Choice,freedom, and freedom of choice

This paper argues in favour of a distinction between freedom and freedom of choice – a distinction that economists and political philosophers have so far either ignored or drawn wrongly. Drawing the distinction correctly may help to resolve a number of disputes in contemporary political philosophy and non-welfarist normative economics regarding the so-called preference-based account of freedom and the relevance, to judgements about freedom, of degrees of similarity between agents options. The paper begins by setting out three much discussed axioms for the measurement of freedom (of choice?) originally put forward by Pattanaik and Xu. It is suggested that the problems these axioms give rise to can be solved by distinguishing correctly between freedom and freedom of choice. The paper then sets out definitions of freedom, choice and freedom of choice, justifying these in philosophical terms and arguing their superiority to alternative definitions. Finally, on the basis of these definitions and with reference to Pattanaik and Xus axioms, it is shown that an agent can enjoy freedom without enjoying freedom of choice, and that she can enjoy an increase in one of these without enjoying an increase in the other. For their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, I should like to thank Keith Dowding, Martin van Hees, Matthew Kramer, Marco Negri, Serena Olsaretti, Olof Page, Mario Ricciardi, Alan Ritter, Hillel Steiner, Kotaro Suzumura and audiences at seminars in Manchester, Palermo, Pavia and Oxford. I am grateful to the Italian Ministry for Higher Education (MURST) and the Italian National Research Council (CNR) for funding that facilitated the completion of the paper.     

Welfarist-consequentialism,similarity of attitudes,and Arrow’s general impossibility theorem

Two features of Arrows social choice theory are critically scrutinized. The first feature is the welfarist-consequentialism, which not only bases social judgements about right or wrong actions on the assessment of their consequences, but also assesses consequences in terms of peoples welfare and nothing else. The second feature is a similarity of peoples attitudes towards social outcomes as a possible resolvent of the Arrow impossibility theorem. Two extended frameworks, one consequentialist and the other non-consequentialist, are developed. Both frameworks are shown to admit some interesting resolutions of Arrows general impossibility theorem, which are rather sharply contrasting with Arrows own perspective.     

The instability of robust aggregation

Levis robust aggregation suggests a generalization of the standard ex ante mode of aggregating individuals expected utilities into a social choice function. This generalization applies some social choice rule not only to the actual individuals but also to hypothetical individuals with all possible combinations of the actual individuals probabilities and utilities. We show that robust aggregation can lead to preference reversals in the social choice when the very same decision situation is described with different degrees of detail, thus violating a desirable stability condition. We also show that any stable robust social choice rule must collapse back into the ex ante mode without recourse to hypothetical individuals. Under sufficient conditions, such as strong Pareto optimality, robust aggregation even leads to an infinite series of reversals in group choices. By contrast, stability is ubiquitous in the standard ex ante mode and is closely related to independence of irrelevant alternatives.I wish to thank Christs College, Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology for their generous financial and academic support. I am grateful to three anonymous referees for their helpful comments. I am much indebted to Isaac Levi, Philippe Mongin and Teddy Seidenfeld for their help and encouragement.     

Non-profit,for-profit and government organisations in social service provision: comparison of behavioural patterns for Austria

This paper investigates behavioural differences between non-profit organisations (NPOs), government organisations (GOs), and private market organisations (PMOs) as suppliers of nursery schools and retirement homes. On the basis of Weisbrod's undersupply model, the differentiated demand approach, and the public finance argument on the redistributive role of government, three hypotheses are theoretically specified and empirically tested: client differentiation; product differentiation; and price differentiation. NPOs and PMOs are shown to provide qualitatively better services and charge significantly higher prices than GOs. A clustering of clients with similar socio-economic backgrounds can be observed: GOs provide services for clients with lower economic and social status than private suppliers. GOs, holding more than two-thirds of the respective markets, are responsible for a basic provision of services; they pursue distributional goals by producing services themselves; only rarely a contracting out to private suppliers can be noted.Christoph Badelt and Peter Weiss are both in the Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna, Austria.Financial support from the Research Foundation of the Austrian National Bank (Jubiläumsfondsprojekt no. 2814) is gratefully acknowledged. The authors wish to thank Helmut Anheier, Henry Hansmann and Burton Weisbrod for valuable comments on an earlier draft, which was presented to the International Conference on Voluntarism, Non-government Organisations and Public Policy, Jerusalem, May 1989. The usual caveat applies.     

Head movement during listening turns in conversation

In five subjects, head movement during conversation was monitored by polarised light goniometry, and recorded alongside speech and a signal proportional to peak amplitude of sound waves (peak loudness). Kinematic properties of listeners' head movements, such as amplitude, frequency and cyclicity, differentiated various conversational functions. That is, they were function-specific: symmetrical, cyclic movements were employed to signal yes, no or equivalents; linear, wide movements anticipated claims for speaking; narrow linear movements occurred in phase with stressed syllables in the other's speech (ynchrony movements); and wide, linear movements occurred during pauses in the other's speech. That, it is argued, bears upon the relation between thesignalling of communicative intentions and the synchronisation of interactional rhythm. Thus, the former appears to determine the timing and tempo of responses such as yes and no, while the latter determines the regulation of synchrony movements. The manner in which these factors interact in other conversational functions and their theoretical implications are discussed.     

The relationship between psychic reality and trauma with special reference to an adult patient who was sexually abused as a child

Theory is an important tool in our efforts to gain access to a deeper understanding of what truth and reality are for a particular client. However, because any theoretical perspective cannot fully account for the data, it also limits our capacity to both understand and treat the problems our clients present to us. The thesis of this paper is that current social work practice theories overemphasize the role of external factors and down-play the importance of psychic reality when explaining the causes of human malaise. Such a bias is tantamount to a countertransference enactment which elevates a common client fantasy to the status of a scientifically derived truth. Both parties in the treatment relationship tend to see the client as a helpless victim of powerful external forces while defensively disclaiming personal involvement in creating problems. This paper explores the implications of this bias for the diagnosis and treatment of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The paper also presents clinical material illustrating the subtle interaction of fantasy and trauma in the treatment of an adult female who was sexually abused by her father.     

Welfare,Intergenerational Cohabitation Penalties,and Single Mothers’ Employment

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 changed welfare programs by increasing state income maintenance programs emphasis on employment. Following reform, several states paid reduced welfare benefits to single mothers who resided in their parents homes, compared to those single mothers who lived independently. This paper evaluates whether the benefit reductions lower the probability of intergenerational cohabitation or the employment of single mothers recognizing that family support might facilitate single mothers labor market attachment. The results suggest that family cohabitation penalties reduce the likelihood single mothers live in their parents households and work. Despite several empirical limitations, the results offer evidence that intergenerational living arrangements positively influence employment.*The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Federal Reserve Board or its staff. Thanks to the Urban Institute and staff, in particular Gretchen Rowe for discussing policy collection and information. Beneficial comments have come from the editor, Shoshana Grossbard, two referees, Donna Gilleskie, David Guilkey, William Grant, Carolyn Heinrich, Thomas Mroz, and Wilbert van der Klaauw.     

The Dodgson ranking and its relation to Kemeny’s method and Slater’s rule

In this paper we provide a binary extension of Dodgsons non-binary preference aggregation rule. This new aggregation rule is then compared to two other rules which, as Dodgsons rule, are also explicitly based on distance functions, namely Kemenys and Slaters rule. It is shown that the alternative which is top ranked by any of those rules can occur at any position in the Dodgson ranking.I am very grateful to Nick Baigent, Daniel Eckert and the participants of the CEPET 2002 Workshop in Udine and the Graz University Research Seminar for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. It goes without saying that any remaining errors are exclusively the authors responsibility.     

Brief Communications: Treating Problem Gamblers: A Residential Therapy Approach

The Gordon House Association (GHA) is the UK's only specialist and dedicated residential facility for problem gamblers. This paper describes the GHA therapeutic programme which is centred round a nine-month period of residency. Progression through the programme is described by overviewing each of the phases. These are initial assessment and five distinct phases comprising coping with today (Phase One), coping with yesterday (Phase Two), coping with change (Phase Three), coping with tomorrow (Phase Four), and coping on my own (Phase Five). These phases are themselves underpinned within the GHA core therapeutic approach which is also described.     

Addiction to fruit machines: A preliminary study among young males

Although most sources treat gambling as an adult phenomenon, adolescent gambling is more widespread than is generally recognized, and in some cases may even be pathological. This paper outlines a preliminary study of eight adolescents addicted to playing and gambling on coin-in-the-slot machines (more commonly known as fruit machines). Factors involved in the onset of fruit machine playing are examined along with their alternative gambling activities and associated problems. The role of skill and excitement components in persistent playing are also discussed.The author would like to thank the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council for funding this work through a research studentship.     

Touristic authenticity,touristic angst,and modern reality

The tourist has become the symbol of a peculiarly modern type of inauthenticity. This paper explores the criticisms that have been directed at the reality experiences of the tourist. In so doing, the following inexhaustive typology of touristic realities is developed: 1) the first-order or true tourist, 2) the second-order or Angst-ridden tourist, 3( the third-order or anthropological tourist, and 4) the fourth-order or spiritual tourist. Each of these types represents a progressively more intense search for reality through travel. Each is, however, criticized for participating in its own form of inauthenticity.After exploring the reality experiences and criticisms of each of these travellers, the paper turns the tables on the cultured despisers of tourism to argue that perhaps the lowly first-order tourist is not so inauthentic after all. True, this traveller may not be having a real heroic adventure, but such is not the goal. Rather, the reality experienced by the first-order tourist is a pleasurable liberation from the normal concerns of everyday life which simultaneously reaffirms commitment to that reality. Quite frequently the first-order tourist is less concerned about having a real experience in the visited place than in experiencing family and friendship relationships-relationships completely ignored by the anti-touristic tourists in their search for authenticity in someone else's reality.The author would like to thank Peter L. Berger, Harry C. Bredemeier, Warren I. Susman, and M. Kathy Kenyon for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. This research was supported in part by NIMH grant no. 5 T32 NH14660.     

Nonverbal Emotion Priming: Evidence from the ‘Facial Affect Decision Task’

Affective associations between a speakers voice (emotional prosody) and a facial expression were investigated using a new on-line procedure, the Facial Affect Decision Task (FADT). Faces depicting one of four basic emotions were paired with utterances conveying an emotionally-related or unrelated prosody, followed by a yes/no judgement of the face as a true exemplar of emotion. Results established that prosodic characteristics facilitate the accuracy and speed of decisions about an emotionally congruent target face, supplying empirical support for the idea that information about discrete emotions is shared across major nonverbal channels. The FADT represents a promising tool for future on-line studies of nonverbal processing in both healthy and disordered individuals.The author gratefully acknowledges the service of Elmira Chan, Sarah Addleman, and Marta Fundamenski for running the experiment, and for helpful comments received from M. Harris, K. Scherer and anonymous reviewers of an earlier draft of the paper. This research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.     

The Relationship of Ecological and Geographic Factors to Gambling Behavior and Pathology

The current study examined the effect of neighborhood disadvantage and gambling availability on gambling participation and pathology. A national telephone survey included 2631 US adults. Census data was used to characterize the respondents neighborhood, and the distance from the respondents home to gambling facilities was calculated. Logistic and linear regressions were performed to predict gambling participation and pathology. Results showed that the neighborhood disadvantage was positively related to frequency of gambling and problem/pathological gambling. The presence of a casino within 10miles of the respondents home was positively related to problem/pathological gambling. The permissiveness of gambling laws was positively related to any gambling in the past year, as well as frequent gambling. These results were interpreted to mean that the ecology of disadvantaged neighborhoods promotes gambling pathology, and that availability of gambling opportunities promotes gambling participation and pathology.     

Predatory,developmental, and other apparatuses: A comparative political economy perspective on the Third World state

Disappointment over the contributions of Third World state apparatuses to industrial transformation and the increasing intellectual dominance of neoutiliarian paradigms in the social science has made if fashionable to castigate the Third World state as predatory and rent seeking. This paper argues for a more differentiated view, one that connects differences in performance to differences in state structure. The incoherent absolutist domination of the klepto-patrimonial Zairian state are contrasted to the embedded autonomy of the East Asian developmental state. Then the internal structure and external ties of an intermediate state — Brazil — are analyzed in relation to both polar types. The comparative evidence suggests that the efficacy of the developmental state depends on a meritocratic bureaucracy with a strong sense of corporate identity and a dense set of institutionalized links to private elites.     

A quantitative theory of preferences: Some results on transition functions

We investigate a general theory of combining individual preferences into collective choice. The preferences are treated quantitatively, by means of preference functions (a,b), where 0(a,b) expresses the degree of preference of a to b. A transition function is a function (x,y) which computes (a,c) from (a,b) and (b,c), namely (a,c)=((a,b),(b,c)). We prove that given certain (reasonable) conditions on how individual preferences are aggregated, there is only one transition function that satisfies these conditions, namely the function (x,y)=x·y (multiplication of odds). We also formulate a property of transition functions called invariance, and prove that there is no invariant transition function; this impossibility theorem shows limitations of the quantitative method.Research supported in part by the National Science Foundation.     

Gender and Community Context: An Analysis of Husbands’ Household Authority in Rural Guatemala

Drawing on research about womens autonomy, gender, and development, and Latin America, I analyze individual, household, and community-level factors associated with husbands sole authority with regard to four household issues: (1) money management; decision-making about (2) food purchases, (3) medicine purchases, and (4) health providers. The results point to how husbands authority varies across household issues and how the dynamics of authority differ with regard to money management and the other decision-making issues studied. This study found that husbands authority varied not only by individual characteristics but also by community features and thus adds to efforts to represent more fully how context matters to household gender relations.     

Only sane: Autistic barriers in “boring” patients

This paper addresses needs of patients whom Winnicott called boring. Although often functioning well in the work world, they lack a rich inner life and a capacity for intimacy. Thus, psychotherapy is particularly problematic for them. To develop a model for working with this group of patients, the authors elaborate the concept of autistic barriers from British object relations theory, and suggest a changing role for the therapist in four successive phases of the treatment.     

Pathological gambling in Montreal's Chinese community: an anthropological perspective

Pathological gambling has been identified as a major issue in Montreals Chinese community. A variety of sources attest to the fact that, though we live in an increasingly heterogeneous society, the services provided to minority communities for preventing and treating pathological gambling are inadequate. An anthropological approach that takes into account cultural characteristics of ones community could lead to better strategies for acknowledgement, definition, diagnosis and treatment of pathological gambling among culturally different communities. Research paths that could help to provide effective treatment and services to specific populations are suggested. An overview of the way the Chinese view gambling, pathological gambling and treatment is presented. The concepts of fate, destiny and luck in Chinese thought, as well as Montreals Chinese community social norms related to gambling are then described. The incorporation of those cultural understandings in future studies and treatment attempts is suggested.     

Voluntary welfare associations in Germany and the United States: these on the historical development of intermediary systems

This research note presents several comparative theses on the historical development of voluntary and non-profit welfare associations in Germany and the United States. The major argument is that voluntary and non-profit associations in both countries share one common root: the secularisation and socio-political consequences of the enlightenment. However, voluntary welfare associations in Germany and the United States have developed along radically different lines, due to their distinct political embeddedness in society. Following periods of divergence in which the German voluntary action emphasised state orientation, and its American counterpart market orientation, the two countries have entered a new period of convergence.This paper emanates from an ongoing project at the University of Bremen, which analyses the history of social welfare in the city of Bremen. In 1989, as senior fellow in philanthropy at the Institute for Policy Studies of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, I explored the private social welfare system in the United States, in particular comparing the results of former research on Germany with my studies in the United States. I am indebted to Kathleen D. McCarthy (New York), Helmut K. Anheier (Vienna/New Brunswick), Juergen Blandow (Bremen), Lester M. Salamon (Baltimore), Jon Van Til (Camden), Stanley Wenocur (Baltimore), and Manfred M. Wambach (Bremen) for their advice and encouragement. Grants from the Research Commission of the University of Bremen, the Fellowship in Philanthropy Programme of the Institute for Policy Studies, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States are gratefully acknowledged.     

Social Defenses Against Organizational Learning

It is argued that for organizational learning to occur maladaptive social defenses within the organization have to be altered. The origins of the concept of social defenses are traced through the work of Jaques and Menzies. A new concept of system domain, and related concepts of system domain fabric, and system domain defenses, are proposed in order to account for the difficulties in sustaining organizational change in organizations that share a similar primary task. Organizational learning is defined as occurring when there is co-evolution of organizational container and contained. The article distills variables from three successful consultancy/action research projects which are characteristic of organizations that are learning, and it is hypothesized that the creation of organizational awareness is necessary for organizational learning to occur.