Rational Irrationality and the Microfoundations of Political Failure

Models of inefficient political failure have been criticized forimplicitly assuming the irrationality of voters (Wittman, 1989,1995, 1999; Coate and Morris, 1995). Building on Caplan's (1999a,1999b) model of ``rational irrationality'', the current papermaintains that the assumption of voter irrationality is boththeoretically and empirically plausible. It then examinesmicrofoundational criticisms of four classes of political failuremodels: rent-seeking, pork-barrel politics, bureaucracy, andeconomic reform. In each of the four cases, incorporating simpleforms of privately costless irrationality makes it possibleto clearly derive the models' standard conclusions. Moreover, itfollows that efforts to mitigate political failures will besocially suboptimal, as most of the literature implicitlyassumes. It is a mistake to discount the empirical evidence forthese models on theoretical grounds.     

Silent citizens: reflections on community,habit, and the silent majority in political life

This article identifies two different senses in which the concept of ‘community’ can be seen to underpin the norm of vocal participation in democratic politics. The first is a broadly liberal view of community – traceable to Alexis de Tocqueville – that promotes active, vocal, and autonomous citizens and acts as a buffer between the state and the individual. A second broadly conservative view of community in the writings, for example, of Edmund Burke and T.S. Eliot treats community as organic, passive, and largely silent. It valorizes habit and habitual relationships as supporting political life through obedience to the law and respect for authority. While these two traditions stand apart, what is striking about both views of community is the one point about which both agree: citizens' sense of community is in decline within liberal democracies today. Thus silence and silent majorities are problematic to both traditions, albeit for different reasons.     

The effect of ionizing gamma radiation on natural and synthetic fibers and its implications for the forensic examination of fiber evidence

Circumstances of criminal activities involving radioactive materials may mean fiber evidence recovered from a crime scene could have been exposed to materials emitting ionizing radiation. The consequences of radiation exposed fibers on the result of the forensic analysis and interpretation is explored. The effect of exposure to 1-1000 kGy radiation doses in natural and synthetic fibers was noticeable using comparative forensic examination methods, such as optical microscopy, microspectrophotometry, and thin-layer chromatography. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis showed no signs of radiation-induced chemical changes in any of the fiber structures. The outcome of the comparative methods highlights the risk of "false negatives" associated in comparing colors of recovered fibers that may have been exposed to unknown radiation doses. Consideration of such results supports the requirement to know the context, including the environmental conditions, as much as possible before undertaking a forensic fiber examination.     

The other woman and her child: extra-marital affairs and illegitimacy in twentieth-century Britain

This article investigates the numbers of 'other women' and their children up until the 1960s in Britain. It analyses 'irregular and illicit unions' in the records of the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child (now One Parent Families/Gingerbread), and explores evidence on these unions in the debates over the passage of the Divorce Acts of 1923 and 1937 as well as the Legitimacy Acts of 1926 and 1959. It suggests that the prevalence of illicit unions throughout the twentieth century and before allows us to question contemporary concerns about our supposed 'divorcing society' and the decline of family life in modern Britain.     

"It is caused of the womans part or of the mans part": the role of gender in the diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunction in early modern England

Philip Barrough wrote in 1590 that barrenness 'is caused of the womans part or of the mans part'. By the eighteenth century, however, barrenness was perceived as a female disorder distinguished from male impotence. Few historians have addressed the uncertainty surrounding early modern definitions of infertility, choosing instead to adopt set terms that fit comfortably with modern ideas. This article will highlight the difficulties surrounding the gender distinction of the terms 'barrenness' and 'impotence' during this period. Moreover, the discussion will examine the role of gender in diagnosing these disorders to sufferers. The article will argue that ideas of gender were more central to diagnosis of poor sexual health than to effectual treatment. Although it appears that barrenness and impotence were treated with separate remedies, many treatments were described as effectual for both sexes. Additionally, the ingredients used in such recipes were often sexual stimulants explained without reference to gender.