Migration,rank-size distribution,and economic development: The case of Mexico

This is an examination of whether city size is truly an independent variable when the relationships between city size and certain economic and social phenomena are considered. A new hypothesis is presented that postulates that relative or systemic city size is an independent variable that affects urban growth patterns through varying, non-optimum migration flows. The hypothesis is tested using official Mexican data for the period 1960 to 1970.     

The failure of local government modernization in Britain: a critique of functionalism

Abstract. Modernizing local government systems to meet changing needs and urbanization is common to most Western democracies. This article examines the British local government modernization which, it argues, placed far too much emphasis on improving the system's functional capacity and too little to improving its democratic quality. The overemphasis on functionalism has been most decisive in relation to creating wider areas for planning and transportation and creating more populous local units so as to exploit economies of scale. The result is a system with some of the largest local units among Western democracies. The new system is also very unpopular. Yet, even when judged in functional terms it has serious weaknesses especially in regard to its failure to recognize the different functional needs of urban and rural areas. The article makes a strong plea for the restoration of democratic as opposed to functional criteria in the design of local government systems and notes the contribution that public choice theory can make to local government reorganization by its insistence on distribution efficiency as opposed to production efficiency. Sommaire. La modemisation des systèmes de gouvemement local pour répondre à de nouveaux besoins et aux exignences de l'urbanisation est commune à la plupart des démocraties occidentales. L'auteur de cet article étudie la modemisation du gouvernement local britannique qui, à son avis, a trop porté sur l'amélioration de la capacité fonctionnelle du système et pas assez sur sa qualité démocratique. La trop grande importance accordée au fonctionnel a joué un rôle particulièrement décisif en créant de grandes régions pour la planification et le transport et des unités locales à très forte densité de population de façon à profiter des économies d'échelle. Le résultat, c'est un système qui compte certaines des unités démographiques les plus fortes dans les démocraties occidentales. Ce nouveau système est aussi très impopulaire. Etmême lorsqu'on le juge du point de vue fonctionnel, il accuse une très grave faiblesse en ne distinguant pas entre les besoins fonctionnels différents des régions urbaines et rurales. L'auteur plaide en faveur de la restauration de critères démocratiques plutôt que fonctionnels pour la conception de systèmes de gouvemement local et il indique la contribution que pourrait apporter la théorie du choix public à la réorganisation du gouvernement local grâce à son insistance sur l'efficacité de la distribution plutôt que sur l'efficacité de la production.     

DHHS human subjects protection: the new regulations revisited

In January of 1981 DHHS released its revised regulations for the protection of human subjects. These new regulations established five categories of federally funded research--primarily in the educational, social and behavioral sciences--which, at local Institutional Review Board (IRB) US ISSN (0193-7758) 1168 option, could be made exempt from mandated peer review. A survey of the 562 member IRB system was conducted to determine, among other things, what policies individual review boards had established with regard to these optionally exempted categories. 341 (61%) of the IRBs responded to the survey. Results indicate that the IRBs have overwhelmingly opted to maintain review procedures at some level in each of the "exempted" categories and that these procedures, as well as the other DHHS standards, are being applied almost universally to all research regardless of funding source. This article presents data on IRBs and their implications for the educational, social and behavioral sciences.