Democracy at Rest: Strategic Ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment

The Prohibition (Eighteenth, 1919) and repeal (Twenty-First,1933) amendments, which represent the only case of a later amendmentdirectly reversing an earlier one, were ratified by the twodifferent methods allowed by Article V of the United StatesConstitution: the former by state legislatures, the latter bystate conventions. This essay examines the legislatures-or-conventionsdichotomy as a microcosm of William Riker's treatment of liberalismand populism, with specific attention paid to the state conventionsthat ratified repeal. Using previously uncollected county datafrom the special elections to choose the 1933 convention delegates,this study demonstrates that invocation of the convention methodwas strategic, and intended not only to legitimate the Twenty-FirstAmendment but also to improve its chances of passage.     

Why Medical Child Support is Important—and Complex

Courts resolving child support cases involving separated, divorced, and non‐marital children are charged with defining responsibility for health care coverage for the children under that order. This article explores historical and current medical child support requirements under Title IV‐D of the Social Security Act—the national child support enforcement (“IV‐D”) program. It analyzes legal requirements and policy recommendations, and provides a practical tool judges may use to determine whether health care coverage available to either or both parents is appropriate—that is, comprehensive, accessible, and affordable.     

Agenda Power in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, 1988–2000

We present strong evidence that governing coalitions in Italy exercise significant negative agenda powers. First, governing parties have a roll rate that is nearly 0, and their roll rate is lower than opposition parties' roll rates, which average about 20% on all final‐passage votes. Second, after one controls for distance from the floor median, opposition parties have higher roll rates than government parties. These results strongly suggest that governing parties in Italy are able to control the legislative agenda to their benefit. We also document significantly higher opposition roll rates on decree‐conversion bills and budget bills than on ordinary bills—results consistent with our theoretical analysis of the differing procedures used in each case.     

Book Reviews

Book Reviews in This Article:
America's Health Care Revolution. Who Lives? Who Dies? Who Pays? By Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
American Medicine: The Power Shift . By Eli Ginzberg
Health Services in the United States, 2d ed. By Florence A. Wilson and Duncan Neuhauser
The U.S. Health Care System. A Look to the 19905 . Edited by Eli Ginzberg.
Handbook of Health Care Risk Management . By Glenn T. Troyer and Steven L. Salman
Health Care Risk Management: Organization and Claims Administration . By Gary P. Kraus
Medicolegal Aspects of Critical Care . Edited by Katherine Benesch, Norman S. Abramson, Ake Grenvik, and Alan Meisel
Ethics and Critical Care Medicine . Edited by John C. MosLop and Loretta Kopelnian
The mentally disabled and the Law , 3d ed. By Samuel Jan Brakel, John Parry, and Barbaa A.     

Assessing child maltreatment risk in the recently divorced parent-child relationship

Reports of single-parent-child relationships characterized by child maltreatment have increased in recent years. The present paper discusses Belsky's child maltreatment/parenting model concerning parenting and the etiology of this problem. The model may serve as a source of conceptual unification of this risk in single-parent homes. It is proposed that the model also may have heuristic value in identifying highest risk single-parent families who warrant intervention.     

Dynamics Without Drama: New Options and Old Compromises in Egypt's Foreign Policy

Western policymakers have come to take Egypt's foreign policy orientation for granted in recent decades. After President Anwar Sadat's dramatic split from the Soviet bloc and embrace of peace with Israel in the 1970s, Egypt became a reliable but rarely exciting diplomatic partner. Little appreciated has been the centrality of foreign policy to Egypt's internal interests as well as its external ones, and the extent to which changes in either the domestic or international environment could trigger the Egyptians to reassess their stance. The present article examines the interests that Egyptian foreign policy serves, and it analyses factors that could prompt a future Egyptian government to adopt different policies in order to serve those interests more effectively.