Combatting voter ignorance: a vertical model of epistocratic voting

In light of recent political events, prominent scholars have argued that voters ignorant of the issues should be disqualified from taking part in decisions that have the potential to alter political landscapes. As convincing as this literature is in highlighting voter ignorance, it fails to differentiate between local, state, and federal elections and how levels of political knowledge are often scale-dependent. If the level of median voter ignorance is not uniform from one level of government to the next, then neither can the reforms proposed to combat it. In this article, I adapt Bell’s vertical model of democratic meritocracy to argue that the larger the election, the more complex the issues, the more explicit the epistocratic safeguards needed.     

多元话语分析：社会分析模式的新尝试

话语分析就是对那些已经说出来的“话”究竟是以怎样的方式以及按照什么样的规则被说出和被传播的过程加以分析。多元话语分析就是从多元主义的立场对话语进行分析。倡导多元话语分析的目的是消除以实证主义和古典诠释社会学为主要代表的传统“实在论”分析模式在社会研究中的影响。多元话语分析包括话语策略分析和话语构成规则分析等基本程序。采用多元话语分析模式进行社会研究,对我们具有多方面的重要意义。     

Approximations of rational criteria under complete ignorance and the independence axiom

Rational decision making under complete ignorance, a limit case of uncertainty, is defined. Through a concept of approximation, a meaning is given to a criterion almost possessing a property. Rational criteria depend almost on the sole bounds of the outcome range of each decision, they are almost continuous, they can almost possess a transitive indifference relation; however, under Savage's Independence Axiom, this last property restricts possible criteria to those which can be approximated, at least partly, by either the Maximin or the Maximax criterion.     

Forms of ignorance and their role in the joint planning process

The Care in the Community initiative has given a new lease of life to joint planning between health and local authorities. The planned closures of psychiatric and mental handicap hospitals offer a new opportunity for these agencies to collaborate in the planning of alternative provision. All too often, though, considerable ignorance impedes their joint efforts. This ignorance relates to the scope of the exercize, the precise nature of the required services, and agencies’ knowledge of their different organizational systems, political ideologies and professional cultures. Such ignorance is built into the system, and it can serve agencies’ political purposes and offer them a means of attaining desired goals. The sociological literature offers a number of insights into relations between organizations. The concept of ignorance, however, has received little attention, yet it is one of the most striking aspects of joint planning.     

Objective knowledge out of ignorance: Popper on body,mind, and the third world

In the fifties, Popper defended an interactionistic version of body-mind dualism. It distinguished between the world of physical bodies and states and the world of mental states. Later he added a third world of objective thought contents. He claims the assumption that there is the third world is a necessary presupposition of problem-solving in general and of his philosophy of science in particular. The present article contains separate reasonings to the effect that this presupposition is neither necessary nor even possible. It is further argued that postulating the existence of entities makes sense only relative to a criterion of ontological commitment, which Popper does not mention and obviously does not have, and that in addition it presupposes a theory, which is tentatively accepted as true and which according to the criterion implies the existence of the entities. But as yet there is no testable theory involving terms like mind, intention etc., which made the notion that itself or its terms are essentially different from what is already known in the empirical sciences at least plausible. Therefore the body-mind controversy is still pointless. Popper's stand on it seems to be but a reflex of his anti-behavioristic and anti-psychologistic attitude.     

The evolutionary stability of optimism,pessimism, and complete ignorance

Theory and Decision - We seek an evolutionary explanation for why in some situations humans maintain either optimistic or pessimistic attitudes toward uncertainty and are ignorant to relevant...     

Widening the gap: White ignorance,race relations and the consequences for Aboriginal people in Australia

White ignorance has a critical impact on race relations and is implicated in the maintenance of Aboriginal disadvantage. Addressing this ignorance is a largely overlooked capacity-building opportunity within Australia's non-Aboriginal population. It warrants consideration as a key component of strategies targeting Aboriginal disadvantage. Despite the established links between race relations and Aboriginal well-being, Aboriginal perspectives on non-Aboriginal people rarely feature in public discourse on “Aboriginal problems.” This paper draws on data from 180 in-depth interviews with 44 Aboriginal people in Darwin on the topic of White Australian people, culture and race relations. It reports Aboriginal perceptions of White Australian ignorance across areas of great symbolic and practical significance to Aboriginal people's lives. Their experience is that most White Australians are ignorant of the history of colonisation and the complexities of its aftermath. They are ignorant of Aboriginal law, cultures and languages, and of the extent of their own ignorance. The call to address White ignorance subverts assumptions about whose ignorance and capacity must be dealt with in order to progress national goals of reconciliation, address Aboriginal disadvantage and achieve justice and equality for Aboriginal people.     

基层政府管理创新：苏南地区多元化社会管理模式探索

目前,苏南地区正在经历着社会经济结构等方面的深刻变革,传统苏南政府管理方式在实践中遇到了诸多新生社会问题的挑战。要实现政府管理方式的创新,就必须正确分析社会发展的变化并对自身作出正确的调整以适应社会的需求。因此,转变管理职能、突出服务理念、创新基层政府管理方式、实现以政府为主导的多元化社会管理模式,是促进和谐苏南建设的必然要求。     

Do ambiguity avoidance and the comparative ignorance hypothesis depend on people’s affective reactions?

Previous work has showed that people are averse to ambiguity and prefer to bet on known probabilities over unknown probabilities. There is also evidence that ambiguity aversion is stronger in comparative contexts rather than in non-comparative contexts. In the present paper we suggest that ambiguity aversion depends on people’s affective reactions and therefore the effect is more evident in comparative contexts because the comparison between the clear and ambiguous alternatives leads to more positive affective reactions toward the former rather than the latter. The present study extends the previous findings while, at the same time, supporting the “comparative ignorance hypothesis”.     

Correction to: Populist media diets

The following article for this special issue was mistakenly published before the special issue was released. It can be found here: de Rooij, Eline A., Stecuła, Dominik A., and Pickup, Mark A. 2022. “Populist media diets.” Social Science Quarterly 103: 975−991. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13178 We apologize for this error.     

Analysis of state general sales tax policy: A complementary approach to the effects of causes and the causes of effects

Previous research and theory on state general sales tax policy provide the major factors and components of the sales tax base that affect revenue reliance and tax burden. However, previous research on general sales tax policy has concentrated on individual factors and components of the sales tax base without considering the interdependent and interrelated causes of revenue reliance and tax burden. In addition, regression-based analyses are limited in analyzing the causal conjunctures that affect revenue reliance and tax burden. Thus, this research focused on a complementary approach to the effects of causes and the causes of effects, thereby empirically examining the combined causes of revenue reliance and tax burden through a (fs) QCA analysis of U.S. state data spanning from 2007 to 2010. This study reveals that the combined causes of revenue reliance and tax burden vary as ideal types compared with the effects of real types observed in the panel data analysis. This study contributes to the current literature by examining interrelated and interdependent causal relationships with regard to revenue reliance and tax burden in a complementary manner. State governments must consider the combined effects of causal conjunctures that affect revenue reliance and tax burden.     

A Critical Examination of Immigrant Acculturation: Toward an Anti-Oppressive Social Work Model with Immigrant Adults in a Pluralistic Society

Today, in North America, the idea of complete assimilation ofimmigrants no longer seems relevant. Under the commonly espousedideologies of multiculturalism and pluralism, the goal of socialwork with immigrants is now integration into the host society,whether that be economically, socially and/or psychologically(Li, 2003). However, critics argue that the traditional ideaof immigrant assimilation continues to lurk behind social policiesand social services for immigrants, in that the successful integrationof immigrants is prompted by their conformation to the dominantculture (Balgopal, 2000). While a growing body of literatureon social work with immigrants has resulted in an increasedunderstanding of this diverse population and its needs, theliterature still lacks coherent theoretical and ideologicalframeworks necessary to inform effective models of service delivery.Social work literature on immigrants also requires criticalinterrogation of the impact of social science theories, particularlyin terms of long-held assumptions of culture and acculturation.In this paper, a critical review of literature on acculturationand social work with immigrants will be followed by findingsof a qualitative study with skilled immigrants in Canada. Basedon the research findings, an anti-oppressive approach to socialwork with immigrants is proposed.     

The Presence of Self in the Person: Reflexive Positioning and Personal Constructs Psychology

Tan and Moghaddam's (1995) 'reflexive positioning' expansion of Harré's positioning theory provokes consideration of psychological factors underlying the discursive production of selves. However, it understates the issue, why do people appropriate particular positions, hearable in utterances, as applicable to themselves. Some of the theoretical ambiguities dissipate when positioning is approached from a personal-constructs perspective (Kelly 1995), which draws attention to personal construction of selves, as distinct from social construction, and describes the dynamics of individual continuity, though understating the concrete contextuality of personal becoming. The present essay considers the compatibility of the personal constructs approach with Harré's positioning theory.     

Reproducing women's nature: media constructions of IVF and related issues

This paper presents a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the way the Australian press constructed the issues related to conceptive technologies (IVF and IVF-surrogacy particularly) during the period when the technologies were most visibly controversial. It asks how medical technology, the profession, ethical debates and research were presented, focussing on the representation of women's bodies, ‘motherhood’, and consumerist conceptions of medical solutions to infertility. Moral, ethical and political issues, including feminist critiques of conceptive technologies and medical power were found to be presented in limited and partial ways - by the ‘medical-miracle’ (human interest) or the ‘experts-debate-legal-issues’ genres of press report. In text and in photographs, the press showed mothers and babies as the (positive) products of technology. Women were shown reacting, in emotional terms, to the productive power of technology. Men were active, protective, expert, and the source of rational, abstract talk. The press relied heavily on proponents of the technologies for their news stories. The results are discussed in terms of Foucault's general analysis of the history of discourses of sexuality and feminist critiques of conceptive technologies.     

Municipal elections and community media

Local elections are held more often and more frequently than any other type in American politics and are more often the first stepping stone to higher election office. But the “lost world” of municipal governments still remains lost because of political scientists’ and media scholars’ preoccupation with national voting behavior and presidential “personality” contests. Fifty-nine mayoral elections from 1986 to 1998 in 15 rural New Mexico communities without TV stations are examined. When the powerful incumbency variable is eliminated, community journalism’s influence is positively correlated via newspaper endorsement and local radio advertising in predicting winners of local elections. This study also operationalizes from scientific measurement 19 other independent variables that have been identified in predicting the winners of municipal races.