Measuring Complex State Policies: Pitfalls and Considerations,with an Application to Race and Welfare Policy

Welfare policy is multidimensional because of the political compromises, competing goals, and federalist structure underpinning it. This complexity has hindered measurement and, therefore, the comparability of research on race and welfare policy. This paper describes a measurement strategy that is transparent, replicable, and attuned to matching the assumptions of statistical models to the policy process. We demonstrate that this strategy leads to more nuanced conclusions regarding the relationship between minority caseloads and the flexibility of state welfare policies. The strategy and recommendations are adaptable to research agendas that scholars bring to the comparative study of welfare in the U.S. states, countries, or other units—and to other complex policies enacted in federal systems.     

Not a right but a public function: the debate in the French National Assembly over the 1872 law on jury formation

Because of the highly politicized nature of the French judicialsystem in the nineteenth century, laws governing the selectionof jurors were often the subject of strong political debate.There were repeated controversies over which citizens shouldbe jurors and which authorities should draw up the annual jurylists from which the trial panels were drawn. Perhaps no eventbetter reflected the nature of the controversy than the debatewhich occurred in the National Assembly in 1872, when the conservativegovernment proposed an act which gave the judiciary power torevise the annual jury lists drawn up by elected officials.However, liberal deputies opposed the act because they maintainedit gave too much power to a conservative judiciary in determiningwhich citizens should be jurors. The debate in fact went tothe heart of the nineteenth-century struggle between the Rightand Left.     

Building and ornamental stones of the Awam (Mahram Bilqis) Temple in Marib, Yemen

One of the most famous monuments of the ancient Kingdom of Saba is the first-millennium BC Awam Temple in Marib, Yemen. Despite its fame, almost nothing has been published about the building and ornamental stones used in its construction, or the quarries that supplied these stones. This paper presents the results of the first geological study of the Awam Temple and its stone quarries.     

从“公推”到“票举”：近代天津商会职员推选制度的曲折演进

近代中国具有现代意义的投票选举制度虽然率先在清末的民间工商社团商会中实行,但各地商会的具体实施过程却并非同步进行。上海、苏州等商会正式成立后即开始制订并实行这一制度,天津商会则在清末坚持采用"公推"的方式推举总理、协理和会董,没有真正实施"票举"。到民国初期,天津商会依然认为"公推"优于"票举",直至明定商会必须实行投票选举制度的《商会法》公布之后,天津商会还希望政府"准予特殊办法,仍行公推"。但实施"票举"在当时已是大势所趋,1918年天津商会也在章程中拟订了投票选举制度,并由此进入"票举"会长和会董的新时期。自清末至民国时期天津商会从"公推"到"票举"的曲折演进历程,说明在选举制度的建设中,天津商会的领导人在思想认识和实践操作两个方面都偏向于保守,不仅自身缺乏创造性的举措,而且很少主动借鉴和学习其他商会已有的投票选举制度,这种现象也表明了清末民初各地商会对现代投票选举制度的认识并不完全一致。     

Bone weight,meat yield estimates and cod (Gadus morhua): A preliminary study of the weight method

Past approaches to the Weight Method (use of the weight of excavated bone assemblages to evaluate the relative potential meat yield of the animals from which they came) are critically reviewed. They do not account for both inter-taxon and intra-taxon variability in the relationship between bone weight and total body or soft tissue weight. Critics of the Weight Method have assumed that these problems are insurmountable. It is argued here that they can be overcome practically. Solutions lie in the integration of classic Weight Method approaches, which assume a consistent ratio of bone weight to body weight between different taxonomic and size groups, with the understanding of animal scaling provided by studies of skeletal mass allometry. Allometric equations derived from original data (regarding cod, Gadus morhua) and available from published sources (regarding mammals and birds) are used to illustrate this argument. Three practical approaches to the Weight Method are suggested and briefly explored, using bone weight data from Earls' Bu, a Norse site in Orkney, Scotland, as a case study.