Industry characteristics and interest group formation: An empirical study

The role of interest groups in the political process has been the subject of much analysis in both political science and economics. However, few studies have examined directly the factors which influence the variation in interest group formation across industrial sectors and between countries. Using data on 75 industrial sectors in 10 countries, we examine the way in which variations in interest group formation are explained by variations in industrial and political characteristics. In cross-sectional empirical relationships we test for the significance of a variety of industry and political variables. Our results indicate that industry characteristics such as the proportion of total demand purchased by households and the concentration ratio are related to variations in interest group formation. We discuss the implications that our results have for recent theoretical work on the effect of interest groups on economic policy.For helpful comments, we would like to thank Antonio Estache, Bruce Gardner, Dennis Mueller, Mancur Olson, and participants at the meetings of the Public Choice Society and the Southern Economic Association. The International Institute of Management of Berlin, Paul Geroski, Neal Kennedy, Alexis Jacquemin, Kenneth Platto, Joachim Schwalbach, and Hideki Yamawaki helped in providing data. The Computer Science Center of the University of Maryland is acknowledged for provision of computational resources.     

Substance use and its relationship to conduct problems and delinquency in young boys

The paper presents lifetime and six-month prevalence of substance use by 1st, 4th, and 7th graders (N=2573). Smoking and alcohol consumption was surprisingly high even for 1st graders. The use of developmentally more advanced substances, such as marijuana, was associated with the use of substances that typically emerge earlier, such as beer. Significantly more of the multiple substance users in the 1st and 4th grade were already engaged in a variety of conduct problems and delinquent acts than were either single users or nonusers. The findings show that substance use, even at Grades 1 and 4, is an indicator of boys who commit a wide variety of problem behaviors. For the 7th graders, the use of marijuana was especially associated with the commission of more serious delinquent acts. Multiple substance use reported by the 7th graders also signified a higher frequency and volume of use. The results of the study are related to a developmental conceptualization of conduct problems, delinquency and substance use.Research interests: antisocial behavior and substance use.Research interests: the development of antisocial behavior and substance use; familial processes leading to deviant behavior; the prediction of delinquency.Research interests: development of concealing antisocial behaviors and processes that affect such development.     

Reviews

Michael Mandelbaum (ed.), The Strategic Quadrangle. Russia, China, Japan and the United States in East Asia. New York: The Council on Foreign Relations, 1995, vii + 221 pp., $16.95.

Theodore H. Friedgut & Jeffrey W. Hahn (eds), Local Power and Post‐Soviet Politics, New York and London: M. E Sharpe, 1994, xv + 292 pp., £40.00 h/b, £19.95 p/b.

Paul G. Lewis, Central Europe since 1945. London: Longman, 1994, xv + 135 pp., £13.99.

Gareth Winrow, Turkey in Post‐Soviet Central Asia. London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995, 53 pp.

Henry S. Rowen, Charles Wolf, Jr & Jeanne Zlotnick (eds), Defence Conversion, Economic Reform, and the Outlook for the Russian and Ukrainian Economies. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1994, 262 pp., £34.00.

Thomas M. Nichols, The Sacred Cause: Civil‐Military Conflict over Soviet National Security, 1917–1992. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1993, xiii + 259 pp., $35.75.

Sergei N. Goncharov, John W. Lewis & Xue Litai, Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993, xi + 393 pp., £30.00.

Andrew Horton (ed.), Inside Soviet Film Satire: Laughter with a Lash, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, xii + 171 pp., £27.95; Michael Brashinsky & Andrew Horton (eds), Russian Critics on the Cinema of Glasnost, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, viii+167 pp., £30.00.

Vida T. Johnson & Graham Petrie, The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky. A Visual Fugue. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995, xviii + 334 pp. Distributed in the UK and Ireland by Open University Press, £42.50 h/b, £18.99 p/b.

Andrea Peto & Mark Pittaway (eds), Women's History—Women in History: Central and East European Perspectives, Central European University, History Department, Working Paper Series 1, Budapest, 153 pp. (EU Press, 1994).     

New State Equality: The Ambiguous History of a Constitutional Principle

In Coyle v. Smith (1911), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled thatCongress could not impose admissions conditions on new statesthat detracted from their equal standing in the union. Previously,the Court had deferred to Congress' authority over federal territoryand over its own membership. Before the Civil War, federal interestsin new states—particularly with respect to public lands—weresecured through admissions conditions. Later, however, admissions"compacts" became increasingly redundant; the Court groundedfederal property claims in the new states on the "rules andregulations" provision of the Constitution. Meanwhile, in aseries of decisions, the Court began to uphold the "municipalsovereignty" of the territories against congressional interference.Congress' authority in the territories was progressively limitedto that of acting as "trustee" for future states. These doctrinaldevelopments culminated in Coyle. The Court challenged Congress'right to set invidious admission conditions and asserted itsown jurisdiction over the state-making process. The new stateequality principle thus became "constitutional" as the Courtextended its authority. I wish to thank Herman Belz, University of Maryland, for helpfulcriticism.     

Reviews

Joseph L. Nogee and Robert H. Donaldson, Soviel Foreign Policy Since World War II. New York: Pergamon Press, 1981. viii + 320 pp. Flexicover, £5.45.

Robert H. Donaldson (ed.), The Soviet Union in the Third World: Successes and Failures. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press / London: Croom Helm, 1981. xiv + 458 pp. Hardcover, $25.00.

Karen Dawisha and Philip Hanson (eds.), Soviet—East European Dilemmas: Coercion, Competition, and Consent. London: Heinemann for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1981. xiv + 226 pp. Paper, £5.95.

Jerry F. Hough, Soviet Leadership in Transition. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1980. viii + 175 pp. $11.95 and $4.95.

Sheila Fitzpatrick, Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union 1921–1934. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. x + 355 pp. £15.50.

Jan Ake Dellenbrant, Soviet Regional Policy: A Quantitative Inquiry into the Social and Political Development of the Soviet Republics. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1980. 192 pp. Sw. kr. 105.—

Maria Hirszowicz, The Bureaucratic Leviathan: A Study in the Sociology of Communism. Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980. x + 208 pp. £12.50.

Theodore H. Friedgut, Political Participation in the USSR. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1979. xvi + 353 pp. £11.70.

Ronald J. Hill, Soviet Politics, Political Science and Reform. Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980. x + 221 pp. Hardcover. £12.00.

Daniel N. Nelson, Democratic Centralism in Romania: A Study of Local Communist Politics. Boulder: East European Monographs, distributed by Columbia University Press, New York 1980. xii + 186 pp. $19.50.

Timothy Dunmore, The Stalinist Command Economy: The Soviet State Apparatus and Economic Policy 1945–53. London: Macmillan, 1980. xii + 176 pp. £20.00.

Paul Marrer and John Michael Montias (eds.), East European Integration and East‐West Trade. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980. vi+432 pp. US, Canada $32.50, UK £19.50, Elsewhere $40.63.

Christoph Bertram (ed.), Prospects of Soviet Power in the 1980s. London: Macmillan in association with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1980. 126 pp. £15.00.

Jiri Valenta, Soviet Intervention in Czechoslovakia, 1968: Anatomy of a Decision. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979. xii + 208 pp. £7.75.

R. Selucky, Marx, socialism and freedom. London: Macmillan, 1979. 237 pp. £12.00.

Mihaly Vajda, The State and Socialism. London: Allison and Busby, 1981. 150 pp. £9.95 and £4.50.

Elizabeth Pond, Russia Perceived. A Trans‐Siberian Journey. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1981. 296 pp. £9.95.

Philip T. Grier, Marxist Ethical Theory in the Soviet Union. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1978. xvii + 276 pp. No price.

Edward M. Swiderski, The Philosophical Foundations of Soviet Aesthetics: Theories and Controversies in the Post‐War Years. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1979. xviii + 225 pp. DM.65, US $34.00.

Edward Braun, The Theatre of Meyerhold: Revolution on the Modern Stage. London: Eyre Methuen, 1979. 299 pp. £9.95.     

The Ministry of State for Science and Technology

Abstract. During the past two and a half years, the federal government has employed a new and experimental mechanism to formulate and co-ordinate its science policies, the Ministry of State for Science and Technology, a horizontal planning and co-ordinating agency headed by a minister of state. The portfolio's mandate includes neither the statutory authority to regulate other departments and agencies of the federal government nor the opportunity to implement programs in the fields of science and technology. The structure of this ministry and its role vis-à-vis other federal government departments and agencies, other levels of government, and the scientific-technological community are described and evaluated in this essay. The essay examines, first, the constraints inherent in the nature of this new mechanism, given the existing organization of the executive-bureaucratic arena and, second, the consequent problems which have been experienced in the attempts of this ministry to formulate and wordinate science policies for the federal government. The analysis of the ministry's role is based primarily on confidential interviews with government officials and secondarily on reports and studies of Canada's science policy machinery. The analysis concludes with an assessment of the future roles of the ministry and recommends a significant reorientation of the ministry's efforts in light of the existing allocation of responsibility for policy and programs and the requirements of the science policy field. Sommaire. Au cours des trente derniers mois, le gouvernement fédéral s'est servi d'un nouvel outil expérimental pour élaborer et coordonner ses politiques scienti-fiques:le ministère d'État, aux Sciences et à la Technologie, qui exerce une fonction de planification et de concertation sectorielles. Le mandat de cet organisme n'englobe pas la réglementation de l'activité d'autres ministères et offices de l'État, ni la mise en ?uvre de programmes scientifiques ou techniques. Les auteurs décrivent et évaluent la structure du ministère d'État et son rôle à l'égard des autres ministères et offices de l'État, des autres paliers d'administration et des communautés scientifique et technique. Ils examinent tout d'abord les contraintes découlant de la nature même du ministère d'État au sein de la superstructure administrative et bureaucratique, et les problèmes qui en ont résulté pour le ministère au cours de ses travaux d'élaboration et de coordination des politiques scientifiques fédérales. Les auteurs basent leur analyse du rôle du ministère d'État, principalement sur des entretiens confidentiels avec des hauts fonctionnaires, et accessoirement sur des rapports et des études à propos des mécanismes canadiens d'élaboration des politiques scientifiques. Ils tenninent leur analyse par une prospective du rôle du ministère d'État, et ils recomman-dent un réaménagement de ses activités en fonction de la répartition actuelle des responsabilités en matière d'élaboration de politiques et de mise en ?uvre de programmes, et à la lumière des nécessités de la politique des sciences.