Spousal violence among Anglos,Blacks, and Mexican Americans: The role of demographic variables,psychosocial predictors,and alcohol consumption

Racial/ethnic differences in the prevalence and correlates of self-reported spousal violence in a community sample of Anglo, Black, and Mexican American adults are examined. Females, the formerly married, and Black females in particular (up to 60% of formerly married) were most likely to report both being beaten by and beating a spouse. Multivariate analyses controlling for demographic variables, financial stress, social desirability, sex role traditionalism and drinking quantity (and spouse's drinking among the currently married) did not eliminate the greater likelihood of reports of both beating and being beaten among married Black females. There was little consistent evidence to suggest greater violence propensity among Mexican American than Anglo respondents. The findings raise questions about simplistic socioeconomic status or financial stress explanations of observed racial/ethnic differences in spousal violence. Further, curvilinear effects of alcohol quantity and spouse drinking upon reported violence question simple disinhibition arguments and suggest the need for data regarding couple dynamics.     

Undermining the Rule of Law: Democratization and the Dark Side of Police Reform in Mexico

This article asks whether democratization, under certain historical conditions, may relate to the deteriorating rule of law. Focusing on Mexico City, where police corruption is significant, this study argues that the institutionalized legacies of police power inherited from Mexico's one-party system have severely constrained its newly democratic state's efforts to reform the police. Mexico's democratic transition has created an environment of partisan competition that, combined with decentralization of the state and fragmentation of its coercive and administrative apparatus, exacerbates intrastate and bureaucratic conflicts. These factors prevent the government from reforming the police sufficiently to guarantee public security and earn citizen trust, even as the same factors reduce capacity, legitimacy, and citizen confidence in both the police and the democratically elected state. This article suggests that when democracy serves to undermine rather than strengthen the rule of law, more democracy can actually diminish democracy and its quality.     

Book reviews

F. J. M. Feldbrugge, Samizdat and Political Dissent in the USSR. Leyden: Sijthoff, 1975. 255 pp. Dfl. 48,00. $20.00.

Daniel Stone (ed.), The Polish Memoirs of William John Rose. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1975. xxv+248 pp. $15.00.

George Maude, The Finnish Dilemma: Neutrality in the Shadow of Power. London: OUP, 1976. vi+153 pp. £6.00.

Christopher Stevens, The Soviet Union and Black Africa. London: Macmillan Press, 1976. xii+236 pp. £10.00.

Jochen Bethkenhagen, Bedeutung und Möglichkeiten des Ost‐West‐Handels mit Energierohstoffen. (Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Sonder‐heft 104.) Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1975. 307 pp.

Jeremy Russell, Energy as a Factor in Soviet Foreign Policy. (Published for the Royal Institute of International Affairs.) London: D. C. Heath, 1976. xix+241 pp. £7.50.

Michael Kaser, Health Care in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. London: Croom Helm, 1976. 278 pp. £12.95.

James H. Bater, St. Petersburg: Industrialisation and Change. Studies in Urban History 4. General Editor H. J. Dyos. London: Edward Arnold, 1976. xxiii+411 pp. £14.95.

Leslie Symons and Colin White (eds.), Russian Transport: An historical and geographical survey. London: G. Bell, 1975. xxiii+192 pp. £7.25 or £3.50 (paperback).

Robert Auty and Dimitri Obolensky (eds.), An introduction to Russian History. Cambridge: CUP, 1976. 403 pp. £12.50.

Edward Allworth, Soviet Asia: Bibliographies; A Compilation of Social Science and Humanities Sources on the Iranian, Mongolian and Turkic Nationalities. With an Essay on the Soviet‐Asian Controversy. New York: Praeger, 1975. lxiii+686 pp. $35.00. £21.35.     

Priorities,government institutions and foreign assistance in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Russia

This article argues that for a number of reasons, the Russian state has had limited success in tackling the growing problem of HIV/AIDS. It begins with brief discussions of the health context of HIV/AIDS in the Russian Federation and the development of institutions in Russia post‐1991. It then discusses the attempts that have been made thus far to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic, both on the part of the federal government and with the aid of international donor funding. It is argued that a number of factors have contributed to Russia's lack of success in tackling HIV/AIDS. Firstly, the infection has been interpreted as a health problem rather than as a phenomenon which impacts on all aspects of public life. Secondly, there have been weak incentives at the federal level, which has resulted in a lack of a coordinated approach to HIV/AIDS at the national level. Thirdly, there have been regional variations in the autonomy and independence from the federal state impacting on the struggle against HIV in the Russian regions. Evidence from research undertaken by DFID is drawn upon to illustrate these variations in tackling HIV/AIDS. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

International Cooperation to Manage High‐Skill Migration: The Case of India–U.S. Relations

Highly skilled people are among the most valuable factors of production in the contemporary world economy. Some have characterized the competition among nations for these people as a “brain drain” or “war for talent,” which imposes significant costs on the countries of emigration. However, the distribution of costs and benefits that results from high‐skill migration is not necessarily zero‐sum or fixed. It may be altered through international cooperation, producing a self‐reinforcing “win–win” scenario for sending and receiving countries. Bilateral cooperation, focused on specific sectors affected by migration, is the most promising approach for realizing such a scenario. This paper explores the prospects and potential for such cooperation between India and the United States, which comprise what is probably the world's largest high‐skill mobility relationship. After sketching the broad contours of the relationship, we explore the prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation in three specific fields of high‐skill migration: information technology services, medicine and nursing, and graduate education.     

High and Low Tide: Sino–American Relations and Summit Diplomacy in the Second World War

Studies of Chinese involvement in Allied relations during the Second World War tend to focus on the Cairo Conference of November 1943 and see it as the high point for China’s wartime diplomacy. This analysis argues that the Moscow Foreign Ministers’ Conference, held just prior to Cairo in late October–early November, was more important for the achievement of China’s longer-term interests. The participation at Moscow of Cordell Hull, the American secretary of state, was unique as the State Department was absent from almost all the Allied wartime summits. President Franklin Roosevelt liked to conduct his diplomacy personally. In Moscow, however, Hull represented the United States, and his patience and persistence led to the inclusion of China in the Four Nation Declaration that resulted from the meeting. That, in turn, meant that China was eventually included as a permanent member of the eventual United Nations Security Council and seen as a post-war Great Power. It was a more significant outcome than those resulting from the Cairo Conference.     

Evaluating Communication in the British Parliamentary Public Sphere

This article begins with a re-evaluation of political communication research based on Habermas' original theory of the public sphere. It presents Habermas' alternative framework for assessing communication in contemporary 'actually existing democracies'. The model is then tested with a case study of the UK parliamentary public sphere based on 95 semi-structured interviews with political actors (politicians, journalists and officials). It concludes that parliament today operates rather better, according to public sphere norms, than the public sphere described in Habermas' accounts of 18th and 19th-century England. Such a finding, on its own, is clearly at odds with public perception. The research accordingly offers two explanations for this disparity and the (perceived) crisis of political legitimacy in UK politics.     

The Politics of Regulatory Change: National Forest Management Planning under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush

This paper examines regulatory change from the William J. Clinton administration through the presidency of George W. Bush by focusing on their respective efforts to alter national forest planning procedures mandated by the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA). While rule making has become an important alternative pathway for making policy, the strategies used to develop a new rule may vary among presidents because of differing values and management styles. Both presidents were adept at framing the planning regulation to reflect dominant values such as preserving ecosystems (Clinton) or administrative efficiency (Bush). Between‐administration differences in regulatory tactics also tended to alter the relative importance of institutional venues and, by extension, the influence exercised by differing political constituencies.