The size of second chambers and European assemblies

Abstract. Second chamber sizes (in terms of seats) tend to increase with increasing population like first chamber sizes. Population seems to affect first chamber size directly, while the size of the first chamber goes on to affect second chamber size. When selected on the basis of territorial sub-units, the second chamber size tends to be around the geometric mean of first chamber size and the number of sub-units. From the viewpoint of representing the total population and the constituent sub-units, the European Parliament is more akin to a first chamber and its size has been approaching the cube root of population typical of first chambers. The Council of the European Union (CEU) is more akin to a second chamber and its size, in terms of qualified majority voting (QMV) votes, was approaching the size typical of second chambers at a given population. However, the Treaty of Nice has boosted the CEU to a size comparable to that of the European Parliament (EP), which may not be functional. Analogies to domestic first and second chambers suggest that the optimal size for the 27-country CEU might be 150 to 190 seats (Nice proposes 345), while that for the EP might be around 780 seats (Nice proposes 732).     

Coping styles of learning disabled adolescents and their parents

The study compares coping styles of 50 learning disabled and nonlearning dis-abled adolescents and their parents. Analyses indicate that learning disabled adolescents show less ability to appraise a source of stress and seek information in the various domains with which they are expected to cope. Also, they reveal a higher level of pessimism about problems in academic-related domains. Coping patterns of parents of learning disabled adolescents do not show clear differences from parents of nonlearning disabled. Yet mothers of learning disabled adolescents tend more to seek and accept help. Learning disabled adolescents' coping is clearly related to coping or more specifically to difficulties in coping of their parents. Results are discussed in the context of the special difficulties of the learning disabled during adolescence and the role their parents play during this developmental stage.Received Ph. D. from Bar Ilan University. Research interests include developmental and family processes in normal and pathological adolescents.Received Ph.D. from University of Minnesota. Main interests are developmental and family processes in adolescence.Received M.A. in counseling from Tel Aviv University.Received M.A. in counseling from Tel Aviv University.     

The role of tax preparers in tax compliance

This paper assesses the influence of tax preparers on tax compliance. Using data from the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program and an index of legal ambiguity based on Revenue Rulings, the impact of preparation mode (paid third party vs. self) on compliance at the level of the return line item is probed. The results suggest that preparers contribute to compliance by enforcing legally clear requirements but also contribute to noncompliance, as measured by the IRS, by helping taxpayers take advantage of legal ambiguity. Furthermore, an analysis of a campaign to enforce estimated tax requirements conducted by the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue suggests that tax preparers are also an important network for communicating tax agency enforcement priorities to taxpayers.An earlier version of this paper was prepared for the conference on Federal/State Research sponsored by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.     

Adolescent autonomy and parental stress

The present investigation explores the relationship between adolescent autonomy and parental stress among families with children aged 10–17. Independent measures were obtained from parents and children. Parents of early adolescent children reported significantly more stress than parents of preadolescents or middle adolescents. Parents of first-born children reported significantly more stress than did more experienced parents. Although mothers and fathers reported comparable levels of overall parental stress, their stress was, in part, the result of different factors. Fathers reported higher levels of stress if their children reported not following their advice and being involved in deviant activities. For mothers, stress was significantly related to their children's desire for greater autonomy. Emotional detachment was not a significant predictor of parental stress for either mothers or fathers. Implications of the findings for the parent-child relationship during adolescence are discussed.Received Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1984. Research interests include parent-adolescent relations and the work-family interface.Research interests include home-school relations and parenting.Received Ph.D. in 1978 from the Pennsylvania State University. Research interests are in adult development and aging.     

Reviews

Martin McCauley, Who's Who in Russia since 1900. London: Routledge, 1997, xxiv + 268 pp., £12.99 p/b.

Michael McFaul, Russia's 1996 Presidential Election. The End of Polarized Politics. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1997, xiii + 170 pp., $17.95.

Laura Belin & Robert W. Orttung, with Ralph S. Clem and Peter R. Craumer, The Russian Parliamentary Elections of 1995: The Battle for the Duma. London: M. E. Sharpe, 1997, xii + 203 pp., $62.95.

Stephen White, Alex Pravda & Zvi Gitelman (eds), Developments in Russian Politics 4. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997, xvi + 304 pp., £42.50 h/b, £13.99 p/b.

Adrian Karatnycky, Alexander Motyl & Boris Shor (eds), Nations in Transit 1997. Civil Society, Democracy and Markets in East Central Europe and the Newly Independent States. New Brunswick: Transaction, 1997, 418 pp., $49.95.

Oskar Krejci, History of Elections in Bohemia and Moravia. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs CDXXXIII, 1995, xliv + 425 pp.

Anne Lorentz & Marianne Rostgaard (eds), The Aftermath of Real Existing Socialism in Eastern Europe. Volume 2. People and Technology in the Process of Transition. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997, ix + 309 pp., £50.00.

Yudit Kiss, The Defence Industry in East‐Central Europe: Restructuring and Conversion. Oxford: Oxford University Press/Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 1997, vii + 237 pp., £22.50.

Shiping Zheng, Party vs. State in Post‐1949 China: The Institutional Dilemma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, xiv + 294 pp., £40.00 h/b, £14.95 p/b.

John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997, x +425 pp., £25.00.

David Christian, Imperial and Soviet Russia: Power, Privilege and the Challenge of Modernity. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997, viii + 478 pp., £15.99.

Edward Acton, Vladimir Iu. Cherniaev & William G. Rosenberg (eds), Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914–1921. London: Edward Arnold, 1997, xviii + 782 pp., £59.99.

Michael David‐Fox, Revolution of the Mind: Higher Learning among the Bolsheviks, 1918–1929. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997, xvii + 298 pp., £33.50. >Alexander Etkind, Eros of the Impossible: The History of Psychoanalysis in Russia, trans. Noah and Maria Rubins, Oxford: Westview, 1997, vii + 408 pp., £25.50.

Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal (ed.), The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997, ix + 468 pp., £47.00 h/b, £19.50 p/b.

Knut Andreas Grimstad & Ingunn Lunde (eds), Celebrating Creativity: Essays in Honour of Jostein B0rtnes. Bergen: University of Bergen, 1997, 350 pp.