Why and how do political actors pursue risky welfare state reforms?

Why and how do political actors pursue risky welfare state reforms, in spite of the institutional mechanisms and political resistance that counteract change? This is one of the key puzzles of contemporary welfare state research, which is brought about by the absence of a complete account that identifies both the cause and causal mechanisms of risky reforms. In this article we offer a remedy for this lacuna. Prospect theory teaches us that political actors will only undertake risky reforms if they consider themselves to be in a losses domain, that is when their current situation is unacceptable. Next, we discuss the strategies that political actors use to avoid the blame associated with risky reforms. These provide the causal mechanisms linking cause and effect. The sudden outburst of risky reforms in formerly 'immovable' Italy provides an empirical illustration of our account. Copyright © 2007 Sage Publications

An axiomatization of cumulative prospect theory

This paper presents a method for axiomatizing a variety of models for decision making under uncertainty, including Expected Utility and Cumulative Prospect Theory. This method identifies, for each model, the situations that permit consistent inferences about the ordering of value differences. Examples of rankdependent and sign-dependent preference patterns are used to motivate the models and the tradeoff consistency axioms that characterize them. The major properties of the value function in Cumulative Prospect Theory—diminishing sensitivity and loss aversion—are contrasted with the principle of diminishing marginal utility that is commonly assumed in Expected Utility

PENGARUH METODE ECOLA (EXTENDING CONCEPTH TRHOUGH LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES) DALAM PEMBELAJARAN MEMBACA KRITIS TAJUK RENCANA

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memperoleh gambaran secara objektif tentang ada tidaknya perbedaan yang signifikan antara kemampuan siswa dalam membaca kritis tajuk rencana atau teks editorial kelas eksperimen dengan menggunakan metode ECOLAdan kelas kontrol dengan metode ceramah. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah seluruh siswa kelas VIII SMP Negeri 16 Bandung ajaran tahun 2015/2016. Sampel dalam penelitian ini adalah dua kelas yang dipilih secara purposive sampling, yakni pertimbangan dalam mengambil sampel tersebut, disebabkan kelas VIII G dan VIII H memiliki rata-rata nilai yang hampir sama dalam pembelajaran bahasa Indonesia dilihat dari Ujian Tengah Semester. Kelas yang digunakan adalah kelas VIII H sebagai kelas eksperimen dan kelas VIII G sebagai kelas kontrol. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode eksperimen kuasi dengan desain penelitian Nonequivalent Control Group Design. Pada desain ini dilakukan tes awal dan tes akhir di kelas eksperimen dan kelas kontrol. Pengolahan data dilakukan uji realibilitas antar penimbang, uji normalitas, homogenitas, dan hipotesis. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, didapatkan bahwa nilai rata-rata kelas eksperimen lebih tinggi daripada nilai rata-rata kelas kontrol. Rata-rata nilai tes awal kelas eksperimen yaitu 63 dan nilai rata-rata tes akhir 82. Sedangkan rata-rata nilai tes awal kontrol yaitu 54 dan rata-rata nilai tes akhir 66. Berdasarkan perolehan nilai tersebut didapatkan perbedaan nilai rata-rata kelas eksperimen 19 dan perbedaan nilai rata-rata kelas kontrol yaitu 13. Berdasarkan hasil pengujian hipotesis diperoleh nilaithitung= 5,01>ttabel = 1,99866, maka Ho ditolak dan Ha diterima. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa metode ECOLA berpengaruh dan dapat digunakan dalam pembelajaran membaca kritis tajuk rencana. ;--- This research aims toget the objective informationwhether there is a significance differences or not between students’ abilityin editorial critical reading text in an experimental class using ECOLA methodwith a control class using lecture method. The population of the research are all students of VIII grade class of16 Junior High School of Bandung in 2015/2016 school year.The sample are two classes of students which are selected through purposive sampling, consideringG and H class have a same average scoresin Indonesia Language subject,taken from Mid-Semester Test score. The H class was the experimental classand the G class control. The research utilizes a quasi-experimental methodwithNonequivalent Control Group Designwith a pre and a post-test. Reliability test was employed between counselor, normalcy test, homogenates, andhypothesis. The result shows that the average score of experimental classis higher than the control class. The experimental class’ average pre-test score was 63 the post-test was 82 whilethe control class’ average pre-test score was 54 andpost-test score was 66. The difference between pre and post-test of experimental class was 19 and control class was 13. Hypothesis test result shows thatthitung = 5,01>ttabel= 1,99866, then Hois rejectedand Hais accepted. It concludes thatECOLAis influential and implementable in editorial critical reading