WANTED: THE EDUCATION PRESIDENT ISSUE TRESPASSING BY POLITICAL CANDIDATES

The strategy of ambiguity counsels candidates for office totake up some policy positions in the territory of the opposingparty. In 1988, both presidential candidates took some positionsof that kind: George Bush with promises on jobs and education,and Michael Dukakis on defense. This article examines (1) howaware voters were of those incidents of "issue trespassing";(2) whether attention to the electoral campaign helped votersbecome more aware; and (3) the electoral payoff of the strategy.Our findings raise serious doubts that "issue trespassing" payselectoral dividends. Voters tend to rely too much on party stereotypesto notice such attempts, and attention to the campaign doeslittle to mitigate that tendency in two of the three instancesbeing examined.     

AN EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATION FOR ROTTEN KIDS

We explore how natural selection acts upon genes for cooperation, altruism and selfishness in an prisoner's dilemma played by family members. A key parameter determining behavior is that parents and children have different expectations of future offspring. Examining asexual and sexually reproducing populations we show that which strategy of cooperation and defection proves be stable depends on the relative reproduction potential of the players and what proportion of the population is young. "Rotten kids" with altruistic parents can be a stable outcome where reproductive success is the goal, and natural selection may lead individuals to care about their unborn progeny. (JEL D10, H31)     

THE CALCULUS OF VOTING RECONSIDERED

A rational economic hypothesis of the citizen's decision tovote or not vote in U. S. presidential elections has been citedas an example of the replacement of social-psychologically oriented"empirical generalizations" by axiomatically based deductivepropositions in political science. However, close scrutiny showsthat the rational (or political) economic paradigm is no moreaccurate a theory than previously popular systems analysis orfunctional paradigms. The claimed verification of the originalhypothesis was based on an apparently imprecise, adhoc, ordinalprocedure that could not distinguish between the intimatelyrelated rational economic and social-psychological hypotheses.A more powerful technique resolves the issue in favor of thelatter model for the data used by the original authors.     

Linking aggregate production planning with marketing pricing decisions

In this paper, we link production planning decisions to marketing decisions that involve the price of product groups. The focus of this paper is the development of a closed-loop procedure for aggregate production planning and pricing. We seek to satisfy uncertain demand while minimizing total costs that include material, labour, and inventory holding costs. The procedure is useful for variable demand to update short-term aggregate plans.     

THE IMPACT OF ENTITLEMENTS AND EQUITY ON COOPERATIVE BARGAINING: AN EXPERIMENT

In some bargaining situations—for example, collaborative policy making and compulsory arbitration—a third party imposes a backstop position that differs from the status quo. Axiomatic models of cooperative bargaining presume that the status quo in such cases will have no effect on the negotiated outcome, especially if it is Pareto inferior to the backstop. Recent literatures on equity and entitlement, however, suggest that the status quo may establish a focal point that acts as an “anchor” in current negotiations, affecting any ultimate agreement. In a two‐party, two‐attribute experiment, in which subjects jointly select from up to 200 options, we find evidence (1) that the status quo matters, perhaps because of “entitlement effects” and (2) that parties prefer egalitarian outcomes to the Nash bargain. (JEL C92, D74, H44, Q58)     

BRINGING STRONG TIES BACK IN INTERPERSONAL GATEWAYS TO POLITICAL INFORMATION AND INFLUENCE

With whom and how frequently do people discuss political matters?A theoretical model is formulated and tested using informationon respondents' core social networks from the 1987 General SocialSurvey. The frequency of political discussions depends uponfactors of demand (personal attributes) and supply (opportunitieswithin social contexts). Educational attainment and age positivelyaffect political discussion frequency, although indirectly throughintervening political orientation and social contexts variables.Demand is positively related to political interest, strong partyattachment, liberal views, and newspaper readership. The findingsunderscore the importance of including close relatives and friends(strong ties) in studying social contexts of political behavior.The opportunity structure (supply of potential discussants)is enhanced by the presence of a spouse and other adult householdmembers, by being in the labor force, and by having close personalrelationships with spatially proximate core associates.     

First Principles of Practice Research

Correspondence to Bruce A. Thyer, Ph.D., School of Social Work, The University of Georgia, Athens, G A 30602, USA. Summary Critics of applying conventional quantitative research methodsto the problems of social work practice research have ignoredthe considerable progress which has been achieved during thepast decade in scientifically documenting the effectivenessof social services. A set of First Principles of Practice Researchis outlined for use by researchers in the design and conductof practice research, and for use by the consumers of researchto evaluate the methodological rigour of practice experiments.The advocates of qualitative research are urged to provide theprofession with similar positive examples of research on theoutcomes of social work practice, and to develop explicit guide-linesfor the conduct of qualitative studies.