The Possibility of Majority Voting within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is struggling in its attempts to address the threat of anthropogenic climate change and create an effective post-Kyoto international climate agreement. One substantial part of the problem is con-sensus decision making within the Convention, which effectively gives every party a veto over the process. Majority voting is one potential alternative which is already being dis-cussed within the UNFCCC. A comparative analysis of consensus and majority voting sug-gests that majority voting is superior in terms of both efficiency and effectiveness since it is a better consensus-builder, a speedier decision making process and provides opportuni-ties for a semi-global approach to international climate policy. The objective in this paper is to investigate how majority voting could be implemented in the UNFCCC and to consider politically feasible and effective approaches to voting arrangements for the Convention. Implementing majority voting in the Convention faces legal, political and institutional ob-stacles. While it has growing support from some states, others remain staunchly opposed, with concerns over voting on financial matters being particularly sensitive. A type of Lay-ered Majority Voting with larger majorities for financial and substantial matters is consid- ered to be the optimal approach in balancing political feasibility and effectiveness. A weighted voting system differentiated on the basis of mitigation commitments, vulnerabil-ity and population (Common but Differentiated Voting) is proposed as an ideal approach. Despite these possibilities a change in decision making will likely require a crisis to cata-lyse the necessary political will and break the current path dependency that has been built around consensus

The Possibility of Majority Voting within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is struggling in its attempts to address the threat of anthropogenic climate change and create an effective post-Kyoto international climate agreement. One substantial part of the problem is con-sensus decision making within the Convention, which effectively gives every party a veto over the process. Majority voting is one potential alternative which is already being dis-cussed within the UNFCCC. A comparative analysis of consensus and majority voting sug-gests that majority voting is superior in terms of both efficiency and effectiveness since it is a better consensus-builder, a speedier decision making process and provides opportuni-ties for a semi-global approach to international climate policy. The objective in this paper is to investigate how majority voting could be implemented in the UNFCCC and to consider politically feasible and effective approaches to voting arrangements for the Convention. Implementing majority voting in the Convention faces legal, political and institutional ob-stacles. While it has growing support from some states, others remain staunchly opposed, with concerns over voting on financial matters being particularly sensitive. A type of Lay-ered Majority Voting with larger majorities for financial and substantial matters is consid- ered to be the optimal approach in balancing political feasibility and effectiveness. A weighted voting system differentiated on the basis of mitigation commitments, vulnerabil-ity and population (Common but Differentiated Voting) is proposed as an ideal approach. Despite these possibilities a change in decision making will likely require a crisis to cata-lyse the necessary political will and break the current path dependency that has been built around consensus

An urn model for majority voting in classification ensembles

In this work we analyze the class prediction of parallel randomized ensembles by majority voting as an urn model. For a given test instance, the ensemble can be viewed as an urn of marbles of different colors. A marble represents an individual classifier. Its color represents the class label prediction of the corresponding classifier. The sequential querying of classifiers in the ensemble can be seen as draws without replacement from the urn. An analysis of this classical urn model based on the hypergeometric distribution makes it possible to estimate the confidence on the outcome of majority voting when only a fraction of the individual predictions is known. These estimates can be used to speed up the prediction by the ensemble. Specifically, the aggregation of votes can be halted when the confidence in the final prediction is sufficiently high. If one assumes a uniform prior for the distribution of possible votes the analysis is shown to be equivalent to a previous one based on Dirichlet distributions. The advantage of the current approach is that prior knowledge on the possible vote outcomes can be readily incorporated in a Bayesian framework. We show how incorporating this type of problem-specific knowledge into the statistical analysis of majority voting leads to faster classification by the ensemble and allows us to estimate the expected average speed-up beforehandThe authors acknowledge financial support from the Comunidad de Madrid (project CASI-CAMCM S2013/ICE-2845), and from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (projects TIN2013-42351-P and TIN2015-70308-REDT

Comparing Youth Opinions Toward Compulsory Voting Across Five Countries

This study uses a comparative case study design to examine youth (ages 13-20) opinions toward compulsory voting across five democratic countries: Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and the United States. Youth responses to questionnaire items concerning compulsory voting were coded and analyzed with the guidance of a political socialization conceptual framework. Youth responses toward compulsory voting demonstrate how youth come to learn about citizen rights and responsibilities with varied understandings of what it means to participate in a democracy. Five themes represent the most notable variations of reasons given by youth to support and oppose compulsory voting: rights and duties, corruption, inclusion of minorities, informed citizenry, and strong democracy. Further, the majority of students gave at least one reason for and against compulsory voting demonstrating students’ ability of perspective-taking, to give reasons for the perspective with which they disagree. This study provides an analysis of how youth political opinions are constructed and negotiated by social and political influences. The findings have implications for educational researchers and social studies teachers as they work to improve civic education.

An Evaluation of the Standard Setting Performance of the FASB

This paper develops a framework for evaluating the effects of various organizational changes on the performance of a regulatory agency in standard setting. I apply this framework to examine whether numerous Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) modifications influence the performance of the Board during the standard setting process. These modifications include changes in FASB funding, voting, and Board member characteristics, particularly professional backgrounds and political affiliations. To analyze the performance of the Board, I follow the operations management literature to construct a set of variables that capture team effectiveness and managerial performance. A factor analysis on these variables produces three distinct efficiency factors regarding FASB standard setting: thoroughness, timeliness, and consensus. I find evidence that a change in voting rules from super majority to simple majority is associated with an improvement in timeliness but a decline in thoroughness and consensus. I also find that a change in FASB funding from voluntary contributions to mandatory accounting support fees is associated with reduced timeliness but no significant change in thoroughness and consensus. Finally, FASB members’ professional and political characteristics appear to influence the efficiency of the Board in different aspects

Risk assessment and management of genetically modified organisms under Australia's Gene Technology Act:

"Compared to both Canada and the United States, Australia has been slow to approve commercial planting of transgenic crops. Two probable reasons exist for the slow approval rate of transgenic crops in Australia. The first reason is community perceptions about the risks associated with transgenic technologies. The second is the regulatory framework currently employed to approve commercial releases. This paper examines some of the potential regulatory issues that may be affecting the review process and approval of transgenic technologies. First we provide a brief introduction to the regulatory structure in Australia, second we consider the impact of regional, national and state jurisdictions, third we argue that the regulator needs to consider the use of benefits analysis in decision making, fourth we argue for the use of probabilistic risk assessments in certain circumstances, and fifth we look at potential problems inherent in majority voting in a committee and recommend alternatives." Authors' AbstractRisk assessment,

Inequality, Environmental Protection and Growth

Why do Scandinavian countries perform better in terms of environmental protection than other European Union countries? In this paper, we explore the hypothesis that societies characterised by low income inequality (such as the nordic European countries) generate political-economic equilibria where environmental policy is more stringent. We model an overlapping-generations economy in which individuals differ in skills to address the question to what extent in modern democracies, income distribution influences the stringency of environmental policy and consequently the growth of a country. Individuals work when they are young and own capital when they are old. Pollution externalities are present due to the use of a polluting factor. The government uses the revenue from a capital-income tax and a pollution tax for a lump-sum transfer to the old generation. The fiscal decision at each point in time is taken by a majority elected representative. In politico-economic equilibrium, the lower the skill of the median individual is relative to the average, the smaller the pollution tax and the capital stock are, and the greater the capital income-tax and the relative use of the polluting factor. We perform both steady-state analysis and examine the transition path. Subsequently, we present an empirical analysis for two panels of seven and ten industrialised countries from the late seventies to late nineties. Our framework is able to explain the stylised facts regarding inequality, environmental protection, and growth.Environmental policy;majority voting;endogenous fiscal structure;income distribution;overlapping generations;growth

Gelagat Pasca Pengundian di Bukit Gantang, Perak pada Pilihan Raya Umum 2008 Berdasarkan Model Pemasaran Hirschman

The study of voting behaviour is increasingly important in Malaysia due to the massive changes occurrence in the Malaysian political landscape. For the first time in the Malaysia's political history, the ruling party Barisan Nasional was denied a two-third majority in Parliament and lost five strategic states.The stakeholders were interested to know whether the changes that had occurred could sustain, or just a temporary phenomenon which would change in the next general election. This study used the marketing approach to understand voting behaviour in Malaysia. It involves the application of Hirschman model as a framework of analysis and voters of Parlimen Bukit Gantang were selected as the sample. In addition, this study attempts to adapt the Post Purchase Behaviour from the marketing field to examine the voters behaviour of the post 12th General Election. This study thus attempts to construct the concept of Post Voting Behaviour to identify to what extent the usefulness and effectiveness of Hirschman model in understanding the Post Voting Behaviour of voters and its capabilities in providing guidance to their voting trends in the next coming elections. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were utilised as sources of data collection. A total of one thousand and five hundred respondents was selected using systematic sampling method. SPSS softwarewas used to analyse the data. Interviews were conducted with academic experts and Member of Legislative Assembly of Perak. The findings indicated that Post Voting Behaviour has a relationship with both Party Characteristics and Voter’s Characteristics. Further, this study also concluded that Hirschman's theory is relevant in measuring the Post Voting Behaviour. Therefore, the three responses (Exit, Voice and Loyalty) that have been proposed in the theory could serve as a basis in understanding the behaviour shown by the voters after an election particularly in Malaysia. This study has at least opened a new dimension of research in exploring voter’s behaviour in Malaysia. The results of this study showed that some specific aspects of marketing could be incorporated to give a new perspective in understanding electoral politics and voting behaviour of Malaysians citizens