Non-competitive elections and national politics: The USSR Supreme Soviet elections of 1984

Elections to the ‘eleventh convocation’ of the USSR Supreme Soviet took place on 4 March 1984. The process by which the elections took place is examined in detail, from the calling of the election on 16 December 1983, through the nomination, approval and registration of the candidates, to the pre-election meetings with constituents and the poll itself. The level of turnout (99.99 per cent) and the vote in favour of the single list of candidates (99.94 and 99.95 per cent respectively for the two chambers) were in each case the highest in Soviet history; they must, however, be adjusted for the use of ‘absentee certificates’ and an apparent increase in the number of citizens not recorded on the electoral register. Elections without choice, as in the USSR. are not necessarily elections without political significance. Soviet elections appear in fact to perform at least three important functions: legitimation; political communication between regime and citizenry; and political mobilization and socialization. Given the increasing economic difficulties they are likely to face in the later 1980s and beyond, the Soviet authorities may be expected to make even more use of such mechanisms in the future in order to secure acceptance of their decisions without resort to overtly coercive means.     

Some relationships between sociopolitical ideology and moral character among college youth

This report is intended to clarify the relationship, observed in studies using Kohlberg's moral character model, between the character of college youth and their ideology. With a student sample, measures of three of Hogan's dimensions of moral character (moral judgment, socialization, and empathy) were correlated with sociopolitical ideology defined in terms of several indices of liberalismconservatism. Only the moral judgment dimension (ethics of social responsibility vs. ethics of personal conscience) as measured by Hogan 's Survey of Ethical Attitudes was related to ideology. These results indicate that in accordance with an ethics of responsibility, conservatives have a greater respect for the utility of rules in regulating human conduct and a greater tendency to attribute blame to the individual rather than the societal environment. The study provided no evidence to support conservative charges that radical youth possess delinquent predispositions or liberal and radical claims that conservatives are less concerned about the welfare of others.The research reported in this article was supported by a Faculty Research Fellowship awarded to the author for the summer of 1974 by the Research Foundation of the State University of New York.Received Ph.D. in 1973 from the Department of Psychology at The Johns Hopkins University. Major areas of interest are social psychology and the psychology of social issues.     

The political practice of genetic epistemology

Genetic epistemology is sometimes taken by those unfamiliar with it as a justification for a meritocracy of moral reasoning and the continued oppression of people employing reasoning at lower stages than those who seek to perpetuate the oppression. Whether this interpretation is praised or reviled, it remains erroneous. In particular, this misunderstanding is applied to attempts by genetic epistemologists to apply its insights to the construction of the larger social world. However, a genetic-epistemological politics is really characterized by a concern for maintaining systems permitting free discourse among moral agents. This article outlines the nature of the erroneous interpretations and discusses genetic epistemology's proper application to politics. Stephen chilton is assistant professor of political science at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, where he specializes in conceptual analysis in the fields of comparative politics and political psychology. He is the author ofDefining Political Development (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1988);Grounding Political Development (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1991); and (with Shawn Rosenberg and Dana Ward) ofPolitical Reasoning and Cognition: A Piagetian View (Duke University Press, 1988).     

The detection of group-specific component from urine samples

The detection of group-specific component (Gc) from serum and bloodstains has been widely used in the forensic laboratory. A recent increase in substituted or adulterated urine samples in various drug screening programs has necessitated methods to determine the donor. This paper discusses the detection of Gc from urine samples. The samples were concentrated and applied to ultrathin polyacrylamide gel and focused for 150 min. This method separates the samples into the three common phenotypes found in all human populations. A nitrocellulose membrane blotting technique was used to detect the Gc bands. Serum and urine samples were collected from each individual and were typed for Gc. Urine samples tested after 6 months of storage (4 degrees C) were still readable. This method provides the forensic laboratory with an additional test from a body fluid which, until recently, provided little information.     

Computerizing Accounting Systems in Developing Bureaucracies: Lessons from Kenya

Kenya's agriculture ministries are reforming their accounting systems and the reform includes computerization. This article examines the impact of computers on accounts and the lessons that can be drawn from Kenya about building computerized accounting systems.
Four propositions emerge about the impact of computers on the accounting systems. First and surprisingly, the initial impact of computers is indirect. Their primary impact is to strengthen the manual accounts which the ministries continue to rely upon. Second, computers promote effectiveness reforms by changing procedures, rather than efficiency reforms by accelerating the throughput of data with existing procedures. Third, computers do not initially promote document processing but do improve data processing. Fourth, computers do promote rudimentary analysis.
One conclusion from the Kenya case is that modular implementation of computerized accounting is helpful. Implementing modules rather than an integrated system means that accounting reforms can begin without waiting for lengthy procedural reforms. Modular implementation also facilitates agency involvement in the design of the system.