1,241 research outputs found

    Political Dynasties

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    We study political dynasties in the United States Congress since its inception in 1789. We document historic and geographic patterns in the evolution and profile of political dynasties, study the extent of dynastic bias in legislative politics versus other occupations, and analyze the connection between political dynasties and political competition. We also study the self-perpetuation of political elites. We find that legislators who enjoy longer tenures are significantly more likely to have relatives entering Congress later. Using instrumental variables methods, we establish that this relationship is causal: a longer period in power increases the chance that a person may start (or continue) a political dynasty. Therefore, dynastic political power is self-perpetuating in that a positive exogenous shock to a person's political power has persistent effects through posterior dynastic attainment. In politics, power begets power.

    The Evolutionary Robustness of Forgiveness and Cooperation

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    We study the evolutionary robustness of strategies in infinitely repeated prisoners' dilemma games in which players make mistakes with a small probability and are patient. The evolutionary process we consider is given by the replicator dynamics. We show that there are strategies with a uniformly large basin of attraction independently of the size of the population. Moreover, we show that those strategies forgive defections and, assuming that they are symmetric, they cooperate

    Love, Hate and Murder: Commitment Devices in Violent Relationships

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    Many violent relationships are characterized by a high degree of cyclicality: women who are the victims of domestic violence often leave and return multiple times. To explain this we develop a model of time inconsistent preferences in the context of domestic violence. This time inconsistency generates a demand for commitment. We present supporting evidence that women in violent relationships display time inconsistent preferences by examining their demand for commitment devices. We find that "no-drop" policies -- which compel the prosecutor to continue with prosecution even if the victim expresses a desire to drop the charges -- result in an increase in reporting. No-drop policies also result in a decrease in the number of men murdered by intimates suggesting that some women in violent relationships move away from an extreme type of commitment device when a less costly one is offered.

    Fragmented Histories, Fragmented Selves: Body Weight Preoccupation among Women in Post-Communist Romania

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    The emergence of body weight preoccupation in developing countries previously characterized by food insecurity has received limited sociological attention. This paper reflects on the lived experiences of minority women in post-communist Romania, as they navigate the rapid economic, political and social transformations taking place in the country. This is especially relevant, as Romania has experienced a rapid emergence of eating disorders shortly after the fall of communism. In examining the blurring of the boundaries between the individual and political bodies along with the loss of self that accompanies culture change, I argue that body weight preoccupation can serve as a counter movement to re-establish certainty through focus on the body. I find that in post-communist Romania, the self’s experiences under the old regime are re-embraced and are used to adapt to a radically new society

    "Do the Right Thing:" The Effects of Moral Suasion on Cooperation

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    The use of moral appeals to affect the behavior of others is pervasive (from the pulpit to ethics classes) but little is known about the effects of moral suasion on behavior. In a series of experiments we study whether moral suasion affects behavior in voluntary contribution games and mechanisms by which behavior is altered. We find that observing a message with a moral standard according to the golden rule or, alternatively, utilitarian philosophy, results in a significant but transitory increase in contributions above the levels observed for subjects that did not receive a message or received a message that advised them to contribute without a moral rationale. When players have the option of punishing each other after the contribution stage the effect of the moral messages on contributions becomes persistent: punishments and moral messages interact to sustain cooperation. We investigate the mechanism through which moral suasion operates and find it to involve both expectation- and preference-shifting effects. These results suggest that the use of moral appeals can be an effective way of promoting cooperation.

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    Impunes – 2500 dias da Operação Moeda Verde

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    TCC (graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Jornalismo.Em maio de 2007, políticos e empresários de renome em Florianópolis (SC) foram presos temporariamente na deflagração da Operação Moeda Verde, da Polícia Federal. A operação investigou irregularidades na liberação de licenças ambientais e alvarás de funcionamento em diversos órgãos municipais. Este Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso é um livro-reportagem que se propõe a narrar os acontecimentos desde a deflagração até os dias atuais, esmiuçando as ligações existentes para que as fraudes se realizassem na administração municipal. As fontes são os indiciados, policiais, juízes, desembargadores e procuradores federais, e jornalistas
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