‘What is to be done?’ Anticipating the future and mobilizing prudence

Various social and political factors often block the emergence of good ideas — e.g., the presence of an overbearing leader, the loquaciousness of some actors and the shyness of others, conventional and doctrinal thinking, the political climate, etc. — and devices have been invented to overcome some of these obstacles in decisionmaking settings: the Delphi technique, idea writing, and the nominal group technique are all front-end operations designed to encourage the blossoming of possible solutions to problems. Devices for generating ideas have not been helpful in coping with the volumes of ideas produced, however, and this had led some theorists to give up on the human mind as a solver of problems. Following a summary of the factors impeding rationality in decisional settings, the advantages of Q methodology are presented, and a case study is described in which Q, in conjunction with front-end operations, has been used to assist groups in clarifying their own perspectives and in gaining access to collective wisdom (political prudence) for purposes of problem solving.

(Aristotle,Metaphysics)

Revised from a paper read at a meeting of the Policy Sciences Annual Institute, School of Law, Yale University, October 16–18, 1992, and at a meeting of the International Society for the Scientific Study of Subjectivity, University of Missouri, Columbia, October 7–9, 1993. We are grateful for the helpful comments from reviewers for this journal.     

Single-issue voting: Elite-mass linkages

In this paper we consider the abortion and E.R.A. issues as examples of single-issue politics, as well as the nature of single-issue politics in general. We argue that many single issues are what others have called easy issues but that hard-issue voting as well as easy-issue voting may be occurring on both issues. We test this hypothesis using both mass and elite data sets. Our findings suggest that political activists may be cuing the masses into a pattern of single-issue voting, and hence keeping the battle over abortion and the E.R.A. intense.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1981 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, New York, September 3–6, 1981.     

State Tax Cuts of 1995: Is Something New Afoot?

Perhaps the hottest fiscal topic in state capitals in 1995 was tax cuts. When legislatures convened in January, it appeared possible that states were on the verge of an unprecedented wave of tax cuts. The Republican landslide of November 1994 swept into office many new governors and legislators who had campaigned on reducing taxes. Governor Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey was considered a role model by many of them. Perhaps state tax policy was about to take a major new direction. According to some reports, that is precisely what happened. For example, Stephen Moore, Director of Fiscal Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, wrote the following introduction to his overview of state tax policies:1 1995 is shaping up to be the biggest tax-cutting year in more than 10 years…. [T]he supply side philosophy that low tax rates and expenditure controls are the key fiscal tools to state economic competitiveness now appears to be the new governing philosophy in state capitals from Albany to Sacramento. The Pete Wilson, Lowell Weicker, Jim Florio soak-the-rich philosophy of the early 1990s has been nearly universally repudiated across the states. Meanwhile, “Whitmanomics,” named after tax-cutting Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, is spreading rapidly to other states. In fact, there was a wave of state tax cuts in 1995 with about half of the states enacting reductions of some kind. But it appears premature to draw the strong conclusion that this marked a radical change in state fiscal policy. State legislatures trimmed or rejected most of the proposals for large tax cuts. Most of the 1995 tax cuts were small or modest in size Rather than a new departure, they are consistent with past policies at similar points in the business cycle. It is also possible, however, that something new really is afoot. Conservative anti-tax forces are gaining strength in the states, just as they are at the federal level. If it were not for prospective federal aid cuts, state tax policy really might become more conservative. But the shift of federal responsibilities to states will represent a formidable obstacle to large state tax cuts in the coming years. This article places the tax cuts of 1995 in perspective. It begins with a detailed discussion of ambiguities'in defining and measuring tax reductions and increases. This discussion can be applied to any time period and will remain relevant after concern     

The relationship between body shape satisfaction and self-esteem: An investigation of gender and class differences

This study examined the body shape satisfaction and self-esteem of 41 male and 43 female young adults. It was predicted that males would be more satisfied with their body shape and weight than females, and that upper class females would report a stronger relationship between body shape satisfaction and self-esteem than would less affluent females. Surprisingly, males were significantly more dissatisfied than females with their weight, due to the males' desire to be heavier. Both males and females reported a positive, significant relationship between overall body image and self-esteem. Females also reported a positive, significant relationship between satisfaction with body shape and self-esteem, which as expected was significantly stronger for upper class than for lower class women.Received Ph.D. from Loyola University of Chicago. Research interests are body image and cognitive assessment.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Research interests are body image and cultural diversity.     

The responsiveness of approval voting: Comments on Saari and Van Newenhizen

Saari and Van Newenhizen (1987) misinterpret their findings about the indeterminacy of voting systems: far from being a vice, indeterminacy is a virtue in allowing voters to be more responsive to, and robbing them of the incentive to misrepresent, their preferences. The responsiveness of approval voting, in particular, means that the cardinal utilities that voters have for candidates can be reflected in voters' strategy choices, which ultimately translate into better social choices. Empirical data from a recent election support these claims, showing, among other things, that the Borda system, a determinate voting system favored by Saari and Van Newenhizen, is highly vulnerable to manipulation by strategic voters.     

The child's awareness of adult beliefs concerning the child: The effects of gender and subculture

Patterns of agreement among mothers' and teachers' beliefs about their children, children's self-beliefs, and children's beliefs about adults' beliefs were investigated among Afro-American inner city matrifocal families. Findings were compared to those previously obtained with Italian-American families. Twenty-four mothers, their 10–12-year-old children, and their children's teachers were administered the Family Belief Interview Schedule assessing adult beliefs about the child and the child's beliefs about adult beliefs. Findings indicated that children were more accurate in predicting teachers' than mothers' beliefs. Among Afro-American children and in the combined Afro-American and Italian-American samples, girls, relative to boys, were more accurate in predicting mothers' beliefs, assumed greater similarity of mothers' beliefs to their own, and assumed greater consistency between mothers' and teachers' beliefs. Among boys, relative to Italian-Americans, Afro-Americans assumed significantly less similarity of mothers' beliefs to their own. These findings are interpreted within a subcultural family socialization framework.Research interests include child and adolescent development within the context of the family, developmental psychopathology, and socialization processes.Research interests include the development of social cognition, family interactional styles and belief systems, and developmental theory.     

The Federal Role in State Fiscal Stress

This article examines the extent to which the federal government'spolicies were responsible for the fiscal stress experiencedby most state governments in the early 1990s. Federal policieshave contributed considerably to recent state fiscal stress,particularly through the Medicaid program—the fastestgrowing part of state budgets—and the recession, whichdepressed revenue and increased welfare and Medicaid spending.Federal aid reductions have not been an important source ofrecent state fiscal stress. The real value of per capita federalaid other than for welfare programs fell considerably in the1980s, but the reductions were much greater for local governmentsthan for states. The largest reductions were in the early 1980s.Federal policies have affected state finances in several otherways—through tax policy, unfunded mandates, and the federalfailure to cope effectively with problems like health and poverty.Federal court rulings have also caused budget problems (as havestate court decisions). In some respects, state fiscal problemsare not a federal responsibility. Rising school enrollments,new corrections policies, and inelastic tax systems have createdfiscal stress for many states. Excessive state spending in the1980s has contributed to recent fiscal problems in some states,but not generally.     

Adversary and cooperationist institutions for conflict resolution in public policymaking

Compared with other societies, the United States makes unusually extensive use of adversary institutions for resolving public conflicts—that is, institutions where the job of advocates is to present for a third party the strongest possible case for their own point of view and where responsibility for actual political choice is then left to the third party. This article presents a case for placing greater reliance on “cooperationist institutions,” that is, ones where parties talk with each other rather than to a third party and where the parties attempt to reach agreement among themselves, acceptable to most or all the participants, about the issue in question. The case for cooperationist institutions is argued in terms of the effects of such an institutional design on the development of public spirit among participants in the policymaking process. The article also considers objections against cooperationist institutions and concludes by making some suggestions about the concrete forms that such institutions might take in the United States.     

State Policies Affecting Cities and Counties in 1992

Most states did not make major changes in their policies affecting cities and counties in 1992. California and Maryland are the two leading exceptions. As many states continued to experience fiscal stress, fourteen states cut aid to local governments, while ten states increased aid. Some important changes also occurred in local revenue authority, sorting out responsibilities, and restrictions on unfunded mandates.