Do electoral district size and diversity affect legislative behaviour?

This paper analyses how the size and socio-economic diversity of their electorate affect parliamentarians’ legislative behaviour. We study the Australian senate, which wields considerable legislative influence and is marked by large differences in the size and socio-economic makeup of the districts that senators represent. We demonstrate that as the size of their district increases, senators ask more questions and introduce more bills and amendments. By contrast, senators become less active as the diversity of their electoral district increases. The paper thus establishes that size and diversity of electorates have significant effects on legislative behaviour.     

Do geotextiles affect soil biological activity in the ‘reburial’ environment?

Abstract

The effect of five different proprietary geotextiles on the activity of soil micro-organisms (respiration as measured by CO₂ production) has been investigated in model laboratory chambers. The aim was to determine whether geotextiles, used to ‘protect’ archaeological materials during conservation by reburial, influence microbial processes that may promote biodegradation of organic archaeological materials by altering the physical properties of the soil. Four of the geotextiles were composed of either polythene or polypropylene and did not provide substrates for microorganisms. These four geotextiles had no significant effect on microbial activity over a short-term (56 days) burial period. By contrast, one of the geotextiles had a core of wheat straw and coconut fibre bonded in a polypropylene mesh. This geotextile led to increased microbial activity as a result of biodegradation of the straw and fibre core. From a practical point of view, these data suggest that geotextiles that are not themselves readily biodegradable did not enhance biodegradation of other organic material in the short term in the burial environment. If the use of geotextiles offers other advantages, such as providing a marker in the soil or back-fill, or because they facilitate subsequent cleaning and preservation operations, then their use is warranted.     

Do behaviours in cultural markets affect economic resilience? An analysis of Italian regions

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between the economic resilience and cultural behaviour, resorting to the evidence provided by 20 Italian regions at the time of Great Recession. We consider specific cultural behaviours, which provide a specific meaning of culture; its relation with the economic resilience of regions is analysed. We document that higher levels of supplied and demanded quantity of cultural goods in a region are associated with higher regional economic resilience as measured by the ability of limiting employment drop; the relation with the considered cultural behaviours is weaker in the case of economic resilience as measured by the ability of limiting income drop. We propose possible explanations for this asymmetry.     

Do Suburbs Need Cities?

In this paper I examine the relationship between city and suburbangrowth over the last three decades for a sample of U.S. metropolitan areas. I develop a structuralempirical model relating city income growth to suburban growth in income, population, andhouse values. The model allows for bidirectional effects of cities on suburbs and suburbs oncities, as well as for unobserved factors affecting both city and suburbs. The simultaneous,latent-variable model is identified using a combination of exclusion and covariance restrictions.Instrumental estimation results indicate that income growth in large cities enhances suburbangrowth; but income growth in small cities has little effect.     

What Do Objects Want?

This paper develops an argument for the agency of objects, looking at the effects objects have on people. Groups of related objects, such as pots or metal ornaments, create stylistic universes which affect producers and users of new objects, bound by the canons of style. For an object to be socially powerful in a recognized manner, the form of the object lays down certain rules of use which influence the sensory and emotional impacts of the object. Formal properties of artifacts are influenced by the genealogy of the object class, including historical continuities and changes, and also its perceived source. The forms of objects, the historical trajectories of the class of objects and their perceived sources combine to have social effects on people, shaping people as socially effective entities. Britain’s incorporation into the Roman Empire between 150 BC and AD 200 provides an excellent case study through which to look at the changing corpora of objects, which had continuities and changes in form, a set of subtle attributions of sources and a complex range of social effects.     

What Should I Do Later?

IfirstmetLobsangGyamcointheNehruPark.The180-cmman,inhis50s,wasthinandpoorLyingontheemeraldlawn,whichwasdottedwithblossomingflowers,helookedlikeadyingtreebranch.Atmyrequest,hetoldmethefollowingstory.AREGRETTEDDECISION.Icomefromamedium-sizedfamily.Myparentshavefourchildren:myelderbrother,mytwoeldersisters,andme.BeforeIcamehere,Ilivedwithmyparents,wheremybrotherandsistersoffenvisitedusduringweekends.IgraduatedfromacollegeinChina'shinterlandand,upongraduationfromthecollege,wasassigneda…     

What Do Historians Argue About?

Those who think that general historical interpretations do no more than express a personal point of view deny that arguments over their credibility can have any point. They commonly believe that historians decide upon particular facts about the past in the context of a general interpretation of those facts. Consequently they deny that there is any independent basis for judging the credibility of general interpretations of the past, and conclude that each coherent account is as good as every other. Similarly, those who think causal explanations are arbitrary can make no sense of arguments about their adequacy. They assume that historians simply pick out causes that interest them, and that there is no objective basis for judging the adequacy of the explanations they provide. This essay defends the credibility of interpretations against the skeptics, and the adequacy of causal explanations too. It shows that historians do discover a mass of particular facts independently of the general interpretations they finally provide, facts that provide a basis for assessing the credibility and fairness of those interpretations. It will also show that there is an objective basis for judging the adequacy of causal explanations, as some causes of an event are far more influential in bringing it about than others. A much more difficult problem concerns the need for historical interpretations to provide not just a credible account of the past, but also one that is fair, balanced, not misleading. Historians frequently argue about the fairness of general interpretations. Does this mean that fairness is always required? Quite often historians produce partial interpretations, in both senses, with no apology. It would be wrong to call such interpretations “biased” because they do not pretend to be comprehensive. So long as they are credible, they are acceptable. On the other hand, many interpretations are intended to present a fair, comprehensive account of their subject. When judging the adequacy of interpretations, it is necessary to know whether they are meant to be fair or not.     

Do Women Need the Renaissance?

Joan Kelly's path‐breaking article, ‘Did Women have a Renaissance?’, first published in 1977, led historians of women in many fields to question the applicability of chronological categories derived from male experience. Thirty years later, the questioning continues, augmented by doubts about whether all systems of periodisation over‐simplify the diversity of gender. This paper examines what might be lost if feminist historians, in their sensitivity to difference, refuse to apply structures of periodisation. It looks at challenges to both ‘Renaissance’ and ‘early modern’ as conceptual categories and suggests ways in which gender is and must remain central to understandings of these eras.     

Why Do Suburban Offices Cluster?

The clustering of suburban office space in “office parks,” as well as the larger activity nodes of polycentric cities, has been widespread in recent years. The reasons for this clustering are not well understood, as the footloose nature of firms suggests a variety of patterns might evolve. This paper explores three traditional explanations: economies of scale in the supply of space, demands for access, and face-to-face contact needs of firms. Finding that those explanations do not completely explain the clustering pattern, an alternative explanation is considered, the demand for image or prestige.     

Do counterterrorism and counterinsurgency go together?

One of the underlying assumptions of the contemporary debate over Afghanistan is that counterterrorism objectives can be achieved through counterinsurgency methods. The recent decision by President Barack Obama to deploy 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan is premised on the idea that to disrupt Al Qaeda and prevent it from forming training camps in Afghanistan it will be necessary to first reverse the momentum of the Taleban insurgency. This approach—which places the US and UK on the offensive to disrupt terrorist plots before they arrive on their shores—assumes that the threats from Al Qaeda and the Taleban are intertwined and thus the strategy of response must seamlessly comprise elements of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency. In fact, counterterrorism and counterinsurgency are very different—often contradictory—models of warfare, each with its own associated assumptions regarding the role of force, the importance of winning support among the local population, and the necessity of building strong and representative government. Rather than being mutually reinforcing, they may impose tradeoffs on each other, as counterterrorism activities may blunt the effectiveness of counterinsurgency approaches and vice versa. The last four years in Afghanistan provide evidence that when employed in the same theatre counterterrorism and counterinsurgency strategies can offset one another. To be in a position to begin the withdrawal of US troops before July 2011, the Obama administration will need to find a way to manage the tradeoffs between its counterterrorism and counterinsurgency strategies in Afghanistan.     

Do Australians want the welfare state?

The failures of the Australian welfare state are often implicitly argued to derive in large part from the conservatism of the Australian public. This research uses public opinion poll data from 1940 to 1985 to question some of the claims made about public opinion and Australian welfare. These data indicate that post‐World War Two governments were not the captives of public opposition to expanded welfare provision. The public favoured generous, universal and contributory welfare provision in specific areas where the policies of successive Australian governments favoured selective, illiberal welfare measures funded by taxation. Moreover, public support for government health schemes suggests that welfare programmes generate public support rather than result from it.

This evidence suggests that explanations for the conservatism of the Australian welfare state lie elsewhere.     

“But Do the Lord Care?”

Abstract

The slain rapper Tupac Shakur contributes indispensably to two contemporary theologies centered around the crucified people, the theological aesthetics of liberation presented by Roberto Goizueta and the theology of the lynching tree articulated by James Cone. Placing the pioneering work of Goizueta and Cone in conversation with existing scholarship on the theological importance of Shakur’s music, I argue that Tupac crafts a theological aesthetics of liberation aimed at illuminating the injustice and Christological implications of the hypersegregated ghetto and the black mass prison     

Do silica phytoliths really wear mammalian teeth?

There is considerable literature suggesting that silica (opal) phytoliths cause dental enamel microwear in mammals. Much of this literature cites a single study from 1959 as evidence that silica phytoliths are harder than mammalian tooth enamel and so have the potential to cause dental microwear. No other studies using similar methodology have actually confirmed whether phytoliths are harder than dental enamel.     

What Can the State Do for You?

It has been suggested that Swedish policy during the early post-war period was strongly directed towards mobility-increasing expenditures – most notably relocation allowances – aimed at moving labour from north to south. While this view has dominated the academic discussion on labour market policy, there is little direct evidence. We make three claims. First, the relocation allowances have to be evaluated against the regional policy. Second, by doing so we show that the mobility-oriented policy was predominant only for a short period of time: in the early 1970s, there was a decisive shift towards a policy directed at stimulating employment in the north. Third, drawing on this, we revaluate the previous view on policy making in Sweden. Our analysis suggests that the Social Democratic government acted in a voter-maximizing way. The relocation allowances were introduced at the behest of the Trade Union Confederation (LO). The regional subsidies were expanded when voter sentiment turned against the perceived depletion of rural regions. However, this strategy interacted with the political and institutional environment. The new election law in 1970 and political competition from the Centre Party pushed the Social Democrats to shift their policies on regional subsidies.     

Do Spatial Interdependencies Matter in Italian Regional Specialization?

This article summarizes and evaluates the effects of spatial interdependencies in Italian regional specialization over the period 1995–2006. First, we perform an exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), and then we estimate a spatial panel data model built according to the new economic geography theory. ESDA reveals positive spatial interdependence overall and detects hot spots in the north and cold spots in the south for all sectors, but agriculture shows the reverse. Similarly, an econometric investigation furnishes evidence of the presence of spillover effects, implying that the determinants of the specialization of a region influence its neighbors' specialization. Este artículo resume y evalúa los efectos de las interdependencias espaciales en la especialización regional italiana durante el período 1995–2006. En primer lugar, se realiza un análisis exploratorio de datos espaciales (Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis‐ESDA), y luego se estima un modelo de datos de panel espacial construido de acuerdo a la teoría de la nueva geografía económica (New Economic Geography‐NEG). ESDA revela la interdependencia espacial positiva global en los datos y detecta zonas de concentración de incidencia alta (hot spots) en los el norte y zonas concentración de incidencia baja o nula (cold spots) en el sur para todos los sectores económicos excepto el caso de la agricultura. Del mismo modo el estudio realiza un análisis econométrico que demuestra la presencia de efectos de desbordamiento espacial (spillovers), lo cual implica que los factores determinantes de la especialización de una región influyen en la especialización de sus vecinos. 本文对1995‐2006年间意大利区域专业化的空间依赖性效果进行了总结和评价。首先进行了探索性空间数据分析（ESDA）,然后对根据新经济地理理论构建的一种空间面板数据模型进行了评价。ESDA揭示了全局的正向空间相互依赖性及北部热点区和南部冷点区的分布特征,但农业的分布特征却相反。同样地,一项计量经济调查提供了溢出效应存在的证据,同时表明了区域专业化的决定因素影响其邻近区域的专业化。