Suchergebnisse

Draws on 3 years of ethnographic research to examine the gap between the ideals driving welfare reform & the ground-level realities. It is argued that, despite claims of success, the poorest US citizens are in worse shape now than before the 1996 Personal Responsibility Act. Some examples of success are cited; however, much success is temporary, & the long-term outlook is less positive for about 50% of the welfare mothers the author met while conducting research. It is contended that the reality of declining welfare rolls is that former welfare families now move in & out of low-wage jobs. Because the reform instituted a system of rules, punishment, & time limits inducing pressure on the poor, many avoid the welfare office altogether. A look at the workings of the Arbordale welfare office is offered to shed light on this phenomenon. While noting that the ground-level hardship & human cost of welfare reform remain invisible, the monetary cost is apparent. J. Zendejas

Scholars often use roll-call votes to study legislative behaviour. However, many legislatures only conclude a minority of decisions by roll call. Thus, if these votes are not a random sample of the universe of votes cast, scholars may be drawing misleading inferences. In fact, theories over why roll-call votes are requested would predict selection bias based on exactly the characteristics of legislative voting that scholars have most heavily studied. This article demonstrates the character and severity of this sampling problem empirically by examining European Parliament vote data for a whole year. Given that many legislatures decided only a fraction of their legislation by roll call, these findings have potentially important implications for the general study of legislative behaviour.