Constituency campaigning in parliamentary systems with preferential voting: Is there a paradox?

This paper sets out to show whether constituency campaign effects exist, particularly in the context of a preferential electoral system such as Australia's. Data from the 1993 Australian Election Study suggest that, despite the best efforts of the candidates, local campaigning has a very limited impact on the vote. The paper considers a range of possible explanations for this limited impact: displacement, MPs' perceptions of their role, sources of campaign information, the importance of party labels in Australia, party discipline. It concludes with an explanation for the apparent paradox of why candidates bother campaigning when it does not make a difference to their vote.     

Hans J. Morgenthau and the national interest

He is the author of Hans J. Morgenthau and the Ethics of American Statecraft,in addition to numerous articles on realism and American foreign policy. His most recent book is John Quincy Adams and the Public Virtues of the Diplomatist.     

Myth and reality: The causes and persistence of poverty

Policies directed at alleviating poverty rest on a set of assumptions regarding the demographic composition of the poor and the psychological dispositions of poor individuals. Evidence from a long-term study of a representative sample of low-income individuals shows that poverty is very widespread but not usually very persistent, and that the characteristics of the persistently poor do not conform to the conventional wisdom. Furthermore, the economic status of the poor does not appear to have been caused by psychological dispositions. Intergenerational data from the same study show generally weak links between the poverty or welfare status of parents and that of their children. Public policies for dealing with poverty can be properly devised without attempting to resocialize poor people and without undue concern that poverty programs will generate dependency among the majority of those they help.     

One Bad Apple May Not Spoil the Whole Bunch: Best Friends and Adolescent Delinquency

This study compared the association of adolescent delinquency with that of their best friend and remaining social network. Findings are reported from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a multi-wave nationally representative panel study of adolescents who were in grades 7–12 in 1994. Four delinquent outcomes were examined: Smoking, getting drunk, fighting, and a variety index of general delinquency. All analyses were replicated for three distinct criteria for identifying a “best friend.” We also examined several moderating factors and potential interrelationships between the best friend and remaining friendship group. Relative to the influence of the best friend, the influence of the remaining friendship group increased with group size, and with larger absolute disparities in delinquency levels between best and remaining friends. Our findings extend knowledge on the influence of best friends, and further underscore the importance of whether peer behaviors are measured directly (from the peers themselves) or indirectly (when focal respondents estimate the delinquent behavior of their peers).     

Book Reviews

Caring and Coping: A Guide to Social Services. By Anthony Douglas and Terry Philpot. Routledge, 1998. Pp.259. £14.99 pb.

The Personal Social Services: Clients, Consumers or Citizens? By Robert Adams. Longman, 1996. Pp.290. £13.99 pb.

Social Services: Working Under Pressure. Edited by Susan Balloch, John McLean and Mike Fisher (eds.). The Policy Press, 1999. Pp.216. £45 hb; £16.99 pb.

Managing State Social Work: Front‐line Management and the Labour Process Perspective. By John Harris. Ashgate, 1998. Pp.152. £32.50 hb.

Health Policy in Britain. By Christopher Ham. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 4th edn 1999. Pp.237. £16.99 pb.

Community Care: Policy and Practice. By Robin Means and Randall Smith. Macmillan, 2nd edn, 1998. Pp.285. £13.99 pb.

Community Care, Ideology and Social Policy. By Harry Cowen. Prentice Hall Europe, 1999. Pp.246. £13.95 pb.

Children and Social Welfare in Europe. By Keith Pringle. Open University Press, 1998. Pp.218. £45 hb; £14.99 pb.

The Politics of Old Age in Europe. Edited by Alan Walker and Gerhard Naegele. Open University Press, 1999. Pp.230. £50 hb; £16.99 pb.

Developments in European Social Policy: Convergence and Diversity. Edited by Rob Sykes and Pete Alcock. The Policy Press, 1988. Pp.318. £18.99 pb.     

South Africa

A look at the historical development of the Commonwealth and the effect the Zimbabwe issue, most recently, but also the issue of South Africa under apartheid, had on it.