Describes the role and function of the census and discusses census taking and decision making about "counting" from two perspectives: the Supreme Court decision in Wisconsin vs New York, and the Census Bureau's current plans for the year 2000. Concluding comments explore the lessons learned from the 1990 census and the effect on the 2000…

Notes that party decomposition is likely to continue. The probable future pattern is one where the major parties continue to exert influence on the voting choices of the American public, but where many voters are available for mobilization by competing movements. (Author/AM)

Text of an interview of Frank Reissman by Irving Louis Horowitz suggests that while social problems are experienced locally in the big cities, their cure lies nationally at the federal level. (Author/AM)

This essay examines the dominant perspectives and themes in political gerontology, why some problems are highlighted and others relatively ignored, and the potential consequences of such channeling of knowledge. (Author/AM)

Notes that pragmatism, rather than ideology, dictates the style of young progressive politics in Madison. This pattern has not always applied elsewhere. (Author/AM)

Unlike other immigrant groups, structural assimilation for Indians is relatively smooth. Their behavior patterns and attitudes also suggest a strong sense of ethnicity and its desirability, and a growing support for cultural pluralism. (Author)

This article reviews the articles which follow in this special issue on the political influence of the aged, discusses the effects of public policy on the aged, and asks whether there is a "politics of aging." (AM)

Concludes that those who plan to emigrate from Colombia need orientation and some manner of regularizing their status by work contracts or other legal arrangements. This will assure them just wages and relieve many of the necessity to migrate without proper documents. (Author/AM)

The commitment on the part of the national government to provide some assistance to the elderly began in the 1930s, but in the last decade or so, this commitment has substantially increased. (Author/AM)

The new pressures on aging policy are certain to bring with them inequitable and unintended consequences. The very old have not shared fully in the policy gains made by the older population generally, yet they will possibly suffer most from whatever "aging backlash" develops in the future. (Author/AM)

Focuses on five types of political alienation: estrangement; negative evaluation of the American political system, negative evaluation of the competence of public officials, negative evaluation of the motives of public officials, and rejection of the institution of elections. (Author/AM)

Concludes that to the extent that collective defenselessness of workers exists anywhere, movements like illegal immigration, the self-transportation of cheap labor toward the places where needed, are bound to continue. (Author/AM)

Concludes that the real challenge to social scientists in this administration, and any other, is not how to relate effectively and get more funds from the executive branch, but how to relate more effectively as teachers and learners in the political process--with the American people and their elected representatives in Congress. (Author/JM)

An account of the role and participation of the Mesquakie Indians of Iowa in a district primary election and their impact on the outcome as well as the consequences for their own internal organization and culture. (EH)

From the limited data, the authors are able to show that approval of incumbent performance is an important (but not sole) determinant of diffuse support for the institution. (Author/AM)