Does Familiarity Breed Contempt? The Impact of Information on Mass Attitudes toward Congress

Two features of citizen response to Congress can be taken as grounds for concern. First, Americans know relatively little about Congress, and especially about congressional procedures and policy output. Second, Congress typically emerges as the least respected political institution. Although these matters are troubling when viewed individually, more disturbing is the dilemma posed when knowledge and attitudes toward Congress are viewed in tandem. It appears that citizens who know Congress the best like Congress the least. Consequently, a sophisticated polity and a well-respected legislature seem fundamentally incompatible. This article seeks to resolve this dilemma, contending that there is nothing about knowledge per se that leads citizens to view Congress unfavorably. Rather, differences in knowledge levels alter the considerations citizens bring to bear when evaluating Congress, with the best-informed individuals constructing judgments on the basis of the most relevant Congress-specific criteria while less knowledgeable citizens employ readily available but more peripheral criteria.     

Family violence: Its relation to marital and parental satisfaction and family strengths

Previous research has shown the negative effects of violence on individual family members. However, a review of the literature reveals few studies that document the adverse effects of violence on family relationships. To assess these effects, 304 married parents anonymously completed a survey that included the following scales: conflict tactics, family strengths, marital satisfaction, and parent satisfaction. Results indicated significant decreases in perceived family strengths, marital satisfaction, and parent satisfaction as the use of physical violence among family members increased. These findings provide empirical support for the assumption that violence has a negative impact not only on individuals within a family but also on family relationships.     

Hitler's Shadow: Historical Analogies and the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait

Leaders often turn to history for guidance. Margaret Thatcher and George Bush were no exception when they responded to Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Bush and Thatcher used analogies to the 1930s, the Vietnam War and the Falklands War to frame the crisis, which significantly influenced their policies. They argued that Saddam Hussein was another Adolf Hitler and were determined not to repeat the mistakes of the Western response to the Axis in the 1930s or of the Vietnam War. There would be no 1930s-style appeasement of Iraq, and no slow escalation as had occurred in Vietnam. The prompt use of overwhelming force in the Gulf would succeed, Bush and Thatcher believed, just as the use of force had succeeded in the Falklands crisis, and just as such a policy, they believed, would have deterred the Axis in the early 1930s.     

Book reviews

James A. Smith, The Idea Brokers: Think Tanks and the Rise of the New Policy Elite (New York: The Free Press, 1991), 313 pp. $24.95.

Dinesh D'Souza, Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (New York: The Free Press, 1991)., 319 pp.

Michael Glennon, Constitutional Diplomacy and Constitutionalism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990), 353 pp. $35.00.     

Principles,patient welfare and the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000

The law surrounding decision-making for adults who lose their capacity varies considerably internationally. In many cases legislation has taken a protective and consequently restrictive role for adults with incapacity and often the issue of capacity assessment within the appropriate legal framework is circumvented. In Scotland, the introduction of the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 modernised that nation's approach to incapable adults. This article describes briefly the pre-2000 Act situation in Scotland, discusses the main provisions of the Act, reviews the use of principles in incapacity legislation in Britain, and discusses issues relating to patient welfare. The use of principles to extend patient autonomy into incapacity is demonstrated and compared with the English and Welsh Mental Capacity Act 2005 (the 2005 Act) through a discussion of how the principles in each of those Acts promotes particular ideologies of decision making. Finally, the article examines recent Scottish case law relating to the 2000 Act and discusses how the courts are currently interpreting the principles of the Act.     

Promoting Learning and Critical Reflexivity Through an Organizational Case Study Project

Engaging students directly with community partners can foster deeper learning and critical reflexivity. In our undergraduate seminar in “Understanding Human Service Organizations,” we developed a community-based project that has students working in groups to study local human service organizations. Students interview organizational staff, observe operations, and review documents to identify perceived organizational strengths and challenges and offer humble solutions based on course material and outside research. A key component of the course is the critically reflexive journal. Using a structured reflection guide, students describe and analyze their experience in relation to class concepts and examine their personal beliefs and assumptions. This approach is one teaching strategy that has the potential for promoting the critical awareness and reflective practice skills we seek in our students.     

Testing the implications of incivility in the United States Congress, 1977–2000: The case of judicial confirmation delay

The research argues that there are two empirically distinct types of conflict in the United States Congress. The first is partisan conflict or the relative divergence of the two major parties on policy issues. The second is the level of civility that characterises legislative processes in the country. Two unique measures of ‘civility’ are developed. The first is based on media reporting and the second on the coding of almanac summaries. The new indices are tested in an event history analysis of judicial confirmation delay that controls for partisan conflict and a multitude of logistical and contextual concerns that earlier research has argued are important. The analysis is fruitful; measures of partisan conflict are significant as are many other concerns. Most notably, however, the new indicators of aggregate civility perform as expected, and the delay prospective jurists experience can also be attributed to changes in levels of civility.