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ABSTRACTThis review article will attempt to systematize the most important literature on legislative assemblies, to identify their weaknesses and to point out promising research lines. The material is classified under four sections: candidate recruitment and assembly composition, motivations of the political career, role of the representatives, and models and functions of legislative assemblies. The main conclusions are: that future research on recruitment must closely link changes in recruitment with legislative output in a diachronic perspective in order to produce meaningful results. Secondly, the study of motivations of the political career is still an interesting topic but should be supplemented by studies dealing with defeated candidates in a structural perspective (as some seminal works have already done). Thirdly, not enough is known, particularly in the European context, about representation: empirical studies are still needed which will take into consideration the aspects of accountability and responsibility. Finally, while some works have been done on the functions of elective assemblies, especially in the world of developed countries, theoretical confusion still exists. Two research lines should be pursued: the study of the relationships between political development, in its most comprehensive meaning, and elective assemblies; and the relationships between the executive power and elective assemblies as to legislative output, the measurement of its importance and the variables related to it (content, source of the initiative, procedure and type of government).

Max Weber's use of the term `elective affinity' is neither consistent nor clear. It is analogous to the concept of ideology, dealing with the relationship of ideas to interests. As such, it can be given a materialist interpretation which would ally it to modern, more sophisticated marxist accounts of ideas in society. Equally, though, it has often been seen as an idealist critique of such accounts. This confusion arises because both idealist and materialist readings ignore the fact that `elective affinity' is not a precise concept at all, but rather an oblique, metonymic reference to Goethe. By exploring that reference to an ambigious and elusive novel, it can be shown that Weber was trying to break away from the dichotomies that typified nineteenth century accounts of belief systems. At the same time, however, in avoiding what he saw as a crudely deterministic concept, `ideology', Weber has instead created one that is largely directionless.

The risk of students contracting HIV on electives has received much coverage. Few data exist, however, on risks of other adverse events. Medical schools gave comprehensive advice on infectious disease but little on personal safety. There were no reported parenteral infections or deaths from infection, despite cases of malaria and one needle-stick injury. Accidents were responsible for six deaths and three serious injuries from just nine medical schools. A further student committed suicide after return to the UK. Personal violence and events related to the political situation of the elected country were also reported. This paper is based on a retrospective survey of elective convenors from UK medical schools examining advice given and adverse events. Accidents appear to pose significant risk to medical students on elective and there appears to be a lack of advice on personal safety issues. Further research should examine behaviours that put students at risk of accidents, and strategies that could prevent such events.

Max Weber's ambivalent attitude to the application of the concepts of selection and adaptation to the study of cultural and social evolution is readily understandable in view of his scepticism about the reducibility of sociology to biology and his suspicion that selectionist explanations will turn out on close inspection to be either value-laden or circular. His concerns can be dispelled with the help of developments in evolutionary theory which he could not have anticipated in his lifetime but which enable the basic agenda of his sociology of religion to be reformulated in more rather than less persuasive terms. That, however, requires his metaphor of 'elective affinities' between religious ideas and the behaviour of ideal-typical agents to be replaced by empirically testable hypotheses linking the adaptiveness of specific religious memes to the adaptiveness of specific economic practices.

In the second decade of the twenty-first century, women continue to be dramatically underrepresented in elective office in the United States. Two decades after the much-ballyhooed "Year of the Woman" of 1992, the United States ranks below most advanced democracies. Here we revisit a question posed over a decade ago: "Why do women so rarely serve in midwestern state legislatures?" Our investigation is framed around three sets of factors: (1) electoral systems, (2) the political opportunity structure, and (3) individual candidates' attributes. Drawing on data from 2010 general election candidates in the upper Midwest, we test for the latter two sets of factors. Our analysis confirms other studies that women are just as likely to be elected as men. However, we found fewer women serve in public office because fewer women are candidates. We conclude with a proposal to integrate research from feminist scholars to unravel probable reasons for this lack of participation.