Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis article examines two contrasting views of Quebec block voting in federal elections. One view has it that the Quebec electorate tends to behave in a monolithic fashion; the other, put by Cairns in 1968, claims that this phenomenon is "a contrivance of the electoral system, not an autonomous social fact." The evidence shows that block voting, namely, the degree to which an electorate mobilizes behind the largest party, is much more pronounced in Quebec than it is in other provinces, and especially when compared to that in Ontario. Quebec is also more likely than Ontario to determine which party forms the government. The tendency of the electoral system to magnify seat allocations to the largest party, however, is only marginally greater in Quebec relative to Ontario. At the same time, the composition of the Quebec "block" vote has varied considerably over time; it has not always been a distinctively francophone phenomenon. The article further challenges the assumption that the single-member plurality system is inherently inferior to proportional representation as a means of securing the protection of minorities in ethnically diverse societies.

Purpose. Identify demographic, social, and environmental factors associated with smoking initiation in a large, racially and ethnically diverse sample of underage youth participating in the 2006 Maryland Youth Tobacco Survey. Design. Cross-sectional, multistage, probability sample survey. Setting. Schools (308 middle and high schools) in Maryland. Subjects. Subjects were 12- to 17-year-old adolescents participating in a school-based survey. New smokers and nonsmokers were included in the analysis (n = 57,072). Measures. Social and media influence, secondhand smoke exposure, tobacco product use, and demographic information including age, race/ethnicity, and geographic region. Analysis. Chi-square and multiple logistic regression analyses controlling for clustering. Results. Hispanic and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander youth were most likely and Asian and Black youth were least likely to be new smokers. Smoking initiation was positively associated with higher age, living with a current smoker, secondhand smoke exposure, exposure to advertisements for tobacco products, having more friends that smoke, tobacco products offered by friends, risk perceptions, and use of other tobacco products such as smokeless tobacco and cigars. Multivariate logistic regression results suggested that composite measures of peer influence, advertising exposure, and secondhand smoke exposure were independently associated with smoking initiation. Conclusions. Media, peer influence, and secondhand smoke exposure were the most important factors influencing smoking initiation and were common to all racial/ethnic groups in this study. Interventions combining targeted public awareness, education, and media campaigns directed at parents/guardians should be investigated. (Am J Health Promot 2011;25[3]:e1–e11.)