Public Goods Theory from Eighteenth Century Political Philosophy to Twentieth Century Economics

Some scholars have studiedMancur Olson's legacy by investigating theeffects of his research on the socialsciences (McLean, 2000). Others havescrutinized the logical and empiricalimplications of his theories (Sandler,1992; Marsh, 1976; Chamberlin, 1974;Frohlich and Oppenheimer, 1970). A thirdgroup have quietly claimed that hisgreatest work, The logic of collectiveaction, was little more than apopularization of earlier ideas (Dowding,1997; Chamberlain, 1966). This paperattempts to exonerate Olson of the latterclaim by reviewing the major contributionsto collective action theory before his timeand comparing them to The logic ofcollective action.     

The Corrective Effect of Ministerial Resignations on Government Popularity

Using data from the United Kingdom, we estimate the effects of ministerial resignation on government popularity. We test a counterfactual argument that resignations should have a corrective effect, that is, there is an increase in popularity following a resignation when taking into account the negative effect on popularity of the resignation issue. We get empirical estimates by using the age of ministers involved in resignation issues as an instrument. Our IV estimates provide empirical support for the corrective effect .     

Financing growth in the 1990s: New challenges for OECS countries

This article argues that the world as we know it is becoming increasingly integrated and that the traditional providers of foreign assistance for infrastructure and other purposes, are about to increase the demand that poorer nations like the OECS countries must do more for themselves during the process of social development. The article admits that poorer countries like the OECS have developed revenue raising structures that facilitate indigenous development but the post-Cold War reality intensifies the need for countries like the OECS to do more for themselves than ever before. The reasons for this occurrence have been stated largely as being attributed to financial, economic, attitudinal changes in major industrial countries, particularly in North America. These changes suggest difficult limes for industrial countries in the future and are likely to have serious impacts on countries like the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The article offers a specific approach to dealing with this anticipated demand from donor countries to do more for themselves. The author advocates the following: (1) expand the existing revenue structure of the OECS countries to include specific revenue instruments to finance new growth and development in these countries; (2) broaden the concept and practice of ‘pay-as-you-go’ to ‘pay-as-you-grow;’ (3) require new growth to pay its own way or at a minimum, to shoulder a large proportion of the cost; (4) let those who primarily benefit from new growth pay for it. ‘Impact’ or ‘development’ fees have been suggested to be a new method of financing growth, particularly in countries that are experiencing new levels of growth. The author argues that this method will not be unusual to developers-foreign investors from North America, or OECS nationals who may be returning temporarily or otherwise to their home country. This discussion on pay-as-you-grow, it is hoped, will contribute to the growing literature on Caribbean public finance.     

Political evocation and styles of candidate evaluation

Recent work in cognitive processing and individual decision making has emphasized that individuals vary in the criteria they bring to bear to evaluate political objects. In this paper we argue that individual differences are but one piece of the decision-making puzzle, and that environmental factors are also important. Of particular interest to us is the idea that different candidates evoke different evaluative criteria. Using data from a 1984 sample of undergraduates and the 1980 National Election Study, we find evidence that political evocation effects do exist. This result has implications for understanding both the decision calculus of individuals and the collective rationality of the electorate.     

Generations,status and party identification: A theory of operant conditioning

Five political generations in the U.S. national electorate are identified utilizing the theory of operant conditioning. The party identification of 11,312 white registered voters from the 1980New York Times/CBS News poll series is examined for these generations within social status (education) groupings.     

Accuracy of comparison decisions by forensic firearms examiners

This black box study assessed the performance of forensic firearms examiners in the United States. It involved three different types of firearms and 173 volunteers who performed a total of 8640 comparisons of both bullets and cartridge cases. The overall false-positive error rate was estimated as 0.656% and 0.933% for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively, while the rate of false negatives was estimated as 2.87% and 1.87% for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively. The majority of errors were made by a limited number of examiners. Because chi-square tests of independence strongly suggest that error probabilities are not the same for each examiner, these are maximum-likelihood estimates based on the beta-binomial probability model and do not depend on an assumption of equal examiner-specific error rates. Corresponding 95% confidence intervals are (0.305%, 1.42%) and (0.548%, 1.57%) for false positives for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively, and (1.89%, 4.26%) and (1.16%, 2.99%) for false negatives for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively. The results of this study are consistent with prior studies, despite its comprehensive design and challenging specimens.     

Preliminary Development of the Student Perceptions of School Safety Officers Scale

Research suggests that the safer students feel at school, the more likely they are to feel connected and able to focus on learning. Thus, measuring students’ experiences with a school safety officer (SSO) is essential to understand the connection between officer engagement and students’ safety. This study’s purpose was to evaluate a SSO scale among 1,065 adolescents. Results suggest the SSO scale displayed excellent internal consistency estimates, construct validity via factor analysis, convergent validity with the School Climate Measure, discriminant validity with key demographic variables, and known-groups validity among students who reported fighting at school. Positive perceptions of SSOs also significantly increased with frequency of contact. The SSO scale is a preliminarily valid measure, potentially useful in research, screenings, and/or evaluation efforts to improve student engagement with SSOs.