DOES MANDATORY DIVORCE EDUCATION FOR PARENTS WORK?

In a court-mandated, child-focused class for divorcing parents, parental mastery of skills taught were evaluated both immediately after the class and 6 months later. Parents perceived the classes to be realistic and useful. Skills were effectively learned and were maintained over the evaluation period. Parents reported that they were successful in dramatically lowering exposure of their children to parental conflict. Relative to a comparison group of parents divorcing the year before the classes were initiated, parents completing the class were better able to work through how they would handle difficult child-related situations with their ex-spouses and were willing to let their children spend more time with the other parent. Few gender differences were observed—mothers perceived the class as more realistic; fathers showed greater improvement on some skills. Similarly, interest level in further training was not predictive of class benefits, suggesting that enthusiasm for parenting training is probably not essential.     

Is approval voting an ‘unmitigated evil’?: A response to Brams,Fishburn, and Merrill

Brams, Fishburn, and Merrill (1988) contend that the indeterminacy of approval voting (AV), introduced in our paper (1988), is not a vice, but a surpassing virtue of AV. They do not compare the negative versus the positive features of AV, so their assertion remains a conjecture. Our response emphasizes the need to determine the costs of AV and to evaluate them against any merits. Moreover, by correcting and answering BFM's comments, the argument against AV becomes much stronger. This is because we show that AV's region of indeterminacy is quite large; it includes most profiles. Some of the consequences of this instability are that the AV outcome can negate the voter's true wishes, that the AV outcome can be volatile even to minor fluctuations of voter's decisions, and that AV is one of the most susceptible systems to manipulation by small groups of voters (for example, small, maverick groups could determine the AV outcome). Under specific circumstances, AV may be appropriate. To identify these situations we propose the more accurate name of the "Unsophisticated Voter System."     

The Commission on the Relations between Universities and Governments: summary report!

Abstract. The Report of the Commission on the Relations between Universities and Governments was published in June 1970, in both English and French. The Commission was created by the university community rather than by government, and its members were Professors René Hurtubise and Donald Rowat. In this article, Dr Rowat summarizes the Commission's main findings and recommendations, and comments on the rising cost of post-secondary education. The Report deals with the role of the university in society, the relations between universities and provincial governments, the role of the federal government in higher education and research, and problems of interprovincial coordination. So as to protect university independence in the face of growing provincial supervision, the Report recommends the creation of provincial university coordinating commissions, with members from government, the universities and the outside public. The Report also argues that the federal government's role in higher education should be more limited, and that its role in university research should be co-ordinated with that of the provinces. To promote interprovincial coordination, the Council of Ministers of Education should be strengthened and there should be created under its aegis an interprovincial commission on higher education. Rapidly rising costs will force us to face basic questions regarding how many should go to university, what kind of higher education is to be given, and how it should be organized. Sommaire. Le Rapport de la Commission sur les relations entre les universités et les gouvernements a été publié en juin 1970, à la fois en anglais et en français. La Commission avait été créée par le Communauté universitaire plutôt que par le gouvernement, et ses membres étaient les professeurs René Hurtubise et Donald Rowat. Dans cet article, le Dr Rowat resume les principales conclusions et recommandations de la Commission et fait le point sur le coût croissant de l'éducation post-secondaire. Le Rapport traite du rôle de l'université dans la société, des relations entre les universités et les gouvernements provinciaux, du rôle du gouvernement fédéral dans l'enseignement supérieur et la recherche, ainsi que des problémes de coordination interprovinciale. Afin de maintenir l'indépendance des universités face à une intervention provinciale toujours plus grande, le Rapport recommande la création de Commissions de coordination universitaires provinciales formées de membres du gouvernement, du corps universitaire et du public. Le Rapport soutient également que le rôle du gouvernement fédéral dans l'enseignement supérieur devrait être plus limité et que son rôle du point de vue de la recherche universitaire devrait être coordonné avec celui des provinces. Pour favoriser la coordination interprovinciale, il faudrait augmenter le pouvoir du Conseil des ministres de l'éducation et créer, sous son égide, une Commission interprovinciale de l'enseignement supérieur. La montée en flèche des frais nous obligera bientôt à considérer des questions fondamentales: le nombre de jeunes gens à admettre dans les universités, le genre d'éducation supérieure à fournir et la façon de l'organiser.     

Social indicators for health planning and policy analysis

The concept of health involves two dimensions: The level of function at a point in time and the probability of transition to other levels at future times. By applying measured social values to the distribution of the population among a set of levels, a Function Status Index aptly summarizes the Level-of-Well-Being of a population at a point in time. By incorporating empirically determined transition probabilities into a simple stochastic model, a Quality-Adjusted Life Expectancy can be computed that approximates a comprehensive social indicator for health. The indicators possess the statistical properties required for time series and interpopulation comparisons, for studying outcomes and quality of medical care, and for health system optimization in planning and policy analysis.     

Reviews

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa & Alex Pravda, eds, Perestroika: Soviet Domestic and Foreign Policies. London: Sage Publications, 1991, xxi+276 pp., £27.50 h/b, £11.95 p/b.

Ronald J. Hill & Jan Ake Dellenbrant, eds, Gorbachev and Perestroika: Towards a New Socialism? Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1989, 234 pp., £32.50

Uri Ra'anan & Igor Lukes, eds, Gorbachev's USSR: A System in Crisis, London: Macmillan, 1990, xxi+154 pp., £35.00.

Martin McCauley, ed., Gorbachev and Perestroika. London: Macmillan, 1990, xii+222 pp. £35.00 h/b, £14.99 p/b.

Pawel Dembinski, The Logic of the Planned Economy: The Seeds of Collapse. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991, xii+249 pp., £30.00.

Mildred Turnbull, Soviet Environmental Policy and Practice. Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing Company, 1991, xiv+215 pp., £35.00

Chandran Kukathas, David W. Lovell & William Maley, eds, The Transition from Socialism: State and Civil Society in the USSR. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1991, vii+227 pp., $24.99.

Vladimir Tismaneanu, In Search of Civil Society: Independent Peace Movements in the Soviet Bloc. London: Routledge, 1990, x+191 pp., £30.00.

John Feffer, Beyond Detente. New Options on East‐ West Relations. London: I. B. Tauris & Co., 1990, xviii+238 pp., £14.95

Robert Hall, Soviet Military Art in a Time of Change: Command and Control of the Future Battlefield. London: Brassey's (UK), 1991, xix+203 pp., £22.50, $40.50 h/b.

Alfred D. Low, Soviet Jewry and Soviet Policy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990, 249 pp., $37.50