IRCPPS in the Links: Linking Human Rights and Development Assisstance

via Dart-Throwing Chimp:

...The big idea behind the MCC was to give poor countries stronger incentive to improve their economic and political governance by making a big, new pot of aid funding available, but making access to that pot conditional on countries’ performance on a basket of governance indicators. In theory, it’s like setting up a smoothie bar  in a high-school cafeteria and then telling the hungry students they’ll get free smoothies, but only if they’ve done well enough on their report cards. If they’re hungry enough (and like smoothies enough), anticipation of that reward should encourage them to improve their schoolwork, and everyone ends up better off for it....

IRCPPS in the Links: Analyzing Mexican Gang Violence as Insurgency

via the Monkey Cage:

...The violence in Mexico may not be a classic insurgency , but it is certainly being fought like one.  Like other insurgencies, the violence in Mexico – especially the brutal killings of government officials and civilians – is being used to intimidate local populations and control territory.  The Mexican government provides health, education and other public services to most citizens and provides order and security in the vast majority of towns and cities, including Mexico City.  But the insurgents control about 7 percent of the country, including important drug distribution routes, and they have used violence to do so....

Call for Papers: Special Issue on “Global Justice & Practice-Dependence” in Raisons Politiques (in English)

via Public Reason:

Deadline for submissions: April 1^st, 2012
Tentative publication date: Winter 2012

Raisons Politiques is a well-established journal of political thought currently building an international reputation with the support of Sciences Po, the French renowned research institute for social sciences. The journal endeavors to provide a forum where scholars from various backgrounds and traditions can fruitfully engage with contemporary social and political issues. By contrast with publications intended to a particular discipline, Raisons Politiques adopts a thematic approach and welcome contributions from all branches of social sciences. It encourages submissions in English or French, from both established academics and aspiring members of the scientific community.

Call for Papers: Southwest Council of Latin American Studies Conference

via ISA:

The Southwest Council of Latin American Studies (SCOLAS) is now accepting panel and paper proposals for the March 8-10 Conference in Miami. Proposals from all disciplines are encouraged, including but not limited to: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art History, Cultural Studies, Environmental Studies, Ethnomusicology, Film Studies, Gender Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, Political Science, and Sociology. Panels should consist of three presenters and a chair/commentator. Individual paper proposals are also welcome. Papers can be in either English or Spanish. Please provide names, professional affiliations, email addresses, and a one paragraph abstract of the paper or panel you propose. The deadline for proposal applications is December 15, 2011. Please see the conference WEBSITE for more information.

IRCPPS in the Links: More on Framing and Support for Government Programs

via the Monkey Cage:

...The hidden quality of social welfare benefits in the tax code means that many people are largely unaware of them, and have no idea of their overall impact. How could these policies of the submerged state be revealed, and what difference would it make? Matt Guardino and I created a web-based experiment to test the impact of providing people with small amounts of basic information about such policies. We found that it had two basic effects: (1) people who expressed no opinion on such policies in the absence of information became significantly more likely to do so after receiving information; (2) after the provision of information, people adopted views that made sense given their political values and their interests, as defined by income. Overall, opposition grew to the policies that aid predominantly high income people, while support grew for policies that aid low income people....

IRCPPS in the Links: The Super-Committee and Side-Payments

via the Monkey Cage:

...In the end, rather than taking power away from party leaders, the SC process puts them at the center of negotiations from beginning to end, and makes their support an essential component of any successful deal. Given policy deadlock between the House and Senate, leaders’ deployment of side payments is critical for success. Moreover, party leaders can provide important political cover to their caucuses. Leader support of an SC proposal gives their backbenchers a ready-made response to constituent criticisms of a yea vote – in Fenno’s terms, an explanation of Washington activity. It is not surprising, then, that as negotiations on the SC proceed, committee members from both parties are frequently consulting party leaders on both sides of the aisle – these leaders know as well as anyone which deals might be enactable, and control the political and policy resources needed to secure these outcomes....

IRCPPS in the Links: Separation of Powers and the Executive

via the Monkey Cage:

.... A 2002 law allows Americans born in Jerusalem to place on their passports, as the place of their birth, “Israel.”  President George W. Bush objected at the time, in one of his many signing statements, that this bound the executive branch to a diplomatic position it did not hold (U.S. policy is neutral on the provenance of Jerusalem) and should be under no obligation to assert. President Obama has affirmed this position. And so Menachem Zivotovsky (or rather his parents – Menachem was born in 2002) has now sued to uphold the plain text of the statute....

IRCPPS in the Links: Is Mandatory Voting a Polarization Panacea?

via the Monkey Cage:

...the central effect of political campaigns—one identified in over 60 years of research—is to solidify and reinforce the existing social identities as well as partisan, ideological, or policy views of voters.  That is, campaigns tend to bring potentially wayward voters back “in the fold.”  This only tends to polarize voters.  Indeed, it can happen even in the space of a single 30-second ad.  If, under a mandatory voting system, candidates no longer have to worry about mobilizing voters to turn out and can concentrate on persuading voters to support them, I suspect that we would see this same effect, but magnified over the entire electorate.  So it’s entirely possible that mandatory voting may even increase polarization...

IRCPPS in the Links: Does Increased Education Enhance Women's Rights?

Chris Blattman looks at some evidence from Kenya:

...the program increased objective political knowledge, and reduced both acceptance of political authorities and satisfaction with politics. However, in our Kenyan context, this rejection of the status quo did not translate into greater perceived political efficacy, community participation or voting intentions. Instead, the program increased the perceived legitimacy of political violence...

IRCPPS in the Links: How Support For Government Programs Varies When Framed as "Tax Breaks" vs. "Grants"

via the Monkey Cage:

We presented survey respondents with a description of a federal housing program, after which they were asked to rate their approval of the program on a seven-point scale.  About half of respondents received a description of the real-life Home Mortgage Interest Deduction:

Announcement: ISA Officer Elections

via ISA:

It is time to elect new officers for ISA, including the President and three Vice Presidents. We are sending a ballot to all ISA members by e-mail today for the officer election for the term 2013-2014. The election is ongoing and will conclude on December 5, 2011. We have archived the report of the Nominating Committee HERE. Thank you to all the candidates for agreeing to run for office and contribute their time to ISA.

Call for Applicants: Fullbright Canada Scholarship

via ISA:

Are you interested in conducting research in Canada-U.S. relations in the United States? Fulbright Canada offers unique opportunities to promising and prominent Canadian scholars, as well as experienced professionals, to conduct research, develop new professional networks, guest lecture and/or teach at select American universities and research centers. The holder of the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair spends up to five months in residence at the Canada Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars conducting research in the field of Canada-U.S. relations. Applications should be received by November 15, 2011. Please see the FULBRIGHT CANADA website and select Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for more information.

IRCPPS in the Links: More on Money in Elections

Chris Blattman notes a paper by Leonard Wantchekon that indicates that spending money isn't always the most effective way to gain votes:

...The experiment took place during the March 2011 elections in Benin and involved 150 randomly selected villages. The treatment group had town hall meetings where voters deliberated over their candidate’s electoral platforms with no cash distribution. The control group had the standard campaign, i.e. one-way communication of the candidate’s platform by himself or his local broker, followed (most of the time) by cash distribution. 

We find that the treatment has a positive effect on turnout. In addition, using village level election returns, we find no significant difference in electoral support for the experimental candidate between treatment and control villages. 

…the positive treatment effect is driven in large part by active information sharing by those who attended the meetings...

IRCPPS in the Links: Does Money Affect the Outcomes of US Elections?

The Monkey Cage tackles the question:

...Candidates who raise a lot of money tend to do better, and it’s more likely than not that at least part of this relationship is due to money paying for things like ads and canvassers that help candidates win over new voters and/or turn out their bases. High-quality challengers may be deterred by large war chests, but other factors such as local political conditions and incumbent quality are more important: in most cases, a much-despised incumbent with a lot of money is in a worse position than a much-liked incumbent with very little money...

Call for Papers: Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Boundaries

via ISA:

The program chairs invite papers for the ASEN 2012 Conference on the theme: Nationalism, Ethnicity and Boundaries. The conference takes place 27-29th March, 2012 at the London School of Economics. Abstracts should be submitted ONLINE no later than November 18, 2011. Please see the conference WEBSITE for more information.

IRCPPS in the Links: Post-Election Report - Kyrgyzstan

The Monkey Cage talks Almazbek Atambayev:

...Atambayev becomes the country’s fourth president, following Askar Akaev (1990-2005, ousted during the so-called Tulip Revolution), Kurmanbek Bakiev (2005-2010, whose rule also ended abruptly) and Roza Otunbaeva, who presided over the launch of a new constitution, new parliamentary elections in October 2010, but also a dramatic and bloody descent into chaos in June 2010 as the government witnessed powerless clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the southern city of Osh, which left several hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands displaced...