How Electoral Systems Can Influence Policy Innovation

This paper argues that in certain areas of policy, electoral systems can influence policy innovation (how early countries will adopt certain policies). Electoral systems influence the number of parties that win representation and thereby influence the diversity of perspectives included in the policymaking process. It is argued here that this diversity facilitates elite and public consideration of new issues and ideas, and consequently, it leads to earlier debate and action on these issues and ideas. This dynamic is particularly relevant to controversial issues and ideas that major parties may be hesitant to address and that minor parties may be more incentivized to promote. In this paper, two issues/ideas are considered: extending rights to same‐sex couples and making material sacrifices to protect the environment. I show that countries with more proportional electoral systems tend to act earlier to protect the environment and that they tend to be early adopters of civil union legislation. These results are also supported by World Values Survey data showing public preference patterns that support these policy outcomes.     

Reviews

Transatlantic Encounters: Europeans and Andeans in the Sixteenth Century. Edited by ROLENA ADORNO and KENNETH J. ANDRIEN. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Pp. viii, 295.

Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance: A Case of Transatlantic Bigamy. By ALEXANDRA PARMA COOK and NOBLE DAVID COOK. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991. Pp. xvi, 206.

Arqueología de Omagua y Dorado. Por ALEIDA ANSELMA RODRÍGUEZ. Rende, Italy: Mediterranean Press, 1990. Pp. 221.

History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, otherwise Called America. By JEAN DE LÉRY, Translated by JANET WHATLEY. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. Pp. lxii, 276.

Religion in the Andes: Vision and Imagination in Early Colonial Peru. By SABINE MacCORMACK. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. Pp. 488.

Native Society and Disease in Colonial Ecuador. By SUZANNE AUSTIN ALCHON. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. viii, 147.

Mitos y utopías del descubrimiento. By JUAN GIL. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1989. Vol. 1, Colón y su tiempo. Pp. 302. Vol. 2, El Pacífico. Pp. 414. Vol. 3, El Dorado. Pp. 432.

The Noble Savage: Allegory of Freedom. By STELIO CRO. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1990. Pp. xx, 182.

The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots and the Liberal State, 1492–1867. By D.A. BRADING. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. viii, 761.

The Identity of Hispanoamérica: An Interpretation of Colonial Literature. By JOSÉ PROMIS. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1991. Pp. 137.

Mexico's Merchant Elite, 1590–1660: Silver, State and Society. By LOUISA SCHELL HOBERMAN. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991. Pp. xiv, 352.

Society, Economy and Defence in Seventeenth‐Century Peru: The Administration of the Count of Alba de Liste (1655–61). By PETER T. BRADLEY. Liverpool: University of Liverpool, Institute of Latin American Studies, 1992. Pp. 170.

A sátira e o intelectual criollo na Colônia: Gregório de Matos e Juan del Valle y Caviedes. By LÚCIA HELENA COSTIGAN. Lima/Pittsburgh: Latinoamericana Editores, 1991. Pp. 171.

La segunda Celestina. Una comedia perdida de Sor Juana. By SOR JUANA INES DE LA CRUZ/ AGUSTIN DE SALAZAR Y TORRES. Edition, prologue and notes by GUILLERMO SCHMIDHUBER. México: Editorial Vuelta, 1990. Pp. 225.

Feminist Perspectives on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Edited by STEPHANIE MERRIM. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991. Pp. 189.

Untold Sisters: Hispanic Nuns in Their Own Works. Edited by ELECTA ARENAL and STACEY SCHLAU. Translations by Amanda Powell. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989. Pp. 450.

Disappearance of the Dowry: Women, Families, and Social Change in São Paulo, Brazil, 1600–1900. By MURIEL NAZZARI. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991. Pp. xiii, 245.

The Royal Treasuries of the Spanish Empire in America. Vol. 4. Eighteenth‐Century Ecuador. By ALVARO JARA and JOHN JAY TEPASKE. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990. Pp. xxii, 170.     

Regional ecological variability and impact of the maritime fur trade on nearshore ecosystems in southern Haida Gwaii (British Columbia, Canada): evidence from stable isotope analysis of rockfish (Sebastes spp.) bone collagen

The maritime fur trade (1785–1840s) led to the local extinction of sea otters (Enhydra lutris) in many parts of the northeast Pacific. On the basis of studies of extant sea otter populations, it has been established that they have a disproportionate effect on nearshore ecosystems by limiting sea urchin abundance and facilitating the establishment of nearshore kelp forests; in the absence of sea otters, a local reduction in kelp-derived carbon is therefore expected. We measured the isotopic composition (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) of rockfish (Sebastes spp.) bone collagen from late Holocene archaeological sites in southern Haida Gwaii, BC, Canada, using δ¹³C as a proxy for kelp-derived carbon in the diet and δ¹⁵N as a proxy for trophic position. We observed significant spatial variability in rockfish kelp-derived carbon (δ¹³C), but not trophic level (δ¹⁵N). Kelp-derived carbon varied largely as a function of site characteristics (wave exposure), suggesting that local oceanographic conditions are important factors with respect to consumer tissue isotopic compositions. Kelp-derived carbon decreased in post-European contact rockfish relative to pre-European contact rockfish, likely as a result of the reduction of kelp forests associated with the local extirpation of sea otters. Although we detected a reduction in kelp-derived carbon in rockfish diets, we found no shift in trophic level at sites occupied following the maritime fur trade. This implies a shift in local ecosystems, and particularly in carbon sources, following the maritime fur trade, likely due to a trophic cascade resulting from the local extirpation of sea otters. Stability in rockfish trophic levels, however, implies that rockfish continued to feed at similar trophic levels, consuming prey with similar nitrogen isotopic compositions.     

Pigments from the Middle Palaeolithic levels of Es-Skhul (Mount Carmel,Israel)

Discovery of pigments at Middle Palaeolithic sites is of interest in the context of the ongoing debate about the tempo and mode of the emergence of modern human behaviour. Here we analyse four previously undescribed fragments of pigmental material from Es-Skhul shelter, layer B, Israel, McCown excavations, identified at the Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, London. One of them is still partially embedded in the hard breccia characteristic of this layer. Inspection of breccia fragments from layer B has led to the identification of small pieces of red and orange pigmental material still enclosed in large clasts, further corroborating the attribution of the larger pieces analysed in this study to layer B. The four objects are studied using optical microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray micro-diffraction (μ-XRD), Particle-Induced X-Ray Emission Spectrometry (PIXE), and Proton-Induced Gamma-ray Emission (PIGE). The specimens display various hues of yellow, orange, red, and one of them presents a gradual variation of shade from yellow to dark orange. SEM/EDX analysis identifies two specimens (Skhul 1 and 2) as being composed of iron-rich calcium phosphate, the third (Skhul 3) of potassium-rich clay with titanium-rich iron oxide inclusions, and the fourth (Skhul 4) of pure iron oxide crystals. TEM/EDX and μ-XRD analysis demonstrate that three pieces (Skhul 1, 2 and 4) were heated to at least 300 °C, a process that has partially or completely dehydrated goethite into haematite and changed their pristine yellow colour into orange or red. Skhul 3 shows no sign of heating, suggesting that its haematite content has a geological origin. The different mineral composition of the pieces suggests that they must come from a variety of sources. This implies that the associated collection strategies included the selection of materials that differed not only with respect to colour but also with respect to other physical and chemical properties. Although no formal proof exists that these lumps of pigmental material were deliberately heated, results obtained are consistent with this explanation.     

Optical dating of alluvial deposits at the orogenic front of the andean precordillera (Mendoza,Argentina)

Well constrained numerical ages of alluvial fan sediments are key to understanding the chronology of alluvial episodes and tectonic activity at the front of the Andean Precordillera. We tested the application of radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating in the distal part of an alluvial fan five kilometers north of Mendoza. For OSL dating a large number of aliquots (n > 70) — each composed of ∼50 quartz grains — were measured in order to obtain reliable burial ages despite scattered dose distributions. Owing to a feldspar contamination in all samples, an infrared stimulation was inserted before each OSL measurement, which reduced the feldspar OSL signal successfully. By using the minimum age model we obtained stratigraphically consistent burial ages of alluvial deposits in a depth profile. The uppermost ∼1 m of sediment is composed of debris flow deposits buried 770±76 years ago. Three plant remnants used for radiocarbon dating from the same layer, however, yielded ages younger than 350 years, which are interpreted to underestimate the depositional age. Underneath the debris flow, a major unconformity cuts a series of distal alluvial fan sediments with interstratified floodplain deposits, which are composed of sandy and calciterich silt layers, respectively. Three samples from this unit which were distributed over one meter of sediment thickness yielded statistically concordant OSL ages of 12.3±1.2 ka, 12.3±1.2 ka, and 11.7±1.1 ka. The deposition of these sediments during the latest Pleistocene coincides with a phase of cool and humid climate, which occurred before the alluvial fan propagated farther into the foreland. The overlying debris flow sediments are associated with alluvial fan incision during the arid Late Holocene.