Search results for "Sociology and Political Science"
showing 10 items of 2215 documents
Optimal contract length for biodiversity conservation under conservation budget constraint
2014
We examine the optimal length of a contract period in a conservation program with payments for ecosystem services aiming at protecting biodiversity on privately owned forests. The government chooses the number of stands and the length of contracts so as to maximize biodiversity benefits under a binding conservation budget. We examine the implication of two alternative budgets: a separate budget for each period (periodic budget) or one budget that to be used in all periods (intertemporal budget). The impact of the budget type shows up in the fact that with intertemporal budget choice set is larger and more high quality stands are available for contracting. Based on theoretical characterizati…
Do terrorism, organized crime (drug production), and state weakness affect contemporary armed conflicts? An empirical analysis
2015
ABSTRACTIn 2014, the UN Security Council emphasized the dangers of terrorism, criminal activity (especially drug production and trafficking), and state weakness in conflict areas. However, neither policy debates nor scholarly analyses have focussed on the potential impact of these elements on conflict dynamics and characteristics, and the investigated partial relationships have led to inconclusive results. This article explores the presence in armed conflicts of terrorist groups among fighting parties, major drug production (indicating the presence of activities typical of criminal organizations), and state failure in the period 1990–2011. Focussing on intrastate conflicts, this article hig…
Young People and Political Activism in Moldova
2020
The election of a Socialist and pro-Russian candidate in December 2016 as president of Moldova marks a new turn in Moldovan politics. This is in contrast with the pro-Western attitudes of the previous government. Political instability and changing international orientations, as emphasized by this article, are partly due to political alternative victories of parties supported by different social groups. Focusing on young people's activism, the article underlines the differentiation between the political success made possible by street protests in April 2009 and the political failure in December 2016. The findings may add a new explanation to Moldova's permanent instability.
‘Less Stale, Only Slightly Less Male, but Overwhelmingly Less Pale’: the 2015 New Conservative Brexiters in the House of Commons
2019
AbstractThis article will study the new face of Conservative Euroscepticism in the House of Commons, with a special focus on the 2015 intake of MPs who were supposedly ‘less stale, male and pale’ and their attitudes to the British referendum on the EU. In this respect, this article will also take a specific interest in new Conservative Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) MPs who turned out to be more active on the ‘leave’ side of the referendum campaign, thus serving as a showcase for the party's strategy of ‘decontaminating’ the Brexit brand and its hyperglobalist geopolitical perspective.
Can Gender Equality Be Institutionalized?
1999
Institutional innovation can be understood as launching an institution within an intact institutional and cultural context. Such attempts of guided institutionalization pose a crucial built-in problem. The goal of institutional innovation is to create new routine-reproduced, taken-for-granted behaviour patterns. The means to reach this goal is rational, purposive action, which is the very opposite of routinized enacting. This immanent contradiction of institutional innovation is discussed on the basis of a comparative study on the introduction of gender quotas in Norwegian and German political parties. The analysis draws on more than 50 qualitative interviews with parliamentarians from bot…
Political interest furthers partisanship in England, Scotland, and Wales
2016
ABSTRACTAccording to much of the literature, partisanship in Britain exercises little independent influence on the vote but merely reflects voters’ prospective and retrospective evaluations of the parties’ performance with regard to their management of the economy, national security, and public services. In this view, partisanship comes close to Fiorina’s model of a “running tally” of political experiences. Similarly, Dalton’s notion of “cognitive mobilization” suggests that seeking out political information should undermine both the need for and the likelihood of party identification. Applying Mixed Markov Latent Class Analysis to the British Election Study Panel 1997–2000, we challenge th…
Constitutionalism and the Presidency in the Russian Federation
2003
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has emphasized the idea that the state should be a leading actor in post-Communist reconstruction. This chapter argues that constitutionalism, in the narrow meaning of the rule of law in the political process, coexists with a mildly authoritarian, state-oriented presidential regime such as the Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin. In Russian discourse, political reconstruction has been seen as cynical ‘political technology’ and Putin’s way to power is the primary example of such a kind of technology. The constitution and its interpretation by the Russian Constitutional Court give vast powers to the president. Under Yeltsin some attempts by the Duma …
Comparing Freedom House Democracy Scores to Alternative Indices and Testing for Political Bias: Are US Allies Rated as More Democratic by Freedom Hou…
2014
AbstractSeveral scholars have criticized the Freedom House democracy ratings as being politically biased. Do countries indeed incorrectly receive better ratings that have stronger political ties with the United States? This article tests whether differences between a number of alternative indices of democracy and the FH ratings can be explained in a systematic manner by variables that record relationships between the US and the countries under investigation. Differentiating between the periods before 1988 and after 1989, strong and consistent evidence of a substantial bias in the FH ratings is obtained for the former period. For the latter period, the estimates are less consistent, but stil…
Las normas ISO/IEC como mecanismos de responsabilidad proactiva en el Reglamento General de Protección de Datos
2021
El mercado de la certificación ha experimentado un auge sin precedentes tras la entrada en vigor y ulterior aplicación del RGPD. Ello obliga a poner de relieve la relevancia de estos mecanismos como elementos claves en la prevención de potenciales violaciones de la seguridad de los datos personales. En el presente trabajo examinamos cómo la naturaleza técnica de estos instrumentos ha cedido hacia su corregulación a los efectos de garantizar una adaptación efi ciente a los continuos cambios de una gran tipología de productos, servicios o sistemas. Pretende proporcionarse una panorámica holística sobre la práctica totalidad de estándares que afectan a las dimensiones de privacidad y protecció…
Sustainable growth and environmental catastrophes
2017
Abstract In the standard AK growth model we introduce the threat of an ecological catastrophe and study the consequences for the economic variables in the long-run. We extend the basic framework by considering two environmental externalities: the first one is local and gives account of the marginal damage from emissions flow; the second one is aggregate, or global, and relates to the extreme damage which may happen if the accumulated stock of pollutants is on the threshold of a worldwide catastrophe. In this context dominated by market failures, we focus on the socially optimal solution and the search of conditions for sustainability. We identify the efficient balanced growth path, which ma…