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Many advocates of liberalization claim that reducing taxes and government spending promotes economic growth. In contrast, the present study claims that the positive relationship between liberalization and economic growth is only present in countries with high levels of government spending. This is due to the fact that the growth-enhancing effect of liberalization is contingent on the state's ability to create an environment that can optimize the potential benefits derived from liberal economic policies. According to the findings, liberalization is a positive predictor of economic growth in countries with above average levels of government spending. Furthermore, countries with high government spending possess a significant positive connection with economic growth, regardless of their quality of governance. These results indicate that scholars should reconsider the role of the state when exploring the relationship between liberalization and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we illustrate strategies among school authorities (teachers, security staff, and administrators) to judge and punish youth. Our analyses, which are based on field research in public high schools in a Southwestern state, focus on the discourse used by school authorities and the underlying assumptions that are illustrated by this discourse. In particular, we discuss how youth are labeled as "troublemakers" and as conformist, how characteristics of students' families shape school punishments, and how school authorities prioritize the maintenance of order through a rigid hierarchical power scheme over democratic solutions or empathetic problem-solving. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we seek to contribute to a greater understanding of citizenship by exploring the gendered experiences of Latin American-origin immigrants in the Phoenix metro area. Making use of the literature from sociology, political science, economics, anthropology and ethnic and gender studies, we examine how immigrants maneuver through the legalization process, and how their place vis a vis the law affords or denies them membership and rights. Although men and women share common experiences in the legalization process, their lived experiences and the legalization process often are vastly different. We explore some of these gender differences by relying on in-depth interviews with women and men from Mexico and Central America in Phoenix, conducted from 1998 through 2004. The data reveal that immigration policies reflect norms based on ideals of a nuclear family in which geographic origins, race, religion, gender and sexuality matter and continue to deny women full participation and inclusion in US society. Although immigration generates change for immigrant women, often this transformation remains embedded in a patriarchal order. As such, women for the most part, remain dependent on men through judicial, economic and cultural standards created by men that dictate the process to citizenship. This study suggests that, though in principle the law is gender neutral, gender emerges as a central organizing principle in the relationship immigrants have with immigration law from the very act of crossing the border (physical and legal) through the naturalization process. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]