Research note Partial single-peakedness: An extension and clarification

Niemi (1969), in an important but neglected paper, found that when orderings were drawn from a simulation based on the impartial culture, the greater the proportion of voter orderings that were single-peaked (a condition he called partial single-peakedness), the more likely was there to be a transitive group ordering. Niemi also found that the likelihood of transitivity increased with n, group size — approaching one as n grew large. Niemi's simulation was restricted to the case of three alternatives. Also, he provided no theoretical explanation for the results of his simulation. Here we provide a theoretical explanation for Niemi's results in terms of a model based on the idea of net preferences, and we extend his results for the general case of any finite number of alternatives, m, for electorates that are large relative to the number of alternatives being considered. In addition to providing a rationale for Niemi's (1969) simulation results, the ideas of net preferences and opposite preference we make use of have a wide range of potential applications.     

Enuresis, firesetting, and cruelty to animals: the significance of two thirds of this triad

The full childhood triad of enuresis, firesetting, and cruelty to animals is seldom reported by patients in acute care psychiatric facilities. Two of the three elements have been reported with greater frequency and constitute useful diagnostic information. Literature on the triad has been reviewed and data from three studies have been presented. The authors concluded that a history of two thirds of the triad is significantly associated with aggressive behaviours directed against people.     

Social stratification: Individual importance and social welfare

A method to estimate a household's social status in a stratified society is described. We do not leave it up to the respondents what is to be understood by status, as most methods do, but define it as the weight of the household with respect to social welfare. In order to operationalize this individual relative importance concept we measure and utilize the individual welfare evaluations. Our empirical results for a data set collected in the Boston area in 1983 show the dependency of social status and social stratification on individual characteristics. A comparison made with some other methods shows the feasibility of our approach.