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Abstract.Despite all the attention paid to the topic of policy analysis as a conceptual endeavour, empirically, the actual work of policy analysts is little investigated and little known. This is true generally of most countries and jurisdictions but it is most acute at the subnational level of government in multilevel states. Recent work in Canada, however, based on comprehensive surveys of analysts of provincial and territorial policy, on the one hand, and regionally and Ottawa-based federal policy workers on the other, has found many similarities with national-level work but also significant differences. This work has highlighted differences in the distribution of tasks across jurisdictions—mainly the extent to which policy work involves implementation as well as formulation-related activities—as key distinctions found in policy work across levels of the Canadian multilevel system. This article uses frequency and principal components analysis (PCA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) to probe these dimensions of policy work. It shows provincial and territorial analysts to be similar to regionally based federal workers in task allocation, undermining a straightforward depiction of differences in policy work by level of government. The extent of autonomy enjoyed by policy workers in different jurisdictional venues, both from internal actors and those outside of government, is shown to be the key driver of differences in policy work across levels of government.Résumé.Malgré toute l'attention accordée au thème de l'analyse politique comme un effort conceptuel, empirique du travail réel des analystes des politiques est peu étudié et mal connu. Ceci est vrai en général de la plupart des pays et juridictions, mais est le plus aigu au niveau sous-national de gouvernement dans les États multi-niveaux. Des travaux récents au Canada, cependant, basée sur des enquêtes complètes des provinces et des territoires, d'une part, et régional et basée à Ottawa analystes de la politique fédérale, d'autre part, a trouvé de nombreuses similitudes avec le travail au niveau national mais aussi des différences significatives. Ce travail a mis en évidence des différences dans la répartition des tâches entre les administrations – notamment la mesure dans laquelle le travail politique consiste à la mise en œuvre ainsi que la formulation des activités liées – comme les distinctions clés trouvés dans le travail politique à travers les niveaux de l'canadienne système multi-niveau. Cet article utilise la fréquence et analyse en composantes principales (ACP) et la modélisation par équations structurelles (SEM) pour sonder ces dimensions du travail politique. Il montre les analystes provinciaux et territoriaux à être semblables à l'échelle régionale basée sur les travailleurs fédéraux dans la répartition des tâches, minant une représentation directe des différences dans le travail politique, par niveau de gouvernement. Le degré d'autonomie dont jouissent les travailleurs dans les différents lieux de la politique juridictionnelle – à la fois par des acteurs internes et ceux de l'extérieur du gouvernement – se révèle être le principal moteur de différences dans le travail politique à travers les niveaux de gouvernement.

Situated in the contemporary debate over the implications of the Internet to the contentious politics and authoritarian states, this study is an empirical investigation into the mechanism and the determinants of cyber-to-physical mobilisation in contemporary China. This research compares the mobilization processes of the two cyber-contentious episodes in China, namely the Xiamen PX Event in 2007 and the Sanlu Milk Scandal in 2008. It is grounded on a two-year cyber-ethnographic investigation and in-depth interviews with 14 people differently involved in the respective cyber-contentious episodes. In order to find out why some contentious activities are able to transform into street protests while others of similar nature are contained or even vanish in the cyberspace, this study examines the interactions between the four stakeholders in each contentious episode (i.e., the cyber-protesters, the media, the state power, and the market forces). It highlights the importance of the state power and the market forces in cyber-to-physical mobilisation, and determines the conditions under which cyber-to-physical mobilisation is feasible. This thesis elucidates how the state power and the market forces collectively condition cyber-to-physical mobilisation through the media (both the print and the digital media). The entire mechanism is powered by the tensions between cyber-protesters, the media, the state power and the market forces. The media framing of an incident influences the grievance formation of cyber-protesters, which further determines cyber-to-physical mobilisation. Thus, by manipulating the media framing, the state power or the market forces may control cyber-to-physical mobilisation, although it is not always a success. Based on the mechanism for cyber-to-physical mobilisation, this thesis further ascertains the conditions for cyber-to-physical mobilisation. The two contentious episodes show that cyber-to-physical mobilisation is prohibited when the respective core interests of the state power and the market forces are in complete unity (i.e., national mobilisation and industrial damage are eminent). On the contrary, if cyber-to-physical mobilisation merely triggers controllable regional mobilisation, the state will tolerate it; and if cyber-tophysical mobilisation only costs limited corporate damage, the market forces will allow it. Under such circumstances, cyber-to-physical mobilisation is possible. ; published_or_final_version ; Sociology ; Master ; Master of Philosophy

"Who is to decide?" is the quintessential question in politics. For energy and environmental policies, the issue will be partially determined by which level of government, federal or state, serves as the central decision-making arena. This article suggests that, if brought together, the insights of two separate literatures might usefully be applied to this question. An overview of natural resources and environmental policy literature will suggest that the locus of decision-making authority in states and regions may result in more rational, less environmentally damaging decisions. An examination of the literature on federalism points toward a trend of growing state influence over and capability for decision making. The article therefore concludes with a list of some of the challenges involved in effectuating state influence over energy and environmental policy.

The book is structured as follows. Chapter 1 introduces medieval Holland as a significant entity for institutional-economic development by discussing how the state created a county wide societal structure. As a proto-territorial state Holland had a uniform judiciary, a government apparatus that gave shape to the public sector and regulations aimed at the capital market. At the same time the counts of Holland profited from the capital market: they used funded debt to finance state formation. Lacking creditworthiness, they relied on the solvency of the public sector: individual cities and villages, collectives of cities and ultimately the Staten van Holland intermediated on the capital market. The emergence of public debt caused the public sector to gain influence on national politics and the financial expertise to shift from the center to the periphery; this development reinforced the position of the public sector vis-à-vis the center (chapter 2). To be able to create public debt cities and villages had to gain access to capital markets. They tried to create structures aimed at the market for public debt improving their own position; however, such tendencies to create monopolies were checked and usually public bodies let the forces of supply and demand sort things out (chapter 3). What the capacity of markets for public debt was is the subject of chapter 4. The public sector created market structures supporting both the markets for public and private debt. Issues like secure property rights, contracting institutions and limiting of information costs were all centered on the local court. Why and how public bodies created the institutional framework of the market for private debt is the subject of chapter 5. The final test is to look at the performance of the private capital market. The central issue at stake is whether it allowed all owners of real estate to contract mortgages. In chapter 6 I will use a number of qualitative and quantitative sources to test the capacity of the medieval capital market.

OBJECTIVES: While ecological studies indicate that high levels of structural racism within US states are associated with elevated infant mortality rates, studies using individual-level data are needed. To determine whether indicators of structural racism are associated with the individual odds for infant mortality among white and black infants for in the United States. METHODS: We used data on 2,163,096 white and 590,081 black infants from the 2010 U.S. Cohort Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Files. Structural racism indicators were ratios of relative proportions of blacks to whites for these domains: electoral (registered to vote and voted; state legislature representation), employment (civilian labor force; employed; in management; with a bachelor's degree), and justice system (sentenced to death; incarcerated). Multilevel logistic regression was used to determine whether structural racism indicators were risk factors of infant mortality. RESULTS: Compared to the lowest tertile ratio of relative proportions of blacks to whites with a bachelor's degree or higher–indicative of low structural racism–black infants, but not whites, in states with moderate (OR=1.12, 95% CI=0.94, 1.32) and high tertiles (OR=1.25, 95% CI=1.03, 1.51) had higher odds of infant mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Educational and judicial indicators of structural racism were associated with infant mortality among blacks. Decreasing structural racism could prevent black infant deaths.

The judge's work in child abuse and neglect cases is among the most challenging of any judicial proceeding. The complexities are substantial. Such cases depend upon the exercise of discretion and good judgment together with the application of sound legal principles. The judge must call upon his or her most cherished skills—objectivity, wisdom, patience, and foresight—in circumstances of acute stress. Lives are literally at stake—the lives of the most vulnerable children and youth in our communities and the lives of families wracked by generations of poverty and despair. Families, children, and youth who have experienced intense trauma; who may be mentally ill; where domestic violence may have become a way of life; where substance abuse, alcoholism, and the experience of incarceration have become normal, all rely on the dependency judge for timely and just resolution. The judge is called upon to bring safety, well-being, and permanence to the child. Decisions must be made. Problems must be solved. The stakes are high. What makes this work possible is judicial leadership and system collaboration: the internal system in your courtroom and your courthouse; the external system among the community of stakeholders, service providers, other branches of government, and the like. Embracing these internal and external resources not only makes your job easier but also richer, and good results are more likely to ensue for the troubled children and families we serve. This collection of practices provides options for this important work—options that have been proven to result in better outcomes. They provide real, achievable, cost-effective, and efficient means to improve the process as well. Use them. They will enhance the already extraordinary work you are doing every day. ; https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/faculty-books/1046/thumbnail.jpg

As basic institutions of human coexistence in the world, the house and the state continue to prove themselves and to change. House (i. e., the domestic setting as the primary economic and social unit) and state are the subject of a comparative study on an ecotheoretical basis. In the global context, the modes of societal regulation have developed differently in the domestic sphere and in the sphere of the state. In them and with them, order is created in the world and for the individual and collective conduct of life. The institutional frameworks of house and state in the world are ways of shaping existence that are juxtaposed in their European-Occidental and East Asian forms: The treatment of the topic takes place along the ancient Greek basic concepts and forms of thought of the oikos, the polis and the cosmos on the one hand and the ancient Chinese categories jia, guo and tianxia on the other. They are discussed with their ethical, political and economic references in their traditional and contemporary meaning and with regard to their ecological viability. The interest in a discursive understanding of sustainable, life-serving orders in the face of global challenges is the guiding motive.