The influence of local and national economic conditions on French legislative elections

This article's aim consists in building and estimating a model which explains and forecasts the outcomes of the French legislative elections by department. This model, which constitutes the first attempt for such a geographical level, emphasises the role of the economic and political factors in the explanation of the legislative vote. The model seems to be very accurate in forecasting the elections of the past at the local and national level. Furthermore, its behaviour for the 2002 election was very satisfactory. This model is therefore a reliable alternative to the vote intention polls as an electoral forecasting instrument.     

Book reviews

This paper analyzes recent free trade arrangements from a positive political economy perspective. In contrast to most other literature which fails to take into account geographical factors it is argued here that proximity and transportation costs play an important role in trade arrangements. Another important also largely neglected factor is the degree of social cohesion in terms of labor standards among potential trading partners. A political support maximizing government will consider these factors when balancing political support from free traders and protectionists.     

School-based health services for urban adolescents: Psychosocial characteristics of clinic users vs nonusers

Evaluated psychosocial differences between adolescent users and nonusers of an urban school-based health clinic, considering the influence of gender. As expected, a number of gender differences were found (e.g., girls reported more fear, were rated as more likeable by peers than boys). Examination of differences based purely on clinic use indicated that nonusers were rated as more socially withdrawn by their peers than clinic users; otherwise, these two groups did not differ on psychosocial measures. Gender by clinic-status interaction effects were found for academic measures (e.g., nonusing boys had more absences and lower grades than boys who used the clinic). A group of intensive clinic users (n=14) reported higher levels of emotional distress than other students, and surprisingly, most of these students were not receiving mental health services.Received Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1991. Research interests include evaluation of school mental health services, empirical development of interventions for children, and the impact of violence on urban youth.Received B.A. from Loyola College. Interested in applied work with adolescents and adults.Received B.A. from Cornell University. Interests include stress and coping in children, identification of resilience factors, and evaluation of child mental health systems of care.Received Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma in 1967. Research interests in psychophysiology, sleep disorders, and biofeedback and instrumentation.Received M.D. from Duke University in 1968. Research interests include training in child and adolescent psychiatry, adolescent psychopathology, and the development of school mental health programs.     

Intergovernmental Complexity in Nuclear Waste Disposal Policy: The Indeterminate Role of Local Government

Local governments play a critical, albeit often overlooked, role in nuclear waste disposal policymaking. The centrality of local governments in the policymaking process rests on the simple fact that impacts will be borne disproportionately by local jurisdictions hosting and immediately adjacent to waste disposal sites. This article focuses on the capacity of local jurisdictions in Southern and rural Nevada to absorb and support an undertaking as large and technically complex as the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository. The article also examines the perceptions of local government officials concerning a number of management and policy issues related to the construction and operation of the proposed waste repository.     

Introduction: The changing life space of early adolescence

The socialization of children and adolescents is shaped by how they spend their time. This special issue maps the daily experience of white American 5th–9th graders, describing both the quantities of time they spend in different contexts and the affective states associated with these contexts. Each paper examines a separate segment of daily activity (e.g., schoolwork, talking, sports), employing data from a common study in which 401 participants provided experience sampling reports at random times during their daily lives when cued by a pager. The findings show substantial age and sex differences, indicating significant changes in the daily life space of girls and boys between preadolescence and early adolescence. Implication for socialization to healthy adult adjustment in love, work, and play are discussed in each paper.Received Ph.D. from Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago, Research focuses on daily experience associated with health and psychopathology in adolescence and across the life span.Received Ph.D. from Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago. Current research interests: pubertal development, precursors of eating disorders, and the effects of maternal employment on young adolescents.     

Changing channels: Early adolescent media choices and shifting investments in family and friends

The decline in TV viewing and increase in music listening associated with the onset of adolescence is examined in terms of the changing social ecology of adolescents' daily lives. Fifth to 9th graders provided self-reports on random moments in their experience over one week. These data suggest that less frequent TV watching by adolescents, as compared to preadolescents, is attributable to a decrease in TV watching done with the family, particularly on weekend mornings and evenings. Adolescents who do watch more TV are those who spend more time with the family overall. In contrast, adolescents who frequently listen to music are those who spend more time with friends. It is argued that the partial shift from television to music during adolescence represents a shift from a medium that reinforces parental values to one that reinforces peer values and speaks to adolescent developmental tasks.This research was carried out at Michael Reese Hospital with a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (No. MH38324).Received Ph.D. from the Committee on Human Development at the University of Chicago. Research focuses on daily experience across the life span.Received his doctorate from the Committee on Human Development at the University of Chicago. Research focuses on how and why mass media industries shape media content as they do, and how, in turn, mass media content is used and experienced in everyday life.Research interests are in the areas of depression and the processes of death and dying. Currently developing a method of investigation utilizing the hermeneutic and human sciences paradigm.