Perceived Social Support and Early Adolescents’ Achievement: The Mediational Roles of Motivational Beliefs and Emotions

Although a bulk of literature shows that perceived social support (PSS) influences academic achievement, the mechanisms through which this effect operates received little empirical attention. The present study examined the multiple mediational effects of motivational beliefs (competence beliefs and subjective value) and emotions (anxiety and enjoyment) that may account for the empirical link between PSS (from parents, peers and teachers) and mathematics achievement. The participants of the study were 238 grade 7 students (average age = 13.2 years, girls = 54%, predominantly native Dutch middle class socioeconomic status). A bootstrap analysis (a relatively new technique for testing multiple mediation) revealed that the motivational beliefs and the emotions, jointly, partially mediated the effect of PSS on achievement. The proportion of the effects mediated, however, varied across the support sources from 55% to 75%. The findings lend support to the theoretical assumptions in the literature that supportive social relationships influence achievement through motivational and affective pathways.     

Josine Junger-Tas: The Life and Works of a Compassionate Criminologist

This article is the editorial introduction to the special issue of the European Journal of Criminal Policy and Research Compassionate Criminology: The Legacy of Josine Junger-Tas (1929–2011). The article consists of four parts and an Appendix (i.e., the bibliography of her publications). In the first section, we provide a brief overview of the highlights of her professional career of 40-plus years, including her contributions to the institutionalization of European criminology. The second section discusses how her focus on comparative criminology and policy relevance run as a red thread through her work as a criminologist. The third part centers around Junger-Tas’s consistent concern with the responsibility of scholars and researchers to “do the right thing” and to speak out for the most vulnerable parts of the population (youth in particular). We believe that as a public criminologist avant la lettre Junger-Tas’s main heritage lies in drawing the contours of what may be called evidence-based compassionate criminology. The fourth section provides a brief introduction to the seven articles in this special issue.     

Other people's memory

Abstract

How optimistic are people's evaluations of their own memory as compared to that of most others? To find out, we asked 563 Sa. to compere their own memory for events, faces and names to that of others. The results show that many, and especially young respondents, tend to be illusory optimistic about the power of their memory for events and faces, but not for names. The implications of this result for evaluating eyewitness reports by tries of fact in legal cases are discussed.     

Early Danish census taking

Census taking in its modern form started in Denmark in 1769, and the next two censuses were taken in 1787 and 1801. Problems that arose during the implementation and tabulation of the first census demonstrate the difficulties in establishing an efficient administration of population statistics from scratch. By trial and error during the course of the first three censuses, the administration learned how to carry out and tabulate a census so that by 1801 census taking had reached a form that could be used for the rest of the 19th century with only minor changes and additions.     

The lost revolution of West Germany's terrorists

ABSTRACT

The ubiquity of military service and armed conflict in the contemporary Israeli experience has stimulated intense Jewish theological discourse in matters relevant to armed conflict. Warfare and its conduct, subjects that for almost two millennia constituted one of the great lacunae of rabbinic instruction, are now addressed in a swelling tide of detailed and erudite publications.

The present essay outlines the contours of that discourse. Focusing on contemporary analyses of issues that in the western tradition fall under the rubric of ius ad bellum, it examines the means whereby attempts are made to apply traditional Jewish taxonomies of conflict to modern Israeli circumstances.

In addition, the essay addresses four specific issues: (1) The identities and affiliations of the discourses principal participants; (2) The formats and styles of their discussions; (3) The principal issues with which they are concerned; and (4) The potential implications, operational as well as intellectual, of the developments described.     

Choosing Sides in the European Iraq Conflict: A Test of New Geopolitical Theory

Abstract

Focusing on the Euro-Atlantic conflict over the Iraq war operation in early 2003 (the ‘European Iraq conflict’), the purpose of the present article is to explain the pattern of Atlantic (vs. Continental) predispositions among European countries. It argues that this is the best suited conflict in the post-Cold War era to illuminate this stable and fundamental pattern. Whereas systemic power distribution, size, public opinion, or government ideology all fail to account for the positioning of states in the conflict (and balance of threat applies only modestly), a theory of ‘past and present geopolitics’ is outlined that seems able to explain states’ predispositions and, hence, their positionings in this specific situation. It is remarkable that ‘old-fashioned’ geopolitical dynamics can be identified even within the Euro-Atlantic zone of ‘peace and prosperity’—not only at its fringes, but also in its very heart.     

Book reviews

European Democratization since 1800 edited by J. Garrard, V. Tolz and R. White. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000. Pp.x + 292; index. £45 (hardback). ISBN 0 3337 3894 2

Changing Party Systems in Western Europe edited by David Broughton and Mark Donovan. London: Pinter, 1999. Pp.315; index. £55 (hardback); £16.99 (paperback). ISBN 1 85567 327 4 and 328 2

How France Votes edited by M. Lewis‐Beck. New York and London: Chatham House, 2000. Pp.xi + 292; index. £18.99 (paperback). ISBN 1 56643 069 0

Democracy the Swedish Way: The 1999 SNS Democratic Audit of Sweden by Olof Petersson, Klaus von Beyme, Lauri Karvonen, Birgitta Nedelmann and Eivind Smith (trans. by Frank G. Perry). Stockholm: SNS Forlag, 1999. Pp.165; bibliography. SEK (Swedish crowns) 300 (paperback). ISBN 91 7150 7612

On My Country and the World by M. Gorbachev (trans. by G. Shriver). New York and Chichester: Columbia University Press and John Wiley, 2000. Pp.278; index. £19.00 (hardback). ISBN 0 231 11514 8

The Limits of Empire: The United States and Southeast Asia since World War II by Robert J. McMahon. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Pp.ix + 276; index; bibliographic essay; map. £36 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 231 10880 X and 10881 8

China's Political System: Modernization and Tradition by June Teufel Dreyer. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 2000. Pp xvii + 347; index. £16.50 (paperback). ISBN 0 333 91287 X

The Postcommunist Citizen edited by Samuel H. Barnes and Janos Simon. Budapest: Erasmus Foundation and Institute for Political Science of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1998. Pp.272; index. NP (paperback). ISBN 963 03 5551 5

Federal Practice: Exploring Alternatives for Georgia and Abkhazia edited by Bruno Coppieters, David Darchiashvili and Natella Akaba. Brussels: VUB University Press, 2000. Pp.281. £14.45 (paperback). ISBN 90 5487 2381

Intellectual Politics in Post‐Tiananmen China, Social Text, No.55 edited by Xudong Zhang. Durham: Duke University Press, 1998. Pp.14. US$12 (paperback). ISBN 0 8223 6463 8

Mass Politics and Culture in Democratizing Korea by Doh C. Shin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.Xxxv +335; index. £37.50 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 0521 651468 and 67823 2

Towards Mexico's Democratization: Parties, Campaigns, Elections and Public Opinion edited by Jorge Domínguez and Alejandro Poiré. London: Routledge, 1999. Pp.xii + 251; index. £45 (hardback); £14.99 (paperback). ISBN: 0 415 92159 7 and 92158 9

Democratization in Africa edited by L. Diamond and M.F. Plattner. Baltimore, MD and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Pp.xxvii + 244; index. £32.50 (hardback); £12.50 (paperback). ISBN 0 8018 6272 8 and 6273 6

Democracy and Decentralisation in South Asia and West Africa: Participation, Accountability and Performance by Richard C. Crook and James Manor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xvi + 335; index; bibliography. £45 (hardback); £15.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 521 63157 2 and 63647 7

Predatory Globalization: A Critique by Richard Falk. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999. Pp.x + 217; index. £49.50 (hardback); £14.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 7456 0935 X and 0936 8

The Myth of Global Chaos by Y. Sadowski. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1998. Pp.xv + 267; index. NP (hardback) ISBN 0 8157 7664 0

Political Economy and the Changing Global Order, Second Edition edited by Richard Stubbs and Geoffrey R.D. Underhill. Ontario: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp.x + 422. £18.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 19 541 4640

Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Governance edited by Pippa Norris. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Pp.xv + 303; index. £45.00 (hardback); £16.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 19 829479 4 and 829568 5

Democracy's Edges edited by I. Shapiro and C. Hacker‐Cordón. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.xiii + 297; index. £35 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 521 64356 and 64389 9

Revitalizing the State: A Menu of Options by Pradip N. Khandwalla. New Delhi and London: Sage Publications, 1999. Pp.304; index. £27.50 (hardback). ISBN 0 7619 9316 9

The Self‐Restraining State edited by A. Schedler, L. Diamond and M.F. Plattner. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1999. Pp.x + 393; index. US$59.95 (hardback); US$24.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 55587 773 7 and 774 5

Technology and Popular Participation edited by Brian Martin. Wollongong: University of Wollongong, Science and Technology Studies, 1999. Pp.263. Gratis (paperback). ISBN 0 86418 559 6

Contemporary Social and Political Theory: An Introduction by F. Ashe et al. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1999. Pp.xi + 209; glossary; bibliography; index. £45 (hardback); £14.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 335 19625 X and 19624 1

The New Political Culture edited by Terry Nichols Clark and Vincent Hoffman‐Martinot. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1998. Pp.298; index. $65 (hardback); $26.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8133 2814 4 and 6694 1     

The 1981 Netherlands election

The Left in France. By Neill Nugent and David Lowe. London: Macmillan, 1982. Pp. xi + 275. £15.000.

Contemporary French Political Parties. Edited by David S. Bell. London: Croom Helm, 1982. Pp. 199, £13.95.