Existing theories of individual trade preferences do not satisfactorily explain how security conc... more Existing theories of individual trade preferences do not satisfactorily explain how security concerns should affect American support for the US–China trade war that began in 2018. Although existing theories of public attitudes toward international trade—economic self-interest, sociotropism, partisanship, reciprocity, and xenophobia—all help to explain initial support for the trade war, these hypotheses do not adequately explain citizen attitudes in the context of an increasingly adversarial and securitized bilateral US–China relationship. In particular, they do not address how rising security tensions affect trade preferences. Using nationally representative original survey data (n = 1,016) and a nonrepresentative survey with an embedded experiment (n = 1,015), this article argues that securitization of the bilateral economic relationship has spurred threat perceptions and given rise to a Cold War narrative that has in turn caused a substantial share of Americans to become less conc...
Romania’s transformation has been ‘a tale of two Romania’s’, one urban, dynamic, and integrated w... more Romania’s transformation has been ‘a tale of two Romania’s’, one urban, dynamic, and integrated with the EU; the other rural, poor, and isolated. The reforms spurred by EU accession boosted productivity and integrated Romania into the EU economic space. GDP per capita rose from 30 percent of the EU average in 1995 to 59 percent in 2016. Today, more than 70 percent of the country’s exports go to the EU, and their technological complexity is increasing rapidly. Yet Romania remains the country in the EU with by far the largest share of poor people, with more than a quarter of the population living on less than $ 5.50 a day (2011 purchasing power parity). There are widening disparities in economic opportunity and poverty, across regions and between urban and rural areas. While Bucharest has exceeded the EU average income per capita, and many secondary cities are becoming hubs of prosperity and innovation, Romania remains one of the least urbanized countries in the EU. Access to public s...
Selecting provincial leaders is a fraught task for authoritarian regimes. Although central author... more Selecting provincial leaders is a fraught task for authoritarian regimes. Although central authorities more readily trust provincial leaders with close ties to the center, such loyalists may lack the local knowledge and connections necessary to govern adeptly. Using an original data set on the tenures and backgrounds of China’s provincial party standing committee members, this article explores how Beijing fine-tunes provincial leadership teams to resolve this dilemma. The analysis challenges the conventional wisdom that Beijing exerts its tightest personnel control in strategically important provinces. It shows that Beijing tolerates significant embeddedness of local leadership in provinces with complex governance challenges even when these provinces are important. Moreover, it finds that when the center reasserts control through appointments of loyalist personnel during times of crisis, it does so in a balanced manner. These calibrated personnel strategies highlight the extent to w...
Existing theories of individual trade preferences do not satisfactorily explain how security conc... more Existing theories of individual trade preferences do not satisfactorily explain how security concerns should affect American support for the US–China trade war that began in 2018. Although existing theories of public attitudes toward international trade—economic self-interest, sociotropism, partisanship, reciprocity, and xenophobia—all help to explain initial support for the trade war, these hypotheses do not adequately explain citizen attitudes in the context of an increasingly adversarial and securitized bilateral US–China relationship. In particular, they do not address how rising security tensions affect trade preferences. Using nationally representative original survey data (n = 1,016) and a nonrepresentative survey with an embedded experiment (n = 1,015), this article argues that securitization of the bilateral economic relationship has spurred threat perceptions and given rise to a Cold War narrative that has in turn caused a substantial share of Americans to become less conc...
Romania’s transformation has been ‘a tale of two Romania’s’, one urban, dynamic, and integrated w... more Romania’s transformation has been ‘a tale of two Romania’s’, one urban, dynamic, and integrated with the EU; the other rural, poor, and isolated. The reforms spurred by EU accession boosted productivity and integrated Romania into the EU economic space. GDP per capita rose from 30 percent of the EU average in 1995 to 59 percent in 2016. Today, more than 70 percent of the country’s exports go to the EU, and their technological complexity is increasing rapidly. Yet Romania remains the country in the EU with by far the largest share of poor people, with more than a quarter of the population living on less than $ 5.50 a day (2011 purchasing power parity). There are widening disparities in economic opportunity and poverty, across regions and between urban and rural areas. While Bucharest has exceeded the EU average income per capita, and many secondary cities are becoming hubs of prosperity and innovation, Romania remains one of the least urbanized countries in the EU. Access to public s...
Selecting provincial leaders is a fraught task for authoritarian regimes. Although central author... more Selecting provincial leaders is a fraught task for authoritarian regimes. Although central authorities more readily trust provincial leaders with close ties to the center, such loyalists may lack the local knowledge and connections necessary to govern adeptly. Using an original data set on the tenures and backgrounds of China’s provincial party standing committee members, this article explores how Beijing fine-tunes provincial leadership teams to resolve this dilemma. The analysis challenges the conventional wisdom that Beijing exerts its tightest personnel control in strategically important provinces. It shows that Beijing tolerates significant embeddedness of local leadership in provinces with complex governance challenges even when these provinces are important. Moreover, it finds that when the center reasserts control through appointments of loyalist personnel during times of crisis, it does so in a balanced manner. These calibrated personnel strategies highlight the extent to w...
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