Planned and Unplanned Bequests

We make the distinction between bequests that are planned as part of some lifetime optimization stemming from a bequest motive, and those that are unplanned and result when the date of death differs from what the consumer might forecast. Lifetime optimization should lead to a negative effect or no effect of the expected horizon on the size of the bequest, and to a negative relation between unexpectedly long life and the bequest. Using data on wealthy decedents and their parents, we form measures of the expected horizon based on parents' longevity. There is no relation between unexpectedly early or late death and the bequest, but a significant positive relation between the bequest and the length of the horizon. Several explanations for this unforeseen result are offered, including the inference that uncertainty about length of life is important in studying bequest behavior.

Putting social context into text: The semiotics of e-mail interaction

E-mail excludes the multiple nonlinguistic cues and gestures that facilitate face-to-face communication. How, then, should interaction in a text-based context be understood? The authors analyze the problems and solutions experienced by a research panel that communicated over e-mail and face-to-face for 18 months, evaluating both kinds of exchanges alongside survey and interview data. Semiotic and linguistic theory is used to expose essential properties associated with the successful communication of meaning in each context. The authors find that e-mail requires the cultivation of new techniques for specifically conveying the "pragmatic information" that connects the meaning of words to their users. Such information is assigned in e-mail through the use of what are termed emphatic, referential, and characterizing semiotic tactics. These tactics are also evident in sustained online interactions studied by other researchers. This theoretical vocabulary represents an alternative to the dominant sociological characterization of e-mail as an inferior substitute for face-to-face interaction. © 2008 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.published_or_final_versio

Woodrow Wilson and the spirit of liberal internationalism

Woodrow Wilson is among most influential presidents in U.S. foreign policy history, and the most pious. The challenge for scholars is joining Wilson's faith and his foreign policies. What was the role of religion in Wilson's worldview? What is the place of religion in Wilsonianism? This article uses original archival sources and a synthesis of historical research to intervene in IR theory, demonstrating that Wilsonianism is a product of Wilson's specifically Southern Presbyterian upbringing, his admiration for other Christian idealists, and the influence of the budding movement of the Social Gospel. This finding raises a historiographic puzzle: why did late twentieth century IR scholars erase religion from theories of liberal internationalism? The article suggests Wilson's religion has been erased as part of the broader project of desacralizing and universalizing liberal internationalism. Wilson's worldview was a mirror for the kind of social and political order he witnessed and propagated in America, a Janus-faced spirit of universalism and exceptionalism, internationalism and parochialism, that continues to motivate the liberal internationalist project. Unearthing the Protestant origins of Wilsonianism helps us to explicate the missionary spirit driving the liberal internationalist project.Accepted manuscrip

Sisi Gelap Demokrasi: Kekerasan Masyarakat Madani di Indonesia

Salah satu capaian penting reformasi di Indonesia adalah tumbuhnya masyarakat madani (civil society) yang kuat. Namun, beberapa di antara organisasi masyarakat madani yang paling efektif dewasa ini justru adalah kelompok-kelompok Islamis garis-keras yang mendakwahkan intoleransi dan menyebarluaskan kebencian. Di beberapa wilayah, seperti Jawa Barat dan seputar Jakarta, organisasi-organisasi ini terbukti amat memengaruhi agenda kebijakan publik, dengan mendesak pemerintah—baik di tingkat lokal maupun nasional—untuk menerapkan pandangan mereka mengenai moralitas dan pemahaman mereka mengenai ortodoksi. Meskipun mengusung agenda-agenda yang antidemokrasi, semua organisasi di atas justru memanfaatkan ruang-ruang bebas yang disediakan demokrasi. Pertanyaannya, apakah organisasi-organisasi itu tumbuh berjalan seiring dengan meningkatnya konservatisme sosial masyakarat Indonesia, atau karena koneksi-koneksi politik tingkat tinggi yang kuat? Mengapa mereka tampak lebih efektif dalam advokasi mereka dibanding organisasi-organisasi lainnya? Bagaimana demokrasi mengatasi kekuatan-kekuatan anti-demokrasi yang menggerogotinya itu? Bermula dari Nurcholish Madjid Memorial Lecture (NMML) VII (2013), di buku ini Sidney Jones menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan di atas dari perspektif teori gerakan sosial. Dia juga mengevaluasi berbagai tawaran yang sudah diajukan untuk “mengatasi” organisasi-organisasi di atas dan memperkuat pluralisme seperti yang pernah disuarakan almarhum Nurcholish Madjid. Aspek-aspek tersebut dibahas lebih lanjut dari berbagai sudut pandang oleh para penanggapnya: Elga Sarapung, M. Najib Azca, Jeremy Menchik, Sana Jaffrey, Titik Firawati, dan Zainal Abidin Bagir. Semuanya menyajikan persoalan dan tantangan yang tidak mudah, namun tetap menjaga harapan akan Perubahan dan perbaikan demokrasi dan masyarakat madani. Buku ini perlu dibaca oleh para pengambil kebijakan, akademisi, aktivis sosial dan siapa pun yang merasa peduli dengan masa depan demokrasi Indonesia

How inheriting affects bequest plans

We present and test the idea that bequest planning is linked with the experience of inheriting. We consider “a family tradition of bequeathing” as a channel through which the intention to bequeath is moulded by and is positively correlated with the experience of inheriting. Using data from the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we find that the experience of inheriting enhances the intention to bequeath, independently of the positive impact of wealth. We also find that the expectation of inheriting has a positive impact on the intention to bequeath, controlling for the expected increase in wealth on account of future inheritances