Beyond the American Century: Walter Lippmann and American Grand Strategy, 1943–1950

As the United States became a world Power, journalist and intellectual Walter Lippmann feared that it would become its own worst enemy. During and after the Second World War, he tried to steer the country towards coherent statecraft, to define the national interest and the limits of power, and give geopolitical expression to the role of the United States as the core of an Atlantic strategic system. But in response to world war, the Truman Doctrine, and the Korean War, he became pessimistic about the country's ability to conduct strategy effectively. In the prophetic tradition, he believed that a fatal symbiosis between America's growing strength and domestic politics led it towards crisis. Though at times ahistorical, Lippmann's concept of strategy deserves attention for its dialogue between power and identity, for its questioning of “ends” as well as means, and for its focus on the danger of self-defeating behaviour.     

Creatures of the State: A Hard Look at the Supersession of Municipal Power in New York's Mineral Resources Law

The controversial method of gas extraction known as hydraulic fracturing has revealed a critical issue within New York's Mineral Resources Law: Can a local government prohibit the practice through its zoning power? This piece analyzes supersession clauses found in other New York statutes, as well as the statutes of other jurisdictions. It criticizes the construction of the law by two lower courts in the recent decisions concerning the towns of Dryden and Middlefield, and applies recognized principles of statutory construction to determine that towns may not effect a prohibition of gas mining through local zoning ordinances.     

From class struggle to class compromise: Redistribution and growth in a South Indian state

This article examines the evolution of class politics and developmental strategies in the state of Kerala in South India. Following Independence, lower‐class mobilisation produced an agrarian transition and resulted in the consolidation of a redis‐tributive‐welfarist state. Since the early 1980s, however, the economic contradictions of labour militancy and redistribution in a sub‐national economy have resulted in the decline of the politics of class struggle in favour of the politics of class compromise. Labour militancy and opposition to capital have given way to corporatist arrangements that emphasise accumulationist strategies of development. This transition has been made possible by the mediating capacity of an interventionist state and the politically hegemonic position of the working class.     

Do Masculine Names Help Female Lawyers Become Judges? Evidence from South Carolina

This paper provides the first empirical test of the Portia Hypothesis:Females with masculine monikers are more successful in legalcareers. Utilizing South Carolina microdata, we look for correlationbetween an individual's advancement to a judgeship and his/hername's masculinity, which we construct from the joint empiricaldistribution of names and gender in the state's entire populationof registered voters. We find robust evidence that nominallymasculine females are favored over other females. Hence, ourresults support the Portia Hypothesis.     

Life Satisfaction and Student Engagement in Adolescents

Situated within a positive psychology perspective, this study explored linkages between adolescent students’ positive subjective well-being and their levels of engagement in schooling. Specifically, using structural equation modeling techniques, we evaluated the nature and directionality of longitudinal relationships between life satisfaction and student engagement variables. It was hypothesized that adolescents’ life satisfaction and student engagement variables would show bidirectional relationships. To test this hypothesis, 779 students (53% female, 62% Caucasian) in a Southeastern US middle school completed a measure of global life satisfaction and measures of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement at two time points, 5 months apart. A statistically significant bidirectional relationship between life satisfaction and cognitive engagement was found; however, non-significant relationships were found between life satisfaction and emotional and behavioral student engagement. The findings provide important evidence of the role of early adolescents’ life satisfaction in their engagement in schooling during the important transition grades between elementary and high school. The findings also help extend the positive psychology perspective to the relatively neglected context of education.     

“I Got Your Back”: Friends’ Understandings Regarding College Student Spring Break Behavior

Behaviors that pose threats to safety and health, including binge drinking and unprotected sex, increase during a week-long break from university. Understandings with peers regarding these behaviors may be important for predicting behavior and related harms. College students (N = 651; 48% men) reported having understandings with their friends regarding alcohol use (59%) and sexual behavior (45%) during Spring Break. These understandings were to engage in behaviors characterized by risk (e.g., get drunk [23.5%], have sex with someone new [5.2%]) and protection (e.g., drink without getting drunk [17.8%], use condoms [15.8%]). After controlling for previous semester behavior and going on a Spring Break trip, Get Drunk Understandings predicted a greater likelihood of binge drinking and alcohol-related consequences; No/Safe Sex Understandings predicted condom use; and Sex Understandings predicted not using condoms. Understandings with friends regarding Spring Break behavior may be important proximal predictors of risk behaviors and represent potential targets for event-specific prevention.