Shift Of Authority Research Articles

Does international pooling of authority affect the perceived legitimacy of global governance?

Recent instances of political backlash against global governance efforts as well as conventional wisdom suggest that there is a link between shifting decision-making authority from the domestic to the global level, on the one hand, and the legitimacy of global governance institutions as perceived by citizens and other stakeholders on the other. We use a population-based survey experiment in Germany and the United States (N = 1600 each) to investigate whether increasing the authority of a global governance institution negatively affects citizens’ legitimacy perceptions. The empirical focus is on climate change, a costly and paradigmatic global governance effort. The results show that shifts of political authority, notably changes towards majority decision making at the international level and automatic implementation of international decisions domestically, do not, on average, significantly affect citizens’ legitimacy perceptions of global governance institutions. Interestingly, the absence of the presumed negative effect is not due to citizens’ incapacity to understand the implications of increasing international authority in the sense that increasing international authority results in a loss of control over climate policy in Germany and the United States. Rather, legitimacy perceptions appear to be shaped by citizens’ perceptions of procedural and performance quality of such efforts in more general terms, and not by authority levels per se. Overall, these findings suggest that there could be more room for increasing the authority of global governance institutions, provided this can be done in ways that ascertain high procedural and output performance quality.

Testing for resistance: Point-of-care testing as a communicational tool in antibiotic prescribing

As antibiotic resistance becomes a growing health emergency, effective strategies are needed to reduce inappropriate antibiotic use. In this article, one such strategy – communicative practices associated with the C-reactive protein point-of care test – is investigated. Building on a collection of 31 videorecorded consultations from Danish primary care, and using conversation analysis, this study finds that the rapid test can be used throughout the consultation to incrementally build the case for a nonantibiotic treatment recommendation, both when the test result is forecast and reported. The study also finds that the format of reports of elevated results differs from that of ‘normal’ results, resulting in a subtle shift of authority from doctor to test.

A theoretical framework for designing human-centered automotive automation systems

Increasingly sophisticated and robust automotive automation systems are being developed to be applied in all aspects of driving. Benefits, such as improving safety, task performance, and workload have been reported. However, several critical accidents involving automation assistance have also been reported. Although automation systems may work appropriately, human factors such as drivers errors, overtrust in and overreliance on automation due to lack of understanding of automation functionalities and limitations as well as distrust caused by automation surprises may trigger inappropriate human–automation interactions that lead to negative consequences. Several important methodologies and efforts for improving human–automation interactions follow the concept of human-centered automation, which claims that the human must have the final authority over the system, have been called. Given that the human-centered automation has been proposed as a more cooperative automation approach to reduce the likelihood of human–machine misunderstanding. This study argues that, especially in critical situations, the way control is handed over between agents can improve human–automation interactions even when the system has the final decision-making authority. As ways of improving human–automation interactions, the study proposes adaptive sharing of control that allows dynamic control distribution between human and system within the same level of automation while the human retains the final authority, and adaptive trading of control in which the control and authority shift between human and system dynamically while changing levels of automation. Authority and control transitions strategies are discussed, compared and clarified in terms of levels and types of automation. Finally, design aspects for determining how and when the control and authority can be shifted between human and automation are proposed with recommendations for future designs.

Towards a More Nuanced Understanding of How International Pooling of Authority May Affect the Perceived Legitimacy of Global Governance

Recent instances of political backlash against global governance efforts as well as conventional wisdom suggest that there is a link between shifting authority from the domestic to the global level, on the one hand, and the legitimacy of global governance institutions as perceived by citizens and other stakeholders on the other. We thus investigate whether and how increasing the authority of a global governance institution affects citizens’ legitimacy perceptions, using a population-based survey experiment in Germany and the United States (N=1600 each). The empirical focus is on climate change, a costly and paradigmatic global governance effort. The results show that certain shifts of political authority, such as changes to majority decision making at the international level and automatic implementation of international decisions domestically, do not significantly affect “average” citizens’ legitimacy perceptions of global governance institutions. This result is not due to citizens’ incapacity to understand the implications of increasing authority, namely, that increasing authority results in a loss of control over climate policy in Germany and the United States. Rather, legitimacy perceptions appear to be shaped by citizens’ perceptions of procedural and performance quality of such efforts as well as by their level of cognitive mobilization, namely their interest in international politics. In brief, we find that citizens relate perceived procedural and performance quality of global governance with their evaluation of its legitimacy, but that subtle shifts of authority from the domestic to the global level do not per se affect citizens’ legitimacy perceptions.

Exploring the Epistemological Challenges Underlying Civic Engagement by Religious Communities

Religious communities vary widely in their commitments and practices, but nearly all of the world's major religious traditions have distinctive ways of “seeing things whole,” that is, of integrating facts, values, and strategies into holistic patterns of engagement. These patterns are being sharply disrupted by shifts in authority, authenticity, and agency that are catalysed by digital media. Paradoxically, while these shifts are creating sharp disruptions in established religious communities, they are also opening up new opportunities for engagement in civic action.

Municipal health services provision by local governments: a systematic review of experiences in decentralized Sub-Saharan African countries.

'Four' types of decentralization are distinguished in health care: deconcentration when the shift in authority is to regional or district offices; devolution when the shift is to state, provincial or municipal governments; delegation when semi-autonomous agencies are granted new powers; and privatization when ownership is granted to private entities. This article systematically reviews the experiences of local governments of Sub-Saharan African countries with the provision of health services during and after decentralization reforms. The article highlights the achievements, challenges and issues associated with decentralization. The review shows that most countries have mainly focused on the process by enacting numerous policies, regulations and standards with mixed outcomes for health services delivery. Decentralization in general, and resource transfer from the central to local governments in particular, are a highly political issue that influences the health reform strategy on decentralization. The literature shows the complexity of implementing decentralization schemes which strongly impact the health service organization and delivery. The theory of decision space applied in a comparative analysis found that some functions, particularly financing, remain under the control of the central state. Despite the numerous challenges, this review identifies some good practices in resources transfer, key determinants being the type of decentralization and the government's will to make legislative and administrative changes required for the effectiveness of decentralization. The literature search, even though systematic, resulted in a limited number of relevant publications with evidence on the link between decentralization and health services delivery. This is a largely unexplored research area, especially the use of financial resources by local governments, the factors that drive local decision-making processes and the effects of decentralization on health care sector performance.

『사서장구집주(四書章句集注)』의 성립과 경전적 권위의 변화

『사서장구집주(四書章句集注)』의 성립과 경전적 권위의 변화

Advocacy Strategies in Global Governance: Inside versus Outside Lobbying

As political authority shifts to the global level, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) increasingly attempt to influence policy-making within international organisations (IOs). This article examines the nature and sources of non-governmental organisations’ advocacy strategies in global governance. We advance a twofold theoretical argument. First, non-governmental organisation advocacy can be described in terms of inside and outside strategies, similar to interest group lobbying in American and European politics. Second, non-governmental organisations’ chosen combination of inside and outside strategies can be explained by their organisational goals and membership base. Empirically, this argument is corroborated through a large-n analysis of original data from structured interviews with 303 non-governmental organisation representatives active in relation to the United Nations (UN), complemented by 19 semi-structured interviews with UN and state officials. The article’s findings have implications for the theory and practice of non-governmental organisation involvement in global governance.

Suspension of the Death Penalty in <i>Heian</i> Period

No official executions were carried out in Japan for over 300years during the Heian period from the Kōnin era to the time of the Hōgen Rebellion. This fact has long been known, and has been taken up in many documents thus far. On the premise that this was not an abolition of the death penalty but a suspension, after examining the period and conditions pertaining to this suspension, this paper attempts to discuss the background and causes leading to such a phenomenon, and to explain the historical significance of this suspension in capital punishments. Various points have been made thus far regarding the background and causes of this suspension in capital punishments, all of which are understood to be factors. Among them a fear of vengeful spirits in particular has been most emphasized, and the author formerly subscribed to that idea. However, because there are cases in which execution was condoned even for serious crimes clearly committed by commoners not related to unreasonable deaths, a fear of vengeful spirits is not an adequate explanation. Also, such reasons were hardly discussed when resuming capital punishment, and there is even the opinion that in later aristocratic society executions were fundamentally avoided. This paper takes as its hypothesis the idea that executions were later carried out in aristocratic society and based on an analysis of the Go-Shirakawa Tennō Senmyō-an, defilement was seen as the greatest issue, and through the medium of defilement, examined its relationship with the situation pertaining to the Emperor and his court, and changes in imperial authority. The Go-Shirakawa Tennō Senmyō-an promulgated after the Hōgen Rebellion is a historical source that is often cited. This paper in particular focuses on the passage on the delay, due to the defilement of death, of the report made before the gods of the details of the rebellion and how it was subsequently handled. Defilement resulting by execution can be understood as a major issue. Defilement was systematized after the mid-ninth century, and was parallel to the process of purifying the emperor as high priest. The sanctioning of executions by the emperor gradually dropped off to avert the defilement of death, and the carrying out of executions was avoided to prevent the effects of such defilement on the court and palace. In this way, after a long hiatus capital punishment was resumed following the strife of the Hōgen Rebellion. This was not simply about the arising of the warrior families, but was also a major transformation in aristocratic society involving the court and emperor. At the point of the complete purification of the emperor as high priest, a new form of government was established, the cloistered government, and the retired emperor as a secular ruler exercised authority as the actual ruler. Moreover, as the concept of defilement became secularized, rarefied, and diffused, the earlier desire to avoid executions weakened. As a result, the emperor was able to preserve his purity, and the way was opened for the retired emperor to become involved in legal punishments and to sanction executions. The death penalty in Japan was suspended after the Kusuko Incident, and was resumed after the Hōgen Rebellion. Both were confrontations between a retired emperor and an emperor, and developed through a splitting of imperial authority. A suspension and resumption of the death penalty, it arose within the process of shifts in imperial authority, and was a unique phenomena.

Translating Clergie: Status, Education, and Salvation in Thirteenth-Century Vernacular Texts by Claire M. Waters

Reviewed by: Translating Clergie: Status, Education, and Salvation in Thirteenth-Century Vernacular Texts by Claire M. Waters Donna Alfano Bussell Translating Clergie: Status, Education, and Salvation in Thirteenth-Century Vernacular Texts. By Claire M. Waters. [The Middle Ages.] (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2016. Pp. xviii, 289. $69.95. ISBN 978-0-8122-4772-5.) In the Romano-German pontifical compiled at Worcester under Wulfstan and his successors, the bishop is instructed to prostrate himself with fellow penitents during the recitation of the litany on Maundy Thursday, physically making him both their companion and intercessor in the ordo. Managing the postures of humility is one of the important sociologies of the regular life, as Rachel Fulton has argued, and abbots or bishops have a duty to enact these gestures for the community. This episcopal gesture came to mind as I read Claire M. Waters' intriguing exploration of Anglo-French works of religious instruction. She argues that the [End Page 577] relationship between master and disciple in these texts is grounded in a shared knowledge of their "common fate as mortal sinners" (p. 8), a stance that allows for an assimilation of their respective roles. Some of the texts central to Waters' argument include: Honorius Augustodunensis's Elucidarium. and Speculum Ecclesiae., William of Waddington's Manuel des pechiez, Robert of Gretham's Miroir, Pierre d'Abernon's Lumere as Lais, and Robert of Grosseteste's Chasteau d'Amour. The first chapter outlines the shift of exegetical authority from the master to disciple through the refashioning of the text as a mirror for both. Waters argues convincingly that the claims of humility and love that motivate this refashioning (such as those made by Pierre d'Abernon) should not be dismissed. The second chapter introduces the debate about lay access to knowledge (reaching back to some of the well-known disputes between Abelard and Bernard). This problem is especially relevant to teachings about death and the fate of the soul, which highlight the master's responsibility for his students' salvation and the students' responsibility for moral decision-making. The third chapter introduces the textual pivot of Waters' argument, the Anglo-French apocryphal gospel L'Évangile de Nicodème, with its elaboration on the Harrowing of Hell and on the good thief as the paradigmatic lay witness who understands Christ's significance. The fabliaux in chapter four are arguably the most challenging group of texts to integrate into an argument that turns on the lessons of the deathbed and the exemplar of the good thief. But Waters provides a thoughtful analysis of cleric-jongleurs whose "catechetical questioning" (appropriated by lay characters) is both a witty distillation of theology and a critique of the categories of saint and sinner. Chapter five on Marian miracles (primarily Gautier de Coinci's; and the Anglo-French miracles in BL Royal MS 20.B.XIV) undertakes the fullest critique of a clerical learnedness that is blind to the value in even the most rudimentary lay witness. Waters suggests that the collaborative relationship between master and disciple in these Anglo-French texts is a counterpoint to the preaching on sin that aims to instill fear and guilt in the laity, an argument advanced by Jean Delumeau in Le péché et la peur. (1983). Waters may be right, and her careful analysis adds to the growing evidence on the sophistication of lay spirituality; yet it is not clear that she really advances her point by citing Delumeau generally. His arguments about the laity have been specifically challenged elsewhere. In the Afterword, Waters muddies the matter of the negative counterpoint further with a reference to R. I. Moore's Formation of a Persecuting Society. (1987). While this study does not definitively answer the question Waters poses at the outset about whether the laity were seen to possess the qualities of Latin learning ("clergie") associated with their teachers, it amply demonstrates that clerics writing in Anglo-French saw their audiences as capable fellow travelers, able to parse complex doctrinal questions and deserving of respect for their spiritual insight and moral judgment. The volume is an important and welcome addition to the scholarship on religious instruction in the vernacular. [End Page 578] Donna...

Sociotechnical Network Analysis for Power Grid Resilience in South Korea

International efforts to improve power grid resilience mostly focus on technological solutions to reduce the probability of losses by designing hardened, automated, redundant, and smart systems. However, how well a system recovers from failures depends on policies and protocols for human and organizational coordination that must be considered alongside technological analyses. In this work, we develop a sociotechnical network analysis that considers technological and human systems together to support improved blackout response. We construct corresponding infrastructure and social network models for the Korean power grid and analyze them with betweenness to identify critical infrastructures and emergency management organizations. Power grid network analysis reveals important power companies and emergency management headquarters for responding to infrastructure losses, where social network analysis reveals how information-sharing and decision-making authority shifts among these organizations. We find that separate analyses provide relevant yet incomplete recommendations for improving blackout management protocols. In contrast, combined results recommend explicit ways to improve response by connecting key owner, operator, and emergency management organizations with the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy. Findings demonstrate that both technological and social analyses provide important information for power grid resilience, and their combination is necessary to avoid unintended consequences for future blackout events.

‘No Picture more Charming’: The Family Portrait in Eighteenth-Century France

During the eighteenth century, so it is conventionally argued, the family portrait underwent a decisive transformation. Hitherto stiff and formal, such pictures took on a new informality and intimacy in response to the rise of a new set of domestic ideals. In the case of French family portraiture, this narrative has continued to be rehearsed in a largely uncritical way. What has not been adequately grasped to date is the way that such pictures functioned to legitimate the sitters and, more particularly, the male head of the family in the eyes of an external beholder. Although sometimes commissioned by a royal or noble family in response to a dynastic crisis, they most often functioned to consolidate the social ascent of wealthy commoners. The changes that the family portrait underwent during this period are bound up with the shift of political authority away from the absolute monarch towards the public sphere.

Tafsir Sosial Media di Indonesia

The history of contemporary exegesis sees the integration between the Quran and exegesis and social media. A statistic shows the low reading rates of Indonesians while the reading activity is dominated by social media. It leads to an assumption that the social media exegesis is the one people read nowadays. This paper takes this phenomena into account within two main concerns: (1) how is the different ways people use their social media account for the Quran related content, and (2) how is the notion of the social media exegesis as a contemporary exegesis? The article ends to the conclusion that there are at least three different shapes of the social media exegesis: textual, contextual, and tafsīr `ilmī. It marks the rise of semantic function of the Quran among the people and the shift of authority of exegesis. There are three causes for it: the platform of social media, the availability of the Quran translation, and the paradigm of al-rujū` ilā al-qur`ān wa al-sunnah.

Earliest direct evidence of monument building at the archaeological site of Nan Madol (Pohnpei, Micronesia) identified using 230Th/U coral dating and geochemical sourcing of megalithic architectural stone

Archaeologists commonly use the onset of the construction of large burial monuments as a material indicator of a fundamental shift in authority in prehistoric human societies during the Holocene. High- quality direct evidence of this transition is rare. We report new interdisciplinary research at the archaeological site of Nan Madol that allows us to specify where and when people began to construct monumental architecture in the remote islands of the Pacific. Nan Madol is an ancient administrative and mortuary center and the former capital of the island of Pohnpei. It was constructed over 83 ha of lagoon with artificial islets and other architecture built using columnar basalt and coral. We employed geochemical sourcing of basalt used as architectural stone and high-precision uranium-thorium series dates (230Th/U) on coral from the tomb of the first chief of the entire island to identify the beginning of monument building at Nan Madol in AD 1180–1200. Over the next several centuries (AD 1300–1600) monument building began on other islands across Oceania. Future research should be aimed at resolving the causes of these social transformations through higher quality data on monument building.

Public Health Emergencies as Threats to National Security

Protecting the nation from a diverse array of public health threats remains a consummate objective of federal, state, and local governments. Achieving it is no simple task. Threats to the public’s health are multifarious, unpredictable, and downright scary in many cases. Legitimate and irrational fears are stoked by significant levels of distrust of government or industry. Americans’ trepidations of public health threats invariably beget responses among federal, state, and local governments even if the actual risks to domestic populations are infinitesimally low. Still, for decades, national, state, and local government leaders often classify these and other conditions as emergencies through different legal authorities. Recently, federal leaders and agencies have re-conceptualized the nature of public health emergencies in terms of national security, reflecting a shift in national authority and accountability. Multiple Presidents and other federal officials speak in terms of how public health events pose national security threats (NSTs) or national security priorities (NSPs). As discussed in this Commentary, classifying public health concerns as national security threats presents uncertainties with practical and legal implications. Practical implications include the augmentation of federal influence, resources, and powers to coordinate responses internationally and at home. Labeling public health emergencies as national security events can alter how federal, state, and local governments respond legally to public health crises now and in the future.

Mobilizing hegemonic practices in trajectories of conspicuous resistance

Purpose Focusing on a community organisation, the purpose of this paper is to unravel the process through which infringing contested practices that threaten or compromise the community’s sense of distinction are transformed into acceptable symbolic markers. Design/methodology/approach An ethnographic study comprising participant observation, in-depth interviews and secondary data was conducted in the context of a non-profit community cinema. Findings Taking a longitudinal approach and drawing from practice theory, this paper outlines how member-driven, customer-driven and necessity-imposed infringing practices settle in new contexts. Further, this paper demonstrates that such practices are filtered in terms of their ideological “fit” with the organisation and are, as a result, rejected, recontextualised or replaced with do-it-yourself alternatives. In this process, authority shifts from the contested practice to community members and eventually to the space as a whole, ensuring the singularisation of the cinema-going experience. Practical implications This paper addresses how the integration of hegemonic practices to an off-the-mainstream experience can provide a differentiation tool, aiding resisting organisations to compensate for their lack of resources. Originality/value While the appropriation practices that communities use to ensure distinction are well documented, there is little understanding of the journey that negatively contested practices undergo in their purification to more community-friendly forms. This paper theorises this journey by outlining how the objects, meanings and doings that comprise hegemonic practices are transformed by and transforming of resisting organisations.

Thomas Paine and Democratic Religion in America

This essay examines the democratic impulses that shaped Thomas Paine’s vision for a religious revolution. Many historical treatments have recognized the central role that the themes of equality and freedom played in his political ideology. This study expands on this analysis by demonstrating how Paine grounded his religious beliefs in the same soil, advocating for Americans to extend the same democratic ideals of the political revolution to reform religion. Despite the irony that most Americans who supported Paine’s political vision rejected his religious ideas, many orthodox religious leaders adapted their beliefs and practices to the same democratic impulses as Paine. Thus, contrary to many treatments that simplistically juxtapose Paine and America’s faithful, this essay contends that both ultimately contributed to many of the same underlying democratic shifts in religious and cultural authority in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century America. Keywords: United States, Thomas Paine, American religion, democracy, evangelicalism DOI: 10.14712/23363231.2016.1

Yudisialisasi Politik dan Sikap Menahan Diri: Peran Mahkamah Konstitusi dalam Menguji Undang-Undang

In a review of the constitutionality of law or policy, the Constitutional Court can take an aggressive approach or choose to take self-restraint. Theoretical justification on the Court to change or made policy derived from the judicialization of politics. Global phenomenon indicates the shift of policy-making authority towards the judiciary. Consequently, policy makers shows resistence. Such conditions forced the Court to use a number of strategies to reduce political tensions between state institutions while at the same time the Court still protect the rights of citizens. The Court uses self-restraint approach to examine policies which in realm of legislative or executive discretion. This approach is referred to by the Court as an “open(ed) legal policy”. This study elaborates on the actions carried out by the Indonesian Constitutional Court to test the constitutionality of law or policy, both in the application of the judicialization of politics nor in the judicial restraint approach. In reality, the Court uses both of these approaches on review the constitutionality of law and policy.

Tactical Innovation in Social Movements

Social movement researchers argue that tactical innovation occurs as a response to changes external to movements, such as police repression and shifts in political authority, or is due to internal movement processes, such as the characteristics of movement organizations and actors. In this study, we locate the roots of tactical innovation in the multiplicity of movement claims articulated at protest events. With data on more than 23,000 protest events that took place in the United States between 1960 and 1995, we develop novel measures of two forms of tactical innovation and the relationships between protest event claims. Our results show that multi-issue protest events are more likely to use novel recombinations of tactics, and protest events with more peripheral movement claims tend to introduce new protest tactics. Our approach brings together work on social movement dynamics, innovation, and field theoretic approaches to theorize about the relationship between the tools and content of activism.

Economic empathy in family entrepreneurship: Mexican-origin street vendor children and their parents

ABSTRACTResearch on ethnic entrepreneurship has shown that children of immigrants may experience an economic advantage associated with their entrepreneurial parents’ ‘modes of incorporation’ – the individual, group, and structural opportunities and characteristics that facilitate entrepreneurial participation and consequent economic progress. This ethnographic study examines street vending as a family enterprise and finds that the entrepreneurial, but nevertheless, disadvantaged Latino street vending parents experience economic stagnation. Child street vendors in this study experience compounded disadvantages stemming from their parents’ social locations rooted in unauthorized status, informal work, and stigma, as working together shortens the distance between ‘adulthood’ and ‘childhood’. Yet, street vending also sets the stage for children to develop economic empathy, a resiliency that results from experiencing their parent's position of oppression that helps prevent an authority shift in favour of the children.