Heir pollution: A note on Buchanan's ‘laws of succession’ and tullock's ‘blind spot’

But man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and shew them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. (Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, p. 26.)     

A Tale of Two Cultures: Contrasting Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Gary Goertz Department of Political Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 e-mail: ggoertz{at}u.arizona.edu The quantitative and qualitative research traditions can bethought of as distinct cultures marked by different values,beliefs, and norms. In this essay, we adopt this metaphor towardthe end of contrasting these research traditions across 10 areas:(1) approaches to explanation, (2) conceptions of causation,(3) multivariate explanations, (4) equifinality, (5) scope andcausal generalization, (6) case selection, (7) weighting observations,(8) substantively important cases, (9) lack of fit, and (10)concepts and measurement. We suggest that an appreciation ofthe alternative assumptions and goals of the traditions canhelp scholars avoid misunderstandings and contribute to moreproductive "cross-cultural" communication in political science.     

Jefferson and Executive Power: Revisionism and the "Revolution of 1800"

Thomas Jefferson's varied and divergent statements concerningthe nature and extent of executive power seem to defy interpretation.Evidence can be gathered to support the proposition that Jeffersonwas a determined foe of Hamilton's conception of the chief executiveor that he was an active partisan of that view. The argumentof this article is that as opportunities arose, Jefferson setout to revise the public understanding of the formal powersof the president and, in so doing, moved away from his earlierposition on the extent of those powers. Jefferson's purposewas to check what he perceived to be the dangerous "monarchic"designs of the Federalists and, in turn, reinvigorate the republicanspirit of the regime. At the same time, Jefferson did not discardhis appreciation for the necessity of resorting at times toan enlarged executive authority. How Jefferson set about tobalance these elements in his revised conception of the presidencyraises in a direct fashion key questions about the role of executivepower in a popular government dedicated to the rule of law.     

A cross‐cultural comparison of the self‐concepts of imprisoned young offenders by country,race, and parental status

The Tennessee Self‐Concept Scale (TSCS) was administered to 193 imprisoned male youthful offenders in a southern U.S. state and to 161 male young offenders in one of Her Majesty's young offender institutions in England. The purpose of the study was to determine if the self‐concept scores of the subjects differed significantly according to the subject's ethnicity (Country), whether the youth resided with one or both parents or separate from either parent (Parental Status Residence) at the time of imprisonment, and Race. Analyses reveal the Total Self Concept scores of the U.S. and English offenders, as well as the sub‐scale scores, which together make up the Total Self Concept score, are significantly lower than for normal subjects. The U.S. offenders’ scores were more abnormal than the English offenders, often falling below the lowest normal range score, in some instances so low as to suggest serious psychopathological conditions. Discriminant function (DF) analysis was used to analyze the effects of the 12 self‐concept measures in distinguishing subjects by Country, Race, and Parental Status. Analyses correctly classified group membership more than two thirds of the time for each of the three variables and produced moderate to strong correlation coefficient values for various sub‐scales on each of the three variables. Black subjects in both cultures were found to score significantly lower than their White counterparts, a finding that contradicts numerous earlier studies. Findings also question the labeling theory proposition that the stigma of delinquency and subsequent imprisonment with other delinquents exacerbates one's negative regard of self. And perhaps more important, the findings suggest that cultural influences in both countries, rather than the effects of the stigma of the delinquent label and imprisonment, operate to cause low‐self‐concept long before one becomes involved in the justice system. Findings also reveal that delinquent youths from intact families have significantly higher self‐concepts than those from fragmented families.     

Ferrets in the Caribbean: Britain,Grenada and the Curious Case of the Armoured Cars

Abstract

When the Marxist-Leninist New Jewel Movement seized power in Grenada in March 1979 they set about securing and defending their ‘revolution’ against the threat of a countercoup organised by the deposed Prime Minister Eric Gairy. Military aid was quick to arrive from expected allies, namely Cuba and Guyana. Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop also requested arms from Britain and the United States. The People’s Revolutionary Government’s (PRG’s) ties to Cuba and evasiveness over election plans ruled out the US providing any support. Britain remained more open-minded about the PRG’s intentions. Using recently declassified British government documents, this article will examine London’s deliberations over supplying armoured cars to Grenada. It argues that Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials focused on the bigger picture of steering the PRG away from Cuba at the cost of considering how the sale of the armoured cars to the PRG would appear to a wider audience and that the PRG’s increasingly authoritarian behaviour ultimately vetoed the sale.