The Correlates of Life Quality in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

This study analyzes the correlates of life quality differencesin 243 U.S. metropolitan areas. Using an overall index of lifequality developed by Ben-Chieh Liu, it tests the empirical utilityof three competing explanations—racial dualism, economicdevelopment, and political culture. The results show that allthree exert substantial effects on the quality of life regardlessof metropolitan size. Overall the best predictor of life qualitydifferences is the percentage of adults who have received atleast a high school education. In addition, cultural differencesexert significant effects on the quality of metropolitan lifeindependent of racial and developmental differences. These culturaleffects are interpreted within two theoretically seminal theories:Elazar's theory of political culture and Gastil's theory ofcultural regions.     

Local Government Failure in Australia? An Empirical Analysis of New South Wales

The complexities of contemporary local governance in Australia and other advanced democracies provide social scientists with significant theoretical and empirical challenges. Drawing on recent developments, including public choice theory, economists have sought to develop taxonomic systems of government failure specifically tailored to local government circumstances. This paper seeks to extend the Dollery and Wallis (2001b) taxonomy of local government failure by invoking Olson's (1965) concept of political entrepreneurship. The paper then attempts to determine the empirical validity of the augmented taxonomy by examining it in the context of NSW local government.     

Some observations on the link between learning disabilities and juvenile delinquency

In order to test the hypothesis that learning disabilities are related to juvenile delinquency, a sample of 1,005 public school and 687 adjudicated juvenile delinquent youths (ages 12 to 17) reported about delinquent behaviors in which they had engaged. The youths' educational records were screened, and, if the presence of learning disabilities could not be discounted, the children were given a series of tests. Every child was classified as either learning disabled or not. The results indicated that proportionately more adjudicated delinquent children than public school children were learning disabled. Self-report data, however, showed no differences in delinquent behaviors engaged in by learning-disabled and non-learning-disabled children, within either the adjudicated or public school samples. Public school children who have learning disabilities reported that they were picked up by the police at about the same rate as non-learning-disabled children, and engaged in about the same delinquent behaviors. Charges for which learning-disabled and non-learning-disabled adjudicated delinquents were convicted followed the same general patterns. In light of these findings, it was proposed that the greater proportion of learning-disabled youth among adjudicated juvenile delinquents may be accounted for by differences in the way such children are treated within the juvenile justice system, rather than by differences in their delinquent behaviors.     

The effects of judicial admonitions on hearsay evidence

Using a simulated civil case, this experiment investigated whether mock jurors: (a) are able to disregard hearsay evidence when admonished to do so, (b) experience psychological reactance and "backfire effects" in proportion to the strength of judicial admonition instructing them to disregard hearsay evidence, and (c) are able to recognize and disregard hearsay evidence without judicial instructions. Results indicate that jurors were unable to disregard inadmissible hearsay testimony in some legal decisions regardless of whether there were judicial instructions to do so. Jurors exhibited backfire effects paying more attention to inadmissible hearsay evidence when they were strongly instructed to disregard it. More specifically, juror backfire effects were evident in both their confidence in their liability verdicts and in their punitive damage awards. The legal and policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

When methods meet politics: how risk adjustment became part of Medicare managed care

Health-based risk adjustment has long been touted as key to the success of competitive models of health care. Because it decreases the incentive to enroll only healthy patients in insurance plans, risk adjustment was incorporated into Medicare policy via the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. However, full implementation of risk adjustment was delayed due to clashes with the managed care industry over payment policy, concerns over perverse incentives, and problems of data burden. We review the history of risk adjustment leading up to the Balanced Budget Act and examine the controversies surrounding attempts to stop or delay its implementation during the years that followed. The article provides lessons for the future of health-based risk adjustment and possible alternatives.     

Space Matters: Designing Better Electoral Systems for Emerging Democracies

Although the holding of founding and subsequent elections is essential for any transition from authoritarian to democratic rule, the comparative literature on electoral system design is limited on the experience of "Third Wave" democratizers. This is especially true with respect to the interactive effects between the choice of electoral system and the spatial, i.e., geographic, distribution of the vote—a critical factor that shapes electoral outcomes in all societies, but particularly in emerging democracies because many are plural and agrarian societies. Political elites in these countries have also rarely considered the impact of alternative electoral systems when selecting a system for their country. This article addresses these gaps in the literature and practice by presenting a computational model known as a spatial decision support system or SDSS that both explores these interactive effects and facilitates electoral design. The utility of the model is then demonstrated with data from Kenya and South Africa—two emerging democracies where issues posed by the spatial distribution of the vote have given rise to demands for redesigning or modifying the electoral system.