Resource allocation and agrarian class formation: The problem of social mobility among Russian peasant households, 1880–1930

The relationship between social mobility processes and the development of bourgeois social classes in the pre‐collective Russian peasantry has occupied an important place in recent discussion. On one level the discussion has concerned the ‘specificity’ of the peasantry; this is expressed in two quotations which preface the article. On another level discussion has concerned the use of agrarian statistics to establish the scale and significance of both class differentiation and of inter‐class mobility. It is argued below that the knowledge embodied in agrarian statistics can only be understood in relation to the theories of the statisticians. Theoretically reconstructed, the statistics throw new light upon the roles of underdevelopment and patriarchy in processes of class differentiation within the Russian peasantry.     

Does a commodity economy enrich the few while ruining the masses? Differentiation among petty commodity producers in guatemala

In this paper I discuss the way in which rural artisans in one municipio of Guatemala organize production and how this organization impedes the differentiation of the artisanal population into owners and workers. I show that categories of owners and workers exist in the municipio, but that these categories do not reproduce themselves as classes; instead, they reproduce each other through the life cycle. In order to explain this phenomenon, I look at internal relations of production, the external environment of large‐scale capital, and the role of migration and the stale in the creation of a permanent Guatemalan proletariat and in the creation of an undifferentiated artisanal economy.     

Determinants of attitudes toward police of Latino immigrants and non-immigrants

Though much attention has been given to the effect of ethnicity on perceptions of the police, few studies had focused on Latino immigrants. Using research conducted in an immigrant rich area, this study examined the possibility that determinants of attitudes toward the police differ across immigrants and non-immigrants. Using several statistical techniques, this article explores the impact of the most commonly used variables (e.g., age, gender, contact with the police) as well as those most associated with immigrants (e.g., language proficiency, religiosity, residential stability). Other variables used to assess various social processes (e.g., social cohesion, informal social control, neighboring and civic behavior) were also included. The findings revealed variations in determinants of attitudes toward the police between immigrants and non-immigrants, and suggest distinct social processes may account for these differences. These findings suggest that both researchers and policymakers must expand their breadth to more fully understand immigrant attitudes toward the police.     

Contrast and Foundation of the Public Oversight Roles of the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.K. National Audit Office

This paper examines and compares, according to the New Public Management approach, the U.S. watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, in its ability to oversee and call to account the executive branch of government, and its U.K. counterpart, the National Audit Office. Results of this examination indicate that the Government Accountability Office is more effective than its U.K. counterpart. Its greater effectiveness is attributable to the fact that it derives its powers and legitimacy from a written constitution; in contrast, in the United Kingdom there is no equivalent document defining the relationship between the state and the citizenry. As a consequence, the powers, duties, and self-perception of the National Audit Office are significantly weaker and more mutable than those of the Government Accountability Office.