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on Collective Decision-Making |
| By: | Born, Andreas (Department of Economics); Janssen, Aljoscha (Singapore Management University) |
| Abstract: | In most democracies, members of parliament are either elected over a party list or by a district. We use a discontinuity in the German parliamentary system to investigate the causal effect of a district-election on an MP’s conformity with her party-line. A district-election does not affect roll call voting behavior causally, possibly due to overall high adherence to party voting. Analyzing the parliamentary speeches of each MP allows us to overcome the high party discipline with regard to parliamentary voting. Using textual analysis and machine learning techniques, we create two measures of closeness of an MP’s speeches to her party. We find that district-elected members of parliament do not differ, in terms of speeches, from those of their party-peers who have been elected through closed party lists. However, both speeches and voting correlate with district characteristics suggesting that district-elections allow districts to select more similar politicians. |
| Keywords: | Party-line; Textual Analysis; Regression Discontinuity; Parliamentary Speeches; Voting |
| JEL: | D72 |
| Date: | 2020–02–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1320&r=all |
| By: | Dasgupta,Susmita; Guha,Bansari; Wheeler,David |
| Abstract: | Research on the determinants of collective action in the commons generally focuses on interest-group heterogeneity, implicitly assuming that groups perceive the same problems but have different priorities. This paper changes the focus to the role played by perceptions themselves. Within localities, collective action may be easier if elite and non-elite households have similar perceptions of environmental problems. Regionally, collective action may be aided by common perceptions among local elites who communicate across village lines. This paper uses regression analysis to explore variations in environmental perceptions across classes and localities, using new survey data from the Indian Sundarbans. The paper finds that perceptions vary significantly across localities. Within localities, perceptions among elite households vary significantly more than perceptions among non-elite households. The results therefore favor locally-oriented collective action in the region, along with local governance that promotes non-elite participation. |
| Keywords: | Global Environment,Educational Sciences,Hydrology,Environmental Strategy,Environmental Management,Environmental Governance,Brown Issues and Health,Pollution Management&Control |
| Date: | 2019–06–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:8917&r=all |
| By: | Ashwin, Sarah; Kabeer, Naila; Schüßler, Elke |
| Abstract: | In this introduction we synthesize the key themes of the symposium and explore the implications of the three contributions for garment supply chains after the Rana Plaza disaster. The contributions examine the perspectives of key stakeholders in garment value chains – global buyers, managers of garment factories in Bangladesh, and workers at these factories – analysing their responses to the new governance initiatives that emerged in the aftermath of Rana Plaza. Placing the contrasting perspectives of these stakeholders alongside each other starkly reveals how their different positions within hierarchically organized global value chains form the particular lens through which they view post-Rana Plaza initiatives. We scrutinize their particular understandings and reveal the very different capacity for voice and influence that they bring to bear in shaping outcomes. We reflect on the contradictory imperatives faced by actors in the garment industry caught between a logic of competition and global labour standards norms, and analyse the prospects for a re-embedding of the market in global value chains via the activation of civil society. |
| Keywords: | ES/L005484/1 |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2020–02–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:102350&r=all |
| By: | Malakhov, Vladimir (Малахов, Владимир) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Novikov, Kirill (Новиков, Кирилл) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Timoshkin, Dmitriy (Тимошкин, Дмитрий) (Irkutsk State University); Simon, Mark (Симон, Марк) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Letnyakov, Denis (Летняков, Денис) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Motin, Alexander (Мотин, Александр) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) |
| Abstract: | Migrants and their descendants are often categorized as «other» by bureaucratic institutions, politicians and the media, despite the fact that many of the people who fall into this category (especially those from the “second” and “third” generations) are well integrated in the host country institutions. As a result, an inadequate picture of social tensions and contradictions existing in society is formed: frequently those complicated relations are reduced to the confrontation between the “host community”, on the one hand, and “migrants,” on the other. Due to this, it seems highly relevant to study the socio-political and cultural activity of individuals with immigrant background in all the diversity of its forms. The success of the policy of social integration highly depends on understanding in which environment migrants and their descendants interact with representatives of other communities. |
| Keywords: | political participation, political mobilization, migrant parties, migrant organizations, political integration |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:012003&r=all |
| By: | Kelle, Friederike Luise; Sienknecht, Mitja |
| Abstract: | Subnational groups employ a variety of strategies to contest governments. While democratic states offer a broader array of accessible options, autocratic regimes are more difficult to contest via conventional means. Why do subnational groups stage sovereignty referendums across regime types? Our argument is that public votes over greater autonomy or independence signal adherence to international democratic norms and the legitimacy of the demand towards three audiences: the state, the domestic population, and the international community. Self-determination groups seek to gain support from their domestic constituency as well as the international community in order to pressure the state government into granting concessions. We introduce a new dataset of referendums and international diplomacy by subnational self-determination groups on a global scale between 1990 and 2015. We supplement the descriptive evidence and assess the plausibility of the proposed mechanism with an out-of-sample case of an in-sample observation, the 2017 independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan. We show that referendums are indeed associated with international diplomacy and domestic state building by self-determination groups, suggesting that both tools are critical for the choice of conventional strategies across regime types. |
| Keywords: | self-determination,conflict,referendum,rebel diplomacy,domestic institutionbuilding,Selbstbestimmung,Konflikt,Referendum,Rebellendiplomatie,Aufbau substaatlicher Institutionen |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbtci:spiv2020101&r=all |
| By: | Daiki Kishishita; Atsushi Yamagishi |
| Abstract: | To explore the propagation of undesirable policies in a form of populist extremism, we construct a social learning model featuring agency problems. Politicians in different countries sequentially implement a policy. Voters learn the incumbent politician’s type and the desirable policy by observing foreign policies on top of the domestic policy. We show that populist extremism is contagious across countries through the dynamic interaction between the changing public opinion and implemented policies. This structure yields interesting long-run dynamics. First, a single moderate policy could be always enough to stop the domino effect. Second, the persistence of the domino effect depends on the correlation of the desirable policy across countries. In particular, while extremism eventually ends under the perfect correlation, it may become impossible to escape from extremism under the imperfect correlation. These results reveal a new negative aspect of decentralized policymaking |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:1077&r=all |