Refining the Influence of Language on National Attachment: Exploring Linguistic Threat Perceptions in Quebec

Fears related to a group's culture can negatively impact national attachment. This article brings new insight into minority groups’ national attachment by empirically exploring the influence of language threat perceptions on it. Quebec is used as a case because of its longstanding tensions with Canada. The results of the analyses not only demonstrate that perceiving French as threatened positively influences Quebecers’ support for independence and negatively impacts their feelings towards Canada, but the findings also permit the conclusion that it is an individual's linguistic perceptions that directly determine their national attachment rather than simply their linguistic group membership.     

Collaborative Institutions in an Ecology of Games

This article seeks to improve our understanding of policy institutions and cooperation by adapting Long's (1958) analysis of the ecology of games to the context of collaborative land use and transportation planning in California. The traditional institutional rational choice analysis argues that collaborative institutions reduce the transaction costs of cooperation among multiple policy actors. The ecology of games framework extends IRC by emphasizing the consequences of multiple institutions and identifies several reasons why collaborative institutions may actually reduce the amount of cooperation in existing policy venues. Analyses of survey data from policy actors in five California regions demonstrate that higher levels of cooperation in collaborative institutions are associated with lower levels of cooperation in other land‐use and transportation planning institutions.     

Double balloon enteroscopy in children:Diagnosis,treatment,and safety

AIM:To assess the feasibility and utility of double balloon enteroscopy(DBE)in the management of small bowel diseases in children. METHODS:Fourteen patients(10 males)with a median age of 12.9 years(range 8.1-16.7)underwent DBE; 5 for Peutz-Jeghers syndrome(PJ syndrome),2 for chronic abdominal pain,4 for obscure gastrointestinal (GI)bleeding,2 with angiomatous malformations(1 blue rubber bleb nevus syndrome)having persistent GI bleeding,and 1 with Cowden‘s syndrome with multiple polyps and previous intussusc...     

Labeling and differential association: Towards a general social learning theory of crime and deviance

This study contends that components from two theories-labeling and differential association-should be incorporated into a general social learning perspective of crime and deviance. Data from waves one, two, and three of the National Youth Survey (n=1725) are used to test the proposed model. Results indicate that labeling effects are mediated by associations with delinquent peers when looking at a 24-item delinquency index. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Perspectives on the Liverpool crisis

Conclusion The discussion above remains only one example of a local government responding to the pressures of increasing scarcity in budgetary resources and in several senses increasing policy tasks. In Liverpool's case those increasing tasks have to a considerable extent been self inflicted, as a socialist council pursues policies that fly in the face of national government policy. While budgetary restraint and the response of Liverpool Council have not resulted in major reform, the restrictive nature of central government regulation has led to a major and national debate on the sovereignty of the local as against the national state. To some extent, in Liverpool at least, there has been a cultural reform in the past few years that has produced considerable public support for a series of socialist reactive policies. The style of policy making in the period is affected by an ideologically committed party that for better or worse has accepted a brand of democratic centralism as a vital mechanism to achieve extremely ambitious aims in deleterious circumstances. The success of this brand of politics and policies is unproven. But one thing is certain. Liverpool local politics will remain in the foreseeable future a hotbed of ideological zeal and resistance to central dictat, an ongoing thorn in the side of national monetarist policies and a continuing reminder that localgovernment in Britain still has some life left in it. Unfortunately, the role of the law in all this is capable of being seen as merely repressive, as Parliament passes statutes imposing increasing restrictions upon local authorities and councillors and the courts are called upon to implement them.Assisted by Robina S. Dexter, Current Developments Editor.     

Adolescent Female Athletes' Sexual Risk-Taking Behaviors

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 1993 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance (YRBS) of a sample of U.S. female adolescents (N = 7839) were compared to a cohort of 9th through 12th grade high performance female athletes (N = 141) with regard to risk-taking behavior on eight items related to sexual activity (i.e., ever engaged in sexual intercourse, age of first sexual intercourse, number of lifetime sexual partners, current sexual activity, condom use, use of the birth control pill, contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD), and incidence of alcohol or drug use prior to last sexual activity). Chi-square analyses (p < .05) showed that with the exception of alcohol or drug use prior to last sexual activity, and use of birth control pills, the six other risk-taking behaviors were significantly different between the U.S. female sample and the female athletes. In all instances, except for contracting an STD, U.S. females reported engaging in sexual risk-taking behaviors more frequently than the high performance athletes, and furthermore, were more likely to be sexually active than the high performance athletes (50% vs. 21%). Among the high performance athletes, only lifetime sexual activity showed significant difference by grade, with sophomores and seniors reporting more frequent involvement in sexual activity. These findings suggest that participation in a high performance sports activity is positively associated with some reduced sexual risk-taking behaviors for adolescent females.     

Insider-controlled Firms in Russia

Privatisation Vouchers in Russia were heavily invested in the holders' own firms. Using data from a recent survey, we show that insider control in firms privatised in 1992-4 through the voucher process (as distinct from the earlier leased buy-out method) is insecure and dependent on managers' support. For employees, investment in insider control appears to have been motivated by employment income insurance rather than expected excess returns on the equity. Managers are predominantly the same individuals as before privatisation and display considerable hostility to outside investors, probably because they fear dismissal should outsiders gain control. Despite insider control, firms are shedding labour quite rapidly through voluntary resignations. Employment dynamics appear to be unrelated to insider equity ownership.