Why do people vote? An experiment in rationality

The study presents the findings of an experiment conducted during the 1993 Canadian fedeal election campaign. Students in two universities were exposed to a ten-minute presentation about the rational model of voting and the ‘paradox’ that so many people vote when it is apparently irrational on a cost-benefit basis. Our data indicate that exposure to the presentation decreased turnout in the election by seven percentage points. This result contributes to the debate abut the effect of rational-choice models on real political behavior. More important, the experimental panel data permit the presentation's effect to be decomposed, and this helps explain why people do vote. In this study, turnout was reduced mainly because the presentation diminished the respondents' sense of duty, an effect that was indirect, because there was no reference in the presentation to such motives. Framing the voting act in rational-choice terms induced some students to reconsider whether they should feel obliged to vote.     

The Europeanization of National Administrations: A Comparative Study of France and the Netherlands

Studies of the impact of European integration on the national administrations of the member states of the European Union (EU) have pointed towards an uneven process of "Europeanization." While there has unquestionably been a growing range and frequency of contacts between national administrations and the EU system, there is little evidence of an expected convergence towards a common institutional model. This uneven Europeanization is presently explained with reference to a neo-institutionalist framework, drawing primarily on the work of March and Olsen. It is argued that the politico-administrative systems of the member states differentially adapt to the pressures of European integration in a manner which reflects the preexisting balance of domestic institutionnal structures, as well as th broader matrices of values which define the nature of appropriate political forms in the case of each national polity. Distinctive national patterns of institutional adjustment, rather than appearing anomalous, emerge as corresponding to a basic logic of differentiation indissociable from the integration process itself. The general argument is illustrated by an extended comparative study of France and the Netherlands, examining both the making and the implementation of European policy in the two countries.     

MANAGING IN NETWORK SETTINGS

The focus of this article is on managing networks. A network knowledge base is developed from the authors' studies of city government involvement in economic development, management within rural enterprises and the evaluation of a rural strategic planning project. Other public management network analyses are also incorporated. Management in network settings is not based on central authority and cannot be guided by a single organizational goal as is the case in the classical management approach. Management involves managing flexible structures toward collective efficiency. The ability to manage is related to the internal condition of the manager's primary organization. It involves technical, legal, political and cost dimensions. It requires different capacities, skills and knowledge from that of single organization management. The next steps in the research would include the development of the skills needed, an analysis of the role of organizational power and the operational variables of networks, the issue of network cohesion, and the question of loss of control or difficulty in assessing network accountability.     

The U.S. and third World Revolutionary States: Understanding the Breakdown in Relations

Although scholars focused on Soviet–American relations during the Cold War, the greatest number of conflicts for the U.S. occurred in the Third World, and most of these were with revolutionary states. Could U.S. policies toward the new revolutionary states have prevented the almost universal collapse in relations? Two dominant explanations for this breakdown are (1) American hostility toward revolutionary change and (2) Stephen Walt's variant of the spiral model. Using the comparative case approach and selecting "hard cases," this article disputes these explanations and offers a new theory based on the externalization of domestic conflict in the revolutionary states. Given their ideological goals, the radicals externalized their domestic conflicts with the moderates, who had transnational ties with the U.S., by fomenting tensions with Washington. To demonstrate that this theory can be generalized, this article varies the dependent variable and shows through a critical case that its lack of conflict can best be explained by the absence of the conditions that lead to externalization. The foreign policies of both the U.S. and revolutionary states are explained by classical realism as opposed to Walt's structural realism, which fails to account for the foreign policies of Third World states.     

Psychological variables in student activism: The radical triad and some religious differences

Thirty-six male students, drawn from a sample of 1195, were interviewed to obtain a personal history. A battery of projective psychological tests (Rorschach and TATs) were also administered to them. The students were divided into four groups of nine each, Jewish radicals (JR), Christian radicals (CR), Jewish moderates (JM), and Christian moderates (CM), to test the significance of religious background as it related to political outlook. Eight significant psychological variables were found and defined. No differences were found between JMs and CMs. Radicals differed from moderates on three variables: negative identity, masochistic surrender, and treating people as concepts. In addition, JR subjects demonstrated consistently a wandering fantasy, flight from the mother, the mother as salient, and machismo as psychological variables. CRs were not characterized by any of these variables. As with both groups of moderates, the father of the CRs was psychologically salient, but unlike the moderates, CTs perceived their fathers as flawed. The possible dynamic meaning of these configurations is discussed, as are their possible relationship to radical behavior and radical political ideology.This study was supported by grants from the American Jewish Committee and The National Science Foundation (GS35307A).Director of Resident Education, McLean Hospital. M.D., Harvard Medical School; residency training at Boston Veteran's Administration Hospital and Beth Israel Hospital in psychiatry. Psychoanalytic training, Boston Psychoanalytic Institute. Major interest: depression.Director of Training for Psychology Interns. Ph.D., Brandeis, 1960; Master's degree, University of Illinois. Major interest: schizophrenia.Professor of Political Science, Smith College. Major interest: modern European history — applying psychoanalytic methods to historical and social problems like student activism.     

The structure of moral character and the explanation of moral action

This article discusses the relationship between human rule systems and social action. It assumes that all meaningful behavior is rule-governed. If so, then individual differences in moral conduct can be explained in terms of differences in the manner in which people use, justify, and maintain rules. Specifically, moral behavior can be understood in terms of five dimensions: moral knowledge, style of moral judgment, socialization, empathy, and autonomy. Evidence is presented which suggests that these dimensions can be objectively assessed and that the model works reasonably well in predicting and explaining moral conduct.Received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Professional interests include personality theory and moral development.