bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Contemporary Grandparenthood: A Systemic Transition
Authors: SPREY JETSE , MATTHEWS SARAH H.
Published: March 2007

The transition to grandparenthood is presented as a stage in the family life cycle in which meaning comes from outside the boundaries of the original nuclear family unit through alliances initiated and produced by offspring. A demographic picture of grandparenthood is presented that shows that the transition is likely to occur in middle age and to overlap less with active parenting than was the case in the past, and that the ages of both grand-parents and new parents are important variables affecting transition. Past research has focused on grandparenthood as a role and has largely ignored the effects of family systems on role performance. A systems perspective shows that the grandparent-grandchild bond is initially mediated by the parents. As time passes, however, the bond becomes more direct, although it continues to be negotiated within the extended family system, which is always in flux. Focus on role has obscured the nature of the transition to grandparenthood and the years immediately following it, viewing it as an extension of parenting and not characteristic of real grandparents.
Electronics and the Future of Work: The Impact on Pink and White Collar Workers
Authors: McLAUGHLIN DORIS B.
Published: March 2007

Much as in the late 1950s and early 1960s we read about the impact that automation would have on blue collar jobs, so is literature now beginning to appear on what effects can be expected as new, highly sophisticated equipment is introduced into the office—the world of pink and white collar workers. Because of an expanding economy and a rapidly growing segment of the service sector, as well as the fact that the automated equipment introduced in the 1950s and 1960s was both unifunctional and expensive, the dire predictions as to its impact proved wrong. But the 1950s scenario no longer holds. Thus the introduction of new office equipment may well have an adverse impact on both the quantity and quality of jobs, particularly the lower paying jobs traditionally held by women. Hard data on the actual impact of the new technology on the office work force are hard to pinpoint: the phenomenon is a very recent one; other variables usually come into play; and we are now living in a global economy—jobs that appear lost may simply have been moved. Perhaps the best way to fill the data gap would be to work with one or more of the labor unions that have organized office workers to develop the best methods to study the subject.
American Cultural Philanthropy: Past, Present, and Future
Authors: McCARTHY KATHLEEN D.
Published: March 2007

Many observers fear that the 1980s will usher in a cultural depression. In the face of governmental cutbacks, economic duress, and rising social-welfare needs, arts organizations may be less competitive for limited private support, and the less established, more experimental groups would be particularly in danger of falling by the wayside. Despite the widespread belief that major portions of the funding community have slashed their arts spending, data reveal that only limited cuts have actually occurred. The commitment to long-term cultural philanthropy seems undiminished. The coming decade may witness a sharper emphasis on strengthening management practices among cultural grantees; the creation of consortia to share technology, physical resources, or fund-raising costs; and audience development to increase the pool of individual donors. Should the economy worsen, the anticipated cuts may, indeed, become a reality. But for the present, individual, foundation, and corporate philanthrophy is holding strong. Rather than an era of retrenchment, the 1980s promise to be a decade of cultural reassessment, stabilization and reform.
In the Market's Place: Cultural Policy in Norway
Authors: DAHL HANS F.
Published: March 2007

The arts in Norway are considered a public good and are therefore heavily subsidized, in order to make them available to the greatest number of people, to maintain Norway's national cultural standard on a par with neighboring countries, and to keep cultural traditions unbroken by preventing sudden ruptures in cultural production. The criterion for state support is art and its position in the market. The state comes in whenever the market proves insufficient, partly through direct subsidies covering production costs and partly by buying a certain amount of the cultural product. Norway advocates a policy of strong cultural decentralization. Cultural budgets are channeled through the Norwegian Cultural Fund, and individual artists' incomes tend to be a mixture of collective funds and individual royalty incomes, with a gradual shift toward individual incomes, even if still state-derived. State spending on culture has increased since the 1960s, and it has played an essential role in maintaining continuity in the quantity of cultural production, if not always the quality.
Responses to Plant Closures and Major Reductions in Force: Private Sector and Community-based Models
Authors: FEDRAU RUTH H.
Published: March 2007

Major structural changes are sweeping the national and world economies. The United States is shifting away from the basic industries and toward an economy based on more specialized production, services, and information exchange. The effects of this shift—unemployment, plant closures, and major reductions in force—disrupt the work force and the communities that support it. The public and private sectors have a stake in developing nondisruptive approaches to plant closures and layoffs and the transition of affected workers to other occupations. The private sector has developed some positive responses, from employment security and profit sharing, to buffering the job transition for workers when no alternatives to termination can be found. Models currently being used are state of the art. Communities have also taken a proactive stance as closures and layoffs threaten their economic survival. The community-based model is very similar to the private sector worker-transition model, except that it features the community in a leadership role. Communities are encouraged to develop an economic crisis plan for use when a major facility closure or layoff occurs.
The Role of Child Support Insurance in Antipoverty Policy
Authors: GARFINKEL IRWIN
Published: March 2007

This article describes existing child support practice in the United States, giving attention to the establishment and enforcement of parental child support obligations as well as to publicly provided child support benefits. Effects of the current system on alleviating poverty are assessed. The article addresses several questions. Should low-income absent parents be excused from the obligation to support their children? Can child support provide more generous benefits to single-parent families while minimizing incentives for the formation of single-parent families? Should children in single-parent families be aided by a welfare program? What are the problems with the current child support system? Finally, a proposal for a new child support insurance system is described, along with estimates of the costs of the system and its effects on poverty and welfare dependence. The relationship of estimated benefits to costs is promising enough to warrant trying out the new system in selected jurisdictions.
Transpositions: American Religion in the 1980s
Authors: MARTY MARTIN E.
Published: March 2007

American religious forces and movements have been undergoing significant repositioning for decades. By the middle of the 1980s, however, public awareness of these transpositions has become widespread. The major religious event of the decade has been a transposition of forces, exemplified by the following: (1) secularists are in dissarray, religionists have regrouped; (2) Protestant evangelical-moralism has become aggressive and culture affirming; (3) Roman Catholic leadership has interchanged position with mainline Protestantism with respect to the articulation of a social vision to its constituency and the public; (4) black religionists and Jews have interchanged position with respect to predictable public and partisan stands; (5) civil or public religion has been shifted to conservative and nationalist contexts; and (6) extraordinary religion has acquired an ordinary cast. Implications of these transpositions are appraised for the future.
Soviet Policy toward Southwest Asia
Authors: SAIKAL AMIN
Published: March 2007

This article analyzes changing Soviet foreign policy toward Southwest Asia, mainly Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. The region is important to Soviet security and strategic interests, and Soviet policy toward the region has been consistently cautious, far-sighted, flexible, and shrewd. Moscow avoids serious risks and adjusts quickly to changing conditions. The USSR is interested in widening and protecting its interests in Southwest Asia in order to achieve regional capability and to influence events beyond the region.
The Rule of the Clerics in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Authors: ZONIS MARVIN
Published: March 2007

Direct rule by Islamic clerics in Iran is an important new phenomenon in Middle Eastern politics. The legitimacy of clerical rule is based on an ideology developed from Shiite thought by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his neofundamentalist followers. This ideology is embodied in the Iranian Constitution, which institutionalizes rule by Islamic clerics. Their sense of legitimacy has been reinforced by Khomeini's commitment to maintaining clerical rule, by his claim to leadership on the basis of a divine calling, and by a monopolization of the interpretation of the sacred law. The principal themes of clerical rule include grandiosity, an insistence on unity, ascription of hostile motives to the actions of other states, a preference for military solutions to political problems, and a belief in ultimate victory. Replication of the Iranian pattern of clerical rule elsewhere in the Middle East will be problematic without the emergence of a figure like Khomeini or the assistance of Iran.
Political Finance in the Liberal Republic: Representation, Equality, and Deregulation
Authors: HARDER STEPHEN
Published: March 2007

The intervention by Congress in the private funding of federal election campaigns is fundamentally misconceived. The field should be deregulated. Proponents of intervention believe that the unregulated private financing of election campaigns subverts our representative institutions. This is because, they believe, first, that disparities in campaign spending often decide elections; second, that the pattern of campaign contributions received by a legislator significantly influences that legislator's lawmaking behavior; and, third, that the private financing of political activity injects the economic inequalities of the marketplace into the sphere of political rights. However, a whole view of the complex worlds of elections and legislation suggests that these beliefs, despite their superficial plausibility, are unsupported by reason and experience. In fact, the private market for political finance, left unregulated, should consistently deny to any discrete group of participants the market power necessary to influence elections or legislation significantly. Furthermore, the partial regulation attempted to date has been easily circumvented, and more comprehensive regulation is substantially barred by the constitutional sanctity of political speech and association. Finally, a system of private political finance, free from government intervention, is reconcilable with the legitimate operations of our representative government and with the true meaning of political equality.
Can the Parties Regulate Campaign Financing?
Authors: CUTLER LLOYD N.
Published: March 2007

Most campaign finance reform proposals focus on legislative or regulatory cures. Serious thought should be given instead to encouraging the parties to assume control of their candidates' campaign finance practices. Based on the logic of court decisions giving the parties the right to promulgate criteria for voting in their primaries, the parties would appear also to have legal power to impose campaign finance rules, including expenditures ceilings, on candidates who seek to run under the party's banner. A model set of party campaign finance rules is sketched in the article.
Dissemination and Diffusion of Progress in the Foreign Language Teaching Field: A National Plan
Authors: GAUDIANI CLAIRE L.
Published: March 2007

Excellent teaching methods, improved technologies for teaching and testing, and appropriate materials must reach the widest audience once they are developed by language pedagogy specialists. This article reviews the existing dissemination system and proposes a national plan to assure efficient and effective diffusion of tested innovations in the field to the practitioners at various instructional levels. This plan includes the development of an annual research yearbook and videotape, a National Foreign Language Video Conference Day, a National Board of Consultants, a board qualification certificate for foreign language faculty, a television series of great presentations, a set of surveys, and a national foreign language newsletter along with a major national publicity campaign. Wide dissemination of good ideas is as critical as developing improved practices.
Educational Exchange in Latin America
Authors: STERNS MAURICE A.
Published: March 2007

Since its inception three decades ago, the Fulbright program in Latin America has aided individual students and Latin American educational institutions alike. The binational Fulbright commissions that select participants have earned a reputation for autonomy and fairness and have encouraged innovative programs such as cost sharing, state-of-the-art seminars, and flexible tenure provisions for U.S. scholars teaching in Latin America. As the U.S. and Latin American university systems have increasingly converged, Fulbright has also helped to introduce and promote such U.S. concepts as university-based research and decentralized higher education, as well as Latin American university commitment to social outreach. Yet some problems remain. These include competition from European and Soviet exchange programs, inadequate contact among Fulbright scholars now in the United States, and failure to maintain contact with Fulbright alumni once they have returned home. Further institution building in the Latin American educational sector also deserves greater support. The existing binational commissions provide an excellent model for the cooperation needed to address these problems, and they underscore the important role that Fulbright can continue to play in Latin America.
Research and Teaching in the Middle East
Authors: RADWAN ANN B.
Published: March 2007

Educational institutions and scholars in the Middle East and South Asia continue to produce world-class research despite the burdens imposed by the great number of students, inadequate libraries, and limited supportive institutional infrastructure. The challenges facing the foreign scholar are not dissimilar to those of the host-country academic with the exception of the entry formalities, including both the general permission to enter a country and specific permissions for access to particular libraries or sites. The long-term relationship between the guest and the host-country scholar needs to be enhanced by the development of long-term U.S.-overseas institutional relationships and of mechanisms that promote a sustained exchange of scholarship. The professional quality and commitment of the guest researcher or lecturer will be the determining factor of the success of an individual experience and of the idea of mutual understanding through educational exchange.
The Crisis of the World Finance System
Authors: ALTVATER ELMAR
Published: March 2007

Unemployment has become a structural feature in all industrialized countries because a worldwide decline in the profit rate has reduced the speed of economic growth. This decline has been due mainly to the decreasing productivity of capital in the course of ever increasing capital intensity of production. The crisis is perpetuated by two additional factors: (1) the decay of the order-maintaining capability of the United States; and (2) the expansion of uncontrolled international credit, as funds were diverted from relatively unprofitable real investment to profitable financial investment. The need to service the debt, which was thus accumulated, keeps up the demand for fresh credits and prevents interest rates from becoming low enough not to discourage real investment. To overcome the crisis, debt would have to be written off, which in turn requires some form of consensus on how to distribute the resulting losses.
Unemployment and the Recomposition of Labor Reserves
Authors: STANDING GUY
Published: March 2007

To understand unemployment in less developed countries, five forms of labor reserves should be distinguished: latent—not job-seeking but potentially available for the work force; stagnant—social dropouts; floating—moving in and out of the work force; active—job seekers; and employed—stop-gap reserves of enterprises. In the course of economic evolution people shift from one category to others. This continuous recomposition is heavily influenced by the economic strategies pursued. Entrenched landlordism and agro-export production end up bringing about an unintended increase in the active and stagnant labor reserve, which destabilizes the political order. Neopopulist autonomy slows down the recomposition process without stopping it. Import-substituting industrialization accelerates the formation of an active reserve without prospects of absorbing it. Export-led industrialization could provide such prospects but is feasible only for a few countries. While future perspectives for employment in less developed countries thus appear very bleak, the World Bank implies that most observed unemployment is voluntary. The underlying assumptions of this view are highly questionable because they neglect the social anatomy of the labor reserve and rely instead on abstract economic concepts.
Technology, Social Innovation, and the Informal Economy
Authors: GERSHUNY JONATHAN
Published: March 2007

Unpaid work in the home is an important contributor to national wealth: very nearly half of all work in a modern economy takes place outside the formal economy. A major effect of new technology is to increase the extent of informal production through the development of new productive equipment for installation in private households. Domestic production becomes more efficient, and the pattern of demand for commodities from the formal economy is changed: we buy goods rather than services. This article uses evidence about historical changes in the patterns of use of time, from a number of different developed countries, to investigate the effect of technical change on the relationship between the formal and informal economies.
Female Participation in the Informal Economy: A Neglected Issue
Authors: HOYMAN MICHELE
Published: March 2007

The author examines three questions: how much females participate in the informal economy; why they participate; and what the policy implications of their participation are. In the process of examining these issues, the author develops a behavioral theory of female participation, involving exit, voice, loyalty, and dual loyalty, following Hirschman's work. Using three measures—the number of individuals; the amount of time; and dollars—she finds that women participate in the informal economy as much as, and probably more than, men do. In the course of trying to explain why females participate in the informal economy, she discusses a variety of different explanations and then rejects them because they are too value laden and/or they make too many assumptions. Finally, she discusses the policy implications of more and more women having dual loyalty, such as the need for government-regulated, safe day care, and the need for revising the definition of labor force participation to reflect some of the informal activity of women.
A Neighborhood Approach to Crime Prevention in the United Kingdom
Authors: WHISKIN NIGEL
Published: March 2007

Drawing on the expertise of the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO) in crime prevention, the author describes a typical NACRO project on a housing estate in the Midlands and highlights five key issues. First, resources are needed to establish neighborhood infrastructure to support leadership at the local level. Second, the approach needed is one of a consultation and planning partnership between a neighborhood and the agencies that deliver services in that neighborhood. Third, services are needed that are responsive to customers' needs and that put people first. Fourth, crime prevention must be on the agenda of people at all levels in the public, private, and voluntary sectors. Government funds in particular are needed to pump-prime new initiatives. Fifth, the skills of the millions of unemployed must be harnessed in order to reduce not only the amount of crime but also the fear of crime and the number of entrants into the criminal justice system.
The Information Age in Concept and Practice at the National Library of Medicine
Authors: SCHOOLMAN HAROLD M. , LINDBERG DONALD A.B.
Published: March 2007

The evolution of today's information age is mirrored in the growth of the National Library of Medicine's bibliographic services: from the pioneering work of the Library in the last century to develop Index Medicus, to developing the innovative computerized MEDLARS system in the early 1960s, to the easily searchable on-line data bases now available to health professionals. This evolution has not come about without controversy, however, as tension developed between the public sector, where the information was viewed as a social benefit, and the private sector, where it was viewed as a source of profit. The Library has fostered research and development in biomedical communications in the laboratories of its Lister Hill Center and through grants to assist in establishing the field of medical informatics. The future of biomedical communications will be profoundly affected by work now being carried out by the Library: in fields such as biotechnology, through integrative methodologies such as the Unified Medical Language System now under development, and by a grant program to improve the infrastructure for information within academic health science centers.
Evolving State Legislative and Executive Power in the Founding Decade
Authors: WILLIAMS ROBERT F.
Published: March 2007

The crucial questions surrounding the first state constitutions concerned suffrage, officeholding requirements, legislative structure, and the relationship of legislative to executive power. These questions were debated vigorously, and a vision of the proper structure of government based on unicameralism, a weak executive, and no checks and balances was advocated in nearly all the states by radical democrats. Their most conspicuous victory was in Pennsylvania in 1776, where a unicameral legislature was established and powers were separated but no checks were provided for legislative encroachments upon the other branches' responsibilities. Constitutional framers in other states rejected Pennsylvania's example, delayed their constitutional drafting processes, and succeeded in adopting a more balanced government with checks, such as upper houses and gubernatorial vetoes. Still, legislative supremacy prevailed under all the new state constitutions, making possible the legislative policies of the founding decade on debtor-creditor relations, paper money, and taxation that were of such great concern to the framers of the United States Constitution.
Employee Theft: A $40 Billion Industry
Authors: LIPMAN MARK , McGRAW W. R.
Published: March 2007

Employee theft is estimated to cost American business up to $40 billion annually. The costs to society include increased business failures, along with the resulting losses in jobs and tax revenues, and higher prices passed on to consumers. An intangible societal cost is the operation of the private justice system, completely separate from the criminal justice system. Because private employers focus on preventing crimes against their businesses, including employee theft, apprehending and prosecuting criminals ex post facto is rarely a priority, and prosecution is often avoided as troublesome and unsettling. Employee thieves generally do not feel any long-term commitment to the employer and are not motivated by financial need.
Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies
Authors: KATZ NEIL H.
Published: March 2007

This article explores some of the key sources of and reasons for the rapid growth of conflict-resolution programs in higher education in the United States. It highlights some benefits, as well as dilemmas, of academic work in conflict resolution. In addition, the author promotes the viewpoint that conflict-resolution content and approach should be infused by perspectives and values from peace studies, such as concerns for issues of social justice and fairness, and strategies for nonviolent social change.
Financing Federal, State, and Local Governments in the 1990s
Authors: MacMANUS SUSAN A.
Published: March 2007

The 1980s were a decade of federal fiscal devolution. Federal cutbacks reflected the Reagan administration's commitment to decentralization and the realities of federal budget deficits. Cutbacks increased fiscal pressure on state and local governments, while restrictions on their borrowing capacity made it more difficult to use long-term tax-exempt debt to raise revenue in the short term. These restrictions also made it more difficult to finance public-private partnerships. To cope, state and local governments improved management techniques, transferred functions to the private sector and to other units of government, diversified their revenue systems, and looked for more discretionary revenue. Revenue enhancement was often limited by restrictive statutes, intergovernmental competition, and public opposition. Growing cynicism about the fairness of taxes prompted passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. This act significantly affected state and local taxing and borrowing. It did little, however, to allay state and local fears that the federal government would continue to capture more revenue for itself. As we enter the 1990s, the major question will undoubtedly be, Which governments can or should pay for what?
Technology-Mediated Communities for Learning: Designs and Consequences
Authors: HAWKINS JAN
Published: March 2007

Distance learning has become increasingly prominent in discussions of educational change. It holds promise of external learning beyond the physical confines of traditional schools, creating new forms of community. During the last decade, considerable experience has accumulated through projects that have implemented different innovative visions of distance learning. Five groups of issues have emerged that affect the success of projects; they are technology functioning, community creation, discourse forms, activity definition, and quality control. Several projects illustrate the influence of these factors in different contexts. The first research phase allows us to understand how the potential of the technologies can best be used and what supports are needed to ensure that these innovations are robust. The second phase of research asks questions about the impact of distance learning on cognitive and social functioning. These questions can be legitimately asked only from the prior sustained platform of practice.
Exchange Rate Variability and Direct Investment
Authors: BAILEY MARTIN J. , TAVLAS GEORGE S.
Published: March 2007

This article investigates the relationship between exchange rate variability and direct investment. We distinguish between two kinds of exchange rate variations: short-term volatility and longer-term misalignment. Theoretical considerations indicate that the influences of both kinds of exchange rate variations on direct investment are ambiguous. We then review the empirical literature on this issue, which supports the theoretical findings. We conclude that, contrary to the arguments of proponents of managed exchange rate regimes, the increased variability of exchange rates under the managed floating system has not been harmful to direct investment.
U.S. Strategy in the 1990s: Requirements versus Resources
Authors: CORDESMAN ANTHONY H.
Published: March 2007

Especially in a decade of heightened budgetary restraints, the United States will continue to confront the practical problem of how to reduce strategic commitments and force levels in keeping with future military roles and missions. It will be necessary to break the cycle of the past in which the United States formulated strategies and requirements that could not be met and then procured forces based on available funds simply by cutting the share of the pie for each service.
The Future of Information Technology
Authors: COATES VARY T.
Published: March 2007

We are entering the age of information, in many ways analogous to the age of energy that began in the eighteenth century. This article calls attention to some of the paradoxes of the information age. It looks at social and economic macro trends that are shaping the era. A five-year outlook for information technology is presented. Finally, some implications for society and for its economy are suggested, and some issues are discussed that must be faced in the next five years as a result of the changes of the information age.
Affirmative Action at Harvard
Authors: WILLIAMS JOHN B.
Published: March 2007

Affirmative action to employ more women and minorities at Harvard consists mainly in efforts to increase the number who apply for jobs. Since the first affirmative action plan was prepared in 1973, the proportion of women employees has risen markedly, especially in nonfaculty positions, but the proportion of black and Hispanic faculty has changed little. The record of the Medical School is particularly poor. Affirmative action is hampered by a lack of vigorous support from Harvard leaders, the decentralized university organization, the often unjustified perception of candidates' weak quality, the opposition of some women and minority faculty, and the shortages of qualified candidates.
Another Look at New Religions
Authors: MELTON J. GORDON
Published: March 2007

Two decades of intensive study of nonconventional religion in North America has provided a large data base to examine some of the basic ideas about the new religious movements that have become so prominent in the last generation. Common ideas about the ephemeral nature, lack of historical context, and the role of charismatic leaders, derived from studies of rather small samples of new religions, are challenged in this article by a study of 836 new religions that have operated in North America this century. They are best viewed not as marginal cultural phenomena, that is, as cults, but as products of the massive diffusion of the world's religions globally. The number of new and nonconventional religions has grown steadily since the passing of new immigration laws in 1965 and will continue to grow in the light of even higher quotas for Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants passed in 1990.
Movements and Media as Interacting Systems
Authors: GAMSON WILLIAM A. , WOLFSFELD GADI
Published: March 2007

In this article, some organizing principles and hypotheses are offered concerning the ways in which social movements interact with the news media and the outcomes for both parties. The structural part of the analysis focuses attention on the power and dependency aspects of the relationship and the consequences of the asymmetries. The cultural part focuses attention on the more subtle contest over meaning. Hypotheses on how social movement characteristics affect media coverage focus on movement standing, preferred framing, and sympathy. The authors argue for the importance of organization, professionalism, and strategic planning and for the benefits of a division of labor among movement actors. Hypotheses on how media characteristics affect movement outcomes focus on leadership, action strategy, and framing strategy. The authors argue for audience size, emphasis on the visual, and emphasis on entertainment values as influencing movements.
The Value of Speaking a LOTE in U.S. Business
Authors: GARCÍA OFELIA , OTHEGUY RICARDO
Published: March 2007

How much value do foreign languages really have in a country like the United States, where the most proficient speakers of languages other than English (LOTEs) tend to be immigrants with little influence or power and where the rich and powerful tend to have little knowledge of LOTEs? This article first discusses the role of English and LOTEs in the history of the United States and in our current position within a global community. It then presents empirical evidence of the value of LOTEs in both domestic and international business. Our findings in the business world reflect the relationship between power and LOTEs in U.S. society, with LOTEs being more valuable in ethnic and small businesses and for clerical positions than in large corporations and for managers and executives. The article concludes by suggesting that in our increasingly multilingual world, our ability to speak LOTEs would give us a greater degree of control over business decisions at all levels. But LOTEs would then have to become more widely spoken among the majority population, would have to be preserved and developed among minorities, and would have to become associated with power and profit among both Anglo-phones and ethnolinguistic minorities.
The Grand Dilemma: Viability and Sovereignty for Puerto Rico
Authors: GARCÍA-PASSALACQUA JUAN M.
Published: March 2007

One key factor, maybe the crucial element, in the future of the relationship of the United States with the Caribbean is the future of its political relationship with Puerto Rico. What the island and its metropolis do, together, will have a decisive impact on the future shape of the Caribbean. This article examines the geopolitical and economic context of that relationship, departing from a paradigmatic distinction between the territory and its people, which has determined the history under the hegemony of the United States. A brief economic history is followed by the political-economic foundations and a description of the traditional political views on the relationship. A new paradigm is proposed, based on a new understanding of the people, the society, and the culture. The aspects of migration, exile, and return as well as the role of state and clandestine violence are examined. Finally, the article reviews the metropolitan view of the relationship and the political dimensions of the present situation, and it makes a policy proposal for a new option for Puerto Rico and the United States.
The Rise of Black and Gray Markets
Authors: KARP AARON
Published: March 2007

Since the mid 1980s, the black and gray arms markets have emerged as major forces in the arms trade. Though they are much smaller than the orthodox trade, covert transfers are of great importance, providing the weapons most likely to actually be used in conflict. The totally illegal black market arises in reaction to embargoes. It is antipolicy, the mirror image of official intentions. The state-sponsored gray market, although it receives less attention, is much larger and more destabilizing. The gray market represents policy in flux as governments experiment with new and risky diplomatic relationships. There is much that can be done to bring the covert arms trade under control, especially through more aggressive law enforcement and radical extension of the United Nations Arms Register. Only collective security mechanisms, though, offer any hope of eradicating the covert arms trade.
Presidential Ethics and the Ethics of the Presidency
Authors: GILMAN STUART C.
Published: March 2007

The ethics of presidents are best understood by looking at the standards they create for those who work for them or the standards that are forced upon them by Congress or the courts. This article attempts to remove the radical distinction between normative values and ethical codes that dominates research in this area. Rather, a more interesting approach is to view codes, executive orders, and ethics systems as ethical metaphors that attempt to capture what presidents think public service is about. The article also focuses on the expansion of ethical standards for public officials and provides a historical sketch of ethics and presidents.
Media Constructions of Crime
Authors: SACCO VINCENT F.
Published: March 2007

The news media are a vital part of the process by which individuals' private troubles with crime—as victims or offenders—are transformed into public issues. The social construction of crime problems may be understood as reflecting the types of relationships that link news agencies to their sources, and the organizational constraints that structure the news-gathering process. The ways in which the news media collect, sort, and contextualize crime reports help to shape public consciousness regarding which conditions need to be seen as urgent problems, what kinds of problems they represent, and, by implication, how they should be resolved. While much attention has been focused on the ways in which media attention to crime influences the fear of crime, it is likely that the most significant effects of media reporting are broadly ideological rather than narrowly attitudinal. By restricting the terms of discussion, the news media facilitate the marginalization of competing views regarding crime and its solution.
Local Government and Democratic Political Development
Authors: TEUNE HENRY
Published: March 2007

The spread of democratic ideas and the emergence of a global system have contributed to a resurgence of the local. One major form of decentralization in the twentieth century has been the breakup of empires into nation-states, the most recent example being the Soviet Union. The pressures for democratization have led to a new emphasis on local governance below the level of the nation-state. The rise of a global political economy provides localities with an alternative to national capitals. Although the patterns of local governance have similar features of provincial and local governments, the push for democracy will give local politics a greater role in the issues of peace and prosperity than has been true during the long recent period of the rise in authority of nation-states.
Mediator's Flexibility and the U.N. Security Council
Authors: TOUVAL SAADIA
Published: March 2007

This article explores how the U.N. Security Council's quality of being an intergovernmental entity affects its flexibility and its effectiveness in mediating international conflicts. These effects are traced through a discussion of mediator's functions: helping disputants to communicate, providing ideas, inducing the disputants to change their positions, and providing guarantees that the agreed terms of a settlement will be respected. The analysis leads to the conclusion that flexibility may have contributory effects on the council's ability to influence the disputants' behavior. Depending on the specific circumstances and the functions that the mediator is trying to perform, flexibility or the lack of it may encourage disputants to become more flexible but may also have the opposite effect of encouraging rigidity. The council's difficulties in performing its mediating functions stem from its cumbersome and uncertain decision-making process and its lack of resources.
How Risks are Identified and Assessed
Authors: GRAHAM JOHN D. , RHOMBERG LORENZ
Published: March 2007

Risk analysis can usefully be applied to potential health and safety risks from technology and pollution. We examine historical examples of how knowledge about risk is developed, discussing the capabilities as well as the limitations of analyses to identify potential risks, establish causes, and estimate the probability that harmful effects will occur. One speaks of “risk” because, in any particular instance, an adverse outcome may or may not occur; causative factors skew the probabilities of different outcomes. Accordingly, the detection and measurement of risk must be derived from samples of instances. Real-world observations of risk may be supplemented with controlled experiments, and risks of interest must often be estimated indirectly through extrapolation from analogous circumstances. The ensuing uncertainty affects the clarity of ranking risks against one another and limits the usefulness of risk analysis alone as a means of resolving social conflicts about risk.
Risk and the Human Environment
Authors: RAPPAPORT ROY A.
Published: March 2007

This article is concerned with the nature of what federal legislation calls “the human environment” as a preliminary to understanding impacts upon it and risks to it. After discussing the features that distinguish human systems from others, emphasizing nonmetrical aspects of their sociocultural characteristics, eighteen points concerning risks and impacts are made. The article concludes with a discussion of the possible place in the human environment of what Stephen Toulmin calls “post-modern science and risk analysis.”
Reforming Risk Regulation
Authors: NOLL ROGER G.
Published: March 2007

A commonly observed characteristic of risk regulation policy is the absence of coherent prioritization of risks and inconsistencies in the stringency of controls on risks that are regulated. The purpose of this article is to examine the roots of this problem in the way both citizens and their elected representatives deal with uncertainties associated with catastrophic risks, why elected politicians respond to this problem in constructing regulatory institutions that are prone to inconsistency, and whether various proposals to reform the regulatory process would be likely to improve its performance. The main conclusions are that most reform proposals are strongly inconsistent with democratic responsiveness, which is the most important principle that elected officials use in designing programs, and that the only plausible means for making regulatory policy more coherent is to increase the resources of regulatory agencies so as to give them greater control over the public agenda in risk policy.
Holocaust and Holy War
Authors: RUBENSTEIN RICHARD L.
Published: March 2007

The anti-Christian elements in Nazi ideology obfuscate a view of the Holocaust as a modern holy war. That view is not linked with the concept of apocalyptic messianism or the notion that holy war attempts to enforce religious beliefs. This war's objective was the elimination of those who did not share the majority's symbolic universe, an objective wherein religion played a major role—as is the case in Bosnia today. European history is replete with attempts to reduce those who do not share the common religious or cultural identity in the heart of Christendom, attempts to defame, baptize, or expel the disconfirming other. Although systematic extermination constitutes a discontinuity with the past, and although the Nazi state was hostile to Christianity, the Holocaust was a holy war that benefited those for whom the guarding of the Christian symbolic universe as the cornerstone of civilization depended on the elimination of Jews and the defeat of bolshevism.
Supplement: Genes and Society: Puzzles, Promises, and Policy
Authors: CHURCHILL ERIC
Published: March 2007

This article is a summary of a conference organized by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia on the topic of genetic research. The conference considered ramifications of applications of the research, including health-related decision making, discrimination against people with particular genetic makeups, and patents. Religious, ethical, and business viewpoints were discussed.
Conflicts in Transforming Society and the Nongovernmental Sector: The Slovak Example
Authors: ONDRUŠEK DUŠAN , LABÁTH VLADIMÍR
Published: March 2007

This article focuses on the basic conflict of a self-transforming post-Communist society. Two phenomena are described. The first comprises the ways in which people cope with this conflict during the transformation period; the five most frequent reactions are opportunistic, materialistic, defensive, victimlike, and mobilization. The second phenomenon is the more general phenomenon of the development dynamics that characterize the basic conflict. The conflict between the third (nongovernmental) sector and the government in Slovakia is presented as an example of these dynamics.
Canadian Gambling: Trends and Public Policy Issues
Authors: CAMPBELL COLIN S. , SMITH GARRY J.
Published: March 2007

In this article, we trace the evolution of Canadian gambling legislation and outline the various approaches to gambling regulation and control that are currently used in Canadian jurisdictions. The nature and scope of gambling in Canada are analyzed with a primary focus on the wagering formats, gambling clientele, and revenues generated from the activity. Canadian problem gambling prevalence rates are discussed along with the programs that have been instituted to mitigate the incidence and effects of problem gambling. Several features of Canadian gambling that differ from what is offered in the United States are highlighted, the growing citizen backlash against certain forms of gambling is examined, and we conclude with a brief critique of Canadian gambling policies.
Casino Gambling and Street Crime
Authors: MILLER WILLIAM J. , SCHWARTZ MARTIN D.
Published: March 2007

Although legalized gambling, and in particular casino gambling, has become an increasingly important American leisure activity, it has not escaped extensive controversy. Among the many evils forecast for communities that open casinos is a major increase in street crime. This article will review what we know about the relationship between street crime and casino gambling.
Educational Television is not an Oxymoron
Authors: ANDERSON DANIEL R.
Published: March 2007

An implicit justification for the Children's Television Act is that curriculum-based television programming, such as Sesame Street, is in fact educational. Such programming, however, has been attacked on grounds that it produces shortened attention spans and retards thought and language development. I review these claims in the light of research on children's television viewing. The research provides no support for these attacks and instead reveals both short-and long-term benefits from curriculum-based programming.
Rome and American Catholics
Authors: DILLON MICHELE
Published: March 2007

This article considers the paradox evidenced by American Catholics' simultaneous rejection of papal teaching and their enduring commitment to Rome. This issue is explored by focusing on one group of apparently anomalous Catholics, members of the Women's Ordination Conference (WOC), who contest Vatican opposition to women priests. It is suggested that the legitimation narratives that WOC members use to validate their identity as Catholics committed to a doctrinal stance denounced by Rome illuminate one of the mechanisms that enable Catholics in general to maintain their religious identity while disagreeing with papal teaching. Derived from their lived knowledge of Catholicism, WOC respondents claim the authority to interpret doctrine and use that interpretive autonomy to offer doctrinally grounded reasons in favor of change. Empowered by Catholicism to reflexively critique church doctrine and practices, WOC members both validate their particularized interpretations of Catholicism and maintain communion with the church's more universal community of memory.