Undermining the Rule of Law: Democratization and the Dark Side of Police Reform in Mexico

This article asks whether democratization, under certain historical conditions, may relate to the deteriorating rule of law. Focusing on Mexico City, where police corruption is significant, this study argues that the institutionalized legacies of police power inherited from Mexico's one-party system have severely constrained its newly democratic state's efforts to reform the police. Mexico's democratic transition has created an environment of partisan competition that, combined with decentralization of the state and fragmentation of its coercive and administrative apparatus, exacerbates intrastate and bureaucratic conflicts. These factors prevent the government from reforming the police sufficiently to guarantee public security and earn citizen trust, even as the same factors reduce capacity, legitimacy, and citizen confidence in both the police and the democratically elected state. This article suggests that when democracy serves to undermine rather than strengthen the rule of law, more democracy can actually diminish democracy and its quality.     

Book reviews

William H. Schauer, The Politics of Space: A Comparison of the Soviet and American Space Programs. New York and London: Holmes & Meier, 1976. vii+317 pp. $24.95.

Maureen Perrie, The Agrarian Policy of the Russian Socialist‐Revolutionary Party: From Its Origins Through the Revolution of 1905–1907. London: CUP, 1976. xii+216 pp. £6.75.

Peter Christian Ludz, Ideologiebegriff und marxistische Theorie: Ansätze zu einer immanenten Kritik. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1976. xviii+337 pp.

George R. Feiwel, Growth and Reforms in Centrally Planned Economies: The Lessons of the Bulgarian Experience. New York: Praeger, 1977. xxix+345 pp. £18.50.

Edy Kaufman, The Superpowers and Their Spheres of Influence: The United States and the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe and Latin America. London: Croom Helm, 1976. 208 pp. £7.95.

Jane Shapiro and Peter J. Potichnyj (eds.), Change and Adaptation in Soviet and East European Politics. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1976. 236 pp. $18.50. £12.05.

Jane P. Shapiro and Lenard J. Cohen (eds.), Communist Systems in Comparative Perspective. New York: Anchor Books, 1974. xv+530 pp. $4.95.

Alec Nove, The Soviet Economic System. London: Allen & Unwin, 1977. 399 pp. £10.50, or £4.95 (paperback).

Joseph A. Mikus, Slovakia and the Slovaks. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1977. xiv+224 pp. $14.00 or $8.00 (paperback).

Yeshayahu Jelinek, The Parish Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party 1939–1945. East European Monographs No. XIV. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. viii+206 pp. $18.75.

William C. Wallace, Czechoslovakia. London: Ernest Benn, 1977. xiv+374 pp. £9.50.

Josef Korbel, Twentieth Century Czechoslovakia. New York: Columbia UP, 1977. xii+346 pp. $18.70.

Vinod Mehta, Soviet Economic Policy: Income Differentials in the USSR. New Delhi: Radiant Publishers, 1977. viii+134 pp. Rs. 45.     

Boys are Affected by Their Parents More Than Girls are: Parents’ Utility Value Socialization in Science

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Gender differences in parental value socialization of their children’s motivation, achievement, and career aspirations in science were investigated. Direct...     

Beyond borders: the Egyptian 1947 epidemic as a regional and international crisis

This article examines the post-Second World War regionalization and internationalization of public health by focusing on the 1947 cholera epidemic in Egypt. We argue, first, that for the Egyptian medical profession, the epidemic served as an opportunity for both anti-colonial critique and soul-searching and self-criticism: it attested to the poor medical condition of the Egyptian countryside and the work required to ameliorate it. Second, we place the Egyptian epidemic in its regional context. We show how travel restrictions affected the mobility of people and merchandise between Egypt and its neighbours, as newly formed borders were solidified, crossed or transgressed. At the same time, the epidemic served as an opportunity for Arab solidarity. Finally, the since epidemic erupted during the short term of the WHO’s Interim Commission, Egypt served as the WHO’s first testing ground, helping to prove its capability to mobilize medical assistance, disseminate medical alerts and negotiate the abolition of quarantine restrictions. The epidemic, moreover, erupted against the background of renegotiation of international sanitary conventions, which historically placed cholera and the Muslim pilgrimage to the Hejaz at their centre. The source of the epidemic in a British military base and Egypt’s ability to contain the epidemic resonated with on-going debates over international travel restriction, international health policies and local sovereignty. The 1947 cholera epidemic was thus, a defining moment in the emerging relationship between international organizations and the decolonizing world.     

Lost Horizons: Rereading and Reclaiming Victorian Women Writers

"The girls of today cannot see themselves in Miss Yonge and that is their chief demand from literature" -Edith Sichel, Monthly Review, May 1901 The depths to which the reputation of popular conservative Victorian novelist, Charlotte Yonge, had sunk by the end of the nineteenth century are reflected in Oscar Wilde's reaction to being told a condemned man was reading one of Yonge's novels: "My heart was turned by the eyes of the doomed man, but if he reads The Heir of Redclyffe it's perhaps as well to let the law take its course" (Ellman 202).     

The Role of Mothers’ and Adolescents’ Perceptions of Ethnic-racial Socialization in Shaping Ethnic-racial Identity Among Early Adolescent Boys and Girls

The current study examined relationships between adolescents’ and mothers’ reports of ethnic-racial socialization and adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity. The sample included 170 sixth graders (49% boys, 51% girls) and their mothers, all of whom identified as Black, Puerto Rican, Dominican, or Chinese. Two dimensions of ethnic-racial socialization (cultural socialization and preparation for bias) were evaluated alongside three dimensions of ethnic-racial identity (exploration, affirmation and belonging, and behavioral engagement). Mothers’ reports of their cultural socialization predicted adolescents’ reports, but only adolescents’ reports predicted adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity processes. Mothers’ reports of preparation for bias predicted boys’ but not girls’ reports of preparation for bias. Again, only adolescents’ reports of preparation for bias predicted their ethnic-racial identity. Thus, several gender differences in relationships emerged, with mothers’ and adolescents’ perceptions of cultural socialization, in particular, playing a more important role in girls’ than in boys’ identity processes. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research.