The quality of democracy: Mass‐elite linkages in the Czech republic

This article argues for the importance of more focused scholarly attention on the development of mass‐elite linkages ‐ and in particular those linkages that transcend the electoral connection ‐ for understanding democratic consolidation, drawing on the post‐communist experience of the Czech Republic as a case study. Starting with the government's loss of its majority in the 1996 Czech elections amidst favourable economic conditions, we argue that this electoral result goes beyond the response to policy priorities to point to larger deficits in the development of channels of access and communication in the policy‐making process. Such deficits, characteristic of the post‐communist experience regionally, are not merely legacies of the stunted civil societies of the communist period, but also reflect a post‐communist style of governance that may itself discourage regularized citizen and associational input. As the episodic electoral connection alone cannot bear the weight of democratic consolidation, the risk is a pattern of mass‐elite linkages that creates a punctuated politics of elections and street demonstrations.     

Minorities and the free press in Hungary after 1867

SUMMARY

The study analyses the status and the standard of freedom of the press in Hungary in the first decade of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Special attention is paid to libel cases against nationality papers attacking the government in Pest. The author's main purpose is to discuss the limits on the freedom of the press drawn by criminal law, and in addition, to examine the accusations against the oppositional papers and the court practices involved. As a result, the study emphasizes that the picture of ‘the press under a state of siege’ could hardly be verified from the criminal procedures examined. The author does not, however, paint an idealized picture of the freedom of the press. The government in Pest was biased against the nationality papers. Yet even so, in the first ten years of Dualism juries adjusted the official criminal law policy by acquittals of authors and editors. The prosecuting magistracy therefore accepted the independence of the jury and the unreliability of the lay judges, and often withstood the demands of government departments. The members of the government of Hungary accepted the practice instituted by the prosecuting magistracy and ‘instead of strict laws and even more strict courts’ they gave up trying to rule the press by means of the criminal law. The first half of the 1870s thus became a period of a free press, indicating to what extent the parliamentary system and its government in Dualism could ‘practise liberalism without risking its own existence’.     

THE REISCHAUER MEMO: Mr. Moto,Hirohito, and Japanese American Soldiers

This article offers a critical reading of a recently discovered memorandum authored by Edwin O. Reischauer in September 1942. Already at this early date in the war, Reischauer proposed retention of the Japanese emperor as head of a postwar “puppet regime” that would serve U.S. interests in East Asia. He also argued that Japanese Americans had until then been a “sheer liability” and that the United States could turn them into an “asset” by enlisting them in the U.S. military. He reasoned that Japanese American soldiers would be useful for propaganda purposes – that is, to demonstrate to the world and particularly the “yellow and brown peoples” that the United States was not a racist nation. The article interrogates the racial thinking behind such utilitarian proposals for the Japanese emperor and Japanese Americans and considers the memorandum within the broader context of the wartime foundations of the postwar U.S.-Japan relationship, the characteristics of postwar Japanese studies, the decision to mobilize Japanese Americans as soldiers, and the shifting place of Japanese Americans in the management of U.S. race relations during and after the war.     

Construct Validity of Adolescent Antisocial Personality Disorder

This study examined the construct validity of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) diagnosed in adolescence. Boys and girls were grouped by history of DSM-III-R conduct disorder (CD) and ASPD: Controls (n=340) had neither diagnosis; CD Only (n=77) had CD by age 17 but no ASPD through age 20; Adolescent ASPD (n = 64) had ASPD by age 17. The Adolescent ASPD group was then compared to 20 young adult men who met criteria for ASPD (ASPD group). As expected, the Adolescent ASPD group had significantly more depression and substance use disorders, a greater performance>verbal IQ discrepancy, more deviant peers, and poorer academic functioning than the CD Only group and Controls. The Adolescent ASPD and ASPD groups did not differ on most variables. Results support the construct validity of Adolescent ASPD and suggest that such a diagnosis could help identify adolescents at risk for persistent antisocial behavior. Jeanette Taylor is an Assistant Professor at Florida State University. She received her Ph.D. in 1999 from the University of Minnesota. Her research examines biological, cognitive, and environmental influences on personality disorders and substance use disorders. Irene J. Elkins is a Co-investigator at the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research. She received her Ph.D. in 1993 from the University of Kansas and is a member of the Society for Research on Psychopathology. Her major research interests include the relationship of personality, ADHD, and antisocial behavior to substance abuse, as well as gene-environment interrelationships. Lisa Legrand is a Research Associate with the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research at the University of Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. in 2003 from the University of Minnesota. Her major research interests include gene-environment interplay in the development of externalizing psychopathology. Dawn Peuschold is a Senior Clinical Forensic Psychologist at the Hennepin Country District Court and an instructor at the University of Minnesota. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in forensic psychology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School after receiving her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Minnesota. She is interested in risk factors for reoffense in juveniles. William G. Iacono is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota, the institution from which he received his Ph.D. in psychology. He conducts longitudinal studies of adolescent twins and adoptees aimed at understanding the development of adult adjustment and mental health.     

Northeast Asian Economic Integration: A Region in Flux

Over the last decade, essentially since the Asian crisis of 1997–98, the economic integration of Northeast Asia has been marked by three overarching trends. Economic relations have become: 1) more institutionalized; 2) more “Asian;” and 3) more China-centric. These macro-trends are demonstrated and analyzed in the paper. But by way of anticipation, numerous counter-cutting facts need also to be kept in mind. In essence, recent trends, notable as they are, have by no means reversed three counter-realities: 1) economic ties are still largely driven, less by governments and formal arrangements, than by corporations in search of profits and production efficiencies; 2) despite growing economic interdependence across Northeast Asia and between that sub-region and Southeast Asia, Japan, China and South Korea remain heavily linked to global, and particularly US, markets; and 3) though China is an ever important hub in Northeast Asian trade and investment, Japan remains by far the most powerful economic player in the region.     

Asymmetric payoffs in simultaneous and sequential prisoner’s dilemma games

We investigate the role of payoff asymmetry in laboratory prisoner’s dilemma games. Symmetric and asymmetric games are examined in simultaneous and sequential settings. In the asymmetric sequential games, we study the impact of having payoff advantaged players moving either first or second. Asymmetry reduces the rates of cooperation in simultaneous games. In sequential games, asymmetry interacts with order of play such that the rate of cooperation is highest when payoff disadvantaged players move first.