Can Lockdown Reduce Infection Growth in Developing Countries? Evidence from COVID-19 Cases

Background: When crippled with COVID-19 infection, a substantial number of countries have adopted ‘lockdown’ or similar measures to suppress the spread. This instrument is often considered as the only viable option for curbing infection spread both in developed and developing countries; however, some experts have a cynical view on its effectiveness. Exploiting cross-country lockdown information, effectiveness of lockdown on slowing the pace of COVID-19 can be elicited. Methods: The study intends to understand whether lockdown or similar measures can suppress infection growth in developing countries. In this pursuit, the study uses panel regression-based difference in difference and GMM estimation method. Results: This study finds that lockdown type measures are not as effective in developing countries as in developed nations. Nevertheless, staying at home order, income support programs, and other social distancing measures are found to be effective for both developed and developing countries. Also, the timing of the lockdown is found to be vital. One the one hand, enforcing a nationwide lockdown too early, i.e., when cases are very low, may not yield expected outcome; on the other hand, enforcing lockdown too late is also ineffective. Conclusion:Even though this study does not find strong evidence of the effectiveness of lockdown in curbing infection growth in developing countries, these findings do not necessarily suggest that lockdown should not be enforced in developing countries. Rather it indicates that lockdown should be combined with other complementary measures such as contact tracing, extensive testing, income support for the poor, effective management of informal and migrant workers to make the lockdown effective. Merely declaring lockdown, without accompanying other must-have measures, will hurt the economy without contributing much to reducing the growth of infection.JEL Codes: H2, H3, I1, I3

Relationship between the Dark Triad and depressive symptoms

The Dark Triad (DT) is composed of three closely related personality traits: psychopathy, Machiavellianism and narcissism. These traits have been linked to emotional deficits. The aim of the present study was to analyze the relationship between the DT traits, including sub-dimensions, and depressive symptoms in order to identify those factors most strongly associated with the development of depression in individuals scoring high on DT. For these purposes, a total of 791 adults (M = 35.76 years; 24.91% males) completed a questionnaire battery including DT traits and depression measures. A positive significant correlation was found between psychopathy and Machiavellianism traits (total score and all sub-dimensions) and depressive symptoms. For narcissism, the direction of the correlation was dependent on the sub-dimension assessed. A model explaining 26.2% of the depressive symptoms scores was composed of the callous affect and criminal tendencies sub-dimensions of psychopathy, cynical view of human nature, which is a sub-dimension of Machiavellianism, and entitlement and self-sufficiency, which are sub-dimensions of narcissism. In addition, some of the relationships found between DT sub-dimensions and depressive symptoms appeared to depend on gender. Our results could have implications for detection and intervention programs aimed at decreasing the negative emotional consequences suffered by individuals with high DT scores. Limitations and future lines of research are discussed.

Democracy, Public Administration, and Public Values in an Era of Estrangement

This essay responds to the prevailing political environment of estrangement that can be seen in the growing distrust of public institutions, intensifying levels of political polarization, and rising support for populism, particularly in the United States. These trends have contributed to a diminished sense of publicness in public administration, including an erosion of public values and political legitimacy, and an increasingly cynical view of the value, role, and purpose of public service in the modern polity. We argue that public administration must respond actively to this estrangement and seek to repair and strengthen the links between democracy, public administration, and public values through scholarship, connections to practice and the public, and education.

‘A Jolly Romp We Were Always Destined to Win’: The BBC's ’Allo ’Allo! and British Memories of Downed Aircrew in Occupied France during the Second World War

The long-running BBC sitcom, ’Allo ’Allo!, has been thoroughly criticised for its use of various racial, gendered and sexualised tropes, not to mention its cynical view of the French experience of the Second World War. This article, however, reassesses the programme in light of what it highlights about the lived experience of Anglo-American airmen who were forced to bale from their planes over Occupied France. It uses the comedic aspects of the programme to investigate escape and evasion training, the use of language, ‘fitting in’ and the prominence of peasants in the wartime lives of Anglo-American aircrews in France. The programme, rather than being just another example of Gaullophobia, accurately represents some elements of the Second World War in France. In addition, changes in the plot over its nine seasons suggest that the sitcom reflects broader British concerns, as well as the Anglo-French relationship.

A darker shade of love: Machiavellianism and positive assortative mating based on romantic ideals

Machiavellianism is a personality trait that is characterized by manipulative and exploitative attitude toward others, lack of empathy, and a cynical view of human nature. In itself or as part of the Dark Triad it has been the target of several studies investigating romantic relations. Nevertheless, the relationship between Machiavellianism and romantic ideals has not been revealed yet. An undergraduate sample of 143 (92 females) with an average age of 19.83 years (SD = 1.51 years) filled out self-report measures of Machiavellianism (Mach-IV Scale) and romantic ideals (Ideal Standards Scale and NEO-FFI-IDEAL). According to our results, Machiavellianism correlated negatively with the importance of partner’s warmth-trustworthiness, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and with the importance of intimacy and loyalty in their ideal relationships. Machiavellianism correlated positively with the ideal partner’s possession over status and resources. Explorative factor analysis revealed three components of ideal partner’s characteristics. Machiavellianism loaded significantly on two out of three components. Results are discussed with regard to Ideal Standards Model and the Big Five model of personality.

Thrust with a Rapier and Run: The Critics and Preston Sturges

This chapter addresses two major questions in regard to the critical reception of the career and films of Preston Sturges. The first question is how Sturges’s public persona as a “madcap” personality working in the Hollywood studio system created a master narrative that both informed and influenced the critical reception of his films and thus proved to be a precursor to what would come to be identified as “auteur” criticism. This leads to a second question: how did the theme of public spectacle in both Sturges’s personal/professional life and in his films that take a satirical and/or cynical view of public figures, influence critical debates in regard to the director as “auteur,” as well as inciting theoretical debates regarding the final purpose and/or ideological effect of his comedies as satire and/or irony reflecting cynicism and/or nihilism? Finally, the chapter explores how a study of the ambivalence that marks the history of critical writing on both Sturges’s life and his films provides an insight into the cultural practice of film criticism itself. To that end, the chapter gives particular attention to the critical debates provoked by three films, The Great McGinty, Sullivan’s Travels, and Hail the Conquering Hero.

‘In Italy the dead rule’: Marco Bellocchio’s ‘Italian difference’ between Manzoni–Camerini and Bene–Godard

In his film The Wedding Director (2006), Marco Bellocchio expresses his view of the ‘Italian difference’ that demarcates this national tradition from others with the refrain ‘In Italy the dead rule.’ This adage is repeated throughout his film and provides the motivation behind it. For Bellocchio, the dead in question belong primarily, though not solely, to the Italian parochial heritage exemplified by Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed (1840), and in particular by Mario Camerini’s film adaptation of the same novel (1941). In The Wedding Director, Bellocchio enacts yet another, albeit eclectic, adaptation of these palimpsests, desecrating them and the values they supposedly stand for. Crowned by a happy ending, The Wedding Director surpasses its targets, advocating for their visual and conceptual inadequacy. This essay analyzes Bellocchio’s film using a theoretical approach that I see articulated in two critical texts and four creative instances. Firstly, I analyze The Wedding Director in light of the concepts that Gilles Deleuze used for Carmelo Bene’s adaptations of classic works; secondly, through Richard Neer’s 2007 reflections on Jean-Luc Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma. My analyses result in a dual interpretation of Bellocchio’s film. I argue that in The Wedding Director Bellocchio enters into conversation with and implements the ideas of the intellectuals and artists mentioned above. He sets off from the conclusion of Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2. Nevertheless, The Wedding Director is also marred by ambiguities that, although perhaps unavoidable, detract from his accomplishments. Those ambivalences involve the issue of gender relations, which – as Bellocchio himself declares – are at the core of his concerns in The Wedding Director. I argue that on the one hand Bellocchio’s film is an empowering Deleuzian or Godardian adaptation of Manzoni’s source text. On the other, it may also be construed as professing an opportunistic, if not downright cynical, view of gender relations. While the film presents the audience with a principled Deleuzian becoming-minority as a becoming-woman, it nonetheless declines the responsibility of distinguishing victim from perpetrator. By leaving this issue an open question for the audience to decide, the film renders the question ultimately insoluble. The goals that Bellocchio professes and the diagnosis he offers in The Wedding Director are valuable and deserve credit. Without question, the film is a stunning cinematographic feat. However, a self-indulgent streak undercuts the viewer’s satisfaction. Unless we surpass irony (as the film attempts), we, regardless of our gender, will hardly be free from the hold of the dead, be they Italian or of any other nationality.