The calculus of voting: An empirical test

Abstract. According to the rational choice model, the calculus of voting takes the form of the equation R = BP − C, where the net rewards for voting (R) are a function of the instrumental benefits from the preferred outcome compared to others (B) and the probability (P) of casting the decisive vote that secures these benefits, minus the costs of becoming informed and going to the polls (C). Here, we provide a systematic test of this model. The analysis relies on two surveys, conducted during the 1995 Quebec referendum and the 1996 British Columbia provincial election, in which very specific questions measured each element of the model. As well, this study incorporates two other factors that can affect the propensity to vote — Respondents' level of political interest and their sense of duty. We find that B, P, and C each matter, but only among those with a relatively weak sense of duty. The feeling that one has a moral obligation to vote is the most powerful motivation to go to the polls. We conclude that the rational choice model is useful, but only in explaining behaviour at the margins of this important norm.     

The Behavioral Effects of Environmental Regimes: Collective-Action vs. Social-Practice Models

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Most observers agree that institutions play significant roles both in causing and in confronting large scale environmental...     

Active living and biking: tracing the evolution of a biking system in Arlington, Virginia

In Arlington, Virginia, a steady evolutionary change in biking policy during the last three decades has yielded some of the nation's best biking assets. It has a comprehensive, well-connected, highly integrated, well-mapped, and well-signed system of shared-use paved trails, bike lanes, bike routes, and other biking assets, such as workplace showers. Understanding the conditions that led to Arlington's current biking system can provide lessons in the strategy and tactics of active-living politics. One potentially effective political strategy that was successful in Arlington is for activists to pressure elected officials to select professional managers who see bike-ways as crucial to the overall transportation system. Then it is important to formalize the government-citizen relationship through an advisory panel. Also, in Arlington, the incremental creation of biking assets helped create demand for more and better facilities. In turn, this created political support for expanding and upgrading. Finally, Arlington used potentially negative circumstances (e.g., the building of highway corridors, the introduction of the Metro) as opportunities to change the built environment in ways that have encouraged more active living.     

Psychological Injury: Systems, Change Processes, Development

This paper presents a model of chronic pain [Young and Chapman (Pain, affect, nonlinear dynamical systems, and chronic pain: Bringing order to disorder. In G. Young, A. W. Kane, & K. Nicholson (Eds.), Causality of psychological injury: Presenting evidence in court (pp. 197–241). New York: Springer, 2007)]. It includes extensive coverage of the systems perspective. The paper expands the model to medically unexplained symptoms and provides a developmental model of how these may unfold and influence adult presentation after events such as accidents. Similarly, the model is examined for the developmental roots of personality disorder. The paper examines other threats to validity of diagnosis in cases of psychological injury.     

Psychological abuse of women: Six distinct clusters

This study was designed to identify patterns of psychological abuse (abuse) and determine whether different patterns mediate the effects of violence and sexual aggression. Interviews were completed with 578 (80.3%) of 720 women who volunteered for a study of “bad” or “stressful” heterosexual relationships. Cluster analysis with 51 items assessing many types of subtle and overt psychological abuse identified six groups. Cluster 1 sustained the most serious abuse, violence, and sexual aggression, but partners did not denigrate women or control finances. Cluster 2 sustained serious abuse which was more subtle than the dominating-controlling abuse discussed by others and had moderate violence and sexual aggression scores. Cluster 3 scored relatively low on abuse but reported controlling types (e.g., isolation, enforced secrecy) and relatively little violence and sexual aggression. Cluster 4 sustained the least abuse, violence, and sexual aggression but the abuse was overt (e.g., criticism, several types of control). Clusters 5 and 6 were similar with high abuse and moderate violence and sexual aggression scores but they experienced very different types of abuse. Total psychological abuse, threats of violence, acts of violence, and sexual aggression scores made different contributions to women's health, help seeking, and relationship perceptions depending on the pattern of abuse they sustained. Results for each type of harmful act are discussed separately.     

以吉大旧工业区改造为契机,打造珠海中心商务区

珠海市吉大旧工业区在珠海旧工业区中规模最大,随着工业发展的重心西移,工业区已经逐渐走向衰落.而经过长期建设,吉大城区已形成为一个颇具规模的商贸区,具有很大的区位优势和发展潜力.我们建议:以吉大旧工业区改造为契机,把吉大城区打造成珠海的中心商务区,作为泛珠三角横琴经济合作区的强力支撑,并为"9 2"泛珠三角地区合作与交流提供最佳平台.珠海中心商务区的规划理念应该是高品位的,规划应体现科学先进性、经济可行性、交通规划的超前性和多元复合性.珠海中心商务区的投融资、开发建设、运作与管理都应该按照国际惯例操作,力争成为城市运营和管理的典范.     

The Political Theory of Reinvention

In this article, we examine the implications of the reinvention movement for democratic governance, broadly defined. The most basic premise of the reinvention movement is a belief that the accumulation of the narrowly defined self-interests of many individuals can adequately approximate the public interest. By "narrowly defined," we mean the interests of individuals as they privately apprehend them, unmediated by participation in a process of civic discourse. To illustrate the centrality of this assumption to the implicit theory of reinvention, we consider three of its elements—its use of the market model, its emphasis on customers rather than citizens, and its glorification of entrepreneurial management. We then examine the implications of the self-interest assumption, which entails a rejection of democratic citizenship, civic engagement, and the public interest, broadly conceived.     

Book reviews

Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, Instructions From the Centre. Top Secret Files on KGB Foreign Operations 1975-1985 (Hodder and Stoughton, 1991), 238pp.

Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky (eds.), More 'Instructions from the Centre': Top Secret Files on KGB Global Operations, 1975-1985 Intelligence and National Security (London, Frank Cass) 130pp. £24 hb.

Gunnar Skogmar, Nuclear Triangle: Relations between the United States, Great Britain and France in the Atomic Energy Field 1939-50 (Copenhagen, Political Studies Press, 1993), 240pp.

K.S. Sandhu, Sharon Siddique, Chandran Jeshurun, Ananda Rajah, Joseph L.H. Tan, Pushpa Thambipillai (eds.), The ASEAN Reader (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1992), xxvi + 582pp. S$58/ US$39.90 (soft cover); S$89/US$59.90 (hard cover). ISBN 981-981-3016-41-8 (soft cover), 981-3016-42-6 (hard cover).