Advocacy coalitions,beliefs, and learning: An analysis of stability,change, and reinforcement

Policy processes are ongoing phenomena without beginning or end. Accordingly, a major focus of research has been on questions of stability and change. This paper continues in this tradition by examining advocacy coalition stability, belief change, and learning. This paper draws on three waves of policy actor surveys that compare panel and non-panel samples. The data were collected in 2013, 2015, and 2017 in the context of oil and gas development in Colorado, USA. The findings mostly confirm that coalitions and beliefs tend to be stable and that learning leans toward reinforcement rather than change in beliefs. However, although rare, some instances of belief change, change in coalition membership, and changing policy positions occur. This paper makes theoretical and empirical contributions to the study of stability, change, and reinforcement of advocacy coalitions and their beliefs and charges policy scholars to look more at the exceptions to the evidence rather than the confirmations.     

Destruction of the 1912 Lenakel Church (Tanna,Vanuatu) in Cyclone Pam,and Thoughts for the Future of the Site

We report on the destruction of the 1912 Tanna Church by tropical Cyclone Pam, which struck Vanuatu on the 13th March 2015. This building was a very significant prefabricated timber structure that had been archaeologically recorded in great detail. Detailed documentation mitigates to some extent the loss of the physical structure, especially when considered alongside the community’s interests in the intangible values of the site. Returning to the site after the building’s destruction allowed us to record some new details, and to discuss future heritage plans with representatives from local communities.     

Devolution and Parliamentary Representation: The Case of the Scotland and Wales Bill, 1976–7

For as long as devolution has been debated in the UK, there has been fierce discussion as to the representation of the would‐be affected areas at Westminster. That this has been the case is a consequence of Westminster's dual remit as both a state‐wide and a sub‐state legislature. While this dual remit was relatively straightforward when applied to all nations of the UK, it does, however, raise serious questions about the equality of MPs at Westminster in the face of asymmetric devolution that would carve out parliament's remit in some, but not all, parts of the UK. These questions bedevilled Gladstone's Irish Home Rule Bills in the late 19th century and have been a recurrent feature of debate following New Labour's devolution programme in the late 1990s, culminating in the adoption of a system of ‘English Votes for English Laws’ by the house of commons in October 2015. This article looks at this issue through the lens of the ill‐fated Scotland and Wales Bill introduced by the Callaghan government in 1976. It explores the roots of the bill and how, and why, the idea of referring the question of territorial representation, post‐devolution, to a Speaker's conference, came to secure the initial support of cabinet as the best answer to this problem, and why the government swiftly changed its mind. Parliamentary statecraft considerations served to push a Speaker's conference onto the institutional agenda, before ultimately dooming it to failure.     

Geolocation and voting: Candidate–voter distance effects on party choice in the 2010 UK general election in England

The effect of geographical distance between candidate and voter on vote-likelihood in the UK is essentially untested. In systems where constituency representatives vie for local inhabitants' support in elections, candidates living closer to a voter would be expected to have a greater probability of receiving that individual's support, other things being equal. In this paper, we present a first test of this concept using constituency data (specifically, notice of poll address data) from the British General Election of 2010 and the British Election Survey, together with geographical data from Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail, to test the hypothesis that candidate distance matters in voters' choice of candidate. Using a conditional logit model, we find that the distance between voter and candidates from the three main parties (Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat) matters in English constituencies, even when controlling for strong predictors of vote choice, such as party feeling and incumbency advantage.     

The carse of stirling

EUROPE

Excursion Guide to the Geology of Arran. By Murray Macgregor with contributions by A. Herriot and B. C. King. 7 x 5 ½. Pp. 192. 2 plates. 18 figures. Glasgow: The Geological Society of Glasgow, 1965. 12s. 6d.

Coal and the Power Industries in Postwar Britain. By E. S. Simpson. Longmans Geography Paperbacks. 8 ½ x 5 ½. Pp. xix+170. 17 figures. 55 tables. London: Longmans, Green &; Co., 1966. 17s. 6d.

LATIN AMERICA

Latin America. By J. P. Cole. 10 x 6 ¼. Pp. xviii+468. London: Butterworths, 1965. 57s. 6d.