Economic influences on legislative elections in multiparty systems: France and Italy

For the United States, the issue of the impact of aggregate economic conditions on legislative election returns has received extensive research. For European countries, however, research is much less plentiful. In particular, multiparty systems such as France and Italy lack study. For both these nations, we find that worsening aggregate economic conditions significantly increase the legislative vote for leftist parties, which have traditionally played an opposition role. Further, these models seem strong enough to provide good prediction of the actual legislative vote share. For example, they manage to forecast the 1981 victory of the left in France, and the 1980 Communist party support in Italy.     

The experience of stress for correction officers: A double-bind theory of correctional stress

This study investigated the experience of stress for 143 mostly male New Jersey correction officers, including officers from both state and county, of all ranks, and with varying lengths of service. Each filled in a questionnaire eliciting information regarding perceptions of stress in themselves and others, situational and temporal experience of correctional stress, consequences in terms of physical health, emotional and interpersonal relations, and job performance, perceptions of sources of correctional stress, and coping techniques utilized. While objective indicators such as physical illnesses and high divorce rates suggested that the job was indeed a stressful one, the correction officers presented a tough, “macho” image, denying their stress and its consequences, although they were more willing to report stress-related problems in their fellow workers. While they identified officer-inmate interaction as their major situation of stress, they attributed their problems in this area to administrative malfunctions which place them in a classic double-bind predicament in relation to rule enforcement. Their powerlessness in this situation is rendered especially stressful by the macho working personality which the job requires of them.     

Robustness of subjective welfare analysis in a poor developing country: Madagascar 2001

We analyse the subjective perceptions of poverty in Madagascar in 2001 and their relationship to objective poverty indicators. We base our analysis on survey responses to a series of subjective perception questions. We extend the existing empirical methodology for estimating subjective poverty lines on the basis of categorical consumption adequacy questions. Based on this methodology, we calculate the household-specific, subjective poverty lines. We are able to compare between the results of subjective poverty analysis using several types of subjective welfare questions. Our results show that the aggregate poverty measures derived from consumption adequacy questions accord quite well with the poverty measures based on objective poverty lines. We demonstrate that the subjective welfare analysis can be used in poor developing countries for evaluating socio-economic and distributional impacts of various policy interventions.     

The Arguments from Coherence: Analysis and Evaluation

In this article, the theory of argumentation set out by theDutch scholars Frans van Eemeren and Rob Grootendorst is broughtto bear in subjecting the general form of the argument fromcoherence to a critical analysis. First, a distinction is broughtout between two basic kinds of argument from coherence: in oneuse this argumentative structure occurs as a sequence of twoarguments establishing that a standpoint constitutes a particularinstantiation or a inherent quality of the system it will becomepart of (symptomatic argument); in the other use we have a mainsymptomatic argument supported by a subordinate argument appealingto instrumental considerations (pragmatic argument). It is thenclaimed that arguments from coherence are complex types of argumentation,structured at various argumentative levels, where the premisesmust be taken together to yield an adequate defence of the conclusion(coordinative argumentation). Finally, an evaluative assessmentis made as to whether arguments from coherence can serve acceptablyas tools for settling disputes: it will be maintained that wecan generally welcome these argumentative structures as soundand fully acceptable provided we are aware of the interpretivediscretion their use entails.     

Eric W. Orts and Kurt Deketelaere (eds.) 2001. Environmental Contracts: Comparative Approaches to Regulatory Innovation in the United States and Europe. The Hague: Kluwer Law.

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics -     

The implementation of the EU Transparency Obligations Directive--a country-by-country analysis

Dr Axel Gehringer Hengeler Mueller Stefano Cuccia Head of Market Supervision, TLX, Milan David Byers McCann FitzGerald, Solicitors, Dublin Henri Wagner and Anne-Marie Thomas Allen & Overy, Luxembourg Petra Zijp and Matthieu van Straaten NautaDutilh NV, Amsterdam José Manuel Cuenca and Yolanda Azanza Clifford Chance Daniel Bushner and Jonathan Parry Ashurst, London The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.