Advance notice as a means of reducing relative deprivation

Considerable research has documented that global perceptions of proceduralv fairness are associated with reductions in relative deprivation (RD). Less research has examined the specific process elements that lead individuals to perceive procedural fairness. In view of this, several researchers have suggested that providing advance notice concerning a negative decision increases perceived justice and thereby lowers levels of RD. Unfortunately, the evidence for this causal relationship is currently limited and is based upon a small number of correlation and role-playing studies. Thus, the present paper reports on two experimental studies that investigate the causal relationship between advance notice and RD. Findings in Study 1 showed that advance notice impacted the cognitive aspects of RD but not the affective or behavioral aspects. However, some methodological limitations were identified. These were corrected and a second experiment was conducted. This time advance notice lowered both the cognitive and affective aspects of RD but still did not impact the behavioral measure. Results are discussed in terms of Tyler's (1987) group value model.     

The Size and Significance of the Pareto Set in Spatial Voting Models

The size of the Pareto set in the issue space of spatialvoting models is a function of the tax prices that voters arecharged. When all voters pay Lindahl prices for all goods, thePareto set collapses to a single point. The Pareto set can beenlarged by altering tax shares so they are further fromLindahl prices, and can be reduced by moving toward Lindahlpricing. A smaller Pareto set moves voters closer to consensuson issues, so reduces political decisionmaking costs and makesthe political system more stable.     

The Imprisonment Crisis in America: Introduction

This article provides an overview of recent trends in imprisonment rates in America and introduces the articles in this issue of The Review of Policy Research. Incarceration rates have increased by more than 500 percent since the early 1970s and have now reached a rate of almost 700, higher than anywhere else in the world. The impact has been particularly hard on racial minorities, especially women (whose incarceration rate went from around 8 in 1975 to 59 in 2001). The “war on drugs” has been one of the main reasons behind the increases in imprisonment, along with the more general “get tough on crime” movement that began in the late 1970s. The articles in this issue center around how this recent trend in incarceration impacts the entire society, but especially poor communities. Several of the articles focus on race, age and gender as important variables, in addition to the tendency of the parole system to sort of “recycle” released prisoners back into the prison system.     

Internalizing Symptoms: Effects of a Preventive Intervention on Developmental Pathways from Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood

This study examined the mediated and moderated effects of a universal family-focused preventive intervention, delivered during young adolescence, on internalizing symptoms assessed in young adulthood. Sixth grade students (N=446; 52% female; 98% White) and their families from 22 rural Midwestern school districts were randomly assigned to the experimental conditions in 1993. Self-report questionnaires were administered at seven time points (pre-test to young adulthood-age 21) to those receiving the Iowa Strengthening Families Program (ISFP) and to the control group. Results showed that growth factors of adolescent internalizing symptoms (grades 6-12) were predicted by ISFP condition and risk status (defined as early substance initiation). Moderation of the condition effect by risk status was found, with higher-risk adolescents benefitting more from the ISFP. Results also supported the hypothesis that the ISFP's effect on internalizing symptoms in young adulthood was mediated through growth factors of adolescents' internalizing symptoms; risk moderation, however, was only marginally significant in young adulthood. The relative reduction rate on clinical or subclinical levels of young adult internalizing symptoms was 28%, indicating that for every 100 young adults displaying clinical or subclinical levels of internalizing symptoms from school districts not offering an intervention, there could be as few as 72 displaying those levels of symptoms in school districts that offered middle school prevention programming. These findings highlight how the positive effects of family-focused universal interventions can extend to non-targeted outcomes and the related potential public-health impact of scaling up these interventions.     

Economic Linkage and Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik: The Case of the Warsaw Treaty

This article focuses on German–Polish relations at the time of the 1970 Warsaw Treaty, a pivotal moment in German diplomatic history. However, the study's relevance goes beyond this case. It illustrates an important source of the Federal Republic's international influence, past and present: its ability to use economic strength for political purposes. As this case shows, Germany has been particularly successful in using economic incentives (positive linkage) to improve ties with its neighbours. This article illustrates the important role of positive linkage both in German Ostpolitik and in international relations in general.     

Efficient local charity with self-selection

How is charitable giving within a city influenced by the prospect of donor and recipient migration? The theoretical literature on charitable contributions in a closed economy has mainly argued that the market level of private giving will tend to be lower than optimal, wherever there exists a local fiscal externality between donors and recipients. Interjurisdictional models of voluntary redistribution, on the other hand, abstract from altruism to explore the interjurisdictional fiscal externality resulting from the failure of one community to account for the migration impacts of its actions on other communities. This paper integrates and extends both literatures by allowing for local altruism among the mobile residents of a system of local economies. Within a single community, mobility thus introduces adverse selection considerations for each donor via the migration of both recipients and other donors. Moreover, any change in the local transfer level influences both equilibrium wages and donor behavior system-wide. The analysis demonstrates that the market level of local charitable giving will be lower than is either ‘locally’ or ‘globally’ optimal in some cases and plausibly higher than optimal in others, depending on the effect of migration and expectations on wages. The self-selection nature of donor decision making does eliminate the usual interjurisdictional fiscal externality, though it leaves a role for government intervention via subsidies to altruistic behavior.     

Feminism and Political Analysis

Though not a united body of thought, feminism insists on the importance of women and the need to combat their oppression. This agenda has underlain feminists'attempts to identify an appropriate research method and their criticisms of traditional social science methodology. In some cases it has led to the repudiation of'male'science and epistemology altogether. Feminist political scientists to date have shown less interest in methodological issues. Instead they have concentrated on questioning their discipline's understanding of the nature, behavioural forms and location of politics. While not amounting to a'revolution', taken together these feminist criticisms do expose both the frequent scientistic pretensions and the conceptual narrowness of traditional political science.