Dilemmas of Environmental Planning in Post‐Urban New Jersey*

Objective. New Jersey's state land‐use plan, designed to preserve open space by directing growth to urban centers, rests on the assumption that nature (the “environment”) and the urban constitute separate objective spheres, such that nature can be preserved as an end in itself. Through a spatial transformation that de‐populated the cities and suburbanized the countryside, however, the urban and the environmental have become overlapping discursive categories, each expressing the absence of the other, and raising serious dilemmas for environmental planning. Methods. This article uses Census data to document the extent of New Jersey's urban and racial transformation over more than half a century, and examines county and municipal reviews of the state's proposed land‐use plan to document the resulting contradictory interpretations of nature articulated in political debate over state‐plan implementation. Results. The attempt to forge a statewide consensus on environmental and open‐space preservation has been stymied by the contradictory perspectives of urban and suburban constituencies, whose responses focus on the urban rather than the environmental implications of proposed land‐use controls. State planners seeking political support for environmental protection find themselves embroiled in often vitriolic debates about urban and suburban lifestyles, with implicit racial subtexts, and about the legitimacy of state intervention perceived as supporting antithetical values. Conclusions. Contrary to the state's attempt to separate the urban and the environmental, the route to environmental protection in New Jersey may lie through urban revitalization.     

Mending Nets in the South: Anti-poverty Policies in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain

The marginal role of social assistance and the absence of minimum income programmes have long been thought to constitute defining characteristics of the southern European model of welfare. Nevertheless, over the 1990s significant innovations in this field have taken place. The paper aims to contribute to the analysis of recent developments by critically examining the experience of anti‐poverty policies in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. It is argued that the “patchiness” of safety nets in southern Europe is due to a unique set of constraints, the most relevant of which are the role of families and the “softness” of state institutions. A review of national profiles reveals that new policies introduced in all four countries mark progress towards redressing some of the historical imbalances of that welfare model. In particular, fully fledged minimum income schemes now operate in Portugal and in certain Spanish regions, while an experiment involving a number of Italian municipalities is still in progress. In spite of this, the paper concludes that social safety nets in southern Europe remain frail in terms of institutional design as well as political support and legitimacy.     

Complicated Problems,Complicated Solutions? Homelessness and Joined‐up Policy Responses

The government has recently signalled its determination to address both the symptoms and causes of homelessness through the introduction of new legislation requiring local authorities within England and Wales to develop strategic approaches to addressing this issue. Moreover, in common with many other areas of social provision in recent years, the “joining‐up” of services has been identified as a central tenet of these new approaches. In the case of homelessness, then, experience gleaned from other policy fields may prove an invaluable resource, in terms both of guiding approaches and in avoiding potential pitfalls. This paper examines the findings from a study undertaken within one Midlands city to investigate this assumption. Based upon evidence from this study it is suggested that, while precedent can offer this particular policy area valuable lessons, homelessness is an issue which, due to its multi‐dimensionality, offers new and unique challenges of its own.     

What children want to know about in‐ and out‐groups,and how knowledge affects their intergroup attitudes

One of the key factors contributing to the development of negative attitudes toward out‐groups is lack of knowledge about them. The present study investigated what type of information 3‐ to 4‐ and 5‐ to 6‐ year‐old Jewish Israeli children (N = 82) are interested in acquiring about unfamiliar in‐ and out‐group individuals, and how providing children with the requested information affects their intergroup attitudes. Children were shown pictures of individuals from three groups—an in‐group (“Jews”), a “conflict” out‐group (“Arabs”), and a “neutral” out‐group (“Scots”)—and were asked what they would like to know about them. The experimenter responded by either answering all of children's questions, half of the questions, or none. Children's attitudes toward the groups were also assessed. It was found that children asked the most questions in regard to conflict out‐group individuals. Moreover, the older age group asked more questions regarding the psychological characteristics, and fewer questions regarding the social identity, of the conflict out‐group than of the other two groups. Finally, full provision of information improved attitudes toward the groups, especially among 3‐ to 4‐year olds, and especially regarding the conflict out‐group. These findings have implications for understanding the sources of intergroup biases, and for developing interventions to reduce them.     

Benefit dependency: The pros and cons of using “caseload” data for national and international comparisons

Policy‐makers in advanced welfare states have increasingly expressed concerns over large numbers of working‐age people claiming social security support. Accordingly, policies aimed at reducing the level of “benefit dependency” have gained prominence. However, such policies rest on shaky empirical evidence. Systematic collections of national “caseload” data are rare, social security programmes overlap and administrative categories vary over time. The internationally inconsistent treatment of national transfer programmes provides a further challenge for cross‐national comparisons. This article first identifies and discusses several of these problems, and ways in which they may be addressed. It then employs administrative claimant data from six European countries as a way of illustrating trends over time and across countries. The underlying aim is to explore the scientific potential of benefit recipient numbers as an indicator for welfare state change over time and across countries.     

Regulating the delivery of cash‐for‐care payments across Europe

The article aims to understand how governments across Europe have modified the regulation of the delivery of cash‐for‐care schemes (CfCs) to dependent older people since the beginning of the century. In our terminology, the regulation of the CfCs delivery defines the norms, rules, and practices that public actors adopt to manage how beneficiaries can use the benefits. To discuss the regulation of CfCs delivery, we employ an original framework that take three analytical dimensions into account: the degrees of freedom in benefits' utilization (“CfCs utilization” dimension), the provision of information/orientation/advices/counselling to older people and families (“professional support” dimension), and the relationship between the delivery of CfCs and the delivery of the other publicly funded long‐term care inputs (“care system” dimension). The analysis adopts a comparative perspective, looking at six countries—Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and England. Among various findings, the main one consists in showing that there has been a shared and increased interest in consolidating the regulation of CfCs delivery. This trend has been mostly directed towards the new policy aim of strengthening the professional support, a goal underestimated in the past, when this dimension was not a major topic of both debate and practice concerning CfCs across Europe.     

Social protection assessment‐based national dialogue exercises: Cambodia,Indonesia, Thailand,Viet Nam

Between 2011 and 2013, the International Labour Organization, in collaboration with governments and several United Nations agencies working as part of the Social Protection Floor Initiative, conducted social protection assessment‐based national dialogue (ABND) exercises in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Viet Nam. The exercises were carried out in order to take stock of existing social protection realities in the respective countries, including social insurance, social assistance and anti‐poverty programmes. These inventories present a comprehensive picture of what elements of national social protection floors (SPFs) are in place, where “holes” in national floors exist, and provide a framework within which to propose recommendations for the further design and implementation of social protection provisions that guarantee at least the SPF to the entire population. This article describes the methodology for conducting ABND exercises, the situational analysis of the SPF in four countries, and the policy recommendations that were formulated for achieving basic health care and income security for children, the working‐age population and the elderly. The results of preliminary calculations of the cost of implementing proposed policy options are also outlined.     

Investigating the association between callous‐unemotional traits with relational bullying and victimization: A cross‐national study

Prior research supports an association between callous‐unemotional (CU) traits with relational bullying, but evidence associating CU traits with relational victimization is limited. Further, the relationship between CU traits with relational “bully,” “bully‐victim,” and “victim” classifications has been largely neglected. The current study addresses these critical gaps in the literature using a cross‐national study design. The sample comprised of 1887 (51.5% of girls) Greek and Cypriot children (MAge = 11.17) who completed a battery of self‐report measures. Group differences suggested that children in the relational bully and bully‐victim groups scored higher on CU traits compared to children in the victim and low‐risk groups. Although these associations were similar across countries, boys in Greece were more likely to be identified in the bullying only group. In contrast, boys in Cyprus represented the higher percentage identified as bully‐victims and girls in Cyprus represented the higher percentage identified as victim‐only. Regression analysis results indicated that CU traits predicted relational bullying but not victimization. Notwithstanding, other important unexamined factors known to contribute to relational bullying and victimization, our findings suggest that prevention efforts should consider CU traits in order to protect youth from relational bullying. However, differences between countries and gender should also be taken into account.     

The vicious layering of multilevel governance in Southern Europe: The case of elderly care in Italy and Spain

Aging and changes in family arrangements and female employment have brought about important policy developments in long‐term care (LTC). Southern European countries have relied for a long time on family care and residual social care for the dependent elderly. Two paradigmatic cases, Italy and Spain, have shown two apparently different trends during the last 15 years: while in Italy, reforms seem to have been persistently blocked, in Spain, an ambitious reform has fallen short of expectations. Based on data on services and institutional arrangements, the article shows that a complex and inconsistent allocation of responsibilities across government levels, a sort of “vicious layering” of multilevel governance, may be playing a key role in this situation. The article discusses the dysfunctional effects of such arrangements, namely territorial inequalities, cost‐shifting between government levels and towards users, and misallocation of resources. We suggest that the development and reform of LTC in Southern European countries must address these problems if they want to avoid getting marooned by a complex network of vetoes and resource allocation problems.     

Grandparents Responsible for Grandchildren in Native‐American Families*

Objectives. The primary goal of this article is to examine factors associated with grandparent care giving within the American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) population. Methods. Data from the 2000 Census of Population, 5% Public Use Microdata Sample, are used to evaluate a multivariate logistic regression model focusing on living with and caring for grandchildren. Particular emphasis is placed on characteristics that may reflect culturally‐based ideas about grandparents' responsibility for the care of their grandchildren. Results. Indicators related to Native‐American identity—specifically, reporting race as AIAN only rather than mixed race, reporting tribal membership, and living in a nonmetropolitan area of an “Indian” state—increase the likelihood of being responsible for a grandchild among Native‐American singles and couples aged 45 and over. Conclusions. Cultural and resource characteristics combine to produce high levels of grandparent care giving within the AIAN population. Inasmuch as those with lower educational and economic resources are especially likely to have responsibility for a grandchild, special attention should be directed toward ensuring adequate support for these caregivers.     

Pressures on State Welfare in Post‐industrial Societies: Is More or Less Better?

Although contemporary comparative welfare state research has advanced our knowledge of how welfare states respond to exogenous and endogenous pressures, the nature and implications of these pressures themselves on post‐industrial societies remains somewhat unknown. In the research literature phenomena such as globalization, Europeanization, demographics, individualization and changing labour markets are often claimed to put considerable pressure on welfare states. We analyse which of the alleged pressures are real “crises” or “challenges” to welfare states and which pressures should only be considered as “controversies”—phenomena whose impacts are nonsignificant, ambiguous, or have not been asserted. We suggest that pressures on post‐industrial societies may not, as is commonly believed, be countered with retrenchment and restructuring of welfare states. In fact, some pressures seem to call for more rather than less welfare state.     

The New Economy and the Forest: Rural Development in the Post‐Industrial Spaces of the Rural Alleghenies*

Objective. Government policy has long linked resource production with economic development in surrounding rural communities. The purpose of this article is to examine how the USDA Forest Service 's (USFS) resource‐based, rural development policies have shifted due to economic restructuring and environmental challenges to the “management” of nature. Methods. Historical data was gathered on USFS timber harvests and policies toward forest‐dependent communities. Data was also gathered through interviews and participant‐observation on a USFS‐supported, locally planned ecotourism project. Results. USFS rural development policies have shifted from predominantly providing federally determined, sustained timber harvests in the industrial era to increasingly emphasizing local, amenity‐based entrepreneurship and economic diversification in the post‐industrial era. Conclusions. USFS rural development policies and resource production have been de‐coupled. However, amenity‐based development may depend both on amenity migrants and sustained commitment from external sources to support local initiative, given limited entrepreneurship in rural areas long dependent on high‐wage extraction and manufacturing.     

Fiscal Cycles and the Low-Level Equilibrium under the Qing: A Comparative Analysis

This article questions the recent scholarship that attempts to draw parallels between Qing China before 1800 and the so-called fiscal-military states in early modern Europe. Beginning with a survey of “fiscal cycles” in China from the 1640s to the 1850s, the author argues that border wars and territorial expansion had little impact on the Qing state’s tax system and bureaucracy. Contrary to the high level of taxation necessitated by escalation in military spending among the contemporary European states, the Qing pursued the policy of light taxation by freezing land tax rates and practicing universal tax exemption. What prevailed in the Qing fiscal system thus was a “low-level equilibrium,” in which the fixed amount of revenues was sufficient to cover the state’s fixed amount of regular expenditures and generate a sizeable amount of surpluses.     

Models of supranational policymaking and the reform of the EMU

Under what conditions do sovereign governments agree to create a common policy institution? And what model of supranational policymaking may be preferable? To answer these questions, we introduce a policy game of two interdependent countries with reciprocal negative externalities created by shocks to a socially relevant variable. Depending on national preferences over policy options and their outcomes, both countries incur welfare losses if governments pursue non-cooperative policy choices. Then we examine what kind of supranational policy regimes may be endorsed by both governments according to the Pareto criterion. Two regimes are “technocratic” (they do not take national preferences into account), two are “political” (they do). One political regime that we call “union” aggregates the national preferences additively. The thrust of our analysis is that the technocratic regimes are dominated by non-cooperation, so that the single alternative is between the union and non-cooperation. Yet an important point is that the union is the Pareto-dominant regime only within a limited range of asymmetry between countries’ preferences. This result has notable implications for the debate on the reform of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) facing the challenge of further integration of member countries. Application to the EMU case is assisted by numerical simulations based on empirical parameters drawn from qualified external sources, which show that aymmetries in national attitudes towards policies that “Europe wants” may jeopardize the creation of a union in alternative to non-cooperation.     

European Union Policy on Asylum and Immigration. Addressing the Root Causes of Forced Migration: A Justice and Home Affairs Policy of Freedom,Security and Justice?

This paper contributes to the debate on the development of the future common European Union Policy on Asylum and Immigration. It seeks to explain the rationale behind the evolution of the Union's policy outlook on asylum and immigration. It then analyses the most recent Union‐wide policy tools available to address asylum and migration issues, arguing that common European asylum policies thus far have focused on containment of migration flows seen as a threat to the European internal security regime and in response to perceived populist pressures. The return and readmission clauses now being implemented, in agreements with countries outside of the Union, serve to illustrate this point, as does the political willingness to extra‐territorialize asylum processing. However, the focus on eliminating the root causes of migration flows is a relatively new paradigm, developed since the 1999 Tampere European Council. Although off to a slow start, the European Union Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument may become an institutional outlet to create a more normative framework for asylum and migration. The success of such a framework is contingent upon breaking with earlier conceptualizations of “asylum” as a security threat. Implicit in such a framework is the need to retain a clear distinction between asylum‐ and labour‐related migration. Partnerships must also be granted a budget sufficient for their establishment in real terms with countries of origin and transit. Lastly, there must be changes in modes of governance, as well as institutional reform, if efforts to elaborate a strategy on asylum and migration are to be executed successfully. Curiously, while the proposed Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe sought to abolish the pillar structure put in place by the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht, it would have retained the institutional inhibitions imposed by long‐existing tensions between national and community administrations and the “inter‐pillar” battles between the foreign policy, humanitarian and development dimensions of the EU apparatus. The current political debate about moving Europe “closer to its people”, following the rejection of the proposed Constitution at national referenda in France and the Netherlands, appears unlikely to solve any of these tensions.     

Healthcare decommodification in decentralization context: Reviewing the ideational constructions of “classless hospital policy” initiatives in Kulon Progo Regency,Indonesia

This article illustrates the emergence of radical local welfare initiatives as a political response to the imperfect national program in decentralization context in Indonesia. In order to gain further understanding of the topic, it is worth reviewing Kulon Progo Regency's experience which recently embarked on removing class stratification at any in‐patient room in all local government‐owned hospitals through “classless hospital policy” initiatives. Using exploratory case study method, this article aims to review the ideational constructions of healthcare decommodification that is displayed on this initiative. It is concluded that the classless hospital policy reflects how social citizenship was organized through the mechanism of idea contestation which originated in the past community's behavior, combined with the vested interest of political regime for then subduing market logics under state power. This circumstance ultimately has provided the groundwork for encouraging innovative welfare outcome.     

Knowledge Variables in Cross‐National Social Inquiry*

Objectives. This article examines the impact of “don't know” responses on cross‐national measures of knowledge regarding science and the environment. Specifically, we explore cross‐national variance in aggregate knowledge levels and the gender gap in knowledge in each of 20 nations to determine whether response‐set effects contribute to observed variance. Methods. Analyses focus on a 12‐item true‐false knowledge battery asked as part of a 1993 International Social Survey Program environmental survey. Whereas most research on knowledge codes incorrect and “don't know” responses identically, we differentiate these response forms and develop procedures to identify and account for systematic differences in the tendency to guess. Results. Substantial cross‐national variance in guessing rates is identified, variance that contributes markedly to variance in observed “knowledge” levels. Also, men are found to guess at higher rates than women, a tendency that exaggerates the magnitude of the observed gender gap in knowledge. Conclusions. Recent research has suggested that “don't know” responses pose threats to the validity of inferences derived from measures of political knowledge in the United States. Our results indicate that a similar risk exists with cross‐national measures of knowledge of science and the environment. It follows that considerable caution must be exercised when comparing data drawn from different nations and cultures.     

The “Exceptional”United States: First New Nation or Last Welfare State?

The author discusses the American welfare state in the context of Lash and Urry's thesis on ‘disorganized capitalism’. Attention is directed to the claim that the US welfare state has been the laggard of organized capitalism but is becoming the pathbreaker in defining patterns of public welfare provision under an increasingly disorganized capitalism. In this context the US may be “showing the way” to the welfare states of Western Europe. A number of claims about the “exceptional” nature of US development are reviewed and a number of reservations are entered against the “disorganization” thesis as applied to the welfare state. It is suggested that attention should be focussed upon contemporary patterns of welfare state re-organization rather than dis-organization.     

Xun Zi Holds That Human Nature Is Simple and Uncarved,Not Evil

For more than two thousand years, the chapter of the Xunzi titled “Man’s Nature Is Evil” has labeled Xun Zi as a representative of the doctrine that human nature is originally evil. In fact, Xun Zi holds to a belief in human nature as originally simple and “uncarved.” The ideas of human nature in that chapter conflict with those in the other chapters including “Discourse on Ritual Principles,” “An Exhortation to Learning,” “Discourse on Nature,” “On the Correct Use of Names” and “Of Honor and Disgrace.” According to these chapters, human nature is not evil, but simple and uncarved; its good or evil is undetermined, it may become either good or evil, etc. Furthermore, we can find other evidence, such as the sayings of Xun Zi’s disciples, the Records of the Grand Historian, the doctrines of human nature in the Western Han dynasty, and so on, for the statement that Xun Zi holds that human nature is simple and uncarved.     

Is the Tea Party Libertarian,Authoritarian, or Something Else?*

Objective

Research on the Tea Party finds that both libertarian and authoritarian attitudes drive support for this movement, but political scientists lack a satisfactory explanation of this contradiction.

Methods

Factor analysis of nine attitudes from the 2012 American National Election Study is used to explore whether statism and moral traditionalism are intercorrelated on a dimension distinct from attitudes toward government; regression analysis is used to test if these distinct dimensions help to explain support for the Tea Party.

Results

Controlling for several competing explanations, the multiplicative interaction of anti‐government and morally statist ideological factors is shown to be a predictor of Tea Party support, especially among conservatives.

Conclusion

Our results suggest the Tea Party movement is in part driven by what Nietzsche called “misarchism,” an ideological mixture of moralism, statism, and libertarianism he first observed in Herbert Spencer.