ALIENATION AND INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY: A STUDY OF WORKERS‘ SELF-MANAGEMENT*

L'auteur examine un certain nombre d'hypothèses-clés émises par les socialistes sur les sociétés capitalistes et socialistes. (1) Est-ce que l'usine autogérée est plus pluraliste ou plus démocratique que la firme capitaliste? (2) Est-ce que l'ouvrier d'une usine autogérée croit que sa condition s'est améliorée? (3) Est-ce que l'usine autogérée est associée à des niveaux d'aliénation plus bas? (4) Est-ce que l'appartenance à une class sociale est reliée aux niveaux d'aliénation? (5) Est-ce que la participation à l'autogestion est associée à des niveaux d'aliénation plus bas? (6) Est-ce que l'aliénation dans l'usine est fortement associée a l'aliénation dans la société? Sur les six hypothèses émises, trois sont confirmées (1,2,5), les résultats de deux autres sont mêlées mais penchent vers la confirmation (3,6), et une seule hypothèse est infirmée (4). Par conséquent, on peut dire en conclusion générale que les suppositions principales sur la forme du socialisme d'autogestion semblent bien fondées. A number of key hypotheses proposed by socialists about capitalist and socialist societies are tested. (1) Is the workers' self-managed factory more pluralist or democratic than the capitalist firm? (2) Does the employee of a workers' self-managed factory perceive his condition as having improved? (3) Is the workers' self-managed factory associated with lower alienation levels? (4) Does class membership relate to alienation levels? (5) Is participation in self-management associated with lower alienation levels? (6) Is alienation in the factory strongly related to alienation in society? Of the six hypotheses posed, three were confirmed (1,2,5), two findings were mixed but leaned in the direction of confirmation (3,6), and only one hypothesis was disconfirmed (4). Thus, the general findings are that the central assumptions of the workers' self-management form of socialism seem to be sound.     

THE PRODUCTIVITY SLOWDOWN AND THE SAVINGS SHORTFALL: A CHALLENGE TO THE PERMANENT INCOME HYPOTHESIS

I argue that the saving decline following the post-1973 productivity slowdown discredits the permanent income hypothesis. The permanent income hypothesis predicts that a reduction in expected future income growth should cause an increase in saving. I show that economic agents revised downward their expectations of future growth after 1973 but that the saving rate declined. other economic events during this period cannot explain this discrepancy.     

Personality and Personal Disturbance in Social Workers: A Research Note

Summary Personality Deviance Scales (PDS) and Personal Disturbance Scale(DSSI/sAD) scores were obtained from field social workers. In comparison with general population data and Rutherford's16 PF findings with trainee social workers the subjects werefound to be extreme in not blaming others, slightly submissiveand to have a low prevalence of personal disturbance. It was conjectured that certain personality characteristicsand ways of reacting to frustration may be important in bothbecoming and remaining a social worker.     

THE EFFECT OF CONCEALED WEAPONS LAWS: AN EXTREME BOUND ANALYSIS

Lott and Mustard [1997] provide evidence that enactment of concealed handgun ("right-to-carry") laws deters violent crime and induces substitution into property crime. A critique by Black and Nagin [1998] questions the particular model specification used in the empirical analysis. In this paper, we estimate the "model uncertainty" surrounding the model specified by Lott and Mustard using an extreme bound analysis (Leamer [1983]). We find that the deterrence results are robust enough to make them difficult to dismiss as unfounded, particularly those findings about the change in violent crime trends. The substitution effects are not robust with respect to different model specifications. (JEL K42)     

Learning from survivors: mapping the past onto the present

This article presents findings from an exploratory study of the impact that one educational program had on public and private school participants from high schools on the west coast of the United States of America. Students interacted with Holocaust survivors and created cultural products in the form of short films relating to present-day events. Students transferred what they learned about the past into a message about the present. This article presents the educational impact that learning from survivors had on teenage students. I also argue that similar methods could be transferred, or exported, for use with a number of different, more local, ‘difficult history’ education initiatives.