Private Conflict and Policy Passage: Interest-Group Conflict and State Medical Malpractice Reform

James Madison argued in Federalist 10 that "rival political factions" work against the public good. In contrast to Madison's pessimistic account, I suggest that factional conflict can lead to more representative public policy, and thus further the will of the people. I theorize that elected officials often seek a safe political position—one that corresponds to the preferences of the public at large—during periods of high conflict. I assess this theory in one, salient policy area, medical malpractice. I measure conflict with contributions for state candidates given by (i) the health and insurance industries, which generally support malpractice laws, and (ii) lawyers, who frequently oppose the laws. I find that group conflict matters to policy outcomes. I also find evidence that, under conditions of elevated conflict, adopted policies are more likely to move toward the general ideological preferences of the public at large. These results suggest that group conflict affects both the quantity and character of policy in the American states.     

新时期农村合作医疗改革述论

新时期农村合作医疗经历了曲折的发展历程。随着家庭承包经营的推行,农村合作医疗迅速瓦解,覆盖率由20世纪70年代末的90%下降到1985年的5%。90年代初开始,党和政府努力恢复合作医疗,但重建工作一再受挫。农民自费医疗的境况带来了严重的社会问题。2003年初,新型农村合作医疗制度出台,这是又一项富有中国特色的社会主义制度创新。几年来的试点和推广实践证明,新型农村合作医疗制度符合我国的实际,对保障农民身体健康、维护社会和谐和促进经济发展具有重要意义。同时,建立完善的农村医疗保障制度需要各方力量的整合,任重而道远。     

居民家庭旅游消费行为初探

居民家庭旅游行为是一种特殊的消费行为,本文根据长春市居民家庭消费行为的有关调查资料对影响长春市居民家庭旅游消费行为的因素进行了分析探讨,并说明了居民家庭旅游消费行为研究的重大意义。     

国外旅游者行为研究述评

本文以三大国际旅游权威期刊为基本检索对象,对国外学者在旅游者行为方面的研究内容进行了较全面的梳理。文章从回顾研究历程入手,以时间为基本线索对研究内容进行了分类和评价,认为基于旅游者行为的影响因素研究、基于旅游者行为产生的影响研究和基于旅游者行为的专题研究是国外对旅游者行为研究的主要内容,基于定量分析的实证研究和旅游者行为的专题化研究是目前国外旅游者行为研究的主要特征和基本趋势。     

The Shuidonggou site complex: new excavations and implications for the earliest Late Paleolithic in North China

The initial Late Paleolithic, said to appear between 40 and 30 kya in eastern Asia, is defined by the appearance of many innovations. These archaeological indicators include the appearance of more refined stone tool making techniques (e.g., include the appearance of blade and microblade technology), complex hearth construction, use of pigments and personal ornamentation, as well as worked faunal implements such as bone and antler tools. We report here new findings from a multidisciplinary research project conducted at the Shuidonggou (Choei-tong-keou) site complex in northern China, a series of localities that date from the initial Late Paleolithic to the Neolithic.     

Skeletal correlates of human behavior in the americas

A review of recent anthropological research deriving behavioral inferences from analyses of human skeletal remains focuses on interpretations of diet, social organization, population structure and migration, activities, activity levels and occupation, and warfare, violence, and death in the prehistoric and historic Americas. Critical evaluation of these inferences shows that some of them suffer from inadequate supporting evidence, lack of consideration of alternative hypotheses, or absence of clear methods for deriving and testing these inferences. Overall, however, the potential for behavioral reconstruction from skeletal analysis is great. Behaviors leaving more direct effects on bone such as dietary preference, warfare, and some activities produced the most secure inferences when derived from populational samples and supported by supplementary evidence. Human skeletal remains represent important resources for the reconstruction of behavior.     

Human Technical Behavior in the African Middle Stone Age: The Lithic Assemblage of Porc-Epic Cave (Dire Dawa,Ethiopia)

The African origin of modern humans is the center of a large debate. Discoveries of anatomically modern human fossils in Sub-Saharan Africa correlated to lithic and faunal artifacts show that a “modern Behavior” is associated with the emergence of Homo sapiens. Even though the traits to define this modernity are sometimes difficult to apprehend, the study of the Middle Stone Age cultural phase is important for understanding the origin and evolution of the cognitive capacity of modern humans. Porc-Epic Cave in Ethiopia has a long sequence of Upper Pleistocene occupation. Several thousand bone and lithic artifacts were excavated during three major field excavations (1933, 1974, 1975–76). The lithic assemblage reveals that the relationship between humans and their environment is well organized and that the African terminology is sometimes difficult to apply. This paper proposes a synthesis of all the data, studies and conclusions I have made from the analysis of lithic materials from the 1933 and 1975–76 excavations in order to integrate Porc-Epic into the current debate of MSA and modern human Behavior.L'origine de l'Homme moderne en Afrique fait l'objet actuellement d'un large débat. Les décourvertes de fossiles d'Homo sapiens en Afrique sub-saharienne associés à des industries lithiques montrent que, en parallèle à l'émergence de cette nouvelle espèce humaine, un comportement dit moderne s'est développé. Le Middle Stone Age est donc une période culturelle charnière dans l'évolution comportementale de l'homme. La grotte du Porc-épic, en éthiopie, est un témoignage de cette ère avec un remplissage pléistocène supérieur contenant des dizaines de milliers de restes fauniques et lithiques. L'étude de son important assemblage lithique révèle que le rapport de l'homme à la matière et à son environnement est très organisé et que le terminologie culturelle africaine est parfois difficile à utiliser.     

Free Trade Empire to Commonwealth of Nations: India,Britain and Imperial Preference, 1903–1932

This article examines the dialogue between British tariff reformers and Indian nationalists over the application of imperial trade preference in India from Joseph Chamberlain's 1903 Birmingham address to the 1932 Imperial Economic Conference. For both groups, this issue was a focal point to assess India's constitutional status and national participation within an emerging British Commonwealth and international system after the First World War. Specifically, it marked a comprehensive challenge to the orthodoxy of free trade and liberal empire seen increasingly as a determent to reconciling national prosperity and imperial unity. It is argued that prominent tariff reformers’ well-studied criticism of an ‘unpatriotic’ cosmopolitan free trade made them also sympathetic to longstanding Indian grievances that this fiscal policy exacerbated economic exploitation and racial discrimination. After 1919, Indian nationalists, including ‘historical economists’, utilized metropolitan advocacy for imperial preference to demand fiscal and political autonomy from Britain and national, as well as racial, equality in collective imperial decision. At the 1932 conference in Ottawa, India's voluntary and negotiated acceptance of preferential trade with Britain, beside the white self-governing Dominions, helped transform the British Commonwealth into an egalitarian organization recognizable after 1947.