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Political Impact (political + impact)
Selected AbstractsIRCs versus DRAs: Budgetary Support for Economic and Social RegulationPUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 4 2003Christopher G. Reddick This article examines whether Independent Regulatory Commissions (IRCs) received less budgetary support than executive branch Dependent Regulatory Agencies (DRAs) between the late 1970s and 2000. It also examines whether there were political differences in spending priorities between social and economic regulation. The principal-agent theory was used to explain why IRCs do not fare as well compared to DRAs in terms of budgetary support. The findings indicate that IRCs received less funding than DRAs in the social regulation field, supporting the principal-agent model of budgetary decision making. Political impacts were prevalent in all areas of regulation spending. [source] New Humanitarianism: Does It Provide a Moral Banner for the 21st Century?DISASTERS, Issue 4 2001Fiona Fox There is a ,new humanitarianism' for the new millennium. It is ,principled', ,human-rights based' and politically sensitive. Above all it is new. It marks a break from the past and a rejection of the traditional principles that guided humanitarianism through the last century. New humanitarians reject the political naivety of the past, assess the long-term political impact of relief and are prepared to see humanitarian aid used as a tool to achieve human rights and political goals. New Humanitarianism is compelling, in tune with our times and offers a new moral banner for humanitarians to cling to as we enter the new millennium. Or does it? After outlining the key elements of new humanitarianism, including the human rights approach and developmental relief, the paper spells out some of the dangers. The author claims that new humanitarianism results in an overt politicisation of aid in which agencies themselves use relief as a tool to achieve wider political goals. The paper shows how this approach has spawned a new conditionality which allows for aid to be withheld and has produced a moral hierarchy of victims in which some are more deserving than others. The paper concludes with a plea for a revival of the principle of universalism as the first step to a new set of principles. [source] Ritual and interpretation: the early medieval caseEARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 2 2000Philippe Buc In dealing with early medieval ,rituals' (whatever this category may mean), historians have to take into account that they were written about, staged, and participated in by members of a culture that was steeped in interpretation, and especially by the exegetical dialectic between letter and spirit. The consequences for narrative techniques, and therefore for our approach to the sources depicting ,rituals' are plural. The narratives can heighten or de-emphasize the ,ritualness' of an event, as well as heighten or hide conflict (or consensus) within the ritual event, regardless of what actually happened. Rituals in texts, therefore, should seldom be taken at face value. Such techniques suggest that often enough the textual rendition (or even imagination) of a solemnity had more political impact than its performance. [source] Western utopianism/dystopianism and the political mediocrity of critical urban researchGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3-4 2002Guy Baeten This paper seeks to summarise the interplay between utopian and dystopian thinking throughout the twentieth century with a particular focus on the city. The gradually shrinking appeal of the socialist utopia and its replacement with the globalised free,market as a ,revanchist utopia' left socialist utopian thinking in a state of disarray towards the end of the previous century. Utopian thinking, both as a literary and political genre has been rendered marginal in contemporary political practices. Urban dystopia, or ,Stadtschmerz', is now prevalent in critical Western thinking about city and society. It is concluded that the declining political impact of critical urban research is caused partly by its lack of engagement with crafting imaginative alternative futures for the city. The works by Sennett, Sandercock and the Situationists, among others, may contain elements to reverse the current utopian malaise in urban research. [source] Methodological challenges in assessing general population reactions in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist attackINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF METHODS IN PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH, Issue S2 2008G. James Rubin Abstract Assessing mental health needs following a disaster is important, particularly within high-risk groups such as first responders or individuals who found themselves directly caught up in the incident. Particularly following events involving widespread destruction, ingenuity and hard work are required to successfully study these issues. When considering responses among the general population following less devastating events such as a conventional terrorist attack, or following an event involving a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear agent, other variables may become more relevant for determining the population's overall psychosocial well-being. Trust, perceived risk, sense of safety, willingness to take prophylaxis and unnecessary attendance at medical facilities will all be important in determining the overall psychological, medical, economic and political impact of such attacks. Assessing these variables can help government agencies and non-governmental organizations to adjust their communication and outreach efforts. As there is often a need to provide these data quickly, telephone surveys using short time-windows for data collection or which use quota samples are often required. It is unclear whether slower, more conventional and more expensive survey methods with better response rates would produce results different enough to these quicker and cheaper methods to have a major impact on any resulting policy decisions. This empirical question would benefit from further study. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Geopolitics and the Making of Regions: The Fall and Rise of East AsiaPOLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 3 2009Mark Beeson There is a good deal of scepticism about the prospects for regionalism in East Asia. There are, however, grounds for supposing that the outlook for regional integration in East Asia is brighter than it has ever been, partly as a consequence of the rise of China. This article explains why an earlier attempt to integrate the region under Japanese imperialism failed, why US foreign policy has effectively foreclosed any possibility of East Asian integration up to now and why it may be accelerating as a consequence of China's growing economic and political impact on the region. To explain these different historical experiences I draw on a form of critical geopolitics which has recently emerged in economic and political geography and which can usefully be incorporated into international relations scholarship. [source] The Political Impact of Labor Migration in BahrainCITY & SOCIETY, Issue 1 2008LAURENCE LOUËR Abstract This paper shows that, in Bahrain, the main political consequence of migration has been the deepening of state/society conflict. While having old historical roots, this conflict has been fostered in the recent period by the collapse of the "caste system" that, since the 1970s, used to regulate the relations between foreigners and nationals in the labor market by preventing the two groups from being in competition for jobs. I conclude that in order to evaluate the possible political impact of migration in the Gulf States, one has to look first at the structure of the relation between the national population and the migrants, rather than focus on the number of foreigners. [source] Patterns of Transnational Terrorism, 1970,1999: Alternative Time-Series EstimatesINTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2002Walter Enders Using alternative time-series methods, this paper investigates the patterns of transnational terrorist incidents that involve one or more deaths. Initially, an updated analysis of these fatal events for 1970,1999 is presented using a standard linear model with prespecified interventions that represent significant policy and political impacts. Next, a (regime-switching) threshold autoregressive (TAR) model is applied to this fatality time series. TAR estimates indicate that increases above the mean are not sustainable during high-activity eras, but are sustainable during low-activity eras. The TAR model provides a better fit than previously tried methods for the fatality time series. By applying a Fourier approximation to the nonlinear estimates, we get improved results. The findings in this study and those in our earlier studies are then applied to suggest some policy implications in light of the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. [source] | ||||||||||