Nationalism studies between methodological nationalism and orientalism: an alternative approach illustrated with the case of El Greco in Toledo,Spain

Methodological nationalism is still dominant in nationalism studies. When studying the construction of national identities, scholars generally limit their study to the borders of one nation‐state, while only paying attention to members of that particular nation. Implicitly, foreign actors and influences are left out of the picture. I will challenge this methodological nationalism with a case study, which demonstrates that the place of Toledo within the Spanish national imagination, and more particularly that of El Greco, the most important representative of the city's artistic heritage, was largely determined by foreigners. During the nineteenth century, El Greco was rediscovered primarily by foreign scholars and artists. Moreover, it would be the rise of international tourism in the early twentieth century that convinced Toledans to adopt El Greco as the city's main artistic icon. This case, thus, clearly shows that in nationalism studies methodological nationalism can be avoided by also including foreign actors.     

How Should We Wage the War on Drugs? Determinants of Public Preferences for Drug Control Alternatives

When citizens are presented with alternative policy solutions to a given social problem, why do they choose to support one over another? In this article, the authors analyze a survey of residents of the five largest U.S. metropolitan areas to understand determinants of public support for spending on three major components of American drug control policy: law enforcement programs, rehabilitative services for addicts, and school‐based prevention programs. The authors estimate effects of self‐interest, political socialization, and policy attitudes on support for total drug control expenditures and on preferences for each drug control alternative versus the others. Effects of group self‐interest, societal interest, and political socialization change dramatically across dimensions of support. Policy attitudes are strong predictors of both types of support, whereas individual self‐interest measures are not associated with either dimension.     

Evaluating the geographic concentration of industries using distance-based methods

We propose new methods for evaluating the spatial distributionof firms. To assess whether firms are concentrated or dispersed,economists have tradi-tionally used indices that analyse theheterogeneity of a spatial structure at a single geographiclevel. We introduce distance-based methods, Besag's L function(derived from Ripley's K function) and Diggle and Chetwynd'sD function to describe simultaneously spatial distribution atdifferent geographical scales. Our empirical applications considerthe distribution of French manufacturing firms in the Parisarea and in France generally. For some geographic levels, resultsshow significant concentration or dispersion of firms accordingto their sector of activity.