SOCIAL CLASS AND TACTICS:

This analysis of community opposition to group homes for the mentally handicapped uses data from a survey of New Jersey group home providers. It indicates that deteriorating neighborhoods are most likely to organize in opposition, but that upper-middle class neighborhoods are most likely to enjoy private access to local officials and can, therefore, lobby effectively in opposition to group homes in their neighborhoods. Generally, lower and lower-middle class neighborhoods do not have lobbying privileges and must rely on mass-mobilization, petition campaigns, and other public political tactics that are less effective in influencing local officials. If, however, they gain access to local officials and secure lobbying privileges, they are no less successful than their upper-middle class counterparts in influencing them.     

Income Share Elasticity and Stochastic Dominance

Income share elasticity is a function π which can describe the size distribution of income (Esteban in Intern Econ Rev 27:439–444, 1986). On the other hand, the conventional density representation of the latter gives parameters of first or second order stochastic dominance (SD), widely used to describe shifts in income distribution, to which inequality measures are attached. The paper draws a link between the two, by providing conditions such that a given shift to π is equivalent to a first or second order SD shift of the distribution of income. Some applications to Lorenz rankings are also provided.     

Bureaucracy,Democracy and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ex</Emphasis>clusion: Why Indigenous Knowledge Holders Have a Hard Time Being Taken Seriously

This paper explores inherent tensions between two democratic ideals: citizen representation and accountability of the state. Specifically, I argue that the method by which state officials make themselves accountable—through their creation of the appearance of transparency—results in the exclusion of alternative, non-scientific ways of knowing, including those that are gendered, local and indigenous, because these ways of knowing often employ non-standardized methods which are not “transparent” in the same way as science and therefore easily dismissed by state officials as indefensible to citizens’ questioning. I explore this tension by drawing on examples from ethnographic work I completed with two groups of knowledge practitioners, Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations (Native American) traditional marine harvesters and government biologists, both of whom work with clams.     

Local union leaders’ satisfaction with grievance procedures

We develop a model of local union leaders’ satisfaction with their grievance proce-dures drawing from the job characteristics model and agency theory. The model is tested with OLS regression and LISREL estimates based on a survey of local union leaders in British Columbia. Results show that local union leaders are more satisfied with their grievance procedures when local officials have more autonomy in decision making; their local size is smaller; the grievance filing rate is low; grievance issues are perceived as important; the grievance resolution rate is high; a greater propor-tion of grievances are settled in the early steps; and the union success rate is high. In addition, grievance procedure satisfaction is multifaceted and each facet has its own unique variance and a different combination of significant predictors. This research was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We thank Dev Jennings for his helpful comments on an earlier version.     

Of risk and pork: urban security and the politics of objectivity

This article focuses on the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) controversy as a case study in the politics of risk assessment. It examines struggles among diverse actors–think tank experts, journalists, politicians, and government officials–engaged in the contentious process of establishing a legitimate definition of risk. In the field of homeland security, the means of conducting rational risk assessment have not yet been settled, and entrepreneurial officials from urban and regional governments use different techniques to identify local risks and vulnerabilities. In this contentious process, federal bureaucrats are responsible for determining how to allocate resources fairly and rationally to different cities and metropolitan regions, given that local officials have clear incentives to request funds and little cause to refrain. Although “rationality” is supposed to replace “politics” in making bureaucratic decisions over the allocation of resources, what we find instead is a political struggle over how to define, measure, and manage risk. For political actors, victory in debates over urban security comes from codifying one’s interests within the technical practice of risk assessment.     

Global-market building as state building: China’s entry into the WTO and market reforms of China’s tobacco industry

This article analyzes how China’s increasing engagement in the global market induced significant institution-building in China’s tobacco industry and enabled a power shift from the local authorities to the central authority in controlling this market. During this process of “getting onto the international track,” the central government reorganized the industrial tobacco system and broke up the “monopolies” set up by local governments in order to enhance the competitive capacities of China’s tobacco industry in the global market. Given such a concrete institutional change in China’s tobacco industry, I propose the theory of “global-market building as state building” to explain the interactions among the global market, the nation-states, and the domestic market-building projects. I suggest that nation-states strategically seek to engage themselves in the global market and that, under certain circumstances by taking advantage of their global market engagement, the nation-states can enhance their abilities to govern the domestic market.

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Urban development programming: The problem of federal involvement and self‐evaluation

One government social service program that has been affected by the recent shift in political philosophy is the Urban Development Action Grant program (UDAG). Operated since 1977 by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), UDAG is intended to facilitate the creation of new employment opportunities in economically distressed areas. Awarded by the federal government to local public officials, UDAG funds are allocated to encourage private investment for industrial growth and expansion. These financial incentives, it is argued, serve as a catalyst for new employment opportunities created to assist the poor and the unemployed.

In the context of a cost‐benefit analysis, however, the UDAG program may be an example of fiscal extravagance and administrative malfeasance. Three UDAG case studies reported offer a sample of federally subsidized UDAG industrial projects. Discussion of these projects is intended as a partial analysis of the UDAG program. Other issues addressed include the role of federal officials in the UDAG monitoring process, the effectiveness of UDAG in creating new jobs, and the criteria employed by government officials to evaluate the UDAG program.     

Testing How Management Matters in an Era of Government by Performance Management

Public administration finds itself in an era of government byperformance management, which is reflected in the widespreadassumption that management is a key determinant of performance,and that it is reasonable to expect managers to measurably improveorganizational effectiveness. This article joins a growing literaturein seeking to conceptualize and empirically test how externalenvironmental influences and internal management factors combineto create performance, relying on data from the 2002–2003National Administrative Studies Project (NASP-II) survey ofstate government health and human services officials. We categorizemanagerial efforts to facilitate organizational performanceas determined either through their interactions with the organizationalenvironment, or through employing workable levers to changeinternal organizational culture, structure, and technology.Among the external environmental variables we find that thesupport of elected officials and the influence of the publicand media have a positive impact on effectiveness. Among internalmanagement choices, the ability to create a developmental organizationalculture, establish a focus on results through goal clarity,and decentralize decision-making authority are all positivelyassociated with organizational effectiveness.     

Local Union Leaders'' Satisfaction with Grievance Procedures

We develop a model of local union leaders' satisfaction with their grievance procedures drawing from the job characteristics model and agency theory. The model is tested with OLS regression and LISREL estimates based on a survey of local union leaders in British Columbia. Results show that local union leaders are more satisfied with their grievance procedures when local officials have more autonomy in decision making; their local size is smaller; the grievance filing rate is low; grievance issues are perceived as important; the grievance resolution rate is high; a greater proportion of grievances are settled in the early steps; and the union success rate is high. In addition, grievance procedure satisfaction is multi-faceted and each facet has its own unique variance and a different combination of significant predictors.     

Labor relations and technological change at Canadian Pacific Railway

There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun Long before the white man and long before the wheel When the green dark forest was too silent to be real For they looked into the future and what did they see They saw an iron road running from the sea to the sea Bringing the goods to a young growing land All up through the seaports and into their hands From “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” by Gordon Lightfoot The authors thank CPR managers and union officials representing CPR employees for their cooperation and patience in explaining the intricacies of the railroad industry. Special appreciation is extended to Jason Copping, Labour Relations Manager, for his facilitating our initial access to the company.     

The Influence of Value Orientations,Personal Beliefs,and Knowledge about Resource Extraction on Local Leaders' Positions on Shale Development

Unconventional shale oil and gas production plays a prominent role in boosting economic growth and stimulating wealth creation in many communities. However, because of potential social and environmental drawbacks, including a lack of affordable housing and groundwater contamination from drilling, unconventional shale development is highly contentious in many areas and has resulted in many community conflicts. Hydraulic fracturing, which is a specific technology utilized in unconventional shale development, has proved especially contentious because of concerns about its long‐term environmental consequences. Given the fast pace of shale development, coupled with the controversy that surrounds it, we seek to understand what factors affect a local government official's stance on shale development and hydraulic fracturing. To do this we draw from value‐belief‐norms theory while additionally examining knowledge and community‐level factors that can influence an official's position. In this study, we survey 308 local government officials across six shale plays in the United States to examine local officials' positions on shale development and hydraulic fracturing. We find that the more positively officials perceive the consequences of shale development, the less likely they are to support banning hydraulic fracturing. Additionally, we find that networks to other shale communities are positively associated with favoring a ban. Further, leaders with a bachelor's degree or higher are more likely to favor a ban than those with lower than a bachelor's degree.     

Electric charges: The social construction of rate systems

Price is a central analytic concept in both neoclassical and old institutional economics. Combining the social network perspective with old and new institutionalist approaches to price formation, this article examines technological, economic, institutional, and political factors that shaped the earliest pricing systems for electricity used in the United States, between 1882 and 1910. We show that certain characteristics of electricity supply led to ambiguities in how the product should be priced, which created a politics of pricing among electricity producers. In particular, we investigate why the “Wright system,” arguably inferior in productive efficiency to other alternatives, was widely adopted by 1900. We argue that this outcome resulted in part from the political and organizational clout of its supporters, as well as from their particular conceptions of the boundaries and future of the industry itself. The Wright system best suited the “growth dynamic” strategy promoted by the managers of large central stations in their fierce competition with smaller and more decentralized installations. Thus, even in this apparently highly technical and mainly economic issue of how to price the product, there was ample room for social construction and political manipulation. The outcome reached was by no means inevitable and had a highly significant impact on the shape of the American industrial infrastructure.     

Why dictators hold semi-competitive elections and encourage the use of semi-independent courts: a comment on Thornhill and Smirnova’s “litigation and political transformation”

In this comment, I highlight similarities between Russia’s contemporary political system and other post-Cold War dictatorships. Most modern dictatorships hold semi-competitive elections. That is, regime officials face competition in elections, but playing fields are tilted so as to leave little suspense about who will win. I suggest that semi-competitive elections and the encouragement of litigation by citizens against local and regional officials, as described by Thornhill and Smirnova (Accepted/In press), have similar functions from the dictator’s point of view. They help the ruling elite with monitoring and controlling local officials whose behavior might otherwise alienate citizens enough to threaten the dictatorial elite with overthrow. Thus the real benefits citizens receive from the increased use of the courts to resolve disputes and electoral competition among politicians are counterbalanced by the contribution these institutions make to the prolongation of dictatorship.     

Unmeasured skills in inter-industry wage differentials: Evidence from the apparel industry

Several recent studies have used first-differenced models to test the unmeasured-skills hypothesis with mixed results. I use matched-panel data from the CPSfrom 1983–1995 and retrospective data from the DWS from 1984–1992 to test for the possible effect of unmeasured skill on apparel workers’wages. The apparel industry provides a better test of the unmeasured-skills hypothesis than the overall economy because the likelihood of noncompetitive distortions to the wage is small. My results indicate that between 64 and 80 percent of the apparel industry differential is caused by skills unmeasured in standard OLS regressions, suggesting competitive wages for workers moving between apparels and other industries. The author appreciates the helpful suggestions from Barry Hirsch and William Stewart Mounts, Jr. The CPS and DWS data sets used in this paper were provided by Barry Hirsch and David Macpherson.     

LITTLE WHITE LIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE MODELS CORRELATED RESPONSE ERRORS IN A PANEL STUDY OF VOTING

One interpretation for the common survey finding that the backgroundcharacteristics of vote overreporters resemble those of actualvoters is that misreporters usually vote. This hypothesis—thatmisreporters regularly voted in earlier elections—is testedwith data from the 1972–74–76 Michigan ElectionPanel. It receives no support: the 1972 and 1974 validated turnoutof the 1976 misreporters was very low. Moreover, misreportingwas a fairly stable respondent characteristic: misreportingabout an election in one interview was correlated with misreportingabout the remaining elections in each of the other two interviews.A comparison of regressions predicting turnout using the validatedreports versus the self-reports shows that the respondent errorscan distort conclusions about the correlates of voting. Forexample, controlling for three other variables, education wasrelated to self-reported voting but not to validated voting.Here, as well as in surveys of other socially desirable or undesirableissues, respondent self-reports may bias survey data in favorof commonsense models of the world.     

Negatively interdependent preferences

We develop a theory of representation of interdependent preferences that reflect the widely acknowledged phenomenon of keeping up with the Joneses (i.e. of those preferences which maintain that well-being depend on “relative standing” in the society as well as on material consumption). The principal ingredient of our analysis is the assumption that individuals desire to occupy a (subjectively) better position than their peers. This is quite a primitive starting point in that it does not give any reference to what is actually regarded as “status” in the society. We call this basic postulate negative interdependence, and study its implications. In particular, combining this assumption with some other basic postulates that are widely used in a number of other branches of the theory of individual choice, we axiomatize the relative income hypothesis, and obtain an operational representation of interdependent preferences. Received: 7 December 1998/Accepted: 24 August 1999     

SAME-GENDER SEX IN THE UNITED STATES IMPACT OF T-ACASI ON PREVALENCE ESTIMATES

Well-conducted telephone surveys provide an economical meansof estimating the prevalence of sexual and reproductive behaviorsin a population. There is, however, a nontrivial potential forbias since respondents must report sensitive information toa human interviewer. The National STD and Behavior MeasurementExperiment (NSBME) evaluates a new survey technology—telephoneaudio computer-assisted self-interviewing (T-ACASI)—thateliminates this requirement. The NSBME embedded a randomizedexperiment in a survey of probability samples of 1,543 U.S.and 744 Baltimore adults ages 18 to 45. Compared with NSBMErespondents interviewed by human interviewers, respondents interviewedby T-ACASI were 1.5 to 1.6 times more likely to report same-gendersexual attraction, experience, and genital contact. The impactof T-ACASI was more pronounced (odds ratio = 2.5) for residentsof locales that have historically been less tolerant of same-gendersexual behaviors and for respondents in households with children(odds ratio = 3.0).     

From the culture of poverty to the underclass: An analysis of a shift in public language

This paper focuses on the emergence of the “underclass,” and the decline of the “culture of poverty,” as terminologies used in scholarly and popular analysis of certain lowincome groups in American society. It is argued that the theoretical cores of these two concepts are similar but not identical, and that a shift in “public language” has occurred. This shift represents the most recent chapter in the historical process of word substitution that Matza (1966) claims has characterized society’s response to the disreputable poor. The factors responsible for this shift are analyzed, and the consequent potential for miscommunication is highlighted. where his research interests include poverty policy and program evaluation. He is the author (with John B. Williamson) ofPoverty and Public Policy (1986). This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, August 1986. I wish to thank the anonymous reviewers ofThe American Sociologist for their thoughtful comments and suggestions.