The determination of cocaine in hair: a review

The explosion of literature related to the analysis of hair for cocaine and its products is reviewed. In the commonly accepted applications of hair testing for cocaine, those related to criminal or civil investigations and pharmacotoxicologic studies occupy most of the relevant published work. This review uses detailed, ‘binary’ (yes/no) tables to demonstrate trends in the literature, and allows researchers and caseworkers quick access to the literature most important for answering a variety of questions.     

Iraq the Vote: Retrospective and Prospective Foreign Policy Judgments on Candidate Choice and Casualty Tolerance

In this article, we model the effect of foreign policy attitudes on both vote choice and casualty tolerance, using survey data collected during the 2004 election. We show that prospective judgments of the likelihood of success in Iraq and retrospective judgments of whether the war in Iraq was right are significant determinants of both vote choice and casualty tolerance. The prospective judgment of success is key in predicting casualty tolerance, while retrospective judgment of whether the war was right takes precedence in determining vote choice. In addition, there is an important interaction between the two variables, so the effect of one is conditional on the value of the other. We believe this is compelling evidence that foreign policy matters, and that it matters in reasonable ways.

An Alternative Approach to Estimating Who is Most Likely to Respond to Changes in Registration Laws

Scholars often seek to understand which individuals are most responsive to the change in some treatment. Such work inevitably faces issues of identification. When the dependent variable is binary, the assumption that the largest effect occurs where p = 0.5 is also encountered. I apply Manski’s [(1995). Identification problems in the social sciences. Cambridge: Harvard University Press] non-parametric Bounds approach, which relaxes the functional form and distributional assumptions found in traditional models, in an attempt to resolve the long standing debate on which types of individuals are most affected by changes in registration laws. Under the standard assumption that treats the selection of registration laws as exogenous, the results revise the current understanding. By exploring the power of various behavioral assumptions, new insights into the study of policy changes emerge, calling into question some of the assumptions that are standard in the literature.

政治参与行为对政治效能感的影响——基于浙江省闾村基层民主选举投票的实证调研

在关于政治参与影响政治效能感的研究中,国外学者发展出了＂工具说＂、＂发展说＂和＂结果说＂三种解释框架。虽然三种解释不尽相同,但学者普遍认为积极的政治参与对政治效能感有一定的正面影响,尽管影响的因素、程度和范围存在不同。本文基于浙江省闾村实证调研,发现选举式的参与活动（参与投票、参与竞选活动、投票给当选者、参与当选者的助选活动）均未能显著影响政治效能感和村民效能感。甚至在村民的投票行为与主观期望的结果相一致时（投票给当选者、参与当选者的助选活动）,亦未能发现其对效能感的显著影响。     

Access to Justice and Social Inclusion: The Policy Challenges in Wales

Enhancing access to legal and advice services is a central pillar of the Access to Justice Act 1999. Within the new welfare framework, employment rights come increasingly into focus as the UK government seeks to forge a link between welfare and work. Access to the labour market, and being sustained within it, are seen as major mechanisms for combating social exclusion. Discrimination at work can only thwart these ambitions. The Access to Justice reforms imply an assessment of need and a review of the ways in which individuals are negotiating the available system of redress. This article reports on a study of advice provision in employment discrimination cases in Wales, funded by the Legal Services Commission and the Equality Commissions in Wales. Drawing on the accounts of key providers, individual experiences of advice seeking and available statistical evidence, it explores the opportunities and constraints of the Welsh context and profiles many of the policy challenges posed for the devolved administration. It demonstrates that, despite advances in equalities legislation and policy directives aimed at strengthening people's employment rights, a number of critical obstacles remain for the most disadvantaged groups.     

从“血荒”现象看《献血法》在实施中的问题与完善

我国《献血法》在实施中存在一些问题：“血荒”现象在很多地方存在;目前的还血政策不能很好地激励公民献血的积极性;法律对医疗机构紧急用血规定不完善,“见死不救”,“救人违法”的矛盾在现实中还存在;部分临床用血的血液来源存在安全隐患。应当教育、动员、招募一支固定无偿献血者队伍,适当放宽献血的条件。提高血站的管理水平和服务质量、加强无偿献血及免费用血系统的网络化建设、适当扩大医疗机构在紧急用血时的权限。     

How (often) do voters change their consideration sets?

The consideration set model posits that in multi-party elections voters decide in two stages. We expect that in the consideration stage, when voters select viable options, ideological proximity is a key determinant, while in the choice stage election-specific factors become particularly important. This would imply that consideration sets are rather stable and that changes in voting preferences occur mainly within ideologically coherent consideration sets. This study examines both claims by analyzing panel survey data from Sweden and the Netherlands. Consideration sets were indeed rather stable, more so than voting intentions. After one year, voters still considered the same party in 81% of cases and only 13% of respondents shifted between ideological camps. This indicates that voters changed electoral preferences primarily within the boundaries of relatively stable consideration sets and ideological camps. These findings help to understand how elections can be volatile, despite the strong impact of highly stable ideological orientations.     

Ideology,party systems and corruption voting in European democracies

What is the impact of corruption on citizens' voting behavior? There is a growing literature on an increasingly ubiquitous puzzle in many democratic countries: that corrupt officials continue to be re-elected by voters. In this study we address this issue with a novel theory and newly collected original survey data for 24 European countries. The crux of the argument is that voters' ideology is a salient factor in explaining why citizens would continue voting for their preferred party despite the fact that it has been involved in a corruption scandal. Developing a theory of supply (number of effective parties) and demand (voters must have acceptable ideological alternatives to their preferred party), we posit that there is a U-shaped relationship between the likelihood of corruption voting and where voters place themselves on the left/right spectrum. The further to the fringes, the more likely the voters are to neglect corruption charges and continue to support their party. However, as the number of viable party alternatives increases, the effect of ideology is expected to play a smaller role. In systems with a large number of effective parties, the curve is expected to be flat, as the likelihood that the fringe voters also have a clean and reasonably ideologically close alternative to switch to. The hypothesis implies a cross level interaction for which we find strong and robust empirical evidence using hierarchical modeling. In addition, we provide empirical insights about how individual level ideology and country level party systems – among other factors – impact a voter's decision to switch parties or stay home in the face of their party being involved in a corruption scandal.     

The electoral impact of the financial crisis: Evidence using district-level data

Do economic downturns increase voter support for left or right parties? In our empirical analysis, we combine fine-grained registry-data on the labor market impact of the crisis and how it varied across 5000 electoral districts, with district-level data on vote-shares for all major parties in Swedish parliamentary elections before and after the crisis. Because the impact was so diverse across districts, we can estimate the electoral impact of unemployment more efficiently than usual. Moreover, because the crisis was an external and unexpected shock to the Swedish economy, we argue that the selection bias that is usually inherent in estimating the electoral impact of unemployment is mitigated. We find that the electoral impact of crisis-induced unemployment was large, benefiting right parties.     

Economic globalization and voter turnout in established democracies

This paper asks whether international economic integration negatively affects electoral turnout. The theoretical model builds on the premise that economic integration constrains the ability of national governments to shape outcomes. Citizens are conscious of such constraints and take them into account when considering the costs and benefits of casting a vote in national elections. The result is a lower inclination to vote under conditions of high economic integration. Consequently, aggregate turnout is lower the more internationally integrated a national economy is. Analysis of aggregate data for parliamentary elections in 23 OECD democracies over the period 1965–2006 robustly supports this hypothesis. The empirical estimates suggest economic globalization as a central cause of the general decline in turnout within established democracies.