Disenfranchised Not ‘Deficient‘: How the (Neoliberal) State Disenfranchises Young People

Young people's declining electoral participation has been considered a problem in a range of democracies, including Australia. In this paper I examine youth electoral participation through the eyes and voices of young marginalised Australians. In the policy arena young people's electoral participation is usually considered a subject for education policy. Here I make the case for considering it as an issue for social policy, and as a welfare issue. In this context I examine the effects of neoliberalism and Australia's shrinking welfare state on young people's citizenship and ability to access the franchise. Whilst acknowledging the liberal roots of neoliberalism I argue that whereas the neoliberal state identifies young people's political disengagement as a problem, and constructs participation using the language of ‘choice‘, that its own social policies act to create barriers to the franchise for young people and thus effectively disenfranchise them.     

Rethinking electoral reform in New Zealand: the benefits of citizens' assemblies

In 2011, New Zealanders decided by referendum to retain the mixed member proportional representation voting system. This article investigates the benefits of including a deliberative, participatory process in electoral reform to encourage collective debate and an informed choice by voters. In the last decade, Canada and the Netherlands have used citizens' assemblies, a form of participatory democracy, for electoral reform. This paper argues that a similar process would have been appropriate and valuable for New Zealand. Moreover, the discussion highlights the value of citizens' assemblies for minorities who can be outvoted in a referendum. This is considered with specific reference to voters in the Māori seats who had much at stake in the electoral reform. In addition to the general benefit of citizens' assemblies for electoral reform, a New Zealand assembly would have allowed for collective deliberation that ensured the inclusion of the perspectives of voters in the Māori seats.     

Changes of Electoral Politics under the Growing Wealth Gap in East Asia since the Global Financial Crisis: South Korea and China’s Taiwan in Comparison

Abstract

The economic recession caused by the global financial crisis of 2008 affected political change across the world in different ways. Economic and social problems turned into political crises in North Africa. In Europe and America, dissatisfaction over such problems caused social unrest but did not imperil the political order. In East Asia, where competitive party politics have just emerged, the financial crisis sparked a correlative political and economic reaction model involving economic recession—growing wealth gap—public policy transition in electoral politics. Major electoral campaigns over the past five years in China’s Taiwan, the Republic of Korea and other economies in East Asia indicate that prioritizing economic growth and equitable distribution are emerging to be common core issues in different parties’ electoral competition despite remnant historical questions and highly politicized issues. The new electoral politics based on public policy competition has gained greater space for development against the background of an economic recession and a growing wealth gap, and is exerting a profound influence on the political and economic development process in East Asia.     

The green vote in presidential elections: Past performance and future promise

The electoral impact of the environment issue has been debated for years. Thus far, evidence regarding the issue's electoral impact has concentrated on the 1996 presidential election. Two of the three inquiries into that contest found that the environment had a significant impact on voters’ candidate choices. In an effort to clarify the environment's electoral impact, this research expands the inquiry to include five presidential elections, 1984 through 2000. Findings indicate that the environment had a significant impact in four of these five elections—all but in 2000. The research goes on to examine reasons for variability in the environment's impact, concluding that candidates who play the role of environmental villain/adversary have a surprisingly important role in the issue's electoral strength.     

汉代少吏选拔资格考述

汉代少吏指汉代官僚群体中有百石、斗食、佐史之秩的低级官吏.汉代政府不仅从制度层面保证了汉代少吏的升迁渠道,而且为确保少吏队伍的基本素养,从用人源头上对少吏群体的选拔资格予以严格规定和限制,主要有五个方面：家赀限制;年龄限制;道德和才能标准;文字知识和晓习律令的方面限制以及对特殊群体的限制,即赘婿、贾人、吏坐赃者及其子孙.严格的选拔资格保障了汉代少吏的整体素质,从而为汉代社会创造了良好的吏治前提.     

Reliability of Information Aggregation with Regional Biases: A Note

Is there a rationale for an electoral college system or do these voting systems always waste useful information? This paper studies this question in a setup in which voting is supposed to aggregate decentralized information about individual preferences for two candidates. Individual perceptions may be affected by regional information. When such regional information plays a major role, an electoral college system may be superior to simple majority voting.     

Factors of regional poverty reduction in Colombia: Do institutional conditions matter?

Colombia has a unique history, which has been heavily conditioned by armed conflict lasting more than 50 years. This study examines the institutional conditions for success and failure in reducing poverty in Colombian departments by considering changes that took place between 2003 and 2014. Fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis identifies the changes in regional conditions that reduce poverty over time. The pathways for poverty reduction are multidimensional, and many involve changes in institutional attributes such as government transparency, absence of violence, and electoral turnout. The framework developed in this paper can be used to monitor necessary and sufficient pathways in regional clusters.     

K–Player Additive Extension of Two-Player games with an Application to the Borda Electoral Competition Game

In this note we introduce the notion of K–player additive extension of a symmetric two-player game and prove a result relating the equilibria in mixed strategies in the two games. Then we apply the result to the Borda electoral competition game.     

Organizing Across the Divide: Local Feminist Activism, Everyday Life, and the Election of Women to Public Office

Objectives . A disciplinary division of labor has discouraged research into the intersections between social movements and electoral participation. To address this gap, this study investigates the efforts of local women activists who organize around electing feminists to public office. Methods . Data was collected through participant observation and in–depth, unstructured interviews with 22 women active with a local chapter of the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC). Results . The study found that local Caucus women (1) experience everyday life politics in connection with electoral activity, (2) organize through both their own formal structure and a vast informal community–based organizational network, and (3) influence electoral activity in a seemingly candidate–centered environment. Conclusions . Local Caucus activists play a critical albeit less visible role in organizing feminist electoral influence. These findings suggest the importance of research that transcends disciplinary boundaries to investigate the interactions between nonparty grassroots activism and electoral activity.     

Anti-racism and the Limits of Equal Opportunities Policy in the Criminal Justice System

In this paper some of the evidence relating to the incidence of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system will be critically examined. It will be argued that equal opportunities policies have been adopted in the British case with the stated aim of tackling the exclusionary effects of racial discrimination. The notion of equal opportunities has been contested not least by those who have advocated anti-racist approaches towards discrimination. Anti-racism has been represented by some of its advocates as reflecting a critique of the authentic source of racism which is loosely defined in terms of social structure and capitalist social relations. The case for reconstituting anti-racism in such a way as to make it relevant to the lives of black offenders will be made. Finally, a framework for developing policies based upon the implementation of specific and clearly stated rights will be made.     

Three's a crowd? The Nader vote in the 2000 presidential, election in U.S. metropolitan areas

The 2000 U.S. presidential election resulted in one of the closest and most controversial outcomes in U.S. history. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader had little chance of winning, but nevertheless impacted the race in several close states and arguably swung the race from Al Gore to George W. Bush. This research examines Ralph Nader's “urban strategy” to win 5% of the vote for president and the bases of his electoral support. This study uses the METRO_2000 data set which contains a variety of publicly available variables for 276 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the year 2000. The analysis uses OLS regression to examine the determinants of the percentage of the vote for Nader in each MSA. The results indicate that the Nader vote was positively influenced by key electoral variables such as the level of electoral participation, whether Nader was on the ballot or could be written in, and the closeness of the race in state polls leading up to the election. The Nader vote was also higher in MSAs with high percentages of voters who supported Nader programs including environmentalists, those favoring universal health care and gay rights, union members, and MSAs that were college towns or with high percentages of college-educated voters. Ralph Nader's urban strategy effectively mobilized enough of his electoral base to impact the 2000 election, but electoral constraints and the closeness of the race prevented him from achieving his goal of attaining 5% of the vote. This case holds lessons about the limits and possibilities of third party campaigns in U.S. presidential elections.     

Relationships among the civic awareness,mobilization, and electoral participation of elderly people in Hong Kong

Given the significance of the elderly population in the burgeoning democratic politics of Hong Kong, research is necessary to elucidate the basis for elderly people’s electoral participation. Furthermore, questions regarding impacts of mobilization, and civic awareness on the participation are of important concern. In response to the questions, the present study is the first one surveying a representative sample of 831 Chinese elderly people (aged > 60) in Hong Kong. Using causal modeling techniques, it identified latent variables of civic awareness (including exposure to media on public affairs and political knowledge), electoral participation, and mobilization by politicians and estimated their relationships. Results showed that civic awareness had a strong effect on electoral participation and mobilization also had some significant effect. Electoral participation also appeared to be a function of the elderly person’s education, age, sex, community attachment, and membership in an elderly center. These findings suggest that Hong Kong elderly people’s electoral participation is subject to influence of power, both internally through civic awareness and education and externally through mobilization.     

Globalisation and the Politics of Persuasion and Coercion

This paper argues that an economic liberal discourse of globalisation has been pivotal to the policy‐making process in Australia over the past 15 or so years. Both Labor and Coalition Governments have aimed to restrict the electoral fall‐out from the process of restructuring by persuading Australians that the world economy has forced particular policy changes and made alternative economic policy choices unviable. Policy‐makers act to influence conceptions of the appropriate role and responsibilities of the state through persuasion – the rhetoric they speak – and coercion – the policies they make. The pervasiveness of globalisation rhetoric in the public sphere has been essential to the governing process as a complement to and buffer for the coercive impact of economic liberal policy changes. As Australia has shifted from a protectionist to an economically liberal policy structure, the effects of globalisation have become clearer. Liberalisation has intensified pressures from the world political economy and coerced changes in all areas of policy and the economy, as well as in public perceptions about the ‘limits of government’. Globalisation and economic liberalism as persuasion and coercion are the component parts of a restructured system of political and economic governance: a paradigmatic shift away from the economic protectionism of the first 80 years of Australian federalism.     

‘We’re Civil Servants’: The Status of Trauma-Informed Care in the Community

ABSTRACT

Trauma-informed care (TIC) in social service organizations means that the organizations operate with the understanding that everyone involved has possibly experienced trauma in their lifetime. This qualitative study examined local service organizations’ usage of the 5 main principles of TIC: safety, trustworthiness, collaboration, empowerment, and choice (as developed by Fallot & Harris, 2006). Ten focus groups (n = 69) and 6 individual interviews (n = 6) with employees from administration through management were interviewed such that almost all facets of each agency were represented. The participants were asked about their agencies’ policies and practices for utilizing the 5 principles of TIC. The results suggest that the vast majority of organizations in this study implemented many of the principles of TIC with clients, though they had not labeled their practices as “trauma-informed.” However, although clients were receiving TIC, some of the principles were neglected as they pertain to staff, such as choice and empowerment. The findings of this study suggest that agencies are unaware of the relevance of TIC as it relates to staff. It is recommended that future research examine whether the use of TIC in agencies prevents “burnout,” high turnover rates, and vicarious traumatization of staff.     

Populism? Minor parties and independents in the Australian Federal Parliament, 1945–2016

The election of four One Nation Senators at the 2016 Australian Federal election has been seen as part of a world–wide rise of populist movements that criticizes main stream politics and rejects pluralism, putting forward single concepts of “the people”, that the movements claim to represent. While it is clear that Australian voters, like voters elsewhere, have been seeking alternatives to the major parties, it is less clear that the preferred alternatives fit this populist framework. Australia provides a good case study as the Australian electoral system makes it relatively easy for independents and minor parties to be elected to Parliament. This paper examines all independents and minor party candidates successfully elected in 2016 and at previous Australian Federal elections to determine whether the alternatives to the main stream parties elected since 1945 fit anti-pluralist populist models. It is concluded that, with the exception of the One Nation Party, most of the independents and minor party candidates elected to the Australian Federal Parliament have not fitted such models. However many of those elected do present a challenge to the electoral claims of the major parties. The article concludes by considering the implications of these findings for representative democracy.     

Facilitating access to services for children and families: lessons from Sure Start Local Programmes

With the introduction of the highly publicized Sure Start Local Programme (SSLP) initiative in 1998, the UK government introduced a community‐based set of provisions targeted at families with children under 4 years who were living in some of the 20% most deprived and disadvantaged geographical areas in England. These programmes were designed to combat the adverse effects of poverty and disadvantage on the long‐term outcomes for children and families. One challenging dimension for programme development has been the facilitation of access to the services on offer in these programmes. Drawing on findings from the implementation module within the government‐commissioned National Evaluation of Sure Start, this paper examines the way in which SSLPs have sought to facilitate access to services for their local communities and to encourage community members to take up and continue using those services. This paper presents a detailed overview of programme activity in respect of access. It identifies a continuum of access and a model of three styles of parental service use. The paper highlights the implications of the SSLP implementation process for the development of subsequent related initiatives such as children’s centres and extended schools.     

The Evolution of Penal Policy in Canada

This paper reviews the evolution of penal policy in Canada in recent years. In many respects, Canada occupies a unique position with respect to criminal justice. The principal influence on penal policy development has been the United States, yet at the same time developments in the United Kingdom have also been important. One result is that policy development in recent years has tended to follow a middle path between the more extreme and radical American route (that has given rise to policies such as "three strikes" legislation) and the more conservative European reforms. Canada's policies with respect to punishment have been affected by a number of influences, including: the presence of advocacy groups; the reporting by the news media of high-profile tragedies such as the Montreal massacre of fourteen young women; the restrictions of budgetary constraints; and the intervention of several federal elections in which crime became an important electoral issue. In this respect, penal policy development in Canada echoes trends in other jurisdictions. The federal government, which is responsible for policy development (but not the administration of those policies) has attempted to pursue a dual-track policy. One branch of this policy has sought to reduce the use of imprisonment and thereby cut criminal justice expenditures. The other track has sought to placate public and political pressure on the government by introducing more repressive penal policies, including severe minimum penalties and higher maximum penalties for young offenders. This paper reviews recent developments in the critical areas of sentencing and parole, and draws some general conclusions about criminal justice policy development in this country.     

Eight years after – a follow‐up study of mothers and children at psychosocial risk who received early treatment: does early intervention leave its mark?

One‐hundred forty‐five mothers at psychosocial risk who, with their babies, had been given treatment at a parent–baby clinic during a 2‐year period starting in 1999, treatment designed to strengthen the mother–child relationship, were followed up 8 years later. Both the mothers who had agreed to take part in the treatment programme (n= 73) and those who had declined (n= 72) were searched for in the records of the Social Welfare office to determine if the treated mothers had been focused on to a lesser degree in the following 8 years than those who had declined treatment, a hypothesis that was initially put forward. The behaviour of the children whose mothers had undergone treatment (n= 46) was studied. The initial hypothesis had to be rejected; support and intervention from the social authorities had been equally common in both groups. However, the children of treated mothers had fewer externalizing behaviour than children of untreated mothers at psychosocial risk.     

Language Provisions Under the Voting Rights Act: How Effective Are They?*

Objectives. As the Voting Rights Act (VRA) comes up for renewal in 2007, its effects on the political incorporation of groups other than African Americans will be of key importance in any debate. Among the questions in any such discussion will be whether the language provisions of the VRA have helped enfranchise “linguistic minorities” in the United States, or whether their effect has been largely symbolic. Second, if the Voting Rights Act has had a positive impact on the participation rates of Asian Americans and Latinos, have these effects been tilted toward first‐generation immigrants—who were not the intended beneficiaries of the Act—rather than native‐born minorities? Methods. This article looks at registration and voting data from the November 1996 and 2000 Census Current Population Supplemental Voting Surveys to explore the differential impact of the Act among immigrants and the native born, and among Latinos and Asian Americans. Results. The analysis finds evidence that the language provisions of the Voting Rights Act have significant and positive effects on the voting rates of covered linguistic minorities. Conclusions. Because the voting rates of Asian and Hispanic Americans in the United States still lag behind those of the population as a whole, the effects of the VRA with respect to these groups are important considerations as Congress weighs the Act's renewal.     

Electoral Simultaneity: Expressing Equal Respect

The principle of simultaneity—that citizens should vote as far as possible at the same time—is more significant than is usually appreciated. It is based on a fundamental value of democratic theory, and it has substantial implications for electoral practice. It also invites further normative and empirical research.
The most important value that simultaneity expresses is a form of equality—equal respect. First, if citizens have only information they would have had if they were voting at the same time, the value of each citizen's choice is no greater than that of any other citizen. Second, when citizens go to the polls on the same day, publicly participating in a common experience of civic engagement, they demonstrate their willingness to contribute to the democratic process on equal terms. Taking simultaneity seriously has implications for electoral practices. It would limit the practice of media projections of election results, including the reporting of exit polls, and the calling of elections before all the polls close. It also casts doubt on the increasingly widespread use of early voting—absentee ballots and voting by mail. Early voting weakens the value of the experience of participating in a civic activity. Voting alone may be worse than bowling alone.