Political crises,strategic choices,and terrorism: The rise and fall of the Uruguayan Tupamaros

In this article we offer a first attempt at providing a set of universal grading criteria for determining on what basis, and how far, an item of discursive content can be considered “terroristic.” In doing so, we draw loosely on the existing COPINE scale for child abuse images. The scale described in the article is not intended to reflect actual risk of engagement in terrorist violence, nor is it intended to have evidential validity in relation to offenses in certain jurisdictions relating to “terrorist publications.” Rather, by formalising assumptions which seem already to be latent in the literature on terrorist use of the Internet, it aspires to serve as a starting point for a more methodologically coherent approach to relationships between content—particularly online content—and terrorism.     

Intellectual Quotient of Juveniles Evaluated in a Forensic Psychiatry Clinic After Committing a Violent Crime*

Abstract: The purpose of this preliminary study is to evaluate if there is a difference between the intelligence quotient (IQ) of 27 adolescent defendants referred to the Bellevue Hospital Center Forensic Psychiatry Clinic after committing violent crimes, and those adolescents in the same age group in the general population of the United States, as defined by the norms of the psychometric testing instrument Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, 4th edition (WISC‐IV). The IQ scores and sub‐scores were compared to IQ scores of the general population (mean = 100, SD = 15) using a Z‐test. The mean for the Full Scale IQ was 82.93. The means for the subtests which include Processing Speed Index, Perceptual Reasoning Index, Verbal Comprehension Index, and Working Memory Index, were: 78.48, 87.78, 86.70 (p < 0.05), and 90.78 (p = 0.09) respectively. There is a statistically significant difference in the IQ scores of the violent juveniles studied when compared to the general population.     

Divided we vote

Divided government is known to correlate with limited government, but less is understood about the empirical conditions that lead to divided government. This paper estimates the determinants of continuous and categorical measures of divided government in an empirical macro political economy model using 30 years of data from the American states. Voters support more divided government after increased government spending per dollar of tax revenues, but more unified government after worsening incomes and unemployment rates. Only conditional support is found for the strategic-moderating theory (Alesina and Rosenthal in Econometrica 64(6):1311–1341, 1996) that focuses purely on midterm cycles and split-ticket voting absent economic conditions.     

A covariance structure model for the analysis of spatial differences in Mexican mortality

"This article examines some of the possible determinants of spatial mortality differentials in Mexico, on the basis of [a] path analytical model with latent variables." (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

Book reviews

This paper analyzes recent free trade arrangements from a positive political economy perspective. In contrast to most other literature which fails to take into account geographical factors it is argued here that proximity and transportation costs play an important role in trade arrangements. Another important also largely neglected factor is the degree of social cohesion in terms of labor standards among potential trading partners. A political support maximizing government will consider these factors when balancing political support from free traders and protectionists.     

An Evolutionary Approach to Political Leadership

We combine evolutionary and neurobiological models to provide a theoretically rigorous framework for understanding the origin of political leadership in democratic structures and how such qualities interact with institutional incentives and constraints. Evolutionary, behavioral-genetic, neuropsychological, and physiological studies have identified biological systems related to particular types of leadership behaviors as well as the emergence of leadership itself. These biological systems emerge during specific life stages and interact with a person's life history, influencing the environments one selects into and the perception of those experiences and subsequent reactions to them; these circumstances reinforce, suppress, and inspire various leadership characteristics. Our framework provides insight into the foundational basis of leadership qualities and explains why and how we observe variation in such traits. The evolutionary functions of leadership, including approaches to collective action problems, leader–follower dynamics, institutional and organizational environments, and leader attributes are discussed, and in so doing, we propose several novel questions that can be addressed from this perspective, which suggest new and fruitful lines of research in leadership studies.