Generational differences in perceived responsibility for adolescent support: A study of adolescent females,mothers, and maternal grandmothers

The issue of parent and adolescent responsibilities was explored in a sample of 195 adolescent females, 192 mothers, and 153 maternal grandmothers to assess whether generational differences in views about responsibility, particularly financial ones, existed. A 43-item Responsibility Scale was developed, and principal components analysis of the instrument yielded five factors. Significant generational differences emerged on several items, with the largest generational differences being found on the items comprising a factor describing parental protection of family values. Whereas all three generations viewed parents as having responsibilities to provide material goods, adolescents were more likely to link parental provision of material goods with autonomy issues than were their mothers or grandmothers.This research was supported by a grant from the Grants and Research Funding Committee of Southeast Missouri State University.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from The University of Texas at Austin. Interests include competence, coping, risk, vulnerability, and intergenerational relationships.Received Ph.D. in developmental psychology from West Virginia University. Interests include life-span developmental psychology, cognition and aging, problem-solving, intergenerational issues, and courtship violence.     

Multi-level voting and party competition in vertically simultaneous elections: the case of Ukraine

Vertically simultaneous elections to state-wide and regional legislatures provide us with a naturally occurring experiment in which to examine regionalism and multi-level voting. We examine the 2006 vertically and horizontally simultaneous state-wide and regional elections in Ukraine to determine how the internal dynamics of regionalism within a state account for the dissimilarity of voting behavior across electoral levels. Drawing on the party competition literature, we demonstrate that variations in both supply (parties) and demand (voters) produce considerable dissimilarity between regional and state results, with lower levels of consolidation and greater fractionalization at the regional level. We show that political cleavages operate differently across levels, that regional distinctiveness rather than regional authority better predicts first order-ness in regional elections, and that voters display varying tolerance for polarization at the regional and state level.     

Forging a new political culture: Plenary behaviour in the scottish parliament

Part of the appeal of creating a new Scottish Parliament lay in the ability of legislators to re-define the institutional culture of politics. For advocates of change, the Westminster system, with its emphasis on adversarial and male-dominated politics, turned citizens off politics. Devolution advocates argued that a Scottish Parliament, composed of a new type of politician and operating according to modernised rules, would better serve the public. The four principles of the Consultative Steering Group report included among them references to a more open and accessible political system. The 1999 elections introduced a number of new faces but among the 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) are a number of sitting and former local councillors, Members of Parliament and party workers. This article examines these individuals and their behaviour in the first year of plenary debates to determine whether the social characteristics of these MSPs, their gender, their partisan ties or their previous political experiences affects the likelihood of a new model of political debate. It argues that initially the political experience of MSPs affected their levels of participation but that increasingly, position within the Parliament exerts a greater influence. Some social characteristics such as gender, however, continue to influence the extent and manner of participation.     

Notes on contributors

Abstract

In his article for this issue of Economy and Society, Narayanan (2008 Narayanan, S. 2008. On the stalling of the Malaysian industrialization project. Economy and Society, 37(4): 595–601. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) presents a critique of our earlier work on Malaysian industrialization (Henderson &; Phillips 2007). Narayanan's objections are entirely empirical and they take the form of suggesting that had we looked at the ‘right’ data or ‘properly’ interpreted the data we provide, we would have seen that our hypothesis that Malaysia's industrialization project was ‘stalling’ was either wrong, or, if plausible, was unproven. In this response, we show that Narayanan is largely mistaken in his critique. While his contribution contains errors of interpretation, we argue that he is mistaken predominantly because he has misunderstood the methodological basis of our analysis. Specifically, he has failed to grasp our theoretical object and thus has been unable to identify the appropriate empirical terrain for assessing its significance and condition.     

Against the economic orthodoxy: on the making of the East Asian miracle

With an eye on the transition from socialism to capitalism in Central Europe and the decline of industrial economies such as Britain, the article contributes to the debate on the economic development of Japan and the newly industrialized countries of East Asia. It begins with a discussion of the reasons why accounts derived from neoclassical economic theory have dominated explanations of industrialization in the region. By reference to three recent books on the development of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, the article proceeds to mount a critique of the economic orthodoxy, arguing for a central role to be accorded to state influence and direction over the economy. The article ends by suggesting that there are a number of elements in the East Asian model of development that could be creatively appropriated to inform strategies for economic rejuvenation elsewhere in the world.     

SAYS TUKA

This article discusses and provides examples of the revolutionary poetry of Tukaram (“Tuka”), the seventeenth-century writer who represented the culmination of three centuries of a radical bhakti (devotional) movement that aimed to bring together women and men of low caste to proclaim their equality and reject Brahmanic ritualism and caste hierarchy. The backdrop to this discussion of Tuka's songs is the recent reassessment of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries in India–an era of Muslim rule and linkages to the modern world through Islam– as an “early modern” period of time.     

New perspectives on the subcontinent

Abstract

Kathleen Gough and Hari Sharma's Imperialism and Revolution in South Asia marks something of a breakthrough in the field of South Asia scholarship: the first edited collection of Marxist writings by both Western and Asian scholars, journalists and activists covering most of the crucial issues in the field. It shows some omissions and contains some unresolved and not clearly delineated debates, but this is inevitable given the vast amount of work still to be done and the important questions of theory and practice still debated among Marxists; it has some unevenness in articles but at the same time contains some of the best of recent analysis. All in all it is a fine collection.