Brazil's International Development Co‐operation: Old and New Motivations

Brazil has entered the world of development assistance, but with its own twist. This article argues that Brazil is taking a cross‐government policy approach to the provision of development assistance, and which includes recruitment of business interests. There is a genuine concern with global poverty alleviation in Brazil, but this does not preclude policy‐makers from using aid and development‐related activities to advance national interests. The added quirk that sets Brazil apart from Northern counterparts is that the provision of development assistance offers significant benefits in terms of building up international bureaucratic experience inside the country and helping national firms internationalise their market activities.     

The Effects of Perceived Islamophobia on Group Identification and Acculturation Attitudes

This study examines the effects of perceived Islamophobia on group identification and acculturation attitudes in a sample of Turkish Canadians. We tested the rejection‐identification model (RIM) and the rejection‐disidentification model (RDIM) to examine how perceived Islamophobia affects religious and national identification. The study also explores whether perceived Islamophobia, national identification, and religious identification have any impact on the acculturation attitudes of Turkish immigrants. All relationships were investigated using path analysis. The results suggest that perceived Islamophobia does not affect religious or national identification. Results also show that perceived Islamophobia positively predicts endorsement of marginalization as an acculturation strategy. National identification predicts higher levels of integration and assimilation and lower levels of separation. Those who report higher religious identification are more inclined to prefer separation.     

Inverting the boomerang: examining the legitimacy of North–South–North campaigns in transnational advocacy

The boomerang model is typically used to describe campaigns in which international NGOs respond to requests from local activists, often from marginalized populations, for assistance in addressing local needs. Such campaigns are perceived to represent local interests and have some accountability to local actors. However, while the local–international–local pattern is often accurate, it does not capture the full spectrum of campaign development. This article theorizes an international–local–international or ‘inverse’ boomerang, in which international NGOs facing an international policy blockage initiate a transnational campaign, recruiting local activists to assist in the international advocacy effort. The article demonstrates the theory's plausibility using several cases of Northern‐initiated advocacy. It then examines the implications of the model for campaign legitimacy. It finds that inverse boomerang campaigns benefit from the same presumptions of legitimacy as traditional boomerang campaigns, but that representivity and accountability are substantially weaker, potentially disempowering the campaigns' claimed stakeholders.     

After the End of History

Over the last century, the national approach has been the mainstream conception leading superpowers’ foreign policy, while the end of the Cold War brought about the worldwide multiplication of local conflicts. This differs from the past as this extensive international fragmentation urgently requires the adaptation of a new theoretical model to current international relations. This implies the re-consideration of some basic concepts such as national sovereignty, whose traditional fixed borders tend now to blur with a set of overlapping clusters of jurisdictional, economic, political, cultural interests.     

VOLUNTARY DISCLOSURE AND EARNINGS EXPECTATIONS IN MULTI-LEVEL MARKETING

Multi-level marketing (MLM) firms recruit individuals into a business opportunity but are not required to disclose the earnings of past participants. Some MLMs voluntarily create income disclosures, which may serve both marketing and risk-management functions. We create an economic experiment to explore the impact of MLM income disclosure on consumer interest and expectations. Results suggest that disclosure does not significantly alter interest in the business opportunity but does reduce expectations, on average, when subjects are asked to estimate annual income in a lab environment. We discuss findings in the context of current regulatory policy. (JEL D18, D82, M38)     

THE VALUE OF THE VOTE: A MODEL AND TEST OF THE EFFECTS OF TURNOUT ON DISTRIBUTIVE POLICY

This article demonstrates important effects of voter participation. A model shows why, for some types of distributive policy, incumbents are more likely to be reelected if high-turnout regions receive more funds than do low-turnout regions. The model predicts, therefore, greater allocations to high-turnout regions. This prediction is tested with county-level data from the New Deal's Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). The estimates suggest that by voting rather than not voting, an individual increased by about $30 the expected FERA allocation for the individual's county. The size of the estimated effect differs across states. ( JEL D72, N42)     

A Study of Local Incorporation of Migrant Professionals in Wroclaw

The aim of this article is to explore the patterns of local incorporation of migrant professionals in an urban context. It focuses on Wroc?aw, a Polish city that is not a traditional migration destination. Drawing on qualitative research, the article analyses migrant trajectories of local incorporation in the context of their reasons for relocation, experiences and perspectives. The article shows the irrelevance of ethnic networks for local incorporation. It demonstrates the role played by the workplace and the Internet, which allows forming sociabilities based on commonalities and shared interests, irrespective of cultural differences. It also shows the inconsistency of the city's policies and calls for policy revision. The article concludes that Wroclaw's policy seems not to correspond with the specificity of professional migration. It is argued that the city's policy is based on sedimentary and assimilationist logic that does not take into account migrants’ reasons for relocation and perspectives.     

Representational Roles of Nonprofit Advocacy Organizations in the United States

This research explores what roles nonprofits play in political representation by applying the concept of the representational role to nonprofits. The representational role consists of representational focus and style. Representational focus shows those whom nonprofits aim to serve: members, constituents, or the general public. Representational style denotes the ways nonprofits advocate for their focal groups: the delegation, trusteeship, and education styles. The survey and regression analysis results demonstrate that nonprofits serving their members are most likely to convey their members’ voices directly to policy makers: the delegation style. In contrast, nonprofits advocating for their constituents are likely to pursue what they independently identify as their constituents’ interests: the trusteeship style. Finally, nonprofits speaking for the general public are most likely to work toward educating the general public: the education style. These results suggest that nonprofits play different roles in political representation, depending on the types of their focal groups.     

Beyond Study Abroad: A Human Rights Delegation to Teach Policy Advocacy

Advancement of human rights is a core competency in the social work curriculum. Presented is a model to teach policy practice from a human rights perspective based on a violence-against-women delegation visit to Guatemala. Postdelegation policy advocacy responses included White House and State Department briefings on the problems, including femicide. Case examples of witnessed testimony about human rights violations, including rape, femicide, and human trafficking, reflect the unique and dynamic nature of social work practice in a global context. We link Council on Social Work Education core competencies in policy practice and human rights to experiential learning strategies used by the delegation and derive lessons learned to advance human rights education for the profession.     

The regional consequences of economic restructuring: the West Coast, New Zealand (1984–1991)

This paper focuses on the local implications of the state's response to crisis under global capitalism. New Zealand, one of a small number of European settler, primary producer economies, performed relatively poorly through the post-war long boom. A new government in 1984 sought to rectify this through an intensive programme of deregulation and state sector restructuring. This, however, was carried out without consideration of the impacts of policy on people in places, whose interests were assumed to coincide with the ‘national interest’. The local effects of the restructuring of both state and private sector capital are traced through a study of the West Coast of the South Island, a remote rural region, formerly dependent on extractive activity and state sector employment. The importance of understanding the interaction of local, national and global forces in assessing the outcome of restructuring is shown, and the need to understand the specificity of place in accounting for people's reactions to restructuring is underlined. The state is now reliant on a model of ‘enterprise’ to counter continued disinvestment, the validity of which requires ongoing research.     

Policy networks and the implementation of community care policy for people with mental handicaps

Although community care has been the professed policy of successive governments over three decades, according to the Prime Minister's own adviser, Sir Roy Griffiths, 'in few areas can the gap between political rhetoric and policy on the one hand or between policy and reality in the field on the other hand have been so great'. This paper examines the extent and causes of this 'implementation gap' in respect of services for people with mental handicaps--a consistent priority group for national policymakers. We examine centre-periphery relations in the health and personal social services in the light of Rhodes' power-dependence framework and his concepts of policy networks and policy communities. The NHS has been described as the archetypal professionalised policy network but we conclude that it is possible to account for implementation failures in community care only partly in terms of the dominance of the medical professions' values and interests and the deficiencies of accountability and control due to clinical autonomy. Such failures are due also to the inherently limited power of the centre. Sub-central units are not merely its meek agents. Moreover, the centre must explicitly structure local environments by itself providing a coherent framework of service and resource policies compatible with the national objectives it is seeking to achieve.     

MODERNIZATION IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA: THE POLITICIZATION OF THE ELDERLY

The rapid modernization in the People's Republic of China (PRC) allows us to identify some of the principles that underlie the changes in State-managed economies and their affects on the elderly. Modernization theory predicts that traditionally high status of the elderly declines with industrialization. This theory's difficulties can be overcome by using the variables of the "state" and the political economy by developing a model of "bureaucratic politics" and the "state" which explains "how" the status of the elderly changes through the interplay of competing interests within the society and thus may "increase" or "decrease" as the society modernizes. This research is based on data collected in the PRC between 1981–1986. Since 1978 there have been three major reform efforts; each has consequences for the elderly: (1) economic, (2) bureaucratic, and (3) population. In order to achieve them, programming for elderly is occurring: (1) retirement pensions and medical care, (2) homes for the aged, and (3) special activities to use the "left over energy" of the elderly. The future importance of the elderly in China will depend on their consequences for (1) the developing economy, (2) the bureaucratic politics of the Party and the State, and (3) other agendas of the State the implicate the elderly.     

Conflicts about water: A case study of contest and power in Dutch rural policy

The Dutch countryside forms the scene for pressing problems of management and allocation of land and water. These problems underscore the need for comprehensive rural policies. For that purpose, area-based rural policy has been initiated. This new policy is part of a larger policy shift, labelled in literature as ‘new rural governance’. Area-based rural policy co-ordinates the different interests of stakeholders and establishes consensus-based solutions. In this article we question this claim. We analyse the conflicts, rationalities and interests within a Dutch rural planning project. This project displays a power struggle in which actors try to (de)construct legitimacy. This observation contrasts sharply with the consensual rationality on which area-based policies are founded. Therefore, we conclude that a tension exists between ‘what should be done’ and ‘what is actually done’ in Dutch rural policy. Area-based policy does not guarantee the establishment of consensus among rural stakeholders. Therefore, Dutch area-based policies need to be contextualised to purposefully address spatial rural problems.     

The Diverging Logics of Integration Policy Making at National and City Level

This paper examines the institutional logics of migration policy making at local city level, comparing four Danish municipal approaches. Using a theoretical framework on political opportunity structures, policy frames, and institutional logics, the paper argues that divergences between national and local level can be explained not only as an unsuccessful transposition of nationally formulated policies, but also as an outcome of divergence in alternative and competing policy frames, political rationales, and institutional logics. Investigating factors such as size, economy, and organizational structure, the paper offers three interrelated explanations for divergences between national and local level and between different local approaches. The paper argues that the difference in national and local level political opportunity structures makes a difference; that ideas diffused from outside the national context can inform local‐level policy making; and that policies are situated within and adjusted to the broader cultural economy and city branding as part of competition between cities.     

Restoring Law and (Racial) Order to the Old Dominion

In 2006, cities and counties across the USA began adopting ‘Illegal Immigration Relief Acts’ to relieve themselves of the economic and social burden that undocumented immigrants were allegedly presenting. By restricting the access of undocumented residents to housing, jobs and social services, local ordinances would encourage undocumented residents to ‘self-deport’ from the locality if not from the nation. Highly contentious, politically and juridically, local anti-illegal immigration laws have divided communities. Proponents maintain that such laws merely uphold the ‘rule of law’, while opponents see them as thinly veiled efforts to drive out Latin American residents, with immigration status serving as a proxy for race. A growing body of scholarship examines local anti-immigrant law and offers significant insights into the causes and undeniably racialized effects of these laws. Yet the issue of racism requires more scholarly attention. Critical race theory holds that all racisms are historically particular and must be examined as expressive of particular conjunctures. To that end, this essay develops a theoretically informed and historically grounded analysis of local anti-immigration law. It establishes local and national interests in local anti-immigrant law and explains how these interests converge. Through a case study of Prince William County (PWC), Virginia, I examine local anti-immigrant activism and connect them to larger political shifts in the contemporary USA. I argue that local white propertied interests converge with national conservative and federalist interests in the county's anti-illegal immigrant law. The essay seeks to demonstrate the value of bringing cultural studies methodology to bear on (local) immigration law.     

THE ROLE OF THE MEDIAN LEGISLATOR IN U.S. TRADE POLICY: A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

In this historical analysis of U.S. trade policy, we apply the median voter model to explain legislative decision making. In this model, the level of tariff protection is expected to change with changes in the median legislator. We show that this simple model does a remarkable job if explaining trade policy until the mid-1930s, when it breaks down. We offer several possible explanations for the breakdown of this model, focusing particularly on the impact of domestic and international institutional changes that may have altered the role of the median legislator in trade policy formation.     

Multiculturalism and welfare state integration: Swedish model path dependency

The present article offers an account of Swedish integration policies in the post-war period. The theoretical purpose is to assess Christian Joppke’s hypothesis that recent trends of integration policy convergence have rendered the national model approach analytically useless. The analysis shows that Sweden deviates, in some important respects, from the European trend by not formulating demands that link integration achievements to immigrants’ access to fundamental rights. The conclusion is that the Swedish case does not support Joppke’s hypothesis, but rather indicates that path dependency of national models is a valid explanation to ongoing developments. It is argued that the Swedish exception should be understood as an expression of the persistent impact of a policy logic according to which integration requires that all citizens have equal and universal access to certain fundamental rights. The article builds on general comparisons with European policy developments and uses Denmark as a more specific reference point.     

Transformative State Capacity in Post-Collective China: The Introduction of the New Rural Cooperative Medical System in Two Counties of Western China, 2006-2008

In 2002, the Chinese leadership announced a turnaround in national welfare policy: Local insurance at county level, called the New Rural Cooperative Medical System (NRCMS), was to cover all counties by 2010. This paper addresses the main characteristics of NRCMS as an example of 'transformative state capacity' in decentralised policy fields and its feature 'responsiveness' as a market-based means of its introduction.Reviewing the modes of governance and comparing the introduction of local schemes based on two case studies of western China since 2006, this paper argues that the flexibility shown by local administrators in considering structural and procedural adjustments is the result not only of central directives but also of local initiatives. Forms of locally embedded responsiveness to the needs and perceptions of health care recipients are crucial in enhancing the accountability and responsiveness of local cadres. These new modes of 'responsiveness' or responsive regulation are important in understanding and conceptualising the transformative state capacity. Responsive settings using centrally defined local feedback loops are different from hierarchical control and the formal institutionalised representation of the interests of the local population, and are a rough but effective means of enhancing both flexibility and the efficiency of control and financing by the central state. These feedback loops, which are based on voluntary enrolment and on central state subsidies made dependent on contributions received from participants and local government, are complementary forms of governance at grassroots level.     

WHEN THE SCREEN GOES BLANK: A Television Plant Closing and Its Impacts on Workers

Using survey and interview information, the impacts of job loss on former employees of a Zenith Corporation plant in Springfield, Missouri, are identified and placed in the context of existing research findings. Even in the "New Economy" period of national economic expansion and in a robust local job market, many displaced workers endured significant drops in earnings and benefits and experienced decreased work satisfaction. Although women took longer than men to become reemployed, displacement did not lead more women than men to withdraw permanently from the labor force. Additionally, the plant closing led some workers to adopt more critical attitudes toward big business and government and to strengthen their support of organized labor. A model that predicts perceived negative impacts of displacement and links them to disaffection with business and government is presented. The study also explores reasons why programs for displaced Zenith workers were not broadly effective and suggests ways that such programs could be reformed to be of greater use for future dislocated workers.     

THE DETERMINANTS OF THE PUBLIC DEBT IN THE UNITED STATES, 1953–1978

Barro claims that since the public rationally forecasts and discounts future taxes, government debt does not represent net wealth to the public and therefore does not affect any real economic variables. Then why are there ever deficits? Barro has presented a theory of optimal deficits based on intertemporal tax smoothing. The theory predicts that nominal debt grows in proportion to anticipated inflation, varies contracyclically with respect to real income cycles, and varies procyclically with respect to war cycles. Barro tested his theory using annual American data for 1922-76 and found weak support for his theory. This paper reexamines Barro's tests, using quarterly American data for 1953:Q1 to 1978:Q4 and finds stronger support for Barro's theory than Barro found using annual data. This paper also concludes that state and local governments do not engage in tax-smoothing behavior–––probably due to considerations of migration–––and that the debt held by the central bank should be included in the definition of public debt.