The struggle for the state and the politics of belonging in contemporary Angola, 1975–2015

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Angola’s independence, this essay revisits key dimensions of the country’s postcolonial trajectory through the prism of the complex politics of the nationalist struggle and the first decades of self-rule. Its goal is to provide a series of reflections, mostly centred on the MPLA regime, rather than a comprehensive treatment of all political actors in Angolan politics of recent decades. It argues, firstly, that Angola’s trajectory from independence to the end of the country’s long civil war in 2002 was powerfully conditioned by the structural legacies of late colonialism, the associated intra-nationalist politics and the particular circumstances of the end of empire in 1975. To these legacies, the essay adds the (constrained, but real) choices made by Angolan decision-makers in terms of institutional consolidation, the management of the economy and state–society relations. Secondly, the essay outlines the extent to which the MPLA’s 2002 victory against UNITA in the country’s civil war did away with the fragmentation that had characterised Angolan politics since the 1960s. The clashing, indeed mutually exclusionary, nationalist projects that had jostled for control of the Angolan state were replaced by a would-be hegemonic political force with a strong sense of legitimacy and a self-defined project of postwar nation building. The key question for the contemporary study of Angola – and one that the oil-fuelled politics of the national reconstruction era provided plenty of reflection on – is the extent to which the MPLA’s postwar vision can supersede the country’s historical divisions and provide the population with both the material prosperity it yearns for and a shared understanding of belonging.     

Human resource development,organization development,organizational learning,and organizational effectiveness: all needed more than ever

In this study the Job Demand-Control model was used to study the quality of working life of Dutch secondary teachers. The Job Demand-Control model of Karasek is a theoretical model in which stress and learning are both considered as dependent variables which are influenced by three different task characteristics: job demands, job control, and social support. This model was tested for Dutch secondary teachers (n = 542). Results shed light on the relationship between stress and learning, on the one hand, and the effects of task characteristics on work stress and on work-based learning, on the other hand. It is concluded that the relationship between stress and learning is mediated by the amount of job control as the model predicts. However, the results also reveal that the Karasek model is better suited for explaining stress than for explaining learning. To explain work-based learning variables other than task characteristics have to be taken into account.     

LACK OF COMMITMENT AND THE LEVEL OF DEBT

The tendency of countries to accumulate public debt has been rationalized in models of political disagreement and lack of commitment. We analyze in a benchmark model how the evolution of public debt is affected by lack of commitment per se. While commitment introduces indeterminacy in the level of debt, lack of commitment creates incentives for debt to converge to specific levels. One of the levels that debt often converges to implies no debt accumulation at all. In a simple example we prove analytically that debt converges to zero, and we analyze numerically more complex models. We also show in an imperfect credibility setting that a small deviation from full‐commitment is enough to obtain these results.     

Book reviews

Statistical Papers -     

Organicity and performance in excellent HRM organizations: the importance of organizational learning capability

Organizational learning capability is a key element in organizational performance. This issue spurs interest to discover how to generate environments with high organizational learning capability. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between the degree of organicity of the structure, organizational performance and organizational learning capability. A total of 251 firms with demonstrated excellence in human resource management took part in the study. Results suggest that the degree of organicity of the structure has a positive relationship with performance perceptions and this relationship is fully mediated by organizational learning capability.     

Condom use self‐efficacy among U.S.‐ and foreign‐born Latinos in Texas

The objective of this study was to assess the influence of condom use self‐efficacy on the reported condom use of Latinos. We conducted a rapid needs assessment study among U.S. and foreign‐born Latinos living in Houston, TX, to identify behavioral and psychosocial factors that influence their risk for HIV. Bilingual Latino interviewers conducted confidential face‐to‐face interviews with individuals living in apartment complexes or residential areas primarily populated by Latinos. A total of 152 participants completed the survey. Regression results indicate that education and gender influenced condom use self‐efficacy, which in turn influenced condom use in the last sexual encounter and with the primary sexual partner. However, gender and relationship risk were stronger predictors of condom use. Study results indicate that there are differences in condom use self‐efficacy and sexual risk behaviors between Latino men and women that need further exploration.     

On projection-based tests for directional and compositional data

A new class of nonparametric tests, based on random projections, is proposed. They can be used for several null hypotheses of practical interest, including uniformity for spherical (directional) and compositional data, sphericity of the underlying distribution and homogeneity in two-sample problems on the sphere or the simplex. The proposed procedures have a number of advantages, mostly associated with their flexibility (for example, they also work to test “partial uniformity” in a subset of the sphere), computational simplicity and ease of application even in high-dimensional cases.     

Updating Rurality Index for Small Areas in Spain

Nowadays, there is a wide debate about what rural means. An operational definition of rural concept is essential in order to measure health problems, optimize resource allocation and facilitate decision making aimed at closing the gap on inequity between areas. In 2005, the rurality index for Small Areas in Spain (IRAP) was developed using the 1991 Census of Population data. Nevertheless, the concept and definition of rurality may evolve through time. In order to capture these changes, the variables used to make up the rurality index should be reviewed and updated periodically. Along these lines, and within the context of the rural–urban continuum, the aim of this paper is to replicate and update the IRAP using the data provided by the 2001 Census of Population, as well as to describe the changes in rurality observed in each municipality between 1991 and 2001. The index was updated on a Principal Components Factor Analysis, giving rise to a single factor that is correlated to the aging of the population, economic dependency, farming, livestock or fishing-related employment, self-employment, second dwelling ratio, population density, immigration and perception of noises and atmospheric pollution in the surroundings of the residential area. Most variables that made up the 1991 IRAP remain as important components of the 2001 index, indicating the robust nature of the measure. Only 10% of the Spanish municipalities have changed their rurality status between the two Censuses. The 2001 rurality index can be considered a good updated approach to the concept of rurality in Spain as well as an important criterion to social policies.     

Tackling Poverty-migration Linkages: Evidence from Ghana and Egypt

Are migrants able to use the migration experience to their benefit, that is to improve their livelihoods, and is this result nuanced by whether migrants are poor or non-poor? This paper explores these questions quantitatively using data on migrants and non-migrants from Ghana and Egypt. It describes the main challenges in the empirical literature and introduces a conceptual model to explore the links between migration and poverty. The empirical model accounts for the direct effects of migration on poverty and for the role of migration in moderating the dynamics of poverty. Results show the selectivity of migration with respect to subjective poverty and that migration can have a significant impact on helping people improve their livelihoods. The paper further finds that selectivity with respect to human capital depends on ‘reasons for migration’ and visa status. These findings enrich existing empirical studies by providing a clear estimation of sequential events and enable policymakers to better understand the processes behind migration and poverty.     

Do ‘soft law’ board gender quotas work? Evidence from a natural experiment

In a new era of “open governance”, in which societal and corporate change is taking place, 15 predominantly European countries, including Spain, enacted board gender quotas to increase the share of women on boards. In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of the European Union’s first “soft” quota – the 2007 Spanish Gender Equality Act recommending all large public and private Spanish firms to appoint a target of 40 percent of each gender to serve as board directors by 2015. The Act provides an incentive in that quota compliant firms may receive a preference for the tendering of public contracts. We draw on institutional and resource dependency theories to motivate the first empirical test of a “soft” quota which is distinct from Norway’s “hard law” board gender quota, and more similar to the proposed EU-wide quota. Using a large novel panel of 767 Spanish firms and 2786 firm-year observations from 2005 to 2014, we exploit the Spanish Act as a natural experiment and employ a difference-in-differences model. We find that less than nine percent of targeted firms fully comply with the quota. Firms that depend on public contracts are significantly more likely to increase female representation, although quota compliant firms do not actually benefit from the Act’s potential incentive. The results highlight the Spanish government’s lack of commitment to the quota, and that the quota’s normative obligations did not trigger the adoption of gender-balanced boards.