'The longest road to equality': The Politics of Institutional Desegregation Under Truman

Abstract This paper addresses two questions. First, how did selected public institutions (principally the Armed Services and US Civil Service Commission) sustain segregationist values and assumptions? Second, how did President Truman tackle institutional segregation given the political support for this system in Congress and the Democratic party before the 1950s? I draw upon the ‘new institutional’ framework to analyse the role of public sector organisations in maintaining institutional segregation. I reject the new institutional thesis that such institutions are relatively autonomous because this claim neglects their political support and political origins, and the extent to which the values and assumptions they embody are protected politically. I argue that the national political coalition underpinning segregation explains why Truman relied upon executive action to effect institutional desegregation. Archival material from the investigative committees Truman established is marshalled to support these arguments.     

An analysis of variance type test for comparing clusters of DNA sequences based on randomization test methodologies

SUMMARY A method for comparing groupings of DNA sequences is presented, which utilizes randomization test methods to assign significance levels to a test statistic defined in terms of the Hamming distance between two sequences. The method, which is intuitively motivated by the analysis of variance procedure, partitions the variation caused by differences between clusters from the variation attributable to differences at random base pair locations within clusers. Implementation issues are discussed, and an example of the application of the method is provided.     

Why I am not an Individualist

In his defence of emergence, David Elder‐Vass assumes that my hermeneutic position represents a form of individualism. Although a common reading of my position, the claim that I am in individualist is incorrect; I, too, recognize the centrality of collective phenomena to social reality. In fact, there is a close convergence between emergence and the hermeneutic sociology I advocate. However, there also remains an important divide between us. Despite his care to avoid reification, Edler‐Vass descends into ontological dualism, conceptualizing society in terms of structure and agency.     

The International Economy and Presidential Approval

There is widespread consensus that the state of the economymatters for presidents' standing in public opinion. To thispoint, however, the economy that has been taken to influencepresidential approval has been exclusively domestic. We showthat the domestic economy continued to matter in the 1990s,but so too did America's international economic performance,as measured by the national trade balance and inflation in theprice of imported goods. We further show that not all tradingpartners are equal in their implications for the president'spublic standing. Disadvantageous trade relations with Canadahave no effect on the president's approval ratings, while similarrelations with Japan depress them significantly. We explainthis difference by patterns of media coverage, showing thatthe volume of media coverage of trade relations with the twocountries has contrasting effects on presidential approval ratings.     

Researching the food processing-farming chain: the case of Nova Scotia

Cette communication se propose d'examiner le débat sur le destin des petits producteurs agricoles dans les sociétés capitalistes avancées. On examine ce problème avec une étude empirique du complexe agro-alimentaire de la Nouvelle Écosse. L'étude a démontré une concentration rapide des industries agro-industrielles dans la province, et le rôle important du secteur de vente en détail dans ce domaine. Nos recherches montrent aussi que les industries agro-alimentaires préferent avoir des contrats direct avec les fermiers pour les produits périssables, et que ces industries jouent un rôle important dans la concentration d'exploitations agricoles. Une comparaison avec la situation en Ontario indique que les conseils de la mise en marché peuvent améliorer la situation économique des agriculteurs en négotiations avec les industries agro-alimentaires. This paper attempts to shed further light on the debate over the fate of petty commodity producers in advanced capitalism. Arguing for a more comprehensive analytical framework, this problem is examined through an empirical study of the food processing-farming complex in Nova Scotia, Canada. The study found evidence of rapid corporate concentration in food processing in recent years and support for the thesis that food retailer concentration is at least partly responsible for this. Preference for contract farming arrangements was apparent, but only in the case of especially perishable agricultural commodities. The impact of contract farming on producer independence is assessed. Some evidence of food processors fostering the concentration of farm operations also came to light. A comparison of process crop prices and contract conditions in Nova Scotia and Ontario suggest that producer controlled marketing boards can significantly enhance the economic position of farmers vis-a-vis corporate processors.     

Assimilation and Contrast of Presidential Candidates'Issue Positions, 1972

Voter assimilation, the tendency to exaggerate the similaritybetween their favored candidate's position on issues and theirown position, and contrast, the tendency to exaggerate the distancebetween their nonpreferred candidate's position on issues andtheir own position, were examined in the University of MichiganCenter for Political Studies 1972 national election study. Significantassimilation effects were found on all nine issues considered,for both McGovern and Nixon voters, replicating and extendingfindings for the Vietnam issue in 1968 election data. Contrasteffects occurred primarily on issues which polarized the electorateand on which the candidates were viewed as distinct. Assimilationwas enhanced both by party identification and by attractionto preferred candidate. These moderators did not uniformly enhancecontrast     

‘Does your granny eat grass?’ On mass migration,care drain and the fate of older people in rural Albania

Older people have been the main social casualties of the collapse of the Albanian communist system and the ensuing mass emigration of younger generations since 1990. Some have had to forage for survival on a near‐starvation diet, making broth from grass and weeds. For others, remittances from emigrant children ensure adequate material well‐being, but a loss of locally‐based trans‐generational care and of intimate family relations occurs. Rates of emigration have been highest in the southern uplands, where our fieldwork took place. Migration has been mainly to Greece, but also to Italy and elsewhere. Interviews with elderly ‘residual households’ ‐ single people and couples ‐ reveal stories of loneliness and abandonment; cross‐generational rupture of hitherto tight family structures is seen as emotionally painful because of the impossibility of enjoying mutual benefits of care sustained by geographical proximity. Profoundly upsetting is the denial of the practice of grand‐parenting, which the older generation see as their raison d'être. Cost of travel, visa regimes and emigrants’ irregular status conspire to prevent international visits. Finally, we examine various strategies of overcoming the ‘care drain’ produced by this situation, one of which is for older people to try to join their migrant children and grandchildren abroad.