Policy Shocks: On the Legal Auspices of Latin American Migration to the United States

In this paper, I compare the transition into legal permanent residence (LPR) of Mexicans, Dominicans, and Nicaraguans. Dominicans had the highest likelihood of obtaining residence, mostly sponsored by parents and spouses. Mexicans had the lowest LPR transition rates and presented sharp gender differentials in modes: women mostly legalized through husbands while men were sponsored through IRCA, parents. Nicaraguans stood in-between, presenting few gender differences in rates and modes of transition and a heavy dependence on asylum and special provisions such as IRCA and NACARA. I argue these patterns stem from the interplay of conditions favoring the emigration of and the specific immigration policy context faced by migrant pioneers; the influence of social networks in reproducing the legal character of flows; and differences in the actual use of kinship ties as sponsors. I discuss the implications of these trends on the observed gendered patterns of migration from Latin America.     

Manual or History? Roberto Cipriani's Sociology of Religion

Roberto Cipriani's history of the sociology of religion begins with philosophical predecessors and works its way through the major writing of numerous nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars. It places a great deal of valuable information between two covers. One can argue with the way many of the authors are grouped together, however—something that can cause problems for students. And some important personages in the field, especially women who have made contributions, are omitted.     

Apprenticeship and the transfer of technical know-how

This paper is based on a study of apprenticeship, a long renowned institution for transferring technical know-how. Case studies of apprenticeship led us to define know-how as: a commercially viable integration of proficient technique gained by practicing the work process of an expert and contextual knowledge gained by observing and questioning other workers. One implication of this definition is its stress on know-how transfer teams that consist of work process designers, practice tutors, and transfer manager. A second implication calls for explicit planning of know-how adaptation when new technology makes work processes obsolete. A final implication for researchers in technology transfer stresses the integration of individual know-how into community systems that put technology to work.     

The Democratic Peace Through the Lens of Culture, 1820–1989

This article examines the extent to which cultural similarity vitiates the relationship between joint democracy and the incidence of interstate war. Previous empirical findings which suggest that cultural/normative explanations of the democratic peace are more robust than institutional/structural ones invite an analysis of the impact of broader cultural factors on the relationship between joint democracy and war involvement. The author suggests several ways that cultural factors might mitigate the democratic peace phenomenon and conducts a multivariate logistic analysis of state dyads from 1820 to 1989 to test the main query. Of the cultural variables, religious similarity within dyads is associated with a decreased likelihood of war onset, while both ethnic and linguistic similarity have the opposite effect. Democratic dyads, on average, have higher religious similarity levels than nondemocratic dyads, which, ostensibly, might play a role in reducing conflict within democratic dyads. However, the findings clearly demonstrate that although cultural factors are significant correlates of war they do not vitiate the impact of joint democracy on war. It appears that where a pair of states share a common democratic political culture it exerts a conflict dampening impact that overrides ethnic, linguistic, or religious factors.     

The end of police prosecutions: Symptom of changing values in english criminal justice

This article contrasts the traditional English prosecutorial system, and its underlying values, with the new Crown Prosecution Service and the related values which have emerged from five years of official study and planning of prosecutorial reform. The traditional system reflected the English ideal of the amateur generalist. Under this system the police, acting as citizens, undertook most prosecutions, hiring legal assistance as needed. Ower the last twenty years, about three-quarters of the English police forces set up prosecuting solicitors departments. While these institutions give professional legal assistance to many police, they were purely local arrangements without statutory basis and legally similar to the traditional ad hoc arrangements. In 1986 the Crown Prosecution Service will be initiated. This is the product of a process of development which includes a Royal Commission, two governmental working parties, a white paper, a bill, and a managerial study. The result is a hierarchical structure of legal professionals independent of the police who will handle virtually all prosecutions. This prosecutorial structure exhibits the characteristics and values of modern rationalistic bureaucracy described by Max Weber. The adoption of these values in English criminal justice indicates the likelihood of change in other aspects of the system which rest on the conflicting traditional values.