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The goal of this article is to assess changes in the candidate selection methods in Italy starting from elections of 1994, when the selection process dominated by party has failed, and new recruitment techniques emerged both at national and regional level. This article provides an overview of intraparty candidate selection methods occurring at two levels analyzing formal rules and survey data on attitudes held by middle-level party elite (national) and councilors (regional). Has there been a real democratization (in terms of more inclusiveness and more decentralization) of the candidates' selection? How effective is the selection process on gender representation? The findings show that national elite has a strong hold on party recruitment despite the introduction of democratic procedures in the candidate selection for public office and leadership of some parties; at regional level, individual representation acquires a powerful role in comparison with party representation.

AbstractStates producing gas and oil have long levied severance taxes at the point of extraction, commonly placing most revenues into general funds. These taxes have assumed new meaning in many states amid the expansion of gas and oil production accompanying the advent of hydraulic fracturing. We reviewed all major statutes and constitutional amendments related to severance taxes that were enacted at the state level during the first decade of the "shale era" (2005–14). There have been only modest adjustments in statutory tax rates and some evidence that states have attempted to reduce these rates, possibly in response to growing national production. In turn, there is also evidence that states have begun to pursue more targeted strategies for revenue use, including some expanded focus on responding to the negative externalities linked to drilling, expanded revenue sharing with localities, and increased long‐term protection of resources through state trust funds.

The right to healthcare in Brazil is seriously protected by the courts. Judicialization of everyday implementation of this public policy is a fact. One explanation may be provided by the way judges understand the effectiveness of this right. People hold subjective right to individualized healthcare benefits, and so they hold standing to sue the state in order to achieve it, regardless any consideration of public policies. Through an analysis of the jurisprudence on this issue, this paper aims to provide a critical understanding not just about what is actually happening in Brazilian courts regarding healthcare, but also to criticize it. The conclusion is that a "strong" conception of constitutionalism and fundamental rights may revel itself as "weak," from the standpoint of general equality. Judicialization ends up empting the public debate, leading the task of solving the distribution of scarce resources to a "gowned aristocracy."

In this paper we question the political and financial drivers of urban development in the contemporary context of multiactor and multilevel governance. We focus on the processes that drive spatial planning and large-scale development projects in the inner periphery of three metropolitan areas: Amsterdam, Paris, and Milan. Peripheral development is conceptualized as the outcome of the realignment of three major sources of urban power: the national government, the core city, and large market investors. Early research has largely demonstrated how each of these elements influences metropolitan transformations, often separately, with special focus on economic logics of development. We propose to instead empirically investigate the political drivers of the changing relationship between these three powers. Focusing on three particular projects, we show how different spatial outcomes of peripheral development spring from a particular articulation of the relationship between the three sources of power. These relationships are pinned over electoral strategies of power consolidation, political confrontation between emerging parties, and their (dis)connections with business interests.

Levels of participation in Los Angeles are historically low (Almendrala, 2013; Sonenshein et al., 2014; Welsh, 2013). This trend concerns scholars and political activists alike (Lozano, 2006; Sonenshein, 2006). Increasing levels of political participation in Los Angeles, and nationally, requires understanding what moves people to become active. Analysis of polling conducted by the Pat Brown Institute sheds light on some of the factors that influence participation in Los Angeles. This analysis shows that voting frequency and political participation are largely motivated by education and political interest; access to news media does not appear to have a significant impact on neither voting nor participation. These factors underlie the phenomenon that whites are more likely to participate than non-whites, and those who are older more than those who are younger. This analysis provides inferences on what proposals might increase participation in Los Angeles, particularly among minority and younger voters.