Informing Policy-Making at Sub-Local Authority Spatial Levels: Using Small Area Micro-Data from the 2001 Census

This article discusses how the release of small area microdata (SAM) from the 2001 UK Population Census could help provide better information in the policy-making process at sub-local authority spatial levels. An experimental set of SAM from the 1991 Census, provided by National Statistics, was used to develop a methodology which can provide SAM estimates of the effects of area at ward level, and can separate these spatial effects from compositional influences due to characteristics of the local area population. These SAM-based results appear to be at variance with census tabular data. It is concluded that 2001 Census SAM could provide an important further source of information for improved policy and target setting at the local area level.     

Partisan self-interest and electoral reform: The new Italian electoral law of 2005

In December 2005, Italy's mixed-member electoral system was replaced with a system of bonus-adjusted proportional representation. The reform conformed with rational-choice models in that it was imposed by the ruling coalition, which sought to bolster its own power interests. But the case illustrates the impossibility of reducing such power-based motivation to a single goal, such as seat maximization. Power is shaped by many factors, and electoral systems influence many of these. This article develops a theoretical framework for understanding the various power-oriented considerations that may operate in electoral reform. It then analyses the role these played in Italy. It argues, in particular, for the need to take account of coalition dynamics when studying such processes.     

Paths between Positivism and Interpretivism: An Appraisal of Hay's Via Media

Hay's Political Analysis raises foundational issues for all social scientists, not least in its outline for a via media , or middle way, between positivist and interpretivist social science. In this view, social science should be firmly grounded in empirical study but take seriously the notion that there is no privileged vantage point from which to generate dispassionate knowledge claims about the social world. This article asks whether this apparent via media is coherent and meaningfully captures what it means to be doing positivist and interpretivist social science without, so to speak, conceding too much ground to the other approach.