Social heterogeneity and wasteful lobbying

Using a general equilibrium model with endogenous policy, we explore how heterogeneity affects wasteful lobbying by sectoral interest groups. With the help of a simulation approach, we first investigate the impact of information heterogeneity on how lobbies react to a shift from a soft to a strict government budget constraint. Next, we examine how lobbying is influenced by heterogenous perception of the general equilibrium implications of lobbying effort. Finally, we explore the consequences of heterogenous specialization in households' asset portfolios. We conclude that social heterogeneity in information, perceptions, and portfolio compositions increases incentives to lobby.     

Testing for Cointegrating Relationships with Near-Integrated Data

Testing theories about political change requires analysts tomake assumptions about the memory of their time series. Appliedanalyses are often based on inferences that time series areintegrated and cointegrated. Typically analyses rest on Dickey–Fullerpretests for unit roots and a test for cointegration based onthe Engle–Granger two-step method. We argue that thisapproach is not a good one and use Monte Carlo analysis to showthat these tests can lead analysts to conclude falsely thatthe data are cointegrated (or nearly cointegrated) when thedata are near-integrated and not cointegrating. Further, analystsare likely to conclude falsely that the relationship is notcointegrated when it is. We show how inferences are highly sensitiveto sample size and the signal-to-noise ratio in the data. Wesuggest three things. First, analysts should use the singleequation error correction test for cointegrating relationships;second, caution is in order in all cases where near-integrationis a reasonable alternative to unit roots; and third, analystsshould drop the language of cointegration in many cases andadopt single-equation error correction models when the theoryof error correction is relevant.     

Reviews

Ideology and Development in Africa by Crawford Young Yale University Press, New Haven (Connecticut), 1982. xviii plus 376 pp. including tables, notes and index. R62,57. R23,35 paperback.

Essays on the Political Economy of Rural Africa by Robert H. Bates Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983. xiii plus 184 pp. including tables, notes and index. R40,95.

Political Development Theory: The Contemporary Debate by Richard A. Higgott Croom Helm, London, 1983. xvi plus 124 pp. including index. £6,95 paperback.

Decolonization: The Administration and Future of the Colonies, 1919–1960 by Rudolf von Albertini Holmes and Meier, Inc., New York, 1982 (reprint), xxx plus 680 pp. including notes, bibliography and index. $ 37,50. $19,50 paperback.

Foreign Policy‐Making in Developing States: A Comparative Approach edited by Christopher Clapham Saxon House, Westmead, 1977. x plus 184 pp. including tables, maps, bibliography and index. R45,8o.

The Politics of Basic Needs: Urban Aspects of Assaulting Poverty in Africa by Richard Sandbrook Heinemann, London, 1982. vi plus 250 pp. including tables, notes and index. £5,95 paperback.

Redistribution of Population in Africa edited by John I. Clarke and Leszek A. Kosiński Heinemann, London, 1982. xii plus 212 pp. including tables, figures, maps, index of names and subject index. £7,50 paperback.

Oral Historiography by David Henige Longman, London, 1982. x plus 150 pp. including notes, bibliography and index. £3,95 paperback.

Nigeria von der völkerrechtlichen Unabhangigkeit zur zweiten Republik: Analyse und Dokumentation by Joseph Lütke Entrup Verlag Hans Richarz, Sankt Augustin, 1981. 243 pp. including appendices and bibliography. DM29,80.

Oral Poetry and Somali Nationalism: The Case of Sayyid Mahammad ‘Abdille Hasan by Said S. Samatar Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1982. xii plus 232 pp. including illustrations, figures, tables, notes, bibliography and index. R52,50.

Tom Mboya: The Man Kenya Wanted to Forget by David Goldsworthy Heinemann, London, 1982. xii plus 308 pp. including appendix and index. R30,80.

Development Policies and Approaches in Southern Africa edited by D. A. Kotzé Academica, Pretoria, 1983, 147 pp. including bibliography and index. R16,50.

Das südliche Afrika — I: Republik Südafrika‐Swasiland‐Lesotho by Ernst Klimm, Karl‐Günther Schneider and Bernd Wiese Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1980. 307 pp. including maps, tables, graphs and index. Also annexure of photographs. DM84,00.

Die Städte des südlichen Afrika by Karl‐Gunther Schneider and Bernd Wiese, Bornträger, Berlin and Stuttgart, 1983. 175 pp. including maps, tables, figures, graphs, photographs and index. DM98,00.

Südafrika: Fakten und Probleme by Karl‐Gunther Schneider and Bernd Wiese Seewald, Stuttgart, 1983. 187 pp. including maps, tables, figures, graphs, photographs and index. DM24,00.

Verkehrsgeographische Strukturwandlungen im südlichen Afrika, 1975–1980 by Joachim Jeske Institut für Afrika‐Kunde, Hamburg, 1981. 256 pp. including maps, tables and figures. DM22,00.

Malawi: Geographie eines unterentwickelten Landes by Cay Lienau Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1981. 243 pp. including maps, tables, graphs and index. Also annexure of photographs. DM89,00.

Kaunda on Violence by Kenneth D. Kaunda and edited by Colin M. Morris Willia m Collins, London, 1980. 184 pp. R6,95 paperback.

Under the Skin: The Death of White Rhodesia by David Caute Allen Lane, London, 1983. 447 pp. including maps and chronology. £14,95.

Race and Ethnicity: South African and International Perspectives edited by Hendrik W. van der Merwe and Robert A. Schrire, David Philip, Cape Town, 1980. 237 pp. including notes and index. R9,00 paperback.

South Africa in the World Economy edited by Jacqueline Matthews McGraw‐Hill, Johannesburg, 1983. xi plus 271pp. including index. R23,50.

Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 by Tom Lodge Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1983. x plus 389 pp. including figures, notes, sources and index. R 14,95 paperback.

Which Way is South Africa Going? by Gwendolen M. Carter Indiana University Press, Bloomington (Indiana), and London, 1980. xii plus 162 pp. including maps, bibliographical notes and index. $12,95.

The God of the Xhosa: A Study of the Origins and Development of the Traditional Concepts of the Supreme Being by Janet Hodgson Oxford University Press, Cape Town, 1982. xiv plus 131 pp. including appendices, bibliography and index. R9,75 paperback.

Black People and the South African War, 1899–1902 by Peter Warwick Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983. xiv plus 226 pp. including maps, tables, notes, select bibliography and index. R52,25.

Afrikaner Political Thought: Analysis and Documents — Volume I: 1780–1850 by André du Ton and Hermann Giliomee David Philip, Cape Town and Johannesburg, 1983. xxx plus 309 pp. including notes and index. R36,oo. R 18,00 paperback.     

Myths and the definition of policy problems

In this paper we argue that behind widely accepted problem definitions are myths, stories which draw on tradition and taken for granted knowledge. These myths, which may or may not be true in a factual sense, are important to the definition of problems because they link public issues to widely accepted ways of understanding the world and to shared moral evaluations of conditions, events, and possible solutions to problems. Such myths perform a double-edged function in a policy or planning process. On the one hand, they can provide creative inspiration for policies, a way of translating community values into action proposals, and a powerful means to communicate to a broad public and rally support. They can mediate social and economic change by allowing new policies to carry familiar meaning. On the other hand, a myth can conceal crucial contradictions and realities, legitimize policies that benefit the powerful, and support anachronistic perceptions of policy problems. These ideas are explored in case histories of two areas of urban policy. In one we trace the support for home ownership to a transformation of the Jeffersonian myth of the independent yeoman farmer as the ideal citizen. This use of myth made home ownership the cornerstone of US housing policies and helped suppress alternatives. Though debate over home ownership occurs in the context of housing policy, the tacit purpose is to maintain a myth which is central to our identity as a nation. In the second example, public officials and analysts engaged in an explicit myth-making process to garner support for public-private partnerships as a central tool in urban redevelopment. The myths, which drew on familiar themes, made socially beneficial cooperation seem easy to achieve and legitimized new political and institutional arrangements though it also concealed implementation difficulties. Though myths complicate the effort to use rational, systematic analysis, they are an inevitable part of policy making and planning processes. Planning professionals must openly confront myths and make creative, responsible, use of them rather than allow policies and plans to be subject to their unexamined influence.     

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AS IMPLEMENTORS OF PUBLIC POLICY

This study expands the growing literature in comparative public policy that examines welfare services. By now, it is accepted that a combination of economic, social, and political factors are influential in the delivery of these services by the 60 states. This paper finds that similar factors are also operating at the county level in New York state. Most notably, political factors affect the distribution of welfare benefits–despite federal and state mandates that require distribution to be based solely on need. This raises a number of issues. concerning the nature of political influence and the autonomy of local bureaucracies, which require further exploration.     

Negative Life Events and Depressive Symptoms in Late Adolescence: Bonding and Cognitive Coping as Vulnerability Factors?

The objective of the present study was to examine the effects of parental bonding and cognitive coping in the relationship between negative life events and depressive symptoms in adolescence. A sample of 1310 adolescents attending an intermediate vocational education school filled out a questionnaire. Adolescents with a poor parental bonding relationship seemed to be more vulnerable to depressive symptoms in the face of adverse life events than adolescents with more optimal bonding styles. Cognitive coping strategies seemed to play an even more important role. The use of self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing, positive refocusing, and positive reappraisal appeared to be related to depressive symptoms. In addition, self-blame, rumination, and positive reappraisal seemed to have a moderating role in the relationship between the amount of stress experienced and depressive symptoms. Developing prevention and intervention programs aimed at the formation of optimal bonding relationships and teaching adolescents adaptive cognitive coping strategies seems advisable.