Kim Yi Dionne

The Role of Executive Time Horizons in State Response to AIDS in Africa

In this article the author argues that politicians’ time horizons affect the differing levels of state intervention against AIDS. Using data measuring government spending, AIDS policy, and political constraints, the author tests the presumption that the leader of a country can determine a country’s level of AIDS intervention. She looks at countries in eastern and southern Africa to explore the relationship between political institutions that constrain an executive’s time horizon (i.e., competitive elections) and the level of the state’s efforts in the fight against AIDS. Her primary hypothesis is that an executive with a shorter time horizon is less likely to create policy or devote resources to intervene against AIDS. The author finds that lengthening an executive’s time horizon increases the level of government spending on health but that executives with shorter time horizons tended to have more comprehensive AIDS policy than their counterparts with longer time horizons.In this article the author argues that politicians’ time horizons affect the differing levels of state intervention against AIDS. Using data measuring government spending, AIDS policy, and political constraints, the author tests the presumption that the leader of a country can determine a country’s level of AIDS intervention. She looks at countries in eastern and southern Africa to explore the relationship between political institutions that constrain an executive’s time horizon (i.e., competitive elections) and the level of the state’s efforts in the fight against AIDS. Her primary hypothesis is that an executive with a shorter time horizon is less likely to create policy or devote resources to intervene against AIDS. The author finds that lengthening an executive’s time horizon increases the level of government spending on health but that executives with shorter time horizons tended to have more comprehensive AIDS policy than their counterparts with longer time horizons.

AIDS Exceptionalism: Another Constituency Heard From

Amidst current debates over resources for AIDS, we examine the policy preferences of the people who are navigating AIDS in their daily lives. Survey and ethnographic data on the prioritization of HIV/AIDS interventions were collected in a longitudinal cohort study in rural Malawi. Study participants gave higher priority to problems other than AIDS. Confining analysis to HIV-positive survey respondents only weakly raises the prioritization of HIV/AIDS services. The ethnographic data are consistent with these findings: although rural Malawians are fully aware of the risk of dying from AIDS, other problems are perceived as more pressing for their community.

Ethnic identity, region and attitudes towards male circumcision in a high HIV-prevalence country

We study how considerations of male circumcision (MC) as both a favourable practice and as protective against HIV are linked with ethnicity in sub-Saharan Africa, where many ethnic groups do not traditionally circumcise. We focus on Malawi, a country with a high HIV prevalence but low MC prevalence. Survey data from a population-based random sample in rural Malawi (N =3400) were analysed for ethnoregional patterns in attitudes towards MC. We used logit regression models to measure how reported circumcision status, region of residence and ethnic identity relate to attitudes towards circumcision. Overall, Malawians reported more negative than positive opinions about MC, but attitudes towards circumcision varied by ethnicity and region. The implications for agencies and governments aggressively scaling up the provision of MC are clear; acceptance of circumcision as a tool for HIV prevention could be low in societies divided by ethnoregional identities that also shape the practice of circumcision.

Women Also Know Stuff: Meta-Level Mentoring to Battle Gender Bias in Political Science

Women know stuff. Yet, all too often, they are underrepresented in political science meetings, syllabi, and editorial boards. To counter the implicit bias that leads to women’s underrepresentation, to ensure that women’s expertise is included and shared, and to improve the visibility of women in political science, in February 2016 we launched the “Women Also Know Stuff” initiative, which features a crowd-sourced website and an active Twitter feed. In this article, we share the origins of our project, the effect we are already having on media utilization of women experts, and plans for how to expand that success within the discipline of political science. We also share our personal reflections on the project.

The politics of local research production: surveying in a context of ethnic competition

Using observations from rural Malawi in 2010, this paper describes and studies two significant challenges when surveying in a context of ethnic competition. First, I provide an empirical account of the local reality of ethnoregional competition as demonstrated in local research assistant selection. Negative local perceptions about how many research assistants came from the field site generated some study refusals. Second, I use subsequent survey data to demonstrate nuanced findings on ethnicity-of-interviewer effects: overall item non-response patterns are not associated with interviewer–respondent ethnic matching; refusal to respond to questions about sexual behavior was higher in co-ethnic interview settings; and respondents inconsistent about reporting their ethnic identity often reported their ethnicity to match that of the interviewer. The findings are critical for individual-level research conducted in divided societies, especially but not exclusively in situations where scholars are studying the causes and effects of social division.

Social networks, ethnic diversity, and cooperative behavior in rural Malawi

Even in divided societies, people from different ethnic backgrounds engage each other and an overwhelming majority of this cross-ethnic interaction does not yield conflict, but rather cooperation. Whereas the literature focuses on ethnic diversity as an impediment to cooperation, this study aims to test whether social networks can overcome the challenges posed by ethnic diversity in collective action. This paper’s contribution is to examine the impact of social ties vis-à-vis ethnic difference on cooperative behavior. I analyze data collected from surveys and behavioral economics experimental play of 188 rural Malawians. I find ethnic difference (or sameness) does not influence whether subjects choose to trust their game partner but being socially connected to a game partner increases the odds that a subject will cooperate.

Doomed Interventions: The Failure of Global Responses to AIDS in Africa

Between 2002 and 2013, bilateral donors spent over

The May 1 Marchers in Los Angeles Overcoming Conflicting Frames, Bilingual Women Connectors, English-Language Radio, and Newly Politicized Spanish Speakers

64 billion on AIDS intervention in low- and middle-income countries. During the same period, nearly 25 million died of AIDS and more than 32 million were newly infected with HIV. In this book for students of political economy and public policy in Africa, as well as global health, Kim Yi Dionne tries to understand why AIDS interventions in Africa often fail. The fight against AIDS requires the coordination of multiple actors across borders and levels of governance in highly affected countries, and these actors can be the primary sources of the problem. Dionne observes misaligned priorities along the global chain of actors, and argues this misalignment can create multiple opportunities for failure. Analyzing foreign aid flows and public opinion polls, Dionne shows that while the international community highly prioritizes AIDS, ordinary Africans view AIDS as but one of the many problems they face daily.

International Political Economy and the 2014 West African Ebola Outbreak

In this article, we study protest participants in the May 2006 immigration rights marches in Los Angeles. Analysis of original survey data of 876 march participants yields five main results. First, despite substantial dispute among organizers on how to frame the marches, we find protest participants were similar across march locations organized by different coalitions. Second, we find Spanish-English bilingual participants seemed to benefit from being in two media environments, as they reported more information sources about the protest events than monolingual participants. Third, women reported hearing about the protest events from more information sources, and Spanish-English bilingual women reported hearing from more information sources than any other group, suggesting they acted as social connectors behind the massive participation. Fourth, we confirm the importance of Spanish-language radio as an information source, but our data also point to the significance of television and English-language radio. Finally, analyzing data of first-time protesters, we estimate the immigrant rights marches newly politicized 125,000 people in Los Angeles who spoke Spanish and not English.