The dynamics of interest group evaluations of Congress

We apply a dynamic spatial model to interest group ratings of the members of Congress over the period 1959–1981. Spatial distances between an interest group and the members of Congress are assumed to be monotonic with the ratings. Our pooled cross-sectional time-series data set consists of 203,387 ratings by 59 interest groups. We restrict the spatial coordinates of the interest groups and members of Congress to be polynomial functions of time. Two significant dimensions are recovered: the first dimension, which accounts for approximately 75% of the variance, represents liberal-conservative positions on economic issues; the second dimension, which accounts for approximately an additional 5% of the variance, represents liberal-conservative positions on social issues. Nearly all the interest groups and most members of Congress are ideologically consistent. They are either liberal on both dimensions or conservative on both.     

Health care labor relations law--understanding the issues

The 1974 amendments to the Labor Management Relations Act have created new problems of statutory interpretation in the rapidly evolving area of health care labor law. By including nonprofit hospitals under the auspices of the Act, the amendments have opened up a new area for unionization and have given rise to questions concerning the types of bargaining units that are appropriate in health care facilities. In the following article, the authors discuss these questions and other current issues in health care labor relations law. The issues include the determination of relevant bargaining units, the status of state nursing associations as labor organizations, and the ten-day strike notice requirement of the Labor Management Relations Act.     

The diffusion of feminist ideology

According to Converse, the ideas/beliefs of an ideology are diffused in packages—i.e., diffusion necessarily involves constraint. However, a person may become aware of these packages and the substance of an ideology of which they are a part without accepting them. Consequently, diffusion produces an increase in both awareness and constraint with the former increasing more than the latter. Diffusion may also take two forms. The ideology may be accepted by more members of the same social class from which the movement's leaders were recruited (horizontal diffusion); or the ideology may spread beyond the confines of the original class to attract the support of the less advantaged (vertcal diffusion).We apply this model of diffusion to the feminist movement in the United States for the period 1972 to 1976. The weight of our evidence indicates that significant horizontal as well as vertical diffusion has occurred. It appears that as the general public became more aware of feminist ideas and beliefs, support for these ideas and beliefs increased along with the constraint between various measures of them.     

Reviews

Christopher Saunders (ed.), Eastern Europe in Crisis and the Way Out. London: Macmillan, 1995, ix + 525 pp., £50.00.

Bernard Chavance, The Transformation of Communist Systems: Economic Reform since the 1950s, trans. Charles Hauss, Boulder: Westview Press, 1994, xi + 225 pp., £13.50.

Paul J. J. Welfens & Piotr Jasinski, Privatization and Foreign Direct Investment in Transforming Economies. Aldershot, Brookfield, Singapore, Sydney: Dartmouth, 1994; xix + 295 pp.

Geoffrey Pridham, Eric Herring & George Sanford (eds), Building Democracy? The International Dimension of Democratisation in Eastern Europe. London: Leicester University Press, 1994, viii + 224 pp., £37.50

M. Steven Fish, Democracy from Scratch: Opposition and Regime in the New Russian Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995. x + 300 pp., $39.50, £30.00.

Thomas Parland, The Rejection in Russia of Totalitarian Socialism and Liberal Democracy: A Study of the Russian New Right. Helsinki: The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters (Societas Scientiarum Fennica), Commentationes Scientiarum Socialium 46, 1993, 255 pp., no price.

Mark Galeotti, The Age of Anxiety: Security and Politics in Soviet and Post‐Soviet Russia. London: Longman, 1995, xi + 219 pp., £29.99 h/b, £10.99 p/b.

James G. Richter, Khrushchev's Double Bind: International Pressures and Domestic Coalition Politics. Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994, xi + 263 pp., £37.00.

Jon Jacobson, When the Soviet Union Entered World Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994, xi + 343 pp.

Robert Zuzowski, Political Dissent and Opposition in Poland: The Workers’ Defense Committee “KOR”. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1992, ix + 293 pp. $65.00.

Ya. Ya. Grishin, Dramaticheskie sobytiya v Pol'she, 1980–1981 gg. Kazan: Izdatel'stvo Kazanskogo Universiteta, 1993, 240 pp.

Robert J. Brym with the assistance of Rozalina Ryvkina, The Jews of Moscow, Kiev and Minsk: Identity, Antisemitism, Emigration. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan in association with the Institute of Jewish Affairs, 1994, xvi + 142 pp.

Allan Laine Kagedan, Soviet Zion: The Quest for a Russian Jewish Homeland. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1994, xii + 157 pp. £30.00.

Erich E. Haberer, Jews and Revolution in Nineteenth‐Century Russia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, xv + 346 pp. £40.00, $59.95.

Mary Buckley, Redefining Russian Society and Polity. Boulder: Westview Press, 1993, xvii + 346 pp., £13.50.

Frederic J. Fleron & Erik P. Hoffman (eds), Post‐Communist Studies and Political Science. Methodology and Empirical Theory in Sovietology. Oxford: Westview Press, 1993, xv + 387 pp., £39.95 h/b, £14.95 p/b.

Chris Ward, Stalin's Russia. London: Edward Arnold, 1993, xxii + 241 pp., £10.99 p/b.

J. T. Costlow, S. Sandier & J. Vowles (eds), Sexuality and the Body in Russian Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 346 pp. + index, £30.00.

Larisa Vasil'eva, Kremlevskie zheny: Fakty, vospominaniya, dokumenty, slukhi, legendy, I vzglyad avtora, Moscow: Vagrius, 1992, 544 pp.

Larissa Vasilieva, Kremlin Wives, translated by Cathy Porter, New York: Arcade, 1994, xvii + 251 pp.     

The law and economics of organ procurement

This paper presents an economic analysis of the organ procurement system in the U.S. and examines proposals to alleviate the shortage of transplantable organs. The paper's principal conclusions are: (1) Although non-market solutions deserve the highest priority, demand increases fueled by improvements in transplant technology will probably make some market-based solution necessary in the future. (2) Quality deterioration and coercion will not necessarily be worrisome problems under a market-based procurement system.     

The Use of Network Analysis to Strengthen Community Partnerships

Community partnerships or networks of collaborating public and nonprofit organizations are an important way of addressing a wide range of problems and needs that communities face. In the academic literature, network analysis has been used to analyze and understand the structure of the relationships that make up multiorganizational partnerships. But this tool is not well-known outside the small group of researchers who study networks, and it is seldom used as a method of assisting communities. This article briefly discusses network analysis and how community leaders can use the results generated by this tool to strengthen relationships among public and nonprofit organizations, thereby building the community's capacity to address critical needs in areas such as health, human services, social problems, and economic development.     

Constitutional Reform and Continental Free Trade: A Review of Issues in Canadian Federalism in 1987

Two issues dominated the Canadian federal provincial agendain 1987: constitutional reform and trade negotiations with theUnited States. On the constitutional side, a unanimous agreement—knownas the Meech Lake Accord—was reached among First Ministers(Prime Minister and provincial premiers). On the economic side,Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and President Ronald Reagan signeda comprehensive, bilateral, free trade agreement. However, neitheragreement will take effect until endorsed or implemented bythe relevant legislatures, and one cannot take for granted thatlegislative approval will be forthcoming in either case. Whateverthe outcome, the attempt to grapple with these matters willhave a lasting impact on Canadian federalism. Both agreementsare controversial in certain regions, and while implementationwould initiate a string of systemic changes, rejection wouldengender new regional animosities. Thus, each of the two issues,taken separately, will affect institutional arrangements andterritorial (regional) relationships within Canada. The interplaybetween the two initiatives will also be significant.     

Political stability and the science of comparative politics

Abstract. The utility of comparative politics has been questioned from time to time in two ways. Doubts have been cast upon its ability to offer genuine and useful generalisations, and these doubts have been reinforced by the appearance of studies which, while statistically adventurous, are not grounded upon a sufficiently sound theoretical base. In this paper we consider Alasdair MacIntyre's objections to the idea of a science of comparative politics, and discuss the nature of law-like generalisations. We explore the extent to which MacIntyre's objections may be overcome, and indicate the form that generalisations about political stability could take. We also argue that studies of stability need a clear explanatory linkage between the empirical data they utilise and the hypotheses of a theory about political stability. This is often lacking in such studies, which seem to substitute a sophisticated statistical technique for genuine political theory.     

Building Successful Technology Commercialization Teams: Pilot Empirical Support for the Theory of Cascading Commitment

Improving the process of commercializing a technology from a public lab requires a deep understanding of which factors actually contribute to successful commercialization. Such factors are complex, including the quality of the technology itself, choice of transfer mechanism, quality of business intelligence, project evaluation and selection techniques, team building processes, organizational structures, reward and penalty structures, financial support, human resources support, and project management tools, among others. This article focuses on the improvement of team-building processes. It describes a pilot empirical test of the theory of cascading commitment, using data from a study of 34 technology transfer cases from 5 different Canadian federal labs. Of the 34 cases, 20 were successful, 11 were unsuccessful, and 3 were uncertain. In this paper, success was defined as the private sector manufacturer's perception of how well the project attained the profit objective associated with sales of a new product which embedded the new technology. The pilot results provide directional support for the key propositions of the theory: 1) a complete team of both public and private organizations is necessary; 2) a complete team of key individuals (linchpins) from within each organization is necessary; 3) there is an optimal sequence for recruiting the organizational partners; 4) there is an optimal stage for recruiting each organizational partner; 5) high commitment from every linchpin is necessary; 6) linchpin commitment to the team is determined by a variety of factors; and 7) the probability of success is improved if the team of linchpins remains intact until the commercial launch is achieved. Some provisional implications for management practice are provided, as well as suggestions for future research.