The legislature gives effect to the values of democracy and compromise in a pluralist society, but the legislation it produces is mediated in its application by the values inherent in the legal culture into which it is received. The judges complete the law promulgated by Parliament by applying it. In articulating the common law also, the judges act within the bounds of objective standards suppl...

ystematic study of local politics in the Russian Federation has just begun. As a result, relatively little attention has been devoted to the legislative/representative bodies elected in many Russian cities during the 1990s.1 The following study of these institutions in Novosibirsk, an old industrial city in the geographic center of the Russian Federation, is based on the author’s direct observa...

I estimate the influence of political parties on state Tax Burdens over a forty-year period (1960-2000). Holding constant a large number of state and voter characteristic variables, I find that: (i) Tax Burdens are higher when Democrats control the state legislature compared to when Republicans are in control. (ii) The political party of the governor has little effect after controlling for part...

The auditory sensory system of the taxon Hetrodinae has not been studied previously. Males of the African armoured ground cricket, Acanthoplus longipes (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Hetrodinae) produce a calling song that lasts for minutes and consists of verses with two pulses. About three impulses are in the first pulse and about five impulses are in the second pulse. In contrast, the disturban...

The Qur’an does not mention a lot of alcohol, but pedagogically it explains its gradual ban in a convenient way by pointing out that alcohol is not used in a “good” benefit. Say, “My Lord has only forbidden immoralities what is apparent of them and what is concealed and sin, and oppression without right, and that you associate with Allah that for which He has not sent down authority, and that y...