THIRD WORLD URBANIZATION AND AMERICAN FOREIGN AID POLICY: DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE IN THE 1990s

Over the next decade, the demographic and economic characteristics of countries to which the United States government provides technical and financial assistance for economic development will change substantially. Rapid urban population growth, the expanding role of cities and towns in national economies, continued migration of population from rural to urban areas, explosive growth in the size of the labor force, and shifts in the occupations of the labor force from agriculture to manufacturing and ser- vices will require a reorientation of American development assistance. Yet, program objectives and budget allocations of the U.S. foreign aid program fail to reflect these changes in the characteristics of its clientele. The US. Agency for International Development lacks an overt strategy for coping with urbanization in developing nations. Without an urban strategy, the American foreign aid program is likely to incur increasing opportunity costs and fail to address critical problems arising from fundamental shifts in the economic and social structure of developing countries.     

Gillard,Rudd and Labor Tradition*

Julia Gillard replaced Kevin Rudd as prime minister and Labor leader in June 2010. She describes her government as being firmly in the “tradition of Labor”. To locate it in the broad ideological continuum of Labor governments, and to test the suggestion that she is travelling a reform path set largely by the Hawke and Keating governments, I analyse the positions taken by Rudd and Gillard on a range of issues, beginning with economic policy. On social issues Gillard has been even more cautious than Rudd and this reflects her analysis of the electoral impact of Howard's Culture Wars. Her focus on educational opportunity suggests she is the logical successor to Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. As Labor leaders, Rudd and Gillard each embraced market‐reliant policy positions. Rudd even claimed to be an “fiscal conservative”. However, with Rudd venturing a critique of neo‐liberalism, it is Gillard whose stance is closer to Hawke and Keating's “economic rationalism”. Indeed Gillard's insistence upon the centrality of markets leaves Labor with a dilemma: if there are no significant problems with relying on markets then why does Australia need a social democratic party?     

Rethinking Representation from a Communal Perspective

Most foundational theories of congressional representation were developed during an era of less polarized and less partisan politics. These theories viewed the incumbency advantage as buttressed by the fact that some constituents were willing to support legislators from the opposite party because of their “home styles.” But in an era of policy immoderation in Congress, this perspective leads to an assumption that citizens evaluate their members of Congress based on what those legislators do for them individually, rather than what they do for their districts more broadly. In this paper, we ask whether citizens take the interests of their fellow constituents into account when evaluating their members of Congress. Using both survey data and an experiment, we uncover support for the notion that citizens take a more communal view of representation as at least part of their evaluations of their representatives. This suggests individuals may have a more nuanced understanding of representation than purely self-interested approaches tend to assume.     

Activity Involvement as an Ecological Asset: Profiles of Participation and Youth Outcomes

Prior research has demonstrated that participation in out-of-school time activities is associated with positive and healthy development among adolescents. However, fewer studies have examined how trajectories of participation across multiple activities can impact developmental outcomes. Using data from Wave 3 (approximately Grade 7) through Wave 8 (approximately Grade 12) of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, this study examined patterns of breadth in out-of-school time participation in activities and associated outcomes in positive youth development (PYD), Contribution to self and community, risk behaviors, and depressive symptoms. We assessed 927 students (on average across waves, 65.4 % female) from a relatively racially and ethnically homogeneous sample (about 74 % European American, across waves) with a mean age in Wave 3 of 12.98 years (SD = 0.52). The results indicated that high likelihood of participation in activities was consistently associated with fewer negative outcomes and higher scores on PYD and Contribution, as compared to low likelihood of participation in activities. Changes in the breadth of participation (in particular, moving from a high to a low likelihood of participation) were associated with increased substance use, depressive symptoms, and risk behaviors. Limitations of the current study, implications for future research, and applications to youth programs are discussed.     

Hard Heads and Soft Hearts

Abstract

Various Australian politicians have argued for the need to combine ‘hard heads and soft hearts’ in politics. Unfortunately, this article argues that that recognition is not yet fully accepted in Australian political science. While there has been a significant progress, both in terms of the number of senior women in the discipline and the gender content of Australian political science, problems still remain. Unfortunately, some of the issues are still those identified by Carole Pateman in her famous 1981 address as President of the Australian Political Studies Association when she noted both the underrepresentation of women in political science and that there was a tendency to define ‘the political’ in narrow ways that excluded the study of women and issues that were of concern to them. This article will explore why political science has been less open to incorporating feminist insights than some other related disciplines. It will analyse a number of issues regarding the gendering of Australian political science. These include narrow definitions of the ‘political’; a continuing implicit (gendered) prioritising of various fields and approaches as ‘hard’ political science and the denigration of other fields as ‘soft’; and the impact of neo-liberalism and the importance of the ‘political’ as a site for constructions of gender identity. It argues that the continuing resistance to ‘reinventing’ political science to take account of gender is particularly concerning given the potential impact on definitions of research ‘excellence’. The article also identifies some areas where more research needs to be done.     

Emotional Distress Among LGBT Youth: The Influence of Perceived Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation

The authors evaluated emotional distress among 9th–12th grade students, and examined whether the association between being lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgendered (i.e., “LGBT”) and emotional distress was mediated by perceptions of having been treated badly or discriminated against because others thought they were gay or lesbian. Data come from a school-based survey in Boston, Massachusetts (n = 1,032); 10% were LGBT, 58% were female, and ages ranged from 13 to 19 years. About 45% were Black, 31% were Hispanic, and 14% were White. LGBT youth scored significantly higher on the scale of depressive symptomatology. They were also more likely than heterosexual, non-transgendered youth to report suicidal ideation (30% vs. 6%, p < 0.0001) and self-harm (21% vs. 6%, p < 0.0001). Mediation analyses showed that perceived discrimination accounted for increased depressive symptomatology among LGBT males and females, and accounted for an elevated risk of self-harm and suicidal ideation among LGBT males. Perceived discrimination is a likely contributor to emotional distress among LGBT youth.     

Why Abyei Matters: The Breaking Point of Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement?

The Abyei Area, straddling the North–South border of Sudan,was the subject of a separate protocol in the ComprehensivePeace Agreement signed between the Sudan government and theSudan People's Liberation Movement in January 2005. One provisionof that protocol was the establishment of a boundaries commissionto define the territory to be included in the special administrationof the area. The commission's decision was to be implemented‘with immediate effect’ on the submission of itsreport in July 2005, but implementation has been blocked bythe National Congress Party, which still controls the centralgovernment in Sudan. The conduct of war in Abyei establishedmany precedents for the conduct of war in Darfur in the useof tribal militias and the forcible displacement of non-Arabpeoples. The failure to implement the Abyei Protocol has implicationsnot only for determining the North–South border (as stipulatedby the CPA), but for the implementation of any Darfur peaceagreement. Douglas H. Johnson (douglas{at}wendoug.free-online.co.uk) was aresource person at the first session of negotiations on theThree Areas at Karen, Kenya, in January 2003 and subsequentlyserved as an international expert on the Abyei Boundaries Commission.He has recently advised the Government of South Sudan on theNorth–South boundary issue.     

Competitive Advantage in Nonprofit Grant Markets: Implications of Network Embeddedness and Status

This article empirically addresses the effects of network embeddedness on nonprofit organizations’ ability to access financial resources within competitive markets, with a focus in this analysis on the acquisition of foundation grants. We test theory on the role of organizational status in competitive markets using data from a network of nonprofits linked by foundation grants in metropolitan Atlanta during 2000 and 2005. We find that observable characteristics of nonprofits, including size, fundraising expenses, and financial health, explain success in grant markets. However, market status in previous time periods, operationalized as prior relationships with influential foundations in grant markets, additionally explains future grant awards. Our findings suggest that the status conferred through connections to important actors in a network can raise the profile of a nonprofit and increase the probability of grant success.