Mutter erzahlt Marehen

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-ps/2009/thumbnail.jp

Grievances, identity, and political opportunity: The effects of corporate and liberal power-sharing on ethnic conflict

While much evidence supports the pacifying role of power-sharing for divided places, less is known about how it should be institutionalized. My dissertation addresses this gap. In particular, I focus on the distinction between two institutional types of power-sharing: On the one hand, corporate power-sharing, based on government quotas for specific ethnic groups, veto rights for their representatives, and ethnically-based autonomous regions. On the other hand, liberal power-sharing, based on low electoral hurdles for government inclusion, super-majority provisions, and national federal structures. I argue that the institutionalization of power-sharing poses difficult trade-offs. Specifically, corporate power-sharing should strongly reduce conflict risks for included groups in the short-term, as it provides tangible reassurances and reduces their grievances. However, it often includes some groups at the expense of others and visibly deviates from majority rule. Hence, it is prone to violent backlashes. Furthermore, it provides mobilizational resources to included groups and increasingly reinforces ethnic divisions. In this way, it engenders renewed conflict in the long-term. In contrast, liberal power-sharing avoids these side-effects. However, at the same time, it provides less tangible reassurances and hence only weakly reduces conflict risks. I test these expectations by relying on a novel, global dataset of institutionalized power-sharing. In addition to considering the link from power-sharing to conflict, I directly investigate its intermediate impact on mass grievances and ethnic salience. My findings offer partial support for my arguments. First, they indicate that corporate power-sharing indeed engenders inclusive practices, alleviates mass grievances of targeted groups, and reduces their conflict risks. Conversely, it also results in backlashes from other groups. Second, while liberal power-sharing also incentivizes inclusive practices, it does not exert strong effects on grievances or conflict risks. However, I find only limited support for the expected destabilizing effects of corporate power-sharing in the long-term

Recycling as a Nation

Could the United States be falling behind in its overall goal to reduce the amount of waste generated because waste management has been and continues to be a state or even city-mandated responsibility? In the United States, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) remains the only federal legislation requiring the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create guidelines for solid waste disposal and regulations. Yet, RCRA only mentions recycling via a call to increase the federal purchase of products made with recycling content. Without any mention of an enforcement mandate, the responsibility of creating policy and implementation of these policies are left to state and local governments like the District of Columbia (DC

Authoritarian footprints in Central and Eastern Europe

Are populist actors more like a hurricane that risks undermining democracy? Or do they aim for a different type of democracy, which strengthens popular control? This article offers one of the most extensive, systematic analyses on the impact of populism on multiple functions of the Quality of Democracy. Going beyond the view of ‘high-’ or ‘low-quality’ democracies, we emphasize that the Quality of Democracy is related to multiple dimensions or ‘functions of democracy’, characterized by important trade-offs. We argue that populist actors exert differentiated effects across these functions, depending on their degree of government access and host ideology. Our analysis relies on a new disaggregated dataset covering 53 established democracies in diverse world regions over the period between 1990 and 2016. We find that populist actors increase participation and representation, especially if they are confined to the opposition and especially if they belong to the political left-wing. In contrast, we find a negative impact of populists across the spectrum on institutional safeguards, such as the rule of law and state transparency. In sum, our findings indicate that populism has a variable impact on multiple aspects of democratic quality which should be systematically investigated in a disaggregated manner that is sensitive to these differences

Borders and Blood Pressure: Understanding the Role of Acculturation in a Hypertension Diagnosis Among Hispanic Americans: 2014 California Health Interview Survey

Background: In the U.S. Hispanic population overall, heart disease is the leading cause of death. The prevalence of hypertension among Mexican American immigrants is lower than the general population, yet it is on the rise. Health risks among Hispanics vary depending on their length of stay in the US (as proxy measure of acculturation). The purpose of this study was to examine the association between acculturation and the individual\u27s likelihood of being diagnosed with hypertension among Hispanic Americans. Methods: We used data from the 2014 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and performed univariate analysis to examine racial differences in prevalence of hypertension. We also performed a multivariate logistic regression to identify if acculturation was significantly related to hypertension diagnoses, after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender, level of education, marital status), access to care, and health status (e.g., self-reported health status, BMI), among Mexican Americans and all Hispanics, respectively. Results: Of 3,793 Hispanic American participating in the survey, 81.8% were Mexican Americans and 18.2% were other Hispanics. The prevalence of hypertension among Hispanic was 24.0% (95% CI: 21.5%. 26.7%) which was lower than that of African Americans (39.2%, 95% CI 33.7%, 44.9%) and White (30.2%, 95% CI: 28.5%, 31.9%). In multivariate analyses, acculturation was associated with hypertension among Mexican Americans, but not all Hispanics. For both Mexican Americans and Hispanics, age, health status and BMI were associated with having hypertension: Older people, those with poor health status, and overweight and obese people were more likely than their comparison groups to have hypertension. Those without health insurance were less likely to have hypertension. Conclusion: The results show a positive association between length of time in the United States for longer periods of time, and a diagnosis of hypertension. These results, along with others conducted around Hispanic American immigration, acculturation and chronic disease prevalence, help medical providers, to understand the effects of acculturation on specific health care needs among immigrants, and offer suggestions to patients which are culturally sensitive and relevant. Poster presented at AHPA conference in Atlanta Georgia.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/jcphposters/1014/thumbnail.jp