Dealignment, spatial polarisation and economic voting

Abstract. Estimates of voting by occupational class are provided for each of 22 regions in the UK for every general election since 1964. These are analysed, using a log-linear modelling strategy, to identify the changing degree of class dealignment and spatial polarisation within the British electorate over the period. The growing regional variability is consistent with expectations regarding the increasing volume of economic voting and the pattern of uneven development in the country: the north-south and urban-rural divides have both widened.     

State and standards

In this paper a new economic approach to standardization has been presented. Standardization has been regarded as a problem ofgradual choice. An individual chooses to apply more or less standards within a hierarchy of standards. With this decomposition of standards, the problem of strategic market power becomes less important than in the traditional models of standardization. It becomes possible to analyze the problems of network externalities within a framework of non-strategic behavior and to apply the tools of the traditional theory of externalities and public goods. While decentralized action may lead to too little standardization, committees may overcome this deficiency to some extent, but bureaucracies are likely to lead to overstandardization. In the empirical section of the paper it has been shown that our approach can be applied to the standard-setting process in languages, railroads, and telecommunications. In all three cases the tendency of bureaucracies to generate more standardization than committees has been corroborated.The authors are indebted for helpful comments to the participants of the Berlin Seminar on Political Economy and of the colloquium Algemene Economie, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, and to A. Roemer, Saarbrücken.     

Labor market experiences of low-income black women in middle-class suburbs: Evidence from a survey of gautreaux program participants

This article reports on a highly unusual experiment in racial and economic integration, the Gautreaux program. This program helps black families who are either current or former residents of public housing move into subsidized housing in Chicago and its suburbs. Surveying a random sample of 332 participants, we find that suburban movers are significantly more likely to have a job post-move than city movers, even among those who had never had a job before moving. Multivariate analysis shows that these differences are significant even after controlling for respondents' previous work history, human capital, and personal characteristics. These results suggest that low-income urban blacks experience significant gains in employment by moving to middle-class suburbs. Thus, housing assistance may be an effective alternative to traditional welfare-to-work programs.     

Using the Delphi process to analyze social policy implementation: A post hoc case from vocational rehabilitation

This study uses a Policy Delphi to discern differences in perspective among and within groups responsible for formulating and implementing vocational rehabilitation policy. Four groups of players were chosen for our analysis: government officials, academics, directors of rehabilitation centers, and the staff who interface with program participants. Significant differences were found between the groups regarding the relative importance of possible legislative goals. This suggests that the failure of vocational rehabilitation policy to promote a work agenda may be attributed to a lack of consensus among policy implementors. The Delphi technique could help policy planners understand the different perspectives within the implementation community, and hence craft more realistic legislation.     

Masterstatus, Familie und Geschlecht

Intention des Beitrages ist es, Geschlecht und Familie auf der Basis eines institutionenorientierten Lebenslaufansatzes neu zu durchdenken. Die Zentrierung auf gesellschaftliche Institutionen als Orte der Vermittlung von individuellem Handeln und sozialstrukturellen Bedingungen ermöglicht es, mikro-, meso- und makrosoziale Interdependenzen in den Mittelpunkt zu rücken und bisher zum großen Teil verdeckten, da indirekten Strukturierungen von Geschlechterverhältnissen auf die Spur zu kommen. Aus dieser Perspektive relativiert sich die in der Lebenslaufforschung dominierende Individualisierungs-These zugunsten der Erkenntnis, dass Individuen sich durch institutionelle Eigenlogiken untereinander vernetzt sehen, die sie in neue Zwickmühlen bringen. Der Beitrag von Lebenslauf-Institutionen zur Rekonstruktion einer Geschlechterordnung gerät zwar zunehmend in Widerspruch zu Anforderungen an das individuelle Management der eigenen Biographie, doch der relationale Bezug zwischen Institutionen scheint Familie und Geschlecht weder aus ihren subjektiven Verpflichtungsmustern zu entlassen, noch aus ihrer sozialstrukturellen Vermittlerrolle zwischen biographischen Optionen und inkompatiblen institutionellen Verfügbarkeits-Ansprüchen.     

Education and debriefing: strategies for preventing crises in crisis-line volunteers

Telephone crisis lines offer an important service to individuals in crisis. The accessibility as well as a lack of other means of support leads many individuals to call the line. The role of the volunteer is to listen and support the caller as well as provide information and referrals to other agencies. Agencies are presented with a high turnover of volunteers and are then faced with the task of recruiting and training replacements. Volunteers are often exposed to horrific accounts of human pain and suffering which may affect their personal thoughts, feelings, beliefs and actions and influence the decision to quit. Compassion fatigue is one term used for this inherent "cost of caring." Many factors contribute to this cost including the nature of crisis calls, the repeat caller, and personal coping mechanisms. Educating and debriefing the volunteer are two strategies that may prevent the onset of compassion fatigue and volunteer resignation. Debriefing is viewed as an effective strategy for volunteers as it has been found to be successfull in assisting other helpers in many different contexts to cope and deal with the traumatic events that they experience or hear about.