The (Dis)Advantage of Certainty: The Importance of Certainty in Language

How can legal decision makers increase the likelihood of a favorable response from other legal and social actors? To answer this, we propose a novel theory based on the certainty expressed in language that is applicable to many different legal contexts. The theory is grounded in psychology and legal advocacy and suggests that expressing certainty enhances the persuasiveness of a message. We apply this theory to the principal–agent framework to examine the treatment of Supreme Court precedent by the Federal Courts of Appeal. We find that as the level of certainty in the Supreme Court's opinion increases, the lower courts are more likely to positively treat the Court's decision. We then discuss the implications of our findings for using certainty in a broader context.     

The realism debate and the politics of modern art in early postwar Japan

This article examines the realism debate (riarizumu ronsō) that took place between 1946 and 1950 as a forum in which ideas on artistic form, the role of the artist in society, and the social relevance of art come into focus in a way that allows us to see how questions such as Japan's modernity, the recent experience of fascism, and the challenges of rebuilding culture during the early cold war were taken up by leading cultural figures in the field of the visual arts. Occurring alongside discussions of how the art world could be reformed to avoid the failures of fascism, the debate served as an occasion to re-examine the history of modern art in Europe and Japan and to consider the question of artistic representation in a way that opened the most fundamental question of art's relationship to the world and promised to begin the process of envisioning it anew. The debate involved three camps which I label social realism (represented by Hayashi Fumio and Nagai Kiyoshi), modernist realism (Hijikata Tei’ichi), and avant-garde realism (Uemura Takachiyo, Okamoto Tarō, and Hanada Kiyoteru). While assessing their points of agreement and disagreement, I argue that the debate set the stage for debates in the 1950s and beyond.     

The psychometric properties of the Anger Bodily Sensations Questionnaire (ABSQ)

The Anger Bodily Sensations Questionnaire (ABSQ) is a newly developed self-report instrument for measuring bodily sensations related to anger in interpersonal situations. In this study, we investigated the psychometric properties of the ABSQ in a sample of 70 offenders and a sample of 100 secondary vocational students. Results indicated that the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the instrument were good. An explorative factor analysis carried out on the ABSQ data of the combined sample yielded three factors. Support was found for the concurrent validity of the instrument. In both samples, the total score of the ABSQ showed positive correlations with measures of bodily awareness, social anxiety, anger, and aggression. Altogether, results suggest that the ABSQ appears to be a reliable and valid questionnaire. Further research is needed to examine the psychometric properties of the ABSQ in larger offender and non-clinical samples.     

Governance and Popular Involvement in Local Antipoverty Strategies in the U.K. and the Netherlands

This article deals centrally with the relationship between new interactive governance arrangements and democratization through a comparison of mechanisms for popular involvement in local antipoverty strategies in the U.K. and the Netherlands. Drawing on urban case studies in North Tyneside and Rotterdam, the article argues that, despite a diversity of governance models and novel attempts at popular involvement at the local level, new governance arrangements are not more democratic. Democratization of governance, rather, requires intervention along an explicit participatory ideology external to the internal logic of interactive governance, one where all social groups and organizations contribute on a mutually reinforcing and egalitarian basis. A more democratic governance system, moreover, needs to take a rational perspective on the nature of the relationship between state and civil society and to retain a normative and political conception of the “third-sector” under prevailing neoliberal conditions. While recognizing the normative and utopian tone of these suggestions, possible characteristics of such a project are outlined.     

On The Nature Of Audit Judgements: The Case Of Value For Money Studies

The National Audit Office (NAO) undertakes Value For Money (VFM) studies, which are used as the basis of evidence in hearings of the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts. VFM studies are therefore integral to the process of accountability of public bodies to Parliament for their use of resources. This paper examines the production of VFM studies by the NAO, and in particular the ways in which audit teams arrive at their judgements. It introduces a theoretical frame-work which highlights: (i) the interplay of intuitive and analytical thinking as VFM teams assemble and interpret data and, (ii) the ways in which teams use three distinct types of judgement criterion in studies, based on the use of multiple empirical indicators about some event, the logical coherence of the auditee's behaviour, and consensus about 'what actually happened'.     

Impacts of abstinence education on teen sexual activity, risk of pregnancy, and risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

This paper examines the impacts of four abstinence-only education programs on adolescent sexual activity and risks of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Based on an experimental design, the impact analysis uses survey data collected in 2005 and early 2006 from more than 2,000 teens who had been randomly assigned to either a program group that was eligible to participate in one of the four programs or a control group that was not. The findings show no significant impact on teen sexual activity, no differences in rates of unprotected sex, and some impacts on knowledge of STDs and perceived effectiveness of condoms and birth control pills