Covid-19: the place for women in pandemic response in the EU

Women have been disproportionately penalized by the pandemic undermining or reverting recent equality progress rendering the mainstreaming of gender parity crucial for an inclusive recovery. The European Union provides a well-defined case to assess the saliency and cross-country heterogeneity of gender mainstreaming in the recovery. Its commonly financed recovery plan Next Generation EU (NGEU) embodies gender equality among its priorities, on the basis of which Member State drafted National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs). Our analysis exploits the NRRPs for a cross-country comparison of the saliency of gender through a mixed-method assessment complementing automated text analysis of the NRRPs with qualitative case studies. Findings show limited saliency of gender parity within national recovery investment and reform strategies, with substantial geographical differences favouring more gender-equal countries. Results highlight (heterogeneously) limited prioritization of gender equality across the EU risking widening gaps as a legacy of Covid-19.

A Behavioral Design to Reform Italy’s Evaluation Policy

Drawing on the extensive ethnographic research I conducted on Italy’s performance evaluation system, this article highlights the cognitive biases associated with evidence use in decision making and institution working. Framing effects, status quo bias, motivated reasoning, and tacit conflicts between personal and organizational interests were only some of the behavioral phenomena policy makers, managers, and evaluators showed to limit their exposure to performance information. Integrating behavioral findings with theories of governance, evaluation utilization, and critical evidence–informed policymaking, this article discusses behavioral reform strategies to overcome (i) tacit conflicts of interests among evaluators, (ii) the compliance mentality with performance assessment among managers, and (iii) adversarial relationships between courts and administrative agencies as well as polarized politics with respect to evidence use and experts’ behavior. A behavioral design is relevant to reform evaluation policies, especially in countries where performance regimes have been criticized, contested, resisted, and/or perceived as red tape and surveillance mechanisms.

Learning From Failures: Lessons From Unsuccessful Grading Reform Initiatives

This article describes accounts of grading reform initiatives that while well-intentioned, met with staunch opposition and eventually were abandoned. The implementation strategies employed by the leaders of these reform initiative are explored, along with reasons these strategies failed to result in meaningful and enduring change. Alternative grading reform strategies with supporting evidence are offered, justification for their use explained, and new directions for grading reform initiatives recommended.

Teachers’ Organizations and Educational Reform: Resistance and Beyond

This paper presents case studies of teacher union-government relationships in three Canadian provinces – British Columbia, Ontario, and Alberta – where teacher organizations have undertaken divergent strategic positions relative to educational reform. It identifies critical factors that may lead teacher unions to challenge government reforms, how and when a teacher organization might instead accommodate governmental reform, and under what circumstances union renewal drives an organization to establish reform strategies of its own. The paper demonstrates the results of these varied strategies and suggests that teacher unions’ stances, including when they are resistant, are rational and, arguably, necessary.

Use of Risk Assessments in Pretrial Supervision Decision-Making and Associated Outcomes

Despite the growing use of both pretrial risk assessment and supervision as pretrial reform strategies, there has been limited investigation on the effectiveness of risk assessment-informed pretrial supervision. We conducted a multi-site, retrospective investigation in 1,505 pretrial defendants from four local jurisdictions to examine risk assessment-informed pretrial supervision decisions and associated pretrial misconduct outcomes. Our findings showed pretrial supervision decisions were generally consistent with structured guidelines and defendant risk classifications. Use of bond and electronic monitoring had little impact on pretrial misconduct. However, more frequent pretrial monitoring was associated with higher rates of pretrial misconduct across all risk levels. Reducing supervision conditions and monitoring for low-risk defendants, in particular, may help reduce rates of misconduct in pretrial populations.

Refusing to Kiss the Slipper

Refusing to Kiss the Slipper re-examines the Reformation in francophone Europe, presenting for the first time the perspective of John Calvin’s evangelical enemies. This book brings together a cast of Calvin’s opponents from various French-speaking territories to show that opposition to Calvinism was stronger and better organized than has ever before been recognized. It examines individual opponents, such as Pierre Caroli, Jerome Bolsec, Sebastian Castellio, Charles Du Moulin, and Jean Morély, but more importantly, it explores the anti-Calvinist networks that developed around such individuals. Each group had its own origins and agenda, but all agreed that Calvin’s claim to absolute religious authority too closely echoed the religious sovereignty of the pope. These oft-neglected opponents refused to offer such obeisance—to kiss the papal slipper—arguing instead for open discussion of controversial doctrines. This book also shows that the challenge posed by these groups shaped the way the Calvinists themselves developed their reform strategies. The book demonstrates that the breadth and strength of the anti-Calvinist networks requires us to abandon the traditional assumption that Huguenots and other francophone Protestants were universally Calvinist.

Incrementalism and Its Alternatives

This chapter discusses how a classic perspective of public policy and public administration, incrementalism, contributes to questions of the politics of time. It argues that the contribution of incrementalism is not limited to emphasizing the advantages of small-scale and stepwise policy or institutional changes compared to comprehensive reform strategies. Beyond this, the chapter shows how contributions from diverse fields, ranging from comparative politics and behavioral insights to urban planning, develop the concept of incrementalism, and how these approaches can enrich debates on policy and institutional change. In particular, the common image of incrementalism as subservient to existing power structures is challenged. Linking the varieties of incrementalism to questions of politics of time helps to develop these insights.