Public Opinion and Policy Representation: On Conceptualization,Measurement, and Interpretation

The congruence between public preferences and public policy is of special importance in representative democracies. We want to know whether the public is getting the policies it wants and, if not, whose preferences are being represented. To directly evaluate congruence, scholars need to measure what the public wants in a particular policy area and then correctly match it to policy in that area. This is difficult to do. Not surprisingly, while much scholarship examines the congruence of positions, little research examines actual policy congruence. Even the work that there is on the subject offers limited information. In this paper, I assess what we can infer about congruence from the different scholarly traditions in the study of representation. I also consider prospects for research on the match between public preference inputs and public policy outputs, particularly when we cannot assess it directly.     

The Rush–Bagot Agreement: Canada–US Relations in Transition

In 1817, Great Britain and the United States concluded the Rush–Bagot Agreement to prevent a naval arms race on the Great Lakes. Despite frequent transgressions to the agreement, by the 1920s, the agreement was heralded internationally as a model to emulate. The predominant scholarly focus on the agreement in the nineteenth century fails to explain why a broken agreement in one century was praiseworthy in the next. This article argues that the twentieth-century narrative of the agreement is of critical important to explaining the agreement’s impact on Canada–US relations. Through the lens of three stages of Canadian political leadership, this article demonstrates that the Rush-Bagot Agreement shifted from a rigid compact to a symbolic agreement that not only reflected but aided the transition toward one of the most unique security relationships. The article concludes that this extant agreement reinforces the prevalent notion of the “undefended border” in Canada–US relations.     

Rock Hyraxes (Procavia capensis) from Middle Stone Age Levels at Blombos Cave,South Africa

The ～100 ka Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa, contain numerous rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) remains. It is often ambiguous to interpret rock hyrax remains from archaeological deposits deriving from cave and shelter sites in southern Africa as the agent or agents of accumulation may be difficult to establish. In this paper, the different taphonomic signatures separating anthropogenic from natural accumulations at Blombos Cave are considered. The analysis indicates that although a few specimens show evidence for raptor and carnivore accumulation, there is also substantial evidence that suggests humans preyed on these small mammals during different times of the year.     

The Descents of Military Violence against Civilians: a history of the present

Inspired by the works of Michel Foucault and Erling Sandmo, this article explores contemporary discourses of military violence against civilians from a genealogical perspective. The purpose is to shed light on the historicity of certain structures of knowledge, thoughts, politics and ethics that are fundamental for the ways in which military violence against civilians is put into words, interpreted and explained in various situations and contexts today. My main argument is that the descents of Swedish contemporary discourse on military violence against civilians can be traced back to epistemological and politico-legal conflicts in the 17th century.     

The politics of the chancel screen: Samuel Moore,Slaidburn, and the parochial dynamics of Laudianism

The 1630s was a decade of dramatic and often controversial change within the Church of England, as innovatory standards of ceremonial conformity and for the maintenance and appearance of church buildings were imposed upon the Church. This article will examine the imposition of so-called Laudian policies in the Yorkshire parish of Slaidburn. Despite a growing interest in Laudianism amongst historians in recent decades, little work has attempted to explore the dynamics of Laudianism in one parish. The unusual variety of sources which survive relating to Slaidburn during this period provides a rare opportunity to explore the circumstances in which Laudian enforcement was enacted. Central to these responses was the rector, Samuel Moore, a somewhat isolated figure within the parish. This article will suggest that beyond the high polemics which buttressed Laudianism, practical considerations may have prompted a willing clerical constituency for Laudian ideas of ministry and of proper worship.     

Playing and affective time-spaces

In this paper I have two objectives. The first is to critically explore definitions of playing that have underpinned a great deal of research in children's geography. In so doing I want to highlight some of the assumptions that various authors within geography have made (often implicitly) about the ontological status of playing. This will in turn, lead me to work with, between and sometimes against three authors who have tried to theorize playing. In following this route, I hope to come to some tentative conclusions about the status of playing, which paradoxically will eschew any (strong) ontological commitment at all. This leads to my second objective, which is to explore four particular aspects of playing—embodiment, affect, objects and time-space—to examine how they are interleaved with spaces and spacing. In necessarily situating this work within my research at Hilltop Primary School1 1. This is a pseudonym, used as part of a confidentiality agreement signed with the school. View all notes in the summer of 2001, I hope to show that geographical studies can contribute to definitions of playing as much as playing can inflect certain notions of space.     

William Pulteney Alison, the Scottish philosophy, and the making of a political medicine

This article considers the public health and social-reform agitations of Dr. William Pulteney Alison (1790-1858), professor of medicine at Edinburgh University and leader of the Scottish medical profession, in the context of Scottish moral philosophy. Throughout his career, Alison reflected on what has come to be recognized as a central problem of social medicine: where did its domain end? At what point did the medical mission of identifying and eliminating factors that harm health pass into a non-medical domain-the provinces of political economy, individual liberty, participatory politics, or acceptance of nature's dictates? On these issues Alison was an expansionist, relentlessly pushing back the borders of medicine. Drawing on Alison's writings on such disparate topics as the philosophy of mind, the epidemiology of infectious diseases, and modes of agrarian organization, the article argues that the trajectory of much of Alison's work was to discover the structural implications of a comprehensive biological reading of human capacity and behavior. It is therefore appropriate to see him as a promulgator of a "political medicine," which he presented as a critical alternative to the classical political economy of the Scottish Malthusians. The article concludes by suggesting that Alison's work (and influence) have been under-recognized and remain pertinent to modern social epidemiology, public health, and medicine more broadly.