Abstracts

• Date: 01 December 1991
• DOI: 10.1177/106591299104400402
• Published date: 01 December 1991
• Subject Matter: Articles

ABSTRACTS

THE

COLLAPSE

OF

THE

DEMOCRATIC

MAJORITY:

ECONOMICS

AND

VOTE

CHOICE

SINCE

19CJ2.

By

David

G.

Lawrence.

Economics

was

a

major

source

of

Democratic

electoral

strength

in

the

New

Deal

party

system.

Even

after

the

party

began

losing

presidential

elec-

tions

in

1968,

economics

remained

an

area

of

strength.

In

the

1980s,

two

potentially

offsetting

changes

in

long-standing

patterns

occured:

the

Demo-

crats

made

substantial

gains

on

one

dimension

of

economics

(social

welfare)

while

suffering

substantial

losses

on

a

second

(prosperity).

Unfortunately

for

the

Democrats,

the

two

changes

had

unequal

electoral

consequences:

Repub-

lican

electoral

gains

on

prosperity

far

offset

simultaneous

Democratic

gains

on

social

welfare.

Erosion

of

Republican

losses

on

prosperity

in

1988

still

left

the

party

the

net

winner

on

these

issues

for

the

decade

as

a

whole.

The

Dem-

ocrats,

already

reduced

to

minority

status

at

the

presidential

level,

lost

one

of

their

remaining

assets

in

the

1980s,

with

potentially

serious

consequences

for

future

presidential

competitiveness.

WOMEN’S

RIGHTS

AND

THE

LIMITS

OF

CONSTITUTIONAL

DOCTRINE.

By Judith

A.

Baer.

Between

1971

and

1984,

the

Supreme

Court

transformed

the

constitu-

tional law

of

sexual

equality.

Several

decisions

replaced

the

old

&dquo;blank

check&dquo;

for

sex

discrimination

with

a

rule

subjecting

gender-based

classifications

to

critical,

though

not

hostile,

scrutiny.

This

development

has

been

roughly

con-

current

with

the

contemporary

feminist

movement.

But

analysis

of

the

Court’s

overall

record

shows

that

men

have

been

the

primary

beneficiaries

of

the

new

rules.

Not

only

have

most

of

the

plaintiffs

been

male,

but

the

doctrine

has

vindicated

male

claims

while

providing

no

help

to

women

in

areas

such

as

divorce,

child

custody,

and

pornography.

This

article

seeks

explanations

for

this

male

bias.

Its

sources

range

from

the

simple -

men

bring

more

cases

than

women

do -

to

the

complex -

rules

of

interpretation

which

appear

irrelevant

to

male

supremacy

work

to

reinforce

it.

THE

RIGHTS

TO

PUNISH

AND

RESIST

PUNISHMENT

IN

HOBBES’S

LEVIATHAN.

By

Thomas

S.

Schrock.

In

the

Leviathan,

Chapter

14

and

elsewhere,

Hobbes

ascribes

a

nice

versa-

tility

to

the

individual:

as

incipient

subject

he

has

the

power

to

authorize

his

own

punishment,

and

as

actual

subject

he

has

the

right

to

resist

that

same

punishment.

Later,

in

Chapter

28,

Hobbes

expresses

a

different

view,

denying

there

that

a

person

with

a

right

to

resist

punishment

can

authorize

another

to

punish

him.

Having

thus

disqualified

the

personal

authorization

ground

of

the

sovereign

right

to

punish,

Hobbes

undertakes

in

Chapter

28

to

find

another

basis

for

that

right.

He

settles

on

the

incipient

sovereign’s

right

of

nature-his

right

to

perpetrate

mayhem.

But

this

shift

proves

unsuccessful.

Hobbes

does

not

account

for

the

sovereign

right

to

punish

by

assimilating

it

to

the

right

to