ANGELS IN PLASTIC: THE LIBERAL SURGE IN 1974

Abstract. Before the Liberal surge in 1974, survey research stressed that the Liberal vote was electorally volatile, socially representative, and negative in character. Data from 1974 indicates that the volatility of the Liberal vote owes more to the absence of a large core of stable Liberal voters than to any difference among parties in their ability to retain the votes of recent converts. Moreover, the small core of regular Liberal voters is unusually middle-aged and middle-class, socially very different from the larger and socially representative body of occasional Liberal voters. In the eyes of the electorate, the Liberal Party continues to have a diffuse image, largely devoid of any specific policy content. The Party benefited from dissatisfaction with the state of the country, but there is no evidence that an image of classlessness contributed to its electoral success. Moreover, while most Liberal voters did so for some positive reason, many of their reasons had more to do with style than policy, and the personalities of party leaders appear to have had much to do with moving people to consider—if not actually vote for—the Liberal Party.     

PARENTS AND DRUGS REVISITED: SOME FURTHER EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY*

Social control and social learning theories suggest divergent relationships between attachment to parents and children's drug use when level of parent drug use is considered. Social control theory proposes a uniformly negative relationship between children's drug use and attachment to parents whereas social learning theory proposes that the relationship is affected by parental drug use. The relationship between attachment to parents and children's drug use was investigated for each of three groups of low, moderate, and high parental drug use through estimation of a latent variable structural model of attachment to family on children's tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use. Results indicate that attachment to parents related inversely, but with different magnitudes, to children's drug use for youths whose parents use drugs at low or moderate levels. No significant relationship exists between attachment to family and children's drug use for youths whose parents are relatively high-level users. Neither ethnicity nor sex affected these findings. The implications of these results supporting social learning theory are discussed.     

PROBLEMS AND STRATEGIES IN GAINING RESEARCH ACCESS IN POLICE ORGANIZATIONS

“Access” is conceived of as involving passage through two gates: one manned by the top-level authority figures of the organization, and the other by the proposed subjects of one's study. Within this framework, informal contacts, contingent acceptance at successive organizational levels, and self-selection are identified and discussed as the factors most central to an understanding of our successful access into three police organizations and our failures to gain access to two police organizations.     

PAYING FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT: CHARGING FOR SERVICES

The latest Green Paper on reform of local government finance was published in January 1986. It represents an attempt to achieve local accountability which the present system is regarded as having failed to achieve. Increased use of fees and charges is seen as 'an even more direct way of ensuring that local people can see what they are getting for what they are paying' and, at the same time, 'has benefits in terms of efficiency as well as accountability'. This article critically appraises just what is meant by 'realistic charging policies', 'efficient use of resources' and 'effective pricing policies'. Realistic pricing policies are then outlined based on radical improvements in the nature and quality of information available to local authorities. The danger of a blinkered approach to increased use of charging is stressed and factors to be considered when reviewing charging are discussed.     

PEOPLE OR PAPERWORK An Analysis of Influences upon Juvenile Court Personnel

Probation officers and other juvenile court staff complain that paperwork limits the time spent working directly with youth. The alleged effect of paperwork is compared with that of interpersonal influence resulting from time spent talking with youth about their problems. Multiple regression of data from a juvenile court staff indicated that the time spent on paperwork has no independent effect. This group's paperwork complaints are ideological. But interpersonal influences do have considerable impact.     

International Peacekeeping: The Disputants' View

International disputants often have reservations about inviting a peacekeeping body to help them contain or settle their conflict. Either or both sides might worry about certain international consequences of this course. Thus, one side might want to refrain from implying that an international issue really exists; both disputants might be concerned that a peacekeeping body could interfere with their freedom of action; and also that it could furnish critical reports about their behaviour. Then, too, there are certain adverse international possibilities which are special to potential host states. They might be conscious that having a peacekeeping body on their soil could give an impression of weakness or doubtful probity, and also of being less than fully sovereign. There are, additionally, certain domestic complications which might ensue for a host state. It could be concerned about the relations of the peacekeepers with its people, about the presence of such a group becoming a controversial political issue, and about the danger of a peacekeeping force ignoring the ground rules of peacekeeping and behaving in a manner which threatened the government's interests.     

THE IDEA BROKERS: THE IMPACT OF THINK TANKS ON BRITISH GOVERNMENT

Although there are few think tanks in Britain they have been credited with considerable influence on government policies since the late 1970s. This article charts their recent history, distinguishing between larger, 'establishment' bodies like the Policy Studies Institute and smaller, more politically partisan bodies such as the Centre for Policy Studies; generally the latter have enjoyed greater influence. It identifies the distinctive characteristics of these bodies–their ideological orientation, their concentration on élite opinion formers, their short to medium-term horizons, their emphasis on originality and publicity. Think tanks face tactical dilemmas when pressing their views on Britain's comparatively closed system of government, in particular their choice between insider and outsider forms of persuasion; the tension between proximity to ministers and intellectual autonomy; and their advantages to politicians as deniable sources that can float new ideas, which can be counter-balanced by politicians' fluctuating appetite for radical ideas. As a case study the article examines the relations enjoyed by the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Centre for Policy Studies with Mrs Thatcher's government, and particularly the evolution of a potent network of influence embracing ministers, special advisers and backbenchers. Finally it considers the dangers of an overemphasis on novelty at the expense of feasibility, and the danger of burnout in the smaller think tanks dangers mitigated by the continuous turnover that operates in the world of think tanks.