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Empirical studies over the past decades have repeatedly shown the limited usefulness of harsh punishment in reducing crime. In response to these research results, historical approaches to crime reduction, such as mediation and restorative justice, have regained prominence, especially in Germany and other western European countries. The women's movement and the growing role of victimology have contributed to the increased use of these methods as alternatives to incarceration. The debates across these countries vary depending on the historical background of the penal climate in these states, which particularly explains the differences between Eastern and Western European countries in this regard. Empirical studies show the positive impact of mediation on offenders as well as victims. Yet in spite of these results, in most countries, including Germany, the use of mediation remains limited, especially in regard to adult offenders. At the same time, the uses of mediation in non-criminal conflict settings, such as schools, family or work disputes have increased significantly with positive results.

A long standing area of debate in Western countries is that of the appropriate philosophy for facilitating large scale immigration; should immigrants preserve their traditions and culture while living in the host country (integration/multiculturalism) or should they assimilate themselves into the ways and manners of their hosts? The ways that nations go about resolving this issue goes to the heart of internal policy formulation on immigration but is also influential to the image that the country projects overseas. Countries are often labeled according to the official views of their Governments. For example, France might be classed as essentially assimilationist and Britain as multi-cultural, whereas the Netherlands and Germany might be seen as somewhere between the two, but how did these policy differences come about and do they accurately reflect the views of the majority of residents of the various countries? This paper addresses part of this issue by seeking to identify and analyse the characteristics of those people in Western countries who think that immigrants should assimilate culturally and how they differ from those who think that immigrants should preserve a separate cultural existence? By doing so, it seeks to explain why these inter-country differences in views exist and whether they are caused primarily by attribute effects (the composition of the population) or by coefficient effects (the strength of the views they hold). This study exploits a unique set of data provided by The Human Beliefs and Values Survey to identify and to estimate the strength of those factors which lead people to favour cultural integration over multiculturalism for immigrants. In doing so, it provides Governments with a snapshot of contemporary views on this increasingly important issue and how these views may shift as demographic characteristics alter.

"Performance-based acquisition (PBA)" means an acquisition structured around the results to be achieved as opposed to the manner by which the work is to be performed. Performance-based acquisition is a results-oriented acquisition strategy used to achieve innovative solutions in agency programs. Most military systems have been used for decades, so future planning of defense procurement is critically important. Performance-based acquisition is a strategic method to manage business by promoting flexibility and innovation and creating win/win solutions through effective communication, organizational goal alignment, and clear accountability among the buyer, seller(s), and subcontractors. In this century, many governments are transitioning their acquisition strategy from traditional methods to performance-based methods. In 2000, the U.S. Department of Defense set a goal that a minimum of 50% of the service acquisitions would use performance-based acquisition methods by 2005. Do cultural differences have significant importance to the success of this new acquisition method? Applying PBA methods in those Western countries have shown successful results. What results can be obtained from applying this new strategy in non-Western countries? This study focuses on the success of performance-based acquisitions in non-Western countries.

This article is about the development of politic mechanisms in sustainable energy in western countries (primarily EC, USA). The development of sustainable energy in western countries should be greatly based on government and business support and common ways of such help are described below. Also shown the significance of development of sustainable energy, its importance for environmental protection and perspectives.

Die Psychologie erfuhr im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert in vielen Ländern eine starke Entwicklung. Dieses Wachstum war am stärksten in industrialisierten, urbanisierten, westlichen Demokratien, was zur Folge hatte, dass die Disziplin wegen ihrer westlichen Beschränkung in die Kritik geriet. Obwohl diese Beschränkung nicht verneint werden soll, wird im Folgenden dargelegt, dass die historische Analyse zu einer tiefer gehenden Erklärung der Beziehung zwischen der Psychologie und diesen Gesellschaften führt, als es die `kulturalistische' Kritik vermag. Es gibt eines besondere Affinität zwischen Psychologie und der Art von Subjekten, wie sie in liberalen Demokratien leben, sowie deren Selbstverständnissen. Daraus ergibt sich, dass der Gegenstand der Disziplin selbst historisch variabel und dass die Psychologie reflexiv in diesen Prozess eingebunden ist. Wie die menschliche Subjektivität im Wechselspiel zwischen den herrschenden politischen Verhältnissen, der Psychologie und deren Gegenstand in diesen Gesellschaften konstruiert wird, bleibt unvorhersehbar. ; peerReviewed ; publishedVersion

With the development of technology and transportation, the communication between China and the west has increased in almost every field such as economy, culture, and politics. Obviously, marriage as the most important part of life is a hit issue of cross-cultural communication.This paper aims at exploring the differences between marriage concepts between Chinese and western cultures and giving some proposals on how to minimize the communication mistake in marriage and marriage purposes. It will be helpful in cross-cultural communication about marriage concepts.

The article discusses the interaction of Russia with Western countries in the military-industrial sphere at the beginning of the XXI century. Due to the fact that the military-industrial complex (MIC) of Russia remains a key aspect of the development of not only military-specialized facilities, but also the majority of facilities focused on providing civilian industry - light, food, woodworking, chemical industries, in this regard, a special attention is paid to the role of the military-industrial complex in the country's economy, the role of the export of military equipment and its specific impact on relations with Western countries is revealed. The military-industrial complex serves not only as the basis for ensuring national security, but also in military-technical cooperation with other countries. The beginning of the XXI century for Russia was an important period of rethinking the reforms of the 1990s. Putin's victory in the Russian presidential election in 2000 marked the beginning of a new phase of political and military reform. Currently, there are processes associated with the supply of weapons, military equipment to other countries in the conditions of instability of the modern world system, which also cannot be denied. The main question is how, in the context of internal reforms and external, not always successful interaction, to return to the previous level of influence on the world stage.

Over the last ten years, several western countries have recognized gay marriage either by providing gay couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, or by allowing civil unions. Other western countries have not. What accounts for this variation? This paper reviews and analyzes the key demographic, institutional and cultural arguments found in the literature on the legalization of gay marriage – especially as these pertain to cross-national comparison – and raises questions about assumptions regarding the extent to which there is variation on these vari- ables across western countries. I argue that institutional and cultural explanations are only meaningful in explaining legalization when their combinations are speci- fied in order to shed light on favorable (or unfavorable) circumstances for policy outcomes.

Drawing on comparative analyses from nine Western countries, we ask whether local-born children from a wide range of immigrant groups show patterns of female advantage in education that are similar to those prevalent in their host Western societies. We consider five outcomes throughout the educational career: test scores or grades at age 15, continuation after compulsory schooling, choice of academic track in upper-secondary education, completion of upper secondary, and completion of tertiary education. Despite great variation in gender gaps in education in immigrants' origin countries (with advantages for males in many cases), we find that the female advantage in education observed among the majority population is usually present among second-generation immigrants. We interpret these findings in light of ideas about gender role socialization and immigrant selectivity.

This paper examines the dynamic effect of globalization at the disaggregated level of sectoral export diversification and manufacturing specialization on income inequality using a panel data set of 52 Asian and Western countries from 1988 to 2014. The paper uses dynamic panel data models applying the System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimations that provide more accurate and better results than those obtained with static panel data models. The results suggest that there is no statistically significant relationship between manufacturing specialization and inequality while sectoral export diversification has been the driving force of inequality. For sub-groups of countries, higher sectoral export diversification increases inequality and higher manufacturing specialization decreases inequality in high-income Asian countries and European Union (EU) member states. Moreover, the study finds insignificant effects in low-income Asian countries and Anglo-Saxon countries.

There appear to be growing concerns among experts, NGOs, and members of the public about the welfare of companion dogs. With farm and laboratory animals, legislative initiatives have long been considered valuable tools in the management of welfare whereas the use of legislation to protect companion animal welfare has received less attention. We aim to rectify this by comparing legislation with an impact on the welfare of companion dogs in eleven Western jurisdictions. The comparison also provides a basis for further consideration of regulatory initiatives. We identify the rules applying in the jurisdictions and classify them in accordance with the following categories: breeding of dogs with risks to the health of the offspring, reproductive limitations, sales, surgical interventions, day‐to‐day handling, and killing. We demonstrate that, overall, there is significant variation across the jurisdictions. However, the degree of variation depends on the specific category. Whereas most countries, with the USA being a notable exception, regulate sales of dogs and ban surgical interventions, there is considerable variation in the regulation of day‐to‐day handling and the killing of dogs. Furthermore, different jurisdictions employ different regulatory tools to ensure the desired level of welfare for companion dogs. Overall, there appears to be real potential for dia-logue and mutual inspiration.

Background In the Caribbean, life expectancy in politically independent territories has increasingly diverged from that of territories that remained affiliated to their former colonizers. Because these affiliated territories differ in degree of political independence, they are not all governed in the same way. We assessed whether differences in life expectancy trends between Caribbean dependencies and their Western administrators were related to their degree of political independence, and which causes of death contributed to divergence or convergence in life expectancy. Methods Analysis of age-standardized death rates and decomposition of life expectancy differences between France, the Netherlands, UK, USA and their Caribbean dependencies by age and cause-of-death during the period 1980–2014. Results Life expectancy differences between Western countries and their dependencies have generally increased for men and narrowed for women, but trends have been much more favorable in the French- than in the Dutch-administered territories. The strongest contributions to widening gaps in life expectancy between Western countries and their dependencies were from mortality from cardiovascular diseases (ischemic heart disease) and external causes (homicide and traffic accidents). Conclusion Dependencies with a stronger political affiliation to a Western country experienced more favorable life expectancy developments than dependencies that had more autonomy during the 1980–2014 period. The underlying mortality differences with Western countries are largely comparable among Caribbean territories but differ in magnitude, most notably for cardiovascular disease and external causes. This suggests that increases in a territory's political autonomy impairs the diffusion of new knowledge and techniques, and/or reduces government's effectiveness in implementing policies.

Background: In the Caribbean, life expectancy in politically independent territories has increasingly diverged from that of territories that remained affiliated to their former colonizers. Because these affiliated territories differ in degree of political independence, they are not all governed in the same way. We assessed whether differences in life expectancy trends between Caribbean dependencies and their Western administrators were related to their degree of political independence, and which causes of death contributed to divergence or convergence in life expectancy. Methods: Analysis of age-standardized death rates and decomposition of life expectancy differences between France, the Netherlands, UK, USA and their Caribbean dependencies by age and cause-of-death during the period 1980-2014. Results: Life expectancy differences between Western countries and their dependencies have generally increased for men and narrowed for women, but trends have been much more favorable in the French- than in the Dutch-administered territories. The strongest contributions to widening gaps in life expectancy between Western countries and their dependencies were from mortality from cardiovascular diseases (ischemic heart disease) and external causes (homicide and traffic accidents). Conclusion: Dependencies with a stronger political affiliation to a Western country experienced more favorable life expectancy developments than dependencies that had more autonomy during the 1980-2014 period. The underlying mortality differences with Western countries are largely comparable among Caribbean territories but differ in magnitude, most notably for cardiovascular disease and external causes. This suggests that increases in a territory's political autonomy impairs the diffusion of new knowledge and techniques, and/or reduces government's effectiveness in implementing policies.

Since the heyday of cleavage voting in the 1960s and 1970s, the majority of studies presents evidence of a decline in cleavage voting – caused by either structural or behavioural dealignment. Structural dealignment denotes changes in group size responsible for a decrease in cleavage voting, whereas behavioural dealignment concerns weakening party–voter links over time. A third phenomenon posited in this article is the collective voting abstention of certain (social) groups, here referred to as 'political dealignment', which results in a new type of division of voting versus abstention. The purpose of this article is to examine the three underlying mechanisms for the decline in social class and religious cleavage voting across four Western countries (Great Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States) over the last 40–60 years using longitudinal post‐election data. The results prove a strong presence of political dealignment and increasing turnout gaps regarding both the class and religious cleavage. Furthermore, whenever a decline in cleavage voting is present, it is mainly caused by changes in the social groups' behaviour and less by changing social structures in a country.

This paper discusses key findings arising from the scientific programme of COST Action IS1409, entitled Gender and Health Impacts of Policies Extended Working Life in Western Countries. The Action is an international network established to identify key issues related to extended working life from gender and health perspectives, to provide a comparative policy analysis across 32 countries and to identify data-bases and appropriate policy proposals. The issue of extending working life is a topical policy issue of pressing concern, given that populations are ageing, there is a concern about sustaining public pension costs and many people are living longer healthier lives. This paper interrogates the wisdom of adopting these typically undifferentiated policies from a gendered political economy of ageing perspective, drawing on findings from a cross-national review of policies in 16 countries (Phase 1 of the Action's policy review) focusing on workers in physically-demanding occupations and those with caring responsibilities.