bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Gubernatorial Use of the Item Veto for Narrative Deletion
Authors: Abney Glenn , Lauth Thomas P.
Published: March 2003

Legislative use of narrative, such as conditions and riders, in appropriations bills has become common and has had negative consequences for the executive budget and veto, as well as for the legislative process. Some governors have used the item veto as a remedy. While they have not necessarily diminished the amount of narrative, they have achieved some protection of the executive budget and veto power. Their success depends greatly on the type of legal authority embodied in this constitutional power.
The Dissolution of Joint Living Arrangements among Single Parents and Children: Does Welfare Make a Difference?
Authors: Brandon Peter D. , Fisher Gene A.
Published: March 2003

Objective. This research examines the claim that states' newfound autonomy to devise their own welfare systems will lead to more intergenerational family dissolution. Critics of welfare reform argue that children residing in states with lower welfare benefits will be more at risk of living apart from parents, as some parents will lack sufficient income to raise children. Methods. Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation were analyzed employing a discrete‐time hazard model. Results. The findings suggest that the risk of children living apart from parents was lower in states offering higher welfare benefits. Also, results indicate that the children at greatest risk of living apart from parents are those who are either newborns or teenagers, are white, or have parents with disabilities. Conclusions. Growing reluctance across all levels of government to provide income support for needy families may accelerate the upward trend in parent‐child separation. Results further broaden the literature on household responses to economic setbacks by showing that economic deprivation leads single‐parent families to reduce the number of coresident children.
Lack of Confidence in the Federal Government and the Ownership of Firearms
Authors: Jiobu Robert M. , Curry Timothy J.
Published: March 2003

Objective. Scholars have debated the importance of declining confidence in social institutions to the American political system. The objective of this research was to offer and test the hypothesis that individuals with little faith in the three branches of the federal government will be more likely to own firearms than individuals with higher levels of confidence. Methods. The data were drawn from the General Social Survey for the years 1982‐1996 and analyzed with a multivariate logistic regression equation that controlled for many of the variables known to be associated with gun ownership. Results. The regression showed that even in the presence of many control measures, respondents who lacked confidence in the federal government were more likely to own firearms than their counterparts who had greater faith in the federal government. Conclusion. Although the hypothesis relating confidence in government to gun ownership was supported and has important policy implications, the data did not permit us to disentangle possible causal relationships. For that, further research will be necessary.
Explaining Marital Dissolution: The Role of Spouses' Traits
Authors: Zimmer Michael
Published: March 2003

Objective. One of the most profound changes in American society since 1950 has been a decline in the stability of marriages. Many studies that focus on marital dissolution are based on analyses of individual marriages that track their success or failure over time. Most research views the family as a single decision‐making unit that arrives at a decision concerning the status of the marriage. Previous work has not explicitly considered the role of spouses' individual traits in the process of marital dissolution. This article treats spouses' behaviors as distinct phenomena. Methods. The study is based on the Marital Instability Over the Life Course 1980–1988 panel data set. The data do not include information on each spouse's choice. Instead we observe only the final outcome of the two decisions. To address that limitation, the model is estimated using a bivariate probit model with partial observability. Results. The kurtosis and variance are largely insensitive to important distributional differences, most importantly that between bimodality and trimodality. Estimates indicate that there are noteworthy contrasts between spouses with respect to variables that induce a choice in favor of marital dissolution. Conclusions. These findings suggest that husbands and wives are motivated by different socioeconomic factors in decisions relative to the stability of their marriages.
Majority Party Leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1977–96: Speakers, Committee Assignments, and Institutional Context
Authors: Mason John Lyman
Published: March 2003

Objective. This paper describes and explains the presence of variousstrategies used by party leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives to increase cohesion among members of the majority party. Methods. Logistic regression analysis is performed on assignments to the most prestigious committees from the 95th through the 104th Congresses. Results. Leaders are likely to reward loyal members, to favor no ideological wing of the majority party, and to protect—on occasion—the vulnerable members of the caucus. Conclusions. The implementation of these strategies varies according to short‐term changes in the institutional context of the majority party.
African American Activists in the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1920s–1950s
Authors: Blackwell‐Johnson Joyce
Published: March 2003

When the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) decided to open its membership to African American women in 1915, it entered a new era. Just as women changed the agenda and direction of the peace movement when they became increasingly involved in what had been an all‐male club, so too did African American women alter the path of a cause that had previously lacked racial diversity. Black women brought to the movement historical experiences shaped by multidimensional pressures and societal racism. Their experiences influenced their definition of peace and freedom, which sometimes led to intense debate between them and their white colleagues over related issues. Nevertheless, the two groups of women were able to put aside their differences long enough to move forward on certain goals. Along the way, black and white dissidents had a tremendous impact upon each other. This study examines one side of that process: specifically, how African American women's increased presence in WILPF, coupled with their heightened desire to eradicate racial injustice, compelled the white leadership to revisit its own conceptions of peace and freedom.
An Antiwar Movement That Was Not A Peace Movement: The Mothers' Crusade Against World War II
Authors: Jeansonne Glen
Published: March 2003

From 1939 through 1945 millions of women belonging to the self‐styled“mothers' movement” crusaded against American involvement in World War II. The mothers were not pacifists who opposed all wars; rather, they believed the United States should fight the Soviet Union instead of Germany. Ironically, these reactionary women mixed appeals to the preservative love of mothers with anti‐Semitism, red‐baiting, and sympathy for Hitler. This rare movement of women of the far right, who created their organizations because men of the extreme right denied them leadership positions, demonstrates that womenoppose specific wars for varieties of reasons, noble and ignoble.
Eisenhower: Turning Himself Toward Peace
Authors: Chernus Ira
Published: March 2003

In the months immediately following the end of World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower gave many speeches in which he bestowed symbolic meaning on the war and the ensuing peace. He urged a continuing struggle to protect civilization and achieve lasting global peace. These speeches were designed to boost the interests of the U.S. Army and the liberal internationalist elite. To this end, Eisenhower used several different concepts of peace, all rooted in his own religious ideology. All of them spoke of peace as order and stability, but all implied that civilization's war against disorder could never end. Therefore Eisenhower developed a new image of peace as a precarious order endlessly struggling to save itself from chaos. This was the image of peace he would employ as president, reshaping U.S. cold war discourse.
Reconsidering “Invasion Most Costly”: Popular‐History Scholarship, Publishing Standards, and the Claim of High U.S. Casualty Estimates to Help Legitimize the Atomic Bombings
Authors: Bernstein Barton J.
Published: March 2003

This is a critique of an article in the popular military magazine U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (August 1995) by journalist/historians Norman Polmar and Thomas Allen. Those two coauthors argued for high casualty numbers in the November 1945 invasion of Japan in order to justify the atomic bombings. Because their article is severely flawed, because it appeared in a popular military journal, because it won a prize and is likely to be regarded as authoritative, and because it was conceived to justify the atomic bombings, it warrants serious critical examination. This critique examines, among other problems, the two coauthors' misreading of sources, their reliance upon some dubious materials, their neglect of some important documentary evidence, and their questionable reasoning and conclusions. Ultimately, this critque also discusses the social/political functions of Polmar and Allen's article, and briefly raises some questions about standards in scholarship and in publishing. This critique is based upon very substantial archival research, as well as the use of the Freedom of Information Act, and considerable knowledge of the A‐bomb literature, the casualty‐estimates literature, and the scholarship on the Smithsonian's ill‐fated Enola Gay exhibit.
Training for Cosmopolitan Citizenship in the 1930s: The Project of Dimitrije Mitrinovic
Authors: Rigby Andrew
Published: March 2003

Generations of peace seekers have sought an alternative modeling of the world beyond the Westphalian system of separate sovereign states. Recent global trends have raised the possibility of new institutional frameworks and processes for promoting world peace, including that of “cosmopolitan democracy.” If the utopian vision of cosmopolitan democracy is to become real, then the development of new political structures must be accompanied by a growing consciousness of what it means to be a cosmopolitan citizen. This paper examines the methods developed by one “utopian” to prepare his coworkers and followers for cosmopolitan citizenship in London during the years prior to the Second World War.
United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica: History andProspects
Authors: Osborn Wayne S.
Published: March 2003

The United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica was established by the General Assembly in 1980. Over the past two decades the university has explored a number of innovative approaches to peace education, including actively working to create a culture of peace throughout Central America. Unfortunately, inadequate funding has limited its ability to become a fully fledged academic institution. Once financial stability is achieved, the university has the potential to become a major center for graduate peace studies in the Americas.
Justice but LittlePeace: Peace‐Building as a New Catholic Social Action Agenda
Authors: Headley, C.S.P. William R.
Published: March 2003

Roman Catholics with a 1960s worldview used “justice and Peace” as a powerful single expression, almost as a hyphenated word. The end of the cold war and a new consciousness of intrastate armed conflict worldwide intensified the focus on peace‐building within the Catholic Church's missionary community. In this new orientation, a wide “inner‐outer” understanding of peace is proposed. The peace‐building effort is shown to be too important to leave to politicians and diplomats. It must be the work of “multi‐tracks” of society. Exploratory peace‐building research suggests both a critique of long‐established forms of religious peace‐building and new opportunities.
“We Closed Down the Damn School”: The Party Culture and Student Protest at Southern Illinois University During the Vietnam War Era
Authors: Lieberman Robbie , Cochran David
Published: March 2003

In May 1970, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC), was one of hundreds of college campuses that shut down for the rest of the term in the wake of violence that followed the killing of four students by the National Guard at Kent State University. This article analyzes the makeup of the student movement at SIUC, arguing that it was composed of three strains: student rights, New Left, and what we call the “party culture.” Local issues such as the hours women had to be in their dormitories at night brought such groups together in an attempt to gain control over their own lives. The movement did not turn its full attention to the Vietnam War until it had a local symbol of university complicity with the war, the controversial Vietnamese Studies Center. In detailing the events at SIUC, we challenge the standard narrative of the sixties that treats the later part of the decade as a period of “decline.” We argue that the movement was still going strong, not only in spite of but because of the turn to a more expressive politics.
What Makes the Nobel Peace Prize Unique?
Authors: Van Den Dungen Peter
Published: March 2003

One measure of the success of the Nobel peace prize is the many other awards it has inspired for efforts promoting peace and nonviolent conflict resolution. However, none of these prizes enjoys the global fame and prestige associated with the Nobel prize. Its long history and regularity, the high cash award, the context of the other Nobel prizes, and the annual media events that the award announcement and ceremony have become all help to explain what is unique about this prize. Moreover, the Nobel peace prize is the most general award for peace available that is not limited to any particular kind of work, actor, or region. The decision‐making body is independent, and not linked to any social grouping or ideology. While the only purpose of the Norwegian Nobel Committee is to award its peace prize, for virtually all other bodies that award peace prizes it is an instrument, among others, for the pursuit of the particular objectives of the founders. The pre‐eminence of the Nobel peace prize is likely to persist.
Private Voluntary Aid and Nation Building in South Vietnam: The Humanitarian Politics of CARE, 1954–61
Authors: Pergande Delia T.
Published: March 2003

Between 1954 and 1961, American private voluntary organizations (PVOs) endorsed U.S. intervention in Vietnam and offered humanitarian assistance to help save the Vietnamese people from communism. The Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere (CARE) and a prominent group of PVOs solicited the support of American and Saigon governments and willingly supplemented official strategies to build an independent, noncommunist nation in South Vietnam under Ngo Dinh Diem. Government authorities protected and advised PVOs’ operations, subsidized their distributions, and used their altruistic reputations to boost the psychological impact of America’s role there. As U.S. military involvement escalated, PVOs’ partnership with the government ultimately hampered their aid efforts by politicizing their humanitarian programs and increasing their dependence on government security. CARE’s participation in this failed nation building experiment reveals the pervasiveness of Americans’ cultural and political misjudgments about Vietnam’s struggle for independence. It also shows how private citizens and beneficent institutions helped serve Cold War objectives and implement U.S. foreign policy.
The Mothers of La Plaza de Mayo: A Peace Movement
Authors: Abreu Hernandez Viviana M.
Published: March 2003

On April 30, 1977, at 3:30 in the afternoon a historical transformation began in Argentina. This transformation was carried out by Argentinean women acting in the social and political spheres against a military regime that directly affected them and their futures. The Mothers of La Plaza de Mayo have reshaped the concepts of motherhood, feminism, activism, resistance, and social action in Argentina and the rest of the world. This study looks at the Mothers of La Plaza de Mayo as a peace movement instead of a human rights movement, resistance movement, or feminist movement, as it has been previously analyzed. Looking at the literature analyzing peace movements and nonviolent direct action, I propose that the Mothers of La Plaza de Mayo should be seen as a peace movement.
Against the Indifference Hypothesis: The Holocaust and the Enthusiasts for Murder
Authors: Glass James M.
Published: March 2003

This essay takes issue with what is known as the “indifference” hypothesis regarding the murder of Jews during the Holocaust. The Germans' fear of typhus, their perception of the Jew as poisonous, biological matter, “life unworthy of life,” created a group state of mind in which many individual Germans, particularly those in the professions, enthusiastically participated in the logistics, machinery, ideology and legitimation of mass murder.
Can Support for Democracy and the Market Be Learned in School? A Natural Experiment in Post‐Communist Poland
Authors: Slomcyznski Kazimierz M. , Shabad Goldie
Published: March 2003

A new program in civic education was introduced in Poland in 1994 to foster support for democracy and a market economy among youth. This program was based on the active teaching/learning model of education, with frequent student participation in “democratic games” and ”market simulations.“ This paper focuses on a sample of students, ages 14 and 15, who participated in this program and contrasts them with students subjected to the traditional civics program. The main analysis of cross‐sectional data (gathered in 1996) reveals two countervailing effects: Relative to students in the control group, students in the treatment group were less likely to take extreme anti‐democratic or extreme anti‐market positions, and they were less likely to take extreme pro‐democratic or extreme pro‐market positions. Additional analysis of panel data (1994–1996) supports the conclusion that active participation in civic education results in students' political attitudes regressing toward the mean, that is, in their rejection of extreme stances. These findings not only contradict the no‐effect hypothesis but also demonstrate a peculiar, partially intended and partially unintended, impact of civic education in schools on political learning.
Understanding Party Identification: A Social Identity Approach
Authors: Greene Steven
Published: March 2003

Social identity theory holds that individuals derive their self‐concept from knowledge of their membership in a group (or groups) and that they place value and emotional significance on that group membership, with resulting perceptual and attitudinal biases. Individuals favor the in‐group to which they belong which they define against a relevant out‐group. In this study, a partisan social identity scale was used to reinterpret perceptual features of partisanship through the lens of social identity theory. The social identity of political independents was also examined in an effort to explain the anomalous behavior and identity of partisan leaners. Social identity theory provided a viable alternative framework for understanding the common bipolarity of perceptions regarding the two major U.S. political parties. In addition, an independent social identification may, in part, explain the identity of partisan leaners.
Self‐Effacing and Self‐Defeating Leadership: Adlai E. Stevenson
Authors: Cowden Jonathan A.
Published: March 2003

Using neo‐Freudian analysis, this essay argues that as a child Adlai Stevenson experienced shame, anxiety, and ambivalence about the value and consequences of his initiative and autonomy. He responded with an imaginative coping mechanism, creating an idealized image in which ambition and autonomy were subordinated to duty and service. After a sequence of searing events during the Eriksonian period of identity versus role confusion, he resolved his identity crisis by becoming, in his mind, his idealized image. This conception of Stevenson's character provides a rich explanation of his behavior in the presidential nomination contests of 1952 and 1960.
“Oh Those Crazy Cards Again”: A History of the Debate on the Nazi Rorschachs, 1946–2001
Authors: Brunner José
Published: March 2003

This essay provides a critical history of the debate on the Rorschach Inkblot Tests administered to 22 leading figures of the Third Reich who were imprisoned in Nuremberg in 1945–1946. This debate occurred in two stages. The question at the heart of the first stage was whether the Nazi leaders were sane or psychopaths. Despite a strong disagreement concerning the use of these diagnostic labels, there was a surprisingly broad agreement on the actual substance of the discrepant diagnoses. Divisions of opinion, however, arose from political dissension in two areas: the nature of liberal democracies and authoritarian regimes, and the possibility of trust in any political leadership. The second stage was marked by an ideology of convergence aimed at establishing a consensual “scientific truth” on the Nazi Rorschachs. Thus, the politics of the second phase were motivated by interests and ambitions internal to the field of Rorschach expertise, rather than by extraneous political anxieties.
When Self‐Interest Matters
Authors: Chong Dennis , Citrin Jack , Conley Patricia
Published: March 2003

The relative influence of self‐interest and values on policy preferences was assessed experimentally in a national survey that posed questions about three contemporary political issues—Social Security reform, the home mortgage interest tax deduction, and health care benefits for domestic partners. For each issue, respondents were randomly assigned to one of three priming conditions that influenced the frame of reference for their policy evaluations. The results show that people are more likely to recognize their own self‐interest, and to act upon it, when their stakes in the policy are clear or when they have been primed to think about the personal costs and benefits of the policy. This relationship is somewhat weakened but not eliminated when sociotropic considerations are primed. People with a smaller stake in an issue are less likely to behave on the basis of self‐interest and more likely to be influenced by their values and symbolic predispositions, especially when exposed to information that cues sociotropic concerns, group identifications, or value orientations.
Political Expectations and Cultural Perceptions in the Arab‐Israeli Peace Negotiations
Authors: Mishal Shaul , Morag Nadav
Published: March 2003

In the various Arab‐Israeli peace negotiations that have taken place since the late 1970s, each party entered the process, and continues to function within it, from the vantage point of different political expectations and cultural perceptions. These differences derive from the political features and social structures of the Arab parties and the Israeli side, which range from hierarchical to networked. Israel leans toward hierarchical order, whereas the Arab parties are more networked; these differences in the social and political environments influence the negotiating culture of each party. Hierarchical states develop goal‐oriented negotiating cultures, whereas networked states have process‐oriented negotiating cultures. The expectations that each side has of the other side to fulfill its part of the bargain are different as well; in hierarchical states such expectations are based on contracts, whereas in networked states such expectations are based on trust. Because it is unlikely that different cultural perceptions and the gap between the parties can be significantly bridged, it may be possible to cope with mutual problems if all parties were willing to accept a reality of perceptional pluralism (i.e., negotiating asymmetric arrangements, rather then each party insisting on mutual accommodation based on its own perspective).
What to Do at Low Doses: A Bounding Approach for Economic Analysis
Authors: Griffiths Charles W. , Dockins Chris , Owens Nicole , Simon Nathalie B. , Axelrad Daniel A.
Published: March 2003

To quantify the health benefits of environmental policies, economists generally require estimates of the reduced probability of illness or death. For policies that reduce exposure to carcinogenic substances, these estimates traditionally have been obtained through the linear extrapolation of experimental dose‐response data to low‐exposure scenarios as described in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment (1986). In response to evolving scientific knowledge, EPA proposed revisions to the guidelines in 1996. Under the proposed revisions, dose‐response relationships would not be estimated for carcinogens thought to exhibit nonlinear modes of action. Such a change in cancer‐risk assessment methods and outputs will likely have serious consequences for how benefit‐cost analyses of policies aimed at reducing cancer risks are conducted. Any tendency for reduced quantification of effects in environmental risk assessments, such as those contemplated in the revisions to EPA's cancer‐risk assessment guidelines, impedes the ability of economic analysts to respond to increasing calls for benefit‐cost analysis. This article examines the implications for benefit‐cost analysis of carcinogenic exposures of the proposed changes to the 1986 Guidelines and proposes an approach for bounding dose‐response relationships when no biologically based models are available. In spite of the more limited quantitative information provided in a carcinogen risk assessment under the proposed revisions to the guidelines, we argue that reasonable bounds on dose‐response relationships can be estimated for low‐level exposures to nonlinear carcinogens. This approach yields estimates of reduced illness for use in a benefit‐cost analysis while incorporating evidence of nonlinearities in the dose‐response relationship. As an illustration, the bounding approach is applied to the case of chloroform exposure.
1998 Annual Meeting Plenary Session: Assessing and Managing Risks in a Democratic Society
Authors: Charnley Gail , Graham John D. , Kennedy, Jr. Robert F. , Shogren Jason
Published: March 2003

The theme of one of the plenary sessions held at the 1998 annual meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis, ‘Assessing and Managing Risks in a Democratic Society,’ was chosen to reflect the current debate about the best ways to integrate social, political, economic, and technical issues into fair risk management decisions. In the papers presented here, the three plenary speakers provide their perspectives on how environmental risk management decision making is—or should be—informed by democratic processes.

John D. Graham Making Sense of Risk

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Risk, Democracy, and the Environment

Jason Shogren Markets to Master Health and Environmental Risk

Audience Questions and Answers
Characterizing Dose‐Response Relationships in Multiple Cancer Bioassays
Authors: French Jonathan L. , Williams Paige L.
Published: March 2003

In the evaluation of chemical compounds for carcinogenic risk, regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Toxicology Program (NTP) have traditionally fit a dose‐response model to data from rodent bioassays, and then used the fitted model to estimate a Virtually Safe Dose or the dose corresponding to a very small increase (usually 10−6) in risk over background. Much recent interest has been directed at incorporating additional scientific information regarding the properties of the specific chemical under investigation into the risk assessment process, including biological mechanisms of cancer induction, metabolic pathways, and chemical structure and activity. Despite the fact that regulatory agencies are currently poised to allow use of nonlinear dose‐response models based on the concept of an underlying threshold for nongenotoxic chemicals, there have been few attempts to investigate the overall relationship between the shape of dose‐response curves and mutagenicity. Using data from an historical database of NTP cancer bioassays, the authors conducted a repeated‐measures analysis of the estimated shape from fitting extended Weibull dose‐response curves. It was concluded that genotoxic chemicals have dose‐response curves that are closer to linear than those for nongenotoxic chemicals, though on average, both types of compounds have dose‐response curves that are convex and the effect of genotoxicity is small.
Limits of Applicability for the Deterministic Approximation of the Two‐Step Clonal Expansion Model
Authors: Heidenreich Wolfgang F. , Hoogenveen Rudolf
Published: March 2003

Motivated by a hypothesis published recently, the limits of applicability of the deterministic approximation of the two‐step clonal expansion model are investigated. The approximate hazard increases unlimited, while the exact hazard is approaching a constant value. The approximate solution becomes inapplicable for hazards in the order of that constant rate. When the initiation rate is much larger than the cell division rate, the survival rate is small when the approximation becomes inapplicable. The simplicity of the exact solutions suggests using them in all situations.
Safety Risk Analysis of an Innovative Environmental Technology
Authors: Parnell Gregory S. , Frimpon Michael , Barnes John , Kloeber, Jr. Jack M. , Deckro Richard F. , Jackson Jack A.
Published: March 2003

The authors describe a decision and risk analysis performed for the cleanup of a large Department of Energy mixed‐waste subsurface disposal area governed by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). In a previous study, the authors worked with the site decision makers, state regulators, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional regulators to develop a CERCLA‐based multiobjective decision analysis value model and used the model to perform a screening analysis of 28 remedial alternatives. The analysis results identified an innovative technology, in situ vitrification, with high effectiveness versus cost. Since this technology had not been used on this scale before, the major uncertainties were contaminant migration and pressure buildup. Pressure buildup was a safety concern due to the potential risks to worker safety. With the help of environmental technology experts remedial alternative changes were identified to mitigate the concerns about contaminant migration and pressure buildup. The analysis results showed that the probability of an event with a risk to worker safety had been significantly reduced. Based on these results, site decision makers have refocused their test program to examine in situ vitrification and have continued the use of the CERCLA‐based decision analysis methodology to analyze remedial alternatives.
Better Negative than Positive? Evidence of a Bias for Negative Information about Possible Health Dangers
Authors: Siegrist Michael , Cvetkovich George
Published: March 2003

Do the results of a scientific study influence confidence in the study's validity and the magnitude of change in the resulting perceived danger of the health risk investigated? Findings from the three investigations reported here indicate that scientific results that confirm a danger (negative results) do affect confidence in a study's validity and resulting risk assessments differently than results indicating low risk (positive results). Findings of Study 1 revealed that research results indicating a health risk were more trusted than results indicating little health risk. This effect was independent of the credibility of the information source. Study 2 demonstrated that confidence in research results increased with an increasing indication of health risk. Study 3 showed that people have more confidence in the results of animal tests on a food additive indicating negative human health effects than in animal tests indicating that a food additive is harmless. The findings have important practical implications. The observed asymmetry between positive and negative research results may be one reason that people are afraid of many of the hazards they are faced with in modern society.
Risk Analysis, Systems Analysis, and Covey's Seven Habits. Perspectives
Authors: Haimes Yacov Y.
Published: March 2003

This article relates problem solving to the common approaches of the gestalt – holistic philosophies of systems analysis, risk analysis, and Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Guiding principles developed on the basis of these philosophies provide the foundations for methodological frameworks that build on a plethora of theory, methods, tools, and techniques. Although systems analysis and risk analysis differ in their historical evolution and technical maturity, both study and solve problems using methodological frameworks that share a holistic vision.
Robustness of Conditional Moments: An Application to Premium Calculation of Reinsurance Treaties
Authors: Hsieh Ping‐Hung
Published: March 2003

In this study, the tail probability of a class of distributions commonly used in assessing the severity of insurance losses was examined. Without specifying any particular distribution, the use of an algebraic functional form Cx−α to approximate the tail behavior of the distributions in the class was demonstrated. Norwegian fire insurance data were examined, and the algebraic functional form was applied to derive the expected loss of a reinsurance treaty that covers all losses exceeding a retention limit. It was shown that (1) the expected loss is insensitive to the parameter α for a high retention limit (e.g., a catastrophe treaty), and (2) with a low retention limit (e.g., a largest claim treaty), a reliable estimate of the parameter α and a sound judgment on the maximum potential loss of the treaty could provide useful and defensible summary statistics for pricing the treaty. Thus, when dealing with the losses of certain reinsurance treaties, it was concluded that knowledge of a specific probability distribution is not critical, and the summary statistics derived from the model are robust with respect to a large class of loss distributions.
Using Epidemiological Studies to Check the Consistency of the Cancer Risks Predicted by High‐Dose Animal Experiments: A Methodological Review
Authors: Bukowski John A. , Schnatter A. Robert , Korn Leo
Published: March 2003

Epidemiological studies have been cited in the literature as evidence both for and against the human cancer risks predicted by high‐exposure rodent studies. However, there has been little overall consistency in the ways that these animal‐to‐human comparisons have been made. This review examines some examples of these types of comparisons and describes the methods and techniques used by different investigators. Eleven “key decision areas” that need to be addressed are identified and recommendations for consistent, logical, and statistically appropriate approaches that might be taken to standardize the process are provided. In general, it is suggested that investigators provide the most useful information when they use logical, transparent, and statistically valid comparisons to pursue limited and focused objectives, such as directly testing the validity of an existing regulatory guidance value. Other recommendations include selecting biologically plausible extrapolative models that fit the data and drawing conclusions that are consistent with the study results and objectives.
Options in Radioactive Waste Management Revisited: A Proposed Framework for Robust Decision Making
Authors: Flüeler Thomas
Published: March 2003

Deregulation, with concurrent pressure on electricity utilities, has fundamentally changed the once‐“closed” radioactive waste management system controlled by the so‐called “nuclear establishment.” Advocacy coalitions may change—who knows in which direction—but policy learning may also take place. This article presents a framework to evaluate the management options for a specified concept of “sustainability.” When weighing the different objectives in view of the long‐lasting potential danger of radiotoxic substances, the overall goal of a sound waste management system is to demonstrate safety. The first‐priority objective of a disposal system, therefore, is its stability so that it can comply with the protection goal, that is, the long‐term protection of humans and the environment from ionizing radiation. The complementary objective is flexibility, defined here as intervention potential. Because trade‐offs within the “sustainability triangle” of ecology, economy, and society are unavoidable, the concept of “integral robustness”—both technical and societal—is introduced into radioactive waste management. A system is robust if it is not sensitive to significant parameter changes. In the present case, it has to have a conservative, passively stable design with built‐in control and intervention mechanisms. With regard to technical implementation, a concept called “monitored long‐term geological disposal” is presented. Such an “extended” final disposal concept emphasizes technical robustness, recognizes evaluation demands (for a potential break‐off of a project), and enhances process‐based transparency. This open approach admittedly sets high challenges with regard to technicalities as well as the institutional setting and the management process. It requires “mutual learning” by and from all stakeholders to achieve a truly sustainable radioactive waste management system.
Looking in the Wrong Place: Why Chile Provides No Evidence for Social Security Privatization
Authors: White Joseph
Published: March 2003

The performance of Chile's system of state‐sponsored private pensions has been a major theme for advocates of privatizing U.S. Social Security. Chile's experience also has been criticized by defenders of the current U.S. system. This article explains why, though the critics deserve the upper hand, the whole discussion is misguided. The most basic issue in the policy debate is how adequately pensions could be financed through regulated individual investment in financial markets. Chilean experience offers little evidence on this question because, for the first fifteen years of the system, pensions and accumulations in the Chilean funds had little to do with the kinds of market forces that would be relevant to predicting experience anywhere.
Budgeting during the Clinton Presidency
Authors: Joyce Philip G. , Meyers Roy T.
Published: March 2003

This article assesses the Clinton administration record of budgeting. During President Clinton's two terms, the federal government moved from an era of large deficits to one of equally large surpluses. This turnaround was caused by both the strong economy and the deficit reduction deals of 1990, 1993, and 1997. Defense spending and interest declined as a percentage of the budget, whereas mandatory spending and nondefense discretionary spending increased. Acrimonious interbranch budgetary relationships dominated, with Clinton ultimately winning far more fights than he lost. Executive branch budgetary and financial management capacity improved during the Clinton administration.
Cutback Management in the Netherlands
Authors: Kraan Dirk‐Jan
Published: March 2003

In this article cutback management is defined as the effort of cabinet ministers to facilitate budgetary cutback decisions through institutional change. Institutions are conceived as formal and informal rules for budgetary decision making. The article presents a sketch of the ways in which successive Dutch cabinets over the 1975–98 period attempted to cut back the expenditures of central government by institutional change and outlines the results that were achieved. The article focuses on three institutions: (1) macrobudgetary norms, (2) rules of budgetary discipline, and (3) procedures for the preparation of cutback decisions. The article identifies two kinds of effective resistance against cutbacks: (1) political resistance emanating from cabinet ministers and (2) bureaucratic resistance emanating from the administrators of executive agencies. It analyzes how the various forms of institutional change affect these forms of resistance and evaluates the results of the cutback effort.
Rethinking Human Rights
Authors: Little David
Published: March 2003

In reviewing five edited collections and one monograph from the 1990s, the article summarizes the present status of the “human rights revolution” that was signaled by the adoption in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It goes on to elaborate and evaluate some of the attempts contained in these books to deal with theoretical and practical controversies surrounding the subject of human rights, particularly the discussion of what to make of “cultural relativism” as far as human rights are concerned. Finally, the article summarizes some recent thinking and research on a neglected area, namely compliance with human rights standards protecting “freedom of religion or belief.”
The Purusārthas: An Axiological Exploration of Hinduism
Authors: Sharma Arvind
Published: March 2003

Three doctrines have often been identified in the context of Hindu civilization as its distinctive markers: the doctrine of the varnas (or the doctrine of the four classes), the doctrine of asramas (or the doctrine of the four stages of life), and the doctrine of the purusarthas (or the doctrine of the four goals of life). The study of the last of these has been comparatively neglected and the doctrine has even been dubbed a myth (Krishna 1996, 189–205). The purpose of this article is twofold: to establish the cogency of the doctrine of the purusarthas in the face of such criticism and to indicate the directions in which the doctrine could be developed further.
Naturalism, Formalism, and Supernaturalism: Moral Epistemology and Comparative Ethics
Authors: Jackson Timothy P.
Published: March 2003

If the much discussed fragmentation of the West meansthat we can seldom hold constructive moral conversations with our near neighbors, why imagine that comparative ethics is feasible as a critical enterprise with a coherent method? How, more specifically, do we understand the relative merits of naturalism, formalism, and supernaturalism as ethical orientations? The author addresses these questions first by examining the meaning of the quoted terms, then by criticizing the inordinate optimism of most naturalisms and formalisms. The article ends by briefly elaborating and defending a supernaturalist conception of Christian love. As a fruit of the Spirit, agape leaves one neither heteronomous nor autonomous, but holy. Such holiness can move one to appreciate, judiciously, cultures different from one's own.
Can a Pacifist Have a Conversation with Augustine? A Response to Alain Epp Weaver
Authors: Turner Johnson James
Published: March 2003

Christians have historically differed as to whether the wrongness of an act is to be located in the objective character of the act or in the intention of the agent. By blurring this distinction, Alain Epp Weaver fails to see the real principle of consistency that unites Augustine's analyses of warfare and lying. Likewise, by not appreciating the fact that Augustine analyzes the wrongness of the act in terms of intention whereas Yoder analyzes its wrongness in terms of its objective character, Weaver proposes a conversation between two figures who lack the framework of shared assumptions that makes engagement in conversation possible.
Rethinking Ethics in the Light of Jewish Thought and the Life Sciences
Authors: Samuelson Norbert M.
Published: March 2003

Judaism in the twentieth century began to return to its scriptural, communal roots after a centuries‐long detour through Greek‐influenced natural philosophy, a detour during which science and ethics were assumed to be partners and Jewish ethics drew heavily on natural philosophy and science. Twentieth‐century philosophical ethics and science, particularly biological science, have developed in such a way as to make any continuation of that historical partnership problematic. This is not altogether regrettable because the problematizing of this long‐standing partnership has driven Jewish ethics back to its real roots: covenantal relationship, and moral wisdom and discernment.
Altruism: A Social Science Chameleon
Authors: Grant Colin
Published: March 2003

The self‐interest paradigm that has dominated and defined social science is being questioned today in all the social sciences. Frontline research is represented by C. Daniel Batson's experiments, which claim to present empirical evidence of altruism. Impressive though this is against the background of the self‐interest paradigm, its ultimate significance might be to illustrate the inadequacy of social science to deal with a transcendent reality like altruism.
Myths as Instructions from Ancestors: The Example of Oedipus
Authors: Steadman Lyle B. , Palmer Craig T.
Published: March 2003

The growing interest in dual‐inheritance models of human evolution has focused attention on culture as a means by which ancestors transmitted acquired phenotypic characteristics to their descendants. The ability of cultural behaviors to be repeatedly transmitted from ancestors to descendants enables individuals to influence their descendant‐leaving success over many more generations than are usually coclusive fitness. This essay proposes that traditional stories, or myths, can be seen as a way in which ancestors influence their descendant‐leaving success by influencing the behavior of many generations of their descendants. The myth of Oedipus is used as an example of a traditional story aimed at promoting proper behavior and cooperation among kin. This interpretation of the Oedipus myth is contrasted with Freudian and structuralist interpretations.
Powerful Pedagogy in the Science‐and‐Religion Classroom
Authors: Grassie William
Published: March 2003

This essay is a discussion of effective teaching in the science‐and‐religion classroom. I begin by introducing Alfred North Whitehead's three stages of learning—romance, discipline, and generalization—and consider their implications for powerful pedagogy in science and religion. Following Whitehead's three principles, I develop a number of additional heuristics that deal with active, visual, narrative, cooperative, and dialogical learning styles. Finally, I present twelve guidelines for how to use e‐mail and class‐based listserves to achieve some of these outcomes.
How One Unitarian Universalist Integrates Evolution into his Theology and Religion
Authors: Brooks George G.
Published: March 2003

Evolution can be a “weasel word” unless circumscribed to mean only a morphological change over time. When this is done, the fact of what can be distinguished from the faith of how. I believe that evolution is purely a natural process, but recognizing that everyone creates his or her own God, I feel justified in giving the name God to that mysterious presence in every interaction that causes transformation, since this is what gives the universe its dynamism. I relate how this God concept informs my religious and ethical life and gives my life meaning and purpose.