An understanding of the causes of political repression has continually eluded researchers for the past decade. We argue that much of this can be tied to the theoretical specifications of the models employed. We developed a decision-theoretic model that predicts the level of repression used by governments to suppress political opposition. We believe that analysis of repression needs to include t...

BACKGROUND Despite decades of evidence gathering and calls for action, few countries have systematically attenuated health inequities (HI) through action on the social determinants of health (SDH). This is at least partly because doing so presents a significant political and policy challenge. This paper explores this challenge through a review of the empirical literature, asking: what factors h...

BACKGROUND There is increasing recognition that the development of evidence-informed health policy is not only a technical problem of knowledge exchange or translation, but also a political challenge. Yet, while political scientists have long considered the nature of political systems, the role of institutional structures, and the political contestation of policy issues as central to understand...

The expression “for love or money” is generally used to indicate the two extremes, which cover between them the entire spectrum. “I wouldn’t do that for love or money” means I wouldn’t do that in exchange for anything. It can be interesting, however, to read that or as marking not an opposition but a common function that love and money share, somewhat like the or in Spinoza’s famous phrase “deu...

Challenge/January–February 2009 5 Challenge, vol. 52, no. 1, January/February 2009, pp. 5–26. © 2009 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 0577–5132 / 2009 $9.50 + 0.00. DOI: 10.2753/0577–5132520101 JAMES CROTTY is Professor Emeritus of economics and Sheridan Scholar at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. GERALD EPSTEIN is professor of economics and codirector of the Political Scien...

OBJECTIVES To examine what factors influence the agenda-setting process and level of political priority afforded to micronutrient deficiencies (MNDs). DESIGN Qualitative case study employing process tracing, informed by primary data collected from semistructured interviews with policymakers. SETTING Dakar, Senegal. RESULTS Several facilitating and impeding factors affecting the level of p...

Challenging our fundamental conception of transformation as the antithesis of continuity, this chapter contends that in the case of the Russian youth movement Nashi, continuity and transformation have enjoyed a symbiotic, albeit restricted, relationship. Despite Nashi's resolute objective of securing the incumbent regime and maintaining political stability in the face of the perceived 'orange' ...

Purpose To offer greater insight in the role of blogs in the creation of a more transparent news media system and a more democratic political reality. Design/methodology/approach Framing theory is employed as a conceptual tool to re-interpret existing evidence of the performance of news blogs during situations of political conflict and war. A theoretical analysis is developed setting out the pr...

The purpose of this study was to understand the cognitive processes and procedures employed by an expert and a novice engineer in a realistic radio frequency (RF) systems engineering design challenge by using verbal protocol analysis (VPA). The engineering design challenge encompassed engineering, political, and social constraints. The audio data were then transcribed, segmented, and coded for ...

This paper outlines an organization theory of political integration among nationstates. If we assume there are existing shared institutions, political integration is here seen to take place to the extent that lines of conflict coinciding with national borders are complemented with cleavages cutting across such borders so that a multidimensional political space can be observed. I ask what differ...