Terrorism and affinity of nations

Public Choice - This article investigates whether a country’s political proximity to the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom exposes the country to terrorist attacks. We...     

Silent Racism and Intellectual Superiority in Peru

Abstract — Historically, racism as it is understood in South Africa or in parts of the Southern United States has not existed in Peru. The absence or at least the existence to a lesser degree of this type of tension grants us a superiority over our northern neighbours. In Peru, emancipation of slaves was relatively easy. This is not to say that there do not exist prejudices against Indians, cholos , and blacks, however these prejudices have not been sanctioned by the law and they have, more than a profound racial feeling, an economic, social and cultural character. Colour does not prevent an aborigine, mestizo , or Negroid from occupying high positions if they can accumulate wealth or achieve political success. Notwithstanding these fortunate cases, there is an enormous distance between the pongos [serfs] of a highland hacienda … and those highly cultured and refined Limeños, who routinely travel to Europe. This distance is neither racial, nor based on place of origin, rather it corresponds to what can be termed an historical state of things (Jorge Basadre, 1964:4686).     

Institutionalism Old and New*

Abstract
The author deals with the legal theoretical approach that has been labelled "legal institutionalism." An old and a new version of this approach are singled out: The old one is identified with the theory defended by the Italian public lawyer Santi Romano in the first half of this century; the second one is seen in the recent work by Ota Weinberger and Neil MacCormick. After a short presentation of Romano's work, his ideas and the development proposed by MacCormick and Weinberger are compared. Similarities and differences between the two versions of institutional theory are worked out. A coda hints at an ambiguity in the definition of institution proposed by the "new" institutionalism.     

Rent-seeking and pesticide legislation

This paper provides a test of the Appelbaum and Katz (1987) rent-seeking model, in which rents are endogenous. The Appelbaum-Katz model is theoretically modified to correspond to our empirical application, in which rent-seeking and rent-avoiding coalitions are attempting to influence legislators' votes on pesticide regulations. Probit estimations are used to analyze the legislators' votes on two bills to amend pesticide legislation (a proxy for rent). Empirical results generally support the rent-seeking determinants identified in the model. Tobit estimation is used to investigate campaign contributions by the coalitions to the legislators. These contributions are a proxy for rent-seeking activities. Again, the model is supported.     

History of spouse violence against mother: Correlated risks and unique effects in child mental health

The present study examined mental health risk associated with lifetime occurrence of spouse violence against mother among 303 10 to 12 year-old inner-city children. Maternal report data showed a 30% prevalence rate for lifetime occurrence of spouse violence in this sample. Results of correlational analyses indicated that violence against mother was associated with several other historical risk factors including divorce, parental drinking problems, and incarceration of father. Multiple regression analyses controlling for the effects of demographic and historical risk factors that correlated with violence against mother revealed that violence accounted for significant unique variance in girls' self-reports of conduct problems, but did not account for unique variance in boys' symptomatology. Implications of these results for understanding the effects of violence against mother on children and for the development of empirically based interventions for children in those families are discussed.