Population: malady or symptom?

The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) opened the dawn of a new era in discourse over population. A newfound consensus was reached between North and South which was not there during the two previous world population conferences in Bucharest and Mexico. While consensus was reached at the 1994 ICPD on the need for action, however, debate over population is far from settled. Causes of population growth, the links between population growth and economic development, and environmental degradation remain controversial topics. The authors analyze the basis of the ICPD consensus at the local, national, and global levels. They also compare the development discourse to the political discourse over population. Both discourses emphasize different aspects of a far more complex reality. The question is which discourse to choose as a basis for drawing policy recommendations. The emerging view on the way to Cairo was that consensus would be achieved on the basis of development discourse. Success on the action plan rests upon the belief that more contraceptives, more health services, and more schools will be enough to reduce fertility rates. The political discourse, however, is better than the development discourse as a basis for policy making because it stresses the need for integration rather than running the risk of exclusion. The political discourse is also more demanding.     

Ethos,ideology, and partisanship: Exploring the paradox of conservative democrats

Despite the increasingly liberal cast of the national Democratic Party, self-identified conservatives continue to represent a significant segment of the party. At least 25 percent of Democratic identifiers considered themselves to be conservatives during the 1972–1988 period. This paper explores the puzzle of why significant numbers of political conservatives continue to identify with the Democratic Party. We argue that conservative Democrats relate to their party not because of political ideology, as do Republicans and to a lesser extent, liberal/moderate Democrats, but because of the symbolic values associated with the main groups in the party—what we refer to as party ethos. This proposition is examined by analyzing a new set of open-ended questions included in the 1988 American National Election Study probing citizens' images and assessments of the Republican and Democratic parties.The data utilized in this paper were made available by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. The data forAmerican National Election Study 1988: Pre- and Post-Election Survey were originally collected by Warren E. Miller and the National Election Studies. Neither the collector of the original data nor the Consortium bears any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here.