PARENTAL EFFICACY AND DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR: DO CONTROL AND SUPPORT MATTER?

Recently, the concept of "collective efficacy" has been advanced to understand how communities exert control and provide support to reduce crime. In a similar way, we use the concept of "parental efficacy" to highlight the crime reducing effects associated with parents who support and control their youth. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), we examine the inter-relationship between parental controls and supports and their joint influence on youthful misbehavior. The results show that (1) support and control are intertwined, and (2) that parental efficacy exerts substantive effects on adolescent delinquency for the sample as a whole and across varying age groups.     

AN EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK FOR STUDYING DESISTANCE AS A PROCESS*

Recent reviews of the desistance literature have advocated studying desistance as a process, yet current empirical methods continue to measure desistance as a discrete state. In this paper, we propose a framework for empirical research that recognizes desistance as a developmental process. This approach focuses on changes in the offending rate rather than on offending itself. We describe a statistical model to implement this approach and provide an empirical example. We conclude with several suggestions for future research endeavors that arise from our conceptualization of desistance.     

The Single‐Party Dictator's Dilemma: Information in Elections without Opposition

The literature on authoritarian institutions points to nationwide elections as a mechanism for learning about the preferences of citizens. In using elections in this way, however, authoritarians face a trade‐off between gathering reliable information and guaranteeing electoral victory. In this article, we explore how single‐party regimes manage this trade‐off and the particular types of information available to them. Using candidate‐level data from Vietnam, we demonstrate that single‐party regimes, in particular, forsake information on overall regime support and strength of opposition in favor of information on the popularity of local notables and the compliance of local officials with central mandates. In addition, we show that ex ante electioneering is less risky than ex post fraud at achieving these goals.     

Income changes do not influence political involvement in panel data from six countries

The income gradient in political participation is a widely accepted stylized fact. Based on nine panel datasets from six countries, this research note asks whether income changes trigger short-term effects on political involvement. Irrespective of indicator, specification, and method (hybrid random effects models, fixed effects models with lags and leads, and error correction models), there are few significant short-term effects of income changes. In conjunction with earlier research, this finding suggests that the income gradient in political participation is likely to reflect stable differences between rich and poor voters emerging early in the life course.     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF RELATIONAL CONTRACTING IN A TEMPORARY PUBLIC ORGANIZATION: INTENSIVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN AN ENGLISH LOCAL AUTHORITY AND PRIVATE CONTRACTORS

This article evaluates the factors that shaped the effectiveness of three strategic contracts pursued with private firms by a local authority in the English West Midlands. The contracts generated highly political outputs that supported the council’s defence of the core interests of local residents. The analysis explores the form taken by the contracts; the mechanisms that delivered and integrated them; and the wider structural factors that helped to secure apparently benign contractual outputs. The evaluative yardsticks used to support the analysis were: relationality; flexibility; and performativity. The article argues that relationality is crucial in determining quality in temporary, project‐based organizations. Relationality yields flexibility and effective performance, based on mutual regard and loyalty. The case study highlights the need to explore perceptual gaps between the parties; the importance of the time‐path of relationality; the significance of ‘value residuals’ in incentivizing substantive loyalty; and the potential contribution of zones of flexibility to performance.     

Music Education Advances Through Sino-Foreign Exchanges

MUSIC education in China and the West may differ in approach, but when combined are complementary in outcome.