Mapping the Genome of American Political Subcultures: A Proposed Methodology and Pilot Study

The landmark work of Daniel Elazar spawned a generation of researchsuggesting that regional subcultures produce consequences forpolitical behavior, governance, and representation across theUnited States. However, little attention has been paid to directlymeasuring the degree to which citizens living in particularcommunities actually share particular value orientations thatdiffer markedly from those of citizens living in other communitiesand whether such differences are consistent with Elazar's theory.This article proposes a research program devoted to these questions,offers a methodology designed to address them, and describesa pilot study to that effect. Although Elazar's framework standsup to empirical scrutiny in some important respects, a thoroughreexamination is in order.     

The relocation of released mental hospital patients into residential communities

The mental health patient release programs have been proceeding more rapidly than informed judgment could possibly warrant. Public sector mental health care, whether centralized in state hospitals or deconcentrated within residential communities, falls considerably below the standards and practices of private sector care. The accelerated release of former patients has strained the potential for therapeutic community placement. The massive reassignment of patients has been prompted by the goals of: providing for the civic and therapeutic rights of patients; providing knowledgeable and effective treatment; implementing cost savings; and integrating in-patients within a more aware and accepting inclusive society. The structural elements of the assignment process can be examined within the context of a reassignment model in order to identify the informational and program needs for a reasonable release and aftercare process. The present reliance upon salvage of the poorly conceived release programs through ghettoization of ex-patients can only be justified as a mechanism for forcing a wide range of communities to accept long overdue responsibility for their disabled members.Professor of Geography and Urban Planning, Princeton University. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the NIMH (METRO Division) for research support to the Regional Science Research Institute (Philadelphia, Pa.), to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences for fellowship support during the period this study was undertaken, and to Maurice Rappaport (Agnews State Hospital, Calif.), Harold Baker (Aftercare Services Division, Calif. Dept. of Health), Anthony Mumphrey, Daniel Garr (San Jose State University) and Montye Rivera (Home Care News, San Jose, Calif.) for their assistance in the conduct of this research.     

The Canada Health Act and the cabinet decision-making system of Pierre Elliott Trudeau

Abstract: The cabinet decision-making system of the last Trudeau government was the object of much criticism. The system purportedly frustrated individual ministers, relied excessively on central agencies, and made policy-making difficult. Based on a study of the manner in which the federal government dealt with the issue of direct patient charges, this article argues that the failings of the Trudeau decision-making system were exaggerated. Instead of being seen as a flawed attempt to structure how Ottawa decides, the Trudeau system of 1980–84 should be viewed as an important contribution towards the development of an effective cabinet decision-making process. Sommaire: Le système de prise de décisions en vigueur dans le dernier gouvernement Trudeau a fait l'objet de nombreuses critiques. Le systètme était vraiment frustrant pour les ministres, s'appuyait beaucoup trop sur les organismes centraux et rendait toute décision politique difficile. En s'appuyant sur une étude portant sur la facon dont le gouvernement fédéral a abordé la question des frais directs aux patients, cet article montre que les faiblesses du système de prise de décisions sous le gouvernement Trudeau n'étaient pas aussi graves qu'on l'a dit. Plutôt que d'y voir une tentative infructueuse d'encadrer les méthodes décisionnelles d'Ottawa, on devrait considérer que le système en vigueur de 1980 à 1984 a largement contribuéà mettre sur pied un processus de prise de décisions efficace au sein du Cabinet.     

Book reviews

ACHIN VANAIK, The Furies of Indian Communalism: Religion, Modernity and Secularization (Verso, London, 1997), 374 pp., ISBN 1–85984–016–7

EDWARD REISS, Marx: a Clear Guide (Pluto Press, London & Chicago, 1997), 180 pp., ISBN 0–7453–1014–1 (pb)

ERNST FISCHER, HOW to Read Karl Marx (Monthly Review Press, New York, 1997), 192 pp., ISBN 0–85345–974–6 (pb)

CAROLINE KENNEDY‐PIPE, The Origins of the Present Troubles in Northern Ireland (Longman, Harlow, 1997), 204 pp., ISBN 0–582–1073–9

DUNCAN WATTS, Political Communication Today (Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 1997), 228 pp., ISBN 0–7190–4792–7 (hb), 0–7190–4793–5 (pb)

JACK HAYWARD (ed), Elitism, Populism and European Politics (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996), 257 pp., ISBN 0–19–828035–1

JOHN GRAY and DAVID WILLETTS, IS Conservatism Dead? (Profile Books, London, 1997), x + 186 pp., ISBN 1–86197–042–0     

Northern Ireland's Abortion Law: The Morality of Silence and the Censure of Agency

This article explores the context within which abortion law and discourse in Northern Ireland must be situated and understood, relying in part on post-modern insights into the wider and long-term implications of feminists engaging law and by examining the strategies employed in Northern Ireland around the issue of abortion. In 2001,the Family Planning Association (Northern Ireland) took legal action to force the devolved government to defend at a procedural level the unequal and uncertain form of common law abortion regulation for Northern Ireland. The authors examine the strategy of this review as well as the response of the High Court, suggesting that while it may begin to challenge the legitimacy of abortion law, feminists and pro-choice advocates must prepare for challenges beyond that, the greatest being the cultural challenge. The courts, legislators and other public and political institutions(including the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition) consistently explain the law's lack of provision for women with reference to the `pro-life' majority views of Northern Irish people. The authors question the legitimacy of this claim in a cultural climate of intimidation against the expression of alternative views. Women will continue to be marginalised and devalued in this debate if the silencing of the pro-choice community and bodies responsible for protecting human rights is not redressed. A case is therefore made for a reconceptualisation of the abortion debate from the perspective of women's agency, which, alongside litigation and other strategies, is necessary to overcome the cultural censure that currently prevents meaningful dialogue. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Influences shaping members' decision making: Congressional voting on the Persian Gulf War

In this paper I examine what influences members viewed as shaping their voting decisions on U.S. strategy in the Persian Gulf in January 1991. Rather than focusing on predictors of votes and the outcomes of members' decision-making processes (the yea or nay votes as in roll-call analyses), I focus on the predominant considerations that members perceived as swaying voting choices. More specifically, drawing on data gathered from interviews with 365 congressional staff people, I show that three influences in particular stand out as significant in the decision-making process on this crisis policy: members' own policy views, supportive constituents, and (for certain groups of members) the president. Thus, while the analysis confirms, in part, the conventional view of legislators' personal policy assessments as the critical influence on foreign and defense policy votes, it also underscores that this influence does not operate in a vacuum.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1993 meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association.     

Military Socialization: A Motivating Factor for Seeking Treatment in a Veterans’ Treatment Court

The veterans’ treatment court movement is just beyond the nascent period, and given the rapid proliferation of these courts in recent years it is imperative that the scientific community understand their operational procedures and assess whether they are meeting a unique need beyond those addressed by other problem-solving courts. This paper provides an in-depth examination of veteran culture and how it helps to distinguish veterans’ treatment courts from other courts that focus on similar populations (e.g., drug, DWI, and mental health courts). Using in-depth semi-structured interviews and focus group data collected from veteran participants, veteran mentors, and court team members in Pennsylvania, we employ content analysis to explore the veteran culture as a motivator for participants to enroll in a veterans’ treatment court and engage with others throughout participation in treatment. The results of this exploratory study suggest that a shared culture serves to motivate justice-involved veterans to seek out the veterans’ treatment court over other treatment options and remain engaged in this problem-solving court, while inspiring a sense of obligation to do well in treatment for them and their fellow veterans. The shared experiences of military service and across-the-board support for fellow service members suggest that the veterans’ treatment court creates a unique environment for pursuing treatment.     

The impact of race and extra-legal factors in charging defendants with serious sexual assault: Findings from a five-year study of one Pennsylvania court jurisdiction

Research on sexual assault case processing remains mixed regarding how extra-legal factors such as the racial-ethnic composition of the defendant-victim dyad may impact prosecutorial decision-making. We use data from 2006–2010 in a Pennsylvania county court jurisdiction to examine the victim- and defendant-related factors that influence charging decisions. We also explore how the demographic and offense characteristics influence decisions to prosecute offenders for more serious types of sexual assault. Our findings indicate that the racial composition of the defendant-victim dyad contributed to the prosecutorial decision to charge an offender with a more serious sexual assault, while victim characteristics and use of violence during the offense were not related to seriousness of the charge.     

Wench Tactics? Openings in Conditions of Closure

Picking up the question of what FLaK might be, this editorial considers the relationship between openness and closure in feminist legal studies. How do we draw on feminist struggles for openness in common resources, from security to knowledge, as we inhabit a compromised space in commercial publishing? We think about this first in relation to the content of this issue: on image-based abuse continuums, asylum struggles, trials of protestors, customary justice, and not-so-timely reparations. Our thoughts take us through the different ways that openness and closure work in struggles against violence, cruel welcomes, and re-arrangements of code and custom. Secondly, we share some reflections on methodological openness and closure as the roundtable conversation on asylum, and the interview with Riles, remind us of #FLaK2016 and its method of scattering sources as we think about how best to mix knowledges. Thirdly, prompted by the FLaK kitchen table conversations on openness, publishing and ‘getting the word out’, we respond to Kember’s call to ‘open up open access’. We explain the different current arrangements for opening up FLS content and how green open access, the sharedit initiative, author request and publisher discretion present alternatives to gold open access. Finally drawing on Franklin and Spade, we show how there are a range of ‘wench tactics’—adapting gifts, stalling and resting—which we deploy as academic editors who are trying to have an impact on the access, use and circulation of our journal, even though we do not own the journal we edit. These wench tactics are alternatives to the more obvious or reported tactic of resignation, or withdrawing academic labour from editing and reviewing altogether. They help us think about brewing editorial time, what ambivalence over our 25th birthday might mean, and how to inhabit painful places. In this, we respond in our own impure, compromised way to da Silva’s call not to forget the native and slave as we do FLaK, and repurpose shrapnel, in our common commitments.