Free Market Anti-Formalism: The Case of Richard Posner

This paper analyses the impact of the Law and Economics movement on legal decision making. Focussing on the position of the leading intellectual figure of this movement, Richard Posner, the author shows how his theories imply a silent revolution in American jurisprudence. Starting from the criteria of economic efficiency and wealth maximization, seen in the light of American pragmatism, Posner upholds anti-formalist interpretation of statutor law by judges based on the principles of free market economics. His theory starts from the assumption that statutor law has become more and more ambiguous and open-ended and thus, as in the case of antitrust law, judges can freely interpret legal provisions on the basis of free market postulates. This position has broader implications in the debate about the meaning of the rule of law: Posner's position implies abandoning the emancipatory core of the liberal tradition.     

The Dynamics of Self-Esteem: A Growth-Curve Analysis

Research on adolescent self-esteem has been inconsistent regarding development patterns and processes, with some scholars concluding that self-esteem is a static construct and others concluding that it is a dynamic construct. A potential source of this inconsistency is the lack of attention to intraindividual changes in self-esteem across adolescence and to gender-specific developmental patterns. Building on previous research, we use a growth-curve analysis to examine intraindividual self-esteem changes from early adolescence to early adulthood. Using 7 years of sequential data from the Family Health Study (762 subjects ages 11–16 in Year 1), we estimated a hierarchical growth-curve model that emphasized the effects of age, life events, gender, and family cohesion on self-esteem. The results indicated that age had a curvilinear relationship with self-esteem suggesting that during adolescence self-esteem is a dynamic rather than a static construct. Furthermore, changes in self-esteem during adolescence were influenced by shifts in life events and family cohesion. These processes were different for males and females, particularly during early adolescence.     

Ferdinand Tönnies: A Candidate for the Canon?

Tönnies' classic work develops an account of contrasted models of society and associated personality types: a rational choice one and a communitarian one. There is a related philosophy of history, torn between nostalgia and modernity. He looks forward to a resolution of these oppositions which is socialist and loosely Marxist while rejecting the command economy and historical inevitability. These themes are saturated with ideas of gender, which are used to illuminate the human being, social relationships and history. His preferred socialist future is androgynous. All of this is richly elaborated, complex and relevant and eminently discussable.     

Instant winners: Legal change in transition and the diffusion of state lotteries

This paper investigates the determinants of legal change in a public choice framework. An empirical model explaining the timing and probability of decisions to adopt state-operated lotteries is developed. Employing a Tobit estimator and explicitly considering the effects of state-specific constitutional and political structures, spending and tax policies, and federal revenue importation, evidence is presented showing that legal change is much like economic change: Lotteries are more likely to be adopted and to be adopted earlier where the costs are lowest relative to expected benefits. State legislatures appear to be the main beneficiaries of this public choice process.     

Alternatives to NIMBY gridlock: voluntary approaches to radioactive waste facility siting in Canada and the United States

Abstract: Neither Canada nor the United States has sited a new radioactive waste management facility in more than two decades, despite the continuous generation of new waste and the paucity of reliable disposal capacity. Both nations have stirred up considerable political controversy in attempting to site such facilities, with aggressive local collective action consistently blocking proposals. Building on provincial experience in gaining public support for hazardous waste facility siting tlirough a voluntary, comprehensive process, both Ontario and Nebraska Show signs of devi?ting from the classic Not-in-My-Back-Yard (NIMBY) response for low-level radioactive waste. Through a variation of the process used successfully in Alberta and Manitoba for hazardous waste, Ontario and Nebraska have demonstrated the potential applicability of these alternative siting principles for radioactive waste. Sommaire: Ni le Canada, ni les États-Unis n'ont construit de nouvelles installations de gestion des déchets radioactifs depuis plus de deux décennies, malgré la production continuelie de déchets supplémentaires et malgré la faible capacité d'élimination fiable. Les deux nations ont déclenché des controverses politiques considérables en essayant de mettre en place de telles installations, et leurs propositions ont été bloquées systématiquement et agressivement par les collectivités locales. Forts de certaines expériences provinciales pour gagner le soutien du public ewers l'emplacement d'une installation de déchets dangereux grâce à un processus volontaire et extensif, l'Ontario et le Nebraska semblent dévier de la réaction classique “ pas dans ma cour ” en ce qui concerne les déchets faiblement radioactifs. Par l'entremise d'une variante du processus utilisé avec succès pour les déchets dnngereux en Alberta et au Manitoba, l'Ontario et le Nebraska ont démontré qu'on pourrait éventuellement appliqucr ces principes de rechanpe pour l'emplacement des installations traitant les déchets radioactifs.     

An extension of Marcia's Identity Status Interview into the interpersonal domain

This article describes an extension of Marcia's (1966) Identity Status Interview into three interpersonal domains: friendships, dating, and sex roles. The Identity Status Interview method is assessed favorably in terms of identity theory, justification for the three new sections is provided on the basis of theory and research on sex differences in adolescent identity, and methodological refinements in the interview are described. A study is reported in which the extended interview was administered to 41 male and 40 female high school juniors and seniors. Average percentage of exact agreement for ratings of exploration, commitment, and identity status was over 70% when two coders were used and over 94% when the ratings of two out of three coders were used. It is concluded that this extended interview is psychometrically sound and provides a method for assessing interpersonal issues salient to contemporary adolescents.This work was supported in part by a grant from the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Texas at Austin.Received his Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Minnesota. Main Interest is the influence of the family on adolescent personality development, especially identity and vocational interests.Doctoral candidate in counseling psychology, with special interst in sex roles and adult development.Received Ph.D. in community psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. Main interests include adult development, communities, and spiritual growth.     

Depression and suicidal ideation in early adolescents

This study sought to determine to what extent depression in young adolescents could be predicted by a variety of demographic and personality measures. A sample of 132 adolescents enrolled in junior high school completed a biographical data sheet, short forms of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), a Sensation- Seeking Scale (SSS), the Family Environment Scale (FES), a social support index (SSI), and a life stress inventory (LSI). The nondepressed group differed from the depressed group on a variety of variables, and stepwise multiple regression suggested a significant relationship between depression and life stress and an inverse relationship between depression and family cohesion.Received Ph.D. from University of North Dakota. Main research interests are family coping and child psychopathology.Received M.A. from University of Washington. Main research interests are adolescent depression and future self-concept.Received M.A. from University of Washington. Main research interests are Projective assessment of Personality.     

Why the revolution doesn't solve everything: What we can learn from the economics of ‘real’ socialism

In this paper I shall review some of the theoretical obstacles which the classical Marxist analysis of women's subordination placed in the path of the socialist movement when it attempted to solve the question of women's inequality in practice. I will also show how the particular path of socialist construction that the Eastern European countries chose helped to perpetuate the traditional division of roles between men and women and to create a chain reaction which appears to be impervious to the demands of ideology.     

Beyond anxiety and fantasy: The coital experiences of college youth

Counting virgins is described as social bookkeeping, a necessary but not sufficient task for social scientists. More important is the development of an understanding of the social processes which encourage or inhibit coital behavior. The analysis in this paper uses the socialbookkeeping approach to document the relatively stable rates of early and premarital coitus since the Kinsey report. The data are drawn from a 1972 study of 14–18-year-olds and a 1967 study of college students. When appropriate controls for educational attainment and age are introduced, it is shown that, in comparison to the change in rates at the beginning of the century, the rates since the 1940's have increased only a fourth as much. More importantly, coital behavior is shown to be still strongly linked to traditional patterns of restraint and facilitation. Traditional factors, such as relationships with parents and religious attendance, are shown to restrain early coital experience (defined as coitus before age 18), while factors linked to the courtship process such as dating frequency, facilitated this early behavior. During college both restraining and facilitating factors were operative, but levels of coital behavior in most cases stayed surprisingly low. Rates of frequent coitus rarely reached 40% among female college seniors and the proportion of college female seniors with three or more partners never reached 20%. The factors which encourage sexual activity during college are the courtship factorsdating behavior and being in love. In terms of initial coitus, women overwhelmingly report that they were in love with their partner. Given the relative stability of rates of early and premarital coitus and continuity of the role of courtship factors in facilitating this behavior, popular discussions of the contemporary sexual revolution are seen as being out of touch with reality and possibly inducing anxiety among young people when they do not experience the sexual revolution.Data analysis for this paper was carried out under NICHD grant HD 04156 and Illinois Law Enforcement Commission grant 2-09-25-0410-02, and also General Support Grant 5-SO1-RRO-5666-05.Received Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. Research interests include post childhood socialization, social change and deviance, and urban social studies.Received Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. Main research interests include adolescence, urban social studies, and adult socialization.Received Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. Main research interest is social change and deviance.     

Son of joe: Continuity and change among white working class adolescents

The present article focuses upon the much-neglected topic of white working class youth — the children of another other America. Based upon the available literature as well as upon a recent program of ethnographic research, the institutional settings — community, family, school — within which working class youth grow up are examined with particular emphasis on their climate and values. Attention is paid to the heterogeneity contained within this segment of the population pointing to four distinct types: collegians, greasers, hippies, and those encapsulated in family life. The article points to factors that promote a potential increase in residential social class homogeneity that, in turn, promotes class values, social and personal expectations, and modal relationships that increasingly diverge from the norms of an urban-industrial middle class society and that in considerable measure either contribute to a growing conservative alienation from the larger society or make adjustments to that society more problematic for its youth. The emergent picture of white working youth in part resembles that of youth in general, but in a more significant measure is much different from that found in either higher or lower social strata.This research was supported by USPHS-NIH Contract 70-511 and USPHS-NICHD Grant No. 04156.Received Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. Research interests include post childhood socialization, social change and deviance, and urban social studies.Received Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. Main research interest is social change and deviance.Candidate for Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University. Main research interests are social stratification, youth, and social change in an industrial society.