International politics in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century central Asia: beyond anarchy in international-relations theory

Using historical analysis of relations between city-states and other international actors in Central Asia during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this article evaluates new structural theories of international politics, chiefly those of David Lake and Jack Donnelly. Pre-colonial Central Asia offers a usefully tough case for structural theories, since it so little resembles the modern international order that these theories were developed to describe. Empirically, the article proceeds by evaluating the region's city-states' relations with three groups of actors: one another; neighbouring empires; and the many non-state actors present at the time. It concludes with an assessment of the merits of the new structuralisms, and a discussion of their value for constructivist international-relations theories of international change.     

The Effects of Political Talk Radio On Political Attitude Formation: Exposure Versus Knowledge

The effects of political news on the mass audience are usually difficult to establish empirically. Recent models of mass communication effects have held that political knowledge is a better indicator of media reception than traditional measures of exposure. This claim is tested in two studies of attitudes toward Democratic and Republican leaders during the 1996 U.S. presidential primary campaigns. The impact of messages from three types of political talk radio (PTR) is examined: Rush Limbaugh, other conservative hosts, and liberal/moderate hosts. Political knowledge and exposure to talk radio are found to be equally good predictors of attitudes toward political leaders when studied separately. However, when tested against one another, exposure is the more effective measure. Agreement between Rush Limbaugh's messages and his audience's attitudes toward political figures is consistent and strong. Biased processing of PTR content by audience members with partisan predispositions contrary to those of the host is also examined.     

Argument Repertoire as a Reliable and Valid Measure of Opinion Quality: Electronic Dialogue During Campaign 2000

A new measure of opinion quality that we name "argument repertoire" (AR) is introduced and evaluated. AR refers to the relevant reasons that one has for one's own opinions and the relevant reasons that others with opposite opinions might have. The measure is shown to be reliable and to have construct validity. Those with elevated AR also were more likely to attend on-line deliberative groups during the presidential election and to contribute to those conversations. Those who participated in online deliberations tended to have higher AR scores on particular issues that were discussed. The role of AR in deliberative political groups is explored.     

Attention to Counter-Attitudinal Messages in a State Election Campaign

Research following the "selective exposure" model has focused on avoidance of political messages with which a person might disagree. But positive attention to such "counter-attitudinal" messages is worthy of study, in part because normative theories of democracy value exposure to information that might disturb citizens' political predispositions. Surveys of youth (N = 417) and parents (N = 430) examine attention to newspaper, television, and Web messages about candidates. While there is somewhat more attention to messages about and for a person's favored political candidate or party, forms of political involvement (knowledge, curiosity, and discussion) that predict this "attitude-consistent" attention also predict counter-attitudinal attention at least as strongly. Parents' education and students' exposure to civics lessons also predict both kinds of attention. These results suggest that attention to counterattitudinal political messages is worthy of further study as an important goal of political socialization and a criterion of citizen performance in democracy.     

Optimizing Accu Time‐of‐Flight/Direct Analysis in Real Time for Explosive Residue Analysis

The use of a direct analysis in real time (DART) mass spectrometer (MS) instrument was optimized for 22 compounds of organic explosive residues to provide a guide for DART‐MS users in rapid screening of explosive compounds. Samples were introduced as neat solutions and sequential dilutions to determine optimal instrument conditions and lowest concentration detectable. Most compounds were optimized to 250°C in the negative ion mode, and several compounds benefited from the addition of a chloride dopant from methylene chloride (amino‐dinitrotoluenes, RDX, EGDN, and PETN). Few compounds were more sensitive in the positive ion mode (TEGDN, DEGDN, HNS, and DMNB). Mixtures of compounds were detected using clean room wipes, directly from their surfaces and from subsequent extractions. Compounds from the mixtures were also successfully detected in soil and from swipes of spiked surfaces. The instrument showed merit in detection of pg/μL solutions for most of the compounds and among the substrates tested.     

Fear of Crime in Botswana: Impact of Gender,Victimization, and Incivility

The subject of fear of crime has generated a substantial body of empirical study within Western industrialized society. However, the current focus on comparative criminology inspires efforts to study fear of crime cross culturally. This study attempts to assess some of the widely accepted predictors and conclusions of fear of crime found in developed nations on the urbanized capital city of Botswana. More specifically, in this article, the author explores the relationships between gender, victimization, incivility, and fear of crime in Gaborone, Botswana. Findings suggest that gender, victimization, and, in part, the environment are all useful in explaining fear of crime in Gaborne. However, it appears that gender, more than victimization and incivility, is itself a genuinely powerful determinant of fear of crime.     

Generational Transmission of Collective Memory about Tiananmen in Hong Kong: how young rally participants learn about and understand 4 June

This article addresses the problem of generational transmission of collective memory in Hong Kong about the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident. It focuses on the young participants in the annual 4 June commemoration rallies and examines the process of mnemonic socialization that brought them into the community of 4 June commemoration. Drawing upon a rally onsite survey and in-depth interviews, this study found that many young people went through a dynamic process of gradual discovery in which various social institutions—school, family and media—played complementary roles. Their understanding of Tiananmen tended to be simplified and essentialized. Yet the loss of details through essentialization has arguably allowed them to uphold a clear-cut moral judgment regarding the event and dismiss certain memory-blurring discourses straightforwardly.     

Institutional change in parliament through cross-border partisan emulation

Institutional responses of parliaments to international developments are widely regarded as efficient changes because they tend to be unaffected by partisan preferences and benefit all members of parliament equally. This article challenges that common notion by providing evidence that the institutional responses of national parliaments to European integration are in large part the result of international partisan emulation. Spatial regression analyses robustly show that parliamentary EU oversight institutions diffuse across member states whose majority parties have similar constitutional preferences. A parliament is more likely to emulate the EU oversight institution of another parliament if their majority parties have similar ideas about the territorial distribution of power and institutional framework for policy making. This result has important implications for our understanding of institutional change in parliament. Responses of parliaments to external developments may appear non-partisan at first sight but unfold partisan characteristics if one looks beyond the domestic level.