The Public Policy Process among Southeastern States: Elaborating Theories of Regional Adoption and Hold‐Out Behavior

Having been adopted by legislatures in over a dozen states, postsecondary merit aid programs are largely concentrated in the southeastern United States. The observed clustering pattern seems to support previous evidence that policies spread between proximate states, a phenomenon referred to by political scientists as policy diffusion. Often, however, policy diffusion is not complete, and one or more states in a region fail to adopt. By interviewing policymakers throughout the southeastern United States—including actors in the three states in the region without merit aid—the study addresses the following question: Why do diffusion pressures lead to adoption in some states but not in others? Studying state “hold‐outs” promises not only to uncover the reasons for failed legislation in specific state contexts but also to better our understanding of the limits of diffusion theory.     

五枚北宋时期含镍钱币的测试及探索

我国历史上对自铜的记载,自晋以降,唐、宋、明、清均有文献可查。东晋常璩《华阳国志·南中志》载：“螳螂县因山得名,出银、铅、白铜、杂药”。近代国内外学者和爱好者对这种铜镍合金材质也多有研究报告见诸书刊。但高镍含量的实物标本检测报告则不多见。笔者从上世纪八十年代开始,注意研究这个课题,并有幸采集到五枚宋徽宗时期铸行的含镍金属流通货币。     

国家起源的理论

千百年来,国家起源一直是伟大哲学家和思想家们关注的一个话题,从亚里士多德、孟德斯鸠、霍布斯、卢梭、弗格森、孔德到摩尔根、马恩和列宁,都有过经典性的系统论述。时至今日,在新资料、新方法、新技术的支持下,在吸收过去理论成就的基础上,国家起源更成为当今国际学术界的三大课题(人类起源、农业起源和国家文明起源)之一,并且产生了很多既有实证性又有理论性的研究成果。卡内罗在这篇经典文章中,对当今各种理论流派做了比较详细的概括总结。就他自身而言,是持强制论或者说战争论的观点,认为战争是国家兴起的主要动力。他甚至认为,世界各地的历史学和考古学证据都毫无二致地证明战争是早期国家形成的根本原因,战争以这样或那样的形式在国家兴起中起到了决定性作用。当然,他也认为,战争并非国家起源的唯一因素。尽管战争可能是国家兴起的必要条件,但却不是充分条件。国家的兴起还需要一些特殊条件,经过一些具体的过程,例如自然的限制、社会的限制、资源的集中、政治的演化等等。卡内罗的战争论虽然是一家之言,但由于它对历史的继承和现实的尊重而有巨大的合理性,对包括中国在内的国家文明起源研究有重大影响,而且今后仍然有十分积极的意义。本文写作于1970年,从时间上看观点已显陈旧,但是作为国家起源理论的一种重要流派,仍然值得介绍和回顾。     

Evidence of Stress Fracture in a Homo antecessor Metatarsal from Gran Dolina Site (Atapuerca,Spain)

We present the palaeopathological analysis of a right fourth metatarsal (ATD6‐124) recovered from the Atapuerca–Gran Dolina site (Spain). This fossil, ca. 1 Ma, belongs to Homo antecessor, the earliest known European hominin species. The metatarsal exhibits a proliferative lesion on its medial periosteal surface. Periosteal reaction can be the bone response to a wide number of injurious processes. We describe a lesion on the basis of macroscopic and microscopic analyses, including microtomography and scanning electron microscopy. Externally, the osteoblastic lesion presents a highly porotic and disorganised morphology. Internally, we observe a series of micro‐fractures on the compact bone that do not affect the medullary canal. We provide a differential diagnosis and suggest that the ATD6‐124 lesion could correspond to a pedal stress fracture, also known as fatigue or march fracture. Stress fractures have been related to a load increase and muscular fatigue. This type of fracture has been widely reported in the foot of soldiers and athletes, which are usually engaged in strenuous, excessive or prolonged locomotive activities. Despite its high frequency in these groups, stress fractures have not been reported as such in fossil collections, with the exception of a metatarsal belonging to the Sima de los Huesos site (Atapuerca). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A scientific luther

Francis Bacon. By Perez Zagorin (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998) xvi + 286 pp. $29.95, £19.95

Francis Bacon: The History of the Reign of King Henry VII. Edited by Brian Vickers (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1998) xlv + 284 pp. £40.00 cloth