Abstract (Summary)
Under Section 61, gross income includes income from whatever source derived, unless an exclusion applies. For instance, under Section 102(a) gross income does not include gifts. For this purpose, a gift is a transfer that is motivated by detached and disinterested generosity. A payment made due to the constraining force of moral or legal duty is not a gift.
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Title
Neo-Darwinian Leisures, the Body and Nature: Hunting and Angling in Modernity |
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Author
Franklin, Adrian |
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Affiliation
University of Tasmania |
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Source
Body & Society, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 57-76, December 2001 [TOC] |
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ISSN
1357-034X |
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Publisher
SAGE Publications |
Abstract
Against most social constructivist accounts of hunting this paper seeks to identify an embodied account of hunting and angling as a means of understanding its paradoxical popularity in late modernity. It evaluates the significance of two pro-hunting and angling discourses, those of Isaak Walton and Neo-Darwinian writers and argues that the appeal of hunting and angling, as evidenced through their copious literatures, descends from Walton rather than Neo-Darwinian sources. In particular it is the development of a highly sensual relation with the natural world that the Waltonian discourse encourages, in contrast with the visualism of touristic encounters, that may account for its enduring popularity.
3.Title:The politics of preventable deaths: local spending, income inequality, and premature mortality in US cities Objective: To examine the association between (1) local political party, (2) urban policies, measured by spending on local programmes, and (3) income inequality with premature mortality in large US cities. Design: Cross sectional ecological study. Outcome measures: All cause death rates and death rates attributable to preventable or immediate causes for people under age 75. Predictor measures: Income inequality, city spending, and social factors. Setting: All central cities in the US with population equal to or greater than 100 000. Results: Income inequality is the most significant social variable associated with preventable or immediate death rates, and the relation is very strong: a unit increase in the Gini coefficient is associated with 37% higher death rates. Spending on police is associated with 23% higher preventable death rates compared with 14% lower death rates in cities with high spending on roads. Conclusions: Cities with high income inequality and poverty are so far unable to reduce their mortality through local expenditures on public goods, regardless of the mayoral party. Longitudinal data are necessary to determine if city spending on social programmes reduces mortality over time. Keywords: expenditures; city; inequality; mortality; policy.
Abstract:Recent research focusing on income inequality, the measure of the distribution of income in a geographical area, has brought new insight into geopolitical disparities in health. The theory behind studies on health and income inequality is that health is not only an outcome of individual choices and cultural characteristics but ultimately of socio-political phenomena.
Income inequality has been shown to be an important risk factor for adverse health outcomes, even after adjusting for median levels of poverty for various jurisdictions within countries,1,2 although recent research is less consistent regarding these effects.3–8 The positive relation between income inequality and age adjusted all cause mortality has been found in US metropolitan areas.9 Some studies have attributed this relation to psychosocial qualities of community members in areas of high inequality.10,11 There are inherent limitations to this approach, however. Reducing a social political construct to the behaviour of community members limits, according to Muntaner and Lynch, the “explanatory power” of income inequality and limits our ability to develop policy responses to social inequalities.12 Furthermore, a focus on behaviour obscures the importance of policies and programmes despite the fact that there is growing evidence that local social policies affect the distribution of health and risks to health.13,14 With several important exceptions, there are few studies that have examined policies in relation to income inequality.
Geopolitical variation in mortality and income inequality may be attributable to differences in governmental policies. A comparison of US and Canadian metropolitan areas showed no effect of income inequality on mortality for the Canadian metro areas whereas the relation was robust and positive for US metro areas.15 The authors note differences in the social welfare net, as well as absolute differences in the levels of income inequality between countries may explain the disparate results. Kaplan and colleagues undertook a study of state policies and other factors to determine causal pathways between income inequality and premature mortality.1 The authors demonstrated that states with highest levels of income inequality had significantly higher rates of homicide and a higher percentage of low birthweight infants. States with high income inequality also had greater per capita expenditures on medical care and police protection.1 As local expenditures on public goods and services respond to local conditions and pressures16 and are markers of the influence of both public interest groups and type of local governance,17 the role of local politics and local expenditures merits further investigation.
The purpose of this study is to examine the association between (1) spending on local programmes, and (2) income inequality with premature mortality. In theory, cities that spend relatively more on public goods would have lower income inequality and poverty because high civic investment attracts and maintains a middle and upper class population.
4.The Parameters of Party Systems
Luciano Bardi
Università di Pisa, Dipartimento di Scienze della Politica, Via Serafini 3, 56126 Pisa, Italy, bardi@sp.unipi.it Peter Mair Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute, 50014 San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy, Peter.Mair@eui.eu Abstract: Despite the scepticism that increasingly surrounds their role and standing in contemporary democracies, scholarly interest in political parties continues unabated. But this interest is also proving uneven, with relatively little attention now being given to the study of party systems. More specifically, the level of theoretical interest in party systems remains limited, with almost no substantial innovations being made since the publication of Sartori’s classic work of 1976. In this article, we seek to redress some of this neglect by identifying the relevant parameters that can be used in the definition of party systems and, possibly, in the explanation of party system change. We then go on to look at the minimum defining characteristics of a system of parties (as opposed to a set of parties) before finally arguing that party systems are best understood as multidimensional phenomena in which we identify and discuss the implications of three types of division — vertical, horizontal and functional.
Key Words: electoral arena • governmental arena • parliamentary arena • party systems
5.The Political Paradox of Finance Capitalism: Interests, Preferences, and Center-Left Party Politics in Corporate Governance Reform
John W. Cioffi University of California, Riverside, john.cioffi@ucr.edu
Martin Höpner Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany, hoepner@mpifg.de Abstract :A striking paradox underlies corporate governance reform during the past fifteen years: center-left political parties have pushed for pro-shareholder corporate governance reforms, while the historically pro-business right has generally resisted them to protect established forms of organized capitalism, concentrated corporate stock ownership, and managerialism. Case studies of Germany, France, Italy, and the United States reveal that center-left parties used corporate governance reform to attack the legitimacy of existing political economic elites, present themselves as pro-growth and pro-modernization, strike political alliances with segments of the financial sector, and appeal to middle-class voters. Conservative parties’ established alliances with managers constrained them from endorsing corporate governance reform.
Key Words: corporate governance • finance capitalism • center-left parties • economic reform • financial regulation
6.A Democratic Polity? Three Views of Policy Responsiveness to Public Opinion in the United States
Jeff Manza Northwestern University Fay Lomax Cook Northwestern University
Abstract: The capacity of a political system to respond to the preferences of its citizens is central to democratictheory and practice. Research and theory about the impact of public opinion on policymaking in the United States, however, have produced decidedly mixed views. A number of analystsfind a strong and persisting impact of public opinion on public policy. Others reject the ideathat the public has consistent views at all or, even if it does, that those views exercise much influenceover policy making. In this article, we evaluate the state of the art in the debates over theopinion-policy link in the rapidly growing body of research on public opinion and policy making.After an extensive review and critique of the theoretical and empirical research developing”strong” and “weak” effect views of the impact of opinion on policy, we conclude that a third”contingent” view, highlighting the historical, institutional, and political contingencies, providesthe best understanding of the impact of opinion on policy.
Key Words: public opinion • responsiveness • public policy
7.Democracy and City Life
Loren A. King
Browne University, USA, lorenking@brown.edu
Abstract :I evaluate the claim that modern urban regions are desirable sites for inclusive forms of democratic governance. Although certain features of city life do hold such promise, I argue that these same features coincide with exclusionary attitudes and activities that undermine democratic hopes. I then clarify the necessary conditions for more inclusive urban democracy, distinguishing my account from prominent criticisms of suburban culture and urban sprawl advanced by, among others, advocates of the new urbanism. I conclude with proposals for reform that emphasize creative uses of existing and emerging technologies and institutions, and a more democratic conception of eminent domain authority.
Key Words: democracy • difference • cities • citizenship • eminent domain • new urbanism
8.Poverty, Inequality, and Conflict
S.M. Miller Education and Sociology, New York University; Martin Rein Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr College; Pamela Roby Instructor of Educational Sociology, New York University, and Research Assistant, Russell Sage Foundation; Bertram M. Gross
Abstract :Groping concern with poverty has ushered in the much more controversial issue of inequalities within the af fluent society. In America, relative deprivation is a more im portant aspect of “poverty” than poor physical conditions. Income alone is an inadequate indicator of level of living. This paper proposes six dimensions for the measurement of well- being : income, assets, basic services, social mobility and edu cation, political position, and status and satisfaction. Ques tions of “who does and should get what” within each of these dimensions are issues arousing acrimonious debate. Social indicators are suggested which would create greater awareness of the extent of inequalities and make discussions of inequali ties more useful. These indicators will not tell us what choices to make in inequality-reduction, but they can pre vent us from complacently ignoring the fact that choices are being made.
9.On Welfare and Terror
Social Welfare Policies and Political-Economic Roots of Terrorism
Brian Burgoon Amsterdam School for Social Science Research University of Amsterdam
Abstract :This article argues that social welfare policies may reduce international and domestic terrorism. Social policies likely affect terrorism in offsetting ways but, on balance, should diminish preferences for terrorism by reducing economic insecurity, inequality, poverty, and religious-political extremism. Thus, countries with more generous welfare provisions should suffer fewer terrorist attacks on their soil and have fewer of their citizens perpetrate terrorism. Supporting this argument, cross-sectional estimation reveals that a country’s welfare efforts negatively correlate with transnational or total terrorist incidents on its soil, as well as transnational terrorism perpetrated by its citizens. Pooled cross-section time-series estimation reveals that several measures of welfare effort reduce the incidence of transnational terrorism in countries, robust to a range of estimators and controls. Such findings suggest that strengthening social policies at home and abroad may not only serve redistributive or development goals but also help combat terrorist violence.
Key Words: terrorism • terrorist • welfare state • social policy • religion • poverty • inequality • insecurity
10.Species of Political Parties
A New Typology
Richard Gunther
Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA 94305-6010, USA. Gunther.1@osu.edu ;Larry Diamond Department of Political Science, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210-1373, USA. diamond@hoover.stanford.edu
While the literature already includes a large number of party typologies, they are increasingly incapable of capturing the great diversity of party types that have emerged worldwide in recent decades, largely because most typologies were based upon West European parties as they existed in the late nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries. Some new party types have been advanced, but in an ad hoc manner and on the basis of widely varying and often inconsistent criteria. This article is an effort to set many of the commonly used conceptions of parties into a coherent framework, and to delineate new party types whenever the existing models are incapable of capturing important aspects of contemporary parties. We classify each of 15 ‘species’ of party into its proper ‘genus’ on the basis of three criteria: (1) the nature of the party’s organization (thick/thin, elite-based or mass-based, etc.); (2) the programmatic orientation of the party (ideological, particularistic-clientele-oriented, etc.); and (3) tolerant and pluralistic (or democratic) versus proto-hegemonic (or anti-system). While this typology lacks parsimony, we believe that it captures more accurately the diversity of the parties as they exist in the contemporary democratic world, and is more conducive to hypothesistesting and theory-building than others.
Key Words: party organization • party programmes • party systems • party types
