PRECEDENT AND NATIONALISM IN THE SUPREME COURT OF CANADA

This article employs literature on federalism to explore the ways in which national Canadian interest groups develop federative structures in order to conduct advocacy work within Québec. It first identifies institutional reasons for the development of federalist structures for Canadian groups, and it then explores asymmetries between the treatment of Québec chapters of these groups and of chapters elsewhere in Canada. Drawing on interviews with the political directors of groups active at the national level in Canada, this article shows that the degree to which groups grant power to their provincial or Québec subunits varies according to the benefits sought by groups.     

THE EFFECTS OF COURT INTERVENTION IN ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION

Books reviewed in this articles:
Laura M. Lake, Environmental Regulation; The Political Effects of Implementation
R. Shep Melnick, Regulation and the Courts; The Case of the Clean Air Act
Lettie M. Wenner, The Environmental Decade in Court     

SUBURBAN MUNICIPAL EXPENDITURES: THE EFFECTS OF BUSINESS ACTIVITY,FUNCTIONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND REGIONAL CONTEXT*

A wide variety of models exist seeking to explain variation in the level of suburban government activity. Alternative models stress concepts of local stratification and discrimination, the structure of local decision-making, ecological position, and public choice, each of which suggests varying hypotheses about which suburbs spend more and which less. In this paper we summarize and evaluate the relative strength of each of these alternative models, and propose major directions for future research.     

我国西部不发达区域自然资源要素转换的若干思考

西部不发达区域是我国自然资源密集地区,极具开发潜力,其经济成长采取自然资源转换模式具有客观必然性。但是传统的自然资源要素转换模式已严重制约着西部地区经济的持续发展。本通过对西部地区自然资源优势、资源开发中的技术结构和利益分配机制以及资源转换模式等问题的系统思考,提出了提升区域自然资源转换模式的构想。     

JURY DECISION MAKING MODELS AND THE SUPREME COURT: THE JURY CASES FROM WILLIAMS v. FLORIDA TO BALLEW v. GEORGIA*

This article analyzes recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions in cases relating to the size and unanimity of juries as an example of the use (and abuse) of social science by the Court in the realm of policy analysis. The four cases reviewed “cast an unflattering light on the U.S. Supreme Court's ability to integrate social science findings into public law.”     

THE EFFECTS OF METROPOLITAN JOB GROWTH ON THE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF FAMILY INCOME*

ABSTRACT. This article examines how a metropolitan area's job growth affects its income distribution, using CPS data from 1979 to 1988. Metropolitan growth increases the poorest quintile's income by a greater percentage than for the average family. Metropolitan growth also increases the value of property owned by the richest quintiles. Economic development programs to increase local growth will have a net progressive effect if the cost per job created is low, and these costs are financed by personal taxes. But programs with a high cost per job, or financed by cutting welfare, will reduce the net income of the poorest quintile.