Structural constraints and the publications dilemma: A review and some proposals

There is a critical shortage of publication space available to sociologists, compared to scholars in other fields. This results in invidious publication comparisons to other professionals and damage to the careers of younger sociologists. Further, it results in a loss to the field itself in terms of a lesser likelihood of publication of replications, challenges, and controversial or unorthodox works. Several proposals are made for increasing the publication potential of sociologists. His teaching and research interests have been in social psychology (especially alienation), the family, and the sociology of religion.     

Uniting the nation? disability,stem cells,and the australian media

In this article, the 2002 Australian debate regarding embryonic stem cells is examined. This shows the importance of an analysis of the media to understanding how disability is constructed in discourses of nationhood and biotechnology. Media representation of disability—for instance, signifying disability as catastrophe—is seen as crucial in securing access to a variety of biotechnologies, such as embryonic stem cells. Analysis of such media moments shows a structure of privileged and excluded voices in debates regarding disability and biotechnology. The diversity of voices in the Australian community regarding disability is not represented in a range of media, nor are people with disability quoted as experts on disability. A recognition of the media's construction of disability must be matched by a commitment to disability as part of a truly civil society. It is only in this way that we will have biotechnologies, and diverse cultural and media representations that meet the requirements of the international disability rights movement motto of 'nothing about us without us', recently emphasized in the Disabled Peoples' International Europe's 2000 statement on biotechnology.     

Residential Mortgages and Public Policy: What to do with Fannie and Freddie?

The current debate on U.S. housing policy focuses on the role of the government in supporting the mortgage market. Existing organizations (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac) are in conservatorship status, and Congress is considering alternative structures and guarantees including the Johnson‐Crapo bill, to provide catastrophic insurance in support of the coverage from private companies. The resolution of this issue is complicated by the various activities involved in the issue—investment securities, public policy, macroeconomics, accounting, and insurance. This article reviews the impact of these activities on U.S. housing, with a discussion of the feasibility of creating a catastrophic insurance program similar to that of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The federal government has successfully operated catastrophic insurance programs in support of private sector initiatives, and this experience—while certainly not perfect—may be a reasonable approach to the current Fannie/Freddie dilemma.     

ENDOGENOUS PRESIDENTIALISM

We develop a model to understand the incidence of presidential and parliamentary institutions. Our analysis is predicated on two ideas: first, that minorities are relatively powerful in a parliamentary system compared to a presidential system, and second, that presidents have more power with respect to their own coalition than prime ministers do. These assumptions imply that while presidentialism has separation of powers, it does not necessarily have more checks and balances than parliamentarism. We show that political leaders who prefer presidentialism may be supported by their own coalition if they fear losing agenda‐setting power to another group. We argue that the model is consistent with a great deal of qualitative information about presidentialism in Africa and Latin America. (JEL: D72, P5, O1)     

DISTRIBUTIONAL INCENTIVES IN AN EQUILIBRIUM MODEL OF DOMESTIC SOVEREIGN DEFAULT

Europe's debt crisis resembles historical episodes of outright default on domestic public debt about which little research exists. This paper proposes a theory of domestic sovereign default based on distributional incentives affecting the welfare of risk‐averse debt and nondebtholders. A utilitarian government cannot sustain debt if default is costless. If default is costly, debt with default risk is sustainable, and debt falls as the concentration of debt ownership rises. A government favoring bond holders can also sustain debt, with debt rising as ownership becomes more concentrated. These results are robust to adding foreign investors, redistributive taxes, or a second asset.     

Leaving a licensed boarding house: transcending trans-institutionalisation with person-centred transitions

While de-institutionalisation set out with the laudable aim to improve the quality of life of people with disability, the untethering of accommodation from support services has in some cases led to less than desirable outcomes. Poor regulation of for-profit boarding houses licensed to care for people with disability has led to the exploitation and abuse of some of Australia’s most vulnerable and marginalised people. Recognition of this, and a number of other factors, has led to the closure of many of New South Wales’ licensed boarding houses. This research presents the experiences of 15 former residents of licensed boarding houses and their supporters spanning from their time as a resident, the transition to other accommodation and their quality of life post transition. While finding the transition challenging, almost all of the former residents identified improvements in their lives since leaving the boarding house.     

Adolescent Online Gambling in Cyprus: Associated School Performance and Psychopathology

This paper presents results from the study of gambling behaviors in a representative sample of Cypriot high-school students. The aim of the study was to ascertain epidemiology of adolescent online gambling in Cyprus and possible correlates. The sample consisted of 2,684 students (48.5 % boys, 51.5 % girls) from the first grades of junior (Gymnasium) and senior (Lyceum) high school. Our results indicate that gamblers presented with lower school achievement and related expectations while scoring consistently higher on measures of Internet addiction, parental bonding and psychopathology. Discriminant analysis revealed two profiles which explained the most variance in gambling behavior; the first profile that corresponded to more explained variance was the student with higher psychopathology, less prosocial behavior, higher Internet addiction score with higher frequencies of online activities and moderate levels of truancy and lower expectation of school achievement. The second profile was that of a student who reported less psychopathology, more prosocial behavior, less involvement with the Internet in general but skipped classes more and his prospects on finishing high school were even slimmer. These results will be utilized in the design of a comprehensive prevention program in an effort to combat online addictive behaviors.