword(s):  
Policy Development ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Policy Frames ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
History Of Race ◽  
Cross National

This article argues that systematically integrating ideas into policy-making analysis greatly enhances our understanding of policy outcomes. Variables emphasized by other schools of thought—such as power, interests, institutions, and problems—often provide an inadequate explanation of policy choices. To demonstrate the contribution of ideas to policy-making analysis, this article examines the impact of policy frames, showing how they help actors define their interests, generate interpretations of pressing problems, and constrain actions. Retracing the history of race policy development in Britain and France reveals that each country's frames influenced domestic policy outcomes and thus played a vital role in explaining cross-national race policy differences.

scholarly journals Tolerance of Muslim beliefs and practices: Age related differences and context effects

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 467-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maykel Verkuyten ◽  
Luuk Slooter
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Cognitive Domain ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Social Implication ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Social ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Older Males

Tolerant judgments of Muslims' political rights and dissenting beliefs and practices by ethnic Dutch adolescents (12—18 years) were examined. Participants ( N = 632) made judgments of different types of behaviors and different contexts in an experimental questionnaire study. As in other studies, tolerance was found to not be a global construct. Adolescents took into account various aspects of what they were asked to tolerate and the sense in which they should be tolerant. The type of actor, the nature of the social implication of the behavior, the underlying belief type, and the dimension of tolerance, all made a difference to the tolerant judgments. Additionally, the findings strongly suggest that tolerance judgments do not develop through an age-related stage-like sequence where an intolerant attitude is followed by tolerance. For females, there were no age differences, and older males were less tolerant than younger males. There were also gender differences with males being less tolerant for some types of behavior and females being less tolerant for behaviors that negatively affected Muslim females. Level of education had a positive effect on tolerance. The findings are discussed with reference to social-cognitive domain theory.

Where academia and policy meet: an introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gal ◽  
Idit Weiss-Gal
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
National Study ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Cross National Study ◽  
Cross National

This chapter explores the academia-society nexus and, in particular, the theoretical and conceptual justifications for social work academics’ engagement in the policy process. It then presents the methodology of the cross-national study of social work academics’ policy involvement, with special attention to the tools employed in the survey, and the research questions that are dealt with in the country chapters and the concluding synthesis chapter.

The Role of External Interaction for Innovation in Irish High-Technology Businesses

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 248-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Declan Jordan ◽  
Eoin O'Leary
Keyword(s):  
High Technology ◽  
Process Innovation ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Business Innovation ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Product And Process Innovation ◽  
Innovation Output ◽  
Product And Process ◽  
Positive Effect

There is growing empirical evidence that external interaction is an important source of knowledge for business innovation. This paper contributes to the innovation literature by using new measures of interaction to explore the relative importance of external interaction for innovation in Irish high-technology businesses. Based on survey data, the paper finds that external interaction increases the probability of product and process innovation, but the effect is inconsistent across all external interaction agents. Interaction along the supply chain has a positive effect on innovation, and interaction with competitors has an insignificant effect on innovation output. Notably, the paper finds that interaction with higher education institutions has a negative effect on the probability of product and process innovation.

What do advocates want from policy research? Evidence from elite surveys

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake Haselswerdt ◽  
Elizabeth Rigby
Keyword(s):  
Policy Research ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Academic Researchers ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
State Context

Background: Policy advocates play a key role linking the separate worlds of research and policymaking – often serving as research brokers who increase the use of research and promoting more informed decision making. Yet this group is often overlooked in studies of research utilisation.Methods: We undertook two surveys of state-level advocates in the United States in order to better understand the views of these ‘research brokers’ on the utility of research and the characteristics of research most needed in the policymaking process.Findings: The advocates we surveyed report that research plays an important, if limited, role in shaping the policy outcomes in their state. They value objective and unbiased research, as evidenced by the credibility of the source, and relevance to their state context. At the same time, advocates were not particularly interested in novel research on unfamiliar outcomes in other policy domains, instead preferring studies that stick to the familiar framing of the issue dominant in the policy community in which they work. Advocates use research findings primarily as justification for their policy positions.Discussion and conclusion: Perceived impartiality and objectivity are a major asset of academic researchers seeking to influence the policy process. Advocates value this credibility and other sources of information that they can use to justify their policy positions. At the same time, their preference for familiar rather than novel findings may limit the degree to which policy advocates can serve as intermediary for such results, hampering the ability of research to reframe policy debate.<br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Advocates value policy research from objective, unbiased sources like universities.</li><br /><li>Liberal and conservative advocates value research that justifies their (distinct) policy positions.</li><br /><li>Research on novel problems or indicators is less likely to be used by advocates.</li><br /><li>Advocates can serve as effective research brokers, but not equally for all forms of research.</li></ul>

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