A Model Linking Community Activity and Communication With Political Attitudes and Involvement in Neighborhoods

Although people tend to mobilize around local problems and restrict their political involvement at other times, the political communication literature generally has focused on national politics and elections. This is particularly surprising in investigations of political involvement since it is at the community level that people should feel more efficacious. Also, both mass and interpersonal communication should be more significant locally given their importance in strengthening community ties. The study reported here focuses on these relationships in a community context, with a survey of six inner-city neighborhoods and six suburbs classified on status using location and census data. Results point to a much more positive role for the media in community politics. Those most likely to rely on neighborhood newspapers as sources are less disillusioned with government, suggesting that the most "grassroots" of print media are more efficacious in their impact than the other channels. Also, readership of a daily newspaper is particularly strong as a predictor of both community political involvement and faith in community civic involvement. Results of the macro analysis suggest that urban sprawl may have consequences for how media affect political involvement. In the data here, distance from the center city and stratification are closely tied--the further out the community, the higher its status. Results by neighborhood structure indicate media specialization as well as a greater dependence on media versus interpersonal influence in the political arena. Thus, we see that political involvement and attitudes are more strongly related to reading the daily newspaper in the more distant suburbs than in the center city.     

The Instruments of Abolition, or Why Retributivism is the Only Real Justification of Punishment

Victor Tadros’ The Ends of Harm is the most recent systematic attempt to defend the good old utilitarian justification of punishment. The attempt fails for a variety of reasons, which are here explored. First, the attempt presupposes an implausible account of human’s psychology. Second, the attempt confuses an attack on retributivism with an attack on certain criminal justice systems. Finally, Tadros admits that his justification of punishment is best seen as a mere step along the road to full-blown abolitionism – and so he unwittingly admits the extraordinarily thin sense in which he could be said to be really attempting to justify punishment.     

Legal issues in oral fluid testing

The use of oral fluid for drugs of abuse testing has received increased attention with the availability of accurate methods for the collection and analysis of drugs in oral fluid specimens. Already used in the transportation and insurance industries, there is increasing interest in oral fluid drug testing in the workplace, schools, roadside driving under the influence of drugs, and criminal justice. Given that sanctions may accrue from positive test results, legal challenges are to be expected. However, with its established scientific base, demonstrated accuracy and reliability of collection and test methods, and current positive regulatory developments, it seems clear that the use of oral fluid as a specimen for drugs of abuse testing will be able to withstand judicial scrutiny.     

Reviews

Pekka Sutela, Economic Thought and Economic Reform in the Soviet Union. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, 197 pp., £30.00 h/b, £10.95 p/b.

Stephen White, Gorbachev and After. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, ix+310 pp., £27.95 h/b, £8.95 p/b.

Catherine Merridale & Chris Ward, eds, Perestroika. The Historical Perspective. London, New York, Melbourne, Auckland: Edward Arnold, 1991, xiii+253 pp., £12.95 p/b.

Guy Standing, ed., The New Soviet Labour Market. In Search of Flexibility. Geneva: ILO, 1991, xiv+440 pp., SF45.00.

Leonard Geron, Soviet Foreign Economic Policy under Perestroika. London: Chatham House Papers, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Pinter Publishers, 1990, 126 pp., £19.50, h/b, £7.95 p/b.

Malcolm R. Hill, Soviet Advanced Manufacturing Technology and Western Export Controls. Aldershot: Avebury, 1991, xv+256 pp., £35.00.

Gerhard Simon, Nationalism and Policy toward the Nationalities in the Soviet Union: From Totalitarian Dictatorship to Post‐Stalinist Society, translated by K. and O. Forster. Boulder, CO, and Oxford: Westview Press, 1991, xvii+483 pp., £22.50 p/b.

A. Kemp‐Welch, Stalin and the Literary Intelligentsia 1928–39. London: Macmillan, 1991, vi + 338 pp., £45.00.

Jelena Milojkovic‐Djuric, Aspects of Soviet Culture: Voices of glasnosf, 1960–1990. New York: East European Monographs, Columbia University Press, 1991, iv+190 pp., $29.00.

Landon Pearson, Children of Glasnost. Growing up Soviet. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1991, xv+505 pp., $16.95, p/b.

Robert Rand, Comrade Lawyer. Inside Soviet Justice in an Era of Reform. Oxford: Westview Press, 1991, x+166 pp., £9.50 p/b.

Sheila Fitzpatrick, Alexander Rabinowitch & Richard Stites, eds, Russia in the Era of NEP: Explorations in Soviet Society and Culture. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1991, viii+344 pp., £22.50 h/b, £9.50 p/b.

Efraim Karsh, Soviet Policy towards Syria since 1970. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1991, 229 pp.+index, £35.00.

Ronald D. Bachman, ed., Romania: A Country Study, 2nd edition. Washington, DC: US Library of Congress Federal Research Division, 1991, xxxvi+356 pp.     

The Optimal Size of Countercyclical Budget Stabilization Funds: A Case Study of Ohio

Ohio is one of several states that has instituted a Budget Stabilization Fund to serve as a tool to fight the impacts of economic fluctuations on state finances. The optimal size and rate of contribution to the fund are explored in this study. A widely accepted target of 5 percent of general fund revenue for the budget stabilization fund is found inadequate to provide any degree of normalization of state general fund revenue when Ohio's recent fiscal experiences are examined. An optimal size of close to 13 percent emerges as a more likely target for Ohio along with an annual contribution rate approaching 4 percent of revenues in average non-contractionary years.     

The political economy of the green technology sector: A study about institutions, diffusion and efficiency

This paper discusses aspects related to the green technology sector (GT sector) in Germany. In a first step institutional reforms enabling diffusion of green technologies are analyzed. Cost arguments are also taken into account. In a second step a theoretical model developed by Tanguay et al. (Public Choice 120:1–27, 2004) is modified in order to evaluate the efficiency of the institutional setting in a political economy framework. The model is able to show that command and control policies (CCPs) are accompanied by cost-inefficiencies depending on the political weight of technology related interests groups. We further come to the result that relatively high marginal production costs may generate suboptimal high diffusion of a certain GT j. For relatively low marginal production costs policy induced demand may also be too low.     

Locus of control and the use of contraception among unmarried black adolescent fathers and their controls: A preliminary report

This article presents preliminary data that examines the relationship between external locus of control and contraceptive use in a limited population of unmarried black adolescent fathers and their controls. Results reveal that black adolescent fathers are more likely to have an external locus of control, to not be church goers, and to not believe in the use of birth control. Policy implications of this research indicate that unmarried black adolescent fathers should be given birth control counseling; if other forms of counseling are warranted, attention should be paid to issues of locus of control.