Economic voting in South Korea: The 1988 assembly elections

The 1988 Assembly elections in South Korea provide an opportunity to explore whether voting based on short-term economic fluctuations was a feature of the elections. The research design regresses party votes from a large sample of the 224 electoral districts against several well-known determinants of Korean voting behavior (regionalism, urban-rural residence, and social class), as well as district unemployment rates and levels and changes in income. With traditional explanations of voting behavior held constant, income variables had no apparent influence on the vote. However, the coefficients for unemployment rates are large, statistically significant, and in a direction entirely consistent with the theory of rational economic voting. There are grounds for including short-term economic variables in future modeling of Korean electoral behavior.     

Parent-adolescent congruence for adolescent substance use

Parental reports of adolescent substance use were compared to the adolescents' self-reports using identical scales. Congruence was defined as exact agreement on whether adolescents were current users, ex-users, or never-users. Both parents were found to be less accurate in predicting their adolescents' alcohol use compared to cigarette or marijuana use. Single mothers were significantly less likely to be congruent than were mothers from two-parent households. Mother and father congruence on all substances was unrelated to the adolescent's sex, race, or after school employment. For both parents, congruence for adolescent marijuana use was significantly related to the age and GPA of the adolescent. Congruence may also reflect important properties of family functioning, as significant relations were found between both adolescent and parent ratings of family cohesion and parent-adolescent congruence on perceptions of marijuana use.This research was supported by Grant DA03706 from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (Hyman Hops, Principal Investigator).Jennifer Langhinrichsen is a doctoral candidate in psychology interested in adolescent and family interactions. The other authors are psychologists or data analysts working on family influences on substance use and mental health.     

Healthy and maladjusted Type A behavior in adolescents

The dimensions of Type A behavior were studied in 990 randomly selected adolescents and their conceptualization was clarified in terms of achievement striving, self-concept, and sense of control. The methods used were the AFMS to evaluate Type A behavior, the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale, and Coopersmith's Self-Esteem Inventory. Achievement striving was assessed using the questionnaire designed for this study. It was revealed that Type A consisted of two independent dimensions, both adding an equal contribution to the total score. One was an impatient, aggressive competitiveness related to a low self-esteem, low self-set achievement standards, and external locus of control. The other Type A exhibited competitiveness related to a sense of responsibility, leadership, social activity, high achievement striving, and high self-esteem. These factors may distinguish maladjusted competitiveness from healthy ambition and suggest that it is important to distinguish risk Type A individuals from Type A's who are potential leaders in society.Received Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her major research interest is psychosomatic medicine.     

Block Grants: A Perennial, But Unstable, Tool of Government

During 1995 and 1996, the Congress and the president gave considerableattention to block granting over $200 billion in federal intergovernmentalgrant programs, ranging from large entitlement programs to smallerprograms in housing, vocational education, and law enforcement.In the end, the record of successes was modest—highlightedby welfare-reform legislation that, in some respects, resembleda block grant and in others did not. The contrast between processand outcomes in this most recent block-grant cycle reinforcesthe point that block-grant prospects depend on fundamental fiscal,political, and programmatic forces that are separate from federalismconsiderations. The states' maturation as leaders in many domesticpolicy areas strengthens the performance rationale for blockgrants. The federal fiscal crisis will continue to stimulateinterest in block grants among fedeal as well as state policymakers.The proposals offering the greatest fiscal advantage (i.e.,Medicaid and AFDC) may not be those with the strongest performancerationale. Although recent congressional developments suggeststronger support for states, nationalizing forces remain embeddedin domestic policymaking. Thus, substantial questions remain,posing obstacles to a fundamental and sustained role for blockgrants in the federal system.     

The public demand for smoking bans

Smoking bans are gaining widespread support in the United States and other countries. While supporters argue that bans are necessary to resolve market failures associated with negative externalities, the Coase Theorem predicts that, under various conditions, private markets internalize negative externalities. We examine the smoking issue within the framework of the Coase Theorem and hypothesize that smoking bans misallocate air space resources shared by smokers and nonsmokers. Because smoking bans shift ownership of scarce resources, they are also hypothesized to transfer income from one party (smokers) to another party (nonsmokers). Supporting evidence for these hypotheses is provided by an examination of a comprehensive smoking ban imposed in San Luis Obispo, CA.     

Canadian Federal-Provincial Overlap and Presumed Government Inefficiency

It is often claimed that overlapping government activity inCanada's federal system causes significant government inefficiency.The three major studies on the subject have demonstrated theexistence of extensive overlap, but they resort to qualitativearguments and anecdotal evidence to conclude either that overlapcauses significant government inefficiency (the traditionalprovincial position) or that overlap is fairly well managed(the traditional federal position). Thus, the debate about overlapremains essentially a debate about federal and provincial power,not about efficiency. This is apparently unavoidable, due tothe difficulty of measuring the effect of overlap on efficiency.