Colonial governance in the development of urban primacy

Urbanization increased substantially in developing nations during the middle of the twentieth century. Generalized least squares panel regressions are employed to examine urban primacy in approximately 100 nations from 1930–1980. While the level of urban primacy was not found to be related to colonial status, colonial nations became more primate throughout the 1950–1970 period. Nations that became independent in the 1950s were especially likely to become more primate. When the colonizer utilized “indirect rule” (British) former colonial nations were less likely to become primate, while those employing “direct rule” and assimilationist policies (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Belgian) tended to produce more primate urban hierarchies.     

Advance notice as a means of reducing relative deprivation

Considerable research has documented that global perceptions of proceduralv fairness are associated with reductions in relative deprivation (RD). Less research has examined the specific process elements that lead individuals to perceive procedural fairness. In view of this, several researchers have suggested that providing advance notice concerning a negative decision increases perceived justice and thereby lowers levels of RD. Unfortunately, the evidence for this causal relationship is currently limited and is based upon a small number of correlation and role-playing studies. Thus, the present paper reports on two experimental studies that investigate the causal relationship between advance notice and RD. Findings in Study 1 showed that advance notice impacted the cognitive aspects of RD but not the affective or behavioral aspects. However, some methodological limitations were identified. These were corrected and a second experiment was conducted. This time advance notice lowered both the cognitive and affective aspects of RD but still did not impact the behavioral measure. Results are discussed in terms of Tyler's (1987) group value model.     

The Size and Significance of the Pareto Set in Spatial Voting Models

The size of the Pareto set in the issue space of spatialvoting models is a function of the tax prices that voters arecharged. When all voters pay Lindahl prices for all goods, thePareto set collapses to a single point. The Pareto set can beenlarged by altering tax shares so they are further fromLindahl prices, and can be reduced by moving toward Lindahlpricing. A smaller Pareto set moves voters closer to consensuson issues, so reduces political decisionmaking costs and makesthe political system more stable.     

The Imprisonment Crisis in America: Introduction

This article provides an overview of recent trends in imprisonment rates in America and introduces the articles in this issue of The Review of Policy Research. Incarceration rates have increased by more than 500 percent since the early 1970s and have now reached a rate of almost 700, higher than anywhere else in the world. The impact has been particularly hard on racial minorities, especially women (whose incarceration rate went from around 8 in 1975 to 59 in 2001). The “war on drugs” has been one of the main reasons behind the increases in imprisonment, along with the more general “get tough on crime” movement that began in the late 1970s. The articles in this issue center around how this recent trend in incarceration impacts the entire society, but especially poor communities. Several of the articles focus on race, age and gender as important variables, in addition to the tendency of the parole system to sort of “recycle” released prisoners back into the prison system.     

The International Monetary Fund: A review of the recent evidence

A review of recent quantitative studies on the International Monetary Fund reveals that much of the conventional wisdom is incorrect. Recent studies have demonstrated a new degree of methodological rigor, have drawn more heavily upon insights from political science, and have asked a number of new questions. We review studies of participation in IMF programs, design of IMF conditionality, implementation and enforcement of IMF conditions, conventional program effects and catalytic effects. At every stage, we find substantial evidence of the influence of major IMF shareholders, of the Fund’s own organizational imperatives, and of domestic politics within borrowing countries. We conclude that very little is known with certainty about the effects of IMF lending, but that a great deal has been learned about the mechanics of IMF programs that will have to be taken into account in order to obtain unbiased estimates of those effects.

More Flies with Honey: Positive Economic Linkage in German Ostpolitik from Bismarck to Kohl

The existing literature on economic sanctions has rarely addressed the key question of comparing the effectiveness of positive and negative sanctions. It is the contention of this study that positive sanctions can potentially be more effective, even in cases where contentious "high politics" issues are being negotiated, relations between the states concerned are tense and militarized, and the state being targeted with sanctions has substantial military power. This assertion will be tested in a set of case studies drawn from German-Polish and German-Russian/Soviet relations from the nineteenth century to the present. It will be shown that positive sanctions can be used effectively, both as "specific" sanctions to influence a target state on one particular issue, and as "general" sanctions, which aim to change the state's behavior as a whole in a more slow and subtle process.     

Organized Activity Involvement,Depressive Symptoms,and Social Adjustment in Adolescents: Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status as Moderators

The current cross-sectional study investigated the links between various dimensions of organized activity involvement and depressive symptoms, loneliness, and peer victimization in an ethnically and economically diverse sample of adolescents (N = 152; 58% female). Results indicate that adolescents who were involved in organized activities for more years also reported lower levels of loneliness. There was evidence of diminishing returns when adolescents were very highly involved in organized activities; those who were either under- or over-involved reported the highest levels of depressive symptoms. Conversely, findings indicate that adolescents who participated in a narrow or wide range of activity contexts reported the lowest levels of depressive symptoms. In addition, results suggested that the relation between organized activity involvement and adjustment differs among adolescents from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Findings from the current study also underscore the importance of considering multiple indices of activity involvement when assessing its association with adjustment.