Two Decades of Change: A Ranking of Key Issues Affecting Intergovernmental Relations

This article describes the results of a 1981 survey of 1,000randomly selected scholars of American government and politicswho were asked to rank the most significant intergovernmentalevents and trends of the past twenty years. Responses were receivedfrom almost 40 percent of these scholars; no significant returnbiases were detected. These scholars ranked civil rights andvoting rights acts as the most significant events of these decades.General Revenue Sharing and the reapportionment cases were rankedsecond and third in importance. The increased flow of federaldollars to states and local governments was ranked the mostimportant trend affecting intergovernmental relations, followedby the increased public disaffection with government and thegrowing dependence of local governments on state and federalaid. The Vietnam War and the inflationary spiral it initiatedwas ranked as the most significant social event affecting thecourse of intergovernmental relations, followed closely by theenergy crisis and the beginnings of the "Great Society." Thearticle also examines the effects of party identification, age,year of degree, government experience, region, and city sizeon scholarly attitudes toward these events and trends. Whilethe overall rankings were not dramatically altered, partisanship,region, and city size all were factors found to be noticeablyrelated to scholarly rankings of these important events andtrends.     

Government health policy and hospital labor costs: the effects of wage and price controls on hospital wage rates and employment

This study examines the rapid growth of hospital wage rates and employment levels over the past decade, with particular attention to the period 1971-73, when wage and price controls were in effect throughout the economy. The analysis shows that the hospital regulations under the Economic Stabilization Program reduced real hospital wages below what they would have been in the absence of controls; a similar but smaller effect of the controls on hospital employment levels is also shown. This suggests that if the current HEW proposal for hospital cost containment is enacted, its impact would be a significant decrease in the rate of growth of hospital wages and employment.     

Verbal and Physical Abuse Toward Mothers: The Role of Family Configuration,Environment, and Coping Strategies

This paper focuses on parental maltreatment, a rarely documented phenomenon. We prospectively examine factors that can increase the risk of abusive behavior toward mothers. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between a stressful family situation, parental divorce, and verbal and physical aggression toward mothers. We use a large Canadian sample of adolescents who have been followed since kindergarten. At age 15, we assessed verbal and physical abuse toward mothers, as reported by both mothers and their adolescents. Multinomial logit modeling revealed that parental divorce was associated with a greater risk of physical aggression directed toward mothers by adolescents. Family environment and parental coping strategies partially mediated that relationship. Mothers who divorced, and remained divorced, were at greater risk of being assaulted by their adolescent children. A positive family environment, reflecting a better parent–child relationship, partially diminished this risk. However, support-seeking behavior on the part of mothers increased the risk of abuse, concurrent with tyrannical strategies often mobilized by abusive children.     

Performance Indicators in Academia: An X‐Efficiency Approach?

This article utilises three different perspectives to evaluate the uses of performance indicators in Australian higher education: federalism, neoclassical economics and X-efficiency theory. The introduction of performance indicators by the Commonwealth government is associated with providing the most efficient path for the allocation and distribution of scarce resources in higher education (neoclassical economics), increasing its control over the universities (federalism theory), and applying pressure to them and in turn their academic members to increase their effort levels (X-efficiency theory). X-efficiency theory is proposed as a possible model to support and inform efforts to better understand and improve the operation of performance indicators.