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ObjectivesThis study examines how schools situated in different "contexts of reception" go about the critical task of engaging and supporting immigrant parents.MethodsUsing data from the 2003–04 National Center for Educational Statistics' Schools and Staffing Surveys, we estimate regression models to test the effects of cultural brokers, teacher training, and professional development on school policies and practices specifically designed to engage and support immigrant parents as well as more traditional, school‐ and home‐based parent involvement programs.ResultsWe find cultural brokers and school attributes are more strongly associated with the type and magnitude of parent involvement programs in established destinations, whereas teacher training and in‐service professional development are most consistently associated with these policies in new destination schools. We also find a strong association between minority principals (African American or Latino) and parent involvement programing in new destinations, suggesting that principals of color are taking an active role in addressing the needs of immigrant and minority parents.ConclusionsAs the U.S. population becomes increasingly multicultural, these findings have important policy implications for both federal and local governments.

Although Machiavelli would appear to be only a minor figure in Foucault's genealogy of modernity, this article examines his 1977-1978 lectures at the College de France and argues that the author of The Prince plays a pivotal role in the development of 'governmental reason' and its critique. These lectures indicate how The Prince serves as the negative touchstone for the emergence of an extensive and evolving discourse on government, confirming that Machiavelli was more than a passing interest for Foucault. I consider two 'Anti-Machiavellian' episodes in Foucault's genealogy as especially significant: the sixteenth-century discourses of the state and the eighteenth-century discourses of political economy. These moments are significant both in showing how the idea of government hinges on a repudiation of the political lessons of The Prince and in establishing the link between governmentality and another term so important for Foucault's thinking in this period -- biopower. Finally, I show how the art of critique -- or, what Foucault describes as 'the art of not being governed quite so much' -- finds a timely resource in the (still live) figure of Machiavelli. Adapted from the source document.

A number of comparative judicial scholars have argued that assertions of judicial authority are a function of the level of fragmentation/competition in the formal political sphere. Accordingly, in authoritarian or one-party settings, judges should be deferential to power holders, and in places where political power is divided between branches and/or parties, one would expect to see greater levels of judicial assertiveness. Through a longitudinal, qualitative analysis of one most-likely case (Chile) and one least-likely case (Franco-era Spain) and drawing on a half-dozen other cases from the comparative judicial literature, this article argues that political fragmentation is neither sufficient nor necessary for judges to challenge powerful actors. Instead, it argues that assertive or "positively independent" judicial behavior requires ideational support, in the form of a role conception/professional ideology that gives judges motivation for such behavior. Such professional attitudes are socially and institutionally constituted in a dynamic process that itself shapes judges' perceptions of the opportunities for and obstacles to judicial assertiveness, both within and outside the judiciary. (World Politics / SWP)

Electoral institutions can affect the voting behavior of legislators who are elected through those institutions. In this article, the authors apply social network theory to study patterns of legislative choices under different primary election systems, and this approach leads the authors to study how electoral institutions affect legislative behavior differently than most previous research—that is, they focus on how electoral institutions affect the interactions between legislators. The authors use data on legislative voting behavior from the California State Assembly and exploit the changes that have been implemented in California's primary elections process over the past two decades. Specifically, they hypothesize that legislators who were elected during the years in which a nonpartisan blanket primary was used in California (1998 and 2000) will be more centrally networked and more likely to compromise with other legislators. They find evidence to support their hypothesis: legislators elected under the nonpartisan blanket primary are more likely to agree with other legislators. Electoral institutions, especially primary elections, have important effects on legislative behavior. The authors' results have implications for highly polarized state legislatures.

International audience The last decade has been marked by the resurgence of leftist political movements across Latin America. The rise of the 'New Left' masks the ambivalent relationships these movements have with broader society, and their struggle to find an alternative to the prevailing development model. Across the continent, the microfinance sector, filling the void left by failed public banks, has grown significantly under an increasingly commercial form. Analysis of Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia reveals that the new governments share a common distrust of microfinance. Yet, in the absence of viable alternatives for financial service provision, governments and microfinance stakeholders are forced to coexist. The environment in which they do so varies greatly, depending on local political and institutional factors. Some common trends can nevertheless be discerned. Paradoxically, the sector seems to be polarized into two competing approaches which reinforce the most commercially-oriented institutions on the one hand, and the most subsidized ones on the other, gradually eliminating the economically viable microfinance institutions which have tried to strike a balance between social objectives and the market.

Jérôme Pélisse participated in the development and defence of a Labex project and then of Idex. He returned to these experiences and offered a reflexive analysis. This diving makes it possible to grasp the work of building projects and coordinating teams brought about by recent changes in the methods of funding and research administration. With foresight, the author shows how engagement in such companies, in addition to reporting on the struggles between different research and higher education institutions, is likely to transform researchers into the spirit of reforms. [editor summary] ; Jérôme Pélisse a participé à l'élaboration et la défense d'un projet Labex, puis d'Idex. Il revient sur ces expériences et en offre une analyse réflexive. Cette plongée permet de saisir en quoi consiste le travail de construction de projet et de coordination d'équipes qu'induisent les transformations récentes des modes de financements et d'administration de la recherche. Avec clairvoyance, l'auteur montre comment l'engagement dans de telles entreprises, en plus de rendre compte des luttes entre les différentes institutions de la recherche et de l'enseignement supérieur, est susceptible de convertir les chercheurs à l'esprit des réformes. [résumé éditeur]

A variety of scholars in critical security studies have recently argued that new modes of neoliberal world order are influenced by the emergence of complexity theory in the sciences, which manifests itself, for example, in the discourse of resilience. By contrast, this article aims to point at the number of governmental discourses and practices in which 'old' understandings of order are persistent. What will be argued is that such a set of practices can be found in the regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), in which the dominant approaches and strategies still rely on an understanding of life that is bound to a more traditional episteme that expresses the desire for predictable management with clearly controllable effects. The article then moves on to discourses of resilience to show how they are equally characterized by this episteme. In unravelling the struggle that exists between 'old' and 'new' epistemes, the article aims to elaborate on the potential of complexity discourses for challenging particular governmental rationales, manifested in both the resilience context and the GMO controversy.

Independent factors such as Berlin's administrative form as a city state, election laws, party statutes and rules of procedure work as a constant source of renewal in the composition of the state parliament. This is enforced by compensation and excess mandates as well as external influences. Vacancy due to age, illness, death, promotions and departures are the requirements for parties who make preliminary decisions for the nomination of candidates depending on the provisions of the electoral law and their own statutes. The rates of change of parties vary with the size of the organization, the nomination process in members or delegates meetings at the district or provincial level as well as with quotas for women, newcomers and regions. Overall, the relation between renewal of the members and continuity for efficient performance seems to be balanced at a turnover rate of 40 percent. However, it is debatable, due to the change of voting behaviour in the 21st century, how much regeneration parliaments and political parties tolerate without losing their efficiency. Adapted from the source document.