Continuity and change in a patronage society: the social mobility of British autobiographers, 1600–1750

Abstract This article describes rates and modes of intergenerational social mobility among the middle sort of people, using data derived from analysis of a sample of British autobiographical texts from the period 1600–1750. It adduces evidence indicating a strong propensity for social reproduction between generations within the group, and accounts for this propensity by looking at the ways in which individuals pursued careers throughout their lifetimes. The article shows how a network of social associations comprised largely of family and effective kin was the decisive factor in making a career, and how the basic framework of this network rarely extended beyond a person's native social-cultural milieu. I conclude that because the network was so limited, there was little opportunity for significant social mobility among the middle sort in early modern Britain.     

Constructing First Order Stationary Autoregressive Models via Latent Processes

First order stationary autoregressive (AR(1)) models are introduced for which there exists a linear relation between the expectations of the observations, and where it is readily possible to arrange the marginal distributions to be other than normal.     

Aspects of the political and personal sociology of AIDS: knowledge, policy attitudes and risk

Cette communication porte sur les déterminants des connaissances relatives au sida et des attitudes favorables à la protection des droits civils des personnes atteintes du vih tels qu'ils se dégagent d'une enqugte auprés d'environ 1,250 canadiens réalisée par téléphone à l'automne de 1988. L'auteur présente également une évaluation des influences réciproques des connaissances et des attitudes à l'égard du sida. Le degré de sensibilisation au sujet du sida et de l'infection au VIH est relativement élevé. La plupart des canadiens sont capables de décrire le sida et connaissent les modes de transmission du WH. Sur le plan des attitudes, les canadiens sont relativement tolérants. Ainsi, ils appuient largement le recours à des sanctions légaux contre la discrimination dans les domaines de l'emploi et du logement et une majoritéd'entre eux se déclarent favorables à l'anonymat des tests de dépistage du vih. Cependant, les réactions à des arguments d'ordre politique invoquant l'autorité de la profession médicale ou affirmant que des mesures autoritaires sont néessaires pour prévenir l'infection sont beaucoup plus conservatrices. L'analyse par régression des réponses indique que les personnes les mieux informées au sujet du sida ne se montrent pas nécessairement plus tolérantes mais que les gens dont les attitudes sont plus tolérantes sont plus portées à se renseigner davantage. La corrélation entre les attitudes à 1'égard du sida et les attitudes générales concernant les libertés civiles de même que les gais et lesbiennes est forte, mais il n'y a aucune corrélation entre les comportements à risque d'infection par le Wh, d'une part, et d'autre part, les connaissances ou les attitudes. Using data from a telephone survey of a representative sample of about 1,250 Canadians, conducted in the fall of 1988, this paper examines the determinants of knowledge about aids and attitudes supporting protection of the civil rights of HIV-infected persons and provides estimates of the reciprocal effects of knowledge and attitudes. Knowledge about AIDS and HN infection is relatively high. Most Canadians are able to describe aids and know how the virus is transmitted. Canadians also have relatively tolerant attitudes: there is very strong support for legal sanctions to prevent discrimination in employment and housing and majority support for anonymous testing for HTV infection. Policy arguments phrased in terms of the authority of the medical profession, or portraying authoritarian measures as being necessitated to prevent infection, however, results in much more conservative responses. Regression analysis shows that people whose knowledge about AIDS is greater are not more likely to have tolerant attitudes, but that having more tolerant attitudes leads people to become more knowledgeable. Attitudes towards AIDS are strongly correlated with general views about civil liberties and about gays and lesbians. Behaviour involving risk of infection is uncorrelated with knowledge or attitudes.     

Sampling by Ethnic Surnames: The Case of American Jews

It is often difficult and costly to locate members of numericallysmall minorities using standard probability sampling. Consequently,nonprobability sampling techniques of various sorts are commonlyused. This paper analyzes the differences between samples chosenby two such techniques—the use of ethnic surnames andthe use of organization lists—tand compares them withprobability samples. Using data from the National Jewish PopulationStudy, we find that Jews with one of 35 so-called distinctiveJewish names do not differ substantially from the general populationof Jews in demographic characteristics or indicators of Jewishidentification, and that this technique produces a sample whichis more similar to the general population of Jews than doesthe organization list sample technique.     

THE CONSISTENCY OF PERFECT AND MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION

In this paper I have suggested the formal consistency between the models of perfect and monopolistic competition. When products are differentiated only by their quality, the zero-profit equilibrium position of the perfectly competitive firm can be recast diagrammatically in a way which coincides with the traditional exposition of Chamberlinean tangencies. The illusory excess capacity theorem confuses average revenue product curves with demand schedules. These results should hardly be surprising. Indeed, if such a thing as “perfect” competition actually exists (even in theory), it must be conceivable within a model in which firms are allowed to compete in other dimensions as well as price.     

STABILITY AND CHANGE IN THE U.S. PUBLIC'S KNOWLEDGE OF POLITICS

The U.S. public's current knowledge about politics is comparedwith levels of knowlege in the 1940s and 1950s. Fourteen questionsasked by Gallup on various surveys from 1945 to 1957 were includedon a larger survey of political knowledge conducted by telephonein 1989 with a randomly selected sample of 610 adult U.S. residents.On 8 of the 14 items, the percentage answering correctly in1989 was higher than in the earlier surveys (by 4–15 points).One item showed an increase of 1 percent, two were down 1 percent,and three others declined by 5 percent, 9 percent, and 10 percent.When level of education is controlled, however, levels of knowledgeappear to have declined for most of the items. A reanalysisof some of the original Gallup data is used to estimate theeffectiveness of schools in transmitting political informationin 1989 compared with the earlier years.     

REFERENDUM DYNAMICS AND THE IRISH DIVORCE AMENDMENT

Referendums are typically interpreted in terms unique to a particulartime and place; the 1986 Irish divorce referendum has been noexception. Here this vote is examined in light of referendumsin the United States and elsewhere in an attempt to identifymore pervasive patterns. It is concluded that there is a referendumdynamic capable of anticipating the diverse fluoridation votesof the 1950s, the ERA campaigns of the 1970s, and the Irishdivorce vote of 1986, all of which displayed large voter shiftsfrom an initial majority in favor to an eventual majority against.The dynamic process involved appears to be a pattern of eliteretreat brought about by community conflict, rather than theresult of confusion, ignorance, a herd instinct, or alienationin the electorate.