Democracy in Spain: Legitimacy, discontent, and disaffection

This article examines changes in perceptions of democracy in Spain over the last two decades. A variety of empirical indicators gleaned from numerous surveys are used to distinguish between democratic legitimacy and political discontent, as well as between this (which includes the well-known indicator of dissatisfaction with the way democracy works) and political disaffection. The article traces the different ways in which these attitudes have evolved in Spain over the last twenty years, and demonstrates that they belong to different dimensions. It also includes the results of two tests showing that these two sets of attitudes are conceptually and empirically distinct: a factor analysis confirms the distinct clustering of the indicators at the, individual level, whilst cohort analysis identifies different patterns of continuity and change across generations. José Ramón Montero is Professor of Political Science at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He obtained his doctorate in Law at the Universidad de Santiago and has taught, at the Universities of Granada, Santiago, Zaragoza, Cádiz and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He has been Visiting Professor at the Universities of Harvard, California at Berkeley, and Ohio State University, as well as Secretary and Dean of the School of Law, Universidad de Cádiz, and Deputy Director of the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas. Richard Gunther is Professor of Political Science at Ohio State University. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley, and is co-Chair of the Subcommittee on Southern Europe of the Social Science Research Council. Mariano Torcal is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He holds a doctorate from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and a Ph.D candidacy in Political Science from the Ohio State University. He has been a Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Univeristy of Michigan, and Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Notre Dame University.     

Financial development and economic growth: Additional evidence

This note suggests that, contrary to the conclusions reached in several recent studies, the empirical evidence does not support the view that financial development promotes economic growth. It is first noted that the predominant pattern in the data for 95 individual countries is that of a negligible or weakly negative covariation between financial development and growth of real GDP per capita. Second, the individual‐country correlational picture is a sharp contrast to the correlations based on crosscountry data that have been used in most research on the subject. Third, individual‐country estimates of a basic multiple‐regression growth model also do not indicate a positive association between financial development and growth. Fourth, in cross‐country data and models of the kind that have been used in most studies, when the regression structure is permitted to vary across three subgroups, a huge parametric heterogeneity is observed, and the overall indication is that of a negligible or negative association between financial development and growth.     

The Enigma of Lone Wolf Terrorism: An Assessment

Lone wolf terrorism remains an ambiguous and enigmatic phenomenon. The boundaries of lone wolf terrorism are fuzzy and arbitrary. This article aims to define and analyze the main features and patterns of lone wolf terrorism in fifteen countries. Lone wolf terrorism is shown to be more prevalent in the United States than in the other countries under study. The cross-national analysis suggests that in the United States lone wolf terrorism has increased markedly during the past three decades; a similar increase does not appear to have occurred in the other countries under study. The numbers of casualties resulting from lone wolf terrorism have been relatively limited, and there is no evidence that the lethality of lone wolf terrorism is on the increase. The rates of psychological disturbance and social ineptitude are found to be relatively high among lone wolf terrorists. Lone wolf terrorists tend to create their own ideologies that combine personal frustrations and aversion with broader political, social, or religious aims. In this process, many lone wolf terrorists draw on the communities of belief and ideologies of validation generated and transmitted by extremist movements.     

Attachment Styles and Aggression in Physically Abused and Neglected Children

Attachment theory provides a valuable conceptual model for understanding the role of the parent–child relationship and its consequences for the child's emerging self-concept and view of the social world. Attachment style is an individual-difference variable that is rooted in the child's early rearing experience and provides the context for later emotional, behavioral, and cognitive transactions with the environment. The aim of this study was to compare physically abused (n = 41), and neglected children (n = 38) with nonabused/nonneglected children (n = 35) aged 6–12 years, in terms of their attachment styles and their levels of aggression. We found that the physically abused children were significantly characterized by the avoidant attachment style and manifested significantly higher levels of aggression, and the neglected children were significantly characterized with the anxious/ambivalent attachment style. The strategies that the physically abused and neglected children adapted for interactions with their parents also marked their relationships outside the family. Thus, physically abused children are at risk of antisocial behavior and sustained suspicion toward the others, and neglected children are at risk of social withdrawal, and social rejection and feelings of incompetence.     

Empirical assessment of the escabinato jury system

Abstract

There are two practical applications of the jury system: the jury of lay people and the escabinato jury involving joint decision making by legal experts and lay people. Research undertaken in this field has been almost exclusively centered on the former. This work consists of an empirical study of the role of legal suggest that the loss of a jury of peers implies the dominance of the judge's opinion. The causes and consequences of this domination have been assessed.     

Government-introduced price distortions and growth: Evidence from twenty-nine developing countries

The author expresses appreciation to G.S. Gupta and Andy K.M. Li for their valuable assistance in data processing and computer programming, and to Professor Tullock for his so thoughtful and constructive comments and suggestions which were extremely helpful in revising the original paper. The usual caveat applies.