About This Issue
- Fall 2011, Volume 26 Number 1
- The fall 2011 issue of Centerpiece celebrates its 25th anniversary of publication. The issue presents two features written by WCFIA Graduate Student Associates, Oana Dan and Maocan Guo—both PhD candidates in the Department of Sociology. Dan presents her article, “When in Doubt, Follow the Party: Public Opinion and Party Positions on ‘High Politics’ in the European Union.” Guo writes about “The Consequences of Educational Expansion in Reforming China.”
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Main Cover Image: (left to right) Former president of Harvard, Neil L. Rudenstine, and Celia and Albert Weatherhead admire the plaque and accompanying certificate that were unveiled at the dedication of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs in 1998. Photo credit: Martha Stewart
Features
- When in Doubt, Follow the Party: Public Opinion and Party Positions on "High Politics" in the European Union
- Although public opinion is omnipresent in research on national democratic processes, we know much less about the determinants of public opinion about supranational policy (such as that of the EU, NAFTA, or UN). That is because there is usually little opinion to speak of. Citizens' awareness of supranational policy tends to be low, because such sovereignty issues are complex, non-electoral and, with few exceptions, insulated from everyday life in the home country. Weatherhead Center's Stanley Hoffman called these matters “high politics.”
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- The Consequences of Educational Expansion in Reforming China
- Educational expansion is one of the most visible, durable, and influential features of modern society. In many countries, there is a widespread tendency of increasing school enrollment across time. Such a process has provided not only more educational opportunity to students, but also more skilled labor force in the labor market. What are the consequences of educational expansion with regard to education-based inequality and mobility? Particularly, does educational expansion weaken the effects of family background on educational and occupational attainment?
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