Suchergebnisse

A little scientific advance has been observed in how cities will deal with climate change in terms ofadaptability. Thus, it is necessary to anticipate future changes and to integrate them into local levelplanning, including investments and political decisions in a proactive way of adaptability promotion.For that, supporting local governance construction may help engaging a variety of stakeholders onthe search for solutions focused on facing such issues. This investigation has as its objective proposinga Green Local Governance Model for Cubatão City/SP municipality, aiming to contribute for an increaseof effectiveness in the implementation of public policies into the context of climate changes. Theobjectives are: i) bibliographical updating on the research theme; ii) creating data summary onenvironment, social and economic dimensions for Cubatão City/SP, iii) identifying environmentalmanagement system of the municipality; iv) verifying the constraints on social participation in thedecision making processes in municipal environmental management, v) proposing a Green LocalGovernance Framework. The methodology to be applied is based on MEGA (Portuguese acronym) -Strategic Evaluation Methodology of Sustainable Development and Environmental Public Policiesimplementation at Santo André Municipality. The expected results are reports, papers on the researchsubject, data summary, report of the Environmental Management System of Cubatão/SP(administrative structure, legal apparatus, management tools and institutional capacity); guide tosocial participation, institutional improvement on climate change impacts focus.

This introductory article to the Special Issue MENA Political Science Research a Decade after the Arab Uprisings: Facing the Facts on Tremulous Grounds takes stock of MENA political science research a decade after the Arab uprisings. Engaging with key contributions from social movement and protest studies, comparative politics, and International Relations, we discuss three overarching questions that we consider as particularly important today: First, does "2011" represent a critical juncture for the respective MENA research fields? Second, what promises does a revisiting of the Area Studies Controversy hold in light of the Arab uprisings? Third, which changes has the past decade yielded for the ways political science research in/on MENA is done? Against this background, we present the six contributions to the Special Issue.

English
A study of British coastal bathing water politics over the last 40 years reveals the extent to which the European Community has influenced a relatively stable policy area dominated by engineers and scientists, in which successive governments of different political hues defended the practice of depositing raw sewage into nearshore waters along short pipes. Together with the pressures arising from the privatisation of the water industry, European environmental ideas and policies have helped shift a previously stable policy community by offering new campaigning opportunities to environmental groups who were previously marginalised. The resulting changes in the goals and instruments of domestic policy are examined from the standpoint of Peter Hall's model of social learning, which lays stress on the role of ideas in precipitating fundamental changes in policy over extended periods of time.

This paper updates and extends the Political Market Framework (PMF) by integrating elements of interest groups and political market theory with policy entrepreneurs' (PEs) roles in explaining the patterns of urban infrastructure construction. The prominent role of PEs is observed through a grounded analysis of two large infrastructure projects in Mexico City. A comparative study of the cases suggests that: (1) The agency of PEs in political markets is central to explaining the construction of urban infrastructure; (2) PEs contribute to the definition of pro-growth or anti-growth coalitions and the definition of public problems; (3) the legitimacy of PEs is grounded in their political or technical reputation, or both; (4) the appropriate use of political institutions requires that PEs know how to use electoral timing strategically; and (5) the role of PEs seems to be better understood within a bounded analysis framework, such as the political markets approach.

Abstract
This study investigates the effect of political misinformation as propaganda on the legitimacy of the Chinese government. A survey experiment (n = 2,236) was conducted to analyse the effect of positively spun misinformation on citizens' perceptions and support for the government on two pivotal issues: the economy and air pollution. Results show that spreading positively spun misinformation is beneficial to the regime, as it leads to positive perceptions of the issue and increased support for the government. Interestingly, even when misinformation is exposed through credibly sourced corrections, trust and support for the government remain as high or higher than for the control groups. These effects are significant and hold constant in two issue types, underscoring the strategic value of disseminating positively spun yet false information in China. These findings have rich implications for studies of misinformation and fact-checking in general and China's information politics in particular.

Media exposure is a central concept in understanding the dynamics of public opinion and political change. Traditional models of media exposure have been severely challenged by the shift to online news consumption and news-sharing on social media. Here we use network analysis and automated content analysis to examine the interaction between news media and social media around the UK General Election in 2015. We study a large corpus of UK newspaper articles and Twitter content, finding significant temporal correlations between newspaper topic coverage and the content discussed on Twitter. We also identify news-sharing communities around groups of news sources that are ideologically clustered. Analysis of topics covered within each group shows that different communities are exposed to different news content during the election. Our results confirm that ideological bias and selective news-sharing affect patterns of online media exposure in social media.

This study aims to contribute to the determination of the nature of the obstacles to reform trade policy in Algeria using the institutional approach to deal with economic phenomena, especially those related to foreign trade. Sectoral interests of key actors and an intellectual context despite the adoption by Algeria of trade liberalization for more than two decades in this sense, the political system, its constraints and contradictions are the starting point for any reflection on the issues of trade reform, hence the crucial importance of the approach to economic policy reform trade policy in Algeria.

There is actual problem in the modern world associated with competitive advantage, positioning the image of the state, its political system and separate territorial- administrative units (cities, regions, historical provinces) in the political environment as the direction of current foreign policy. Creating a positive image and brand is one of the key problems for every modern country. This process in the present conditions is becoming increasingly important. A positive image is an effective means of transformation, improving the status and prestige of the state and its investment attractiveness. Brand state promotion (creating a positive image) is significant issue for modern Ukraine and its regions with target to increase its competitiveness.Globalization and global integration increase the requirement for the use of interdisciplinary methodological approaches and methods for the analysis of modern politics. Especially - it concerns such thing as 'state branding', it is studied by specialists in public administration, marketing, political geography, regional studies, geopolitics and political science.The aim of the article is to summarize the essence of the concept of 'state branding' taking into consideration the different scientific approaches to the interpretation of the content of the concept .The term 'branding' came into political science from scientific research in the field of commercial marketing on creating a propitious image of the nation, the government, the states and this approach became widespread.The concept of 'brand' (from English word brand –'stamp, mark') is defined as a well-known name positively identified and perceived environment, and thus becomes more respected and popular. That is why branding is responsible for the process of creating, implementing and strengthening the brand. So branding - the process of forming and brand management, that is an activity aimed at creating sustainable ideas in the mind of the subject.At once after originated the business branding began the concept of state branding, according to Simon Anholt it is a systematic process of harmonizing the actions, behavior, innovation, investment, and the country's communications strategy for the successful implementation of competitive identity. An example is the cooperation of the government on borrowings and investments to the country. Thus state branding - the process of creation and promotion through international media brand to consumers and country counterparts.Broadly, 'state branding' consists of governmental and regions actions with aims to marketing areas and sectors they represent. The concept is associated with the policy of formulation and implementation of the state brand, as a combination of emotional and rational concepts, and therefore need of a harmonious combination of national and local (regional) features uniqueness, otherness and attractiveness.Branding states as 'political brand' is used in relation to political institutions, persons and events in the case of uniqueness, originality, awareness, recognition and high reputation.Thus, political science measurement concept 'branding state' leads to the following conclusions:Firstly 'state branding' - the process of positioning the country, creation, creation of 'brand state', and therefore directly linked to its national interests and based on clearly defined values, priorities, positioned in the political environment;Secondly 'state branding' - a state political activity with aims to provide its information in the presence of wide circles awareness through reflection in the mass consciousness of its exclusive local differences;Thirdly 'state branding' can provide the state and territory opportunity to become a force of influence, broadcast their own decisions and increase their tangible and intangible resources and consists of various components of economic, political, social and cultural character and is a combined measure of recognition and success of its actions on internationally, assessing foreign public opinion about the country;Fourthly its essence is to create a positive image of the country that displays originality, unique and original characteristics of the area and the communities that are well known and have received public recognition. ; В статье освещаются основные подходы к трактованию понятия «брендинг государства». Суть которых заключается в том, что «брендинг государства» – это процесс позиционирования страны, создание, формирование «бренда государства», а потому напрямую связанный с ее национальными интересами и основывается на четко определенных ценностях, приоритетах, которые позиционируются в политической среде. ; У статті висвітлено основні підходи до трактування поняття «брендинг держави», суть яких полягає в тому, що «брендинг держави» – це процес позиціонування країни, створення, формування «бренду держави», а тому напряму пов'язаний з її національними інтересами і ґрунтується на чітко визначених цінностях, пріоритетах, що позиціо-нуються в політичному середовищі.

This article draws attention to the relationship between neuroethics, neuropolitics, political psycho-cultures and public and global mental health. In the hegemonic culture of neoliberalism the purpose of life has been reduced to the self-realization in economic and consumerism terms that promotes the hypercompetitive narcissistic or manic self, indifferent to the fate and suffering of others and accommodated to commodification of morals, mental health and well-being. The real public and global mental health promotion is strongly associated with creating a more empathic, less selfish individual and collective mind where people put a greater emphasis on common interests and bioethical values.

Altruistic parents, who differ in income, make financial transfers to their children, who differ in ability. The children invest in post-compulsory education, subject to an endogenous credit constraint, and taking policy as given. There are two policy tools: a subsidy to those who participate in education and a proportional income tax. Not all children participate; a larger subsidy encourages participation, and a larger income tax discourages it. The parents, prior to making transfers, vote on policy. A voting equilibrium, if it exists, is such that voters in the two tails of the income distribution support a reduction, while the "middle-class" supports an expansion, of the education subsidy. Public support of education is a policy with regressive elements as it entails, among other things, a redistribution from the poor to the middle-earners. We characterise a local equilibrium analytically, verify its existence numerically, and finally perform a number of comparative statics exercises.