Culture on the Rise: How and Why Cultural Membership Promotes Democratic Politics

Selectively using Tocqueville, many social scientists suggest that civic participation increases democracy. We go beyond this neo-Tocquevillian model in three ways. First, to capture broader political and economic transformations, we consider different types of participation; results change if we analyze separate participation arenas. Some are declining, but a dramatic finding is the rise of arts and culture. Second, to assess impacts of participation, we study more dimensions of democratic politics, including distinct norms of citizenship and their associated political repertoires. Third, by analyzing global International Social Survey Programme and World Values Survey data, we identify dramatic subcultural differences: the Tocquevillian model is positive, negative, or zero in different subcultures and contexts that we explicate.     

Pomeroy v. Pomeroy: beauty,modernity, and the female entrepreneur in fin-de-siècle London

As a fictional personality trading as ‘Mrs Pomeroy’, Jeannette Scalé dominated London's elite beauty market through the late nineteenth century. By 1906, her control over the expansive commercial empire had collapsed, as new company owners publicly accused her of pecuniary ambitions unbefitting her sex. This article charts Scalé's extraordinary transformation into London's leading complexion specialist, exploring the gender conventions regulating both the beauty business and middle-class female enterprise at the fin de siècle. An investigation of the ‘Mrs Pomeroy’ character reveals businesswomen's changing opportunities in England's ‘modernizing’ retail market, opportunities engendered through new systems of advertising, growing anonymity in the expanding urban scene, and novel forms of self-representation that did not necessarily impinge upon businesswomen's respectability.     

‘In the mirror of the past’: The use of history in the justification of terrorism

This article takes the form of a content analysis of the propaganda of Lehi ‐ the smallest and most extreme of the underground movements that fought against the British in Palestine. It suggests that the propaganda was based on a number of projective narratives, namely, stories that are not only designed to recall the past, but also to show how to behave in the present. Particular emphasis was placed on the lessons to be learnt from Jewish history in general and past examples of Jewish valor in particular. Attention was also paid, however, to other struggles for national liberation. In both cases, the struggle for legitimacy took place on two fronts ‐ the reconstruction of the past and its reenactment in the present. Only Lehi, it was argued, understood history and acted in accordance with it. And therein lay the terrorists’ claim to legitimacy. They, and they alone, are the true heirs of the past.     

Affordability and mortgage design: Permanent buydowns and buyups

Abstract

A simulation model that mirrors the actual practices of lenders in setting qualification requirements for mortgage loans is used to assess the impact of permanent buydowns and buyups on the maximum sale price that buyers can afford. Buydowns are reductions in the coupon rate traded off against higher discount points; buyups are the reverse. Although buydowns have little effect on afford ability, buyups can have significant effects. Their potential is largely unrealized, however, because of the call risk to lenders of loans carrying premiums. The authors propose a “discount recovery” provision, which would be similar to a prepayment penalty except that the payment upon prepayment would be tied to the amount of the discount foregone by the lender. This would protect lenders against call risk, giving them every reason to offer buyups as a way of expanding demand.     

Non‐tariff measures and United States' imports of CBERA‐eligible products

Trade coverage ratios are calculated to assess the 1991 incidence of non‐tariff measures (NTMs) on imports of products eligible for duty‐free treatment under the United States’ Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA). Overall, 16 per cent of all CBERA‐eligible products were found to be covered by one or more NTM. Corresponding figures for all eligible products exported from individual beneficiaries range up to 40 per cent. Much higher trade coverage ratios are found for individual product groups. NTMs constitute important deterrents to US imports of CBERA‐eligible products. Heavy reliance on NTMs counters the intent of the CBERA, namely to extend preferential treatment to exports from Caribbean Basin countries.