scholarly journals Using Committee Hearings to Place Lobbyists, Experts and Other Outside Agents into Legislative Preference Space

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Esterling

Theoretical expectations regarding the legislative influence of outside agents, such as lobbyists, agency officials or policy experts, often depend on the relationship between legislators' and agents' preferences. Non-elected agents, however, typically will have preferences defined on a dimension that is different from that of elected legislators. I develop a bridging method that accommodates when the agent preference space shifts and rotates relative to the legislator roll-call preference space, and that identifies distances across the two dimensions in meaningful units necessary to test institutional hypotheses. In my application to Medicare hearings, I show that the agent preference space has an orthogonal rotation anchored by a quality-cost latent dimension, and that legislators heavily condition their questioning of agents on preference distance in a way consistent with informational models of lobbying.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena Stefani ◽  
Gabriele Prati

Research on the relationship between fertility and gender ideology revealed inconsistent results. In the present study, we argue that inconsistencies may be due to the fact that such relationship may be nonlinear. We hypothesize a U- shaped relationship between two dimensions of gender ideology (i.e. primacy of breadwinner role and acceptance of male privilege) and fertility rates. We conducted a cross-national analysis of 60 countries using data from the World Values Survey as well as the World Population Prospects 2019. Controlling for gross domestic product, we found support for a U-shaped relationship between gender ideology and fertility. Higher levels of fertility rates were found at lower and especially higher levels of traditional gender ideology, while a medium level of gender ideology was associated with the lowest fertility rate. This curvilinear relationship is in agreement with the phase of the gender revolution in which the country is located. Traditional beliefs are linked to a complementary division of private versus public sphere between sexes, while egalitarian attitudes are associated with a more equitable division. Both conditions strengthen fertility. Instead, as in the transition phase, intermediate levels of gender ideology’s support are associated with an overload and a difficult reconciliation of the roles that women have to embody (i.e. working and nurturing) so reducing fertility. The present study has contributed to the literature by addressing the inconsistencies of prior research by demonstrating that the relationship between gender ideology and fertility rates is curvilinear rather than linear.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 31-51
Author(s):  
Yoram Ida ◽  
Amir Hefetz ◽  
Assaf Meydani ◽  
Gila Menahem ◽  
Elad Cohen

What innovative policy tools can be introduced so that the provision of local services will mitigate inequality among residents of different localities? Based on the ‘new localism’ approach, this article examines one such tool—a mandatory national standard for services provided by local authorities (a ‘service basket’)—and suggests that the implementation process should consider local variation and autonomy. The novelty of our approach lies in including both objective and normative considerations in the methodological instrument that we developed to capture these two dimensions. This innovative methodology also enabled us to estimate existing service gaps among local authorities and the burdens some will face upon instituting a mandatory service basket.


2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-313
Author(s):  
Roman Bugaev ◽  
Mikhail Piskunov ◽  
Timofey Rakov

Abstract The founding of Akademgorodok near Novosibirsk in the late 1950s features prominently in the historiography of the Thaw and the general turn of Soviet science to the eastern parts of the country. This article puts this story into the context of the formation of modern “green” ideas in the late Soviet Union and reconsiders the relationship between humans and nature, along with the definition of nature itself. Akademgorodok produced a telling visual perspective: the architectural plan for the city dictated that its scientific, industrial, and living zones were drowned deep in the taiga. Architects named this type of urban planning “diffusive,” and memoirists described it as a “Forest City.” Using the term of Sheila Jasanoff, we designate this “Forest City” as a sociotechnical imaginary of Akademgorodok. Our aim is to study the historical roots of the “Forest City” and how it became a collective imaginary. How did it happen that in the 1950s and 1960s, when the “faces” of Soviet cities were defined by districts of standard panel houses, that a city was built near Novosibirsk in which so much attention was given to pre-human flora, fauna, and landscapes? What ideas and intellectual contexts composed the concept of Akademgorodok as a “Forest City”? Our answer possesses two dimensions. First, the rejection of the use of decorative elements in housing construction in the post-Stalin epoch stimulated architects to pay more attention to the greening of cities. They revived the concept of a “garden city” proposed by Ebenezer Howard on a new level. Second, the evolution of the ideas of Mikhail Lavrentyev, the founder of Akademgorodok, who upon arrival in Siberia applied the productivist program manifested in the slogan “Siberia is a treasure of resources,” but later changed his opinion to more “green” views under the influence of the so-called “Baikal Discussion.” The viewpoints of Lavrentyev influenced the design of this “center” of Siberian science, and then he formulated the idea of a “Forest City.” These contexts enable the utopian horizons and the search for models of a constructed future that were typical of the Thaw era to reflect upon the important challenges of the contemporary Anthropocene.


2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-118
Author(s):  
Tali Hatuka ◽  
Miryam Wijler

This paper focuses on a particular form of protest that emerges in what this paper calls an 'agonistic environment'. It defines the latter as a form of contentious politics within deliberative democracies in which concurrence rather than estrangement is more likely to define the relationship between citizens and the state. It then asks what is the nature of conflict in such environments, and will activism in the settings be more or less likely to generate change. Finally, it considers whether protest in agonistic environments produces a form of shared knowledge among parties to the conflict, particularly with respect to the possibility of change and how best to achieve it? In exploring these questions, the paper focuses on the political dynamics in Israel associated with the wave of African asylum seekers who arrived from 2010 to 2012, most of whom originated from Eritrea and Sudan. Using a quantitative approach, the paper analyses this agonistic environment focusing on two dimensions: (a) protest events; and (b) state policy and juridical decisions as well as legal initiatives aimed at challenging state policy and relevant court decisions. By highlighting the scalar mismatch between protests focused on delimited urban spaces and responses of authorities at the scale of the nation – in this case, legal rulings – the paper further advances our understanding of agonistic conflict and how it produces change.


2020 ◽  
pp. 107-119
Author(s):  
Frederika Lučanská ◽  
◽  
Oľga Orosová ◽  
Vihra Naydenova ◽  
Jozef Benka ◽  
...  

The objective of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between well-being, rootedness and emigration plans (EP) among university students in Slovakia and Bulgaria. It also explored the mediation effect of rootedness in the relationship between well-being and EP. The data were collected throughan online survey (SLiCE 2016). The research sample consisted of 361 university students (M=22.4 years, SD=3.8) from Slovakia (141, 86.5% female) and Bulgaria (220, 69.1% female). Based on their emigration plans, the respondentswere dividedinto two groups;those who do not plan to leave (n=218, 60.4%) and those who plan to leave in the long term (n=143, 39.6%) after they finish university. ForSlovakia, all factors were significantly related toEP. Furthermore, the association between well-being and EP was fully mediated by two dimensions of rootedness with different psychological mechanisms. For Bulgaria, only well-being and onedimension of rootedness,desire for change,were significantly related to EP. It was also found that the association between well-being and EP was partially mediated by only one dimension of rootedness –desire for change. This study highlightsthat rootedness hasa different relationship with other examined factorsin different countries and also that it is necessary to respect the cultural and socio-economic featuresof acountry.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Dagmar Cronauer

<p>This study investigates host-­guest elationships in a non‐commercial tourism setting within the context of WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) in New Zealand. WWOOF is a worldwide membership network of organic farms, and is comprised of non‐monetary exchange relationships between WWOOF hosts and guests (WWOOFers). It involves tourists offering their help with activities on these farms in exchange for accommodation and food. The purpose of this research is to examine WWOOF hosts and guests’ meanings and understandings of the host‐guest relationship and the dynamics that influence the nature of the WWOOF encounter. An examination of hosts and guests’ expectations and their subsequent effect on the encounter, and of personal outcomes, assist in making sense of the multiple roles of both parties. The study contributes to the limited research that explores non‐commercial host‐guest relationships in tourism. Through consulting literature on the commercial home, it builds on previous work on WWOOFing by focusing on hosts and guests’ perceptions rather than only one perspective. It gives voice to an under‐acknowledged group of hosts and tourists, who are not counted as contributors to economic development of tourism in New Zealand. The research  was developed within a social constructivist paradigm. Using phenomenological methodology, in‐depth interviews with hosts and guests in New Zealand allowed for a thorough analysis of their personal narratives of the WWOOF experience, and the host‐guest relationships. Twenty‐eight interviews were conducted during June and July 2011  (some with two interviewees): resulting in data from 24 hosts and 15 WWOOFers. The findings suggest that WWOOF hosts and guests interact within work and social dimensions. The work dimension dictates that the guest offer help with work on the organic property in return for accommodation and  food provided by the host. The social dimension demands interpersonal exchange and social bonds are developed. A model is presented, which demonstrates that host‐guest relationships in WWOOFing evolve and are constantly being negotiated and evaluated. Hosts and guests have multiple roles within the two dimensions: employer‐employee, host‐guest, (family) host‐family member, and friends. These roles are dependent on the level of formalisation of the encounter and the level of interpersonal connectedness. The encounter involves the host’s obligation to meet the needs of the guest and the guest’s obligation to adhere to implicit and explicit rules and guidelines determined by the host. Space and time are mostly shared within the host’s home or hosting space. The study shows that the relationships that occur are complex and multi‐faceted. The various dimensions, which are essential in creating closer, interpersonal relationships, are negotiated within various levels of the relationship. The aspects that influence the roles adopted in work and social spheres and the evolution of the relationship require an understanding of the temporal roles of hosts and guests, trust, shared values and stories, as well as work and social exchange elements.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 5-13
Author(s):  
Mahtab Jafari

Each government consists of two dimensions: 1) a sructural dimension that involves policy- and decision-making bodies and, 2) a functional dimension that is a set of government institutions and administrations. Also, national authority in a country is an outcome of three components, including legitimacy, acceptance, and efficiency of its government. The authority of governments is not merely limited to their structural legitimacy and acceptance; but, their functional dimension and the performance of their administrations also play a crucial role in building and strengthening their legitimacy. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to investigate how the administrative system of a government affects its national authority, with an emphasis on the Islamic point of view. To do so, this research has been carried out within the framework of theoretical research with practical purpose. The research method of the current study was descriptive-analytical. In the present study, the relationship between two variables – namely, “administrative system” and “national authority”– has been investigated within the framework of causal research. Due to the theoretical nature of this study, the resources used mostly include documents and library resources. The results of this study indicate that there is a direct and causal relationship between the national authority of governments (effect) and the performance of their administrative system (cause). Also, this relationship reveals how the administrative system affects national authority.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 72-86
Author(s):  
I.N. Galasyuk ◽  
O.V. Mitina

The article presents a theoretical justification of the concept of Parental Responsiveness (PR) based on the cultural and historical concept, the activity paradigm and the results of an empirical study, the purpose of which is to operationalize the psychological construct of parental responsiveness and build an explanatory model of the dynamic functioning of parental responsiveness. The study involved 55 mothers with children between the ages of 2.4 and 3.3 years, developing within the norm. The method "Evaluation of child-parent interaction (ECPI)", which provides video surveillance, was used. The data was processed using the Observer XT-14 computer program. The Principal component analyses the method with orthogonal rotation Varimax was used to identify generalizing categories that characterize PR and allows describing their variations. As a result, there were 4 categories (scales) that determine the manifestation of responsiveness by the parent: Dominance, Apathy, Sensitivity, and Support. Their stability was shown in the process of parent-child interaction. A profile of parental responsiveness is constructed for each parent, which determines the extend of each scale when interacting with the child. The developed dynamic multidimensional autoregressive model of Parental Responsiveness allows us to evaluate the dynamics of parental behavior and determine the nature of the relationship between scales during the session.


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