Different Groups Of Citizens Research Articles

Representation in the European Parliament: Factors affecting the attitude congruence of voters and candidates in the EP elections

This article examines the extent to which individual-, party- and system-level characteristics affect the attitude congruence of voters and candidates for elections to the European Parliament. It examines attitudes towards basic policy packages in the socioeconomic and libertarian/authoritarian issue domains and on immigration and European Union integration. The analysis is based on the 2009 European Election Study and European Election Candidate Survey, which covered 27 countries of the European Union (EU), 162 parties and over 11,500 respondents. It shows that the European Parliament suffers from inequalities in representation for different groups of citizens, representing much better the attitudes of educated, middle-class and politically knowledgeable voters. Furthermore, the analysis uncovers significant differences across political parties in how well they match up to voters. We provide tentative evidence suggesting that voters are better represented in open and ordered ballot systems.

What determines debt intolerance? The role of political and monetary institutions

Why do some States default on their debt more often than others? We argue that sovereign default is the outcome of a political struggle among different groups of citizens. It is less likely to happen if domestic debt-holders are politically strong and/or the costs of the financial turmoil typically triggered by a sovereign bankruptcy are large. We show that these conditions are in turn more likely to be present if a country has a strong middle class and/or a sufficiently independent central bank.

What Determines Debt Intolerance? The Role of Political and Monetary Institutions

Why do some states default on their debt more often than others? We argue that sovereign default is the outcome of a political struggle among different groups of citizens. It is more likely to happen if: (i) domestic debt-holders are relatively weak; (ii) the political costs of the financial turmoil typically triggered by a sovereign bankrupcy are small. We show that these conditions are in turn more likely to be present if a country lacks a well-developed financial system and/or a sufficiently independent central bank.

Identifying User Requirements of Mobile Government Services in Malaysia Using Focus Group Methodch

Mobile government implementation in Malaysia is still in its very early stages – indeed a comprehensive m-Government has not been shaped yet. In this regard, we need to investigate the potential needs of users of m-Government services. In addition, there is a need to describe the factors that lead to the integration of the services provided with users’ everyday practices. In this research, we examined different groups of citizens with varying needs and practices in the available technologies. Focus groups method is used to collect data. Results show that although awareness of mobile government services is reasonably high, only a small number of Malaysians actually use mobile government services. However, citizens acknowledged that mobile government services can be useful, easy to use and convenient. Moreover, both the discussion groups and the questionnaire addressed the problems, limitations, and improvement needed in mGovernment services which include information content, information presentation, system structure, search alternatives, and navigation logic.

One Country, Two Societies: Rural-Urban Inequality in Contemporary China (review)

Reviewed by: One Country, Two Societies: Rural-Urban Inequality in Contemporary China Tam Bang Vu (bio) Martin King Whyte, editor. One Country, Two Societies: Rural-Urban Inequality in Contemporary China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010. xi, 460 pp. Paperback $29.50, ISBN 978-0-674-03632-1. Urban-rural inequality exists in all developing countries. However, this problem is the most acute in China due to the hu kou — literally household mouths — registration system. This system originated from the traditional Chinese custom of counting family members based on the number of mouths that need to be fed. As such, the system requires that all households report the number of their family members to the local administrators and list them in a hu kou ce (household-mouth book). Since a person with rural hu kou registration is precluded from urban jobs, food and supply rations, housing, and education, the system exacerbates the disparity between urban and rural residents and creates three different groups of citizens: rural hu kou, rural migrants, and urban hu kou. Rural hu kou holders, confined to China’s rural areas, work as laborers with little support from the government. Rural migrants, who cannot afford to obtain urban hu kou status, thus, become so-called floating residents in Chinese urban areas, with almost none of the privileges of an urban resident. Lastly, urban hu kou holders are accorded all the aforementioned privileges. This valuable book begins with a review of the history of the hu kou regime. Established in the 1950s by the China Communist Party (CCP), it was an effort to prevent overcrowding in urban centers and confine rural residents to jobs that aim at supporting the industrialization process in the urban areas. As a result, the new regime actually created more inequality, rather than reducing it, which was the stated objective in the propaganda of destroying the exploiting class of rich people. Since China’s economic reform was initiated in 1978, rural workers have flocked to cities and struggled through the strenuous process of applying for the urban hu kou. Next, utilizing many advanced quantitative and qualitative research methods, the book presents evidence of discrimination on the basis of income. In the first paper, Terry Sicular, Yue Ximing, Bjorn Gustafsson, and Li Shi start with original data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics and adjust them using regional variations in the cost of living, which is often higher for urban than for rural residents. They then calculate the differences in these actual incomes among urban residents, rural migrants, and rural residents. The results show that these actual differences are smaller than the ones using the original data. In the next paper, Li Shi and Luo Chuliang also use original data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, but adjust them by calculating the values of subsidies in-kind, such as housing, clothing, education, and amenities, received by urban residents. Not surprisingly, after making these adjustments, they find that the income gaps are widening. While these are very interesting results, the reviewer still wonders what [End Page 251] could be the ultimate result of combining these two methods in a single paper and why the authors did not use both adjustments to obtain a clear-cut conclusion, although one author, Li Shi, was a contributor to both studies. The next few papers discuss the rural-urban inequality in terms of access to social resources. The first one focuses on access to primary and secondary education during the period of reform, 1978–2010. Using random effects regressions, Emily Hannum, Meiyan Wang, and Jennifer Adams find that the rural pupils suffer significant disadvantages in education. The only regrettable shortcoming of this paper is that the authors could have performed and reported Hauman test results to convince the readers that their random effects estimation approach is more suitable than a fixed effects approach. The second paper, by Winnie Yip, zeros in on health care and points out that the market reform during the 1978–2003 period deprived rural residents of an almost universal health care system. Since 2004, the cooperative health care system has been rebuilt, and the author looks forward to a brighter future for the health...

‘Citizens as Consumers’: A Discussion of New Emergent Forms of Marginalisation in the Nordic Welfare States

The Nordic welfare state has traditionally been associated with principles of universalism, a high degree of collective welfare redistribution and an encompassing state. However in recent years, in line with the rest of Europe, we have seen a tendency towards a more market-oriented welfare state, reflected in policy changes characterised by a renewed division of welfare responsibility between public and private, a movement from a direct protection of citizens towards enabling them to individually satisfy their welfare needs within markets, thereby promoting freedom of choice as a significant dimension of welfare services. However, although this is not usually part of the public debate concerning increased marketisation of the welfare state, these changes require a specific set of individual competences and capacities to navigate, foresee and plan one's own future and calculate one's future welfare needs. Based on empirical data analysing financial practices and orientation amongst two different groups of citizens, the paper discusses the possible implications of this increased individualisation of welfare for different groups of citizens – low-income and middle-income groups. Although both groups show a high degree of willingness to comply with norms associated with consumer-citizenship, clear distinctions arise when we look at the actual possibilities and ‘capabilities’ of complying with the emerging role and assumed behaviour inherent in the development of the consumer-citizenship welfare regime.

I riflessi sul piano psicologico di flessibilitŕ, precarietŕ e povertŕ relazionale del lavoro

- the author - organisational consultant and trainer for public and private health and social services - examines the connections between work environment and mental health: the current fragile and dynamic work identity and its relation with personal identity. He underlines how organisations when trying to bring around change have to face serious difficulties arising from a world that involves flexibility and job insecurity, at times to an extent considered unacceptable. Moreover, work as a system has often to meet contradictory requests of different groups of citizens: clients asking for services, employees for economic protection, containment, reassurance, and other citizen for profits from their financial investments (now and then the same person might be client, employee and investor). The author analyses psychiatric services as working organisations reproducing the same problems as society, yet sometimes, offering a richer organisation, based on relational systems.Keywords: identity, flexibility, job insecurity, health services, psychiatry.Parole Chiave: identitŕ, flessibilitŕ, precarietŕ, servizi, psichiatria.

Exploring Neglected Dimensions of Social Policy: The SDW, Fiscal Welfare and the Exemplar of Local Taxation in England

Abstract Titmuss's Social Division of Welfare (SDW) thesis is a vitally important but much neglected element of social policy analysis. This article seeks to explore the SDW, with a particular focus on fiscal welfare. Fiscal welfare has been described as forming a hidden welfare state, and while taxation is one of the main ways in which governments affect the lives of citizens, studies of welfare pay remarkably little attention to its impact. Fiscal welfare is examined by using, as an exemplar, local taxation in England, a subject that itself is neglected within social policy. Local taxation in England is of interest because it illustrates the impact of a system of taxation on different groups of citizens, and how this can operate to the benefit of rich over poor citizens. This is because the current system is highly regressive, meaning that those on low and middle incomes spend proportionately more of their income paying the tax than do those on high incomes. What is of further interest is how within the debate about reform of local taxation, concern with regressivity becomes obscured and ceases to be the focus of attention. We are thus provided with an example of how fiscal welfare remains a hidden issue. The article concludes by arguing that social policy analysis needs to move beyond the narrow confines of social welfare and develop a broader understanding of welfare, based on the SDW.

Chapter 7 Pedestrians in Tehran Mega-City

Focusing on the pedestrian space and the meaning of the pedestrian self (piyádeh) in Tehran, the chapter shows how the pedestrian space becomes central in the relationship between people and the government in so far as the government is the responsible power for the safety and welfare of the citizens. It raises issues of citizenship, by analysing the way in which the government deals with the needs of different groups of people. The chapter illustrates this point through the dichotomy between the old Persian words piyâdeh (pedestrian) as opposed to savàreh (rider of a horse or a car), which seems to reflect the social dichotomy of the worth of human beings. The different use of public space brings about the creation of different groups of citizens with different rights and privileges. This is reflected in the different perceptions that different groups of people have of the modern urban landscape and their use of public space.

What Voters Want From Political Campaign Communication

Conventional wisdom holds that the public dislikes campaigns for their negativity and superficiality, preferring a cleaner, substantive, and more deliberative process. By contrast, the implication of Hibbing and Theiss-Morse's (2002) Stealth Democracy is that, while citizens will indeed dislike campaigns, they do not necessarily desire more deliberation, debate, and discussion of issues. Instead they want simple cues that allow them to size up candidates with minimal effort. In this article, we test these theories with survey and focus group data collected during the 2002 California gubernatorial race. Ultimately, the ideal campaign envisioned by the public falls somewhere between the substantive and participatory campaign envisioned by reformers and what we call an “undemanding campaign.” We also find that attitudes toward campaigns vary substantially based on political involvement and demographic attributes. Most important, politically involved citizens desire the more substantive campaigns envisioned by reformers, but less involved citizens want less demanding campaigns. This finding suggests not only that any generalizations about what the public wants from campaigns must be cautious, but also that reformers may need to tailor their proposals to the tastes of different groups of citizens if these proposals are to be effective.

E-Government, A Citizens' Perspective

Abstract New Zealand government strategy has focused on the ‘transforming’ power of e-government to provide ready access to government information and services through the World Wide Web. But an effective Web interface and good relationships between government and citizens through the Web depends on the understanding held by Web designers of the needs of specific groups of citizens, and the goals which they have in approaching a particular Web site. This paper reports on several focus groups held with different groups of citizens concerning their needs for and use of government information, their relationship with government, and their use of the Web to facilitate these purposes. Groups interviewed include business groups, the rural sector, beneficiaries, new immigrants, and Maori. Factors such as their needs for information and services, their relationship with government, and their access to the Internet are explored. Key issues related to the delivery of e-government such as the need for multiple channels to communicate with government, the need for promotion of the e-government portal, the ability to contact named individuals within government, ongoing problems with physical access, cultural issues, and issues concerning relevant content emerged from the study.

The Legal Revolution in Town Politics: Oaxaca and Yucatán, 1812-1825

delictuosa de unos indios, 1813,” Archivo General del Estado de Yucatan, Merida (hereafter cited as AGEY), Colonial, Varios, vol. 1, exp. 17. Wherever possible, I have modernized the names of the towns I refer to. If there was any doubt about the identification of a town, however, I left its name as written in the documents. There were some towns that I have not been able to correlate with modern towns, either because their names have changed or because they no longer exist. A further note on terminology: I have chosen to use the word