Status Quo Policy Research Articles

Civil society demand for accountability to achieve the 90-90-90 targets: lessons from Eastern and Southern Africa.

Civil society demand for accountability has long been a critical component of the AIDS response. In the age of 90-90-90 HIV treatment goals, civil society advocacy has continued, but often in new forms. In particular, civil society accountability at the intersection of national policy and global health financing has taken on increasing importance, but has not been well documented. Civil society demand for accountability is a key to addressing both the insufficient progress toward '90-90-90' HIV treatment goals and the gap in democracy in HIV policymaking particularly prevalent in the context of internationally financed HIV programming. Civil society can serve three vital functions for accountability: unlocking decision-making processes monopolized by powerful funders through North-South networks; challenging dominant ideas that justify status-quo policies; and 'venue shifting' to institutionalize new, more open spaces for policymaking. The functions of civil society demand for accountability have played key roles in improving the AIDS response in several countries in East and Southern Africa. Dramatically scaling-up capacity for civil society advocacy is necessary in the near term to achieve global HIV goals.

Information and direct democracy: What voters learn about ballot measures and how it affects their votes

Limited research has evaluated what voters know about the initiatives and referendums that regularly appear on their ballots. Analyzing survey data covering nine ballot measures in three U.S. states, I explore what voters know about measures that would implement policies ranging from approving same-sex marriage to requiring identification to vote. My results show a great deal of variation across both ballot measures and type of knowledge. Specifically, I find that knowledge of endorsements and status quo policies is similar to their knowledge of civics. Policy specific facts, however, lag far behind. My results also show that voters tend to know more about moral issues. Increased campaign spending also helps voters learn about relevant endorsements, though not facts. When comparing the efficacy of facts versus endorsements, knowledge of an endorsement has a measurable decision-improving impact on voters’ choices while knowing a fact only rarely does.

Failure of Bilateral Diplomacy on Irian Barat (Papua) Dispute (1950-1954)

Fundamentally, Irian Barat (Papua) dispute between The Netherlands Indonesia was a territorial conflict or an overlapping claim. The Netherlands as the former colonialist did not want to leave Irian Barat (Papua) or remained still in the region, meanwhile Indonesia as the former colony denied the Netherlands status quo policy in Irian Barat (Papua). Potential dispute of the Irian Barat (Papua) was begun in the Round Table Conference (RTC) 1949. There was a point of agreement in RTC which regulates status quo on Irian Barat (Papua) and it was approved by Head of Indonesia Delegation, Mohammad Hatta and Van Maarseven, Head of the Netherlands Delegation. As a mandate of the RTC in 1950s there was a diplomacy on Irian Barat (Papua) in Jakarta and Den Haag. Upon the diplomacy, there were two negotiations held by diplomats of both countries, yet it never reached a result. As a consequence, in 1954 Indonesia Government decided to stop the negotiation and searched for other ways as a solution for the dispute. At the present time, Jakarta-Papua relationship is relatively better and it is based on a special autonomy, which gives great authority to the Local Government of Papua.

OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE TO NANOPARTICLES – A NEGLECTED PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE IN ROMANIA

Persons exposed to natural or engineered nanoparticles – either in production processes or during the transport of these materials, and especially when using nanoparticles/nanomaterials – are susceptible to their toxic action by inhalation, ingestion or skin contact. The study aimed to analyse the legislation and concerns of international nanoscience agencies as compared to the provisions of the relevant legislation in Romania, in order to describe the current status quo of health policies in the field of occupational exposures to nanoparticles. European institutions are turning to modern and varied solutions to raise awareness of the risk that nanoparticle represent for public health, and to stimulate scientific research in the field; they also encourage Member States to pursue a similar policy. Romanian legislation has not yet taken on the European Union's recommendations regarding health protection for occupational exposure to nanoparticles. Keywords: nanoparticles, nanomaterials, occupational exposure, public health

Editorial Note

Editorial Note

Second-Best Prioritization of Environmental Cleanups

Yearly allocations to EPA Superfund cleanups are relatively fixed, but the EPA has significant leeway over which sites to clean within a given year. However, the EPA currently does not consider any economic criteria when ordering sites for remediation. Given the local economic benefits to cleaning, the EPA may be able to increase overall social welfare by considering certain economic criteria. We build a theoretical model that incorporates both the short-run and long-run cleanup benefits and identifies the site and location characteristics that impact welfare. We then use calibrated Monte Carlo simulations to compare 6 feasible cleanup policies and 1 infeasible best-case policy to the status quo policy. We find that the best of the feasible policies can on average improve welfare by 1.88% of the status quo policy, though the administrative costs are likely non-trivial. A similarly beneficial alternative may be to use a set of heuristics regarding site characteristics to order cleanups. In order of importance, the ranking criteria are: site cleanup cost (cheapest first), long-term economic damages from waste, areas currently in a recession, and local discount rates. Ex ante local economic stability has no significant effect. This set of heuristics sees a slightly smaller mean welfare increase (1.85%). Notably, since 3 of the 4 criteria are easily observable, this increase is nearly costless.

Notes Toward a Theology of Cross/ing

Born from the ethical imperative of two sets of wounds, the open sores on the feet of a migrant who crosses the desert and the crucified feet of the One on the cross, this essay compares the U.S.-Mexico border wall and the cross of Jesus through the lives of undocumented migrants crossing into the U.S. From the “third space” of the desert, this essay develops a theology of cross/ing in which the crucified Christ challenges the status quo of state policies that promote injustice, suffering, exploitation, and poverty.

Polarized preferences versus polarizing policies

Much of contemporary political debate in the United States focuses on the issue of polarization: specifically, its causal antecedents and its consequences for policymaking and political conflict. In this article, we argue that partisan preference polarization—conventionally defined as the difference in the favored policy positions of legislators from the two major parties—is not a sufficient statistic for potential political conflict in national politics . Rather, a well-defined measure of potential conflict must take into account (1) the locations of status quo policies and proposed alternatives; and (2) the shape of underlying utility functions. We propose measures of the likely contentiousness of a given status quo policy and of a proposal to move that policy. We then demonstrate the usefulness of these measures using estimates of utility function and final passage vote parameters on enacted legislation from the 111th US Senate (2009–2011).

Professional Background and Judicial Behavior in Brazil

This paper exploits the diversity on the bench of Sao Paulo's supreme court to address two issues in the judicial decision-making literature: first, the influence of career backgrounds or personal attributes on appellate decisions; second, whether sitting, designated judges exhibit a distinct decision pattern, compared to circuit judges, attributable to career incentives or institutional motives. Based on a large dataset of criminal appeals in the State Sao Paulo, Brazil, this study exploits the random assignment of cases to rapporteurs, to identify the causal effects of career backgrounds on judicial decision-making. The Brazilian constitution establishes that 80% of appellate court seats be filled with career judges, 10% with lawyers and 10% with prosecutors. In practice however, vacancies in panels coupled with overburdened courts have significantly increased the participation of judges sitting by designation in appellate panels - who acted as rapporteurs in as much as 14\% of all criminal appeals in Sao Paulo, in the period 2009-2013. Based on a judicial-decision-making model, conditioning on detailed case characteristics, collegiate-effects and time-effects, this study suggests that career backgrounds seem to affect judgments in many ways: former lawyers are more likely to decide in favor of defendants, whereas judges sitting in panels by designation are more likely to decide against defendants. Designated judges also exhibit an anti-defendant behavior, specially in crime types that are sensitive to the political agenda of the executive, such as drugs, illegal weapons and juvenile offenses. This distinctive behavior is particularly pronounced in sentence executions, which constitute a key component of the security policy. Finally, former prosecutors seem to be more likely to reverse circuit court decisions, possibly due to legal motives, although decisions favorable to the prosecution in some types of crimes (drug offenses) is suggestive of political and institutional preferences. This paper corroborates the importance of the path of juridical careers on decision-making standards of appellate judges. Moreover, the strength of results regarding designated judges highlights the potential of (a lack of) judicial independence in influencing decision patterns and shaping appellate decisions in a way that corroborates the status quo criminal policy orientation.

Is North Korea More Offensive After Nuclear Tests? : Combining Revisionist Strategy and Status-Quo Policy

Is North Korea More Offensive After Nuclear Tests? : Combining Revisionist Strategy and Status-Quo Policy

Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste: Agenda Setting and Legislative Voting in Response to the EU Crisis

The European Union’s policy response to the recent global economic crisis transferred significant powers from the national to the European level. When exogenous shocks make status quo policies less attractive, legislators become more tolerant to proposed alternatives, and the policy discretion of legislative agenda setters increases. Given control of the EU agenda-setting process by pro-integration actors, we argue that this dynamic explains changes in voting patterns of the European Parliament during the crisis period. We observe voting coalitions increasingly dividing legislators along the pro-anti integration, rather than the left-right dimension of disagreement, but only in policy areas related to the crisis. In line with more qualitative assessments of the content of passed legislation, the implication is that pro-integration actors were able to shift policy further toward integration than they could have without the crisis.

A Direct Test of Committee Gatekeeping

What is the nature of agenda control in legislatures? Tests of canonical theories of gatekeeping have been limited to analyses of bills that make it through committees and are sent to the floor, making these tests vulnerable to selection bias. I overcome this problem with a novel dataset drawn from three US state legislatures (Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin) that record interest groups' positions on the bills on which they lobby lawmakers. This permits an estimation of the ideological locations of status quo policies for bills that die in legislative committees, and in turn rigorous empirical tests of agenda control theories. Unsurprisingly, I find that many bills are introduced even though they are very likely to die in committee, suggesting either uncertainty or pure position-taking by sponsors. The data provide substantial evidence of legislative gatekeeping, but can only adjudicate among different theories of gatekeeping in specific circumstances. Specifically, they corroborate partisan gatekeeping in the Iowa House and the Wisconsin Assembly, but cannot distinguish between partisan and non-partisan accounts in the Iowa Senate, the Wisconsin Senate, or the Nebraska Legislature.

Climate Change Issues in BRICS Countries

Climate change has emerged as one of the discussions where more is discussed and very less is implemented. People wait for actions to be taken by the government or multilateral organizations but seldom do they capture the developments going on. Several initiatives have been taken by individual countries as well as countries forming groups or conglomerates to tackle the challenges of climate change. This is true for BRICS as well. BRICS countries share the idea of climate protection but are sceptical of the policies passed by developed countries. BRICS as a forum of developing countries challenging the status quo of climate change policies has emerged to formulate its own climate change policies and initiatives in the light of BRICS discussions. The present study is aimed to capture the BRICS climate change policies and initiatives with a descriptive approach.

Elections and durable governments in parliamentary governments

This paper provides a dynamic theory of a parliamentary government system with proportional-representation elections, policy-motivated parties and voters, and an endogenous status-quo policy. The theory identifies the representation of parties in parliament, the governments the parties form, the policies chosen by those governments, and the duration of the governments and their policies. Governments are majoritarian, government parties are equal partners, they and their policies are durable, voters elect minority parliaments in every period, and government policies provide concessions to centrist voters. If crises can occur, governments can fall, but a new government forms after the next election. The theory provides explanations for three empirical findings: equilibria consistent with Gamson’s law, an analog of Duverger’s law for proportional-representation electoral systems, and compensational voting where voters give the out party additional votes when an incumbent government is expected to continue in office.

Common Problems (or, What’s Missing from the Conventional Wisdom on Polarization and Gridlock)

We examine the intuition that in supermajoritarian settings, polarization and policy-making gridlock are fundamentally linked but that a pressing common problem can reduce both. When actors’ individual costs from a policy addressing such a problem differ, their preferences over the appropriate policy respond asymmetrically to increases in the magnitude of the problem. In a broad range of circumstances such increases can give rise to increased polarization but may also simultaneously yield net welfare-enhancing policy adjustments rather than entrenchment of gridlock. The association of polarization and gridlock is contingent on how the problem responds to the policy solution, institutional structure, and the location of the status quo policy when the extent of the problem changes. We illustrate the model’s logic by comparing US national policy making in the Progressive Era and the present.

Durable coalitions and communication: Public versus private negotiations

We present a laboratory experiment to study the effect of communication on durable coalitions — coalitions that support the same allocation from one period to the next. We study a bargaining setting where the status quo policy is determined by the policy implemented in the previous period. Our main experimental treatment is the opportunity for subjects to negotiate with one another through unrestricted cheap-talk communication before a proposal is made and comes to a vote. We compare committees with no communication, committees where communication is public and messages are observed by all committee members, and committees where communication is private and any committee member can send a private message to any other committee member. We find that the opportunity to communicate has a significant impact on outcomes and coalitions. When communication is public, there are more universal coalitions and fewer majoritarian coalitions. With private communication, there are more majoritarian coalitions and fewer universal coalitions. With either type of communication coalitions occur more frequently and last longer than with no communication. The volume and content of communication is correlated with coalition type. These findings suggest a coordination role for communication that varies with the mode of communication.

Veto player theory and reform making in Western Europe.

Veto player theory generates predictions about governments’ capacity for policy change. Due to the difficulty of identifying significant laws needed to change the policy status quo, evidence about governments’ ability to change policy has been mostly provided for a limited number of reforms and single‐country studies. To evaluate the predictive power of veto player theory for policy making across time, policy areas and countries, a dataset was gathered that incorporates about 5,600 important government reform measures in the areas of social, labour, economic and taxation policy undertaken in 13 Western European countries from the mid‐1980s until the mid‐2000s. Veto player theory is applied in a combined model with other central theoretical expectations on policy change derived from political economy (crisis‐driven policy change) and partisan theory (ideology‐driven policy change). Robust support is found that governments introduce more reform measures when economic conditions are poor and when the government is positioned further away from the policy status quo. No empirical support is found for predictions of veto player theory in its pure form, where no differentiation between government types is made. However, the findings provide support for the veto player theory in the special case of minimal winning cabinets, where the support of all government parties is sufficient (in contrast to minority cabinets) and necessary (in contrast to oversized cabinets) for policy change. In particular, it is found that in minimal winning cabinets the ideological distance between the extreme government parties significantly decreases the government's ability to introduce reforms. These findings improve our understanding of reform making in parliamentary democracies and highlight important issues and open questions for future applications and tests of the veto player theory.

Optimization of decision rules for hydroelectric operation to reduce both eel mortality and unnecessary turbine shutdown: A search for a win–win solution

AbstractWorldwide populations of freshwater eels have declined with one of the contributing causes related to mortality during passage through hydropower turbines. An inherent trade‐off underlies turbine management where the competing demand for more hydropower comes at the expense of eel survival. A win–win solution exists when an option performs better on all competing demands compared to other options. A predictive model for eel migration based on a recent telemetry study was used to develop decision rules for turbine management in the Shenandoah River system. The performance of alternative decision rules was compared to the status quo policy to search for win–win solutions. Decision rules were defined by the probability of eel movement and were evaluated by the probabilities of false positive and false negative errors. The exact value of the cut‐off probability used in the decision rule will need to be determined through negotiation between stakeholders, but a range of cut‐off probabilities resulted in a win–win situation with both reduced eel mortality and increased turbine operation relative to the current shutdown strategy. Monitoring the implementation is needed to evaluate and update the predictive model and to refine the decision rule. Although the decision is framed for the Shenandoah River system, the analytical approach could be used to develop decision rules for turbine shutdown policy in other areas.

Mitigating Spillover in Online Retailing via Replenishment

Online purchases constitute about one-tenth of U.S. retail sales. The supply chains that support online retailing are fundamentally different from those that support traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Traditional solutions are not always appropriate to solve online retailing’s operations problems; thus, there is an opportunity to understand and improve these novel supply chains. One key characteristic of the inventory systems for online retailing is demand spillover, whereby a stockout at a fulfillment center (FC) results in demand spilling over to another FC. For this context we examine how to allocate inventory to the FCs under a periodic-review joint-replenishment policy, with an objective to minimize outbound shipping costs for a fixed amount of inventory. We first show how traditional decentralized allocation policies may perform suboptimally and induce dynamics (whiplash) that result in costly spillover. We find that this phenomenon increases with the prevalence of local stockouts and with the level of inventory imbalance. We then describe that inventory imbalance occurs in online retailing because of operational realities and provide evidence based on real data. Finally, we propose a heuristic to allocate inventory accounting for possible spillover during the lead time. We test the heuristic by a simulation and show that it performs better than the status quo policy, is robust to operational realities, and captures over 90% of the possible improvement as compared to a pseudo-optimal policy. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2016.0614 .

Developing Transformative Space for Student Resistance: Latina/o Students’ Interruption of Subtractive Schooling Practices

Social reproduction scholars and the literature on critical race theory and student resistance contend that schools are not neutral institutions existing in a vacuum free of the political and social struggles for rights and resources (Delgado Bernal, 1998; Fine, 1991). Instead, schools can be institutions that reproduce dominant ideologies and oppressive hierarchies or arenas from which to challenge power and status-quo policies (Freire, 1970). Drawing from two years of participant observations at Hillcrest High School, this study explores how Latina/o students in collaboration with their teacher engage in transformational resistance to subtractive schooling. I document how co-leadership in the classroom between teacher and students supports the co-creation of a transformative space for critical reflection. Similar to activist groups creating spaces to cultivate youth political engagement, classrooms can be reconstructed to foster the development of students as agents of change. This article presents the process through which Latina/o students gain critical reflection of social inequalities and systems of oppression that enables them to advocate for more inclusive and just schooling practices.