Polihot

PAR — 2026-07-27 Original Linking Decision Roles to Knowledge Utilization in US State Governments: A Mixed‐Method Study

PNAS 123/31 pp. e2618096123-e2618096123 2026-07-27 Original ICE arrests, 2015–2026: Variation in targeting, method, and geography Chloe N. East, Caitlin Patler, Elizabeth Cox

PNAS 123/31 pp. e2602426123-e2602426123 2026-07-27 Original Can stimulating ownership increase fertility: Evidence from housing interventions in China Zhang Xin, Dongxue Wu, William A. V. Clark Abstract Declining fertility and the emergence of very low TFR's in the Asian economies has increased the focus on how to change the direction of the fertility trend. Several countries in Europe and Asia have explored a variety of stimulus packages to increase the overall TFR. In this research we review those policies and examine one of those interventions which has the potential to stimulate fertility-the role of access to housing. The core of housing approaches to stimulating fertility is to make housing more accessible and to use various forms of credit assistance with the aim of making ownership easier and more attractive to young families. The research asks how effective are these approaches to reversing the decline in fertility? And, are they a solution to very low fertility? The results provide some evidence that the focus on housing stimulus packages may increase fertility although most successfully for socioeconomically advantaged households.

JCC — pp. 1-18 2026-07-26 Original Care Under Strain: Caregiver Mental Health and Early Childhood Development in Rural China Lei Wang, Chuhan Tang, Kaiwen Guo, Victoria Tang, Tiffany Zhu, Vivian Zhang, Sophia Li, Amelie Ibel, Anabelle Lin, Scott Rozelle

JCC — pp. 1-17 2026-07-24 Original When the Mass Line Encounters the Ground: Public-Oriented Accountability and Frontline Coping in China Huan He Abstract While the consolidation of state control in China is well-documented, less attention has been given to the reinforcement of public-oriented accountability, which emphasizes citizen satisfaction with complaint resolution in government performance assessments. Drawing on statistical data and fieldwork interviews, this study finds that while public-oriented accountability can partially promote substantive government responsiveness by imposing institutional pressure on frontline officials, it also fosters a public perception of an omnipotent government and exacerbates the predicament of grassroots incapacity. This not only traps frontline bureaucrats in administrative burden caused by blame-avoidance strategies, but may also fuel frustration among mobilized citizens with heightened expectations. The findings reveal the institutional sources and constraints of government responsiveness and highlight the potential challenges of operationalizing the mass line to consolidate legitimacy.

PNAS 123/30 pp. e2602128123-e2602128123 2026-07-24 Original The social-class gap in negotiation: Lower-class individuals negotiate less and face more backlash Ying Lin, Jackson G. Lu, Michele J. Gelfand

PMR — pp. 1-32 2026-07-23 Original Visualizing & strategizing public value: an unexpected path to invisibilizing Camille Guirou, Laurent Beduneau-Wang Abstract Whereas public value has become a central concern in public management, its visibility within strategic decision-making remains a major challenge. This article examines how visual tools contribute to visualizing and strategizing public value. Drawing on an action research conducted in a French municipality, we show that issue maps shape strategizing by making public value visible, discussable, and strategically actionable. We demonstrate that these tools direct attention, support deliberation and structure meaning, creating public value. Surprisingly, they also generate resistance and processes of invisibilizing: some values become unseen. These findings highlight the inherently selective and political nature of visualizing.

CQ — pp. 1-17 2026-07-23 Original Individualization, Relationships and Collective Action Among Migrants in China: Evidence from Rent Strikes Mengfei Ning, Xiaohong Jin Abstract Abstract Based on a field study of the COVID-19 rent reduction actions of a group of self-employed migrants in Zhengzhou, China, this study examines how individualization shaped the relational networks of the migrants, which in turn dynamically influenced the trajectory and outcome of their collective action. The group’s collective action was shaped not by a single relationship but by an instrumental relational network woven from fragmented intra-group ties, fragile local connections, unstable market relations and arms-length government–migrant interactions. The “relational duality” framework proposed here reveals this network’s dual role in contention: shared experiences of external exclusion catalysed internal solidarity and short-term mobilization; however, the network’s inherent instrumentality and vulnerability rendered it highly susceptible to adversaries’ strategic activation of latent competitive boundaries through tactics like co-optation and relational repression, thus triggering a rapid dissolution of solidarity that resulted in the protest fragmenting. These findings enrich an understanding of the micro-dynamics of contentious politics in China and offer a fresh lens for analysing collective action among similar groups that undergo individualization.

AJPS — 2026-07-23 Original Correcting measurement error bias in conjoint survey experiments Katherine Clayton, Yusaku Horiuchi, Aaron R. Kaufman, Gary King, Mayya Komisarchik Abstract Abstract Conjoint survey designs are spreading across the social sciences due to their unusual capacity to estimate many causal effects from a single randomized experiment. Unfortunately, by their ability to mirror complicated real‐world choices, these designs often generate substantial measurement error and thus bias. We replicate both the data collection and analysis from eight prominent conjoint studies, all of which closely reproduce published results, and reveal high levels of measurement error in all. We then discover a common empirical pattern in how measurement error appears in conjoint studies and, with it, introduce an easy‐to‐use statistical method to correct the bias. Along the way, we provide a much simpler and simultaneously more powerful approach to designing, organizing, understanding, and analyzing conjoint data analyses.

PSJ 54/3 2026-07-23 Original Corporate Quasi‐Sovereignty: Big Tech and the Politics of Sovereign Authority in the Digital Age