Decoupled Rationalisation: Judicial Anticorruption and Fragmentation of Parliament and the Magistracy

Anticorruption campaigns rely on a promise and ideal of rationalisation: public officials should–and will–behave in an impersonal, rule-governed, and ultimately predictable manner. So why do anticorruption drives often increase political and administrative chaos, instead of decreasing it? In this paper I address this puzzle by analysing the simultaneous effects of judicial anticorruption on both the legislative and judicial spheres. Using the case of Romania from 2005 to 2020, I first demonstrate that the successful drive to jail corruption politicians has increased legislative instability by causing waves of party switching, thereby perforating the political opportunity structure and making space for new, populist political parties. I then show how the new structures of judicial anticorruption have fractured the career lines of judges and prosecutors, while at the same time giving magistrates a reason to weaponise their growing professional heterogeneity as they struggle for control over the new and scarce professional resources brought by the anticorruption drive. This increasing complexity in both legislative and judicial spheres results in ever-growing discursive commitment to rule-following coupled with a decreasing ability to actually follow those rules as the set of veto players becomes increasingly unstable, an outcome that, following institutional theorists in sociology, I term “decoupled rationalisation.”

Gender Inequality: A Comparative Study of Participation in Technical Courses

Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) institutions play a crucial role in development of human capital required to transform the developing countries into fully developed nations. The technical skills acquire by the students are led by the industrial needs. However, technical courses are popular among the male students and only a small number of female students enroll into TVET institutions. This paper investigates the gender inequality issues and challenges in TVET education. A comparative study in terms of internship and promotions are included. Consequently, this paper also highlights on the technical and vocational career lines as an alternative pathway for TVET graduates to achieve career success and enhanced social inclusion through higher salaries, job status and educational attainment. The findings indicate that employability of the graduates were related to the individual’s strength and organization’s ability to appreciate, motivate and support the individuals in their career progression regardless the gender

WEALTH AND INEQUALITY IN 18TH-CENTURY KASTAMONU: ESTIMATIONS FOR THE MUSLIM MAJORITY

This article measures wealth levels and inequalities among the Muslim population of 18th-century Ottoman Kastamonu by utilizing information found in estate inventories (terekes). Also developed is a quantitative methodology that can predict the economic worth of specific noneconomic markers of social, religious, and gender identity, including honorific titles, religious epithets, and occupational markers. Our calculations indicate that inequality among different segments of the Muslim community was pronounced. Men from higher echelons of the military and religious establishments, as well as individuals who carried the epithet “pilgrim” (elhac), were significantly wealthier than the rest of the society. At the same time, economic disparities cut across career lines and title/epithet-based distinctions among legators. Finally, the regression analysis introduced in this article reveals that wealth transfers across generations may have contributed greatly to overall wealth levels.