Spatial and individual resistance(s) in depopulated and remote rural areas

The concept of resistance is multidimensional in political and rural geography. It is mainly used to classify communities’ strategies in response to the actions of extra-local public and private agents. In this approach, the community is usually studied homogeneously. However, some interpretations consider that resistance creates differentiation processes within the rural community. From this perspective, individual resistance strategies can be analysed, which join forces in times of community resistance. In depopulated regions, the purpose of resistance is to remain in a place. This paper studies several cases of resistance in small populations affected by depopulation in a region of Spain.     

ISFG: Recommendations on biostatistics in paternity testing

The Paternity Testing Commission (PTC) of the International Society for Forensic Genetics has taken up the task of establishing the biostatistical recommendations in accordance with the ISO 17025 standards and a previous set of ISFG recommendations specific to the genetic investigations in paternity cases. In the initial set, the PTC recommended that biostatistical evaluations of paternity are based on a likelihood ratio principle – yielding the paternity index, PI. Here, we have made five supplementary biostatistical recommendations. The first recommendation clarifies and defines basic concepts of genetic hypotheses and calculation concerns needed to produce valid PIs. The second and third recommendations address issues associated with population genetics (allele probabilities, Y-chromosome markers, mtDNA, and population substructuring) and special circumstances (deficiency/reconstruction and immigration cases), respectively. The fourth recommendation considers strategies regarding genetic evidence against paternity. The fifth recommendation covers necessary documentation, reporting details and assumptions underlying calculations. The PTC strongly suggests that these recommendations should be adopted by all laboratories involved in paternity testing as the basis for their biostatistical analysis.     

Devolution and the Social Welfare of Elderly Immigrants: Who Will Bear the Burden?

Growing ethnic diversity translates into rising numbers of individuals facing socioeconomic disadvantage, creating a context in which detailed examinations of public policy are critical for understanding the health care needs of immigrant populations in the United States. Although many scholars document the link between social disadvantage and increased morbidity and mortality, additional analyses are needed to identify specific public policies associated with decreased access to social goods and public services. The implications of the latest welfare bill, the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996, on the health and social welfare of the aging Hispanic population provides a unique opportunity for such inquiry. On the basis of demographic trends and recent analyses of data from the Hispanic Established Populations for Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly, the results suggest that older, Mexican–origin immigrants are likely to become an even greater administrative responsibility of state and local governments.     

Blood and ink! The common-interest-game between terrorists and the media

It has often been pointed out in the literature that a symbiotic relationship exists between terrorist groups and the media. As yet, however, no formal model has been built based on this issue and only very little empirical research has been done in this field. The present contribution builds a simple game theoretic model, focussing on the strategic interactions between terrorists and the media. The model has features of a common-interest-game and results in multiple equilibria. After a discussion of the policy implications of the model, an empirical analysis is performed. Using newspaper coverage, terror incidents and terror fatalities data, it is shown that media attention and terrorism do mutually Granger cause each other, as predicted by the model. Moreover, it is explained why terror attacks tend to be “bloodier” in developing countries than in Europe and the United States.     

Society for Latin American Studies 2004 Plenary Lecture The Return of Cuba to Latin America: The End of Cuban Exceptionalism?

Comparing Cuban history and contemporary circumstances to those in the rest of the region, this article challenges the idea of Cuban exceptionalism. The last four decades have seen Cuba move away from typical Latin American patterns such as economic and geographical inequalities. The Revolution has not been able, however, to reverse a historical dependence on external financing nor has it resolved racial inequities. While the Revolution did establish an unusually effective political apparatus, it did not use this opportunity to nurture democracy. As the social welfare advances of the revolution erode, Cuba resembles the rest of the continent ever more and reflects the central problems facing the region.     

A statistical study of the effect of the great depression on elections: The Weimar Republic, 1930–1933

The four Reichstag elections in Germany between 1930 and 1933 are the object of this study. A cross-section analysis of 13 regions and a time series analysis show no conclusive impact of unemployment on the vote share of the National Socialist Party. A pooled cross-section/time-series analysis simultaneously considering sociodemographic and economic factors shows, however, that the Nazi party significantly benefitted from higher unemployment. The farmers tended to support the NSDAP while the catholics tended to reject it. The same holds for the totalitarian parties as a whole, the principal one beside the Nazi being the German Communist Party. A Gedankenexperiment suggests that, if unemployment had not risen from 14% in July 1930 to 52% of employed workers in January 1933, the Nazi party would have received 24% instead of 44% of the vote in March 1933.     

With the fourth sentence of the First Chamber on wrongful birth: is it possible to start talking about "jurisprudence"?]

Chamber number 1 of the Spanish Supreme Court of Justice has announced its fourth wrongful birth case decision dated December 18, 2003. The issue is whether we can state that with these four rulings there is a genuine law of precedent, that is, reiterated doctrine of the Supreme Court of Justice on this matter (Article 1.6 of the Civil Code).