Media recognition and access to the presidential primary ballot

Legislatures in nearly a third of the states that conduct presidential preference primaries have given the media a statutory role in deciding who gets on that ballot. In these states, a candidate may qualify for placement on the ballot by being recognized by the media as a serious contender for the office of president. The constitutionality of these statutes has been upheld on the ground that they provide additional access to the ballot. This article argues, however, that the statutes are poor public policy because they contravene democratic principles, they compromise the press in its role as institutional watchdog and they fail to meet the essential goals of the candidate nominating process in a democracy. The article concludes by recommending that these so‐called media recognition statutes be repealed.     

Islamic business and business as usual: A study of firms in Egypt

Fifteen Egyptian firms producing goods and services were classified into two sets by method of finance, i.e. profit sharing for the seven Islamic versus debt-at-interest for the eight non-Islamic firms. Interviewed in 1993 and 1994, the two groups were found to be similar in customer relations and market behaviour and in paternalism towards employees. However, the non-Islamic firms had a significantly higher average profit rate, while the Islamic firms paid a significantly higher average wage, suggesting that cultural institutions shape economic behaviour even in a well-established market economy.     

Emotion Regulation Difficulties, Youth–Adult Relationships, and Suicide Attempts Among High School Students in Underserved Communities

To develop and refine interventions to prevent youth suicide, knowledge is needed about specific processes that reduce risk at a population level. Using a cross-sectional design, the present study tested hypotheses regarding associations between self-reported suicide attempts, emotion regulation difficulties, and positive youth–adult relationships among 7,978 high-school students (48.6 % male, 49.9 % female) in 30 high schools from predominantly rural, low-income communities. 683 students (8.6 %) reported a past-year suicide attempt. Emotion regulation difficulties and a lack of trusted adults at home and school were associated with increased risk for making a past-year suicide attempt, above and beyond the effects of depressive symptoms and demographic factors. The association between emotion regulation difficulties and suicide attempts was modestly lower among students who perceived themselves as having higher levels of trusted adults in the family, consistent with a protective effect. Having a trusted adult in the community (outside of school and family) was associated with fewer suicide attempts in models that controlled only for demographic covariates, but not when taking symptoms of depression into account. These findings point to adolescent emotion regulation and relationships with trusted adults as complementary targets for suicide prevention that merit further intervention studies. Reaching these targets in a broad population of adolescents will require new delivery systems and “option rich” (OR) intervention designs.