Globalization,democratization, and the Arab uprising: the international factor in MENA's failed democratization

What explains the almost wholly negative impact of international factors on post-uprising democratization prospects? This article compares the utility of rival “diffusionist” and neo-Gramscian political economy frames to explain this. Multiple international factors deter democratization. The failure of Western democracy promotion is rooted in the contradiction between the dominance of global finance capital and the norm of democratic equality; in the periphery, neo-liberalism is most compatible with hybrid regimes and, at best, “low intensity democracy”. In MENA, neo-liberalism generated crony capitalism incompatible with democratization; while this also sparked the uprisings, these have failed to address class inequalities. Moreover at the normative level, MENA hosts the most credible counter-hegemonic ideologies; the brief peaking of democratic ideology in the region during the early uprisings soon declined amidst regional discourse wars. Non-democrats – coercive regime remnants and radical charismatic movements – were empowered by the competitive interference of rival powers in uprising states. The collapse of many uprising states amidst a struggle for power over the region left an environment uncongenial to democratization.     

The Fates of Challengers in U.S. House Elections: The Role of Extended Party Networks in Supporting Candidates and Shaping Electoral Outcomes

Extended party network (EPN) theory characterizes political parties in the United States as dynamic networks of interest groups that collaboratively support favored candidates for office. Electoral predictions derived from EPN theory have yet to be tested on a large sample of races. We operationalize EPNs in the context of organized interest contributions to U.S. House campaigns. We deduce that support by a partisan community of interests signals the ideological credibility and appeal of a candidate. EPN integration overcomes voter ambiguity surrounding challengers’ ideological preferences, and resources provided by these coordinating interest groups promote a consistent message about the candidate. Using data from the 1994–2010 cycles, we apply network analysis to detect EPN support of challengers and find that EPN integration substantially improves the electoral prospects of challengers. The effect of EPN integration is distinct from that of campaign resources. The findings provide support for EPN theory, as applied to congressional elections.     

The need for child maltreatment research and program evaluation

The knowledge base supporting child abuse treatment and prevention rests upon clinical experience and applied research. An analysis of program funding in the United States indicates that unevaluated clinical programs are funded rather than research or program evaluation projects. Grant funding patterns for the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect were analyzed for 4 years. Overall, 66% of projects had no research or evaluation component. Without such programs, we cannot determine the effectiveness of treatment and prevention efforts that, while well intended, may have no effects on the participating parents and children, or, worse still, may have unintended negative consequences. Quality programs must be based on the maintenance of a balance between research and clinical efforts with evaluation being an important component of the latter.Portions of this paper were presented at the Seventh International Congress on Child Abuse and Neglect, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 27 September, 1988.     

Generality, continuity, and change in offending

A number of criminological theories make either implicit or explicit predictions about the empirical relationship between prior and future offending behavior. Some argue that time-stable characteristics such as criminal propensity should account for any positive correlation between past and future criminal behavior for all individuals. Others contend that the positive association between offending behavior at different points in time are partly causal and partly spurious. Still others anticipate that different patterns will emerge for different groups (distinguished by their ciminal propensity) of individuals. Using a longitudinal data set comprised of 848 training school releasees, we test various hypotheses emanating from these different theoretical perspectives. The results indicate that (1) both stability and change have causal implications for one's offending behavior and (2) with but one exception, these effects do not vary between high and low criminal propensity groups.     

Achievement and identity in college-age vs. adult women students

This study tested a developmental hypothesis with respect to Fear of Success (FOS), Identity Status, and the relationship between the two. Forty college students, equally divided between regular college-age women (18–23) and adult college women (over age 30), were given a multiple-choice and a projective measure of FOS; they were then interviewed regarding exploration and commitment in five content areas: vocation, family vs. career priority, politics, religion, and sex roles. The hypothesis that the adult students would exhibit less FOS than their college-age counterparts was confirmed with both measures of FOS. Chi-square analysis also revealed that a significantly higher proportion of the adult students was classified as identity-achieved and a lower proportion as identity-diffuse than the college-age students. The influence of life experience on the relationship between FOS and each identity status could not be tested due to an insufficient number of identity achievers in the college-age subsample; when the relationship of FOS to identity status was examined for the total sample, however, foreclosures and achievers manifested significantly less FOS than diffusions and moratoriums.Doctoral candidate in developmental psychology with major interests in adolescent and adult learning and development.Associate Professor, interested primarily in personality and developmental psychology with emphasis on ego and moral development.     

Justice on the road to change in the people's republic of China

Dengist reform programs, including mandated changes in the operation of Chinese industrial enterprises, depart radially from previous Maoist practices and ideologies. With these changes, issues of distributive justice have become extremely salient in China. We explore shifting norms regarding distributive justice in China, with a focus on the conceptions of, and implications for, practicing managers. After first reviewing the pertinent literature, we present some original data gathered from Chinese managers in 1986 and in 1989, comparing them to data gathered from managers in the United States.