The consequences of deregulation: A comparison of the experiences of UK building societies with those of US Savings and Loan Associations

It has been estimated that deregulation of US S&Ls will cost the US taxpayer ￡500bn in terms of the compensation paid out for the resulting scandals and failures. In contrast, the deregulation of UK building societies, although initially followed by a series of scandals and losses of ￡1bn., eventually resulted in substantially increased profitability. The social effects in the UK have been quite different to those in the US. As a result of the increased importance placed on profitability as opposed to mutuality, many homeowners have had their properties repossessed, and investors been mis-soId unsuitable investments. However, UK building societies, by a mixture of good luck and judgement, have avoided the principal regulatory pitfalls, which beset the S&Ls in terms of bankruptcies and fraud. This paper seeks to explain these different post-deregulation experiences. It extends to the UK the looting model of Akerlof and Romer (1993) and the managerial diversion model of Nichols (1972) which went so far to explain and anticipate, respectively, the US experience. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Self-attitudes and deviant behavior: The case of the charismatic religious movement

Hypotheses are tested concerning the relationship between level of and changes in self-attitudes on the one hand and the adoption of membership in the charismatic religious movement on the other hand. The hypotheses are derived from a general theory of deviant behavior. Subjects (generally aged 13–25) were 65 members of a local charismatic religious group and a comparison group of 47 members of three, more traditional urban Protestant churches. Self-attitudes were measured by a self-derogation scale responded to with reference to two points in time: the present and 6 months to 1 year prior to the test administration. The three hypotheses were supported. (1) The charismatic subjects, relative to the comparison subjects, displayed significantly higher levels of self-derogation at the time of adopting membership in the charismatic group. (2) Individuals who adopted membership in the charismatic cults, relative to the comparison group, displayed a significantly greater tendency to decrease the level of self-derogation between the earlier point in time and the point in time when the subjects were interviewed. (3) Significantly greater decrease in self-derogation on the part of the charismatic cult subjects resulted in comparable levels of selfderogation for the charismatic and comparison groups at the time of the interview.Received M.D. from the University of Ottawa in 1960, did his fellowship in psychiatry in Mayo Clinic, 1968–1970, and is a fellow of the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry (1973). Major interest is religion and psychiatry.Received Ph.D. in sociology from New York University in 1958. Current research interests are social psychiatry and, more specifically, the reciprocal relationship berween self-attitudes and the adoption of deviant response patterns.     

Ambassadors in the community? Labour Party members in society

A political party's members are its ambassadors in the wider community. Based on a survey of Labour party members in Nuneaton, this article investigates the extent to which party members qua party members are visible amongst their friends and colleagues. It finds that there are few closet Labour party members. Most are known to friends and (slightly less commonly) colleagues. Party members also articulate a political message, discussing politics with friends and work colleagues. Around half of party members believe that they influence others as a result of their discussions; of those who are asked their opinions by friends, almost three-quarters believe that they influence others. Labour party members in Nuneaton are thus a visible and articulate manifestation of the party. The article ends by considering whether this is likely to be true in other constituencies, for other parties, and at other times.     

The European parliament and environmental legislation: The case of chemicals

The paper studies the impact of the EP on legislation on chemical pollutants introduced under the Cooperation procedure. A series of formal and informal analyses have predicted from significant impact of the EP, to limited impact (only in the second round) to no impact at all. Through the analysis of Parliamentary debates as well as Commission and Parliamentary committee documents, we are able to assess the significance of different amendments, as well as the degree to which they were introduced in the final decision of the Council. Our analysis indicates first that less than 30% of EP amendments are insignificant, while 15% are important or very important; second, that the probability of acceptance of an amendment is the same regardless of its significance. Further analysis indicates two sources of bias of aggregate EP statistics: several amendments are complementary (deal with the same issue in different places of the legal document), and a series of amendments that are rejected as inadmissible (because they violate the legal basis of the document or the germainess requirement) are included in subsequent pieces of legislation. We calculate the effect of these biases in our sample, and find that official statistics under estimate Parliamentary influence by more than 6 percentage points (49% instead of 56% in our sample). Finally, we compare a series of observed strategic behaviors of different actors (rapporteurs, committees, floor, Commission) to different expectations generated by the literature.     

Death fantasies of father-absent and father-present late adolescents

Parental perceptions of father-absent and father-present late adolescents were studied by having them create stories to selected pictures from the Thematic Apperception Test and the Michigan Pictures Test. Ratings on the manifest thematic content of the stories revealed that father-present females, but not males, introduced themes of death and loss involving the parents with significantly greater frequency than did late adolescents who had actually lost their fathers. One of the tasks of adolescence, as described in psychoanalytic writings, is decathecting internalized parental images. It is possible that father-present females produced significantly more death and loss themes because they were actively coping with their fantasies of parental loss. The significantly fewer fantasies of parental loss given by father-absent females is consistent with this psychoanalytic model which suggests that the loss of a parent at an earlier developmental period complicates the decathexis process in adolescence. Reasons for the failure to find differences between father-absent and father-present males are discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided.This research is based upon the doctoral dissertation of the first author.Received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Texas at Austin; internship at the Children's Hospital Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts. Current research interests include death and dying and adolescent personality development.Received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Current research interests include imaginary companions and fantasy in young children and adolescent psychosexual development.