Political Conditions Research Articles

Compound Crises: The Impact of Emergencies and Disasters on Mental Health Services in Puerto Rico

Background: Mental health in Puerto Rico is a complex and multifaceted issue that has been shaped by the island’s unique history, culture, and political status. Recent challenges, including disasters, economic hardships, and political turmoil, have significantly affected the mental well-being of the population, coupled with the limitations in the accessibility of mental health services. Thus, Puerto Rico has fewer mental health professionals per capita than any other state or territory in the United States. Objective: This comprehensive review examines the impact of disasters on mental health and mental health services in Puerto Rico. Given the exodus of Puerto Ricans from the island, this review also provides an overview of mental health resources available on the island, as well as in the continental United States. This review identifies efforts to address mental health issues, with the intent of gaining a proper understanding of the available mental health services, key trends, as well as observable challenges and achievements within the mental health landscape of the Puerto Rican population. Design: A comprehensive search using the PRIMO database of the University of Central Florida (UCF) library database was conducted, focusing on key terms related to disasters and mental healthcare and services in Puerto Rico. The inclusion criteria encompassed studies on Puerto Rican individuals, both those who remained on the island and those who migrated post-disaster, addressing the mental health outcomes and services for adults and children. We included peer-reviewed articles published from 2005 onwards in English and/or Spanish, examining the impact of disasters on mental health, accessibility of services, and/or trauma-related consequences. Results: In this scoping review, we identified 39 studies addressing the mental health profile of Puerto Ricans, identifying significant gaps in service availability and accessibility and the impact of environmental disasters on mental health. The findings indicate a severe shortage of mental health services in Puerto Rico, exacerbated by disasters such as Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the earthquakes of late 2019 and early 2020 that followed, and the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in substantial delays in accessing care, and limited insurance coverage, particularly in rural regions. Despite these challenges, efforts to improve mental health services have included substantial federal funding and community initiative aimed at enhancing care availability and infrastructure. Limitations include the use of a single database, language restrictions, and potential variability in data extraction and synthesis. Conclusions: This scoping review highlights the significant impact of disasters on mental health in Puerto Rico and the challenges in accessing mental health services exacerbated by disasters. Despite efforts, significant gaps in mental healthcare and services persist, emphasizing the need for more rigorous research and improvements in infrastructure and workforce to enhance mental health outcomes for Puerto Ricans both on the island and in the continental United States.

Gerrymandering to survive: an explanation of the political conditions that shaped mayors’ decisions over an amalgamation process in Portugal

ABSTRACT This paper aims to reveal the conditions under which local political actions lead to the amalgamation of sub-municipal units (SMUs) in Portugal. Considering the singularity of the reform design, the paper analyzes how mayors used gerrymandering to reshape SMU borders. The results show that the mayors, as rational political actors, dealt with situations of political vulnerability by opting for alternative maps that guaranteed an increase in their political support.

Uncovering the Nexus of Identity and Forced Migration: A Collaborative Autoethnographic Study of Afghan Women’s Experiences in Diaspora

This qualitative research investigates the educational mobility of Afghan women in diaspora, particularly those who have experienced forced migration following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. The study delves into how their intersectional identities, including gender, ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic status, shape their educational experiences. These Afghan women's educational journeys are further complicated by the challenges posed by political and economic conditions in refugee communities, which limit their access to education and employment opportunities while increasing the risk of discrimination and violence. Using an autoethnographic approach, we leverage our personal experiences as Afghan women who immigrated to Canada during two distinct Taliban occupation eras. Through self-reflection, journaling, and daily life observation, we provide nuanced insights into the multifaceted challenges faced by Afghan women during their forced displacement and migration.

Heidegger’s Political Anthropology

The article is an in-depth review of the origin and development of Martin Heidegger's philosophical ideas with a main emphasis on his political anthropology. The basic concepts of Heidegger's philosophical system, as well as the social and political conditions of their formation and change, are examined in detail. In the text, lines are devoted both to the influence of Heidegger's philosophy and to the evaluations of it by the philosopher's contemporaries and later researchers. The idea that the story of Heidegger's life cannot be separated from his thinking is successfully defended, especially since his political ideas or delusions have a concrete origin in the social and conceptual processes of Europe in the middle of the 20th century.

Can stronger governance and institutional quality drive growth through inward foreign direct investments in BRICS nations?

Background: This research focusses on the significance of institutional quality (INSQ) and governance in shaping the relationship between foreign direct investments (FDI) and growth. It specifically examines the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) because of their economic significance in the global economy.Aim: This study aims to analyse the impact of INSQ and governance on sustainable growth, with a particular focus on its effects through the channels of FDI in the BRICS countries.Setting: Annual panel data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) statistics, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) statistics and the World Bank indicators spanning two decades (2000–2022) are used to analyse BRICS nations.Methods: The research study employed the Bayesian time-varying coefficient vector autoregression (BTVC-VAR) model to achieve the objective of the study.Results: The findings indicate that there is no long-term relationship between FDI, INSQ and economic growth in the BRICS countries. However, there is a noticeable co-movement among these variables in the short run.Conclusion: Given the obtained results, the policymakers should prioritise efforts to strengthen institutional capacity in the short term while focussing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG-8 and SDG-16).Contribution: The existing studies have assumed static economic, social and political conditions, potentially failing to accurately depict the complexities of an actual economy. This study offers methodological innovation by employing Bayesian time-varying coefficient vector autoregression (BTVC-VAR), enabling coefficients to adapt to evolving economic conditions over time. This effectively captures the dynamic nature of variables and provides reliable estimates.

Indigeneity, Nationhood, Racialization, and the U.S. Settler State: Why Political Status Matters to Native ‘Identity’ Formation

This essay is a chapter excerpted from my forthcoming book, Who Gets to be Indian: Ethnic Fraud and Other Difficult Conversations about Native American Identity The chapter shows the ways that Indianness, framed as Indian or Native American “identity”, is inseparable from state subjectivity based on the history of political relations between tribes and the United States. It argues that tribes’ political status and relationship to the state are central to how Native American identity is shaped, rejecting the understanding of Native identity as race-based. The term “Indigenous” is discussed as not being equivalent to “Native American” and is not a racial formation in international fora. Social changes during the twentieth century brought new ways to diffuse and co-opt Nativeness through disaggregating it from political status and reinforcing racialization with the rise in urban pan-Indianism and neo-tribalism. Distinguishing Nativeness as political status from racialization is critical given ongoing attacks on tribal sovereignty in Supreme Court challenges based on alleged violations to the equal protection principle. Native American “identity” is inextricable from tribal nationhood and state formation, and thus cannot simply be dismissed as a colonial construct.

TECHNICAL PROBLEMS IN THE REVIEWING OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION IN LIEU OF LAW (PERPPU) AT THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF LEGAL CERTAINTY

The need for formal legal sources in constitutional activities in public life cannot be ascertained due to a country's dynamics and political conditions. It is still also related to the need for regulatory provisions that align with current conditions. Government Regulations in Lieu of Law (PERPPU) are issued by the President in response to compelling urgencies, leveraging his constitutional authority to enact such regulations. Since PERPPU is a subjective product of the President, as mandated by the 1945 Constitution, it must be immediately reviewed by The House of Representatives (DPR) for approval or revoked if rejected. With the issuance of the PERPPU, certain parties may undoubtedly feel constitutionally disadvantaged. In such cases, the way that can be taken is to conduct a judicial review of the Constitutional Court as has been established in legal precedent. This research includes legal research. It is called legal research because the object of research is related to law. The type of research used is normative juridical. The approaches used in this research are the statute, conceptual, and case approaches. The results showed that many cases of PERPPU reviewing at the Constitutional Court lost the object of reviewing because it was enacted into law by the DPR. The loss of reviewing object PERPPU reviewing at the Constitutional Court becomes a technical problem in PERPPU reviewing that must be anticipated in the procedure for reviewing at the Constitutional Court.

The Consequences of Humiliation: Anger and Status in World Politics, written by Joslyn Barnhart

The Consequences of Humiliation: Anger and Status in World Politics, written by Joslyn Barnhart

Under Which Conditions Do Populist Governments Use Unpolitics in EU Decision-Making

Until recently, we knew very little about the role of populist governments in EU decision-making. The “crucial case” of refugee distribution within the EU demonstrated that their behaviour was ruled by unpolitics: they rejected formal and informal rules of decision-making if these were not conducive to their preferred outcome, they rejected traditional means of ensuring compromises, and they rejected solutions to perpetuate crises. However, to what extent is unpolitics a phenomenon unique to migration—an area prone to (nativist) populist capture? This thematic issue compares the behaviour of populist governments in the Council of the EU across different policy areas. The goal is to better understand under which conditions unpolitics is more likely to manifest in EU decision-making. We argue that unpolitics is intrinsically linked to vote-seeking strategies, where populist governments use EU decision-making to mobilise domestic audiences. Hence, unpolitics is more prone to “high gain” and “low risk” issues, since they can be more easily politicised. Unpolitics is also more likely to manifest in venues that act as a tribune, where populist actors can directly speak to domestic audiences. Finally, since unpolitics relies on the mobilisation of voters, it is essentially a two-level game largely determined by domestic political and socioeconomic conditions. Overall, we see that, although the EU institutions have proved relatively resilient, unpolitics is gradually unsettling and hollowing out norms, institutions, and discourses.

Politics matter: Public leadership and taking charge behavior in the public sector

Learning how to motivate employees to engage in proactive taking-charge behavior (TCB) has become an essential topic for building change capabilities into public organizations. However, despite limited research investigating triggers of TCB in the public sector, even less attention has been paid to leadership-related drivers. With a three-wave survey on a Chinese public employee sample, we test how public leaders can motivate TCB using accountability, rule-following, political loyalty, and network governance leadership approaches, and whether these employees’ organizational identification mediates this relationship. Results show that only employees under supervisors who practice rule-following and political loyalty leaderships will own greater identification with their organizations and will subsequently exhibit TCB——these two public leadership approaches work because they paint a realistic picture of China’s political context to public employees, boosting their organization identification, which then enhances their TCB. Such results enrich our understanding of public sector change management in authoritarian political conditions.

Contesting Gross National Happiness in the Context of the Digital: The Digital and GNH Divide in Bhutan

Digitalisation has transformed the lives of millions of individuals, societies and governments globally by creating an impact on political, social, economic, cultural and environmental conditions of human existence. Through the use of information and technology, people have expanded their knowledge base, transparency in the government has been greater than ever before, and economic development has been amplified. Although varying in availability, affordability, accessibility, and technological know-how, most governments of the world have adopted the digital in some ways, of which, Bhutan is no exception. Since the inception of the first radio station in 1973 to the launch of its first nanosatellite (BHUTAN-1) in 2018, the country has made remarkable digital transformation. As a matter of fact, Bhutan’s narrative of development through the use of the digital founded on the four pillars of Gross National Happiness (GNH) has caught the attention of the whole world. Placing people at the center of its development efforts, the convergence of the digital and development to enhance GNH, over the years, has influenced all aspects of Bhutanese life. However, everything comes with a price, digitalisation involves risks for the people and natural environment, thereby, compromising the very foundation of GNH philosophy. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to assess and evaluate the impact of digital upon the GNH of Bhutan, with a special focus on environmental conservation as one of the pillars of GNH.

The Use of Fuzzy Modelling Based on Expert Knowledge to Determine Poland’s Energy Security Index Taking into Account Political Conditions

This article presents the results of research on the energy security index in Poland. Since the development of renewable energy sources forced by the transformation of the national energy system will require an increased supply of rare earth elements, the level of demand for these metals was taken into account when determining the energy security index. Furthermore, the development of renewable energy sources in Poland will directly depend on the volume of energy demand and, as the events of previous years have shown, on political and legal conditions, especially in the case of wind energy. Since some of these factors are qualitative, it was impossible to use a quantitative method. Therefore, fuzzy sets were used. Fuzzy modelling is based on expert knowledge. Using this method, the authors created three alternative scenarios for the development of Poland’s energy security index: pessimistic, optimistic, and the most probable.

Understanding the attractiveness of types of historic districts in Bandung: implementing heritage conservation based on public perception

ABSTRACT Cultural heritage conceptually addresses the conservation of physical and non-physical dimensions. Heritage conservation generally intends to create pleasant spatial experiences and socio-culturally friendly living environments while accommodating contemporary needs. Conservation frameworks for protecting urban fabric driven by physical authenticity and expert judgment need to pay increased attention to public-based assessment experiences to improve people’s perspectives on the quality of urban historic areas. The notions of inclusive conservation posit that community understanding is essential for appreciating historic urban areas due to various social, cultural, historical, and political conditions. According to public narratives and perspectives, this study describes the types of urban historic districts perceived as attractive. The investigation uses the qualitative method to analyze data from 170 participants obtained through an online questionnaire and content analysis methods with open, axial, and selective coding. The findings reveal that from the public perspective of environmental quality assessment, historic districts are categorized under three types according to attractiveness. Three types of historic areas are vibrant, relaxing, and dull districts. As such, the study emphasizes the importance of human sensory experience in urban planning and design and its consequences for urban heritage conservation.

Membingkai Sejarah Pendidikan Islam di Era Dinasti Abbasiyah

This research explores the golden period of the Abbasid Dynasty in Islamic history, focusing on the rapid development of education and science during that period. In an unstable political context and sharp ideological differences between various groups, the Abbasid Dynasty was able to create an environment that supported the progress of science, both in the fields of naqli and aqli sciences. The research methodology used was a Literary Study/Library Study approach, by collecting data from various library sources and previous research. The data was analyzed to understand the political, social and religious conditions during the Abbasid Dynasty, as well as their impact on educational and scientific development. The research results show that the Abbasid Dynasty experienced an educational heyday marked by the establishment of madrasas, large libraries and the promotion of science. A variety of teaching methods are used, including oral, rote, and written methods. The educational curriculum covers various subjects, from religious sciences to secular sciences. In the context of social and cultural diversity, recognition of the mawali group provides a new color for the development of science, with the exchange of ideas and traditions from various cultures. The Abbasid dynasty also had a significant impact on the Islamic and global world through the process of translating scientific works and collaboration between scholars from various backgrounds. This research confirms that the Abbasid period was not only the peak of scientific glory in Islamic history, but also provided the foundation for educational progress. and human civilization more broadly.

On improving the efficiency of providing budgetary places in Russian universities (on the example of engineering and technical areas of study)

Relevance. In the current economic and political conditions in Russia, there is an acute shortage of welltrained engineers, and not only in the IT field. In order to overcome this problem, the state annually raises the admission target numbers (CAP) for technical educational programs. This increases the amount of public funding for universities (both per capita and for general development); it is measured in hundreds of billions of rubles, which requires studying the efficiency of resource use. The purpose of the article is, based on the results of a comprehensive empirical analysis, to identify the key problems that reduce the effectiveness of state financing of state-funded places in engineering and technical areas, and to substantiate proposals for minimizing them. Methodology and methods. The methodological basis is a systematic approach, within which general scientific methods (deduction, induction, generalization, comparative analysis, etc.) were used, as well as special economic and statistical research methods. Results and scientific novelty. It was revealed that the use of the current methodology for the distribution of CSC by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia leads to the fact that a significant part of budget places in engineering and technical areas of study are occupied by students with low (18.2% excluding IT areas) and extremely low (at least 14.5 %) by the level of incoming knowledge. In a number of areas, the proportion of such students reaches 87%, despite the fact that ¾ of the applicants have an extremely weak physical and mathematical base (within the framework of the school course). The actual scale of the problems turned out to be greater due to the non-linear scale of the Unified State Examination, “tuned” by the Ministry of Education of Russia to overestimate the score for “C” students. Taken together, this naturally leads to the training of engineers of the appropriate level at the state expense. A set of measures is substantiated to change the methodology for distributing budgetary places, aimed at improving the efficiency of the use of public funding. Practical significance. The results of the study can be used by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, as well as by the administrations of technical universities to improve the quality of applicants for engineering education programs.

Problem solving as selective blindness

This article examines the practices associated with technical solutions to energy transitions. In particular, it considers the role of ‘problem solving’ as a partial view on the world with extraordinary influence. As the core epistemological practice of engineers, problem solving starts with selective framings of problems in which social or political conditions are taken as given. Engineering, as a form of applied science, therefore offers ethical choices that may be eclipsed by technical framings. This article highlights the reflexive practices of engineers engaged in modelling practices for energy transitions, who are addressing socio-technical problems in formally constrained ways that both enable and limit the thinkability of different future horizons.

Autopsy of a futures market failure: Japan’s Dojima rice futures in the early 21st century

Futures markets promise improved price transparency and risk mitigation for staple commodities important to many developing countries, but they can fail even in developed economies with modern financial institutions. We investigate rice futures trading in Japan at the Osaka Dojima Exchange to identify the reasons underlying its failure in 2021. Our analysis reviews the multiple necessary conditions for a successful commodity futures market. We find the Japanese rice market did not meet many of these conditions. The spot market was fragmented with heterogeneous goods and a single dominant firm. Futures trading was unable to facilitate price discovery or effective hedging activity. To the extent it was traded, the Dojima rice futures contract was instead used as a forward contract for making and taking physical delivery. In addition, there was political opposition and regulatory uncertainty around futures trading. Using detailed data on trader positions in the futures market, we show how these factors contributed to diminished interest in futures trading from firms who handle physical commodities. The lessons from the Japanese case are useful for traders, exchanges, and policy makers, especially those in countries where futures markets may face similarly unfavorable economic and political conditions.

The welfare state as a child of the growth economy and a troubled midwife of an eco-social transformation: a commentary on ‘Postgrowth welfare systems: a view from the Nordic context’ by Riya Raphael et al

In Raphael et al (2024) the authors discuss very well how encompassing (Nordic) welfare states can both facilitate a transition to sustainable, post-growth societies, yet are also fundamentally challenged by such a transition. However, I emphasise room for better elaboration in terms of: 1. Emphasising the structural challenges induced by ‘the new politics of the welfare state’ rather than ascribing inequality to the privatisation of public services. 2. Better elaboration of the ‘synergy hypothesis’ from other literature on potential intersections between welfare regimes, varieties of capitalism, and sustainability transformations. 3. Discussing the specific economic, monetary and fiscal policies needed to aid societal transformations and abolish the growth dependencies of established welfare states.

The power of the accused: rights mobilization and gender inequality in school workplaces

AbstractLaw and society scholars have long studied rights mobilization and gender inequality from the vantage point of complainants in private workplaces. This article pursues a new direction in this line of inquiry to explore, for the first time, mobilization from the vantage points of complainants and those accused of violating the rights of others in public-school workplaces in the United States. We conceptualize rights mobilization as legal, quasilegal, and/or extralegal processes. Based on a national random survey of teachers and administrators, and in-depth interviews with educators in California, New York, and North Carolina, we find an integral relationship between gender inequality and experiencing rights violations, choices about rights mobilization, and obstacles to formal mobilization. Compared to complainants, those accused of rights violations – especially male administrators – are more likely to use quasilegal and legal mobilization to defend themselves or to engage in anticipatory mobilization. Actors in less powerful status positions (teachers) most often pursue extralegal mobilization to complain about rights violations during which they engage in rights muting as a means of self-protection; when in more powerful status positions, actors use rights muting as a means of self-protection and to suppress the rights claims of others. This paper concludes with implications for future research on rights mobilization in school workplaces amidst changing political and demographic conditions.

A novel, scenario-based approach to comparing non-pharmaceutical intervention strategies across nations.

Comparing COVID-19 response strategies across nations is a key step in preparing for future pandemics. Conventional comparisons, which rank individual non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) effects, are limited by: (i) a focus on epidemiological outcomes; (ii) NPIs typically being applied as packages of interventions; and (iii) different political, economic and social conditions among nations. Here, we develop a coupled epidemiological-behavioural-macroeconomic model that can transfer NPI effects from a reference nation to a focal nation. This approach quantifies epidemiological, behavioural and economic outcomes while accounting for both packaged NPIs and differing conditions among nations. As a first proof of concept, we take Germany as our focal nation during Spring 2020, and New Zealand and Switzerland as reference nations with contrasting NPI strategies. Our results suggest that, while New Zealand's more aggressive strategy would have yielded modest epidemiological gains in Germany, it would have resulted in substantially higher economic costs while dramatically reducing social contacts. In contrast, Switzerland's more lenient strategy would have prolonged the first wave in Germany, but would also have increased relative costs. More generally, these findings indicate that our approach can provide novel, multifaceted insights on the efficacy of pandemic response strategies, and therefore merits further exploration and development.