Weakening partisanship and the higher educated in Britain

Abstract. The decline in support for traditional political parties in a number of Western democracies is often attributed to the effects of recent educational expansion and a consequent rise in cognitive mobilisation in the electorate. The thesis that support for the two major parties in Britain is lowest among the young educated is tested here, using survey data for the period 1964–1983. The analysis indicates that for only a short time in the early 1970s was there evidence of such a relationship, and that differences in major-party support which are related to age and to educational achievement have all but disappeared by the 1980s. Moreover, the findings cast serious doubt upon the validity of current operationalisations of 'cognitive mobilisation'.     

Recent developments in medicine and law

This article addresses important developments in the field of medicine and law during the period of September 2000 through August 2001. It does not discuss every reported case or piece of legislation but surveys some of the more significant developments in the medicine and law arena.     

A method for group identification of hair infected with Microsporum

A method for identifying the group appurtenance of biological objects from subjects suffering from various diseases is developed. The method can be used in examination of putrefactive objects (blood, secretions, hair, etc.) and in cases when the group appurtenance cannot be identified by other methods.     

Collaboration over Adaptation: The Case for Interoperable Communications in Homeland Security

Analogizing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to a corporate conglomerate consisting of multiple, formerly independent operating units with little in common and even less history of cooperation, this response to Professor Charles Wise prescribes the "bitter medicine" of interoperable communications. The critical function of assuring homeland security and disaster preparedness cannot depend on the uncertain trajectory of adaptive response.     

贫国与富国:基于治理理论的解释

本文通过对荷兰与加纳、新加坡与牙买加、日本与尼日利亚等几组国家进行比较研究,指出国家贫富差别的主要原因在于治理,而非资源。     

Föderalismus und wohlfahrtsstaatliche Entwicklung. Österreich und die Schweiz im Vergleich

Starting from the stylised fact that federal institutions are held to be inimical to welfare state expansion, this paper examines the ways in which federalism has shaped the dynamics of welfare state development in Switzerland and Austria. A comparison of these different federal polities reveals that the welfare breaking effect attached to federalism crucially depends on the extent of vertical power separation. In both countries economic competition among constituent units did not fuel a race to the bottom in social standards. In Switzerland, the most important reason connected to federalism for why federal social policy was delayed and downsized was policy-preemption by the cantons and their considerable influence on the federal policymaking process. In contrast, the Austrian Länder neither had major social policy competencies nor an effective veto power which allowed them to block the centralisation of public policy. Instead, federalism is subordinate to the partisan arena at the central state level which itself is dominated by political parties quite favourable to welfare state expansion.