Trends in Women's Gun Ownership, 1973–2002

In recent years controversy has arisen over whether the rate of women's gun ownership has increased over time. While media reports claimed a rising trend in women's gun ownership, existing scholarly studies found stable rates over time. This paper investigates the issue using the 1973–2002 General Social Survey data. Our bivariate analysis reveals a declining trend in female gun ownership, especially in recent years. The logistic regression results indicate that holding relevant variables constant, the probability of female gun ownership decreases over time. Comparisons are also made with men. Similar results for male gun ownership are obtained. Possible explanations and implications of findings are discussed.     

From Root to Tree: Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement—The Grassroots Approach to Addressing Human Rights Violations

The Green Belt Movement's success in fighting for environmental and social issues, often prior to these issues becoming mainstream, will hopefully serve as a model for the next generation in addressing human rights violations, including environmental wrongs. Organizations should be proactive in the fight against human rights violations and need not be concentrated on a singular social issue. Human rights violations result from a combination of multiple social issues. The Green Belt Movement gives people a strong support network, educating and empowering them to provide their own resources and be responsible for their own physical and environmental well-being. As a result, the movement has strengthened in both numbers and influence to demand good governance and care for the environment, with its power spreading beyond the borders of Kenya. At the grassroots level, protecting the environment is a basic step that all can benefit from, and which can prevent the need for future environmental claims.     

The Impact of Legal Mobilization and Judicial Decisions: The Case of Official Minority-Language Education Policy in Canada for Francophones Outside Quebec

The article investigates the impact of legal mobilization and judicial decisions on official minority-language education (OMLE) policy in the Canadian provinces outside Quebec, using the "factor-oriented" and "dispute-centered" theories of judicial impact developed by U.S. scholars. The Canadian Supreme Court's decision in Mahé v. Alberta (1990), which broadly interpreted Section 23 of the Charter of Rights to include management and control of OMLE programs and schools, along with federal funding to the provinces to implement OMLE policy, are important to explaining OMLE policy change as predicted by the factor-oriented approach. The dispute-centered approach, on the other hand, helps us understand how the Charter of Rights and judicial decisions shaped the goals and discourse of Francophone groups in the policy process and, more instrumentally, provided opportunity structures that Francophone groups exploited effectively. The article concludes that both approaches to explaining judicial impact could be accommodated within an institutional model of judicial impact that construes institutions as state actors, as sets of rules, and as frameworks of meaning and interpretation. Such an approach would allow for the development of a more comparative model of judicial impact.     

Hazardous Waste Management: An Emerging Policy Area Within an Emerging Federalism

This article examines the manner in which hazardous waste, alreadybeing labeled the major environmental issue of the 1980s, isbeing accommodated in a period of evolving intergovernmentalrelations. Hazardous waste is a technological problem with economicovertones and political consequences. The governmental mechanismsset up to tackle the issue are understandably complex and, someobservers argue, fall short of the mark. Special attention isgiven to the pivotal role played by state governments. Devolutionof operational responsibilities as well as policymaking authoritymake the states important. Thus far, the evidence regardingstate performance is mixed. Instances of policy innovation existalongside of functional evasion. Interstate competition andlimited financial resources remain confounding factors. Reconfiguredfederalism may emerge.     

The State of American Federalism, 1992-1993

In terms of federalism, the year 1992-1993 was interesting inits ambivalence. The new president and a somewhat reconstitutedCongress took actions that reverberated through the intergovernmentalsystem; yet there was no hint of a coherent theory of federalismunderlying those actions. Two trends held steady: the federaldeficit continued to constrain new domestic initiatives andstates and localities continued to be subjected to un(der)fundedmandates. A review of U.S. Supreme Court rulings in cases withintergovernmental implications, does not reveal a discerniblefederalism philosophy in that branch of the government. If anything,1992–1993 further underscored the pulling and tuggingbetween the nation and the states that has characterized Americanfederalism for the past several years.     

Althusser and the theory of ideology

This paper is a critical discussion of Louis Althusser's text 'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses'. It questions the pertinence of the problem of the reproduction of the relations of production. It challenges both parts of Althusser's answer to this problem. The first being the theory of ideological state apparatuses and the second the theory of the formation of individual subjects through the imaginary. The concept of representation is subjected to critical discussion.