Did the Tax Reform Act of 1986 Improve Compliance? Three Studies of Pre- and Post-TRA Compliance Attitudes*

The Tax Reform Act of 1986 rewrote the federal income tax code, bringing it closer to policy professionals' vision of what constitutes an equitable and efficient income tax. Research on tax compliance suggests the law might have affected taxpayer compliance in three ways: by reducing opportunities to overstate deductions, by changing perceptions of fairness, and by altering tax liabilities. Changes in taxpayer perceptions, attitudes, and noncompliance intentions were examined in three bodies of survey data, each containing pre-and post-reform data from independent samples of the same population. The results show an improved normative climate for taxpayer compliance and point to both the feasibility and the importance of examining the effects of substantive tax policies on taxpayer perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral intentions.     

论民国初期律师制度的建立及特点

<正> 律师制度是一项民主的政治法律制度,是现代国家法律制度的重要组成部分。作为一种法律现象的律师制度是在一国法律发展到一定阶段的产物。最早的律师制度产生于西方古罗马奴隶制时期,近代意义的律师制度发展完善则是17、18世纪资产阶级民主革命的积极产物。 我国是世界文明发达最早的国家之一,有着悠久的历史和灿烂的文化。我国古代的法律制度,经过数千年没有中断的发展过程,以历史悠久、沿革清晰、内容丰富、特点鲜明著称于世。然而,我国古代并没有产生律师制度,这是由于我国古代是一个农业社会,手工业、商业不发达,在政治上又是专制的集权统治,不存在产生职业律师的各种条件。律师制度传入中国,是自19世纪中后期西方帝国主义的侵入,伴随着我国逐步沦为半封建半殖民地社会,这一在西方已有悠久历史的法律现象才出现在中国社会。     

Nationalism, Regionalism, and State Institutions: An Assessment of Opinions in Spain

Acknowledging Spain's diversity, this article assesses the impactof nationalism, regionalism, and other factors on public opinionabout the country's young democratic institutions. Utilizingsurvey data, the analysis focuses on national and regional variationsin public preferences for central state institutions and federalistor other designs for state-regional relations. It concludesthat a strong base of support exists for the current democraticsystem and the institutions through which it is implemented.Nevertheless, some doubts remain about the basic state structureof central-regional relations.     

Prison mental health services: results of a national survey of standards, resources, administrative structure, and litigation

The formation of adequate mental health systems within prisons has accelerated as a result of successful class action lawsuits. Our recent national survey questioned all state correctional departments about the existence of standards in each system, compliance with such standards, prevalence of class action lawsuits involving the issue of providing adequate mental health services for inmates, issues related to consent decrees, available mental health resources within the correctional system, and the administrative structure of the mental health system. Our purpose was to identify those factors correlated with certified class action lawsuits involving issues related to mental health services. Twenty-one states were involved in such litigation. Only the presence of psychiatric hospitals operated by the department of corrections correlated with the presence of certified class action lawsuits involving mental health services. Prison systems larger than 15,000 inmates were at higher risk for such litigation. Smaller systems having psychiatric hospitals run by the state mental health agency appeared to be at less risk for such litigation.     

Gender comparisons in the relationship between parental and sibling violence and nonfamily violence

This paper addresses two neglected areas in the research on the relationship between family violence and violence outside the home: violence other than parent-child abuse and the effect of gender. Specifically, we consider both parental and sibling violence as independent variables, nonfamily violence as the dependent variable, and gender as the specification variable. The data were collected from a sample of 306 students in Introductory Sociology and Social Problems classes. The finding of particular importance is that the interaction between the gender of both the aggressor and the victim has a significant effect on the relationship between violence within the home and nonfamily violence.