Therapeutic communities and prison management: an examination of the effects of operating an in-prison therapeutic community on levels of institutional disorder

There is a growing emphasis in corrections on the treatment of inmates with drug problems. The typical method of evaluating drug treatment programs is to examine how the treatment affects the inmate in terms of relapse and recidivism. This study examines the institutional consequences of operating a therapeutic community located in a medium/high-security male institution. The effect on management is examined from a perspective of institutional disorder. Disorders, from less severe inmate rule violations to more serious assaults, and rates of grievance filing are examined within the treatment unit and compared with rates in the general population. The inmate's perception of the environment, whether in treatment or non-treatment, is also examined. Findings indicate that in-prison therapeutic communities have lower levels of disorder than nontreatment housing units and tend to produce more positive perceptions of the living environment among the inmates living there. The impact of these findings for prison management is discussed.     

Effects of Perceived Control on the Relationship Between Perceived Parental Rearing Behaviors and Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Nonclinical Preadolescents

This study examined mediational and moderational effects of perceived control on the relationship between perceived parental rearing behaviors and symptoms of anxiety and depression in a nonclinical sample of youths aged 11–14 years. Correlational analyses demonstrated that higher levels of negative parental rearing practices were associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression, which at the same time were related to lower levels of perceived control. Furthermore, no evidence was found for the presence of mediational effects of perceived control on the link between perceived parental rearing behaviors and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Finally, there was a moderational effect of perceived control on the link between anxious rearing and anxiety symptoms. While the presence of low perceived control and high anxious rearing yielded relatively high anxiety levels, it was especially the combination of high perceived control and low anxious rearing that clearly yielded the lowest anxiety levels.     

The End of a Distinctive Model of Democracy? Country‐diverse Orientations among Young Adult Scandinavians

International research into democracy has uncovered severe changes in patterns of political engagement and participation. Even political institutions such as political parties and voluntary organisations have undergone major alterations. Scandinavian democracies hitherto have been regarded as exceptionally stable and strong due to their homogenous qualities of mass-based class politics, strong political parties, high degree of associationalism, peaceful labour market relations and developed welfare policies. However, three official democratic audits recently revealed that Scandinavian democracies have also been severely affected by both exogenous and endogenous constraints. In addition, Scandinavian democracies appear to be diverging heterogeneously from the assumed 'pan-Scandinavian' model. This article examines whether the distinctive country characteristics uncovered by the commissions can be traced among young adults. Three dimensions of attitudes of young adults are analysed – political trust, political engagement and political equality – using survey data obtained from students in academic programmes at the upper secondary level in Denmark, Norway and Sweden in 2000. Generally, the results not only confirm a country diversity that threatens to jeopardise Scandinavian homogeneity, since the Danes stand out as superior in most measures of political participation, but also, from an international perspective, young Scandinavians cannot be characterised as the most politically interested or participative between elections or even as the most multiculturally tolerant among today's youth.     

Media and politics in French political science

Abstract. The study of the relationship between media and politics has long been marginal in French political science. The take–off of research has been stimulated by the impact of the Presidential election under the Fifth republic and by the increasing role of television and spin–doctors in this new electoral context. If French studies on political communication converge with international research, they are also characterised by strong peculiarities. The material of case–studies is not campaign–centred, but gives room to various TV programmes, to a wide range of media uses by French politicians. The contribution of historians, the influence of a literary tradition of 'textual' analysis of political speech are important. The publishing of books on this topic also reveals a surprisingly intense participation from spin– doctors, journalists and even politicians. Three main 'schools' are contributing to the dynamics of French research. Linked to the tradition of semiological and literary studies the first one focuses on the study of political discourse in the media. Merging the legacy of English–speaking studies and the French tradition of electoral studies a second one develops an analysis of the campaigning process and of its effects. More recently, a new generation of researchers has widened the object of research to the complex network of relations between politicians, journalists and consultant. Linking successfully the most recent developments or international research and the peculiarities of academic tradition, research on political communication appears as one of the most dynamic areas of French political science.     

Manipulation and strategic voting in the Norwegian parliament

The Norwegian parliament uses a sequential voting procedure. After some general remarks on how the legislature can avoid strategic voting by choosing an appropriate voting order, and an exposition of the rules whereby the agenda is determined in this particular parliament, voting order manipulation is examined. A manipulative actor tries to bring about voting sequences in accordance with his interests, but contrary to the putative will of other actors. An example illustrates how manipulation may take place in practice, but it is stressed that the realm of manipulation easily escapes empirical analysis. To grasp the different types of manipulation in legislative voting, models are needed that are rich in institutional detail.     

The Local Politician: Loyal to the Party or Responsive to the Local Constituency?

The community equilibrium model of local fiscal policy-making perceives of political leaders as 'invisible hands' or as anonymous, reactive figures who automatically adapt to the preferences of the citizenry. The party model, in contrast, views political leaders as willful representatives of certain interests in society who will pursue policies that are in accordance with the preferences of the party and its followers. In a context which is clearly biased in favor of the latter, the two models are tested. Under these extreme circumstances the community equilibrium model comes out as the most fruitful with respect to prediction of the fiscal behavior of local political leaders.     

Reduction of Party Conflict through Corporate Participation in Danish Law-Making*

The paper focuses on the link between the two 'channels of political influence that exist in most liberal democracies: the electoral-parliamentary channel with political parties as the crucial structures intermediating between citizens and decision-makers, and the organizational-corporate channel with interest groups as intermediating structures. Although the two avenues open to citizens' demands may often function as alternatives, they are not independent of each other. Thus, the involvement of organizational and institutional interests affects the level of partisan conflict in the law-making process. The main assumption is that if bills are drafted by the active participation of external actors, they are likely to be passed at a relatively low level of conflict in parliament. A number of specific hypotheses based on this assumption are tested on data pertaining to Government bills passed by the Danish parliament 1972–74. The hypotheses relate to different types of bill preparation, subsequent outside contacts to parliamentary committees indicating societal disagreement on bills, and different areas of public policy. While the evidence gives strong support to the hypotheses it also indicates limits to the influence of external actors. This suggests an important difference between the two channels: like the corporate channel the parliamentary channel is one of influence, but unlike the corporate channel, it is also one of national responsibility.     

Engineer of the Psyche: Myrdal's Freudian Liberalism in An American Dilemma

This essay seeks the political argument in An American Dilemma through a close reading of the chapters where Myrdal, in his social engineering effort, combined a rudimentary psychoanalytic view of racism with a strong normative support of an Americanist interpretation of Liberalism, expressed through the notion of the American Creed. Central issues are the construction of the self in Myrdal's text, and its relation to a real and imagined social order. The ambiguity of the status of the Creed as both liberal norm and imperative reality for the psychoanalytic perspective will be critically discussed.