The Strange Budgetary Politics of Agricultural Research Earmarks

This article explores how members of the House and Senate Subcommittees on Agricultural Appropriations use the appropriations process to earmark special grants for agricultural research projects without forming a majority logroll. It also shows how subcommittee members coerce the USDA into administering individual earmarked research grants even though the precise allocation of these grants does not have the force of law. This article makes an important contribution because it analyzes an institutional development within the appropriations process that has not been explored in the existing literature, and it examines the consequences that this development has had on the quality of USDA‐funded agricultural research.     

Growing Strong in the Practice of ＂Going Global＂--An Interview with Ren Xiaojian,CEO of the Creat Group

REN Xiaojian, CEO and director of the board of the Creat Group, concluded after analyzing the challenges and opportunities for Chinese private enterprises in the global financial crisis, ＂The capital support represented by the RMB 4 trillion government stimulus package is basically a feast for large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises. The government＇s resource allocation policy is basically inclined towards state-owned enterprises, and the enterprises in monopolistic industries are basically all state-owned. In contrast, most private enterprises are engaged in highly competitive industries. Seen from this perspective, as the global financial crisis spreads from the virtual to real economy, the private economy has been most vulnerable to damage.＂     

The Revitalization of Islamic Penal Law: An Examination of Its Opponents

There is an increasing interest today in reestablishing Islamic Penal Law in most Middle East countries. The majority of the population apparently favors this change. There are, however, a minority opposed to such changes. This paper examines how those opposed to reinstituting Islamic Penal Law differ from others based on data gathered from 600 respondents in Kuwait. The findings indicate that those most opposed to such a change are the upper or upper middle class. They apparently are opposed not only to reestablishing Islamic Penal Law but also are less orthodox Muslems. They have had considerable more contact with the Western world but are a small but important minority in their society.     

NEIGHBORHOOD AND DELINQUENCY: AN ASSESSMENT OF CONTEXTUAL EFFECTS*

The sociological perspectives which helped formulate the study of delinquency and continue to underlie more specific conceptual frameworks—Social Disorganization, Subculture, and Labeling—point to the importance of contextual effects in the dynamics explaining delinquent and criminal behavior. Yet, systematic examination of such effects has been all but neglected. This paper delineates and empirically assesses neighborhood characteristics postulated to represent contextual factors affecting individual delinquency and criminality. Data were collected from a stratified random sample of adolescent males drawn from 12 New York City neighborhoods. The initial model, designed to refine hypotheses specifying community contextual effects, exhibits a highly satisfactory fit to the data. The framework underscores the importance of considering distinct community contextual effects as well as individual-level effects. Two neighborhood-level factors, the effects of which are quite distinct, are important: the community's level of organizational participation and the extent of disorder and criminal subculture. The indirect and direct effects of these factors are elaborated in relation to three measures of de1inquency—namely, self-reported, officially recorded, and severe self-reported delinquency.     

The President as Institution Builder: The Reagan Case

Every president bestows upon his successors a "legacy" that will have an impact on both policy issues and institutional operations. Although attention is commonly focused on the president's role as a policymaker, he serves as an institution builder, as well, leaving a legacy that is manifested in long-term developments, in technical details of managing the job, and in patterns of interaction with other actors in the political environment. Reagan's institutional legacy has been the subject of intense debate and is addressed here in relation to five vantage points as they were employed during his eight years in office: personnel, structure, standard operating procedures, modes of exercising influence, and norms. These dimensions are examined in relation to the presidency, the bureaucracy, Congress, and the judiciary.
Reagan's departures in the selection and management of executive and judicial branch personnel were the most distinctive features of his legacy. Important changes were also made in the regulatory review and budgetary processes. Politicization and centralization, two long-term developments in the presidential office, gained renewed vigor, and Reagan elaborated a judicial strategy for achieving policy goals while refining the administrative strategy pioneered earlier by Nixon. Serious damage may well have been done to the norms of public service and justice under the rule of law. The framework introduced here promises to help scholars deal more systematically with the institutional impacts of both past and future presidents.