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A growing body of research suggests that "high-impact practices" such as project-based and experiential learning make important contributions to undergraduate student development and outcomes. However, most attempts to evaluate such programs are based on qualitative or self-reported data generated from small samples. This study examines the impact on student development of a large university program that incorporates project-based learning into applied, vertically integrated, interdisciplinary research teams. We deploy a range of evidence, including self-reported assessments with a comparison group, a matched-pairs analysis of educational outcomes, participant surveys, and an alumni survey. By including a counterfactual comparison, our study demonstrates that applied projects can foster intellectual growth and positive academic outcomes among undergraduate students by: (1) contributing to skill development in relation to research, teamwork, and critical thinking; (2) developing closer relationships among students, faculty, and others within the university; (3) increasing the likelihood that a student graduates with distinction; and (4) contributing to career discernment that shapes students' post-graduate trajectories, often predisposing students toward careers in public service. We comment on the most important factors for faculty and universities seeking to replicate this model: an emphasis on team organization and operations; the opportunity for students to develop close relationships aided by layered mentoring; and applied research. We also lay out the case for developing a general structure of evaluation for such programs to facilitate comparisons across educational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the linchpins of democratic accountability runs through service quality. Because citizens are sensitive to the quality of basic services, they can translate (dis)satisfaction into assessments of incumbent politicians. Yet, although previous research has shown that both access to, and the quality of, basic services decline in rural settings, this seems not to translate into increased dissatisfaction with incumbents. In this paper we seek to understand why. We theorize four potential mechanisms that might underpin the weaker accountability for poor service outcomes in more remote settings. To test these mechanisms, we use data from 34,514 geocoded survey respondents across 19 countries in Latin America. We show that the likelihood of translating dissatisfaction with services into discontent with elected officials decreases as distance to urban centers increases. We find some evidence that a low sense of political efficacy and deference to hierarchy mediate the relationship between remoteness, service quality and accountability. Nevertheless, some of the direct relationship between distance and attitudes towards elected officials persists in the face of our mediation analysis, suggesting that more work needs to be done on the relationship between remoteness, service quality and accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: A burgeoning literature documents robust links of income inequality with the prevalence of psychological disorders. The aim of this paper is to extend this literature by examining the effects of cross-national income inequality on prevalence of psychotic symptoms.Method: Analyses used archival data of representative samples from 50 countries (N = 249,217). Four types of psychotic symptoms were assessed using the well-validated CIDI interview. We examined the effects of Standardized World Income Inequality Database (SWIID) measures of the concentration of income in the top percentile of people and the Gini coefficient of income inequality.Results: Income inequality was significantly correlated with the national prevalence of hallucinations, delusions of thought control, and delusional mood, and effects withstood control over national indices of per capita income and regime type. Findings were also robust to nonparametric bootstrapping.Conclusions: Although the cross-sectional design limits ability to claim causality, income inequality appears important for understanding psychotic symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers widely recognize that economic crises have important political consequences, yet there is little systematic research on the political factors that make nations more or less susceptible to economic crisis. Scholars have long debated the economic consequences of party systems, executive powers, and societal interest groups, but their relationships to crisis proclivity are poorly understood. We assess the political correlates of economic crisis using a cross-sectional time-series analysis of 17 Latin American countries over nearly three decades. Crises are measured along two dimensions-depth and duration-and disaggregated into three types: inflationary, GDP, and fiscal crises. Statistical results suggest that political institutions have a modest, and often unexpected, correlation with crises. More important than institutional attributes are social organization and the nature of party-society linkages, particularly the existence of a densely-organized trade union movement and/or a powerful leftist party. Strong unions and powerful parties of the left are associated with more severe economic crises, though there is some evidence that the combination of left-labor strength can alleviate inflationary crises. The results demonstrate the need to disaggregate the concept of economic crisis and incorporate the societal dimension when studying the political economy of crisis and reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note underscores the need for more precise causal theories linking the international division of labor, national economies, and public policies. To that end, the author recommends two literatures upon which a revised dependency theory might build, namely, those on economic geography and the political economy of redistribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What determines the relative strength of central and regional governments? Why do centers engage in more or less geographically based economic redistribution? And why do some centers redistribute from urban to rural areas while others do the opposite? This research answers these questions with reference to decentralized politics at key constitutional moments. Much contemporary research underscores the importance of the intergovernmental balance of power – be it in taxing authority or decision making autonomy – on economic outcomes. Many features of that balance are rooted in bargains struck at the time of constitution writing. Here, I suggest that the key ingredients in such bargains are the number of conflicting geographically salient factor endowments, the distribution of inter-regional inequality, and the degree of intra-state inequality within rural and urban regions. The greater the level of factoral conflict, the more elites who engage in constitutional negotiations are likely to constrain the central government by providing for substantial regional veto authority. Higher levels of inter-regional inequality heighten demands for inter-regional redistribution. Given some level of regional demand for central redistribution, whether its net effect is in favor of urban or rural regions will depend on the coalitional implications of inequality within regions. I examine the argument in light of the U.S., Argentine, and Indian processes of constitution formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research on the politics of market reform in developing nations has generally ignored the significant role of federal political and economic arrangements in shaping adjustment processes. In contrast, this research develops a model of macroeco-nomic reform that accounts for the significance of subnational economic policy in the developing world's nine major federations. I examine five hypotheses which are expected to influence the capacity of developing federations to conduct policy consistent with the exigencies of market pressures. With the use of a cross-sec-tional time-series analysis of fiscal and monetary policies, I show that the policy divergence between levels of government shrinks when provincial governments have greater fiscal power and there are high degrees of party centralization across levels of government. These findings have important implications for the political economy of market reform, the widespread move toward fiscal decentralization, and the design of regional supranational institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]