Showing papers on "State (polity) published in 1979"

The Course of Mexican History

Abstract: Mexico's political, social, and economic landscapes have shifted in very striking ways in recent years, and the country now moves cautiously into the twenty-first century. The Course of Mexican History has been updated and revised to address these remarkable transformations. This eighth edition offers a completely up-to-date, lively, and engaging survey from pre-Columbian times to the present. For this new edition, the authors have streamlined the text, making it more concise and readable without diluting its broad scope. The book now features an updated section evaluating the presidency of Vicente Fox from 2000 to 2006 and a sixteen-page color insert that vividly illustrates the links between Mexico's history and arts. It also includes 200 photos and drawings, thirteen maps for ease of reference, and an appendix listing all Mexican heads of state, from Tenoch through Fox. The leading textbook in its field, The Course of Mexican History is indispensable for students of Mexican history, politics, economics, and culture.

Efficient Wage Bargains Under Uncertain Supply and Demand

Abstract: Much recent thought has been devoted to the macroeconomic importance of the existence of wage contracts. Still, some puzzling features of the most conspicuous form of wage bargaining, that done formally by employers and labor unions, deserve further theoretical attention. Among these important features are: 1. Collective bargaining agreements are rarely contingent on outside events even though the parties have very imperfect knowledge of prospective economic conditions during the period of the contract. The only important exception is the indexing of wages to the cost of living. 2. Employers are permitted wide discretion in determining the level of employment when demand shifts unexpectedly. As employment varies, total compensation varies according to a formula established in the agreement. 3. Agreements are not permanent but are renegotiated on a regular cycle. 4. In the process of renegotiation, the current state of demand has little impact on the new wage schedule. On the other hand, current wages in other industries have an important influence. This feature especially has been denied or ignored by economic theorists even though it is a prominent part of the thinking of labor economists on wage determination.

The political consequences of the product cycle: industrial history and political outcomes

Abstract: What explains the continuing stagnation in the industrial economies of the West? What will be the impact of such stagnation upon domestic politics and upon international relations? Are there domestic and foreign policies which the state can undertake to bring about a return to sustained economic prosperity and a recapitulation of that lost golden age of 1948–1973? These are now the central questions for scholars in the emerging field of international political economy. A recent special issue of International Organization, edited by Peter Katzenstein, has presented some of the most useful and sophisticated approaches to these questions and analyses of the international political economy of the West during the period of the last thirty years.

Competition, Constituencies, and Welfare Policies in American States*

Abstract: This article examines the logic underlying standard formulations of the interparty competition hypothesis in the comparative state policy literature, suggests a reformulation which provides some new insights into the conditions under which we might expect state policies to change as a result of party characteristics, and undertakes an initial test of the reformulation.I develop two propositions. The first is that party systems which divide the electorate along economic class lines will generate more generous welfare policies than party systems which do not so organize the electorate. The second is that within states with class-based electoral systems, change in welfare policy will be positively related to the degree to which the party or faction with lower- and working-class support gains control of government.I analyze welfare policies of selected American states for the period 1938 to 1970. My analysis suggests that (1) the class basis of electoral politics does influence state welfare policies and (2) parties and factions which differ in their constituency bases produce different types of policies when they are in control of government.

Win One for the Giver? Alumni Giving and Big-Time College Sports.

Abstract: For intercollegiate zied many coaches americans, attempt athletics, to rousing rally thanks their half-time in large downtrodden part speeches to a charges 1940 in which movie epitomize frenthat zied coaches attempt to rally their downtrodden charges epitomize ntercollegiate athletics, thanks i large part to a 1940 movie that depicted Notre Dame's Knute Rockne beseeching the Fighting Irish to "win one for the Gipper" (former Notre Dame player George Gipp). In the years that have passed, a premium on winning has come to pervade college sports for more self-serving reasons, such as the athletes' need to establish national reputations so they can graduate into the professional ranks and the coaches' need to build winning records so they can entrench themselves in their positions or move on to even better things. Clearly, big-time college sports (football and, to a lesser extent, basketball) are no longer considered merely pleasant diversions from the important business of life if they were ever seen in that light. Americans may smirk at the unrefined athletic fanaticism that ignited a "soccer war" between Honduras and El Salvador, but how different are the passions that rage each autumn when the game of the season is played between Army and Navy, Texas and Oklahoma, Ohio State and Michigan, USC and UCLA, or Harvard and Yale? Although "the Gipper" is no longer with us, college football and basketball teams are still trying to win for the sake of the alumni. Many old grads are staunch supporters of the athletic department, its personnel and its policies; are faithful followers of the school's teams; and are prolific donors to the school's annual fund. But if the football or basketball team falls on hard times, athletic directors, coaches and even college presidents become a target for disgruntled alumni groups. Because alumni are thought to be so attuned to their school's athletic fortunes, it is widely believed that alumni donations soar after a successful season and plummet in the wake of athletic failure. In the words of the old saw, "Alumni are for giving but not forgiving."

PATTERNS OF LEGAL FIREARMS OWNERSHIP: A Cultural and Situational Analysis of Illinois Counties

Abstract: Using county level data for the state of Illinois, we constructed a path analytic model predicting legal gun ownership for men. women, and minors. We consider the interplay between situational and cultural variables in determining legal ownership. Two patterns of firearms ownership are identified: (1) gun ownership among women as a response to high rales of violent crime and (2) a sporting culture. Neither pattern has strong relations to urban-rural differences amoung counties. Legal gun ownership is not necessarily related to a violent subculture. Ownership may be part of, a response to, or totally unrelated to a subculture of violence.

Teaching Is Decision Making.

Abstract: Do teachers make a difference? The researchbased answer to that question is an unequivocal yes. What is it about teachers that makes the difference? Here the answer is not so clear, but studies are show ing that it is not what a teacher is, or how a teacher feels, but what a teacher does that has the potential for affecting students' achievement. Teaching is now defined as the process of making and implementing decisions, before, during, and after instruction, to increase the probability of learning. If what a teacher does is consonant with what is now known about cause-effect relationships in learning, and if that teacher's decisions and actions reflect awareness of the current state of the learner and the present environment, then learning will predictably increase. These qualities in professional decision making are a far cry from the "dedicated and loves kids" product of many teacher education programs. Now, adequate professional preparation parallels that of medicine, for it requires the professional to learn, in ternalize, and implement the contributions of science to increased productive human functioning. Profes sionalism also mandates that those scientific principles always be interpreted in the light of, and be modified to accommodate the needs of, an individual in his/her particular life space. Let's look at a common example of the interaction of science and s ituation in decision making. Johnny is just catching on to "invert-the-divisor-and-multiply." Research suggests that repeated practice (going over it several times) at this initial stage of understanding will result in faster and more durable learning. There fore, Johnny should do two or three more problems before he leaves for recess. However, Johnny's team has a baseball game organized for recess and if he thinks he'll be late for the game he won't have his mind on what he's doing. His feelings of discomfort can become associated with fractions in particular and math in general. What to do? Would it be better to

Doctor Patient Relationships and the Older Patient

Abstract: The authority of physicians in patient encounters is posited by the sicrole and the professional-client models in sociology. Yet, public challenges to physician authority are currently occurring, as shown by self care movements, and by some empirical data. Whether the elderly share in such challenges is, however, an unresolved question. Will longer experience with health services produce skepticism about medicine's claims, or conversely will the aged's probable more authoritarina upbringing and concern about failing health produce acceptance of physician authority? Data from an interview survey of 640 randomly sampled persons in a midwestern state, reveal that the 153 respondents aged 60 and over are more likely to accept physician authority, both in terms of attitudes and behaviors, than are the younger groups. Moreover, the findings show that the level of older persons' challenging attitudes is affected by their health knowledge and general views on authority, while their challenging behaviors are influenced by belief in right to medical information and an experience factor. Implications of the findings for appropriate modes of doctor-patient relationships for the elderly are discussed.

Patrimonialism and policy making in Egypt: Nasser and Sadat and the tenure policy for reclaimed lands

Abstract: During his five years as President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Anwar al Sadat has emerged from the shadow of Nasser's legacy to rule in his own right. At home he has initiated steps to liberalise the economy and the polity, while simultaneously he has redirected Egypt's foreign policy away from the Fertile Crescent to the Arabian Peninsula and from the East toward the West. But Sadat has done more than just command an about face to Egyptians marching down the paths marked out by his predecessor. He has developed a distinctive leadership style or strategy of ruling which in turn has brought about not a fundamental but nevertheless a very important change in the process of government and politics in Egypt. This, in addition to the fact that Sadat undeniably had a hard act to follow, but already has succeeded, at least in the eyes of Egyptians if not other Arabs, in attaining something like the stature of Nasser, suggests that the two Presidents would make excellent case studies of comparative political leadership.' Moreover, as both these men may be said to be of the same genus of political leaders (patrimonial), but of different species, a comparison of their leadership styles may illuminate both the strengths and the weaknesses of patrimonial leadership and may also assist an understanding of the dynamics of contemporary Egyptian politics. NASSER: Genus - patrimonial; species - exclusionist According to Max Weber a patrimonial ruler is a patriarch who rules his domain through an administrative structure which has emerged not as a corporate body but as an extension of the ruler's household kinship group such that administrators are tied to the ruler by bonds of 'paternal authority and filial dependence'.2 Access to the person of the ruler rather than expertise or other abstract criteria provide in a patrimonial system the bases for recruitment and the exercise of power and influence. Access may be obtained by virtue of a subject's direct ties to the ruler, to a person who in turn has access to the ruler, or through a chain of personal connections with yet more links. In the patrimonial state clientage networks emanating downward from the ruler provide the organisational structure by which the state is actually governed

Hilarius, Germanus, and Lupus: The Aristocratic Background of the Chelidonius Affair

Abstract: ONE OF THE BEST-KNOWN EXAMPLES of the attempts of the bishops of Rome to forward their pretensions to ecclesiastical hegemony came in 445, when Leo, the bishop of Rome, obtained from the emperor Valentinian III a rescript detailing the primacy of the see of Rome.' The pretext for the issuance of this rescript lay in a quarrel which Leo was having with Hilarius, the bishop of Arles, who had been attempting to reestablish the influence of his own see in Gaul.2 The ramifications of the dispute with regard to the internal structure of the Gallic church, the relations between the Roman church and the Roman state, and the establishment of the primacy of the church of Rome were so far-reaching that the original causes of the feud have been either glossed over, or, more commonly, totally ignored. The dispute has been viewed either in a primarily ecclesiastical context, or, more recently, as a reflection of the dissension between the Gallic and Italian aristocracies.3 Hitherto, no attempt has been made to search out the purely Gallic origins of a conflict which only later was to have such startling repercussions. Leo leveled against Hilarius two specific accusations. One of them concerned a bishop Proiectus, whose see is unknown, whom Hilarius had replaced on grounds of illness. Nothing further is known of this incident except that Leo ordered Proiectus' restoration.4 By far the betterdocumented of the charges is that regarding the deposition of Chelidonius,

The village woman in Ghana

Abstract: The difficult position of women in Ghanian society lies both in structures that are manifested through the policy of the state, and in factors that are specific for this society, having their origi ...

Systems Collapse as Social Transformation: Catastrophe and Anastrophe in Early State Societies

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses several features of a system collapse and the aftermath of such a collapse. It has been observed that there are cases where suddenly, and without any very obvious cause, a brilliant and flourishing society with a highly structured, central administrative organization disappears from the archaeological record. The immediate aftermath is always less clearly understood because the range of archaeological evidence is much less adequate. The early state society fragments into a whole number of smaller units that are at a much lower level of sociopolitical integration. The collapse of central power is followed by competition among various small power groups inside the former territory and on its borders. The new central organization that in many cases develops in the same area often after a few centuries traces its origins back to one of these small groups.

The secret state

Abstract: Behind President Carter's 'human rights' rhetoric lies the reality of dozens of dependent dictatorships in the Third World. Meanwhile, in the developed capitalist nations, whose leaders pride thems...

Planters and the Making of a "New South": Class, Politics, and Development in North Carolina, 1865-1900

Abstract: Billings disputes the assumption that an incipient merchant class built the state's cotton mills; he reveals that a majority of the early mills was owned by prominent planters and agrarians. He shows the persistent hegemony and support for industrialization among the landed upper class and describes several generations of five powerful North Carolina families who spread plantation paternalism to the mill-village system. Billings compares this with similar cases in Germany and Japan.A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

School influence and pupil attitude towards religion

Abstract: Summary. Attitudes towards religion of 2,272 third and fourth year junior pupils were studied in relation to the type of religious education provided by their school. Comparisons were made between Roman Catholic aided, Church of England aided, and Local Education Authority schools. Comparisons were also made between schools which provide no religious education, schools which follow a ‘traditional’ syllabus, and schools which follow a ‘modern’ syllabus. It was found that there was no difference in pupil attitude in State schools which provide no religious education, State schools which follow the ‘traditional’ syllabus, State schools which follow the ‘modern’ syllabus, and Church of England Schools which follow the ‘traditional’ syllabus. Pupils in Roman Catholic schools scored higher on the attitude scale and pupils in Church of England schools which followed the ‘modern’ syllabus scored lower. These findings question both the effectiveness of syllabus revision in religious education, and the specifically religious contribution of certain Church of England aided primary schools.

Government Legitimacy and Political Stability

Abstract: It is generally assumed that widespread public confidence in the government is essential for political stability in the U.S. and other advanced capitalist democracies. This legitimacy-stability thesis implies that individuals with little confidence in the government would be particularly prone to support political protest. However, theoretical and empirical considerations suggest that this thesis must be revised to include a third, interacting factor-the preexistence of an organized protest movement: low confidence in the government is likely to translate into protest support only when such a movement is present. Using data from a 1972 national survey, only moderate associations are found between several indices of confidence in the government and support for political protest, and these associations are significantly reduced when salient structural factors (e.g., race, unemployment, community involvement) are taken into account. These results are not expected under the widely accepted, unrevised, legitimacy-stability thesis. However, consistent with a revised version of the thesis, it is found that low confidence in the government is strongly associated with protest support among those groups whose interests were being actively promoted by visible protest movements. State legitimacy, the widespread public belief that the society's governing institutions and political authorities are worthy of support, is commonly held to be a precondition for political stability in advanced capitalist democracies. In fact, Lipset (a) has argued that a regime's legitimacy may even be a more important determinant of political stability than how well the regime actually performs. The legitimacy-stability relationship has become a central tenet of most contemporary analyses of American society, including both structural-functionalist and neo-Marxist formulations. Talcott Parsons, for instance, contends that without citizen faith in the political system, the government is incapable of attaining the society's collectively *The authors' names are in arbitrary order, as this was a collaborative effort. The data used in this paper were made available by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research; the authors, however, take sole responsibility for the analysis and interpretation of these data. We are grateful to Gordon Fellman, Joseph Helfgot, Richard Wilsnack, Yoram Neumann, and two anonymous readers for valuable comments on an earlier draft.

The Response of State Government Receipts to Economic Fluctuations and the Allocation of Counter-Cyclical Revenue Sharing Grants.

Abstract: : This paper estimates the responsiveness of receipts of 49 state governments to fluctuations in economic activity. The concluding sections uses these estimates to evaluate the allocation of counter-cyclical revenue sharing grants among states and makes some suggestions for improvements in the allocating formula.... Allocations, Cycles, Econometrics, Economics, Grants, Local government, State government, Revenue sharing, Unemployment.

Plato's Feminism

Abstract: In an interesting article in the July, 1976 issue of Philosophy Julia Annas gives a number of reasons why Plato's argument in Book V of the Republic fails either to make an adequate case for sexual equality or to be relevant to the concerns of present-day feminists. She argues that Plato's admitted belief in male superiority robs his argument of any real force; and that since he wants sexual equality purely in order to increase the efficiency of the state, and not because inequality is wrong in itself, or because it produces frustration and unhappiness, the whole basis of his 'feminism' is different from that of the twentieth century, so that he cannot be seen as a genuine forerunner of contemporary advocates of equality between the sexes. Plato did believe in the superiority of men over women; and his argument for sexual equality is based on the belief that it is in the interests of the community. Nevertheless, what he says can still be used to knock down any attempt to build a case for sexual, class or racial discrimination. When Socrates asks (Republic V, 455) 'Do you know of any human occupation in which the male sex is not superior to the female?' and Glaucon replies that 'No doubt many women are better at many things than many men, but taking the sex as a whole it is as you say', this does not introduce a fatal flaw into the argument, but paradoxically makes it more powerful. Such claims as 'Men are more skilled than women', 'Whites are more intelligent than Blacks', etc., are indeed false. But whether true or false, they cannot have any practical relevance: the true claim that men are physically stronger than women is just as irrelevant as the false one that they are more rational. The only difference between all men and all women is that, as Plato puts it, 'the male begets and the female gives birth'. So, once we have pointed out the fairly obvious fact that these differences are irrelevant to the question of what occupations the two sexes should follow, we have done all that is necessary. All other claims are about most men and most women; and no statement about most men and women enables us to infer anything at all about any particular man or woman. Now Plato's concern is precisely with the needs and capacities of the individual: he has a vision of a society in which each person leads the life for which he or she is best suited. Even if very few women are as good at

The Compact Minorities and the Syrian State, 1918-45:

Abstract: Historians of the modern Arab world tend to emphasize the elements of novelty and discontinuity that were introduced during the period of the first world war and the ensuing Peace Settlement. This perspective stresses such aspects as the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, the formation of the Arab states, the establishment of a direct and indirect European rule and the replacement of traditional loyalties by the supremacy of Arab nationalism. A different perspective underlines the importance of patterns and processes which were transmitted often in a modified form from the late Ottoman period to the Empire's Arab successor states. One such facet of the transition from Ottoman to Arab rule concerns the dominant role played in the government of the new states by members of the notable families, which had played a salient role in Ottoman administration and politics particularly in the nineteenth century.' This element of continuity also had an important impact on the relations between the communities which formed the heterogeneous population of the new states of the Fertile Crescent. Thus, the Arab governments installed in Damascus and Baghdad represented a perpetuation of the Sunni predominance and hegemony of the Ottoman period for the sizeable Shiite communities of Syria and Iraq.2 In this context the relationship which developed between the embryonic Syrian state and the Alawi and Druze communities is of particular interest to the study of both the Ottoman legacy and the issue of inter-communal relations in the Arab successor states of the Ottoman Empire. The two 'compact minorities'3 shared a

Economic and Military Position of the Regional Power Centers

Abstract: The emergence of the regional power centers in the Third World is a manifestation of the unequal development of the international system. The domestic development of these centers is usually based on a close alliance between the state and the economic sector; and, varying from one state to another, on export of raw materials, on the substitution of imports and finally on the promotion of exports of goods and capital. In the last phase the external expansion of the regional centers is highly visible; they tend to create regional spheres of influence based on a multitude of economic, political, and military ties. Regional power centers today are cementing their regional spheres by military expansion, in turn greatly facilitated by the establishment of domestic capacity to produce conventional and even nuclear weapons. A strong military capability is an important characteristic of the regional centers. 'Mature' centers are relatively stable in political and economic terms, while the emerging enters tend to b...

Black Education in New York State: From Colonial to Modern Times

Abstract: From the slave schools of the early 1700s to educational separation under New Deal relief programs, the education of Blacks in New York is studied in the broader social context of race relations in the state