Claiming Fatherhood: Race and the Dynamics of Paternal Involvement among Unmarried Men

In 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan argued that the black family was nearing "complete breakdown" due to high rates of out-of-wedlock childbearing. In subsequent decades, nonmarital childbearing rose dramatically for all racial groups and unwed fathers were often portrayed as being absent from their children's lives. The authors examine contemporary nonmarital father involvement using quantitative evidence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and qualitative evidence from in-depth interviews with 150 unmarried fathers. The authors find that father involvement drops sharply after parents' relationships end, especially when they enter subsequent relationships and have children with new partners. These declines are less dramatic for African American fathers, suggesting that fathers' roles outside of conjugal relationships may be more strongly institutionalized in the black community. The challenges Moynihan described among black families some forty years ago now extend to a significant minority of all American children.     

Viewing Low-Income Fathers' Ties to Families through a Cultural Lens: Insights for Research and Policy

Policy makers have become increasingly interested in addressing the cultural dimensions of child support, "responsible fatherhood," and marriage in poor communities. However, policy studies have primarily focused on identifying economic determinants of these issues, with a substantial amount of variation in their statistical models left unexplained. This article draws on in-depth interviews the author conducted with disadvantaged mothers and fathers to illustrate how a systematic investigation into the meaning of low-income men's ties to families may fill in or provide alternative explanations for some important questions related to paternal involvement. In particular, it suggests that analyzing fathers' relationships through a cultural lens may not only reveal new information about the meaning of their emotional involvement, informal support, care of children, and conflicts with mothers which future policy studies should consider but may also inform policy initiatives by reducing the risk that they will be misdirected or have unintended consequences for poor families.     

Intergenerational Transmission of Convictions for Different Types of Offenses

The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development is a prospective longitudinal survey of 411 London males from age 8 to age 56. This article compares the convictions of 343 adult sons (searched up to the median age of 29) with the convictions of their fathers up to the same age. There was significant intergenerational transmission of convictions, since 43% of the sons of convicted fathers were themselves convicted, compared with 18% of the sons of unconvicted fathers. There was significant intergenerational transmission of burglary, serious and minor theft, violence, threatening behavior, carrying an offensive weapon, and serious motoring offenses. The most important mediators between parental and child convictions were the family renting rather than owning their own home, poor parental supervision, an antiestablishment attitude of the father, parental physical punishment of the child, and separation of the son from his father. Implications for the prevention of intergenerational transmission are drawn.     

Increasing the Human Capital of Children in Latin American Countries: The Role of Parents’ Time in Childcare

In this paper, we focus on the relationship between parents’ education and activities aimed at increasing the human capital of children (for example, educational childcare). Using time use surveys from Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia we find that in Mexico, Peru, and Colombia the level of education of both father and mother has a positive association with the time devoted to educational childcare, while in Ecuador only fathers’ level of education has a positive association with father’s time devoted to educational childcare. Furthermore, we find that the time devoted to educational childcare by parents is positively related in all four countries.     

Explaining Young People’s Involvement in Online Piracy: An Empirical Assessment Using the Offending Crime and Justice Survey in England and Wales

Abstract

The Internet has been widely acknowledged as facilitating many forms of youth offending. Existing research has identified important drivers of young people’s involvement in online crime, yet this has overwhelmingly relied on school or college samples. As such, it tells us little about those young people that have left the formal education system—a group who are more likely perpetrators of juvenile crime more generally. Focusing on young people’s involvement in online piracy offenses, our analysis draws on data from a nationally representative survey of England and Wales to better understand the dynamics of involvement in online crime across the population. We assess the potential overlaps between online and offline offending, the role of differential association and deviancy neutralization techniques in shaping offending behavior, as well as the protective effect of strong family support networks in reducing involvement in piracy. We find that illegal downloaders tend to be young, male, and have a higher number of delinquent friends. We also find that many of these offenders do not confine their offending to online spaces, with involvement in offline property offenses also high among this group.     

The Intergenerational Effects of Political Influence: Evidence from China

This paper considers the effects of fathers’ political influence on their offspring’s labour market outcomes in China. Political influence refers to the ability to convert political power into economic benefits. This study identifies the dissolution of political influence by exploiting an age-based mandatory retirement rule in urban China. It exploits the variation of political influence in three dimensions: bureaucrat status, retirement status, and offspring gender. A difference-in-differences approach shows that the retirement of a bureaucrat translates into a 13 per cent decrease in offspring’s income. A triple-differences approach suggests retirement of a bureaucrat father translates into a 27 per cent decrease in earnings among sons. Retirement of a bureaucrat father is associated with larger income losses for offspring working in the same industry sector as their father and in industries that have a high concentration of assets or that are controlled by the state. This paper adds evidence to the growing literature estimating the economic benefits of political connections.     

Infrastructure and Development: A Critical Appraisal of the Macro-level Literature

This survey reviews the existing macro-level empirical literature on the link between infrastructure and development in a critical light. After providing a general framework that casts the problem in the context of an aggregate production function, it signals what are the relevant empirical questions to be addressed. This guides the systematic review of a number of empirical studies and the discussion of the main econometric challenges to the identification of the effect of infrastructure on output and productivity. Finally, building on related research, in particular in contract theory and political economy, the article spells out several promising research avenues.     

Enhancing Participation in Disadvantaged Urban Neighbourhoods

Participation in neighbourhoods is a highly valued phenomenon. Participation is the basis of a shared social life, but it also makes everyday life, and the lived experience of people participating in it, political. From a public administration perspective, governance and formal policy-making are increasingly reaching out to citizens, instead of drawing solely on representative mechanisms of local government. This paper investigates how practitioners working in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Dutch cities enhance participation. Using empirical data from research in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in The Netherlands, the paper shows that these practitioners either start projects that connect people in their own life world or connect policy-makers and policy to initiatives on the ground. As a result, they create the opportunity for many to develop their citizenship and become a more active participant in their local communities.     

Romania is a family and it needs a strict father: conceptual metaphors at work in radical right populist discourses

Investigating Romanian radical right populism, I evidence the gendered nature of conceptual metaphors and provide insights on the specific masculinities that they underpin in such political discourses. With the 2004 presidential elections as a backdrop, the analysis focuses on how the radical right populist candidates articulated in their discourses the conceptual metaphor of the “strict father.” At first, the theoretical standpoints on conceptual metaphors are corroborated with the conceptualization of populist charismatic leadership. Subsequently, a gendered perspective is added to the populist conceptualizations. The leaders' self-representation as messianic fathers of the national family is evidenced by investigating their discursive appeals to protect, discipline and punish the people. Furthermore, I elaborate how conceptual metaphors may be employed to consolidate a position of uncontested leadership and moral superiority of the radical right populist leaders.     

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS AND THE POLICY PROCESS

Government departments are central organizations in the development of public policy. Yet there is very little literature on the political role of departments, their internal relationships and their relationships with other departments and other government actors and institutions. This article reviews the extant literature on government departments. It argues that much of the existing research has either focused on the role of the Prime Minister or it has been institutional and static, providing an analysis of the administration and organization of departments rather than political interactions. The article therefore provides an alternative research agenda which stresses the need to examine the relationships and networks that exist within and between departments and how departments react to events and interests in the outside world.     

Old welfare state theories and new welfare regimes in Eastern Europe: Challenges and implications

This paper reviews some theoretical and empirical literature written on welfare state development in post-communist Eastern Europe in the light of the theories and approaches that have been developed to study affluent capitalist democracies. The aim of this discussion is to critically reassess the old welfare state theories, definitions and approaches and their implications regarding the study of post-communist Eastern Europe.The paper ends with the conclusion that the exclusion of ‘communist’ countries for more than twenty years from welfare state theorising has created an empirical and theoretical gap. This creates fresh challenges for welfare state research and calls for a new paradigm. It is evident that the not so well explored Eastern European region with regards to social policy research suggests that it is necessary not only to test already existing welfare state theories, definitions, typologies and approaches on these countries, but also to advance them.     

A new approach to developing institutional structure

This article describes an approach developed to assess the institutional capacity of whole governments. It discusses the evolving context in Latin America and the Caribbean for public sector reforms and the impact of structural adjustment and globalization on international agency policies on the issue. It reviews national and sectoral organizational networks, the profile of a modern public administration, and the definition of public management horizontal and vertical systems; explains how integration of horizontal management system reforms is attained at the ministry level, and addresses the issue of performance management and use of an elite managerial and technical corps. Finally, it describes techniques used to plan changes in strategies.     

Public Values in Public–Private Partnerships

Although public–private partnerships (PPPs) are often evaluated in terms of efficiency, their impact on public values is often neglected. In order to find out what we know about the public values–PPPs relation, this article reviews public administration literature and describes two opposite perspectives. The first perspective argues that public values are at stake whereas the second argues they are safeguarded or even reinforced. We argue that the assumptions of both perspectives are biased and incomparable due to the fact that each perspective holds a different ontological understanding of the concept of public values. Finally, we provide some ideas for further research.     

Changing the Culture of a Hospital: From Hierarchy to NetworkedCommunity

This article is a case study of a large-scale change programme within an NHS hospital. Drawing upon ethnographic data collected over a two-year period of intensive research involvement, it tells how the hospital struggled to transform itself from a rigid and divided 'hierarchy' into a more flexible and collaborative 'networked community.' The paper describes the model of change devised for this purpose, and seeks to capture the lessons learned on the rocky road to network organizing. It concludes that the full potential of networks will only be realized if there are correspondingly dramatic changes in culture, relationships and skills, all of which have to be addressed as part of an overall organization development effort. Networks are more than just a new organizational form; they are also a new paradigm for the professional organization, which is encapsulated in the notion of the 'network culture.'     

An analysis of parent-female adolescent relationships in female adolescent suicides

This study analyzed Turkish female adolescent-family relations, which is believed to be one of the significant factors in female adolescents' suicide attempts, from a multidimensional perspective. The Parent-Adolescent Relationship Inventory, a multidimensional evaluation tool based on the behavioral family-system approach was used as a research tool. The inventory consists of the concepts and techniques of behavioral theory, family system theory, and cognitive theory in parent-adolescent' problems and conflicts. Based on these theories, the parent-adolescent relations inventory (PARQ), involves three main dimensions: problem solving and communication skills, cognitive/internalized beliefs, and functions and structures in family systems. There are two forms of the inventory, the adolescent form and the parent form. Only the adolescent form of PARQ, including 284 items, was used in this research. The inventory also consists of 16 subscales. It was adapted into Turkish by Eryüksel (1996). The subjects of the study were 52 female adolescents who had attempted suicide and were taken to the Emergency Department of The Faculty of Medicine in Cukurova University, and 52 normal female adolescents from two different secondary schools at the southern province in Turkey. The age range of the clinical and normal groups were 14-18 (x = 16). The results of the study revealed that the general stress level of female adolescents who attempted suicide is higher than those of normal groups. The examination of family structures of these female adolescents made it clear that mothers were the mediator between fathers and adolescents. It was also observed that both mothers and fathers shared many somatic concerns.     

The Contingencies of Societal Accountability: Examining the Link Between Civil Society and Good Government

Corruption interferes with and distorts the processes of political decision making and implementation, often to the disadvantage of the already disadvantaged. Yet our understanding of the factors that might propel a political system from lower to higher levels of probity remains speculative. This article examines the role of one category of actors often touted as an important countervailing force to political power: civil society. Existing case study research provides evidence that civil society can play a decisive role in holding public officials accountable, but that the success of such societal accountability is contingent upon a number of favorable contextual and institutional conditions. The analyses presented here use panel country data to examine whether the strength of civil society affects corruption. The results corroborate the findings of existing case studies; a vibrant civil society mitigates corruption but only provided that conditions such as political competition, press freedom, and government transparency exist in the country.     

RAYNERISM IN PRACTICE: ANATOMY OF A RAYNER SCRUTINY

Rayner scrutinies have become a regular feature of life in government departments. It takes only a few months to conduct a scrutiny but implementation is a far longer process which can absorb much ministerial and official time. This paper describes one of the first Rayner scrutinies — on arrangements for paying social security benefits — from inception to implementation. It relates the scrutiny team's reports to the social security system it was in part reviewing and then traces the way that ministers and officials handled the controversy that the scrutiny team's proposals caused when leaked in an inaccurate form. It concludes by speculating about some wider lessons that might be drawn about the validity of the scrutiny technique; the value of the Rayner label on reviews; the need for independent reviews in bureaucratic organizations; civil service responsiveness to reviews: the political dimension to management issues: public debate and open government considerations, and the indirect consequences of scrutinies.     

Towards a Working Definition and Application of Social Age in International Development Studies

An emerging body of literature in childhood studies addresses the socially constructed nature of age that varies across time and place. However, despite the robustness of existing theory, few practitioners working in development contexts, where children and young people make up a large percentage of the population, consistently distinguish between biological facts of human development and the social meanings ascribed to different stages in the life cycle. Drawing on feminist theory and practical experiences of ‘gender mainstreaming’ in development studies, this article proposes and applies a working definition of ‘social age’ to supplement the prevailing focus on chronological age, embodied in legal definitions of ‘the child’.     

The competition strategy for medical care

This article reviews the so-called competition strategy for medical care. It sets out the policy goals of the strategy and the problems in the present medical and insurance system that it seeks to address. It then describes several distinct formulations of the competition strategy, showing that it is not a single, rigid, monolithic approach, but rather a flexible combination of market-oriented approaches. Finally, it briefly discusses the technical and political problems and prospects of the strategy.