Forestalling the Business Veto: Investment Confidence and the Rise of Swedish Social Democracy, 1932–1936

Objective. We investigate the causes of the stability of Swedish business confidence in the early 1930s. Surprisingly, investors seemed unruffled by the Social Democrats' heterodox "Crisis Program," a proto–Keynesian response to the Great Depression. This research allows a productive modification of the argument that the state is dependent on private capital formation. Methods. Analysis of stock markets, currency prices, patterns of domestic investment, as well as written primary sources in Swedish and English. Results. The cross–class cooperation practiced by the Social Democrats, and the lack of a threat of radicalization, had an important calming effect on investors. Conclusions. To avoid capital flight and resulting economic dislocation, reformist governments must cooperate with business and conservatives, and turn away from workers and revolutionaries.     

Does Learning Diminish Violations of Independence, Coalescing and Monotonicity?

Violations of expected utility theory are sometimes attributed to imprecise preferences interacting with a lack of learning opportunity in the experimental laboratory. This paper reports an experimental test of whether a learning opportunity which engenders accurate probability assessments, by enhancing understanding of the meaning of stated probability information, causes anomalous behaviour to diminish. The data show that whilst in some cases expected utility maximising behaviour increases with the learning opportunity, so too do systematic violations. Therefore, there should be no presumption that anomalous behaviour under risk is transient and that discovered preferences will be appropriately described by expected utility theory.     

Doukhobor Claims for Compensation

The so-called Bulldozer, Rose, Orange, and Tulip Revolutions have reminded us that as repressive as a regime may be, the real power ultimately belongs to the masses, especially when its forces are supported and channelled into non-violent action in pursuit of clear and concrete objectives. This article shows how the first of these events, the “Bulldozer Revolution,” unfolded in Serbia resulting in the ouster of the dictator Milo?evi?. The lessons were then absorbed by Georgian activists who were similarly successful in replacing Shevardnadze with Saakashvili. In Ukraine, the election of Kuchma’s protégé, Yanukovych, was foiled when the “Orange Revolution” installed Yushchenko instead. The author also chronicles the “Tulip Revolution” of Kyrgyzstan. A notable feature of this paper is that, in addition to analyzing these “successful” revolutions, it also looks at some clearly unsuccessful ones, namely those attempted in Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Belarus. But the current global economic crisis could lead to more political changes in the former Soviet Union, whether in Belarus, the Caucasus, Central Asia, or even Russia itself. The article argues that the “colour revolutions” of 2000–2005 present a real danger to the authoritarian regime of Medvedev-Putin in Russia, and that their fear of them is hence thoroughly justified.     

Sensual and Sexual Marital Contentment in Parents of Small Children—A Follow-Up Study When the First Child is Four Years Old

This follow-up study explored parents' (N = 452) intimate relationships when their firstborn child was 6 months old and then 4 years later. The measurement used was a modified version of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, DAS. The present results show that most parents responding were content sensually at 6 months postpartum in 2002 and 4 years later, in 2006. More parents had changed from being sensually content in 2002 to discontent in 2006, than the contrary, however, and the sexual contentment remained low. The average sexual frequency was low both at 6 months and at 4 years for both parents with and without additional children. Experiencing tiredness as a hindrance to having sex was perceived as a greater problem among those parents without additional children. Prospective regression analyses indicated that sexuality was significantly related to both sensual and sexual contentment 4 years later. Sexuality was also one of the most significant covariates in the cross-sectional regression analysis for sensual contentment. Since sexuality plays a central role in partner well-being, it may be an important target for helping parents with small children.     

The lesbian dyad

Little is known regarding how respondents interpret terms that are commonly used in sexual behavior surveys. The present study assessed the impact of four factors on respondents’ judgments of whether the hypothetical actors “Jim” and “Susie “ would consider a particular behavior that they had engaged in to be “sex.” The four factors were respondent's gender, actor's gender, type of act (vaginal, anal, or oral intercourse), and who achieved orgasm (neither, Jim only, Susie only, or both). Two hundred twenty‐three undergraduates (22.2 ± 2.2 years; 65% female) were asked to read 16 scenarios featuring Jim and Susie and to judge whether each actor would consider the described behavior to be sex. Results indicated that vaginal and anal intercourse were considered sex under most circumstances. Whether oral intercourse was labeled as sex depended on the gender and viewpoint of the actor, and whether orgasm occurred. Findings suggest that items in sexual behavior surveys need to be clearly delineated to avoid subjective interpretations by respondents.     

Base rates revisited: Assessment strategies for HIV/AIDS

The efficiency of a diagnostic test is largely determined by the base rate, or prevalence, of disease in the population under study, with the consequence that low prevalence diseases are often difficult to detect. However, a review of clinical decision‐making, from a Bayesian standpoint, indicates that even relatively inefficient measures may be effective when combined in appropriate ways, and when the costs and benefits of detection versus non‐detection are considered. In the case of HIV/AIDS, a number of factors, including low prevalence population characteristics, the tendency to distort critical information, and the horrendous consequences of this disease, severely complicate the decision‐making task. The present paper reevaluates the problem of prediction as it relates to HIV/AIDS by examining the use of multiple tests, the relevance of Bayesian utility theory, and the significance of both immediate and projected costs and benefits.     

“Unless You Were Native American…Everybody Came From Another Country:” Language and Content Learning in a Grade 4 Diverse Classroom

Set amidst an increasingly tense discourse about immigration and substantial pressures on educators, this study examines a three-week fourth-grade social studies unit as taught to a class with a large number of English learners located in a low-income school in the Pacific Northwest. Using ethnographic and sociolinguistic perspectives, we provide evidence of how the teacher leverages a wide array of instructional strategies and scaffolds to build language skills and content knowledge within a fast-paced unit on 19th-century Westward Migration. Embedded within such instruction is the construction of narratives that highlight regional examples of a linguistic and ethnically diverse community and that connect immigration trends on a global scale to local history. These strategies and narratives are then used in a summative lesson about immigration that affirms students’ family stories as part of the U.S. history still being written.