Political Benefits Research Articles

The prison boom, local interpersonal violence, and domestic violence homicide

ABSTRACT The US prison system has exploded since 1970, dramatically reshaping social, political, and economic life in rural communities. Since 2000, roughly one in five rural Americans resides in a prison town. The prison boom is the largest public works project perhaps since the New Deal. Despite a growing interest in prison building, there is a dearth of research examining prison impact – the economic, political, and social costs and benefits for communities that result from building a prison. In this paper, we fill this gap by studying the relationship between prison impact – measured as binary prison presence and cumulative prison count – on violent crime, specifically, intimate partner and domestic violence homicide (IPV/DV). We explore the theoretical foundations for this relationship, including the economic, geographic, and social effects of prisons and correction officers as a high-risk group for perpetrating IPV/DV. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we find evidence of a negative association between prison impact and IPV/DV homicide, with an additional prison in the county corresponding with 0.04–0.12 fewer homicide events. While we are not advocating for prison building as a violence nor crime reduction strategy for communities, our findings complicate the policy consequences of the prison boom, especially in rural communities.

Cannibalistic exchanges with mountain‐ancestors: Moral economies of gold mining in northern Peru

AbstractCampesinos (peasants) and norteños (northerner entrepreneurs) in highland Huamachuco, la Libertad, northern Peru—reconcile their mining within Andean practices about the perceived sentience and agency of mountain‐ancestors (apus). They do so by engaging in two different types of apu cannibalism that are antithetical to each other. I analyze how the conflict between Andean campesino communities who practice small‐scale underground mining on the apu El Toro site, and, the Summa Gold open‐pit mining company (owned by former campesinos now norteño) also on apu El Toro, reshapes, on both sides, relationalities with mountain‐ancestors and capitalism. I explore miners’ practical moral economies with apus, the local government, and legal authorities to secure economic and political benefits as their worlds are transformed by capitalism. I also analyze how the power inequality between campesino and norteño miners shapes these exchanges, their ability to control the limits of extractivism, and the rhetoric around mining contamination.

The Concept of the Intermarium and the Confessional Issue: Geopolitical Challenges to Belarusian Orthodoxy in ХХ – early ХХI century

The article discusses the problems of merging geopolitics and religion. Using the example of Belarusian Orthodoxy, the author shows how religious institutions can become instruments for the implementation of geopolitical strategies, in particular the Polish foreign policy doctrine of the Intermarium. The influence of this doctrine on the position of the Orthodox Church in the Baltic-Black Sea region, including on the territory of Belarus, is analyzed. The author examines the specific historical conditions of the periodic actualization of Polish geopolitical projects in relation to Belarus. Using some examples, he shows the technologies of the United States working with the Belarusian anti-Soviet emigration and the technologies of using religious institutions to implement geopolitical strategies. It is concluded that modern interpretations of the Intermarium doctrine are directly related to the policy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in relation to the East Slavic territories associated with the Kiev Metropolis of the XV–XVII centuries. The assessment of the activities of the primate of the Orthodox Church in Poland on the Ukrainian-Belarusian lands in the first half of the 1940s is new for domestic and foreign historiography as an attempt to build a “church Intermarium”. The article contains unique materials about the anti-Soviet activities of the Belarusian emigration, its contradictions and splits. The findings actualize the issue of developing mechanisms to counteract manipulative influence against the Orthodox Church, carried out in order to achieve political benefits. Based on the results of the consideration of the problem, a recommendation is proposed regarding the need for planned systematic work to strengthen church immunity against external manipulative influence, fraught with disruption of social and confessional balance in the Republic of Belarus.

How does corporate investment respond to trade policy uncertainty in China? The role of political connections

This paper investigates how political connections affect the relationship between trade policy uncertainty and corporate investment by utilizing Chinese non-financial firm-level data from 2003 to 2022. We find that trade policy uncertainty inhibits corporate investment by decreasing expected cash flows, increasing cash flow uncertainty, and lowering investment returns. Political connections mitigate the adverse impact of trade policy uncertainty on corporate investment by increasing government subsidies, alleviating financing constraints, and improving investment inefficiency for firms. The results are robust to changing variables measurements, alternating econometric model settings, and addressing endogeneity concerns. We also find the adverse impact of trade policy uncertainty on corporate investment is more pronounced for non-state-owned firms and small-sized firms, and the positive role of political connections benefits firms with higher financing constraints, lacking bank-firm relationships, and regions with lower institutional quality. Our findings highlight that optimizing the business environment and strengthening the communication between firms and governments are crucial for coping with unexpected policy uncertainty shocks.

Limited political benefits for transit countries who manage migration

Limited political benefits for transit countries who manage migration

Presidential attentiveness to international crises

AbstractWhy, and under what conditions, do international crises make the president's national security agenda? I argue that international crises are opportunities for presidents to seek domestic political gains, but that presidents are likely to weigh anticipated political benefits against anticipated risk of political opposition. I analyze presidential National Security Council (NSC) meeting agendas from 1947 to 1993 to find that the War Powers Resolution (WPR) of 1973 reduced the likelihood of presidential crisis attentiveness, that low approval ratings are associated with increased crisis attentiveness, and that post‐WPR presidents under unified government are likely to be more crisis attentive. This article provides fresh analysis of the WPR by connecting presidential national security behavior with American domestic politics.

Algorithmic Decision Making: Can Artificial Intelligence and the Metaverse Provide Technological Solutions to Modernise the United Kingdom’s Legal Services and Criminal Justice?

Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) have had a profound impact on various sectors including Banking (Fin Tech), Health (HealthTech) and Charitable Fundraising (Charity Tech). The ‘natural’ ability of an AI system to independently perform and, often, outthink its human-counter parts by developing ‘intelligence’(simulating human intelligence) through its own experiences and processing deep layers of information i.e., complex representations of data, and learn has resulted in astounding improvements in the completion of tasks that are complex and technical, time-consuming.AI, with the ease of working with the most granular level of detail, can identify people and objects, recognise voices, uncover patterns and, in advance, screen for problems. Yet, RegTech (or LawTech/LegalTech) has not seen the same level of advancement. AI can provide solutions and enormous economic, political, and social benefits – in terms of public service administration. The purpose of this article is to explore advents in AI (ML and DL) and whether the criminal justice system, in the United Kingdom (UK), which is heavily overburdened, could benefit from some of the advances that have taken place in other sectors and jurisdictions, and whether automation and algorithmic decision making could be used to modernise it. This research draws on domestic and international published law, regulation, and literature, and isset out in six parts, the first partre views the position of the criminal justice system i.e., issues, part two then looks at relative technological advancements in AI, and the Metaverse. Part three explores current advents in AI relating to RegTech (LawTech/LegalTech) and how, if at all, the CJS can use this technology. Part four explores what aspects of the U.K.’s CJS would be fit for automation. Part five focuses on those matters pertaining to AI that pose problems in relation to matters in part 4 i.e., AI discrimination and bias, and explores safeguarding and mitigation including the requirement for explanation as set out in the GDPR. Part six concludes the discussion with some recommendations, as at, January 2024. It is suggested that AI and algorithmic decision making, with the correct legal framework and safeguards in place, could assist in modernising the CJS focussed legal functions, services in law firms, innovating for the next decade. This work is original and timely given the increased debate relating to how AI can assist in modernising the U.K.’s CJS, the global criminal justice challenges, solutions, and what, if any, role the Metaverse can play.

Prohibiting Political Party Membership as a Condition for Receiving Political Service Retirement Benefits under Ethiopian Law: A Comparison with Kenya and Tanzania

Abstract This article questions the justification for restricting political party membership as a condition for receiving political service retirement benefits in Ethiopia (a restriction first imposed through the Administration of the President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Proclamation and endorsed in the Rights and Benefits of Outgoing Heads of State and Government, Senior Government Officials, Members of Parliament and Judges Proclamation). After reviewing relevant law, literature and comparative experience from Kenya and Tanzania, the article argues that prohibiting political party membership without a pressing need for non-partisan service is an unjust restriction on the right to freedom of political party membership. Benefits for retiring high-ranking government officials are part of the right to social security and should not be disallowed based on political party membership.

Delegation, deregulation, and business power: a comparative analysis of health insurance in Belgium and France

Abstract Business power is thought to increase over time when private actors are involved in the provision of public goods and services. This paper argues that this is partially true—and that in certain circumstances, state actors can even swiftly regain control of sectors previously ceded to private interests. When the latter fulfill some public functions on behalf or as delegates of the state, policymakers face ever greater pressures to sustain a relationship flawed by principal-agent problems—allowing business actors to derive appreciable political benefits. However, these conditions do not hold true after deregulation—when state actors retreat from a sector and attempt to direct the newly created market through licensing, norms, and standard setting. We demonstrate that deregulation sets the stage for a more competitive environment, making it harder for private interests to cooperate. This, in turn, can allow policymakers to enhance regulatory capacities and seize opportunities to highlight the shortcomings of private provision. After establishing this argument theoretically, we illustrate its implications through the comparative historical analysis of the health insurance sector in two European countries—Belgium and France. Despite their initial similarities, they experience contrasting developments regarding the welfare state’s dependency on private insurers for the provision of crucial collective goods.

The China-US Economic Relationship in the Early 21st Century

China and the United States are two major economic powers that are currently engaged in trade and are using different strategies to enhance their bilateral relations. The main objective of this research is to analyze the policies and activities that these nations are using to promote and advance their trade relations, which will likely result in financial and political benefits in the long run. This investigation is primarily based on secondary sources such as scientific and scholarly journals, research papers, books, and articles related to the topic at hand. The study comprehensively explores a variety of factors impacting trade relations between China and the United States. This includes examining bilateral treaties, one-phase agreements, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Australia, UK, and US Security Pact, policies aimed at achieving competitive advantage, as well as cooperation in addressing regional and global issues to promote trade relations between the two countries. The trade conflict between the two countries is very serious. According to the study, China and the US pursue many comprehensive and conventional barriers, such as a lack of registered goods in each nation, a rise in trade imbalance, tax disparities, a lack of business ties, the Quad, the conflict in the South China Sea, bilaterally sensitive issues, the Taiwan dispute, and environmental conditions and policies. If both countries could solve these problems then relations between the two countries would be improved in the 21st century.

Invigorating the spirit of being adaptive: Examining the role of spiritual leadership in adaptive selling

This study investigates the role of spiritual leadership in shaping salesperson adaptive-selling behavior, a crucial factor for enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Despite its significance, research on the leadership-adaptive selling link remains limited. Grounded in the conservation of resources theory, this study predicts that spiritual leadership is positively associated with adaptive selling. The present work also examines the mediating and moderating roles of salesperson trait resilience and salesperson political skill, respectively. Our results based on data from 505 supervisor-salesperson dyads corroborated our predictions. Specifically, the results reveal that spiritual leadership positively impacts adaptive selling directly and via resilience. Further, our findings illustrate that salespeople high on political skill benefit more from spiritual leadership to enhance their resilience and adaptive selling. This study provides actionable insights for managers to foster their salespeople’s resilience and promote adaptive selling to improve organizational effectiveness.

Aristotle’s concept of zoon politikon: on political benefits of being not too perfect

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The article discusses the concept of zoon politikon in order to provide arguments justifying the attractiveness of Aristotle’s practical philosophy.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: There are three quasi-definitions of man in Aristotle’s works, each of which emphasises a different aspect of humanity. According to the philosopher, we are speaking animals, political animals (zoa politika) and the only animals endowed with reason. I argue that it is the condition of zoon politikon that comes to the fore as the most human of human properties. The article uses a historical-philosophical method supported by textual analysis.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: In the first part of the text, Aristotle’s term zoon politikon is analysed as a concept intended to show the superiority of humanity over animality. In the second part, it is presented as a limitation that distinguishes humans from gods. By analysing how these two perspectives overlap, it is then possible to discuss some political consequences of the tension between them.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: The analysis leads to the conclusion that, according to Aristotle, a good human is not someone who “exercises rationality to a high degree”, but above all someone who is political to a high degree. It also suggests that Aristotle’s concept can be used to distinguish between two kinds of politics, which should not be reduced to each other: “artificial” politics (which can be equated with power), and natural human politics (which is based on free individual action in the area of praxis).
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The notion of zoon politikon reflects the relational character of the individual human self, and thus offers a perspective that allows both methodological and political individualism to be challenged. It can also be a source of inspiration for those scholars, who argue that politics cannot be reduced to power.

Submissions of States in Respect of Extended Continental Shelf in the Arctic Ocean

The Arctic is gaining the position of an important strategic and geopolitical area and the extension of the legal continental shelf cannot be considered only as a "race for resources" in terms of economic benefits, but in the end it brings with it both political and socio-economic benefits. The article presents a comprehensive analysis of the current status of submissions to the Commission for the Limits of the Continental Shelf regarding the Arctic Ocean and the stage in which they currently are. It also approaches a legal definition of the continental shelf, the work of the Commission and compares the view of the Arctic states on particular seafloor highs.

Wall-building policy: nationalist space management and borderphobia as right-wing populists' tools for doing authoritarian politics

The article analyses the situation that arose after the crisis on the Poland-Belarus border in the second half of 2021. The authors use the term “borderphobia” to describe social, political and propaganda mechanisms that became a form of border space management used to legitimize and gain support for the actions taken by the right-wing populist government in Poland. The phenomenon of borderphobia can be a symbol of the symbiosis between political authoritarianism, nationalism and economic neoliberalism: the combination of these three forces affects the development of the “border industry” in Europe and in the world. The policy based on borderphobia facilitates the suspension of civil rights in the border area: this is what happened in Poland, where a state of emergency was introduced in the border area under the pretext of “border protection.” The case of building the wall on the Polish-Belarusian border can also show how the nationalist right in Poland can use the borderphobic discourse for political mobilization and in an election campaign to maintain their influence and political power in the country. The article indicates that although the leaders of right-wing populist parties believe that the slogans of defending the “security border” and building border walls can bring them political benefits, the example of the Law and Justice (PiS) party in Poland has shown that this is not always the case.

Do reforms reduce corruption perceptions? Evidence from police reform in Ukraine

ABSTRACT Corruption is a ubiquitous problem, but implementing serious anti-corruption measures is politically hard – the backlash from the corrupt is certain, but the broader political benefits are uncertain. Consequently, reformers face a dilemma in that even if they can pass reforms, it is not clear that the public will notice or reward them. To date, we have limited evidence on whether citizens notice anti-corruption reforms, how such reforms shape corruption perceptions, and whether there are real political benefits to reformers. In this article, we exploit a quasi-experiment embedded in the rollout of traffic police reform in Ukraine following the Euromaidan Revolution of 2013–14 to address each of these issues in turn. We find that citizens do respond quite accurately and durably in their evaluations of the most immediately affected institutions, but the spillovers to other political institutions are limited, short-lived, and offer little electoral gain.

What Made South Korea–Japan Security Cooperation Retreat During the Moon Jae-in Administration?

This article elucidates the reasons behind South Korea’s diminished security cooperation with Japan during the Moon Jae-in administration (2017–2022). The author discovered that President Moon halted ongoing security cooperation activities initiated by his predecessor, even though the North Korean nuclear threat became exponential. In particular, this article argues that not the national-level factors, such as South Koreans’ negative perception of Japan on the basis of their collective memory, but the leader factor was the main reason for the worsening of South Korea–Japan’s security cooperation during the Moon administration, contrary to most people’s expectations. The Moon administration’s progressive political leaders, who had acquired anti-United States/anti-Japan and pro-North Korea/pro-China perspectives during their anti-government protests in the 1970s and 1980s, decided to be confrontational towards Japan to their political benefit. The reality that the security cooperation between South Korea and Japan jumpstarted once the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol administration leaders replaced them supports this finding.

Analysis of Public Sentiment on COVID-19 Mitigation Measures in Social Media in the United States Using Machine Learning

Public sentiment can impact the implementation of public policies and even cause policy failure if public support is not received. Therefore, knowledge of public sentiment concerning new and emerging policies is critical for policymakers. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, several precautionary measures have been suggested in an attempt to delay or mitigate the spread of the virus. This study presents a framework that applies natural language processing (NLP) techniques, such as sentiment and bigram analyses, to characterize the public sentiment on three prominent mitigation measures (mask wearing, social distancing, and quarantine) as shared by Twitter users in the United States. As part of the framework, we apply a bigram graph-based approach to visualize the most frequent topics in Twitter discussions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective is to provide insights into the most commonly discussed topics among Twitter users with similar demographic characteristics (e.g., age and gender). The sentiment and bigram analyses identified the most frequently discussed topics expressing both positive and negative sentiments among different age and gender groups. Discussions containing positive sentiment prevailed and revolved around the benefits of the measures and trust in the government, while the topics of negative sentiment involved conspiracy theories, skepticism, and distrust of government mandates. It is also notable that the discussions among people 19–29 and over 40 years old focus on government officials and political parties, benefits or inefficiency of mitigation measures, and conspiracy theories more often than other demographic groups. Our proposed approaches and results offer a novel and potentially valuable contribution to public policymakers.

The Sultans of Zanzibar and the Abolition of Slavery in East Africa

AbstractIn 1890, Sultan Ali of Zanzibar declared in writing that “we wish by every means to stop the slave trade.” Statements like these, in addition to the actual passing of anti-slavery legislation, call into question the generally accepted scholarly understanding that the sultans of Zanzibar only agreed to pass and enforce anti-slavery legislation because they were under duress from European, mainly British, powers, who negotiated favorable political and economic benefits in return for (gradual) abolition. A close analysis of the sources tells a more complicated story of both collaboration and conflict between the Zanzibari sultans, their subjects, and the British agents. Moreover, each sultan had distinctive political and religious beliefs, as well as individual personal experiences and outlooks. This paper explores the anti-slavery legislation passed under three sultans of Zanzibar: Barghash bin Said (1870–1888) who prohibited the transport of slaves by sea in 1873, Ali bin Said (1890–1893) who passed the Slave Trade Prohibition Decree of 1890, and Hamoud bin Mohammed (1896–1902) who passed the Abolition Decree of 1897. By analyzing draft treaties and correspondence before and after the passing of legislation, this paper argues that the sultans and their advisors were not devoid of ideological interest in ending slavery; and that British agents and explorers in the region were too hastily hailed as abolitionists.

Small To Medium Enterpirses In The Digital Era On Line Shop Professional Community (Kaji) In East Java

Small To Medium Enterpirses In The Digital Era On Line Shop Professional Community (Kaji) In East Java. The contribution of SMEs has had an impact on the regional and national economy (Bunga, 2022), the growth and development of SMEs in Indonesia cannot be separated from the various challenges faced, the economic crisis that occurred at the end of 1997 brought multi-economic impacts, including SMEs (Tejasari, 2008), the impact of Covid 19 which occurred in early 2020, the impact of the global economy occurred as a whole. SMEs also felt the same impact with the independence that SMEs have, being able to overcome global economic challenges (Aksan, 2022), entering the digital era. East Java UKM (KAJI) is faced with online shop UKM must be able to take a role and control the market so that the existence of SMEs is not eroded by digitalization, especially online shops. Legitimacy theory focuses on interactions between companies and society based on legitimacy theory, namely that a "social contract" occurs between companies and the community where the company operates and uses economic resources. It explains the concept of social contract, all social institutions, including companies, operate in society through social contracts, both explicit and implicit, their survival and growth is based on what consists of, the final result (social output) provided to the wider community, the distribution of economic, social and political benefits. to groups according to their power (Gray, 2001). The research method used in the research is qualitative analysis of case studies. Single case case study is used to obtain data from various primary and secondary research sources (observations, artifacts, archives, documents, interviews, multiple sources), is a research strategy involving one or more cases (multi cases) creating theoretical constructions, middle range propositions or theories based on empirical fact cases (Eisenhardt, 1989). The results of the research and discussion can be concluded that the existence of East Java UKM (KAJI) is described as follows: a. Able to support the family economy as an alternative source of family income, b. The existence of KAJI East Java, facilitates UKMs to establish friendly relations between UKMs, c. Market opportunities are still limited. SMEs still have difficulty marketing SME products. e. The attention received by SMEs in business development and capital assistance has not been maximized, f. Lack of innovation and creativity among SMEs. Suggestions for the existence of SMEs should receive more attention, especially in policies that support the existence of SMEs, especially the policy of implementing online shops to ensure the continuity of the existence of SMEs.

How Ukraine Divides Postcommunist Europe

Abstract: East-Central Europe is at odds with itself regarding the response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Why are "post-communist" democracies not standing together as one with a fledgling democracy that is under attack by a dictatorship? The answer lies in the material and political benefits that individual politicians and political parties receive from Russia. Two consequences follow from this dynamic: the validation of "Russian imperial claims" and reduced support for Ukraine. This analysis shows that the immediate interests and profits of domestic politicians matter far more than the long shadows of history, leading to a complex tapestry of responses in the region. The diversity of these countries' approaches to Ukraine is just one reason why East-Central Europe is now more remarkable for its divisions and contrasts than a collective past or a common future.