Shaping Political Preferences: Information Effects in Political-Administrative Systems

Information is at the heart of politics. However, since information is always sent by someone who is more or less powerful, it is difficult to disentangle the effect of information from the power of the sender. Drawing on a standard model of attitude formation, we argue that presenting information can affect preferences of politicians regardless of the power of the sender. We test this proposition in a survey experiment with 1205 Danish local politicians in which the experimental groups were presented with varying levels of cost information but where sender remained constant. The experiment shows that even in a setting where the information is not disclosed by a powerful sender, information may have a stronger impact on political preferences than other well-known determinants such as committee and party affiliation. Our findings speak to learning theories, knowledge perspectives and the literature on the determinants of politicians’ preferences.     

The Rise of Dark Americana: Depicting the “War on Terror” On-Screen

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks the American film industry took a while to react to the Islamist threat at home and abroad. From 2005, however, Hollywood responded to the threat to the homeland and the War on Terror “over there” in Iraq and Afghanistan in a variety of ways. This article examines the nature of that response and whether it evinces, as critics allege, that the American film industry reflects and shapes a capitalist and imperialist agenda. More particularly, by evaluating the cinematic treatment of both the Iraq war and the problem of surveillance, rendition, and homeland security, the analysis explores what this distinctive on-screen genre tells about how the U.S. cultural mainstream has dealt with the challenge global jihadism poses to American values. The analysis suggests that post-9/11 movie making, while sometimes bleak and often clichéd, is cognizant of the gray area morality inherent in fighting the “War on Terror,” and is still thus able to offer some possibilities for sophisticated reflection.     

“It's Just an Image,Right?”: Practitioners’ Understanding of Child Sexual Abuse Images Online and Effects on Victims

Child sexual abuse images online (CSAIO) present new and daunting challenges for practitioners working in the field of child sexual abuse (CSA). Current understanding of the phenomenon is severely limited due to a lack of theoretical and empirical research in the area. This article reports findings from a study that examined practitioners’ experiences with, and views of, CSAIO. Participants differed in how they conceptualized what constituted online CSA images and held varying degrees of concern regarding the potential effects of CSAIO on the child. Some practitioners were uncertain about whether child victims of CSAIO experience particular effects different from or over and above those caused by conventional (non-Internet related) CSA. A key finding was that most practitioners did not have a clear understanding of CSAIO. This article includes recommendations for future research regarding the implications of technology in the field of CSA.     

Mary Bridges Adams and education reform, 1890-1920: an ethics of care?

This article uses biographical inquiry to piece together the political career of Mary Bridges Adams, who made a name for herself through her work as an educator-activist, a hundred years ago. The objective is to rethink and re-see the place of the personal in academic study and research in the field of education. After briefly reviewing recent developments in theoretical and research uses of auto/biography, the discussion revolves around three main issues: (1) the values and practices of a woman who moved from earning and learning as a pupil-teacher to elementary teaching to political action; (2) her entry into labour politics; and (3) her educational activism. It is argued that the organised activism of the socialist profiled here can be analysed in terms of the idea of the caring subject. Her story not only contributes to an understanding of what it meant to be a socialist woman in this period but shifts our understanding of the left and educational politics itself.     

Book reviews

B.J.C. McKercher, Transition of Power: Britain's Loss of Global Pre-eminence to the United States, 1930-45, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999, xii + 403, £40, ISBN 0521 440 904

Joseph A. Maiolo, The Royal Navy and Nazi Germany, 1933-39: A Study in Appeasement and the Origins of the Second World War (London, MacMillan Press Ltd., 1998), xii + 259 pp. £?? ISBN 0-333-72007-5.

William I. Hitchcock, France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe, 1944-54, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1998, pp.291. £37.50 hardback, £14.50 paperback.

R. Holland, Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus 1954-1959 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998). 347 pp. £48 hb. ISBN 0-19-820538-4.

Michael L. Krenn, Black Diplomacy: African Americans and the State Department 1945-1969 (London: M.E. Sharpe, 1999). Viii + 223pp. £15.95 pb. ISBN 0-7656-0381-0

Jerrold L. Schecter, Russian Negotiating Behavior (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1998). 225 pp. ISBN: 1-878379-78-X.     

Re-centring British Government: Beliefs, Traditions and Dilemmas in Political Science

Bevir and Rhodes have offered a useful addition to the tools of political scientists by developing an interpretivist approach to political science. Interpretation is a crucial mechanism for understanding the social world but one that has been underused in political analysis. This article welcomes Bevir and Rhodes' emphasis on interpretivism but suggests that there are a number of problems in the way they use the approach. In particular: they use a narrow definition of interpretivism; they caricature the nature of existing work in political science; the concept of tradition does too much work; and they pay insufficient attention to power and power relations.