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THIS ARTICLE COMPARES THE NATIONALIST DISCOURSE EXPRESSED IN THE WRITINGS OF TWO CONSERVATIVE STATESMEN, FRANCISCO FRANCO AND JOAQUIN BALAGUER, ONE FROM SPAIN AND THE OTHER FROM SANTO DOMINGO, WHO TRIED TO COME TO TERMS WITH THE COMPLEX RELATION BETWEEN RACE AND NATION. THE NATIONALIST DISCOURSE OF BALAGUER IS SHOWN TO BE MORE MODERN AND INFORMED BY ENLIGHTENMENT PHILOSOPHY THAN THE DISCOURSE OF FRANCO, WHO REPUDIATED DEMOCRACY AND ENLIGHTENMENT VIEWS. AT THE SAME TIME BALAGUER'S DISCOURSE IS BLATANTLY RACIST WHILE THAT OF FRANCO IS INCLUSIVE AND EXPRESSES A SPIRITUAL UNIVERSALISM. FOR BALAGUER THE MAIN THREAT TO THE NATION WAS DEMOGRAPHICAL AND EXTERNAL, WHILE FOR FRANCO THE MAIN THREAT WAS POLITICAL AND INTERNAL.

ABSTRACTThis study examines whether college students self-select into the accounting major based on accounting decision-making ability that they bring with them to their first accounting course and whether such ability is associated with performance in accounting coursework and on the CPA Examination. We analyzed the performance on three financial and managerial accounting-related tasks of 1,110 students prior to taking a principles of financial accounting course for the first time. We found that students who intend to be accounting majors performed no better on these tasks than other first-time accounting students. However, we found a strong correlation between performance on these tasks and ultimate performance in accounting courses and on the CPA Examination after controlling for measures of intelligence, academic performance, task effort, and demographic factors. Thus, we conclude that high-performing accounting majors start their college education with a greater ability to perform at least some accounting-related tasks, but that those students do not self-select into the accounting major based on these abilities. In a follow-up study upon completion of their accounting degree, we found that students with lower incoming ability to complete these tasks were not able to catch up with their higher-ability accounting major peers. In addition, they did not improve performance on the accounting-related tasks any more than a lower-ability non-accounting major despite having earned an accounting degree.Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request.

In their 1994 study of electoral preferences for anti-immigrant parties, Van der Brug et al. (2000) concluded that most voters consider anti-immigrant parties to be normal parties. In this replication using 1999 data, the main conclusions of the 1994 study are confirmed for FPÖ, Alleanza Nazionale, Dansk Folkeparti and Vlaams Blok. Preferences for these parties are largely determined by the same variables that determine preferences for other parties. Votes for these parties should not be interpreted as protest votes. Things turned out to be different for the Lega Nord, the Centrumdemocraten, the Fremskridtspartiet, the French Front national, the Republikaner and the Wallonian Front National. The motivations to vote for any of the latter parties turn out to be substantially different in 1999 than they were in 1994. In 1999, these parties attracted more protest votes, or rather they lost their ideological and pragmatic votes. This article ends with a discussion of the implications of these findings for our theoretical understanding of electoral support for these parties, as well as for the ongoing political debate about the appropriate strategy to fight them. (European Journal of Political Research / FUB)