Coproduction of Government Services and the New Information Technology: Investigating the Distributional Biases

This article investigates how communications advances affect citizens’ ability to participate in coproduction of government services. The authors analyze service requests made to the City of Boston during a one‐year period from 2010 to 2011 and, using geospatial analysis and negative binomial regression, investigate possible disparities by race, education, and income in making service requests. The findings reveal little concern that 311 systems (nonemergency call centers) may benefit one racial group over another; however, there is some indication that Hispanics may use these systems less as requests move from call centers to the Internet and smartphones. Consistent with prior research, the findings show that poorer neighborhoods are less likely to take advantage of 311 service, with the notable exception of smartphone utilization. The implications for citizen participation in coproduction and bridging the digital divide are discussed.     

Reviews

Joseph Fewsmith Dilemmas of Reform in China. Political Conflict and Economic Debate Armonk, NY and London: M.E. Sharpe, 1994. 289 pp. £44.00. ISBN 1–56324–327‐X.

Tani E. Barlow Gender Politics in Modern China: Writing and Feminism Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1993. 307 pp. £15.95. ISBN 0–8223–1389–8.

William A. Joseph (ed.) China Briefing, 1994 Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1994. 234pp. £10.50. ISBN 0–8133–2057–7.

Y.Y. Kueh and Robert F. Ash (eds) Economic Trends in Chinese Agriculture. The Impact of the Post‐Mao Reforms Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. xii + 405 pp. £45.00. ISBN 019–828753–4.

X.L. Ding (Ding Xueliang) The Decline of Communism in China: Legitimacy Crisis, 1977–1989. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. 230 pp. £30.00. ISBN 0–521–45138–8.

Minxin Pei From Reform to Revolution. The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1994. 253pp. £29.95. ISBN 0–674–32563‐X.

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E. Wayne Nafziger, Learning From the Japanese: Japan's Pre‐war Development and the Third World, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1995. xv + 221pp. ISBN 1–56324–485–3, paperback 1–56324–486–1.

Richard J. Samuels ’Rich Nation Strong Army'; National Security and the Technological Transformation of Japan Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1994. 455 pp. £38.50. ISBN 0–8014–2705–3.

Alan Burnett The Western Pacific: Challenge of Sustainable Growth London: Earthscan, 1993. 276 pp. £15.95. ISBN 1–85383–1581

Tom Wells The War Within: America's Battle Over Vietnam Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994. 706 pp. £27.50. ISBN 0–5200–8367–9.

Ross Garnaut, Peter Drysdale and John Kunkel (eds) Asia Pacific Regionalism: Readings in International Relations Sydney: Harper Educational, 1994. 433 pp. ISBN 0–06–312140–9.

Atu Emberson‐Bain Labour and Gold in Fiji Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. 270 pp. £40.00. ISBN 0–521–36372–1.     

Means-Tested Public Assistance Programs and Adolescent Political Socialization

In recent years, scholars have pointed to the politically demobilizing effects of means-tested assistance programs on recipients. In this study, we bridge the insights from policy feedback literature and adolescent political socialization research to examine how receiving means-tested programs shapes parent influence on adolescent political participation. We argue that there are differences in pathways to political participation through parent political socialization and youth internal efficacy beliefs for adolescents from households that do or do not receive means-tested assistance. Using data from a nationally representative sample of 536 Black, Latino, and White adolescents (50.8% female), we find that adolescents from means-tested assistance households report less parent political socialization and political participation. For all youth, parent political socialization predicts adolescent political participation. Internal political efficacy is a stronger predictor of political participation for youth from a non-means-tested assistance household than it is for youth from a household receiving means-tested assistance. These findings provide some evidence of differential paths to youth political participation via exposure to means-tested programs.     

美国大学的办学理念及其影响

美国的大学使用英语作为教学用语,其著名大学的排名位居世界前列,使成千上万的海外学子赴美求学.美国大学对世界的影响在于其先进的理念和良好的学术环境.     

School Smoking Policy Characteristics and Individual Perceptions of the School Tobacco Context: Are They Linked to Students’ Smoking Status?

The purpose of this study was to explore individual- and school-level policy characteristics on student smoking behavior using an ecological perspective. Participants were 24,213 (51% female) Grade 10–11 students from 81 schools in five Canadian provinces. Data were collected using student self-report surveys, written policies collected from schools, interviews with school administrators, and school property observations to assess multiple dimensions of the school tobacco policy. The multi-level modeling results revealed that the school a student attended was associated with his/her smoking behavior. Individual-level variables that were associated with student smoking included lower school connectedness, a greater number of family and friends who smoked, higher perceptions of student smoking prevalence, lower perceptions of student smoking frequency, and stronger perceptions of the school tobacco context. School-level variables associated with student smoking included weaker policy intention indicating prohibition and assistance to overcome tobacco addiction, weaker policy implementation involving strategies for enforcement, and a higher number of students smoking on school property. These findings suggest that the school environment is important to tobacco control strategies, and that various policy dimensions have unique relationships to student smoking. School tobacco policies should be part of a comprehensive approach to adolescent tobacco use.     

The Effect of Media on Charitable Giving and Volunteering: Evidence from the “Give Five” Campaign

Fundraising campaigns advertised via mass media are common. To what extent such campaigns affect charitable behavior is mostly unknown, however. Using giving and volunteering surveys conducted biennially from 1988 to 1996, I investigate the effect of a national fundraising campaign, “Give Five,” on charitable giving and volunteering patterns. The widely advertised Give Five campaign was aimed to encourage people to give 5 percent of their income and volunteer 5 hours a week. After controlling for selection into being informed about the Give Five, I find that people who were informed about the campaign increased their weekly volunteering activity on average by almost half an hour, but their giving behavior was not significantly affected. I discuss the policy implications associated with this result and argue that although the Give Five campaign did not achieve its goal, its impact on volunteering was considerable. © 2012 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Elections and political parties in Hong Kong's political development

This article seeks to explore the influence of social capital on the decision to hire Chinese professionals to work for Taiwanese companies in Vietnam. We argue that this employment and migration pattern is mainly determined by the social capital of the Chinese professional transient, and is not based solely on economic calculation as push-pull economic theory describes.