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Sample of Completed Research
The Restructuring of International Security in the Gulf (2004)Lenore Martin International security in the Gulf today faces three major challenges: the aftermath of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the possible development of a nuclear weapons capability by Iran, and serious opposition to the Saudi regime from radical Islamists. The dynamic interaction of these domestic and international political situations could very likely transform the international politics of the Gulf. In this paper I propose to examine the three critical challenges roiling the Gulf and analyze their potential impact on the region's international political system. Because Gulf oil plays such an important role in U.S national security, I will conclude by posing policy options for the United States in this fluid security environment.
Opening the Door: Women Leaders and Constitution Building in Iraq and Afghanistan (2004)Pippa Norris Recent decades have witnessed growing demands for the inclusion and empowerment of women leaders as elected representatives. Women representatives have made important strides in some nations, but progress worldwide has proved sluggish. A global comparison shows that on average women are one-sixth of all members of the lower houses of parliament today (16.6 percent), a proportion that has risen by less than five percentage points during the last two decades. A question arising from this situation is whether fast-track strategies are effective in accelerating the pace of change? These strategies include the use of reserved seats, which mandates offices for women members of parliament, statutory gender quotas that regulate the proportion of women candidates nominated by all parties, and voluntary gender quotas, which are adopted in rule books that govern nomination processes within specific parties. These reforms have been adopted and implemented for local and national office in many places during recent decades, but their effects are by no means straightforward. In some cases, formal rule changes appear to generate a rapid and immediate stepped shift in the number of women in office, whereas elsewhere, similar policies seem to produce a minimal difference to the outcome. Moreover, even where more women attain legislative office through fast-track strategies, achieving greater descriptive representation in parliaments, this gain should not necessarily be equated automatically with women's substantive empowerment in decision-making processes. The rapid diffusion of fast-track strategies since the early 1990s raises questions about the overall trends in the proportion of women leaders in parliaments and governments. What types of fasttrack strategies are available? Where and why have these policies been adopted - and in some cases abandoned? And what can we learn about the conditions that lead to the adoption of strategies designed to ratchet up the number of women in elected office? The first section of this chapter compares the detailed case studies of Iraq (illustrating the implementation of statutory gender quotas) and Afghanistan (illustrating the use of reserved seats). These qualitative cases exemplify the process of adopting two alternative fasttrack strategies in recent postconflict constitutional settlements. The second section considers the underlying conditions leading to the effectiveness of these arrangements, and the third summarizes the conclusions. The broader lessons of the comparison are that mechanisms aiming to bring women into representative office have now spread throughout the world, but policies are not all equally effective. The choice of mechanism is conditioned by the broader context, including the country's prior level of democracy, the degree of constitutional rigidity, the type of electoral system, global and regional patterns of diffusion, the existence of positive action policies for minority communities, and the levels of party institutionalization. No single policy is optimal in all contexts, and considerable care is needed to craft and implement the measures that will work best to promote the involvement of women in national decision-making processes. Overall, the study concludes that new constitutions in postconflict peace settlements represent a critical opportunity to secure the voices of women leaders in the reconstruction of a society.
Do Consumers React to the Shape of Supply? Water demand under heterogeneous price structures (2005)Robert Stavins Urban water pricing provides an opportunity to examine whether consumers react to the shape of supply functions. We carry out an empirical analysis of the influence of price and price structure on residential water demand, using the most price-diverse, detailed, household-level water demand data yet available for this purpose. We adapt the Hausman model of labor supply under progressive income taxation to estimate water demand under non-linear prices. Ours is the first analysis to address both the simultaneous determination of marginal price and water demand under block pricing and the possibility of endogenous price structures in the cross section. In order to examine the possibility that consumers facing block prices are more price-responsive, all else equal, we test for price elasticity differences across price structures. We find that households facing block prices are more sensitive to price increases than households facing uniform marginal prices. Tests for endogenous price structures cannot rule out a behavioral response to the shape of supply, but suggest that observed differences in price elasticity under supply curves of varying shapes may result, in part, from underlying heterogeneity among utility service areas.
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