Public Opinion and Dynamic Representation in the American States: The Case of Environmental Attitudes*

Objective. We investigate causal processes linking environmental conditions, attitudes, and policies in the American states: Is public opinion about ecology shaped by environmental conditions? Are state policymakers responsive to environmental opinions? Does public opinion respond to policy adoption? Methods. Using public opinion data from the DDB Worldwide Life Style Survey to measure aggregate state attitudes about the environment, as well as measures of water quality and policy intervention, we capture the dynamics of representation in the American states on the environment during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Results. Our findings support a thermostatic model of representation—state environmental opinions are influenced by environmental conditions and are responsive to policy outputs alongside improved environmental conditions. Conclusions. This model of the opinion‐policy linkage refines our understanding of representation and focuses us not just on the passage of public policy to address public desires, but the effectiveness of that policy as well.     

影响的焦虑与焦虑的影响:对布莱克小诗《飞虻》的三层阐释

互文性批评旨在通过对若干有关联文本的考察,在更深邃、更博大的文化-哲学视野中审视文学问题.本文从重诂英国诗人威廉·布莱克的小诗《飞虻》入手,在三层阐释层面上审视作为强者诗人的布莱克表现出的"影响的焦虑",以及他的"焦虑"对后代作家的再度影响,揭示跨文化、跨时空的语境中,以互识、互证为基础的人类思维的相通之处.     

论网络“把关人”对网络媒体公信力的影响

网络传播的兴起,对"把关人"理论形成了巨大的冲击,网络"把关人"的新特性在网络传播中发挥其独特的作用。有鉴于此,在对网络把关人和网络媒体公信力进行了界定的基础上,从信息把关的角度探讨了网络"把关人"对网络媒体公信力的影响,以期更好地发挥网络把关人的功能,促进网络媒体的发展。     

Food packaging 1974–1984

The author argues that it is clear that the manufacturers of most food products now have a bewildering array of alternative forms of packaging from which to choose. Due to pressure on profit margins, they will look for those systems that will be the cheapest having regard to many technical, commercial, legal and ecological factors. There will often be many different answers to any one packaging problem and all will be right to some extent! And not one is likely to satisfy every need!     

水利——定国安邦之大策

从我国历史上的立国——大禹治水创立夏朝 ;治国——“水则载舟 ,水则覆舟”;卫国——以水代兵为本国政治服务等三个方面论述了水与国家政治的密切关系     

Race,Rural Residence,and Wildland Visitation: Examining the Influence of Sociocultural Meaning1

Abstract Previous studies have shown that African Americans have less favorable impressions about wildlands and recreate on wildland areas less frequently than do whites. However, most of these investigations have been conducted on non-rural populations. Rural perceptions of wildlands and visitation to such areas have received relatively little attention. In this exploratory study, we propose that race operates on wildland recreation visitation through the different meanings rural blacks and whites attribute to wildlands. We examine this hypothesis with a structural model which specifies wildland meaning as an intervening factor between race and visitation. Single equation results show blacks visit wildlands less, and have less favorable definitions of wildlands, compared to whites. However, when wildland meaning is included in the structural model, racial differences become insignificant. This suggests that the meanings different racial groups attach to wildlands help explain visitation. Both sex and age are also significant predictors of both wildland meaning and visitation.     

The Privatization of Welfare

The different forms of privatization all imply some diminution of the state's role in the provision, financing or regulation of welfare. Privatisation does not simply mean the sale of public assets and greater reliance on private enterprise and competitive markets; it also means the transfer of welfare responsibilities from the state to the voluntary and informal sectors. This is partly an ideological issue, concerning the state's relationship with individual citizens and social groups, and partly a matter of practicalities. Welfare pluralism implies a less dominant role for the state in the provision (as opposed to the financing and regulation) of welfare services: its major themes are decentralization and participation. Some doubt is cast on the capacity and the desirability of the informal and voluntary sectors substituting for the state in social service provision. The family is undergoing substantial changes which may reduce its capacity to provide care and, at the same time, the number of dependents is increasing. The voluntary sector is beset with problems of uneven and incomplete coverage, equity, fragmentation and accountability. The chief consequence of welfare pluralism has been the rapid development of the commercial sector.     

Mental health, social relations, and social selection: a longitudinal analysis.

A wide body of literature documents the effect of social networks and social supports on mental health. Fewer studies, however, have examined the reciprocal effect of mental health on social relationships. This problem is examined using data from a national panel survey of adults aged 20-64. For the sample as a whole, support was found for a social selection process, since psychological distress predicted decreases in primary, but not secondary, social relationships. The extent of primary relationships also were found to be associated with subsequent distress, providing evidence that the relationship between mental health and social environment may be transactional. When examined separately by gender, males but not females were found to be vulnerable to the process of social selection, supporting the hypothesis that the expression of distress is less role-appropriate for men and therefore more likely to invite social sanctions. Social causation effects also were observed only among males.