Democracy,Economic Wealth and Social Capital: Sorting Out the Causal Connections

There is widespread agreement that democracy, economic wealth and culture are causally linked, but there is sharp disagreement about the degree to which each of the factors influences the others. We contend that a society's culture, in the form of social capital, remains largely unchanged for long periods of time and that it leaves an indelible mark on the society's politics and economics. Using the 1990 World Values Surveys (WVS), we develop national-level social capital scores for the populations of 11 countries. We also use the cumulative General Social Surveys (GSS) to develop social capital scores for Americans who claim to have ancestral ties to these 11 nations. The WVS and GSS scores are strongly correlated, suggesting that social capital is durable and portable. Moreover, the GSS scores, which serve, in effect, as instrumental measures of 19th-century social capital, prove to be better predictors of contemporary politics and economics in the 11 WVS nations than commonly used 19th-century measures of politics and economics.     

Municipal services and the judiciary: the immunity doctrine in the service delivery process

During the past decade residents have sought judicial redress against municipalities alleging discrimination in the delivery of services in their neighborhoods. Recent court activity in this area has expanded to include the issues of municipal government and public servant immunity and liability. After anda brief discussion of how the municipal bureau cracy impacts the service delivery process and municipal service equalization suits, this paper provides a legal perspective on immunity and liability issues affecting the municipality and its personnel. The paper also addresses the topic of municipal protection against liability losses and concludes with a summary discussion of arguments for and against imposing strict liability upon municipalities and their representatives.     

Adarand v. pena: turning challenges into opportunities

This article provides a historical and legal overview of preference and set-aside programs. Further, the barriers and driving forces that have influenced preference programs are discussed. Finally, the processes, strategies, programs, and criteria employed at the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, to meet the test of strict scrutiny in Adarand, will be explored and analyzed as alternatives for preference programs.     

An Indepth Actuarial Assessment for Wife Assault Recidivism: The <Emphasis Type="Italic">Domestic Violence Risk Appraisal Guide</Emphasis>

An actuarial tool, the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA), predicts recidivism using only variables readily obtained by frontline police officers. Correctional settings permit more comprehensive assessments. In a subset of ODARA construction and cross-validation cases, 303 men with a police record for wife assault and a correctional system file, the VRAG, SARA, Danger Assessment, and DVSI also predicted recidivism, but the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R) best improved prediction of recidivism, occurrence, frequency, severity, injury, and charges. In 346 new cases, ODARA and PCL-R independently predicted recidivism. An algorithm was derived for a combined instrument, the Domestic Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (DVRAG), and an experience table is presented (N=649). Results indicated the importance of antisociality in wife assault.     

The Role of Social Support in Students’ Perceived Abilities and Attitudes Toward Math and Science

Social cognitive models examining academic and career outcomes emphasize constructs such as attitude, interest, and self-efficacy as key factors affecting students’ pursuit of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) courses and careers. The current research examines another under-researched component of social cognitive models: social support, and the relationship between this component and attitude and self-efficacy in math and science. A large cross-sectional design was used gathering data from 1,552 participants in four adolescent school settings from 5th grade to early college (41 % female, 80 % white). Students completed measures of perceived social support from parents, teachers and friends as well as their perceived ability and attitudes toward math and science. Fifth grade and college students reported higher levels of support from teachers and friends when compared to students at other grade levels. In addition, students who perceived greater social support for math and science from parents, teachers, and friends reported better attitudes and had higher perceptions of their abilities in math and science. Lastly, structural equation modeling revealed that social support had both a direct effect on math and science perceived abilities and an indirect effect mediated through math and science attitudes. Findings suggest that students who perceive greater social support for math and science from parents, teachers, and friends have more positive attitudes toward math and science and a higher sense of their own competence in these subjects.     

PPOs: the employer perspective

This paper reports the results of a national survey on employer experiences with preferred provider organizations (PPOs). The survey, conducted in 1987, included information from almost 700 telephone interviews with employee benefit managers. We found that 11 percent of employees are in PPOs. PPOs now have a strong presence among employers of all sizes. However, whereas they are a major force in the West, where almost one-third of employees are members, they have garnered only a 1 percent market share in the East. We examine the impact of PPOs on health insurance premiums and on employer satisfaction. The results show that in 1987, the year of the survey, PPOs appeared to provide mild cost savings compared to conventional insurance, and that employers were very satisfied with almost all aspects of PPOs, whereas they were surprisingly critical of their HMOs.     

Some impressions of modern Turkey

General

The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company 1660–1760. By K. N. Chaudhuri. Cambridge, London, New York, Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 1978. Pp. xviii+629. Tables. Figs. Maps. Appendices. Gloss. Bibliog. Index. £37.50.

Dictionary of Asian Philosophies. By St Elmo Nauman (Jr). New York, Philosophical Library, Inc., 1978. Pp. 372. Chron. Tables. Pref. $20.00.

Middle East

Middle East Contemporary Surrey Vol. I: 1976–77. Edited by Colin Legum and Haim Shaked. New York and London, Holmes and Meier Publishers Inc., 1978. (For The Shiloah Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University) 1978. Pp. 684. Maps. Tables. Notes. Graphs. Index. £32.50.

Pasargadae. A Report on the Excavations conducted by the British Institute of Persian Studies from 1961 to 1963. By David Stronach. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1978. Pp. xii+326. Figs. Fold‐outs. Plates. Maps. Preface. Appendices. Index. £25.00.

The Islamic Pious Foundations in Jerusalem: Origins, History and Usurpation by Israel. By A. L. Tibawi. London, The Islamic Cultural Centre, 1978. Pp. 72. Maps. Illus. Notes. Appendices. £3.00.

Western Civilisation through Muslim Eyes. By Sayid Mujtaba Rukni Musawi Lari of Iran. Trans, by F. J. Goulding. Tehran, Sadr Publishing House, 1977. Optimus Books, Worthing, Sussex. Pp. xii+146. Foreword. Note. Gloss. £1.00.

Gertrude Bell. By H. V. F. Winstone. London, Jonathan Cape, 1978. Pp. 332. Illus. Maps. Notes. Bibliog. Index. £7.50.

South Asia

Politics Mainly Indian. By W. H. Morris‐Jones. Orient Longman, Bombay, 1978. Pp. 392. Intro. Index. Rs. 60.

The Making of the Indian Princes. By Edward Thompson. London and Dublin, Curzon Press, 1978. First published Oxford University Press, 1943. Pp. 304. Illus. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £4.50.

Khyber. By Charles Miller. Macmillan, New York, 1977. Macdonald and Janes, London, 1977. Pp. xix+393. Illus. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £7.50.

Family Web. A Story of India. By Sarah Hobson. London, John Murray, 1978. Pp. 284. Illus. Gloss. £5.95.

The Ganges in Myth and History. By Steven G. Darian. University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu, 1978. Pp. 219. Illus. Maps. Notes. Bibliog. Index. $9.95.

USSR

Soviet Political Elites. By Ronald J. Hill. London, Martin Robertson, 1977. Pp. 226. Map. Figs. Tables. Graphs. Notes. Bibliog. Index. £8.25.

The Circumpolar North: A Political and Economic Geography of the Arctic and Sub‐Arctic. By Terence Armstrong, George Rogers and Graham Rowley. Methuen and Co., Ltd., London, 1978. Pp. 303. Maps. Tables. Gloss. Appendices. Bibliog. Index. £5.95 (paper).

Central Asia

The Gilgit Game. The Explorers of the Western Himalayas, 1865–95. By John Keay. John Murray, London, 1979. Pp. 277. Maps. Notes. Bibliog. Index. Illus. Gloss. £7.95.

South‐East Asia

The Army and Politics in Indonesia. By Harold Crouch. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1978. Pp. 356. Appendix. Gloss. Bibliog. Index. £13.00.

The Indonesian Tragedy. By Brian May. Routledge &; Kegan Paul, London, Henley &; Boston, 1978. Pp. xvii+413. Illus. Maps. Notes. Gloss. Index. £8.95.

The Politics of Administration. The Malaysian Experience. By Mavis Puthucheary. Kuala Lumpur, Oxford, New York and Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1978. Pp. xii+170. Notes. Tables. Bibliog. Index. £15.25.

Many Reasons Why. The American Involvement in Vietnam. By Michael Charlton and Anthony Moncrief. Scolar Press, London, 1978. Pp. 250. Maps. Notes. Indices. £10.00 (cloth), £4.50 (paper).

A Concise Legal History of South‐East Asia. By M. B. Hooker. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1978. Pp. 289. Tables. Bibliog. Index. £12.50.

Far East

Revolution and History ‐ Origins of Marxist Historiography in China, 1919–37. By Arif Dirlik. Berkeley, San Francisco and London, University of California Press, 1979. Pp. ix+299. Bibliog. Index. £12.25.

Chang Tso‐lin in Northeast China, 1911–1928: China, Japan and the Manchurian Idea. By Gavan McCormack. Folkestone, Dawson, 1977. Pp. 334. Illus. Maps. Index. £12.50.

Militarism in Modern China: The Career of Wu P'ei‐fu 1916–39. By Odoric Y. K. Wou. (Studies of the East Asian Institute, Columbia University.) Folkestone, Dawson; Canberra, Australian National University Press, 1978. Pp. 346. Index. £12.50.

Sociology and Socialism in Contemporary China. By Siu‐lun Wong. London, Boston and Henley, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979. Pp. xvi+147. Tables. Notes. Bibliog. Index. £5.75.

The China Station. War and Diplomacy 1830–1860. By Gerald S. Graham. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1978. Pp. 444. Maps. Notes. Appendices. Bibliog. Index. £15.00.

Ancient China. The Making of the Past. By Patrick FitzGerald. Oxford, Phaidon Press Ltd., 1978. Pp. 151. Illus. Bibliog. Gloss. Index. £4.95.

Rural Development: Learning from China. By Sartaj Aziz. London, The Macmillan Press, 1978. Pp. 201. Ulus. Intro. Appendices. Notes. References. Bibliog. Index. £8.95 (hardback) £5.50 (paperback).

Pacing the Void: T'ang Approaches to the Stars. By Edward H. Schafer. Berkeley, Los Angeles. London, California University Press, 1978. Pp. xi+352. Illus. Appendices. Notes. Bibliog. Gloss. Index. £18.75.

Confucianism and Christianity; a comparative study. By Julia Cheng. Tokyo, New York and San Francisco, Kodansha International in cooperation with the Institute of Oriental Religions of Sophia University, Tokyo 1977. (Distributed by Phaidon Press, Oxford, in the United Kingdom). Pp. 234. Notes. Tables. Bibliog. Index. £8.25.

Economic Development of South Korea. The Political Economy of Success. By L. L. Wade and B. S. Kim. Praeger Publishers, New York and London, 1978. Pp. 270. Figs. Index. Notes. £12.50.     

Public contracting,policy preferences and minority business enterprises

About three years ago a Special Issue of the International Journal of Public Administration focused on the topic “Government Set-Asides, Minority Business Development, and Publi Contracting.”^(l) Much of the discussion in the issue addressed race conscious government set-aside programs in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co. ⁽²⁾ The decision declared unconstitutional a local government minority business set-aside provision designed to help minority business enterprises (MBEs) obtain government contracts. At the time, the decision was applicable only to state and local governmental jurisdictions.⁽³⁾ Government set-asides involve the practice of providing minority contractors and subcontracting a certain percentage of a public jurisdiction's contract dollars.

In 1995 the Supreme Court in Adarand v. Pena ⁽⁴⁾ extended the Croson ruling to include set-aside programs in federal agencies. This Special Issues examines and discusses the Adarand decision and the developments that have followed. The first article by Mitchell F. Rice, “Federal Set-Asides Policy and Minority Business Contracting: Understanding the Adarand Decision,” reviews the Adarand decision and discusses the implications of the decision for minority business development. The next article by Audrey L. Mathews and Mitchell F. Rice, “Adarand v. Pena: Turning Challenges Into Opportunities,” uses a case study of two public preference programs to suggest how Adarand requirements may be successfully utilized to maintain set-aside preference programs.

The third article by Shelton Rhodes, “Mirmative Action Review ‘Report’ to the Presidents: Implications of Military Affirmative Actions Programs to Current and New Millennium Affirmative Action Programs,” reviews the Affirmative Action Review: Report to the President which was ordered by President Clinton soon after the Adarand decision. Rhodes considers the implications of the possible applicability of the successes of affirmative action and equal opportunity in the military, which is highlighted in the Report, to other public and private organizations. The final article by Wilbur C., Rich, “Presidents and Minority Set-Aside Policy: Race, Gender and Small Opportunities,” analyzes the impact of presidential leadership on minority set-asides policy and shows how politicians use set-asides to facilitate exchanges and cooperation with the business elites.     

转变观念和角色构建心灵立交桥——高校实施历史教育培养学生创新能力的探索

当前在全国全面推行素质教育的时候，如何加强高等院校历史教育已成为高校全面素质教育的重要一环。本文以为高校历史教育在实际教学中，应加快教师队伍观念角色的转变，加大专业能力培养，构建良好氛围，努力培养个人创新能力。