What are the determinants of democratization? Do the factors that move countries toward democracy also help them refrain from backsliding toward autocracy? This book attempts to answer these ...questions through a combination of a statistical analysis of social, economic, and international determinants of regime change in 165 countries around the world in 1972–2006, and case study work on nine episodes of democratization occurring in Argentina, Bolivia, Hungary, Nepal, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Turkey, and Uruguay. The findings suggest that democracy is promoted by long-term structural forces such as economic prosperity, but also by peaceful popular uprisings and the institutional setup of authoritarian regimes. In the short-run, however, elite actors may play a key role, particularly through the importance of intra-regime splits. Jan Teorell argues that these results have important repercussions both for current theories of democratization and for the international community's effort in developing policies for democracy promotion.
In Toppling Foreign Governments, Melissa Willard-Foster argues that as long as domestic opposition drives leaders to resist the demands of stronger states, the strong are likely to opt for regime ...change, seeing it as more cost effective than negotiations.
Different propulsion mechanisms have been suggested for describing the motion of a variety of chemical micromotors, which have attracted great attention in the last decades due to their high ...efficiency and thrust force, enabling several applications in the fields of environmental remediation and biomedicine. Bubble‐recoil based motion, in particular, has been modeled by three different phenomena: capillary forces, bubble growth, and bubble expulsion. However, these models have been suggested independently based on a single influencing factor (i.e., viscosity), limiting the understanding of the overall micromotor performance. Therefore, the combined effect of medium viscosity, surface tension, and fuel concentration is analyzed on the micromotor swimming ability, and the dominant propulsion mechanisms that describe its motion more accurately are identified. Using statistically relevant experimental data, a holistic theoretical model is proposed for bubble‐propelled tubular catalytic micromotors that includes all three above‐mentioned phenomena and provides deeper insights into their propulsion physics toward optimized geometries and experimental conditions.
A new holistic theoretical model implying the switching and coexistence of propulsion mechanisms for conical catalytic micromotors is proposed. The model combines the already reported mechanisms based on capillary forces, bubble growth, and bubble expulsion phenomena in one single approach, allowing for an adequate description of the experimentally detected micromotor dynamics.
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In politics, ideas matter. They provide the foundation for economic policymaking, which in turn shapes what is possible in domestic and international politics. Yet until now, little attention has ...been paid to how these ideas are produced and disseminated, and how this process varies between countries.The National Origins of Policy Ideasprovides the first comparative analysis of how "knowledge regimes"-communities of policy research organizations like think tanks, political party foundations, ad hoc commissions, and state research offices, and the institutions that govern them-generate ideas and communicate them to policymakers.
John Campbell and Ove Pedersen examine how knowledge regimes are organized, operate, and have changed over the last thirty years in the United States, France, Germany, and Denmark. They show how there are persistent national differences in how policy ideas are produced. Some countries do so in contentious, politically partisan ways, while others are cooperative and consensus oriented. They find that while knowledge regimes have adopted some common practices since the 1970s, tendencies toward convergence have been limited and outcomes have been heavily shaped by national contexts.
Drawing on extensive interviews with top officials at leading policy research organizations, this book demonstrates why knowledge regimes are as important to capitalism as the state and the firm, and sheds new light on debates about the effects of globalization, the rise of neoliberalism, and the orientation of comparative political economy in political science and sociology.
In Catastrophic Success, Alexander B. Downes compiles all instances of regime change around the world over the past two centuries. Drawing on this impressive data set, Downes shows that regime change ...increases the likelihood of civil war and violent leader removal in target states and fails to reduce the probability of conflict between intervening states and their targets. As Downes demonstrates, when a state confronts an obstinate or dangerous adversary, the lure of toppling its government and establishing a friendly administration is strong. The historical record, however, shows that foreign- imposed regime change is, in the long term, neither cheap, easy, nor consistently successful. The strategic impulse to forcibly oust antagonistic or non-compliant regimes overlooks two key facts. First, the act of overthrowing a foreign government sometimes causes its military to disintegrate, sending thousands of armed men into the countryside where they often wage an insurgency against the intervener. Second, externally-imposed leaders face a domestic audience in addition to an external one, and the two typically want different things. These divergent preferences place imposed leaders in a quandary: taking actions that please one invariably alienates the other. Regime change thus drives a wedge between external patrons and their domestic protégés or between protégés and their people. Catastrophic Success provides sober counsel for leaders and diplomats. Regime change may appear an expeditious solution, but states are usually better off relying on other tools of influence, such as diplomacy. Regime change, Downes urges, should be reserved for exceptional cases. Interveners must recognize that, absent a rare set of promising preconditions, regime change often instigates a new period of uncertainty and conflict that impedes their interests from being realized.
States seldom resort to war to overthrow their adversaries. They are more likely to attempt to covertly change the opposing regime, by assassinating a foreign leader, sponsoring a coup d'état, ...meddling in a democratic election, or secretly aiding foreign dissident groups.
InCovert Regime Change, Lindsey A. O'Rourke shows us how states really act when trying to overthrow another state. She argues that conventional focus on overt cases misses the basic causes of regime change. O'Rourke provides substantive evidence of types of security interests that drive states to intervene. Offensive operations aim to overthrow a current military rival or break up a rival alliance. Preventive operations seek to stop a state from taking certain actions, such as joining a rival alliance, that may make them a future security threat. Hegemonic operations try to maintain a hierarchical relationship between the intervening state and the target government. Despite the prevalence of covert attempts at regime change, most operations fail to remain covert and spark blowback in unanticipated ways.
Covert Regime Changeassembles an original dataset of all American regime change operations during the Cold War. This fund of information shows the United States was ten times more likely to try covert rather than overt regime change during the Cold War. Her dataset allows O'Rourke to address three foundational questions: What motivates states to attempt foreign regime change? Why do states prefer to conduct these operations covertly rather than overtly? How successful are such missions in achieving their foreign policy goals?
Some blame the violence and unrest in the Muslim world on Islam itself, arguing that the religion and its history is inherently bloody. Others blame the United States, arguing that American attempts ...to spread democracy by force have destabilized the region, and that these efforts are somehow radical or unique. Challenging these views, The Clash of Ideas in World Politics reveals how the Muslim world is in the throes of an ideological struggle that extends far beyond the Middle East, and how struggles like it have been a recurring feature of international relations since the dawn of the modern European state.
This open access short reader offers a systematic overview of the scholarly debate on the experiences of migrant domestic workers at a global level, in the past as well as in present time. It tackles ...the nexus between migration and domestic work with a multi-layered approach. The book looks into the issue of (paid) domestic work in migratory contexts by investigating the feminization of migration, thereby considering the larger framework within which this specific phenomenon takes place. The author explains notions such as the “international division of reproductive labor” or “global care chains” which emphasize the inequality in the way care and domestic tasks are distributed today between middle-class women in receiving nations and migrant domestic workers. Moreover, the book shows how women migrating to work in the domestic work and private care sector are facing a complex landscape of migration and labor regulations that are extremely difficult to navigate. At the same time, this issue also addresses employers’ households who cannot find appropriate or affordable care among declining welfare states and national workers reluctant to take the job, whilst legal regulations make difficult to hire a domestic worker who is a third country national. As such this book offers an interesting read to academics, policy makers and all those working in the field.
The co-contamination of arsenic (As) and cadmium (Cd) in rice fields presents a global imperative for resolution. However, understanding the complex microbially driven geochemical processes and ...network connectivity crucial for As and Cd bioavailability under the frequent redox transitions in rice fields remains limited. Here, we conducted a series of microcosm experiments, using flooding and drainage, alongside fertilization treatments to emulate different redox environment in paddy soils. Soil As significantly reduced in drained conditions following applications of biochar or calcium-magnesium-phosphate (CMP) fertilizers by 26.3 % and 31.2 %, respectively, with concurrent decreases in Cd levels. Utilizing geochemical models, we identified the primary redox cycles dynamically altering during flooding (Fe and S cycles) and drainage (Fe, Mn, and N cycles). PLS-SEM elucidated 76 % and 61 % of the variation in Cd and As through Mn and N cycles. Functional genes implicated in multi-element cycles were analyzed, revealing a significantly higher abundance of assimilatory N reduction genes (nasA, nirA/B, narB) in drained soil, whereas an increase in ammonia-oxidizing genes (amoA/B) and a decrease in nitrate reduction to ammonium genes were observed after CMP fertilizer application. Biochar application led to significant enrichment of the substrate-binding protein of the Mn transport gene (mntC). Moreover, Fe transport genes were enriched after biochar or CMP application compared to drained soils. Among 40 high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), microbial predictors associated with low Cd and As contents across different treatments were examined. Bradyrhizobacea harbored abundant Mn and FeIII transport genes, while Nitrososphaeraceae carried nitrification-related genes. Two MAGs affiliated with Caulobacteraceae, carrying diverse Fe transport genes, were enriched in biochar-applied soils. Therefore, applying CMP fertilizer or biochar in aerobic rice fields can synergistically reduce the bioavailability of Cd and As by specifically enhancing the circulation of essential elements.
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●Applying biochar or CMP fertilizer in aerobic soil mitigate Cd and As simultaneously.●Moisture or fertilizer affects the onset conditions of key element redox cycles.●In drained soil, Fe, Mn, N redox are key cycles to reduce Cd and As bioavailability.●The nitrification and Mn transport gene abundance increase in aerobic soils.●Functional gene abundance was regulated by microbial community composition.
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The recent observation of superconductivity in Formula: see text has raised fundamental questions about the hierarchy of the underlying electronic structure. Calculations suggest that this system ...falls in the Mott-Hubbard regime, rather than the charge-transfer configuration of other nickel oxides and the superconducting cuprates. Here, we use state-of-the-art, locally resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy to directly probe the Mott-Hubbard character of Formula: see text Upon doping, we observe emergent hybridization reminiscent of the Zhang-Rice singlet via the oxygen-projected states, modification of the Nd 5d states, and the systematic evolution of Ni 3d hybridization and filling. These experimental data provide direct evidence for the multiband electronic structure of the superconducting infinite-layer nickelates, particularly via the effects of hole doping on not only the oxygen but also nickel and rare-earth bands.
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