scholarly journals Making the Case for Democracy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Wuttke ◽  
Florian Foos
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Political Entrepreneurs ◽  
Communicative Strategy ◽  
German Parliament ◽  
Town Halls

Political entrepreneurs put liberal democracy under pressure by fueling concerns and exploiting citizens’ fragile commitment to this system of government. As difficult trade-offs are made apparent in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, we investigate one communicative strategy that political elites who want to defend the principles and practices of self-governance in pluralist societies can pursue. We propose “democratic persuasion” as an actionable, theory-driven intervention to increase the resilience of citizens' commitment to liberal democracy. "Democratic persuasion" requires that legislators actively make the case for democracy and discuss inherent trade-offs while engaging existing doubts and misperceptions. We invited citizens on facebook to attend one of sixteen Zoom townhalls organized in collaboration with members of the German parliament. Each legislator conducted two town halls and we randomly assigned the townhall, where they employed "democratic persuasion". Results suggest that “democratic persuasion” increases support for liberal democracy among citizens in the short term.

Constitutional Origins and Liberal Democracy: A Global Analysis, 1900–2015

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
GABRIEL L. NEGRETTO ◽  
MARIANO SÁNCHEZ-TALANQUER
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Power Dispersion

A strong tradition in democratic theory claims that only constitutions made with direct popular involvement can establish or deepen democracy. Against this view, we argue that new constitutions are likely to enhance liberal democracy when they emerge through a plural agreement among political elites with distinct bases of social support. Power dispersion during constitution writing induces the adoption of institutions that protect opposition forces from the arbitrary use of executive power without unduly impairing majority rule. However, since incumbents may renege on the bargain, the democratizing effect of politically plural constitutional agreements is likely to be larger in the short term, when the identity of negotiating political forces and the balance of power between them tend to remain stable. We find support for these arguments using an original global dataset on the origins of constitutions between 1900 and 2015 and a difference-in-differences design.

scholarly journals Escherichia coli metabolism under short-term repetitive substrate dynamics: adaptation and trade-offs

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleni Vasilakou ◽  
Mark C. M. van Loosdrecht ◽  
S. Aljoscha Wahl
Keyword(s):  
Escherichia Coli ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Trade Offs

Colonial Education, Political Elites, and Regional Political Inequality in Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 001041402199717
Author(s):  
Joan Ricart-Huguet
Keyword(s):  
Political Elites ◽  
Colonial Education ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Political Inequality ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Strategic Bargaining ◽  
Recruitment Practices ◽  
Colonial Legacies ◽  
Home Region

Political elites tend to favor their home region when distributing resources. But what explains how political power is distributed across a country’s regions to begin with? Explanations of cabinet formation focus on short-term strategic bargaining and some emphasize that ministries are allocated equitably to minimize conflict. Using new data on the cabinet members (1960–2010) of 16 former British and French African colonies, I find that some regions have been systematically much more represented than others. Combining novel historical and geospatial records, I show that this regional political inequality derives not from colonial-era development in general but from colonial-era education in particular. I argue that post-colonial ministers are partly a byproduct of civil service recruitment practices among European administrators that focused on levels of literacy. Regional political inequality is an understudied pathway through which colonial legacies impact distributive politics and unequal development in Africa today. JEL: F54, I26, N37, N47

Effects of strategic tillage on short-term erosion, nutrient loss in runoff and greenhouse gas emissions

Soil Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 201 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. Melland ◽  
D. L. Antille ◽  
Y. P. Dang
Keyword(s):  
Nitrous Oxide ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Heavy Rainfall ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Nutrient Loss ◽  
Nitrous Oxide Emissions ◽  
Nutrient Losses ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Co2

Occasional strategic tillage (ST) of long-term no-tillage (NT) soil to help control weeds may increase the risk of water, erosion and nutrient losses in runoff and of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared with NT soil. The present study examined the short-term effect of ST on runoff and GHG emissions in NT soils under controlled-traffic farming regimes. A rainfall simulator was used to generate runoff from heavy rainfall (70mmh–1) on small plots of NT and ST on a Vertosol, Dermosol and Sodosol. Nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes from the Vertosol and Sodosol were measured before and after the rain using passive chambers. On the Sodosol and Dermosol there was 30% and 70% more runoff, respectively, from ST plots than from NT plots, however, volumes were similar between tillage treatments on the Vertosol. Erosion was highest after ST on the Sodosol (8.3tha–1 suspended sediment) and there were no treatment differences on the other soils. Total nitrogen (N) loads in runoff followed a similar pattern, with 10.2kgha–1 in runoff from the ST treatment on the Sodosol. Total phosphorus loads were higher after ST than NT on both the Sodosol (3.1 and 0.9kgha–1, respectively) and the Dermosol (1.0 and 0.3kgha–1, respectively). Dissolved nutrient forms comprised less than 13% of total losses. Nitrous oxide emissions were low from both NT and ST in these low-input systems. However, ST decreased CH4 absorption from both soils and almost doubled CO2 emissions from the Sodosol. Strategic tillage may increase the susceptibility of Sodosols and Dermosols to water, sediment and nutrient losses in runoff after heavy rainfall. The trade-offs between weed control, erosion and GHG emissions should be considered as part of any tillage strategy.

Trajectories of Social Innovation

2019 ◽  
pp. 175-207
Author(s):  
György Molnár ◽  
Attila Havas
Keyword(s):  
Social Innovation ◽  
Complex Interventions ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Cognitive Frames ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Capability Building ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
Socially Excluded ◽  
Practical Implications

The chapter analyses the specific features of social innovation for marginalized (SIM) or even socially excluded people, using the example of a social microcredit programme. It offers a review of the marginalization of the Roma in Hungary, considering the major factors of becoming marginalized as well as the processes reproducing marginalization, stressing the impacts of interactions between institutions, networks, and cognitive frames, showing that the complex nature of the reproduction of marginalization requires complex interventions, including empowering and capability building. The chapter highlights several policy and practical implications, including trade-offs to be considered when planning and implementing SIMs—in particular, those between exact targeting in a SIM versus building inter-community connections; the degree of assistance provided versus the short-term empowerment effect; and the degree of marginalization of the participants versus the costs of a given SIM.

Economic Principles for Medicare Reform

2019 ◽  
Vol 686 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-92
Author(s):  
Amitabh Chandra ◽  
Craig Garthwaite
Keyword(s):  
Pay For Performance ◽  
Medicare Advantage ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Market Prices ◽  
Economic Framework ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Medicare Program ◽  
Commercial Market ◽  
New Treatments ◽  
Do So

In this article, we develop an economic framework for Medicare reform that highlights trade-offs that reform proposals should grapple with, but often ignore. Central to our argument is a tension in administratively set prices, which may improve short-term efficiency but do so at the expense of dynamic efficiency (slowing innovations in new treatments). The smaller the Medicare program is relative to the commercial market, the less important this is; but in a world where there are no market prices or the private sector is very small, the task of setting prices that are dynamically correct becomes more complex. Reforming Medicare should focus on greater incentives to increase competition between Medicare Advantage plans, which necessitates a role for government in ensuring competition; premium support; less use of regulated prices; and less appetite for countless “pay for performance” schemes. We apply this framework to evaluate Medicare for All proposals.

Trade-offs, the allocation of reproductive effort, and the evolutionary psychology of human mating

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 624-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven W. Gangestad ◽  
Jeffry A. Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Effort ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Special Design ◽  
Mating Tactics ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Human Mating ◽  
Genetic Fitness

This response reinforces several major themes in our target article: (a) the importance of sex-specific, within-sex variation in mating tactics; (b) the relevance of optimality thinking to understanding that variation; (c) the significance of special design for reconstructing evolutionary history; (d) the replicated findings that women's mating preferences vary across their menstrual cycle in ways revealing special design; and (e) the importance of applying market phenomena to understand the complex dynamics of mating. We also elaborate on three points: (1) Men who have indicators of genetic fitness may provide more direct benefits when female demand for extra-pair and short-term sex is very low; (2) both men and women track ecological cues to make mating decisions; and (3) more research on female orgasm is needed.

scholarly journals Understanding beverage taxation: Perspective on the Philadelphia Beverage Tax’s novel approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan M. Kane ◽  
Vasanti S. Malik
Keyword(s):  
Policy Process ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Sugar Sweetened Beverage ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Global Trend ◽  
Health Impact Assessments ◽  
Political Entrepreneurs

Despite the growing global trend of sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes for their potential as an untapped source of revenue and as a public health boon, these legislative efforts remain controversial. Multiple articles have reviewed this trend in recent years from modeling of long-term impacts to short-term empirical studies, yet most comprehensive, long-term health impact assessments remain forthcoming. These multi-faceted efficacy studies combined with case-based assessments of the policy process, descriptive pieces highlighting unique features of the policy and reflective perspectives targeting unanswered questions create a comprehensive body of literature to help inform present and future legislative efforts. The passage of the Philadelphia Beverage tax required a mix of political entrepreneurs, timing and context; while uniquely employing a nonpublic health frame, specific earmarking and a broadened scope with the inclusion of diet beverages. This perspective on the Philadelphia Beverage Tax will describe the passage and novel features of the Philadelphia Beverage Tax with a discussion of the ethical questions unique to this case.

A decision-support tool to assist muscle-invasive bladder cancer patients choosing between radical cystectomy and chemoradiotherapy.

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (6_suppl) ◽  
pp. 505-505
Author(s):  
Brian Christopher Baumann ◽  
Wei-Ting Hwang ◽  
Sharadha Srinivasan ◽  
Xingmei Wang ◽  
Ronac Mamtani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bladder Cancer ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Muscle Invasive ◽  
Break Even Point

505 Background: Patients with high-risk muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) who are borderline medically operable for radical cystectomy (RC) face a difficult decision between RC which has higher short-term treatment-related morbidity/mortality & chemoradiotherapy (CRT) which is better tolerated in the short-term but may have worse long-term cancer control outcomes. There are no existing decision support tools to assist patients & providers in understanding these trade-offs. Herein, we developed a visualization tool to inform patients & providers how the relative risks & benefits of RC & CRT vary over time with respect to overall survival (OS). Methods: We identified cT2-3 N0 M0 urothelial bladder cancer patients ≥65 y/o treated with RC +/- chemo (n = 5981) or definitive-dose CRT after TURBT (n = 793) in the National Cancer Database, 2003-2011. The database was split into a development & validation cohort. Multivariate Cox regression with time-varying hazard ratio was performed to assess pre-treatment factors associated with OS. The inverse probability of treatment weighting method using the propensity score was employed to reduce selection bias. External validation was performed. Visualization tool showing adjusted survival curves based on pre-op patient features was generated with input from patients & a multidisciplinary expert panel. Tool calculates median OS & the “break-even point,” where the short-term OS disadvantage of RC equals the long-term advantage of RC (i.e. the point where the restricted mean survival for RC & CRT are equal). Results: On MVA, significant predictors of OS were age, Charlson Deyo comorbidity index, & cT stage (p < 0.001 for all). Using these results, we iteratively developed a web application that utilizes clinical inputs to generate patient-specific survival curves that display estimated OS differences over time. Median OS, the break-even point, & percent alive at the break-even point are provided. Conclusions: This is the first decision-support tool developed to assist high-risk borderline operable MIBC patients & their providers in understanding the short-term & long-term trade-offs between RC & CRT. Additional testing is underway.

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