Private‐Sector Investment in Infrastructure: Rationale and Causality for Pro‐poor Impacts

This article reviews the arguments for promoting private investment in infrastructure as a basis for poverty reduction in developing countries. It describes the experience leading to the development of international ‘facilities’ intended to address impediments to private investment. It then explores three ‘levels’ of literature: that of the facilities themselves, of donor organisations, and of academic authors. At each, it investigates the rationale and causal pathways leading from support for private investment to pro‐poor outcomes. It finds there is a possible but not necessary association between private investment, economic growth and poverty reduction, but the causal chain is poorly understood. It proposes the development of such a causal framework.     

Institutions and Policies for Pro‐poor Agricultural Growth

Global experience with pro‐poor growth and empirical work spanning India, Malawi and Zimbabwe demonstrates the importance of agricultural growth for poverty reduction in poor rural areas, while also pointing to the need for complementary non‐farm sector growth. Theoretical arguments, historical evidence and livelihoods modelling in poor medium‐potential rural economies suggest that, contrary to thinking dominating much of current development policy, subsidies to relieve critical seasonal credit and cash restraints and reduce market and input supply uncertainties need to help in ‘kick‐starting’ agricultural markets if increased smallholder productivity in food‐grains is to drive rural non‐farm growth. Establishing the base conditions for these to work, designing and implementing them to be effective, and then phasing them out are major challenges facing policymakers.     

Opposition to Pro‐Immigrant Public Policy: Symbolic Racism and Group Threat

This study examines the relationship between symbolic racism and native‐born citizens’ policy opinions toward legal and undocumented immigration. With data from the 1994 General Social Survey and the NPR/Kaiser Foundation/Kennedy School of Government 2004 Immigration Survey, the results from logit regression models indicate that symbolic racism significantly predicts opposition to legal immigration, immigrant access to federal aid, and standard costs for college, citizenship for U.S.‐born children, and work permits for undocumented immigrants. The effects are independent of group threat and other factors. Symbolic racism explained more variation in policy opinions toward government assistance, while group threat explained more variation toward immigration levels and citizenship status. Depending on the issue, native‐born citizens likely derive their immigration policy opinions from moral ideologies in addition to intergroup competition.     

Overcoming Market Constraints on Pro‐Poor Agricultural Growth in Sub‐Saharan Africa

In sub‐Saharan Africa, there is fairly broad agreement that increased investment in key public goods such as roads and communications infrastructure, agricultural research and water control will be required if revitalised agricultural development is to take place. However, it has proved more difficult to reach agreement on what needs to be done to improve the performance of agricultural markets. In this article we set out an agenda for investment and policy reform in this area, providing a brief theoretical examination of the co‐ordination problems involved before examining in turn demand and supply constraints affecting smallholder farmers, and policies for price stabilisation and the co‐ordination of support services. We also argue that increased attention needs to be paid to governance issues.     

Memories of War: Sources of Vietnam Veteran Pro‐ and Antiwar Political Attitudes

The sources of political attitudes are among the most studied phenomena of modern politics. Moving away from the traditional focus on party systems, the demographic characteristics of voters, or political socialization, I consider instead how memory and narrative shape political consciousness. Specifically, I focus on how culturally sanctioned memories of warfare influence the political attitudes of 24 Vietnam veterans. I compare two groups of Vietnam veterans who went to Vietnam in support of the war and political status quo, but who returned with opposing attitudes toward war. How can we understand these contrasting outcomes? Specifically, how do memories of war shape political attitudes? Antiwar veterans relate similar narratives of having their idealistic views of war challenged and experiencing a major rethinking of their support when they learn the true nature of warfare. On the other hand, pro‐war veterans share a patterned narrative of indifference rather than idealism when describing their continued support of the war and political status quo after they return from Vietnam. I conclude by arguing that memory and narrative are an important mechanism for shaping political attitudes.     

Not by Rent Alone: Analysing the Pro‐Poor Functions of Small‐Scale Fisheries in Developing Countries

The dominant view in academic and policy arenas is increasingly one in which the major contribution of capture fisheries to development should be derived from the capacity of society to maximise the economic rent of fishery resources. Drawing upon empirical experience from the South, this article highlights the potentially disastrous consequences that a universal implementation of the rent‐maximisation model would have in developing countries, and argues that a more gradual approach would be preferable. The welfare function of small‐scale fisheries, namely, their capacities to provide labour and cash income to resource‐poor households, should be preserved until the appropriate macroeconomic conditions for rent‐maximisation and redistribution are fulfilled.     

Questioning the Pro‐Poor Agenda: Examining the Links between Social Protection and Poverty

This article investigates an empirical puzzle. Taking the case of Botswana, how is it that poverty is so high, when the country largely conforms to pro‐poor growth strategies? This article suggests that the minimal role of social‐security policies partly explains the relatively high poverty levels. This hypothesis is tested in a large‐N study of developing countries which shows that broad‐based and generous, rather than pro‐poor, social‐security policies impact strongly on poverty levels. The analysis further alludes to other obstacles to poverty reduction, such as economic transformation, which may be combined with a pro‐active social‐policy agenda. Thus, poverty‐alleviating strategies should be refocused to allow for a wider and more coherent role for social‐security policies.     

Pro‐family Organizations in Calgary, 1998: Beliefs,Interconnections and Allies*

Dans cet article, nous comparons les convictions des différents groupes pro‐famille de Calgary et nous préscntons la structure des liens qui unissent ces groupes. Les données, recueillies en 1998, proviennent de documents et d'entretiens semi‐structurés avec les chefs de file de ces groupes. Nous abordons ici trois problèmes de recherche. Tout d'abord, nous examinons la teneur des relations entre groupes pro‐famille et pro‐vie. Tous les groupes pro‐famille, même ceux qui se prononcent résolument contre l'avortement, se dis‐tinguent des groupes pro‐vie sur le plan tant organisational que politique. Ensuite, nous nous penchons sur le rôle des croyances chré‐tiennes au sein du mouvement. Nous affirmons que, bien que les groupes chrétiens aient été dominants en 1998, la promotion, de la famille hétérosexuelle nucléaire, et non les questions de doctrine, a été fondamentale pour le mouvement. Enfin, nous examinons si le mouvement s'est scindé entre socioconservateurs et centristes, les centristes étant peu représentatifs en 1998. En outre, l'un des groupes présentant un profil centriste, la National Foundation for Family Research and Education, a tout fait pour légitimer du point de vue scientifique les arguments moraux des socioconservateurs en faveur de la famille. En conclusion, nous soutenons que le mouvement pro‐famille à Calgary s'est éloigné de sa vocation initiale de contre‐mouvement antiféministe. Dans l'avenir, la popularité du mouvement pro‐famille au Canada dépendra peut‐être des valeurs postféministes qu'il affichera. This paper presents a comparative study of the beliefs of pro‐family organizations in Calgary and a structural mapping of organizational ties. Data were gathered in 1998 from documents and semi‐structured interviews with group leaders. Three research problems are addressed. The first concerns the closeness of the relationship between pro‐family and pro‐life groups. We find that all pro‐family groups, even those with strong anti‐abortion convictions, were organizationally and politically distinctive from pro‐life groups. The second problem considers the role of Christian beliefs in the movement. We ascertain that although Christian groups were dominant in 1998, promotion of the heterosexual nuclear family, not doctrinal issues, was fundamental to the movement. The third problem concerns whether the movement was bifurcated between social conservative and centrist segments. The centrist segment was quite weak in 1998. Furthermore, one of the groups with a centrist persona, the National Foundation for Family Research and Education, strove to supply scientific legitimation for social conservatives' moral claims about the family. In conclusion, the article argues that the pro‐family movement in Calgary has broken free of its initial phase as an anti‐feminist countermovement and suggests that the future popularity of pro‐family advocacy in Canada will be proportional to the degree that it is couched in a post‐feminist framework.     

Trust,Culture, and Cooperation: A Social Dilemma Analysis of Pro‐Environmental Behaviors

Social dilemmas require a choice between cooperation, or sacrificing for the greater good, and self‐interest. One commonly studied social dilemma is environmental conservation. Previous work suggests that trust predicts cooperation in the form of environmental protection. We contend that this view ignores cultural factors. Building on prior cross‐cultural research, we predict an interaction between strength of social ties and trust on cooperation. Findings from General Social Survey data indicate that low trust levels found in the U.S. South (a collectivist culture) renders trust ineffective at promoting environmental protection. However, trust predicts cooperation in nonsouthern regions (which are more individualist), where trust levels are higher.     

Daily,high‐potency cannabis linked to first psychosis

Daily use of marijuana (cannabis) is associated with a greater than three times increased risk of psychotic disorder compared to never users, according to a study published in Lancet Psychiatry. This risk increased to nearly five times if high‐potency cannabis was used. Across the 11 sites included in the study, if high‐potency cannabis were not available, 12.2 percent of cases of first‐episode psychosis could be prevented, rising to 30.3 percent in London and 50.3 percent in Amsterdam.     

Gender Differences in Pro‐Environmental Intentions: A Cross‐National Perspective on the Influence of Self‐Enhancement Values and Views on Technology*

While many studies have addressed the complex relationship between gender and environmental constructs, few have attempted to determine just how gender influences environmentalism. We argue that the interaction of gender with other sociocultural variables must be examined. Our study includes two of these variables: technological values and self‐enhancement values. Study results indicate that the effect of gender on environmental intentions is moderated by these two variables. This is established in a multicountry study of college students in the United States, Canada, and Germany. In examining willingness to change consumption behaviors, when controlling for self‐enhancement or technological values, the gender effect holds only when there are high scores for the other variable. When technological or self‐enhancement scores are low, men and women are equally willing to change their intentions. The gender by technology effect was moderated somewhat by country. Thus, gender alone does not function independently in its impact on respondents’ willingness to change consumption behaviors. The study results have implications for future research on the relationship between gender and environmentalism and for environmental education efforts.     

High‐potency cannabis more than quadruples risk for use disorder

Higher‐potency cannabis increases the risk for the onset of the first cannabis use disorder (CUD) symptom, researchers have found. Therefore, guidelines for potency are critical for reducing negative health outcomes, they concluded, in their study published in the December issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence.     

The Mexico of "the other side": Mexican immigrants in the United States

"The purpose of this work is to explore the advantages and disadvantages of... Mexican immigrant workers for the economy and the political and cultural status quo of the United States. The Mexican immigrant workers pose a dilemma for the United States. On the one hand, the United States needs them for a better functioning of its economy. On the other, the Mexican immigrant workers represent a racial, cultural and political challenge to the American 'establishment'.... Given the magnitude of the problem which the Mexican immigrants represent and the intense debate surrounding it, the cheap labour they represent for the economy of the United States and the unsolved conflicts this provokes, are fertile ground for the analysis of the economic, political and cultural interests competing for the degree of flexibility or the amount of policing the Mexican border should have." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND FRE)