The Impact of Elections on Cooperation: Evidence from a Lab‐in‐the‐Field Experiment in Uganda

Communities often rely on sanctioning to induce public goods contributions. Past studies focus on how external agencies or peer sanctioning induce cooperation. In this article, we focus instead on the role played by centralized authorities, internal to the community. Combining “lab‐in‐the‐field” experiments with observational data on 1,541 Ugandan farmers from 50 communities, we demonstrate the positive effect of internal centralized sanctioning authorities on cooperative behavior. We also show that the size of this effect depends on the political process by which authority is granted: subjects electing leaders contribute more to public goods than subjects who were assigned leaders through a lottery. To test the ecological validity of our findings, we relate farmers’ behavior in the experiment to their level of cooperation in their community organization. We show that deference to authority in the controlled setting predicts cooperative behavior in the farmers’ natural environment, in which they face a similar social dilemma.     

Estimating Age of Majority on Third Molars Developmental Stages in Young Adults from Thailand Using a Modified Scoring Technique*

Abstract: The aim of this study was to achieve a referral database for dental age estimation of unaccompanied minors of Thai nationality. A total of 1199 orthopantomograms were collected from original Thai women and men equally divided in age categories between 15 and 24 years. On the radiographs, the developmental stage of the third molars was scored applying a modified scoring technique. Inter- and intra-observer reliabilities were tested using kappa statistics. Correlation between the scores of all four wisdom teeth and left–right symmetry were evaluated with Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Student’s t-test on asymmetry was performed and regression formulas were calculated. The present database was the first to assemble third molar developmental scores on radiographs of Thai individuals and provides more appropriate dental age estimation of unaccompanied Thai minors. Future research on similar databases of different nationalities worldwide may expose ethnical influences on dental development.     

La responsabilisation du patient dans un contexte de télésoins à domicile

Sommaire: La volonté de transformation du système de santé est propice à une recrudescence du discours public sur la responsabilisation du patient. Les technologies d'information et de communication (tic ) sont régulièrement envisagées comme moyens pouvant permettre au patient d'exercer un rôle accru dans la prise en charge des questions de santé. Ce texte vise à cerner le sens de la responsabilisation dans un contexte de télésoins à domicile. L‘étude d'un service de suivi à domicile met en lumière l'un des quatre paradigmes d'interprétation de la responsabilisation du patient: le paradigme professionnel qui est orienté vers l'habilitation en matière de santé. Par une double lecture représentant les approches sociologique et psychologique, cette étude montre les possibilités et les limites d'une technologie de télésoins à domicile par rapport à six principales variables: accès aux connaissances; développement d'une réflexion argumentée; influence sur l'action ou la décision; compétence perçue; contrôle perçu; et intériorisation des buts. Les résultats permettent d'observer le haut niveau d'exigence que représenterait une initiative visant l’émergence de patients informés et compétents. Surtout des patients “experts” dans une vision de la responsabilisation fondée sur la reconnaissance du caractère holistique des connaissances, du principe d'autonomie de pensée et du potentiel d'influence du patient sur une variété de décisions. En conclusion, sont précisées les implications qu'ont ces résultats sur la gestion du système public de santé. Abstract: The willingness to transform the health care system is conducive to a new wave of public discourse on patient empowerment. Information and communications technologies (ict ) are regularly considered as means that allow the patient to exercise increased control in addressing health issues. This text aims at examining this phenomenon within the tele‐homecare context. The study of a follow‐up home‐care service highlights one of the four paradigms of the interpretation of patient empowerment: the professional paradigm that is health empowerment‐oriented. By using both a sociological and a psychological approach, the study identifies the possibilities and limitations of tele‐homecare technology, based on six major variables: access to knowledge, development of critical thinking, personal impact on action or decision, perceived competency, perceived control, and internalization of goals. The results show the high level of requirements needed for an initiative that would produce informed, competent and, most importantly, “expert” patients according to a vision of empowerment based on the recognition of the holistic nature of knowledge, the principle of autonomous thinking, and the patient's potential impact on a variety of decisions. In conclusion, the article defines the implications of these results in terms of the management of the public health system.     

Anthropological Measurement of the Juvenile Clavicle Using Multi‐Detector Computed Tomography—Affirming Reliability

Currently, there is no standardized protocol for multi‐detector computed tomography (MDCT) measurement of juvenile remains. Using 33 juvenile clavicles, this paper investigates a protocol to allow MDCT measurements, comparable or supplemental with traditional osteometric measurements, to be acquired for application to previously published algorithms. The results illustrate that there is no significant difference between MDCT measurements and those taken by direct osteometric methods. By presenting such a protocol, this paper takes the first steps toward validation of the process of conversion from measurement of dry juvenile bone to MDCT compatibility and allows the forensic world to take a step forward in standardizing the way MDCT is used for forensic practice. This paper assesses the limitations and potential applications of this virtual approach and offers some suggestions for where further work might progress the conversion of these new approaches into legally admissible anthropological techniques of age estimation.     

Are We There Yet? Religion,Secularization and Liberal Democracy in Israel

Secularism and liberalism are often perceived as interlinked and associated with the process of modernization and liberal democracy. Yet recent studies of Israel cast doubts on this linkage as in spite of a rapid secularization of some parts of the public sphere anti-liberal and ethnocentric attitudes remain entrenched, encouraging some to call Israel a ‘non-liberal democracy’. This article seeks to explain these contradictions by, first, arguing that religion remains instrumental to the national discourse and to practices of demarcating boundaries and, second, that ethnic groups hold different perceptions of religion and attach different importance to religious rituals. Finally, secularization, as the Israeli case demonstrates, remains within the confines of a national discourse, differs between ethnic groups, and advances only with a limited commitment to religious freedom, to toleration associated with liberalism and, consequently, to a liberal democracy.     

Hard choices in hard times: Valence voting in Germany (2009)

Recent studies of voting behavior in Anglo-American elections have demonstrated the clear superiority of the valence model over its rivals for explaining how people cast their ballots. In this paper we test the portability of the valence model in a particularly challenging setting the 2009 German Parliamentary elections. Although there are reasons to think that a spatial model might outperform the valence model, we find that the valence model outperforms it with results similar to previous findings in other political settings.     

The Domestic Sources of Israel's Decision to Launch the 1956 Sinai Campaign

This article examines Israel's decision to launch the 1956 campaign against Egypt. While the current literature tends to argue that, in 1956, the campaign was a response by Israel to security threats, it is suggested here that, if so, these threats certainly did not predetermine any specific response. Israel could, for example, have responded by adopting a defensive posture. In reality, domestic factors were just as influential as external ones. The most important of these was the severe economic crisis caused by mass immigration to Israel during 1948–1951. This crisis in turn led to the creation in 1953–1956 of a war coalition whose three components—David Ben-Gurion (Prime Minister and Minister of Defence), MAPAI's party bosses and the army—had different interests but shared the idea of a war against Israel's Arab neighbours as a way in which each could advance its preferred aims.