Privatizing Federal Credit Programs: Why Sallie Mae?

The federal government subsidizes lending to a number of borrowers—notably students, farmers, and homeowners. Government‐sponsored enterprises issue the securities that channel capital to many of these privileged borrowers. One of the largest of these enterprises, the Student Loan Marketing Association (Sallie Mae), is scheduled to be wholly privatized by September 30, 2008. What explains the privatization of this enterprise? To identify distinctive features of Sallie Mae that permitted or abetted privatization, we investigate the structure, related capital market innovations, and growth of three government‐sponsored enterprises. We conclude that a unique structural feature of Sallie Mae may explain the pace of privatization. The core asset of Sallie Mae, the student loan, is guaranteed and subsidized by the government. The case of Sallie Mae is an instructive yet poorly understood example of how the federal government can leverage private‐sector assets and incentives to achieve public policy missions.     

Moral Virtue and the Limits of the Political Community in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

The recovery of Aristotle's view of the political community as guardian of the common good and moral educator has fueled a continuing debate about civic education and virtue. In focusing on the relation of virtue to the common good and that of the individual, however, this debate has obscured Aristotle's insight into virtue's status as an independent end. I argue that by taking account of this dimension of virtue, Aristotle's discussion of the particular moral virtues in the Nicomachean Ethics clarifies the nature and limits of civic education and shows that the full question of the human good emerges only with an investigation of the political community's highest and noblest pedagogic aims.     

Narcissistic Features in Young Adolescents: Relations to Aggression and Internalizing Symptoms

Recent research and theory suggest narcissistic features contribute to aggression in adults. The present study examined the association of narcissistic features with aggression and internalizing symptoms in 233 students of 5th–8th grade at three inner-city schools. A factor analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory in this sample revealed three factors: Adaptive Narcissism, Exploitativeness, and Exhibitionism. Regression analyses were used to predict the association of these three narcissistic features with self-, teacher-, and peer-reported aggression and self-reported internalizing symptoms. Results indicate narcissistic exploitativeness positively predicted self-reported proactive aggression, and narcissistic exhibitionism positively predicted internalizing symptoms. Narcissism and self-esteem interacted to predict teacher-reported aggression and self-reported internalizing symptoms. Results are discussed in the context of existing theories of narcissism, threatened egotism, and self-perception bias.     

Keeping Abortion Clinics Open: The Importance of Ragsdale v. Turnock in the Post-Casey Era

In 1973, Roe v. Wade constitutionalized a woman's right to an abortion. But, while Roe removed most legal obstacles to abortion, it did not address the limited availability of abortion services in the nation. The case examined here, Ragsdale v. Turnock, revolved around an Illinois statute that imposed far-reaching restrictions on abortion clinics, the site of most U.S. abortions since Roe. The crucial role of clinics in providing abortion services explains why the dispute represented by Ragsdale had the potential for an enormous impact on legalized abortion in the United States. Because of the number of women affected, the Ragsdale litigation could have led to the most significant judicial ruling since Roe. The suit resulted in a settlement in which plaintiffs secured the right to a legal clinic abortion during the first 18 weeks of pregnancy. Although the case was settled to the satisfaction of pro-choice advocates, a similar law today might well survive constitutional scrutiny.     

Travelling Fast to Get Nowhere: Transport Policy in the European Union

The Common Transport Policy of the EU is one of the three common policies mentioned in the Treaty of Rome. However, this policy area has seen few achievements. It was not until the 1980s that any real attempt to develop a CTP began. The drive to complete the internal market has given this task a new urgency. However, the legacy of its past approach makes it difficult for the EU now to develop a successful transport policy. Varying explanations exist for this failing. Furthermore, the EU has failed to take account of the wider significance of transport policy, especially for regional development and for the environment.     

Adolescents' perceptions of the costs and benefits of engaging in health-compromising behaviors

The present investigation examined the costs and benefits that adolescents perceive for engaging or not engaging in two potentially health-compromising behaviors: underage alcohol use and nonmarital sexual intercourse. A number of hypotheses regarding gender, behavioral status, and grade differences were examined in a sample of over 2400 7th–12th graders. Our hypotheses were more clearly confirmed for perceived costs than for perceived benefits. For both sexual activity and alcohol use, there were strong differences in perceived costs between the two status groups, with nondrinkers and nonsexually active adolescents perceiving significantly more costs to these behaviors. Contrary to our hypotheses, perceived benefits did not discriminate between the two status groups. As was hypothesized, girls generally perceived more costs than did boys for engaging in sexual intercourse and using alcohol; students' perceptions of the costs of alcohol use decreased with increasing grade level. The grade trends concerning the other costs and benefits scales were all complicated by interactions with behavioral status. This study supports the idea that adolescents' perceptions of the costs and benefits of various health-compromising behaviors are related to gender, age, and the behaviors themselves. The findings further indicate that the costs adolescents perceive are more important than the perceived benefits for understanding why some adolescents engage in these behaviors and others do not.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the National Council on Family Relations, Seattle, Washington, November 1990.Received Ph.D from Cornell University in developmental psychology. Research interests include adolescent risk taking and adolescent-parent relations.Received Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in child and family studies. Research interests include adolescent-parent relations and adolescent and adult development.Research interests include adolescent sexuality and interpersonal violence.     

DISPUTING AND REGULATORY POLICY: THE EXAMPLE OF A STATE PUBLIC UTILITY AGENCY

The literature on policy making has largely ignored the formulation and implementation of policy when governmental agencies process citizen disputes. In this essay we provide an initial exploration of the dimensions of agency policy making and policy implementation during dispute processing. Using a case study of dispute processing by a state public utilities regulatory agency, it appears that dispute processing contributes to evolutionary policy formulation and implementation by providing a context for the incremental adjustment and legitimation of continuing policies, by sponsoring negotiations leading to the serial adaption of existing policies to new circumstances, and by screening disputes and sharpening the issues in disputes so they are amenable to policy development through agency adjudicatory procedures. The findings of the case study suggest that processing of citizen complaints flowing into the "bottom" of an agency is potentially as important as the politics of the rule making and licensing procedural contexts in the conduct of regulatory policy.     

Targeting in Economic Development: Comparative State Perspectives

This article examines recent efforts to target state industrialpolicy along three dimensions: sectoral aid to specific businessesor economic activities, geographic aid to growing or decliningregions, and direct assistance to the unemployed. While thestates have done better with sec-toral targeting than opponentsof a federal industrial policy have feared, industrial policymust compete with many other state programs, including moretraditional economic development efforts based on advertisingand tax expenditures. Only a few states have managed to channelmuch state aid to displaced workers or distressed communities.Despite some evidence as to the success of industrial policyfocused on limited areas or activities, dilution of policy focusand underinvestment of resources characterize state industrialpolicy efforts to date.