PROPOSAL FOR A PILOT EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR DIVORCING AND SEPARATING PARENTS

This article presents the proposal made to the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners outlining the rationale for the Clackamas County Parent Education Program. including a proposed budget and sources of income.     

How Is a History of the Sociology of Religion Possible?: Reflections on Roberto Cipriani's Sociology of Religion

The effort to write a history of the sociology of religion requires a delineation of the field. In turn, this requires a discrimination among the key ideas determining that field, including the notions of religion, sociology, the sacred, and a host of others. This is a prerequisite for sorting the various contributors and contributions to this field as well as determining the value of any such history to the future advance of the study of human consciousness and conduct, including religion. Cipriani's book is reviewed, and its strengths and weaknesses assayed, in light of these concerns. Several lacunae in the book are identified, such as the absence of any treatment of non-Western writers and its failure to substantially engage the work of women, including Jane Ellen Harrison's pioneering sociology of religion.     

Paying Workers or Paying Lawyers: Employee Termination Practices in the United States and Canada

This article explores one multinational corporation's employee termination practices in the United States and Canada. There are fairly insignificant differences in employees' legal protections in the two countries and the company claims a uniform corporate employee termination process cross‐nationally. However, there are major structural and procedural differences in the employee termination process. The differences, including the way attorneys are utilized, the use of quasi‐legal personnel to comply with regulatory requirements, and the substance of the severance package are explored. In the United States money is directed toward legal professionals –paying lawyers while in Canada expenses associated with employee termination go to severance packages –paying workers.     

Does neighborhood matter? Assessing recent evidence

Abstract

This article synthesizes findings from a wide range of empirical research into how neighborhoods affect families and children. It lays out a conceptual framework for understanding how neighborhoods may affect people at different life stages. It then identifies methodological challenges, summarizes past research findings, and suggests priorities for future work.

Despite a growing body of evidence that neighborhood conditions play a role in shaping individual outcomes, serious methodological challenges remain that suggest some caution in interpreting this evidence. Moreover, no consensus emerges about which neighborhood characteristics affect which outcomes, or about what types of families may be most influenced by neighborhood conditions. Finally, existing studies provide little empirical evidence about the causal mechanisms through which neighborhood environment influences individual outcomes. To be useful to policy makers, future empirical research should tackle the critical question of how and for whom neighborhood matters.     

The place of parties in contemporary democracies

The electoral system has often been considered an important determinant of the political stability that the Federal Republic of Germany has enjoyed in the half-century of its existence, so that it has been often indicated as a 'model' for electoral reforms in other democracies. The analysis of the political impact of the German electoral system after 1949 shows that such impact was different in the different phases of evolution of the party system. In the 1950s, the German party system was characterised by a higher level of fractionalisation, which the electoral system contributed progressively to reduce. That phase was followed by 30 years of concentration and defractionalisation of the vote. In the last decade, the post-reunification party system presents again higher electoral fractionalisation, which the electoral system has partially reduced in the vote-seats translation. In the current political contingency it is doubtful, however, that the electoral system by itself can contain fragmentation on a durable basis.     

Under Which Conditions Do Parties Attract Voters’ Reactions to Issues? Party-Varying Issue Voting in German Elections 1987–2009

Are voters’ choices influenced by parties’ position-taking and communication efforts on issues during a campaign? And if so, do voters’ reactions to issues differ across parties? This article outlines a research design for the statistical identification of party-varying issue reactions within the established paradigm of the Spatial Theory of Voting. Using a special feature of conditional logit and probit models – i.e. the estimation of alternative-specific coefficients instead of fixed ‘generic’ issue distance effects – it is possible to detect asymmetrically attached issue saliencies at the level of the voters, and hence at the demand-side of politics. This strategy opens a new way to systematically combine insights obtained by saliency approaches with the Spatial Theory of Voting. An application to the German parliamentary elections from 1987 to 2009 demonstrates that it is predominantly parties taking polar positions – and, more specifically, niche parties taking polar positions – that induce such asymmetric issue voting.     

Defense sector reform in the Western Balkans – different approaches and different tools

This article analyses two different approaches to defense sector reform (DSR) in the Western Balkans. It explores the role of NATO in the reform process in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), as well as Norway's involvement in Montenegro. Based on this, the article then compares and contrasts the two processes, and looks at the factors that have influenced their success or failure. The analysis show that both BiH and Montenegro have taken significant steps towards Euro-Atlantic integration, and that NATO and Norway have succeeded in part of their work to assist this effort. However, it also suggests that certain key factors for success in SSR have been less than optimal, such as donor coordination and the principle of local ownership. Both actors are also limited by the lack of a conceptual framework or guidelines for their work on DSR.     

Methadone-related deaths in Norway

IntroductionThe use of methadone in opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) is potentially associated with a number of adverse effects and the risk of fatal toxicity. Increased methadone availability may lead to an increase in methadone-related deaths. We have investigated methadone-related deaths in Norway over the period 2000–2006.Materials and methodsMethadone-positive samples over the period 2000–2006 were identified from forensic toxicological investigations, and demographic and toxicological data were retrieved. The cases were cross-linked with the Norwegian Cause of Death Registry and regional OMT registers.ResultsA total of 312 individuals had died after taking methadone over the period 2000–2006, predominantly men with a mean age of 36. In 85% of cases (n = 264), the deceased had died of a methadone-related intoxication, most often in combination with other drugs, including benzodiazepines, cannabis and other opioids. Only 22% of the deceased had been in OMT at the time of death. A larger proportion of OMT patients had died of causes other than intoxications compared to those not in OMT (30% vs. 8%, respectively), most commonly related to disease.ConclusionsOne methadone-related death occurred, on average, every week over the time period investigated. Only 22% of the deceased were registered in opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) programs. The findings underline the need to control diversion of medication from OMT programs.     

Obstacles for Changes within the (Swedish) Police Force: Professional Motivations,Homosociality, and Ordering Practices

This article discusses how professional motivations and homosociality within the Swedish police (training programme) become obstacles to both a changed police norm and diversity within the police force. This issue is discussed on the basis of two studies: one focused on the professional motivations of police students; the other focused on the issue of norms and normation within the police training programme. The norm regarding how a police officer should be is viewed as a manifestation of ordering practices as a form of continuous, on-going normation processes that emphasize practical, physically demanding, and violent working conditions focused on combating crime. This produces powerful conceptions of the types of body that are suitable for the profession, a normative (male) body. This normative body effects those bodies that are assumed to contribute to diversity in a police force dominated by white, Swedish, heterosexual males. This together moulds a culture founded on the conceptions of physically demanding and action-focused work that promotes a muscle culture that emphasizes the work as practical, rather than moving towards an intellectual and reflective approach to police work.     

Measuring Political Brands: An Art and a Science of Mapping the Mind

The field of political brands has developed a host of approaches and explored a variety of cases over the last years. However, less attention has been devoted to brand measurement—specifically efforts to construct a measure that attempts to explain the relationship between voters and parties. Against this backdrop, this article discusses how to measure a political brand by first selecting one part of the diverse brand concept for further investigation. Next, the two existing brand measures in the literature are evaluated, and the article proposes an alternative measure that underlines a stronger connection to the immense political science literature on voters and parties. Then, the three measures are compared by empirically investigating which measure is best at explaining voters' party sympathy. Here, it is demonstrated that the alternative measure seems to be the most valid and reliable construct when it comes to explaining voters' sympathy for a particular party. Finally, the proposed alternative measure is further validated in a representative sample (N = 2251), establishing a preliminary correlation between party brand and voter sympathy.