Interests Of Constituencies Research Articles

How and when candidate race affects inferences about ideology and group favoritism

Abstract How does a candidate's racial background affect the inferences voters make about them? Prior work finds that Black candidates are perceived to be more liberal. Using two survey experiments, we test whether this effect persists when candidate partisanship and issue positions are specified and also consider other consequential voter perceptions. We make two contributions. First, we show that while Black candidates are perceived to be more liberal than White candidates with the same policy positions, this difference is smaller for Black candidates who adopt more conservative positions on race-related issues. Second, we find that voters, both Black and White, believe Black candidates will prioritize the interests of Black constituents over those of White constituents, regardless of candidate positions.

Public Support for State Challenges to National Laws

State governments are increasingly challenging the national government and pursuing state rules in opposition to national laws. I am interested in whether the public supports this strategy. Do people want state governments to deliver policy outcomes that better fit the interests of state constituents—even if it undercuts the authority of the national government? Or are citizens critical of state actions that challenge national laws? I find that most Americans do not believe that states should be allowed to block the enforcement of federal laws they disagree with. Opposition to state challenges increases with support for the rule of law. Using experiments, I explore whether people are less likely to support policy outcomes when they are described as challenging national provisions. I find limited evidence that people evaluate state policies differently when described as contrary to national laws. People support national supremacy in the abstract and accept state resistance to national mandates in practice.

An Examination to the Policy Market Game of the Inflation Reduction Act--A Response to Energy Revolution

U.S. Inflation Reduction Act as a federal response to energy revolution is a policy game to input least and output most for both legislators and interest groups, resulting in an equilibrium price for demanders of policies to exchange for effective supports of suppliers with re-election resources. The intention of legislators to supply effective supports is subject to ideology preferences, constituent interests and opportunity costs, while the intention of interest groups to purchase their favorite policies is subject to cost-efficient prices of re-election resources. Such an equilibrium theory for examining the Inflation Reduction Act market is able to reflect the U.S. partisan split of ideologies in environment topics, energy revolution in chief sectors of 50 states, U.S. legislative process to pass a bill, but also a huge step to achieve U.S. emission goals or to meet the temperature targets in 2030 that are set in in the Paris Agreement in 2016.

Institutional Proxy Representatives of Future Generations: A Comparative Analysis of Types and Design Features

Future generations will be strongly affected by political decisions made today (e.g., by the long-term consequences of climate change). According to the democratic all-affected principle, the interests of everyone affected by political decisions should be considered in the political decision-making process. Future generations cannot influence democratic decision-making, since they do not yet exist. Election-based democratic incentive systems are said to make it difficult to consider the needs of future generations today. Surprisingly, however, since the early 1990s, an increasing number of democracies have established what could be called institutional proxy representatives of future generations (proxies), i.e., public bodies with institutionalized access to government and/or parliament that introduce the construed interests of future generations into the political decision-making process. Proxies help to consider future generations’ interests alongside the interests of current constituencies. After concept building, this comparative study searches all liberal democracies and identifies 25 proxies, with heterogeneous institutional designs. By employing membership criteria, three types are distinguished: (a) expertise-driven independent guardians (type I), (b) political or administrative advisory and coordination bodies (type II), and (c) sustainability stakeholder councils or committees (type III). They vary considerably in their formal capacity to influence political decision-making (i.e., on what legal basis they were provided with what instruments to address which phases of the policy process and which branches of government). Overall, they should not be overburdened with expectations. While they are usually equipped with the tools to voice the (construed) interests of future generations, they often lack the capacity to act as watchdogs with teeth when ignored.

Sustainable Directors’ Duties and Reasonable Shareholders

This paper will examine the sustainability of directors’ duties from two perspectives, namely that the duties are stable in their own right and that they cover enough ground for them to help achieve sustainable goals. First, we will examine how directors’ duties to act in a company’s best interest operate well when shareholder interests are aligned. These duties, when breached, can be ratified by shareholders given the traditional understanding that they are the company. This may, in turn, have been associated with the growing acceptance of shareholder primacy over the past 40 years, seen most recently in the UK Supreme Court decision in BTI v Sequana (2022). The Supreme Court, however, also discussed the limitations of shareholder ratification, and its interaction with the rules protecting creditors, particularly as regards capital maintenance. Those rules have, however, been weakened, and private law has had to step in to address the abuse those rules were aimed at. Where the substantive content of directors’ duties is concerned, the focus everywhere is on how to make directors take account of external constraints such as environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns and corporate purposes that may contradict enhancing shareholder value (as well as existing shareholder protection) as an established paradigm of company law. We will also analyse the difficulties in accommodating the interests of other internal constituents, like creditors (some of whom may have been externalised). This paper will build on earlier suggestions that the proper purpose rule has a part to play in balancing the interests of corporate constituents both inter and intra se and even in considering the position of future shareholders. The test of what is in the best interest of the company may not provide enough balance in this regard, as seen perhaps from the recent failed derivative action sought by some shareholders of Shell against its directors, and directors should take account of the interest of the reasonable shareholder in capturing the gist of what ESG should aim at.

Where you stand depends on where you sit: inconsistencies in Taiwan legislators' positions on importing US meat

Abstract This study examines the political dynamics that shape legislators' policy positions on importing US meat into Taiwan during the past decade, focusing on the cases of US beef in 2012 and US pork in 2021. The trade policy surrounding this issue has become politically contentious, involving conflicting national interests and constituency preferences. Legislators face a dilemma, torn between prioritizing the interests of their constituents and aligning with their party's interests. The central argument posits that legislators affiliated with the ruling party are more inclined to advocate for or adjust their stances to support the removal of import bans on American meat, while those associated with the opposition party tend to exhibit a greater reluctance to endorse such a stance. Factors such as the legislators' constituent's interests, district vs party-list affiliations, the urban–rural divide, or education level do not consistently explain legislators' positions on the US meat trade policy. To examine these arguments, this study employs a mixed-method approach, incorporating quantitative analysis and two case studies of individual legislators. The findings of this study offer empirical support for the central proposition.

Non-State Participation in International Organizations 1998–2017: Introducing a New Dataset

Abstract In recent decades, one of the most prominent trends in global governance has been the increasing openness of international organizations (IOs) toward non-state actors (NSAs). As participants in the policymaking bodies of IOs, NSAs have become important actors in global governance, providing policy-relevant information to decision makers, representing constituency interests, and ultimately, influencing policies. Yet to date, we have little systematic comparative knowledge about the NSAs that participate in IO bodies. This article introduces the Non-State Participation in International Organizations (N-PINION) dataset, which maps NSA participant populations across eighty one policymaking bodies in twenty four global IOs between 1998 and 2017. The dataset provides indicators on the density, diversity, and volatility of NSA populations, available yearly across IO bodies. These indicators provide potential dependent and independent variables for scholars interested in a wide variety of research questions relating to the drivers, consequences, and normative merits of NSA participation in IOs.

Trade Competitiveness, Constituency Interests, and Legislators' Attitudes Towards Trade Agreements

We argue that legislators’ trade attitudes reflect constituents’ economic interests. Concretely, we expect that legislators from districts that are highly competitive in international trade should be more supportive of trade agreements than legislators from noncompetitive districts. The strength of this relationship should be lower in multimember districts and for right‐wing legislators. Data based on surveys with 3,576 legislators from 16 Latin American countries and 48 legislative periods between 2005 and 2019 allow us to test these expectations. The surveys captured legislators’ attitudes towards trade agreements between their countries and the United States and the European Union, respectively, and the Pacific Alliance. We measure districts’ trade competitiveness with an innovative combination of household survey and trade data. The evidence supports all three expectations. The findings contribute to research on trade policymaking, public opinion towards trade, and legislator behavior.

Teaching mathematics for social justice: The challenges and the prospects in the Ghanaian senior high schools

The<b> </b>study aimed to explore the prospects and challenges of teaching mathematics for social justice at Ghanaian senior high schools (SHSs). A non-random sample of seven respondents, including two experienced mathematics educators and five SHS students, were interviewed and analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. The analysis revealed seven themes: individual differences, students’ mathematics interests, participatory lessons, extracurriculars, non-interactive teaching, technology use, and cultural diversity. These thematic findings are related to technical, practical, and emancipatory knowledge constituent interests in schools and Ghanaian social, cultural, and historical settings. A teacher should utilize egalitarian pedagogy so that the students will gain practical and emancipatory skills.

Evaluation of an implementation strategy for a World Health Organization (WHO) public health report: The implementation of the International Perspectives on Spinal Cord Injury (IPSCI) in Romania

Aim: This paper aims to evaluate a strategy for the implementation of public health policy recommendations from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) report “International Perspectives on Spinal Cord Injury” in Romania. More specifically, it seeks to: a) evaluate implementation actions with a focus on a number of people reached and status of completion at 12 months follow-up; b) describe implementation activities undertaken in the course of one year, and; c) evaluate perceived barriers and facilitators of implementation at 12 months follow-up. Methods: A cross-sectional design was adopted with two surveys administered in 2014/15 among key implementers in Romania. The questionnaires contained open-ended, multiple choice and 5-point Likert scale questions. Results on the implementation status, implementation activities performed and self-reported barriers and facilitators were analysed and reported using descriptive statistics. Results: Implementation completion rate was 75%, with 4390 persons directly or indirectly benefiting from the implementation-related activities listed in the final implementation plan reporting. A broad range of implementation experiences was reported. Most common activity types were delivery of services, technical trainings, implementation coordination and development meetings. Most useful tools and processes were the Romanian language version summary of the report, educational meetings, and local consensuses processes. Reported outcomes included the direct output produced, evidence of services provided, and individual or organizational level impact. Most barriers were named for the policymakers and academia as stakeholder groups and most facilitating influences for the private sector, with dependence of policymakers on constituency interest scoring highest barrier and the general availability of European Commission and European Structural Funds highest facilitator. Conclusion: The surveys proved to be both feasible and useful tools to expand our understanding of implementation and to supplement the more standard used implementation strategies at country level.

Sticking it out: Instability, regime type, and personnel withdrawals from UN peacekeeping operations

What explains UN member-state personnel withdrawals from peacekeeping operations? Withdrawals can occur at the behest of contributor states, as contributions are voluntary. We argue that withdrawal is motivated by violence in the peacekeeping operation host state. Research shows that well-resourced missions improve the prospects of success. Personnel withdrawals are dangerous, as they are more likely when continued deployments are needed. We thus need to understand why some states resist withdrawing in the face of instability. We argue that democracies are more stalwart than their counterparts given their constituency interests, the democratic benefits of peacekeeping and the political cover offered to democratic policymakers.

Effects of per capita payments on governance: evidence from tribal casinos.

Some governments distribute profits from state-owned enterprises to citizens on a per capita basis while others do not. Does the use of per capita payments affect how governments trade off pro-economy policies with other constituent interests such as environmental quality and public health? We study that question in the context of tribal government decisions to close or keep open casinos on American Indian reservations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Relying on per capita payment data and administrative information on the operational status of over 200 tribal casinos, we investigate how the distribution of per capita payments relates to the number of days casinos were closed from February 2020 through February 2022. After controlling for casino size at the onset of COVID-19, as well as demographic, economic, and geographic characteristics of the reservations on which the casinos operate, we find that casinos governed by per capita payments remained open about 17-29% longer than other reservation-based casinos. That finding suggests that per capita payments create a pro-economy constituency and implies that the decision to pay dividends directly to citizens affects the sizes of revenues from state-owned enterprises, such as tribal-government-owned casinos, rather than merely determining how they are distributed.

Purpose, Values and Governance in Big Tech Companies

The private decisions of the five “Big Tech” (“BT”) companies (Facebook, Apple, Alphabet Inc, Amazon and Microsoft) have very public results as they play a significant role in social, economic and political life. This article explores the purpose of these companies in the context of the current debate about corporate purpose in order to understand their role in society and to explore how they should be governed. The concept of “purpose” has a number of meanings depending on the different contexts and the different disciplines involved in the study. Part II of the article examines the notion of corporate purpose which forms part of a wide-ranging and topical debate as to the interests which should be taken into account by boards in making operational decisions. Often the choice in managing or overseeing the management of the company is framed as a binary choice between acting in the interests of shareholders or acting in the interests of broader stakeholder constituents. In reality, the issue is more nuanced and complex and the quest for an answer extends into a discussion of company law obligations and directors’ duties. The positioning of BT companies in relation to this understanding of purpose is then reviewed. Part III of the article examines what may be viewed as a managerial corporate purpose concept. This constitutes a tool to guide management and to signal “the direction and the reason for the company’s existence”. The use by BT companies of this tool is explored and its usefulness evaluated. Finally, Part IV of the article considers three policy proposals which might be considered in the area of corporate governance: the application of board suitability requirements; the introduction of a public benefit purpose and the use of public interest directors.

A foreign policy oriented toward personal interests: An analysis of Bolsonaro's approach to multilateralism

AbstractHistorically, Brazilian diplomacy has centered its foreign policy strategy on multilateral institutions. Multilateralism has not only been an instrument to share the political costs of international decisions but also a defensive mechanism, due to Brazil's modest military capability. In this article, we consider that Bolsonaro's multilateral foreign policy represents the rupture of narrative. Departing from the premise that foreign policy is a public policy, hence subjected to domestic constituencies, Bolsonaro's conservative project is constructed in the intersection between domestic politics and the international system. First, we introduce our main hypothesis, that he employs an ideology of anticommunism, antiglobalism, and negationism to assure the loyalty of specific constituencies despite potential disruptions to collective interests and national long‐term strategies. Next, we connect the internal to the external by comparing Bolsonaro's approval in public opinion polls and his proposition or support of domestic laws to Brazil's stance in multilateral forums. To verify the validity of our argument, we aim to identify patterns of external behavior that correspond to the president's political ideas and guidelines and to concrete interests of domestic constituencies.

Tweeting for Latinos? Legislative Communication in the 115th U.S. House of Representatives

This article explores whether legislators in the U.S. House of Representatives talk about the issues important to Latinos on Twitter. Other work has emphasized the importance of descriptive representation for the substantive advancement of the interests of minority constituents. Building on that work, I argue that Latino legislators are more likely than their non-Latino peers to discuss issues important to the Latino community. In addition, given majoritarian constraints and work showing how minority legislators are marginalized in the legislative process, I argue that minority legislators – Latinos included – are more likely to post symbolic messages than their colleagues because they are not able to change the status quo and advance the interests of their co-ethnic/racial constituents. I explore these hypotheses using data collected from the Twitter profiles of members of the 115th U.S. House of Representatives. After accounting for other factors, I find that Latino legislators are more likely to post about immigration and Hurricane Maria during the 115th Congress. I also find that Latino legislators are more likely to post symbolic messages when communicating with the public. Both of these findings corroborate the notion of minority distinctiveness and add to our understanding of Latino representation, minority behavior, and legislative communication.

Climate change: the missing discourse in the Indian Parliament

Parliamentary questions (PQs) are a crucial oversight tool available to parliamentarians in all democracies. In a well-functioning democracy, parliamentary oversight can play an important role in climate change policy, ensuring that climate concerns are represented in national agendas. India is the largest democracy in the world and one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. Over a 20 year period, from 1999 to 2019, we examine whether parliamentarians used PQs to address climate change issues in India. We asked four questions (a) How often are PQs raised about climate change? (b) Are vulnerable constituency interests being represented in the Parliament? (c) What kinds of questions do parliamentarians ask? and (d) Where do parliamentarians get their information on climate change from? 895 unique PQs related to climate change were raised by 1019 Ministers, forming only a fraction (∼0.3%) of the total PQs asked in parliament during this period, however the number of PQs related to climate change increased over time. PQs were not raised by the states most vulnerable to climate change, nor did they represent the concerns of socially vulnerable groups. The PQs were mostly concerned about the impacts (27.6%) and mitigation (23.4%) of climate change. Impacts on agriculture (38.3%), coastal changes (28.6%), and health (13.4%) were of main interest, along with mitigation issues related to energy (43.6%), agriculture (21.8%), and aviation (9.1%). Despite the significant and growing vulnerability of India to climate change, PQs related to climate change were largely missing. Although they have increased over time, we still find there is substantial room for growth, especially in critical areas of climate justice and adaptation relevant to the Indian context. Raising the level of parliamentary debate on climate change is critical and needs to be foregrounded.

일본 중앙-지방의원의 역할 변화 - 지역이익의 대표자인가 정당의 대리인인가 -

This study analyzes the behavioral changes of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) politicians after two institutional reforms: party centralization and decentralization. Focusing on the multi-layered role of central-local politicians linking party politics and local politics, this paper examines how the politicians' interactions are structured. As a result, it is confirmed that the traditional institutional circuit of the central-local politicians, reflecting the interests of constituencies in the policy and maintaining their support, remains. And the intensive consolidation strategies function to prevent the withdrawal of support through the policy revision process, rather than the implementation of election promises. Therefore, LDP politicians are closer to being anticipatory representatives than promissory representatives, and combine or maintain their pre-systemic representation. These are a strategic equilibrium drawn up by the LDP, which experienced trial and error, to reduce switching risks.

Social Sciences and the Cultural Sector in England

Drawing on a literature review of over two hundred items, this commentary describes what drove the English cultural sector’s interest in the social sciences from the 1980s, and the social sciences’ interest in the cultural sector. The social sciences offered the cultural sector the means to evidence and advocate its assertions of social and economic impact in line with government requirements. Their economic valuations and sociological analyses of its patterns of employment were both written on commission and independently. But despite the potential for complementary collaborations, the relationship between the social sciences and the cultural sector has been subject to the conflicting interests of the various constituencies involved. Various economists have commented on the costs of financial value being held in higher regard than human value. Perhaps this will mark a moment when cultural policy and those activities that the state-supports will become more unequivocally celebrated for adding value to society.

Portfolio Primacy and Climate Change

According to a theory that is gaining increasing support, we should expect large asset managers (and, in particular, index fund managers) to become “climate stewards” and force companies to reduce their impact on climate change. According to this theory, by maximizing the value of their entire portfolio (portfolio primacy) rather than the value of the individual company (shareholder primacy), index fund managers are incentivized to reduce climate externalities and therefore to steer companies towards decarbonization. This Article offers the first systematic critique of this theory and identifies four crucial limits that undermine its practical impact: portfolio biases, mispricing of climate mitigation, fiduciary failures, and insulation from index funds’ influence. First, although large index funds are often referred to as “universal owners,” they only invest in subsets of the economy that are relatively less vulnerable to climate change. I show that index fund portfolios are overexposed to the oil & gas sector, to mega-capitalization companies, and to rich countries, and they are underexposed to small companies and to emerging or developing economies. Hence, index funds internalize global climate externalities in a very limited and imperfect way. Second, the stock market underestimates the social benefits of climate mitigation for two main reasons: stock prices do not accurately incorporate climate risk, and private investors discount the distant future at a much higher rate than the social discount rate. As a consequence, index funds should be expected to massively underinvest in climate mitigation. Third, even if index funds’ clients did benefit from climate stewardship, fund managers would have weak incentives to engage in it due to agency problems, collective action problems, and fiduciary conflicts inherent to their business model. Furthermore, to the extent that fund managers act on behalf of their clients, they fail to represent the interests of other constituencies who are even more vulnerable to climate change. Fourth, even if index fund managers undertook the role of climate stewards, most firms across the world would be partially or totally insulated from their influence, whether because they are privately held, are owned by state governments, or have a controlling or influential shareholder. The analysis of this Article reveals the serious limits of portfolio primacy and shows that this approach offers no adequate answer to the crucial threat of climate change. Policymakers, market participants, and concerned citizens should be warned that the promise of portfolio primacy to address climate risk is grossly overstated.

Voter and Legislator Responses to Localized Trade Shocks from China in Brazil

This paper examines whether localized trade shocks from China influence Brazilians’ views on integration with the country. We test the following hypotheses: (1) as trade shocks are localized, views on trade should form at the local, rather than at the individual level, and (2) as localized trade shocks affect both workers and companies in a same region, they should also influence legislators’ views on China. Our analyses find support for both claims, but only among losers from Chinese trade. Residents and legislators from localities hurt by import shocks tend to hold negative views about economic ties with China, whereas neither residents nor legislators from localities benefitted by export shocks exhibit more positive views about the country. Our paper contributes to the literature on the politics of trade by incorporating meso-level theories of trade preference formation and by establishing the conditions under which the interests of constituencies should shape legislators’ views on international trade.