Political trust and the vote in multiparty elections: The Canadian case

Abstract.  While the causes of declining political trust have been investigated extensively in the literature, much less empirical effort has been devoted to the study of its behavioural implications. This article focuses on the decline of trust in Canada during the period 1984 to 1993, and on its effect on Canadian voting behaviour. We build upon M.J. Hetherington's ('The effect of political trust on the presidential vote, 1968–1996', American Political Science Review 93 (1999): 311–326) work to explore the impact of political trust on the vote and on abstention in a multiparty electoral context. Multinomial logit estimations are performed using individual-level survey data from three Canadian federal elections. While distrust is shown to significantly affect electoral participation, thus acting as an alienating factor, the results indicate that decreasing trust acts more as a motivation to support third-party alternatives. The study further demonstrates that, in a multiple party setting, 'old-line' major parties electorally suffer from declining political trust, but some third parties benefit more from this phenomenon than others. Contrary to what was the case in the previous two elections, distrustful individuals in 1993 were more likely to vote for the Reform Party or the Bloc Québécois than support the New Democratic Party.     

Richard Layard's Happiness: Worn Philosophy, Weak Psychology, Wrong Method and Just Plain Bad Economics!

Richard Layard believes that he has discovered the roots of happiness. He posits that: those in the West have been duped into playing the zero-sum game of trying to outdo everyone else; that unhappiness is associated with all forms of rivalry; that happiness is located in the socialist ethos; and that pubic policy should be set to inhibit activities that bring extra income without extra happiness. When the salient features of the analysis are examined, they are found to be seriously flawed. Although Layard might be applauded for seeking to broaden the remit of economics, a narrow utilitarian preoccupation with activities that make life better or worse against a linear scale delivers an analysis of an amoral and self-contained agency that reveals virtually nothing of the socio-psychology of the human condition.     

FORCED MIGRATION, LAND-USE CHANGE AND POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE FOREST REGION OF GUINEA

This paper examines the impact of forced migration on land usechange in Yomou prefecture in the forest region of Guinea froma broadly ‘political economy’ perspective. Focusingon the period since 1989, when over 500,000 refugees from Liberiaand Sierra Leone have been present in the region, it considersthe extent and mechanisms through which refugees have gainedaccess to land in three study villages, and seeks explanationsfor the pattern of land use change that has occurred. This isseen as reflecting both the evolution of the agricultural economyof the region, and socio-political change in local communities.Implications for both environmental change, and the livelihoodsof refugees and local communities are considered.     

UP,UP AND AWAY

There's a new bunch of sightseers in town - and they're ready to spend. TOURIST traffic at China's bustling airports is becoming increasingly two-way. The usual groups of bespectacled pensioners and red-eyed backpackers throng the inbound terminals, catapulting China into 5th place in the international league of most popular destinations. Crowding the departure lounges, meanwhile, are growing legions of upwardly mobile Chinese holidaymakers, headed for Rome's Coliseum, Sydney Harbor, or even the Safaris of Kenya.     

MANAGING RETALIATION: DRUG ROBBERY AND INFORMAL SANCTION THREATS*

The notion that informal sanction threats influence criminal decision‐making is perhaps the most important contribution to neoclassical theory in the past 15 years. Notably absent from this contribution is an examination of the ways in which the risk of victim retaliation—arguably, the ultimate informal sanction—mediates the process. The present article addresses this gap, examining how active drug robbers (individuals who take money and drugs from dealers by force or threat of force) perceive and respond to the risk of victim retaliation in real‐life settings and circumstances. The data's theoretical implications for deterrence and violence contagions are explored. Data were drawn from in‐depth interviews with 25 currently active drug robbers recruited from the streets of St. Louis, Missouri.