Social Sciences

Abstract: Food insecurity and undernourishment remain persistent challenges in developing countries, particularly under conditions of economic volatility, income inequality, food price instability, and increasing pressure on food systems. This study examines the macroeconomic and structural determinants of undernourishment in developing countries within the broader framework of sustainable food systems. The analysis focuses on GDP per capita, agricultural value added, and inflation, while urbanization and trade openness are included as control variables. An unbalanced panel dataset covering 72 developing countries over the period 2010–2023 is employed. Fixed effects and random effects panel models are estimated to assess the robustness of the empirical relationships. The Hausman test does not reject the random effects specification, suggesting that the random effects estimator is statistically acceptable. Nevertheless, fixed effects results are also reported to account for unobserved country- and time-specific heterogeneity. The empirical findings show that GDP per capita has a negative and statistically significant effect on undernourishment across both model specifications, indicating that higher income levels are associated with improved food access and better nutritional outcomes. Inflation has a positive and statistically significant effect, suggesting that rising prices may weaken household purchasing power and increase undernourishment. Agricultural value added is positive but statistically insignificant, implying that agricultural expansion alone may not be sufficient to reduce undernourishment unless supported by improvements in productivity, distribution, food access, and institutional efficiency. Urbanization and trade openness generally show negative associations with undernourishment, although their statistical significance varies across model specifications. From a sustainability perspective, reducing undernourishment requires more than aggregate income growth or agricultural expansion. Policies should strengthen resilient food systems, improve agricultural productivity, enhance social protection mechanisms, stabilize food prices, and ensure equitable access to affordable and nutritious food. This study contributes to the literature by providing recent panel-based evidence on the joint role of income, agricultural structure, inflation, urbanization, and trade openness in explaining undernourishment, and by offering policy-relevant insights for designing sustainable and inclusive food systems in developing countries.

Abstract: Public pensions and benefits are a cornerstone for safeguarding citizens’ standard of living. This study focuses on the determinants of old-age pensions as well as disability pensions and benefits. The data is provided by the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), and covers people aged 50 to 89 years old for the period 2015 to 2022 in 12 European countries. The relationship between the determinants and old-age as well as disability pensions is estimated using Multi-effects and Random-Effects Tobit estimators with a minimum of 106,240 observations of minimum 47,832 respondents. The results indicate that both old-age and disability pensions appear to be limited complementary across countries. Old-age pensions are lower at lower self-reported health levels, while disability pensions and benefits appear to be higher. Moreover, the public payment schemes appear to account for the remaining available income of the beneficiary, implying that a given fairness is incorporated in the payment policies. Remarkably, both payments reveal the presence of a pension gender gap, potentially arising from a preceding wage gap. Overall, the study illustrates on a high level the fair allocation of available means to old-age as well as disability pensions across a substantial part of Europe.

Abstract: This article explores Eco-Civic Communities (ECCs) as a potential framework for integrating ecological governance with democratic participation across multiple scales of political organization. Drawing on scholarship in ecological democracy, deliberative governance, polycentric institutional theory, civic ecology, and multilevel governance, the article examines how localized participatory structures may contribute to broader systems of ecological coordination amid growing planetary interdependence. The study develops a conceptual and analytical model of ECCs as territorially grounded, participatory, ecologically oriented, and institutionally integrated governance formations. It further proposes an analytical framework for evaluating ECCs based on criteria such as democratic depth, ecological effectiveness, inclusiveness, accountability, institutional feasibility, scalability, and resilience. Through comparative analysis, the article situates ECCs alongside existing governance initiatives, including ecovillages, Transition Towns, participatory budgeting, eco-districts, and community-based sustainability projects. The paper also examines possible pathways for institutional integration within multilevel governance systems while acknowledging important risks, constraints, and implementation challenges. Rather than presenting ECCs as definitive solutions, the article argues that they may provide a useful framework for investigating how ecological transformation and democratic renewal can become more systematically interconnected.

Abstract: International Political Economy (IPE) confronts a moment of genuine intellectual reckoning. The theoretical frameworks that defined discipline during the three decades following the Cold War—anchored in liberal assumptions concerning convergence, institutionalized cooperation, and the pacifying logic of economic interdependence, are increasingly strained by a world they were not constructed to explain. The 2020s have delivered a compounding cluster of structural disruptions: systemic rivalry between liberal and non-liberal states, the existential imperatives of climate change and the distributional politics of the green energy transition, the deliberate weaponization of economic interdependence as an instrument of statecraft, the emergence of an intangible platform economy that defies established regulatory categories, and the deepening entanglement of geopolitics with international finance. Against this backdrop, this paper identifies and analyzes five foundational research gaps that collectively define the frontier of contemporary IPE scholarship: (a) the retreat of liberal ontology and the ascendance of non-liberal economic orders; (b) the material politics of climate change and the green transition; (c) the return of interstate war and the re-militarization of economics; (d) the analytical challenge of digital sovereignty and the intangible economy; and (e) the imperative to re-center politics in the study of global finance. Drawing on a systematic synthetic literature review and comparative conceptual analysis, the paper integrates twenty-three analytical tables and two original figures. These visual instruments function not as summaries but as structured devices for mapping conceptual terrain that prose description alone cannot fully render. The paper argues that none of these gaps can be addressed through incremental refinement of existing frameworks; each requires a more fundamental rethinking of the ontological and epistemological commitments that have shaped IPE over five decades. Addressing them demands genuine methodological pluralism—the productive integration of quantitative, formal, qualitative, and historical approaches. The crisis of relevance confronting IPE is real, yet it is simultaneously an opportunity to construct a discipline more intellectually honest and analytically adequate to the world it seeks to explain.

Abstract: The field of international relations confronts significant research gaps as established theoretical frameworks struggle to address the multidimensional challenges of the twenty-first century. This study presents a comprehensive qualitative analysis of four priority research domains requiring urgent scholarly attention: artificial intelligence (AI) governance and global power dynamics, climate security and interstate conflict, digital sovereignty in the Global South, and non-state actors in hybrid warfare. Employing systematic literature review and thematic analysis grounded in interpretivist epistemology and critical realist ontology, this research identifies critical theoretical and empirical deficiencies in existing scholarship while proposing integrated frameworks for addressing them. Findings reveal that traditional international relations theories—including realism (Waltz, 1979/2010; Mearsheimer, 2001), liberalism (Keohane, 1984; Ikenberry, 2011), and constructivism (Wendt, 1999; Finnemore & Sikkink, 1998)—require substantial adaptation to address challenges posed by technological transformation, environmental change, and evolving security paradigms. The analysis identifies significant cross-domain interconnections: AI governance intersects with hybrid warfare through autonomous weapons systems and cyber operations, while climate security connects with digital sovereignty through environmental data governance. The paper concludes with evidence-based recommendations for future research agendas, emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration, methodological innovation, and policy-relevant scholarship. This analysis contributes to advancing international relations scholarships in an era of unprecedented global complexity.

Abstract: This study examines the flows of evidence that inform urban policy in three rapidly urbanizing East African countries: Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Using a broad definition of evidence that encompasses data, scientific knowledge, experiential insights, and contextual understanding, the research traces how different types of evidence move between local, national, and regional policy actors through three critical urban policy themes: multi-level governance and fiscal devolution, industrial strategy, and informality. The findings reveal significant disconnects between evidence generation and policy formulation. This is attributed, in part, to innate difficulties in integrating the diverse set of ethnographic data from informal economies and settlements into urban development modalities driven by national governments. The study also points to co-evolved evidence ecosystems in which national governments rely on evidence from international consultancies and multilateral agencies that favour quantitative, macro-economic data suitable for large-scale infrastructure projects. The research suggests that realizing Africa's urban potential requires not just better data, but fundamentally reformed evidentiary processes that enable bottom-up knowledge to inform top-down planning. This includes new platforms for multi-level evidence exchange, embedded urban policy advisors, and enhanced regional capacity for evidence synthesis.

Abstract: This systematic literature review examines the long-standing problem of the tragedy of the commons within the field of public administration. Through a synthetic evaluation of institutional diagnostic and organizational analysis tools, this study deconstructs the traditional dichotomy between centralized state control and local self-governance. The findings reveal a critical interpretive gap: the lack of a coherent theoretical framework for the active, architectural role of the state. To fill this gap, the article develops a synthetic conceptual framework that redefines public administration not as a direct manager or an absent observer, but as an architect of multilevel, polycentric governance systems. This role involves providing institutional support, ensuring access to reliable information, managing cross-scale linkages, and guaranteeing conflict resolution. This approach shifts the focus from a search for a single solution toward the design of resilient institutional ecologies.

Abstract: Improving regional environmental performance is crucial for strengthening environmental governance. Polycentric governance theory, which emphasizes the interaction of multiple actors—including market, government, and society—within rule-based constraints, provides an essential framework for understanding the mechanisms that shape environmental performance in complex institutional contexts. This paper, set within the context of China’s environmental governance, applies polycentric governance theory to develop a three-dimensional analytical framework of "economic pressure–government attention–social supervision." Using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces between 2015 and 2023, the study employs dynamic Qualitative Comparative Analysis (dynamic QCA) to examine the asymmetric impacts of various governance factors on regional environmental performance and their dynamic evolutionary mechanisms. The study finds that: (1) no single factor is necessary for either high or low environmental performance; (2) six configurational paths for achieving high environmental performance are identified, categorized into three types: "industry structure-driven," "multi-dimensional collaboration-driven," and "economic output–social media opinion dual-driven"; (3) these paths remain relatively stable over time but exhibit periodic fluctuations, with a clear evolution point around 2021; (4) these pathways show significant spatial differentiation. This study uncovers the multi-dimensional driving mechanisms behind improvements in regional environmental performance, offering both theoretical insights and practical guidance for local governments to develop differentiated environmental governance strategies tailored to regional contexts.

Abstract: This paper presents Scheme T, a presidential framework. It originates from the author's quest for partisan continuity, whereby a mid-term presidential vacancy is filled by a successor from the same political party as the incumbent, unless a new popular election is held. While the American system fails to guarantee this due to rigid election timing, the Turkish framework offers synchronized terms and flexible scheduling; however, the current Turkish constitution suffers from “plebiscitary succession” and “violation of election synchronization”. Scheme T builds upon the Turkish framework by introducing a vice-presidential office with dual-path confirmation and mandating that double vacancy or any renewal initiative triggers a full general election, thereby eliminating standalone presidential elections. It also proposes PLAR (Popular Legislative Automatic Runoff), a novel single-round electoral method for simultaneous presidential and legislative elections that achieves fairness comparable to two-round absolute-majority systems with greater efficiency. In contrast to the current Turkish system, Scheme T removes the Assembly's direct renewal authority and introduces instead a Westminster-style no-confidence mechanism with a three-fifths threshold, restricted to the final two years of the five-year presidential term. This guarantees the president three years of secure tenure while adding confidence-based accountability. By integrating the strengths of Turkish, Westminster, and American paradigms, Scheme T combines strong executive stability with carefully calibrated democratic control, offering an elegant and innovative blueprint for building resilient and responsive presidential governments.

Abstract: Journalism plays a structurally indispensable yet under-theorized role in democratic governance. This article situates journalism within a recalibrated constitutional architecture in which the Quarta Politica—conceptualized as an Ombudsman Council—constitutes a fourth power alongside the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, endowed with distinct coercive authority oriented toward systemic correction and participatory accountability. Within this framework, journalism is not a separate power but a constitutionally protected function that secures the informational conditions upon which all four powers depend. By producing, verifying, and disseminating public information, journalism sustains accountability, enables informed participation, and facilitates collective judgment. The article reconceptualizes democracy as dependent on three interrelated dimensions: the distribution of coercive authority, the institutionalization of participatory oversight, and the integrity of the informational environment. It demonstrates that journalism performs a non-substitutable role as an early-warning and accountability-generating mechanism. Under conditions of digital transformation, platform dominance, and media fragility, these informational foundations are increasingly at risk. The article therefore advances a calibrated framework for the constitutional protection of journalism—grounded in independence, sustainability, and accountability—embedded within the Quarta Politica. A comparative perspective, including Global South contexts, underscores the generalizability of this approach across diverse democratic settings.

Abstract: Amid the accelerating geopolitical transformations reshaping international order in the first quarter of the twenty-first century, bilateral strategic partnerships (BSPs) have emerged as a pivotal diplomatic instrument and an indispensable mechanism for interstate cooperation. Despite their proliferating deployment in diplomatic discourse, BSPs remain conceptually undertheorized, with significant lacunae in the systematic comparative analysis of their structural foundations, multidimensional functions, and resilience under shifting geopolitical conditions. This study addresses these gaps by pursuing three interrelated objectives: (1) constructing a rigorous conceptual framework that distinguishes BSPs from cognate forms of international cooperation, (2) identifying and analyzing the core dimensions and enabling conditions that underpin successful partnerships, and (3) evaluating leading contemporary models through structured comparative case analysis.Employing a qualitative multi-case research design grounded in thematic analysis and structured focused comparison, the study examines four paradigmatic BSPs—Franco-German, U.S.–Japan, Sino-Russian, and Saudi–U.S.—drawing on policy documents, treaty texts, institutional records, and peer-reviewed scholarship from 2015 to 2025. Findings reveal that BSP durability is contingent upon four interdependent pillars: value-interest alignment, structural economic complementarity, sustained political leadership, and robust institutional architecture. The study further identifies a typological spectrum ranging from deeply institutionalized, norm-convergent partnerships to strategically expedient, structurally fragile alignments. The paper concludes that BSPs constitute not merely bilateral instruments but systemic building blocks for a more stable and polycentric international order, while cautioning against the inflationary and ceremonial deployment of the concept.

Abstract: Despite significant government intervention, the incidence of technology transfer in the United States of America is still less than desired. There appears to be policy options to address this problem, but policymakers have not pursued them. One conjecture is that notions of what are politically legitimate actions are restraining policymakers from pursuing certain kinds of technology transfer policies. This paper presents the results of an examination of two questions. First, how have the current conceptualizations of political legitimacy potentially contributed to the lack of public policies that directly mitigate circumstances that hinder the transfer of technologies from universities and federal laboratories to the private sector? And second, what alternative conceptualization of political legitimacy can potentially encourage lawmakers to pursue such public policies? The primary conclusions are that the concept of political legitimacy has been reified on a normative basis and does not align with the behaviors of constituents. Moreover, current conceptualizations are potentially restraining policymakers in several ways that curb their willingness to pursue certain kinds of technology transfer policies. The paper presents an alternative conceptualization of political legitimacy that might enable policymakers to pursue a more diverse array of public policies that will more directly address factors that curtail technology transfer.

Abstract: This paper proposes Scheme M, a new presidential design that evolves the American model by introducing flexibility in election timing while preserving executive stability. Its flexible elements draw inspiration from the post-2017 Turkish presidential system, where variable terms are enabled by early general elections. However, unlike Türkiye—where the Assembly can also trigger early presidential elections, creating perceived insecurity—Scheme M removes this reciprocal power, assigning sole responsibility to the president to identify, assess, and resolve executive-legislative deadlocks. The scheme adapts the established American practice of midterm elections by adding contingent, flexible-timing elements: the mechanism is triggered exclusively by presidential decree, limited to once per five-year term and only within the first three years. It keeps the president's fixed term secure while allowing strategic timing—or avoidance—of midterm legislative elections to refresh or realign parliament at low personal cost. Additional safeguards include a mixed SMDP-PR electoral system to prevent chronic presidential majorities, parliamentary confirmation for the vice-presidential nominee, narrowly defined decree powers, and robust term limits. The scheme has two variants: Scheme FM and Scheme VM. Scheme FM features fixed-time general elections, enhancing predictability, cost efficiency, and campaign depth. Scheme VM introduces variable terms, ensuring near-certain same-party succession, empowering a lame-duck president to renew both branches—avoiding paralysis or premature resignation—and allowing strategic general election timing akin to Westminster practices. Scheme M therefore offers a viable blueprint for stable yet responsive presidential governance.

Abstract: When tightly-knit communities suddenly show electoral volatility, does it signal weakening group identity, or does it reveal something deeper? This question matters wherever centralized authority structures shape bloc voting. Conventional wisdom interprets such shifts as boundary erosion. This paper presents evidence for the opposite.Drawing on an extreme-case design, I exploit a natural experiment — Israel’s 2019–2022 political deadlock — to track voter transitions within ultra-Orthodox communities, where ethnically distinct subgroups maintain near-total political separation despite shared religious practice. Using ecological inference on ballot-box data from five population centers across six elections (2019–2022), I find exceptionally high baseline party loyalty (90–95%), a dramatic disruption during the March 2020 – March 2021 transition when switching surged to 12–19%, and a swift return to high loyalty within 13 months — though the shifted voters remained with their new parties.The synchronized switch of voting loyalty across geographically dispersed cities, occurring without residential mobility, is consistent with elite-mediated bloc realignment rather than emerging voter independence. Paradoxically, the capacity for mass switching may reflect stronger, not weaker, institutional control.These findings challenge how scholars of party–voter linkages interpret electoral volatility in identity-based voting blocs: apparent instability may reflect disciplined coordination, and what looks like boundary erosion may actually reveal institutional strength operating through collective action.

Abstract: The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic decision-making into international relations represents a significant evolution that current theoretical frameworks have not fully accommodated. Established International Relations (IR) paradigms—realism, liberalism, and constructivism—typically conceptualize technology as a tool for statecraft rather than as an influential factor actively shaping the decision-making environment. This paper asserts that such a conceptual omission is increasingly untenable. Utilizing an integrative analysis spanning IR theory, AI ethics, security studies, and political economy, this work examines three principal aspects of "algorithmic diplomacy": (1) the ways in which algorithmic bias within systems operated by international organizations perpetuates structural inequalities between North and South; (2) the impact of AI incorporation into nuclear command and control systems on the logic of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) and crisis management timelines; and (3) the emergence of computational power imbalances in trade and climate negotiations as a novel form of diplomatic influence. The conclusion presents an initial framework for machine-mediated international relations and emphasizes the necessity for normative and governance responses at both national and multilateral levels.

Abstract: This paper proposes mengolah, a culturally embedded Indonesian term describing informal grassroots lobbying and political brokerage, as a decolonial methodology and medium of political communication for understanding youth political participation in Indonesia. Grounded in the everyday practices of Indonesian political culture, mengolah represents a distinct form of political engagement that operates through personal networks, informal negotiation, and relational trust rather than formal institutional channels. This study explicitly positions mengolah not as an inherently corrupt practice but as a legitimate cultural medium through which citizens engage with democratic processes, functioning analogously to constituent services and political networking in Western democracies while reflecting Indonesian values of kebersamaan (togetherness) and gotong royong (mutual cooperation). Drawing on data from the 2024 Indonesian general elections, where youth voters comprised 56% of the electorate, this study examines how mengolah functions as both a grassroots political methodology and a structured pathway for political mobility. Skilled practitioners of mengolah (pengolah) typically progress from grassroots volunteers to organizational leaders in organisasi masyarakat (mass organizations) and eventually to formal party cadres or elected officials. This trajectory demonstrates that mengolah serves as political apprenticeship, a medium for cultivating democratic capacities and connecting informal community leadership with institutional politics. Through analysis of social media data, electoral brokerage patterns, and youth political behavior, this study contributes to the project of decolonizing political science by centering indigenous Indonesian political practices as legitimate, functional, and epistemologically significant objects of scholarly inquiry.

Abstract: Bhimbor Deori (1903-1947) remains a pivotal yet insufficiently explored figure in the history of India's struggle for independence and the political evolution of Assam. A multifaceted individual-lawyer, tribal rights advocate, parliamentarian, and nationalist leader, Deori played a crucial role in mobilising the plain tribal communities of Assam and was instrumental in countering colonial and Muslim League efforts to incorporate the province into the proposed state of Pakistan. This review synthesises the available biographical, historical, and political information to construct a comprehensive profile of the Deori. It critically examines his early life and the discriminatory incident that catalysed his public career, his foundational role in institutionalising tribal politics through the Assam Backwards Plains Tribal League, his tenure as a Legislative Councillor and Minister, and his strategic collaboration with Gopinath Bordoloi. This article analyses a significant duality in his legacy: his simultaneous advocacy for Indigenous self-determination and his unwavering commitment to a unified Indian nation. It also interrogates the ideological tensions between his advocacy for tribal "homelands" and his Indian nationalism. Finally, this article identifies significant gaps in the existing scholarship, which relies heavily on commemorative sources, and proposes concrete avenues for future archival and critical research to fully integrate Jananeta Bhimbor Deori into the broader historiography of modern South Asia.

Abstract: This paper develops the institutional implications of the Noble Person Test, a framework for evaluating justice proposed in [Shuhao Z., Beyond the Veil of Ignorance: The Noble Person Test as a Framework for Justice]. The Noble Per- son Test evaluates institutional arrangements by asking whether a hypothetical agent—default self-interested, intellectually honest, and persuadable under strict conditions—would accept the arrangement from every position within it. This pa- per argues that the test is best operationalised not as individual thought experiment but as structured adversarial debate: a red team representing those bearing the costs of an arrangement defaults to refusal, while a blue team representing those proposing the arrangement bears the burden of proving necessity and the absence of less costly alternatives. The paper derives four structural features that just insti- tutions must possess, examines the relationship between the Noble Person Test and democratic governance, applies the framework to three domains of legal and pol- icy controversy, and proposes concrete institutional mechanisms for implementing adversarial review. The paper draws on existing practices in military red-teaming, intelligence analysis, and judicial adversarial procedure to argue that the proposed mechanism is not utopian but an extension of proven institutional designs.

Abstract: This paper consolidates our previous work and articulates Scheme C, a constitutional architecture designed to resolve deadlocks and instability in fragmented democracies by synthesising previous findings into a self-contained theoretical framework. The scheme's centrepiece is a game-based investiture rule that guarantees the appointment of a prime minister through a strategic nomination process, eliminating the risk of investiture-related collapse. Central to this system is also a bifurcated confidence structure -- assigning the prime minister either type I (majority) or type II (minority) status -- managed by a dynamic no-confidence mechanism. Stability is reinforced by a synchronised electoral rhythm and a Westminster-style dissolution mechanism that protects cohesive assemblies while resulting in contingent, quasi-midterm elections. To ensure continuity, a novel hybrid caretaker office bridges Westminster and Presidential traditions by automatically converting a departing prime minister into a tenure-secured, though authority-attenuated, caretaker. This "converted" logic is balanced by a presidential-style "acting" appointment mode for vacancies, ensuring administrative resilience throughout the electoral cycle. Ultimately, Scheme C provides a resilient architecture that ensures unyielding governmental functionality and rigorous legislative oversight regardless of the underlying electoral system or party landscape.

Abstract: Conventional frameworks for assessing national competitive advantage assume that original scientific discovery is the highest-order determinant of national power. This paper challenges that assumption. It proposes the Capability Hierarchy Thesis: de- ployment capacity—the ability to translate ideas into physical reality at speed and scale through rapid iterative cycles—is not parallel to discovery capacity but hier- archically superior, fully subsuming it. This subsumption is complete because the conditions producing theoretical breakthroughs—large educated populations, qual- ity universities, institutional incentives for risk-taking—are themselves deployable. The paper reframes the relationship between imitation and innovation through the concept of principled imitation: independently deriving the principles underly- ing an observed solution and reimplementing based on that understanding. This process requires the same capabilities as original innovation, differing only in in- formation conditions. A nation that imitates rapidly demonstrates deep scientific comprehension; when no external solution exists, the same capabilities produce orig- inal innovation automatically. Drawing on the theoretical foundations of The Entropy Frontier (Shuhao Zhong, [2026]), which redefines national wealth as accumulated human capital, physical systems, and institutional knowledge, this paper develops three contributions: the Capability Hierarchy framework, the National Iteration Capacity Index (NICI), and the Imitation-Innovation Continuum Model. Applied to the U.S.-China com- petition, the framework yields conclusions diverging significantly from conventional assessments.