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Around the time of WWII, just as the American state was acquiring new levels of capacity for autonomous action, the state was dropped from American social science, as part of the reaction to the rise of totalitarianism. All traces of state autonomy, now understood as "state coercion," were expunged from the image of American democracy. In this ideological climate, the "society-centered" frameworks of pluralism & structural functionalism that Skocpol criticizes swept the field. Skocpol's call for a return to a Weberian understanding of the (potential) autonomy of government administrators may be complemented by a Weberian understanding of the (potential) autonomy of democratic leaders. 64 References. Adapted from the source document.

This study investigates the counterintuitive emergence of self‐regulation in the Russian construction sector. Despite its proclivity for centralizing political authority, the government acted as the catalyst for the delegation of regulatory powers to private industry groups. The article argues that a factor little considered in extant literature—namely, a weak and corrupt bureaucracy—is key to explaining why the normally control‐oriented executive branch began to promote private governance despite industry's preference for continued state regulation. The article's signal contribution is to theoretically explain and empirically demonstrate how a government's prior inability to establish intrastate control over an ineffective and bribable public bureaucracy creates incentives for political authorities to search for alternative means for policy implementation outside of existing state agencies. These findings are important for understanding the impetus and logic behind particular regulatory shifts in countries where the state apparatus is both deficient and corrupt.

AbstractThe Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have increased their promotion of women in public life. The expansion of women's rights in these states functions as a central policy tool to stimulate modernization processes. This article investigates how the Gulf governments steer women's empowerment through the press. Regulated by the state, media outlets in GCC countries primarily serve to affirm and amplify the legitimacy of the government. Focusing on 15 English-language newspapers from 2008 to 2017, this article analyzes the degree to which women's empowerment in various arenas of society was addressed and the valence with which it was reported. Moreover, it analyzes whether foreign and domestic news were addressed differently. The article finds that once nondemocracies focus on women's rights, positive media portrayals, especially of domestic news, become central for legitimizing both women's empowerment and the regime. The article contributes to the growing literature on women's rights legislation and the state-media nexus in autocracies.

'Um zu untersuchen, was die Teilnahmebereitschaft an telefonischen Interviews beeinflusst, wurden 301 Teilnehmer und 326 Verweigerer einer telefonisch durchgeführten Marktforschungsstudie befragt. Basierend auf den geführten Interviews zeigt sich, dass in erster Linie zwei Faktoren entscheidend für die Teilnahmebereitschaft an telefonischen Umfragen sind: die persönliche Einstellung zu Umfragen und der Zeitpunkt der Befragung. Die Bedeutung der Zeit für die Teilnahmeentscheidung spricht für einen zufälligen Ausfallprozess - wird ein potenziell Befragter zu einem anderen Zeitpunkt kontaktiert, fällt seine Entscheidung wahrscheinlich auch anders aus. Die Umfrageeinstellung hingegen ist ein stabiler Einflussfaktor. Da sich aber nur wenige und schwache Zusammenhänge mit grundlegenden Persönlichkeitseigenschaften und soziodemografischen Merkmalen zeigen, spricht dies zwar dafür, dass es bestimmte Personen gibt, die Befragungen gegenüber grundsätzlich abgeneigt sind, diese sich aber nicht grundlegend von den Teilnehmern einer Befragung unterscheiden. Somit kann davon ausgegangen werden, dass Verweigerungen nicht zu systematischen Verzerrungen der Ergebnisse von Umfragen führen.' (Autorenreferat)

This essay reviews the following works: Chino: Anti-Chinese Racism in Mexico, 1880–1940. By Jason Oliver Chang. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2017. Pp. xiv + 257. $28.00 paperback. ISBN: 9780252082344. Paisanos Chinos: Transpacific Politics among Chinese Immigrants in Mexico. By Fredy González. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017. Pp. xiii + 277. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780520290204. Camaradas: Nueva historia del comunismo en México. Edited by Carlos Illades. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2017. Pp. 375. $18.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9786077457251. Seen and Heard in Mexico: Children and Revolutionary Cultural Nationalism. By Elena Jackson Albarrán. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. Pp. 414. $35.00 paperback. ISBN: 9780803265349. The Blood Contingent: The Military and the Making of Modern Mexico, 1876–1911. By Stephen B. Neufeld. Albuquerque: University of Mexico Press, 2017. Pp. vii + 400. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780826358059. A History of Infamy: Crime, Truth, and Justice in Mexico. By Pablo Piccato. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017. Pp. xi + 374. $34.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780520292628. The Power and Politics of Art in Postrevolutionary Mexico. By Stephanie J. Smith. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017. Pp. xiii + 275. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781469635682.

Final publication available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.14516/ete.256 ; I argue that the global dissent of the 1960s is part of a political cultural constellation with many fronts, political conjonctures and religious intersections, in addition to a new sense of being that informed subjectivities and desires. The configurational components examined in this article include secularization, Vatican II, and the emergence of liberation theology in Latin America, as well as the New Left, the Cuban Revolution and the context of the Cold War; the legacy of the civil rights movement and its impact; second wave feminism and a new understanding of gender relations; art as a vehicle for ideas and agendas; the global dissension conveyed in the students' insurrection and repercussions; and education as a tool for change. The article identifies relevant connections between the events and processes that challenged the social and political order across space, and explores the emergence of a contesting ethical framework.

The state is acknowledged as the central actor in development, and there are numerous studies on African states and their relationships to societies. However, the vast majority of these studies focus on the highest echelons of politics and policymaking, with very few dedicated to how the state is experienced and lived by its users. This literature tends therefore to be abstract. Furthermore, much literature, particularly that stressing the neopatrimonial character of African states, examines states through the prism of Weberian logic and suggests that, because states do not conform to a rational-legal ideal, they must therefore be deficient or dysfunctional. This literature therefore tends to be quite normative. This paper offers a less normative and abstract understanding of the state in everyday action, through analysis of the workings of the Nigerian higher education sector. It draws on primary data collected through ethnographic methods to analyse how service providers and users of a university in south-eastern Nigeria negotiate their passage into, and through, a highly complex and flexible system. The paper argues that achieving success in Nigerian higher education is dependent on a combination of merit, personal connections and money. While all students enter the university on the basis of merit (locally referred to as 'getting to the bridge'), personal connections and money are crucial influences. The relative importance of the latter is stronger among poorer performing students. Furthermore, the paper will demonstrate that amongst academic staff, personal connections to influential people and factions are the most important factors influencing success. The notion of 'get to the bridge and I will help you to cross' is also important for staff as official credentials are a necessary but not sufficient criteria for academic success. Strong personal connections play a key and decisive role. The case presented in the paper offers an important corrective to the rather abstract and normative ideas that underpin the theory of the African neopatrimonial state. It argues that a better understanding of the state requires a stronger focus on the routine and real experiences of service providers and users, as well as on their everyday interactions.

Evaluierungsstudie über die berufliche Umsetzung der Ausbildung im Rahmen der Erwachsenenbildungskurse; Befragung ehemaliger Kursteilnehmer