III: Governmental and Administrative Institutions/Institutions Politiques et Administratives
| Published date | 01 February 2016 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002083451606600103 |
| Date | 01 February 2016 |
| Subject Matter | Abstracts |
40
III
GOVERNMENTAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INSTITUTIONS
INSTITUTIONS POLITIQUES ET ADMINISTRATIVES
(a) Central institutions /Institutions centrales
66.391 ALBERTUS, Michael — The role of subnational politicians
in distributive politics: political bias in Venezuela’s land
reform under Chávez. Comparative Political Studies 48(13),
Nov. 2015 : 1667-1710.
This article examines how the partisanship of empowered subnational
politicians can affect within-district benefit distribution. I present a theory
of the role of subnational politicians in distributive politics, and then test
this theory on a distributive Venezuelan land reform initiative by leverag-
ing unique individual-level data on revealed voter preferences and the
receipt of particularistic benefits. Using data from a list of millions of
voters who signed petitions to recall former President H. Chávez, I match
information on recent land-grant applicants to petition-signers to meas-
ure how political preferences affect the likelihood of applying for and
receiving land, and how state governors condition this relationship. I find
evidence for both strategic core-voter targeting and blockage of benefits
to opposition voters. These effects, however, are modified by the political
affiliation of governors. [R, abr.]
66.392 ALBRECHT, Peter — The chiefs of community policing in
rural Sierra Leone. Journal of Modern African Studies 53(4),
Dec. 2015 : 611-635.
This paper argues that when police reform in Sierra Leone was instituted
to consolidate a state system after the country's civil war ended in 2002,
it reproduced a hybrid order instead that is embodied by Sierra Leone's
primary local leaders: paramount and lesser chiefs. In this sense, polic-
ing has a distinctly political quality to it because those who enforce order
also define what order is and determine access to resources. The hybrid
authority of Sierra Leone's chiefs emanates from multiple state-based
and localized sources simultaneously and comes into play as policing
takes place and police reform moves forward. This argument is substan-
tiated by an ethnographic exploration of how and with what implications
community policing has been introduced in Peyima, a small town in Kono
District. [R, abr.]
66.393 ALIMONTE, Roberto d’ — The new Italian electoral sys-
tem: majority-assuring but minority-friendly. Contempo-
rary Italian Politics 7(3), 2015 : 286-292.
Italy’s new electoral system for parliamentary elections — the third since
1993 — will come into force on 1 July 2016, replacing the present pro-
portional system for the Chamber of Deputies, but not that for the Sen-
ate. A constitutional reform, under way, aims at transforming the Senate
into a second chamber without the authority to consider motions of
confidence, and limited powers. The new electoral system — nicknamed
the Italicum — is a majority-assuring system agreed upon by the leader
of the Democratic Party, M. Renzi, and the leader of Forza Italia, S.
Berlusconi. Thanks to a seat bonus, it guarantees an absolute majority
(of 340 seats) to the list that obtains at least 40% of the votes or to the
list winning a run-off if no list wins 40% at the first round. [R, abr.] [See
also Gianfranco PASQUINO, “Italy has yet another electoral law”, pp.
293-300]
66.394 ALTSCHULER, Bruce E. — Is the Pentagon Papers case
relevant in the age of WikiLeaks? Political Science Quar-
terly 130(3), Fall 2015 : 401-423.
The author revisits the Pentagon Papers case to determine its relevance
in the internet age. He argues that the emergence of independent leak-
ers with access to the internet has shifted greater responsibility on the
mainstream media to practice self-restraint and to decide what to pub-
lish. The emergence of independent leakers has also accelerated prose-
cutions by the B. Obama administration. [R]
66.395 ALVARADO ESPINA, Eduardo — Exclusión, oligarqui-
zación y desafección política. Los efectos del sistema
binominal en la democracia chilena (Exclusion, oligar-
chization and political disaffection. The effects of the bi-
nominal [electoral] system on Chilean democracy). Re-
vista Enfoques 22, July 2015 : 11-37.
To evaluate the performance and quality of a democratic system we
must analyze the electoral system. From the first post-dictatorship
parliamentary elections in Chile in 1989, the process of appointing politi-
cal representatives to parliament has been mediated by a binominal
magnitude (M=2) electoral system. This originated in the military dictator-
ship and has made political representation disproportionate, resting,
almost exclusively, on two major electoral arguments. This is a system
that has reduced competition for political power to a logic of agreements
between two parties. This paper reviews these issues on order to dem-
onstrate that the demobilization of the electorate, the institutional closure
of the petrified party system existence and the consolidation of two
powerful political elites are the institutional expression of the exclusionary
effects, oligarchic and disaffection, that cause the binominal system. [R]
66.396 AMERY, Fran — Solving the “woman problem” in British
abortion politics: a contextualised account. British Journal
of Politics and International Relations 17(4), Nov. 2015 : 551-
567.
In 2011, Parliament debated an amendment to the [UK] government's
Health and Social Care Bill which would have mandated that abortion
counseling be provided by independent organizations. While many
attacked the amendment as anti-feminist, its principal sponsor, N. Dor-
ries, claimed to be acting on behalf of women. This article argues that a
historical approach may be fruitfully utilized in order to make sense of
such conflicting “feminist” claims. Through analysis of parliamentary
debates, it demonstrates that when historical and discursive context is
taken into account, the Dorries amendment can be viewed as part of a
broader attack on the foundations of the 1967 Abortion Act. This histori-
cal approach also allows the contributions of pro-choice women repre-
sentatives to be criticized as problematic attempts to reconcile a feminist
abortion politics with the status quo. [R]
66.397 APPLEBAUM, Anne — The Leninist roots of civil society
repression [in the USSR]. Journal of Democracy 26(4), Oct.
2015 : 21-27.
East European communists inherited the Bolshevik obsession with
repressing any genuinely independent civil society groups. [R] [First of a
series of articles on “Authoritarianism goes global. Part II”. Part I: see
Abstr. 65.6324. See also Abstr. 66.268, 421, 516]
66.398 ARNOLD, Rainer — L’Etat de droit comme base du consti-
tutionnalisme européen (The constitutional state as the
foundation of European constitutionalism). Revue fran-
çaise de Droit constitutionnel 100, Dec. 2014 : 769-776.
Modern European constitutionalism is characterized by its anthropocen-
tric approach, by its conceptual convergence which increases on the
national, supranational, and conventional levels as well as by the Consti-
tutional State’s essential role. The first aspect expresses itself through
the individualization of constitutional law which finds its most fundamental
reference in the human being, his dignity, autonomy, and freedom. The
State’s legitimacy as well as that of any social organism with public
power, such as the EU, translates into a single purpose: to promote, both
directly and indirectly, the individual’s benefit. In addition to the tendency
towards individualization, there are a couple more noteworthy character-
istics of European constitutionalism, namely constitutionalization and
internationalization.
66.399 ARORA, Dolly — Trends in centre-state relations [in
India]. Administrative Change 41(2)-42(1), Jan.-Dec. 2014 :
50-72.
This paper [examines] the trends in center-state relations in post-
independence India in their varied manifestations over time, across
space, and along the specific context of issues. [After] a brief overview of
the constitutional framework of center-state relations, it looks at the
multiple strands of center-state relations and the mediating variables that
shape these. Section III underlines the challenges that face the center-
state relations in the emerging context. [R, abr.]
66.400 AUSTIN, Ian Patrick — Becoming a wealth management
centre and international relations implications: the Sin-
gapore policy approach and global and regional re-
Institutions politiques et administratives
41
sponses. Japanese Journal of Political Science 16(4), Dec.
2015 : 532-552.
Singapore's strategic play to secure international wealth-management
market-share has been very successful. Serious questions, however,
were raised in relation to this ascendency as the Global Financial Crisis
(GFC) drove the EU and the US to become proactive in clamping down
on tax evasion and other areas deemed to be undesirable within the
international financial system. This paper examines the Singapore
government's decade-long growth policy of its wealth management
sector, and how it has been impacted upon by international regulatory
responses. Further, it examines how in stark contrast to the EU and the
US, Indonesia has been far less successful in its diplomatic efforts to
have Singapore address financial diplomacy issues (tax evasion and ill-
gotten gains from corruption) in relation to Indonesian citizens residing in
Singapore. [R, abr.]
66.401 BABA, Kaori — Power and institutional change: re-
reforms of Latin American pension systems in a com-
parative perspective. Comparative Political Studies 48(14),
Dec. 2015 : 1847-1878.
During the final decade of the 20th c., many Latin American countries
enacted sweeping market-oriented pension reforms, introducing, at least
partially, private pension system based on defined contributions and
individual capitalization. Lately, however, many of these nations have
witnessed shifts in the reformed pension schemes. Why have these “re-
reforms” occurred? Why have they taken different forms in different
countries? This study explores the causes of divergent policy outcomes
of Latin American pension re-reforms from a comparative perspective.
My theoretical framework emphasizes the following two factors: (1) the
type of compromise made under the first-generation reforms and (2) the
pension policy-making process. The inquiry demonstrates the impor-
tance of a balance of pow er among pension stakeholders, which
emerged as a legacy of long-term political processes. [R]
66.402 BALFOUR, Lawrie — Reading Publius with Morrison and
Melville. Polity 47(4), Oct. 2015 : 550-557.
For scholars interested in what J. Frank calls “the outsize authority of the
Founders in our jurisprudence and our politics”, I propose reviewing the
legacies of The Federalist Papers from the vantages offered by Toni
Morrison and Herman Melville. I linger on three words — empire,
women, and slaves — that appear in Frank’s Publius and Political Imagi-
nation yet do more work than he explicitly allows. Passing references,
omissions, elisions, and unowned contradictions reveal how the Foun-
ders evoked figures of the conquered and the enslaved to support the
consolidation of the nation; they also suggest dimensions of the Foun-
ders’ imagination whose analysis could enlarge and sharpen Frank’s
argument about the Federalist’s formative and depoliticizing work. [R,
abr.] [See Abstr. 66.322]
66.403 BALI, Azad S. ; RAMESH, M. — Health care reforms in
India: Getting it wrong. Public Policy and Administration
30(3-4), July-Sept. 2015 : 300-319.
This article assesses India’s health policy reforms and argues that at
each juncture the policy instruments it utilized were inconsistent with the
goals it was trying to achieve. The health care sector required more
intervention than the central and state governments offered. The meagre
funds allocated to public health programs and the unwillingness and
inability of state governments to shoulder responsibility for primary and
secondary care led to the dominance of the private sector in delivery,
out-of-pocket financing, and fee-for-service payment to providers. Recent
reforms have made some progress in addressing the lacunae but are
handicapped by the pervasive dominance of the private sector which
severely limits the choice of policy tools available to the government. [R]
[See Abstr. 66.136]
66.404 BAROUD, Ziyad — L’État de droit : principal vaincu (The
rule of law [in Le banon], main defeat). Cahiers de l'Orient
120, Autumn 2015 : 19-26.
In the face of institutional vacancy, it is time to offer initiatives and alter-
natives in order to fill the void and bear a program, an action plan, a
vision. If Lebanese civil society claims to be an essential partner, any
revision of the system could take place only through a genuinely repre-
sentative assembly, therefore requiring an electoral law able to convey
this purpose wisely. [R] [Part of a thematic issue on “Lebanon 1975-
2015: 40 years of failures and hopes”, coordinated and introduced by
Lina ZAKHOUR. See also Abstr. 66.478]
66.405 BARTELS, Brandon L. ; O'GEEN, Andrew J. — The nature
of legal change on the US Supreme Court: jurisprudential
regimes theory and its alternatives. American Journal of
Political Science 59(4), Oct. 2015 : 880-895.
Jurisprudential regimes theory (JRT) posits that legal change on the US
Supreme Court occurs in a drastic, structural-break-like manner. Meth-
odological debates present conflicting evidence for JRT, which has
implications for the important law versus ideology debate. We first elabo-
rate two alternative theoretical perspectives to JRT — evolutionary
change and legal stability. Our analytical framework focuses on two key
substantive effects of jurisprudential categories on the Court's case
outcomes — relative differences between categories over multiple time
periods and longitudinal differences across time periods. Importantly,
different pieces of empirical evidence can provide support for different
dynamic processes. The extent to which “law matters” is not necessarily
tied to one particular model of legal change. Empirical analysis of up-
dated and backdated free expression data generates key findings consis-
tent with JRT, legal stability, and evolutionary change. [R, abr.]
66.406 BASSOK , Or — Interpretative theories as roadmaps to
constitutional identity: the case of the United States.
Global Constitutionalism 4(3), Nov. 2015 : 289-327.
Using the debate over the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act, I expose the identity dimension of various interpreta-
tive theories and analyze the differences between the roadmaps offered
by them. I argue that according to each of these roadmaps, courts’
authority to review legislation is required in order to protect a certain
vision of American constitutional identity even at the price of thwarting
Americans’ freedom to pursue their current desires. The conventional
framing of interpretative theories as merely techniques to decipher the
constitutional text or justifications for the Supreme Court’s countermajori-
tarian authority to review legislation and the disregard of their ide ntity
function is perplexing in view of the centrality of the Constitution to
American national identity. [R, abr.]
66.407 BAYRAKTAR, Alparslan — From energy security to energy
governance: Turkey’s role in a globalizing energy land-
scape. Insight Turkey 17(2), Spring 2015 : 45-56.
The logic of energy security is changing, with supply security being de-
emphasized, governance and collective solutions are being increasingly
emphasized. As issues of energy, climate change, sustainability, energy-
poverty have become thoroughly intermingled, the challenge of energy
security cannot be tackled merely by mercantilist, national, uni-
dimensional tools. Turkish energy transition is in a excellent position to
derive lessons from this security-governance supplantation and also be a
catalyst for the region as well as the globe. [R]
66.408 BÉAL, Vincent ; EPSTEIN, Renaud ; PINSON, Gilles — La
circulation croisée : modèles, labels et bonnes pratiques
dans les rapports centre-périphérie (Cross circulation:
models, awards and best practices in central-local rela-
tionships [Fran ce]). Gouvernement et Action publique 4(3),
July-Sept. 2015 : 103-130.
This article focuses on the circulation of urban policy models and “best
practices” and its influence on the reshaping of relationships between
states and local governments. It suggests that the increasing mobility of
practices, knowledge and initiatives in urban policies cannot be explained
only by the horizontal and transnational dynamics of urban policy-
making. It relies also on the restructuring of the state the ways in which
its policies are formulated and implemented at the local levels. By con-
sidering the National Program for Urban Renewal and the Sustainable
City Plan, the article highlights the emergence of a new model of central-
local relationships based on the state’s tracking of local “innovative” or
“exemplary” initiatives, and on their certification and diffusion. [R, abr.]
66.409 BENEDIKTER, Roland ; KAELIN, Lukas — European versus
American public spheres: negotiating differences and
similarities in times of crisis. Politics, Culture and Sociali-
zation 5(2), 2014 : 115-129.
The article compares the current status of public spheres in the US and
the EU. In the US, there is a real sense of nation and highly developed
media outlets, which reflect and amplify severely polarized left/right
political identities. In contrast, in (Continental) Europe, a true transna-
tional media sphere has not (yet) developed; media outlets remain
primarily national in orientation. We contend that the EU urgently needs a
genuine public sphere that would help transcend the existing twenty-eight
national identities. Unlike in the US, in Europe, cultural unification which
is the basis of the political project can’t consist of “melting” languages,
national myths, historic memories or ethnic habits, but only in the genera-
tion of a joint, multi-lingual, multicultural and multi-national public sphere.
[R, abr.]
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