The median and the competitive equilibrium in one dimension

Two alternative models of legislative outcomes are the minimum winning coalition and the competitive equilibrium (Koford, 1982). In a unidimensional setting, the outcome under the former is the median, while the outcome under the latter is the highest net demand location.This paper describes the competitive equilibrium in a unidimensional model, and shows that under some common conditions it coincides with the median, in particular for pure redistributive issues. However, for distributive issues, the two equilibria will differ. Finally, the comparative statics of the two models are examined; while the winning coalition is sensitive only to changes in the location of the median, for distributive issues the competitive equilibrium has the standard economic comparative statics that the outcome adjusts in the direction of the change in preferences.     

Practice-Relevant Research in Mediation: Toward a Reflective Research Paradigm

Donald Schön has advanced the notion that a systematic understanding of professional practice can be built on the reflective insights of skilled practitioners. The reflective practitioner paradigm is well suited to mediation research. A study of divorce mediation illustrates how Schön's seminal ideas can be translated into research procedures with broad applicability to a variety of mediation settings.     

The MacArthur Treatment Competence Study. II

This article reports the development and psychometric properties of three standardized and objectively scored measures, the MacArthur Treatment Competence Research Instruments. They were designed to assess abilities related conceptually to four legal standards for competence to consent to treatment: understanding, appreciation, rational manipulation (reasoning), and expressing a choice. Scoring reliability, internal consistency, intertest correlations, and test-retest correlations were examined with data from samples of hospitalized patients with schizophrenia, major depression, and ischemic heart disease, as well as matched non-ill community samples. The results indicate very good interscorer reliability and provide guidance for the use of the instruments and interpretation of their results in future research on patients' decisional abilities in treatment contexts.     

Interreligious conflict in Israel: The group basis of conflicting visions

Utilizing several theories of sociocultural mobilization, this paper examines the contours of secular-religious conflict in contemporary Israel. According to a survey of adult Israelis, resistance to religious coercion among the secular population is driven primarily by symbolic, social, and cognitive forces rather than perceived discrimination or the threat posed by spatial proximity to the religious. As such, it is rooted in cultural identity. The theocratic disposition among religious Israelis is almost entirely a matter of social identification. These findings both confirm existing theories of intergroup conflict and suggest a framework for analyzing religion and state controversies in other polities.     

Working with intergovernmental agreements – the Canadian and Australian experience

Abstract. Intergovernmental agreements represent one of the most significant yet least known or understood elements in the transformation of the Westminster system of government in the fédérations of Canada and Australia. They have come into being for a variety of reasons and to serve many purposes but their proliferation has been gradual, constant and silent. The central problem is the question of who is to be held accountable for the création and implementation of these agreements, to whom, and in what manner. For die most part such agreements are designed away from public scrutiny by the executive and implemented for fixed periods of time by methods which escape any searching analysis or debate in municipal, provincial, or national parliaments. Public servants are intimately involved in this process. This paper examines the reasons why intergovernmental agreements come into being, their nature and purpose, and the problems they have caused in the two countries. A number of solutions are suggested to overcome these problems before the situation becomes completely out of control. Sommaire. Les accords intergouvernementaux représentent l'un des elements les plus importants, et pourtant l'un des moins connus, de la transformation du systeme Westminster de gouvernement dans les fédérations du Canada et de l'Australie. Leurs raisons d'etre et leurs objectifs sont multiples mais leur proliferation, toujours progressive et constante, a été passée sous silence. Le principal probléme est de savoir qui détient la responsabilité de la création et de la mise en oeuvre de ces accords, a qui et comment il faut en rendre compte. lis sont, pour la plupart, concus par I'exeeutif, loin du public et mis en vigueur pour des périodes de temps définies, en se servant de méthodes qui les dérobent a l'analyse et aux débats des parlements municipaux, provinciaux ou nationaux. Les fonctionnaires participent de très près à ce processus. L'auteur de cette communication examine les raisons d'etre de ces accords intergouvernementaux, leur nature et leur but, ainsi que les problèmes qu'ils ont causes dans les deux pays. II propose un certain nombre de solutions pour surmonter ces derniers avant qu'il n'existe plus aucun moyen de reprendre la situation en main.     

Fuller on legal fictions

What are legal fictions? Professor Lon Fuller discussed the matter at some length. One interpretation of his answer is this: they are lies that are not intended to deceive. This solution fails, in the end, to be convincing. But some remarks of Fuller provide the clue to another way of looking at the problem: fictions are means of changing the application of the law by relying on a tension between two classifications of fact.     

Book reviews

A. L. Meiendorf, Optimizatsiya khozyaistvennykh reshenii: metod analiza prirashchenii. Series: Aktual'nye problemy sel'skogo khozyaistva. Moscow: ‘Ekonomika’, 1976.

Oliver H. Radkey, The Unknown Civil War in Soviet Russia. A Study of the Green Movement in the Tambov Region, 1920–21. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution, 1976. xiv+457 pp. $12.95.

Roy and Zhores Medvedev, Khrushchev—The Years in Power. London: OUP, 1977. xi+198 pp. £3.95.

Daniel F. Calhoun, The United Front: the TUC and the Russians, 1923–1928. Cambridge: CUP, 1976. 450 pp. £10.50.

Gabriel Gorodetsky, The Precarious Truce. Anglo‐Soviet Relations 1924–27. Cambridge: CUP, 1977. 289 pp. £9.00.

Herbert S. Dinerstein, The Making of a Missile Crisis: October 1962. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins UP, 1976. 302 pp. $14.95.

Donald R. Kelley, Kenneth R. Stunkel, Richard R. Wescott, The Economic Superpowers and the Environment: The United States, The Soviet Union, and Japan. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman & Co., 1976. 335 pp.

Fred Singleton (ed.), Environmental Misuse in the Soviet Union. New York and London: Praeger Publishers, 1976. xvii+103 pp. $13.50. £8.80.

Peter H. Juviler, Revolutionary Law and Order. Politics and Social Change in the USSR. New York: The Free Press, and London: Collier MacMillan, 1976. xii+274 pp. £11.05.

Richard Szawlowski, The System of the International Organizations of the Communist Countries. Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff, 1976. 322 pp.

Jürg Meister, Soviet Warships of the Second World War. London: Macdonald & Jane, 1977. 348 pp. £7.95.     

Efficacy, Self-Derogation, and Alcohol Use Among Inner-City Adolescents: Gender Matters

Prior studies have found inconsistent relationships between measures of self-concept and adolescent alcohol use. The current study explored whether the link between various measures of self-concept and alcohol use depends on gender. In addition, earlier work suggested a focus on negative self-esteem (i.e., self-derogation) might be more useful in predicting alcohol use. Students (N = 1459) attending 22 middle and junior high schools in New York City completed surveys that included measures of efficacy, self-derogation, and alcohol use. Participants completed surveys at baseline, 1-year follow-up, and 2-year follow-up. Data collectors administered the questionnaire following a standardized protocol during a regular 40-min-class period. On the basis of a longitudinal structural equation model, lower efficacy was related to greater self-derogation a year later across gender. Increased self-derogation predicted higher alcohol use for girls but not boys. These findings are congruent with a literature highlighting the importance of negative thoughts about the self in drinking behavior for women but not men. The results suggest that the alcohol prevention approaches should include material to enhance girls' self-esteem.