THE SOCIAL BASES OF FEMINISM IN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

Although several studies explore the political environmentsand institutional features of Western European women's movements,few have examined the mass attitudinal bases for feminist politicsin Europe. This article extends the study of feminist politicsby testing models of feminist attitudes developed in the UnitedStates with data collected in the European Community in 1983.We explore the connections between the support of feminist goalsand measures of marital status, female employment, socioeconomiclevel, age, religiosity, place of residence, and political partyidentification, focusing on differences in the predictors ofmale and female attitudes. Consistent with studies of the UnitedStates, we find that women's labor force participation fostersfeminist attitudes among themselves and their husbands. Age,education, religiosity, and partisanship are also found to bepredictors of feminist support. In contrast to studies of Americanwomen and men, we find that marital status has no effect inEurope. Our conclusions have implications for the future offeminist politics in Europe.     

Presidential Popularity and Presidential Elections: An Update and Extension

The popularity of the president as ascertained months priorto a presidential election permits an accurate prediction ofthe election outcome, even when the incumbent president is notrunning for reelection.     

The romantic heresy

L'apparition de l'amour romantique en chrétienté du douzième siècle et sa légitimation éventuelle comme base pour la sélection du conjoint sont expliquées en terme du contraste idéologique entre l'amour romantique (mania), l'amour chretien (agape-caritas), et le mariage féodal de convenance (amour pragmatique). Les institutions sociales supportant chaque légitimation sont analysées. L'amour romantique était particulièrement approprié aux aspirations de mobilité des chevaliers sans terre, vu qu'il mettait en question l'emphase sur le devoir dans l'amour chretien et le mariage féodal, sans proposer un renversement marcusien complet du Principe de réalité pour le Principe du plaisir.
The emergence of romantic love in twelfth-century Christendom and its eventual legitimation as a basis of mate selection are explained in terms of the ideological contrast of romantic love (mania) with Christian love (agape-caritas) and feudal arranged marriage (pragmatic love). The social institutions supporting each legitimation are analysed. Romantic love is found particularly suited to the status striving of the landless knights, as it challenged the emphasis on duty in Christian love and feudal marriage, without proposing a complete Marcusian overthrow of the reality principle in favour of the pleasure principle.     

Parental Participation in Child Protection Work: Rethinking the Rhetoric

Correspondence to Brian Corby, University of Liverpool, Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work Studies, Eleanor Rathbone Building, Myrtle Street, PO Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX Summary Parental participation and, to a lesser extent, that of childrenat child protection conferences is seen as an important elementin resolving some of the conflicts that beset child protectionwork. Using data from a study of participation in one metropolitanborough, those outcomes that are generally regarded as positivein this respect are critically examined. Our findings suggestthat the optimism of advocates of participation is not whollyjustified. While at a basic level, parents are better informedthan before, their involvement in all aspects of the decision-makingprocess remains very limited. We conclude by arguing that thereis a need for more realism about the extent to which all parentscan be actively involved in making decisions about the futureprotection of their children. We point to the need for greaterrecognition of conflicts of interests between parents, professionalsand children and to the need for changes in the child protectionconference system in order to ensure more ethical and effectiveparticipation.     

DO RENT‐SEEKING GROUPS ANNOUNCE THEIR SHARING RULES?

We study collective rent seeking between two groups in which each group has the option of releasing or not its sharing‐rule information. First, we show that the case where both groups release their sharing‐rule information never occurs in equilibrium; when the players are unevenly matched, one group releases its sharing‐rule information and the other does not. Then, we select the Pareto‐superior equilibrium when the players are unevenly matched. We show that, in this selected equilibrium, the underdog releases its sharing‐rule information, and the favorite does not; thus, the underdog becomes the leader, and the favorite the follower (JEL D72).     

Measuring the Business Impacts of Community Involvement: The Case of Employee Volunteering at UL

The study presents findings from piloting a new framework for measuring the business impacts of corporate community involvement at UL. It focuses on evaluating the human resource (HR) outcomes of employee volunteering in three signature programs. Five business impacts were measured—job satisfaction, morale, organizational pride, belief in UL mission, and engagement. Using an employee survey, the research team compared signature program volunteers with others and found a positive correlation between volunteering and impacts on morale, organizational pride, belief in UL mission, and engagement. Employee awareness (without participation) of UL signature programs was also associated with increased morale and organizational pride. While the study did not prove causation, it confirmed previous research on the link between employee volunteering and positive HR outcomes. The authors provide recommendations for further research and how companies can use the impact measurement framework to evaluate the bottom‐line benefits of their community involvement programs.