The calculus of voting: An empirical test

Abstract. According to the rational choice model, the calculus of voting takes the form of the equation R = BP − C, where the net rewards for voting (R) are a function of the instrumental benefits from the preferred outcome compared to others (B) and the probability (P) of casting the decisive vote that secures these benefits, minus the costs of becoming informed and going to the polls (C). Here, we provide a systematic test of this model. The analysis relies on two surveys, conducted during the 1995 Quebec referendum and the 1996 British Columbia provincial election, in which very specific questions measured each element of the model. As well, this study incorporates two other factors that can affect the propensity to vote — Respondents' level of political interest and their sense of duty. We find that B, P, and C each matter, but only among those with a relatively weak sense of duty. The feeling that one has a moral obligation to vote is the most powerful motivation to go to the polls. We conclude that the rational choice model is useful, but only in explaining behaviour at the margins of this important norm.     

The Behavioral Effects of Environmental Regimes: Collective-Action vs. Social-Practice Models

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Most observers agree that institutions play significant roles both in causing and in confronting large scale environmental...     

Active living and biking: tracing the evolution of a biking system in Arlington, Virginia

In Arlington, Virginia, a steady evolutionary change in biking policy during the last three decades has yielded some of the nation's best biking assets. It has a comprehensive, well-connected, highly integrated, well-mapped, and well-signed system of shared-use paved trails, bike lanes, bike routes, and other biking assets, such as workplace showers. Understanding the conditions that led to Arlington's current biking system can provide lessons in the strategy and tactics of active-living politics. One potentially effective political strategy that was successful in Arlington is for activists to pressure elected officials to select professional managers who see bike-ways as crucial to the overall transportation system. Then it is important to formalize the government-citizen relationship through an advisory panel. Also, in Arlington, the incremental creation of biking assets helped create demand for more and better facilities. In turn, this created political support for expanding and upgrading. Finally, Arlington used potentially negative circumstances (e.g., the building of highway corridors, the introduction of the Metro) as opportunities to change the built environment in ways that have encouraged more active living.     

Civil commitment by conservatorship: the workings of California's law

This article summarizes the conservatorship provisions of the California Civil Commitment Statute, the Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act and reviews the major findings from previous studies. By studying the hospital records of eighty-five gravely disabled patients affected by LPS, the authors address issues raised by these reports. The results indicate that the law's provisions work unevenly. Patients with acute and current disability received conservatorships more frequently than those who had been disabled in the past. There is some evidence that the process is used to confine threatening patients and does not function equally well for all diagnostic groups.     

Suicide by fire in a car trunk: a case with potential pitfalls

We present an unusual case in which an adult female committed suicide by fire while enclosed in the trunk of her vehicle. A finding of suicide was reached only because several key investigative facts were uncovered. Without these discoveries the case may still remain open as a suspicious death. Fire is rarely used as a mechanism of suicide in Western culture, and, as such, similar cases should be reported to advance our recognition of this phenomenon.     

Analysis of the impurities in the methamphetamine synthesized by three different methods from ephedrine and pseudoephedrine

Organic impurities of methamphetamine may show different patterns by synthesis. In the present study, we tried to find the impurities reflecting the conditions of synthesis by comparing impurity patterns of the methamphetamine samples synthesized by different methods. Sixteen methamphetamine samples were synthesized from ephedrine and pseudoephedrine by the three different manufacturing methods of Emde, Nagai and Moscow. The synthesized samples were extracted with ethyl acetate containing four internal standards, and the patterns of the organic impurities were investigated by GC-MS and GC-FID . Through the investigation, we found 10 peaks appearing in the latter part of GC chromatograms are characteristic to synthesis. The areas of the selected peaks were converted to the variables suitable for the statistical calculation, and the synthesized samples could be classified into four groups through the resultant cluster analysis.