Grief and Intellectual Disability

Abstract

People with intellectual disabilities are living longer, which in turn leads to a higher probability that they will experience significant loss due to the death of someone they know. This paper describes a systemic therapeutic model, ROC, which combines bereavement therapy with training and support for staff. On reporting the effects of the ROC model, it is noted that changes over time in the type and nature of referrals has shown the ther apeutic value of the program. The author makes a case that the best way to detect and possibly prevent serious emotional problems in this population is to provide training and support in dealing with death and related issues for the service network surrounding these individuals.     

Externalities,Prospect Theory,and Social Construction: When Will Government Act,What Will Government Do?*

Objectives. Political theories of agenda setting and policy choice are still limited in predicting when an issue will become salient and, once it has, what policy option will be used to address it. This article illustrates that for a large class of externality problems, perspectives from three other social science disciplines can refine those predictions. Methods. A synthesis of implications from economics on assignment of property rights, loss aversion from prospect theory, and image of the policy target from social construction is used to determine the conditions under which issues gain attention and the likely policy solutions. Results. Assignment of property rights establishes a baseline used to assess any further government actions, with losses from that base more likely to generate political attention. The assignment of rights also determines if a problem is defined as a negative or positive externality, which restricts the type of policies used to address the problem. This initial allocation of rights is in turn affected both by the political power and social construction of the groups involved. Conclusions. The result is a bias in policy attention and outcomes strongly influenced by the norms used in assignment of property rights, which typically favor those generating the negative externality.     

Hardly Silent: Exploring Civic Engagement and Participation among a Panel of Adults Ages 85+

ABSTRACT

The past twenty years have seen a surge of resources for and public attention devoted to civic participation opportunities for older adults in the United States. At the same time, technology has transformed the way information related to political and social issues is spread and shared. As more older adults migrate to using a wider range of communication tools and the internet, technology-mediated forms of engagement represent a new way for the oldest old to participate in society. In this study, a panel of adults ages 85 and older was surveyed to understand their experiences engaging with political and social issues. Responses to a questionnaire (N = 24) and focus groups (n = 22) indicate the oldest old are interested in social and political issues, and there are opportunities for technology to facilitate the oldest olds’ civic and political action. This study identifies roles social workers may play in helping the oldest old engage with social and political issues in their communities.     

冷战后俄罗斯反美主义的形成及其根源研究

冷战后俄罗斯的反美主义主要表现为温和型反美主义、混合型反美主义、极端型反美主义三大特点。俄罗斯反美主义的形成,从内部看有三大根源:意识形态根源、国内政治根源与国内经济根源。从外部看,俄罗斯反美主义主要是美国外交政策尤其是削俄弱俄政策、挤压俄罗斯战略空间及介入独联体事务的结果。     

Is electricity affordable in South Australia?

The development of retail competition in South Australia has exposed small consumers to substantial price rises in recent years. Such price increases for a service that is regarded as essential in the 21 century raise equity issues. Little research has yet been completed relating to the impact on the community of such prices rises, although a recent review of the socioeconomic indicators that monitor the impact of increasing electricity prices concluded that there had been a decrease in electricity affordability. It is, unfortunately, difficult to make an assessment of the impact of a decrease in electricity affordability because current indicators for measuring the decrease and its effects do not fit within a conceptual framework. This results in ad hoc indicator selection, no clear direction of benchmarks, nor acceptable targets for indicators. Offered in this paper is a discussion of these issues, along with a series of recommendations to support the establishment of a framework to monitor electricity affordability in South Australia.     

Problematising aspects of evidence‐based policy: an analysis illustrated by an Australian homelessness policy 1985–2008

Although recently criticised in the academic literature, the past few decades have seen international demand for policies to be based on evidence. In this article three aspects of the process of evidence‐based policy (EBP) are briefly examined. They include: (1) how evidence becomes socially worthy of the title; (2) the problems which arise for EBP when there is conflicting or rival evidence; and (3) facets of the transition from evidence to policy – the evidence–policy nexus. After problematising evidence‐based research in this limited way, the issues are clarified and illustrated by reference to the history of the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP: 1985–2008), renown at the time as the major Australian program for people who were homeless. SAAP involved an agreement enshrined in legislation between the Commonwealth and all states and territories of the Federation. The argument is based on evidence from the four official national reports of the policy which, over the period of the program, evaluated SAAP and were commissioned and accepted as authoritative by federal, state and territory governments. In a nutshell, the argument is that, at each iteration of SAAP, subsequent policy discounted one of the sets of evidence in the official National Evaluations. This concerned the clear evidence of a lack of external, affordable accommodation options which, in turn, undermined the objectives of the program. The issue remains topical as more recent evidence substantiates the imperative for increased accommodation options for clients ready to exit agencies.     

Generalized externality games

Externality games are studied in Grafe et al. (1998, Math. Methods Op. Res. 48, 71). We define a generalization of this class of games and show, using the methodology in Izquierdo and Rafels (1996, 2001, Working paper, Univ Barcelona; Games Econ. Behav. 36, 174), some properties of the new class of generalized externality games. They include, among others, the algebraic structure of the game, convexity, and their implications for the study of cooperative solutions. Also the proportional rule is characterized for this class of games.     

Revisiting the residential electricity demand in the United States: A dynamic partial adjustment modelling approach

In recent years, price policies and price changes derived from environmental regulations have played a more important role to promote residential energy conservation. Using recent annual state-level panel data for 48 states, we estimate a dynamic partial adjustment model for electricity demand elasticities on price and income in the residential sector. Our analysis reveals that in the short run, one unit price increase will lead to 0.142 unit of reduction in electricity use after controlling for the endogeneity of electricity price. Thus, raising energy price in the short run will not give consumers much incentive to adjust their appliances to reduce electricity use. However, in the long run, one unit price increase will lead to almost one unit consumption reduction, ceteris paribus. In addition, we find new evidence that for states of higher per capita GDP, raising the electricity price may be more effective to ensure a cut in consumption.     

State Governance,Global Governance and the Construction of World Order

State governance and global governance are two intertwining aspects in the construction of world order. A peaceful, prosperous and equitable world order encompasses internal order of sovereign states and international order of the international systems. Effective state governance nurtures internal order of sovereign states, eschews internal disorder, and prevents the spillover of negative externality into the international systems. In this sense, state governance is the cornerstone for constructing world order. In the meantime, effective global governance constructs world order and assists sovereign states in constructing internal order. In the construction of world order, different actors in the international systems represented by sovereign states inter alia must cooperate with a view to dissolving conflicts of interests and policies among states, managing global public domain, responding to common challenges and sharing responsibilities in assisting internally disordered states to govern effectively. Since the reform and opening up, China has contributed its distinctive part to the construction of world order by means of responsible state governance and global partnership governance.     

The relationship between New Zealand's climate,energy, and the economy to 2025

Abstract

This study looks at the effect of current climate variability and projected future climate change to 2025 on New Zealand's energy industry (mainly electricity supply and demand) and at the wider economic implications of these effects. Electricity demand is modulated by climate largely through temperature, while electricity supply is modulated largely through rainfall and inflows to the major hydroelectricity‐generating lakes in the South Island. Six climate scenarios are examined with an energy model to determine the change in the demand for energy and the change in the composition of energy supply, especially with regard to the mix of electricity generation. The output from this model is then used as an input to a multi‐industry general equilibrium model of the New Zealand economy.

The modelling demonstrates that while the expected effects of projected climate change on the energy industry over the next two decades are reasonably significant, the flow‐on effects from the energy to the wider economy are negligible, albeit slightly favourable. Modelling of the effects of climate variability, which includes unusually cold years, unusually warm years, and variable precipitation, however, shows that unexpected adverse events do have a measurable economic impact, particularly if wage rates are inflexible. Export industries are particularly disadvantaged by higher energy costs, implying a need for adequate reserve generation capacity. Just how much reserve capacity is optimal is a topic for further research.

Climate change scenarios to 2050 and 2100 show much greater climatic effects than are expected over the next 20 years. These have not been modelled as the types and costs of electricity generation technologies that might become available beyond 20 years are extremely uncertain.     

An Experimental Test of the Effects of Fictional Framing on Attitudes*

Objectives. Most studies of media effects in political communication focus on news media. A smaller body of work extends theories of news media effects to fictional entertainment media. Just as news media engage in priming and agenda setting, these studies suggest that fictional media do as well. In this study, we deal with fictional media's framing of issues. No research has sought to test the effects of framing in explicitly fictional media on political opinions. We develop the outlines of a theory we call “fictional framing” and test it in an experiment. Methods. Participants in our treatment group watched the film Cider House Rules. The movie frames the issue of abortion in the case of incest in a pro‐choice way, and frames morality in terms of following one's own conscience. Results. The film influenced opinions in ways consistent with the framing of these issues. Conclusions. Since abortion opinions and moral values tend to be entrenched, we consider this a strong first test of the effects of fictional framing.     

On the evaluation of solution concepts

It is proposed that solution concepts for games should be evaluated in a way that is analogous to the way a logic is evaluated by a model theory for the language. A solution concept defines a set of strategy profiles, as a logic defines a set of theorems. A model theoretic analysis for a game defines a class of models, which are abstract representations of particular plays of the game. Given an appropriate definition of a model, one can show that various solution concepts are characterized by intuitively natural classes of models in the same sense that the set of theorems of a logic is characterized by a class of models of the language. Sketches of characterization results of this kind are given for rationalizability, Nash equilibrium, and for a refinement of rationalizability —strong rationalizability — that has some features of an equilibrium concept. It is shown that strong rationalizability is equivalent to Nash equilibrium in perfect information games. Extensions of the model theoretic framework that represent belief revision and that permit the characterization of other solution concepts are explored informally.     

A note on the relationship of interdependent action to the optimality of certain voting decisions

While the theory of public goods points to socially suboptimal contributions by agents acting under Cournot assumptions, this externality can be rectified by the introduction of positive interdependence of actions to the individual's choice calculus. This paper draws attention to the fact that the institution of democratic voting is itself a means of transforming the individual calculus in such a way that parameter changes are evaluated as simultaneous adjustments by the group, on the side of benefits, but by the individual only, on the side of costs, thus generating optimal parameter preference in the case of identical agents.     

技术壁垒与贸易保护

乌拉圭回合之后,技术壁垒取代关税壁垒成为主要的贸易保护方式,但是技术壁垒并不完全对等于贸易保护,技术壁垒的存在也有其合理的成分。我们从技术壁垒的生成动机出发,将技术壁垒按照技术差异、消除外部性和纯保护性这三种动机划分为三类以区分技术壁垒与贸易保护这两个不同的概念,前两点所探讨的技术壁垒就存在其合理性,是应该被接纳和认可的,我们必须以正确的态度去对待这类技术壁垒;而对于后者,就是一种变相的贸易保护,应当援引国际法维护自身利益。     

Death Does Not Become Us

Abstract

The social issues of death, dying and bereavement represent important but neglected research areas, and such issues need attention both for practical reform and for deciphering what living with intellectual disability entails. The difficulties which life poses for people with intellectual disabilities may well persist in the times before and after death. As research issues they offer not only potential practical significance, but also a means of determining the social status and value of people with intellectual disabilities. This paper reviews the issues of death and dying from the viewpoint of sociological research and seeks to identify the ways death and dying have been treated within the research literature on living with intellectual disability. It is suggested that these issues have been discounted with some important consequences for the way intellectual disability is perceived. Important areas for research in this area are highlighted.     

Postulates and paradoxes of relative voting power — A critical re-appraisal

This paper re-evaluates the problem of measuring thea priori relative voting power of a voter in an assembly. We propose several new intuitively compelling postualtes that any reasonable index of voting power ought to satisfy. At the same time we argue that most of the paradoxes of voting power discussed in the literature are paradoxical only in a weak sense, if at all. This leaves three crippling paradoxes — the well-known paradox ofweighted voting, and two new ones presented here: thebloc anddonation paradoxes. We evaluate the four main relative power indices discussed in the literature with respect to these three severe paradoxes. The Shapley-Shubik index is seen to be immune to all three paradoxes, while the Deegan-Packel index is vulnerable to all three. The Banzhaf and the Johnston indices are demonstrably immune to the paradox of weighted voting. However, they are shown to suffer from both the bloc and the donation paradoxes. We argue that this seriously undermines these indices in a hitherto unsuspected way. Several other theoretical issues relating to voting power are discussed.     

Synthesizing Research and Practice: Using the Action Research Approach in Health Care Settings

The traditional dichotomy between research and practice invariably results in having to make difficult choices between the two, or trying to balance them in some way in order to keep both academic and corporate 'sponsors' happy. The real challenge is not so much balancing the two as achieving a closer fusion and synthesis between them. The action research model offers one such way forward in this regard, being better placed than either the 'applied research' model or the 'consultancy' model to realize the synergies and complementarities between research and practice. Action research is a mutual learning process within which people work together to discover what the issues are, why they exist, and how they might be addressed. Over time there is a blurring of the traditional roles of practitioner and researcher, the former becoming 'researching practitioners', the latter 'practising researchers'. The different phases of the action research model are illustrated using data from NHS case studies and relevant literature. Although the focus is upon how an organizational anthropologist would use the model, the suggestion is that it commends itself to a much broader constituency of social scientists and qualitative researchers working in the social and public policy arenas, and hence merits further investigation by all of these.     

The Politics of Welfare State Retrenchment: A Literature Review

Welfare state retrenchment is widely seen as a highly unpopular endeavour and, therefore, as politically difficult to pursue. This assumption has underpinned most of the political science research on this issue, notably Paul Pierson's seminal contributions about the ‘new politics of the welfare state’. Yet, the question remains why and under what circumstances cutbacks take place in highly developed welfare states despite these formidable political obstacles. This article reviews the literature on the politics of retrenchment, namely on the impact of socio‐economic problem pressure, political parties, political institutions, welfare state structures and ideas. Most authors agree that socio‐economic problems – particularly domestic problems – contribute to an atmosphere of ‘permanent austerity’ which inspires cutbacks. Moreover, according to most scholars, the extent of retrenchment possible depends on the specific institutional configuration of a political system and the path dependence of existing welfare state structures. The debate on the relevance of political parties and ideas, by contrast, is still far from settled. Further unresolved issues include the nature of the dependent variable in retrenchment studies. Also, the exact motives for cutbacks are theoretically still little understood, as are the political mechanisms through which they are realized. I argue that, because of the nature of these persisting issues, the pluralistic dialogue between different methods and approaches – as well as their combination – remains the most promising way forward in the study of welfare state politics.     

An Alternative Model of the Formation of Political Coalitions

Most models of the formation of political coalitions use either Euclidean spaces or rely purely on game theory. This limits their applicability. In this article, a single model is presented which is more broadly applicable. In principle any kind of set can be used as a policy space. The model is also able to incorporate different kinds of party motivations: both rent-seeking and idealism. The model uses party preferences and power to identify stable coalitions and predict government policy as well as to indicate which member of the opposition will be able to break up the governing coalition if no stable coalition exists. In the latter case it will also indicate on which issue the government is likely to split. Parties may have preferences over issues such as the composition of cabinet and/or the governing coalition as well as the more traditional issues of government formation. The model also provides a rationale for log-rolling.