VI National and Area Studies / Études Nationales et Régionales
| DOI | 10.1177/0020834519880806 |
| Date | 01 October 2019 |
| Published date | 01 October 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Abstracts |
689
VI
NATIONAL AND AREA STUDIES
ÉTUDES NATIONALES ET RÉGIONALES
69.6694 ABOU-CHADI, Tarik ; FINNIGAN, Ryan — Right for same-
sex couples and public attitudes toward gays and lesbi-
ans in Europe. Comparative Political Studies 52(6), May
2019 : 868-895.
This article investigates how changes in same-sex rights affect attitudes
toward homosexuality. We argue that different same-sex relationship
policies vary in their impact. Whereas registered partnership laws con-
struct a distinct target population that receives new benefits, marriage
equality sends an unambiguously positive signal and reduces the per-
ceived group difference through inclusion into existing rights. As a con-
sequence, marriage equality should have a positive effect on attitudes
toward homosexuality, whereas partnership laws should have much less
positive effects and could even lead to backlash among some groups.
Combining data from eight waves of the European Social Survey with
data on legislation, we analyze the effects of same-sex marriage, regis-
tered partnerships, and marriage bans on attitudes toward gays and
lesbians. Marriage has a positive effect, bans and registered partner-
ships have a negative effect. [R, abr.]
69.6695 ABOULTAIF, Eduardo Wassim ; TABAR, Paul — National
versus communal memory in Lebanon. Nationalism and
Ethnic Politics 25(1), 2019 : 97-114.
The aim of this article is to distinguish between two levels of collective
memory in Lebanon: the national memory, which is a very weak and
fragile mem ory, and the communal memory of sectarian groups. Each
community in Lebanon enjoys a memory of its own, which it tries to
elevate to the national memory, but at the same time intra-sectarian
groups contest their internal memories with others. Hence, we see that
communities try to force the state to adopt their respective memories,
while internally groups tend to eliminate their competitor’s memory and
communal narrative. [R] [See Abstr. 69.6738]
69.6696 ABURAMOTO, Mari — The politics anti-corruption cam-
paigns in Putin’s Russia: power, opposition, and the All-
Russia Russia People’s Front. Europe-Asia Studies 71(3),
Apr. 2019 : 408-425.
The beginning of Vladimir Putin’s third term was characterized by the
politicization of corruption. Opposition forces focused on corruption and
criticized the regime for tolerating it. This article explores how the regime
reacted to opposition criticism. The regime encountered a dilemma: it
could not ignore the opposition but promoting anti-corruption reforms
was risky for the regime. This study focuses on the regime’s use of the
All-Russia People’s Front (Obshcherossiiskii Narodnyi Front — ONF)
and concludes that it functioned as a “parastatal” anti-corruption move-
ment, enabling the regime to deflect the blame without directly involving
itself in the process. [R]
69.6697 AHMED, Sheikh Masud — Non-traditional security threats
of Bangladesh: challenges and policy options. BIISS
Journal 39(2), Apr. 2018 : 163-185.
The paper provides a brief conceptual understanding of the term NTS
[Non-traditional Security] by delineating different explanations of the
concept by renowned scholars and experts. It is argued that NTS is a
useful framework of analysis to operationalize the concept of security in
economic, social, political and internal security contexts. The paper also
provides some arguments as to the need for “prioritization” in curbing
various NTS threats of Bangladesh, given the country’s limited resources
and capabilities. [R, abr.]
69.6698 AIYAR, Yamini ; KAPUR, Avani — The centralization vs
decentralization tug of war and the emerging narrative of
fiscal federalism for social policy in India. Regional and
Federal Studies 29(2), Apr. 2019 : 187-217.
This paper examines the relationship between fiscal federalism and
social policy in India through an analysis of the effects of a recent effort
to increase fiscal decentralization to state governments on the nature of
social policy investment at the sub-national level. Through its analysis,
this paper highlights the persistence of a strong centralisation bias in
India’s fiscal architecture for social policy. We trace this centralisation
bias to the political and administrative dynamics of the federal bargain.
The peculiar dynamics of this bargain have created a context where the
core goal of centralization — to ensure equity — is undermined while the
expectation of decentralization — greater accountability through align-
ment of expenditure with local needs and preferences, fails to take root.
[R, abr.] [See Abstr. 69.6787]
69.6699 AJEFU, Joseph Boniface ; ABIONA, Olukorede — Impact of
shocks on labour and schooling outcomes and the role
of public work programmes in rural India. Journal of De-
velopment Studies 55(6), June 2019 : 1140-1157.
The effectiveness of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
(NREGS) on rural labour market dynamics in India has been widely
debated in the literature. However, the impact of the NREGS on non-
agricultural labour market and children schooling outcomes in reference
to exogenous rainfall shock is unclear from the existing literature. This
paper exploits the Indian National Sample Survey and rainfall measures
from the precipitation archive of the University of Delaware to investigate
the role of the NREGS in the labour market and schooling outcomes of
children during shocks. Using a difference-in-differences methodology,
we focus on disaggregated shock specification and find a shock-
cushioning pattern for the NREGS during negative shocks. However,
there is an excess demand for labour during positive shock periods
resulting from exposure to the NREGS. The implication is that the excess
informal labour market opportunity translates to a reduction in school
engagement for children. [R, abr.]
69.6700 AKHMETKARIMOV, Bulat — Islamic practice and state
policies towards religion in post-Soviet Russia. Religion,
State and Society 47(2), Apr. 2019 : 180-197.
What has the Russian state policy towards Islam been in the first two
decades after the Soviet collapse, and how has it affected Islamic prac-
tice in the country? This study explores Russian state policies towards
religion from 1990 to 2017 and discusses their impact on Islamic practice
in the country. In the 1990s, relations between the Russian state and
Islam (state-Islam relations) were accommodationist: the state granted
unrestricted access in the Russian public sphere for all Muslim communi-
ties and allo wed a wide range of Islamic religious practices. State-Islam
relations in the 2000s became increasingly regulatory: the state assumed
a more active interventionist role in the affairs of the domestic Islamic
community in order to control religious practices of certain Muslim fac-
tions and to ensure privileged access in the Russian public sphere for
state-approved ‘traditional’ religious organisations. [R, abr.] [See Abstr.
69.6482]
69.6701 Al-SHAMMARI, Nayef ; WILLOUGHBY, John — Determi-
nants of political instability across Arab Spring coun-
tries. Mediterranean Politics 24(2), Apr. 2019 : 196-217.
This paper investigates the determinants of political instability across
Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region with special attention to the
Arab Spring-affected region. The yearly data-set covers 19 countries in
the MENA region for the period 1991-2014. The study uses pooled
ordinary least square (OLS), fixed effect and random effect approaches.
Our most robust result indicates that political instability in the region is
very sensitive to exogenous food price shocks. Youth unemployment and
regime durability are also strong predictors of unrest. The frustrated
educated youth explanation of the Arab Spring is, however, not borne out
by our study. The connection between the presence of democratic
institutions and political unrest is more complex. Our results confirm
other studies which find that more democracy leads to less unrest. On
the other hand, our focused study of five Arab Spring countries and
Egypt finds the reverse. [R, abr.]
69.6702 ALCANTARA, Christopher ; KALMAN, Ian — Diversifying
methodologies: a Haudenosaunee/settler approach for
measuring indigenous-local intergovernmental success.
Canadian Journal of Political Science 52(1), March 2019 : 21-
38.
Intergovernmental agreements between municipal and Indigenous
governments are rapidly expanding in number and importance in Canada
and the US, yet they remain underexamined in the literature. This article
considers how to measure the success of these agreements. It takes as
a case study the port divestiture agreement between the City of Cornwall
(Ontario, Canada), and a neighbouring Indigenous government, the
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