Paradoxes of Voting Power in Dutch Politics

In this paper we first evaluate thirteen seat distributions inthe Second Chamber of the Dutch parliament by means of severalindices of voting power. Subsequently, we search for theoccurrence of the paradox of redistribution, the paradox ofnew members, and the paradox of large size for each powerindex. The indices used are the Shapley-Shubik index, thenormalized Banzhaf index, the Penrose-Banzhaf index, theHoller index, and the Deegan-Packel index.     

Tourism in Australia and Hawai'i: Historical Perspectives

Books reviewed in this article:
Jim Davidson and Peter Spearritt, Holiday Business: Tourism in Australia since 1870
Mansel G. Blackford, Fragile Paradise: The Impact of Tourism on Maui, 1959-2000     

The Failure of the New Orleans Levee System Following Hurricane Katrina and the Pathway Forward

Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a fast-moving Category 3 storm. Thereafter, 85 percent of Greater New Orleans was flooded, 1,500 lives were lost, and approximately 100,000 were left homeless. New Orleans' hurricane protection system failed catastrophically, leaving miles of levees without protection from waves. With global warming accelerating, smarter planning is needed for many coastal cities and communities. Surge defenses that make full use of natural and man-made components need to be augmented with sustainable development and retreat from low-lying coastal regions. Coastal restoration is the key to the future habitation of southeast Louisiana, together with an east–west levee/surge protection system across the mid-coast. This latter system must be complimented and protected by aggressive coastal wetland and barrier island restoration.     

Press–Party Parallelism and Its Effects in Sweden: A Longitudinal Study, 1979–2002

Seymour-Ure introduced the concept of 'press–party parallelism' (PPP) into mass media studies in The Political Impact of Mass Media (Constable/Sage, 1974). This concept describes the partisanship of the newspaper system. So far, little systematic longitudinal research of PPP and its possible effects has been conducted. The current study fills this void. It makes the argument that PPP should be conceptualized as a context variable, which structures political behavior. It then proposes a measure of PPP and applies this measure to eight Swedish Election Studies from 1979 to 2002. Finally, it studies the effect of PPP on electoral participation. PPP varies considerably over time, and the analyses show that it structures electoral participation. The concluding section of the article argues that a decline of PPP is a manifestation of a decrease of attachment to one political party (dealignment) and of a process of professionalization of journalism.