Are “superdelegates” super?

Political Behavior - Post-1968 changes in the Democratic party's nomination process resulted, by some accounts, in the selection of delegates who knew little about politics, cared little about...     

Psychopathy and Recidivism Among Female Inmates

Despite a plethora of studies investigating psychopathy among male offenders, little is known about the applicability of this construct to female populations. Research has shown that prevalence rate, symptom presentation, and diagnostic comorbidity differ for females as compared to males. The current study is the first to examine the relationship between psychopathy and recidivism among women. Recidivism data on a sample of 78 female inmates were examined at a 1-year interval in relation to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), inclusion criteria for the Antisocial Personality Disorder Diagnosis from the Personality Disorder Examination (PDE), and selected scales from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Antisocial and Aggression scales). The egocentricity subscale of the PAI, Factor 1 of the PCL-R, and the verbal aggression subscale of the PAI were the best predictors of future recidivism. Specific differences emerged between male and female offenders when comparing the present data with previous studies of male psychopaths.     

Police prejudice as a function of training and outgroup contact

A longitudinal study investigated prejudice among 412 New South Wales (Australia) police recruits. Recruits were tested on Beswick and Hills' (1972) Australian E scale and Ray's (1972) Balanced F scale at recruitment, after 6 months' full-time academy training, and after 12 months' police experimence. It was found that over the period of academy training recruits became less authoritarian but did not vary on ethnocentrism. Over the field experience stage recruits became both more ethnocentric and authoritarian. Further, recruits sent to districts with large Aboriginal populations became significantly more ethnocentric but no more authoritarian than other recruits. At a theoretical level, results suggest that police attributes may develop as a function of particular policing experiences. At an applied level, results suggest that training alone is unlikely to overcome the problem of police prejudice.     

Environmental Protection and the New Federalism: A Longitudinal Analysis of State Perceptions

Surveys of the directors of state air and water quality programsin 1979, 1985, and 1990 are used to assess the directors' (and,indirectly, the states') reactions to the New Federalism ofthe 1980s and related federal efforts to increase the role ofthe states in environmental decisionmaking. Despite frequentclaims that the New Federalism led to significant improvementsin state-federal relations in the environmental arena, the surveydata suggest that these relations have changed little since1979.     

Assessing the impact of decentralization on governance: A comparative methodological approach and application to Tunisia

The relationship between decentralization and governance has not been adequately explored in the literature. Many past studies have failed to assess fully the impact of decentralization because of the lack of a set of independent, comparative indicators of the quality of decentralization being implemented in a given country. The authors adopt the working hypothesis that decentralization, both as a process and as an end state in terms of organization and operations, is closely related to the quality of governance in developing countries. In order to provide an empirical basis for a comparative assessment, the authors have developed a model based on the scope, intensity and commitment to decentralization in a country. Each of these concepts is operationalized in terms of a set of empirically measurable variables. The method is then applied to the case of Tunisia and assessed as a tool for the comparative study of decentralization and governance. Decentralization in Tunisia is shown to have an important relationship to the quality of governance in that country. The methodology developed here for the analysis of the quality of decentralization appears, based on the examination of a significant case, to be worth pursuing cross-nationally.     

Federal-provincial taxation in turbulent times

Abstract: Major changes in federal tax policy over the last decade have added to the pressures on provincial public finances and resulted in increased interest in possible ways to restructure Canada's federal finances by reassigning taxes. I review several recent proposals along these lines, but conclude that on the whole major reassignments of taxes seem unlikely to occur in the near future. The most important immediate issue concerns the possible revision of the much-criticized federal sales tax, the GST. Although major substantive (as opposed to cosmetic) changes in this tax seem either undesirable or unlikely, or both, some further, albeit still imperfect, rapprochement with provincial sales taxes may occur. Finally, I note that both the complexity and the importance of fiscal issues demand, but seldom receive, informed public discussion beyond the passing battles of current federal-provincial political relations. Sommaire: Les importants changements dans les politiques d'imposition fédérales au cours de la dernière décennie sont venus ajouter aux pressions qui s'exercent sur les finances publiques provinciales; on s'intéresse done de plus en plus aux moyens qui permettraient de restructurer les finances fédérales du Canada en réaffectant les impôts. L'article passe en revue plusieurs propositions récentes en ce sens, mais conclut que, dans l'ensemble, il est peu probable que des réaffectations d'impôts se produisent bientôt. La question immédiate la plus importante a trait à la révision possible de la taxe de vente fédérale très critiquée qu'est la TPS. Bien que d'importants changements substantifs (et non pas seulement cosmétiques) dans cette taxe semblent indésirables, ou improbables, ou les deux, un certain rapprochement supplémentaire, mais encore imparfait, risque de se produire avec les taxes de vente provinciales. Enfin, la complexité et l'importance des questions fiscales exigent un débat public ouvert, au-delà des accrochages actuels dans les relations politiques fédérales-provinciales, ce qui demeure rare.