The unexpected effect of social status on reproduction: a case study in Joseon Korea from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries

We examine how parents have made decisions about the number of children they have, given their social status in accordance with residential location (either urban or rural areas) and time (either the pre-modern or modern periods). We use two sets of microdata – Jokbo and Jejeokbu – spanning the early nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries in Korea. Combining the two data-sets, we use multiple imputation to fill the missing entries of some observations and apply a Poisson regression model on the augmented data. Our empirical results reveal statistically significant evidence that higher socioeconomic status is related to having more children. Additionally, our findings indicate that: (1) all else being constant, among high-status people, rural residents had more children than urban families; (2) for people born between 1800 and 1945, those born closer to the 1940s tended to have fewer children; and (3) during modernization, there was still a significant trend for high-status families to have more children.     

Trials and Miscarriages: an evolutionary socio-historical analysis

Periodically miscarriages of justice become newsworthy and inform not only those who may have some responsibility for their occurrence and rectification, but the general public as well. At those times proposals for reform tend to ensue, and reforms occur. But such occasions are rarely considered historically or understood from an evolutionary perspective. This article undertakes to offer that missing feature. It attempts to inform the periodic highly charged discussion of miscarriages of justice with an understanding of their ingredients illustrated by both some recent and some much older history. The article presents the thesis that miscarriages of justice are a component of the workings of all criminal justice systems, part of their operations, rather than their malfunction. It shows how miscarriages of justice are the criminal justice system’s answer to a prior problem, the functional need to convict more persons than can be shown, with certainty, to have committed the crimes of which they have been charged. This thesis has the implication of inserting some modesty into proposals for reform, not to decry their attempts, but to inspire less naivety. The article focuses on the changing methods of the criminal trial, throughout the second millennium and up to the present day, as an expression of the underlying problématique that represents its thesis.     

Russia's Forced-Choice Presidential Election

Have there been changes in political institutions, parties, leaders, and regional political orientations in Ukraine after the "Orange Revolution"? If so, are the changes revolutionary or evolutionary? Most previous studies refer to the 2004 presidential elections and mass protest actions as a revolution. To test this claim, this article analyzes political changes in Ukraine. Survey data are used to compare changes in pro-Russian and pro-Western orientation, support for major parties in the 2002, 2006, and 2007 parliamentary elections, and support for leading presidential candidates since the 2004 presidential elections. The implications of these changes for development of democracy in Ukraine are also considered.     

Generational Effects on Attitudes to Communist Regimes: A Comparative Analysis

Based on survey data, collected in 1993 and 1994 from eleven post-communist societies (N = 13,614), the authors investigate empirically the extent to which generations differ in their retrospective evaluations of their defunct Communist political regimes and command economies. While the aggregate level of approval of the old regime varies between countries, within almost every country a similar pattern of generational differences is found: the youngest generation is least approving of the old regime. The generational effect remains when controls are introduced for education. Generational turnover, reinforced by changes in political socialization caused by the collapse of Communist regimes, is eroding nostalgia for a Communist past. And even among generations most nostalgic about the former political and economic orders, there is very little endorsement of a reactionary return to Communist rule. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H19, P29.