Dyadic Representation in a Westminster System

Is policy representation in contemporary Westminster systems solely a function of programmatic national parties, or does the election of legislators via single‐member districts result in MPs whose policy positions are individually responsive to public opinion in their constituencies? We generate new measures of constituency opinion in Britain and show that, in three different policy domains and controlling for MP party, the observed legislative behavior of MPs is indeed responsive to constituency opinion. The level of responsiveness is moderate, but our results do suggest a constituency‐MP policy bond that operates in addition to the well‐known bond between voters and parties.     

20世纪90年代以来中国公民资格权利的发展

从公民资格权利发展角度考察我国的社会转型有利于分析、解释国家面临的挑战和宏观发展轨迹。1990年代以来,在市场经济的发展、社会的分化和利益的多元化、社会公平问题、政府转型的大背景下,我国公民资格权利取得了一定进展:与市场经济建设相关的公民权利内容进一步发展,民主政治的实践使公民政治权利的形式和内容有所充实,社会权利的保护和发展尚处于探索当中。从宏观角度看,公民资格诸权利呈现出分化发展和相互推动的特点;国家主导制度构建与公民积极行使权利构成公民资格权利发展的双动力;户籍制度对权利的分等作用弱化,平等的公民资格权利的普遍化进程加速;程序性权利的设置与保障仍然不足,呈现出探索性特征。     

The growth of psychopharmacology in the 1990s: evidence-based practice or irrational exuberance

The rapid growth in sales of psychotropic medications during the late 1980s and 1990s, eventually reaching $20 billion/year, reflected the increased use of seritonin reuptake inhibitors for depression and atypical antipsychotics for schizophrenia. Recently, however, some of the therapeutic claims for these medications have been challenged, and under-appreciated risks have turned out to be significant liabilities. Drug manufacturers increasingly dominate clinical trials research and evidence suggests that study designs and data presentations have been slanted to show products in a favorable light while unfavorable data were suppressed. At the same time, during the 1990s, potentially independent voices did not effectively or consistently present countervailing views. The extensive financial ties between the pharmaceutical industry and academic researchers, professional associations, and consumer groups may also have discouraged expression of critical views. Additionally, the narrow legal mandate of the FDA to evaluate the safety and efficacy of new drugs only in comparison to placebo (rather than in comparison to other treatments) probably limited its contribution. In the absence of reliable, impartial research on the risk and benefits of psychotropic medications, both before and after they are brought to market, pharmacy benefits management cannot achieve its goal of maximizing health care benefits per dollar spent. Further institutional support is needed for independent research, either conducted or funded by the federal government.     

A Brief History of Doing Time: The California Institution for Women in the 1960s and the 1990s

Recent scholarship on penality describes profound changes in the ideology, discourses, and policies shaping criminal punishment in the late-twentieth-century United States. To assess the implications of these changes for those subject to criminal punishment, we examine the experiences of women in prison at two key points in the recent history of penality. We compare how imprisonment was practiced and responded to at the California Institution for Women in the early 1960s, when the rehabilitative model dominated official penal discourse, and in the mid-1990s, near the height of the "get tough" era. We find that the ways in which women related and responded to other prisoners, to staff, and to the prison regime, while in some ways specific to one or the other penal era, did not fundamentally change. Thus, penal regimes ostensibly informed by profoundly different rationalities nevertheless structured the daily lives of prisoners through a very similar set of deprivations, restrictions, and assumptions.     

Forensic anthropology in the 1990s.

Forensic anthropology has undergone considerable change over the past 10 years. Today it is utilized by most law enforcement, coroner, and medical examiner systems. The techniques for determination of age at death, sex, race, and stature from skeletal remains have been modified and greatly expanded. The role of the forensic anthropologist within a medicolegal context is much broader than in previous years. In addition to establishing individual identity, forensic anthropologists are now consulted for trauma analysis, facial reconstruction, photographic superimposition, determination of time interval since death, and crime-scene recovery. Not all physical anthropologists are forensic anthropologists. Qualified individuals are certified, through rigorous examination, by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. A list of board-certified forensic anthropologists may be obtained through the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.     

Youth Gangs: A 1990s Perspective

The juvenile gang in the 1990s differs in many significant ways from the gangs described in the “classical” gang studies of the 1950s and 1960s. Juvenile justice professionals should be aware of the changes in the nature, organization, motivation, and activities of gangs and plan intervention strategies accordingly. One important issue in gang research—one which has great implications for public policy—is defining “gang” and “gang-related crime.” The existence of a “gang problem” in a community may be more related to the definition of “gang” and “gang-related” than to the objective issue of whether, or not, a gang problem exists. Further issues relating to the gang of the 1990s involve changing age and sex distribution of gang members, increasing violence by gangs, and deeper involvement with drug distribution. Implications for public policy are discussed.     

Mental health policy for the 1990s: tinkering in the interstices

That public policy has abysmally failed the chronically mentally ill seems beyond genuine dispute. Successive reforms have foundered on the familiar shoals of overblown expectations and insufficient resources. In this paper, we review current policies affecting the chronic and disabled mentally ill, and we consider some approaches to reform. We begin by trying to identify and characterize the chronically mentally ill and their disabilities. Next, we consider the chaotic patchwork of federal and state programs that has come to replace the asylum. We then criticize several competing models of reform that we believe fail to make an empathic connection with the mentally ill. Finally, we urge a strategy of limited reform consistent with available empirical data about program effectiveness and sensitive to the likely economic, political, and legal constraints of the 1990s.     

论述二十世纪九十年代美国的犯罪问题

在20世纪90年代,犯罪已成为美国社会所面临的一个严峻的问题。集团、枪支、烈性酒、毒品是引发犯罪的重要因素。各类犯罪影响了美国社会的正常秩序,给受害者带来了物质和精神上的痛苦。研究20世纪90年代美国的犯罪问题可以为我国今天打击、预防犯罪提供一些借鉴。     

Swedish quantitative criminology in the 1990s: A brief overview

Quantitative criminology research published in Sweden in the 1990s is reviewed and put in the context of major Swedish traditions in quantitative criminological research. Sweden has a strong tradition in sophisticated longitudinal and ecological research which continues into the 1990s. Other traditionally prominent areas of Swedish quantitative research include studies of crime trends, violence, and youth criminality. Traditionally Swedish quantitative criminology has been dominated by studies using official statistics and criminal records as data. In the 1990s there has been a significant upswing in survey studies, motivated partly by an increased interest in questions of etiology and crime prevention. More fundamental research on the causes of crime, including new longitudinal studies, and more evaluations of crime prevention initiatives are needed.     

Political Environment and Policy Change: The National Endowment for the Arts in the 1990s

The relationship between changes in the stability of the political environment and policy changes are examined through the case of the National Endowment for the Arts in the 1990s. The terminologies of Hall's first-, second-, and third-order policy change and Baumgartner and Jones’ punctuation equilibrium theory of policy change are employed to analyze the relationship evident in the policy history of the Arts Endowment. The case of the Arts Endowment in the 1990s suggests that first-order changes generally occur in a stable political environment (i.e., policy equilibrium) while great instability in a political environment (i.e., policy punctuation) allows the larger second- and the largest third-orders of policy change.