Beyond marriage and the convent: women, class and honour in Renaissance Italy

Ann Crabb, The Strozzi of Florence: Widowhood and Family Solidarity in the Renaissance Stanley Chojnacki, Women and Men in Renaissance Venice: Twelve Essays on Patrician Society Monica Chojnacka, Working Women of Early Modern Venice Joanne M. Ferraro, Marriage Wars in Late Renaissance Venice     

The Growth of Enterprise Zones: A Policy Transformation

The rapid growth of enterprise zones during the 1980s has occurred despite the lack of empirical support for its theory of using tax incentives to rebuild inner cities. This paper concludes, after reviewing the literature and assessments made by zone coordinators that enterprise zones, like Head start, have been transformed into a program through which both conservatives and liberals can justify spending on improved community social and infrastructure services.     

Deserving to Whom? Investigating Heterogeneity in the Impact of Social Constructions of Target Populations on Support for Affirmative Action

The social construction of target populations has emerged as an influential framework for understanding the public policy process. In particular, target populations have been shown to shape the allocation of benefits and burdens by political elites. However, existing studies focus on the elite level, which overlooks whether public preferences are aligned with the allocation of policy benefits and burdens by political elites. Moreover, many studies treat social constructions as homogenous, which this paper calls into question. Using a nation‐wide survey experiment, I investigate variation in public support for affirmative action policies with randomly assigned target populations. The findings indicate that the public formulates policy preferences on the basis of perceived deservingness of target groups similar to political elites. In addition, the findings uncover heterogeneity in the effect of targeting on public opinion based on ideology and racial/ethnic group identity.     

Grub Street Commerce: Advertisements and Politics in the Early Modern British Press

I n mid-May 1689 James Welwood, Scottish-born physician and polemicist for the dual monarchs William III and Mary II, inaugurated a popular journal of opinion, Mercurius Reformatus or the New Observator. Dr. Welwood's periodical was only one among the dozens of newspapers and mercuries that Londoners read after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the culmination of events that removed James II, a Roman Catholic, from the throne and replaced him with his Protestant elder daughter Mary and her Dutch husband-first cousin, William of Orange. While "mercury," an allusion to the Roman god of information, eloquence, and wit, was a common publishing appellation, Welwood viewed his periodical as unique, embracing historical as well as contemporary events, and therefore superior to any ordinary newspaper. He also considered himself exceptional. Admittedly, not many political writers had Welwood's admirable credentials: multiple university degrees, familiarity with the court of William and Mary as a royal physician, and active service in medicine on reform-minded wartime commissions. Although Dr. Welwood never affixed his name to the masthead of Mercurius Reformatus , believing that journalism was beneath his professional standing, his reportorial legacy is significant. Moreover, beyond the columns in Mercurius Reformatus , its companion advertisements yield a valuable archive of remarkable particulars about the views of its founder and the audience it reached. During his publication's two-and-a-half-year run, Welwood used the advertisements to reinforce his articles in order to promote his own political, religious, and medical convictions.¹     

Conveying Mission Through Outcome Measurement: Services to the Homeless in New York City

This paper outlines the policy decision to implement a performance incentive program in a large social services agency. Specifically, it describes the evolution of services to homeless people in New York City, including the creation of the New York City Department of Homeless Services, the privatization of a majority of the shelter system, and the redefinition of the role of government in the provision of homeless services. It explains how performance measurement is an integral part of this evolution, and the numerous challenges that this initiative has presented to management of the Department.     

The Role of Wampum Production at the Albany Almshouse

This paper presents the archaeological and documentary evidence for wampum production at the Albany almshouse within its historical and cultural contexts and in light of Dutch notions of charity, while considering the continually shifting functions and meanings of wampum. It suggests that in the mid-eighteenth century, both the Dutch Reformed Church and private entrepreneurs were involved in producing wampum for trade on the northern and western frontiers.