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Pork-barrel spending is the use of federal money for localized projects that yield only a narrow geographic benefit. It is a commonly held belief that politicians use this spending to improve their chances of re-election. One way that an incumbent can increase their chances of re-election is through increased fundraising. Political entrepreneurs see this opportunity and attempt to benefit from these projects in exchange for campaign contributions. This paper investigates whether incumbents are able to use their position to bolster their campaign contributions. I find pork-barrel spending and political contributions to be positively related, but this effect is only present when the incumbent properly times the project. I also find that general federal appropriations do not have the same impact. This supports the claim that pork-barrel spending can be used as a currency in the marketplace for political capital.

Introduces this special journal issue on the year 1968 & its significance for the present. Particular emphasis is on the current status of the utopian imagination that experienced renewal in 1968, but now seems to have faded into pessimism about the future of politics & society. Claims that that year ushered in new processes of social & political change that have continued in the "right" direction are evaluated, highlighting tendencies in political philosophy -- particularly in terms of a commitment to both autonomy & plurality -- & the social arenas of the family, workplace, interpersonal relations, & self-understanding. 3 References. K. Hyatt Stewart

PurposeCountry crises can provoke damages to a country's economic activity and citizens in a way that will always demand a deeper understanding of their determinants. Political issues are commonly mentioned as an important factor boosting these crises. This paper investigates the political factors behind financial crises and recessions.Design/methodology/approachUsing variables from the ICRG rating system, logistic panel regressions are run to determine whether or not the political risk variables explain country crises.FindingsResults disclose the importance of socioeconomic conditions to financial crises and recessions with no influence from the political arena. Against expectations, political instability does not help to explain crises. Political risk ratings also show their importance, demonstrating that the higher is the risk, the higher is the probability of debt and currency crises occurrence.Originality/valueThe findings in this paper contribute to a growing literature of political risk and crises, enhancing the value of political risk assessment and increasing the application of its consequences.

Since 2006, a major drive for reform of the Japanese bureaucracy's personnel system has been continuing in order to enhance political control over bureaucrats. In spite of a bipartisan agreement on the reform's vision, heightened party competition has suspended its actual implementation.

'The Political Ecology of Forestry in Burma' by Raymond L. Bryant is reviewed.

Ho reviews 'Political Legitimacy and Housing: Stakeholding in Singapore' by Chua Beng-Huat.

The democratization of a country is measured by the level of representation of different groups of society, especially women. Women comprise half of the electorate, and everyone agrees that Albanian women in Macedonia are politically underrepresented. Despite the political and legal efforts, yet they are not present in political life. The impact factors are: the lack of education, their huge daily engagement in households, poverty and lack of employment. These factors are reinforced by the patriarchal mentality, as a result of which women are not engaged in politics and they have no ability to engage in politics, and as a result the decisions are made on her behalf in various forms, including the phenomenon of family voting. Albanian women in Macedonia are positioned in the margins of politics, a position which is completely invisible and without decision- making influence. Their exclusion is an indication of mentality and the traditional way of life of the Albanians in this country and complete inequality of women in family and society. Through forms of power and gender domination, women's activity in political life is limited. The purpose of this research is to draw the attention of society, especially of the Albanian men in Macedonia, that the inclusion of women in political decision-making is one of the elements that must be changed in the way politics is done, because its absence hinders the achievement of consolidated democracy according to the concept of liberal democracy. In this article we will discuss the reasons that affect the women's involvement in politics. The cultural and historical factors have their role in creating the conditions for the participation of women in public life in the past and during the post-communist transition period when they were completely neglected. The research is based on the use of mixed methodological approach (structured interviews, free conversations and statistical analysis). This paper attempts to provide answers to the question about the place, role, and incorporation of Albanian women in politics, and in the context of democratic processes of Albanian family and society in Macedonia. This research has proven that Albanian women in Macedonia are politically more marginalized than for e.g. the women of Macedonian community. DOI:10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n2p199

This article is the first to reconstruct the intellectual history of Milton Friedman's criticism of business and its social responsibilities. Using original archival research and printed evidence, this article makes three major arguments. First, Friedman's criticisms of business and its social responsibilities evolved over time and emerged from persistent anxieties among economic liberals about monopoly, business interests, and political authority that were explicitly read from Adam Smith. Second, the article contributes to the emerging intellectual history of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by reconstructing the development of Friedman's criticisms, their transformations, and their reception within the context of American managerial thought from the 1950s to the 1980s. Finally, contextualizing Friedman's criticisms demonstrates his concern about decision-making logics within organizations, which in turn explains his belief that CSR would contribute to collectivization and enhances the understanding of neoliberal political thought.

Population statistics reflect a nation's quality of life and accordingly have the potential to be highly politically charged, with implications for a government's legitimacy. In the Brezhnev era Soviet Union, emerging negative trends regarding life expectancy, fertility and mortality had the potential to de-legitimise the Soviet regime just at the moment when population issues were taking the spotlight through the United Nations. For this reason, population statistics were subject to significant censorship. The article examines how this censorship worked for domestic and international audiences. I show the main form of censorship was an editorial review by trusted experts in the Party and argue that the process was defined by uncertainty and negotiation, with personal networks mediating the result. In general, the period was characterised by tension between the need to expand demographic research and leaders' desire to suppress knowledge of unfortunate demographic truths.

In recent years, political philosophy has increasingly faced the question about the nature of the contemporary war. Despite the invention of nuclear weapons, war has not disappeared from the historical scene. However, has its essence remained unchanged? In an era of global political communication, when it is increasingly difficult to separate foreign policy from domestic policy, do the trends in the development of military conflicts correspond to the classical ideas about war? One definitely needs a clear paradigm that would help to trace the common logic behind the whole variety of such conflicts taking place in the world today. The article is devoted to the consideration of one of these paradigms, which is gaining momentum among political theorists. It concerns the conceptualization of all the modern military conflicts as a global civil war. Based on the works of Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, the author outlines the general contours of this approach, after which he turns to the analysis of the phenomenon of s civil strife, described by the ancient Greek notion of stasis — a term that Giorgio Agamben put back to the current political vocabulary. His detailed study of the original meaning of stasis and its interpretation in the works of Nicole Loraux and Agamben reveals the potential of this concept to be a theoretical tool for understanding the logic of modern war.

The preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia year 1945 the Government of Indonesia commissioned to build the nation and the country to realize the well-being Development that uses tax funds and foreign loans effectively and efficiently. But public officials often take advantage of opportunities to enrich themselves through corruption. The interior Ministry mentioned that between the years 2004 until 2012 there were cases of corruption involving regional chiefs and 277 of about 1,500: An official area as well as members of the legislature. But, among the corruption the, only a small part was fined for his political rights In the last four years, the majority was sentenced to the average corruption of light prison under four years, to give a systemic deterrent effect that was worth additional penalties such as political disenfranchisement. According to international human rights documents, corrupt political corruption is seen as a violation, but national legislation, therefore, legitimizes the existence of human rights restrictions to defend the rights of others, the nation and the state alone. Restricting human rights through corrupting political defranchising by attempts to make it a deterrent, simplifying the law enforcement process, saving the state money, as well as simplifying and simplifying the use of welfare development funds General