Lawyers' Roles in Voluntary Associations: Declining Social Capital?

The extent and nature of lawyers'participation in civic life probably has important effects on the character of the community's activity and its out-comes. Where and how lawyers participate in voluntary associations may influence the ability of those organizations to function within the larger structure of American institutions.
This paper compares findings from two surveys of Chicago lawyers, the first conducted in 1975 and the second in 1994-95. Contrary to some expectations, the available evidence does not suggest that community activities of lawyers decreased. Moreover, lawyers'energies in 1995 appear to have been devoted more often to socially concerned organizations, those with a reformist agenda, than had been the case in 1975. The types of organizations with the greatest increase in activity were religious and civic associations. A smaller percentage of the respondents held leadership positions in 1995 than in 1975, but, because of a doubling in the number of lawyers, the best estimate is that the bar's absolute level of contribution to community leadership did not change greatly.
In both 1975 and 1995, a hierarchy of social prestige appears to have influenced the pattern of lawyers'community activities. Lawyers who had higher incomes, were middle-aged, were Protestants, and who had attended elite law schools were more likely to be active or leaders in most kinds of organizations. In ethnic and fraternal organizations, however, the elites of the profession had relatively low rates of participation, while government lawyers, solo practitioners, and graduates of less prestigious law schools predominated. Status hierarchies within the broader community—as well as social differences in taste, preference, or "culture"—clearly penetrate the bar.     

Whose shortage of affordable housing?

Abstract

Shortfalls of low‐rent units are repeatedly cited as the rationale for programs to expand the supply of affordable housing. But the poverty‐level rents studied fall well below those of major supply programs. To reassess whether HOME and the low‐income housing tax credit (LIHTC) address actual shortfalls, this article compares numbers of units with renters by measuring both affordability and incomes with the median‐income‐based metric used for all federal rental programs.

During the 1980s, there were growing surpluses of units affordable to renters with incomes between 50 and 80 percent of their area's median income, a “low‐income” range that includes most HOME and LIHTC rents. By contrast, shortages were severe and growing only at rents affordable to households with incomes below 30 percent of area median. Examination of these shortfalls and the problems they create implies that programs to expand supply are not widely needed.     

“The United States Stands Ready to Be of Assistance”: On the Politics and Humanitarianism of Natural Disaster

This article asks how American understandings of foreign natural disaster have evolved over time. Are the political and humanitarian concerns surrounding disaster and disaster aid radically different now from what they were a century ago? Through an analysis of presidential statements and major newspaper editorials following foreign natural disaster, I find that there has indeed been significant change. Notions of post-disaster humanitarianism have broadened significantly, with, among other things, disaster aid going from being discussed as an act of charity to an understood responsibility. Furthermore, the political side of foreign natural disaster has moved beyond the political effects of disaster itself to include the political causes of “natural” disaster and the political causes and effects of disaster aid. These and other patterns are used to consider the relationship between politics and humanitarianism more generally.     

Conflict in a changing world: Looking two decades forward

This article begins by outlining the likely changes in the strategic environment over the next 20 years, first globally than by regions. It goes on to offer some propositions on the nature of future conflict, given the perceived preference in the West for limited, low‐cost interventions. Most recent wars did not begin as inter‐state conflicts, and future ones will follow this trend. The characteristics of intra‐state conflicts are then examined in detail, particularly the effects of asymmetries on policies and perceptions: between states with widely differing capabilities, between states and non‐state actors, and in particular those involving guerrilla and terrorist movements.     

In the wake of revolution: Eastern Europe in the 1990s

Summary

A ‘new world order’ and a ‘Europe whole and free’ are phrases that epitomize the hopeful rhetoric born of East European revolutions in 1989. In the three years since we were awed by the courage of citizens disgusted with communist party rule, and surprised by the rapidity of such regimes’ demise, socio‐economic and political realities have dimmed hopes and constrained expectations. The work of building free governments and free markets after decades of neglect and abuse faces East Europeans in the 1990s and beyond.

The dangers suggested above are not hyperbole, and represent real and present threats to the hopes of Poles, Romanians, and the other people, for better futures. Comparisons across the region are much less valid than at any time in the last half century. Nevertheless, the goals of post‐communist leaders ‐ security, democracy and market ‐ face similar extraordinary challenges that can easily derail these processes. Americans and our longstanding allies cannot ensure the survival and further development of East European democracy, but we must certainly be more engaged in helping them help themselves.