The Role of the Peruvian Guerrilla in Che Guevara's Continental Guerrilla Project

The Peruvian guerrillas of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN, National Liberation Army) played a key role in Che Guevara's continental guerrilla project. When Guevara left from Africa, his idea was to strengthen this organisation that was supposedly fighting in the department of Ayacucho. After the defeat of this guerrilla in 1965 he turned his eye on Bolivia. The Peruvian guerrillas of the ELN maintained their importance in Guevara's project as evidenced by their attempts to build a guerrilla force nearby the border of Bolivia. This article sheds light on the role of the Peruvian ELN in Che Guevara's continental guerrilla project.     

The Durability of EU Civil Service Policy in Central and Eastern Europe after Accession

This article examines the post‐accession durability of EU civil service policy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs). Civil service professionalization was a condition for EU membership but the European Commission has no particular sanctions available if CEECs reverse pre‐accession reforms after gaining membership. Comparing eight CEECs that joined the EU in 2004, the article finds that post‐accession civil service developments are characterized by great diversity. The three Baltic States continued civil service reforms, while Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovenia are classified as cases of post‐accession reform reversal. The post‐accession pathway of Hungary is identified as a case of reform reorientation. The diversity in post‐accession pathways was almost exclusively the result of domestic political constellations, in particular, patterns of government alternation after accession. There were hardly any factors that could have locked in the level of professionalization that had been reached at the time of accession.     

PERFECT VICTIMS,PERFECT POLICING? IMPROVING RAPE COMPLAINANTS’ EXPERIENCES OF POLICE INVESTIGATIONS

Despite recent reforms internationally, significant criticism has been levelled at police departments regarding their service delivery to crime victims, and particularly for the disbelieving and insensitive attitudes officers may display towards women reporting rape and sexual assault. Police responses are frequently influenced by negative judgements regarding the victim’s dress, behaviour, and demeanour. These are flawed and ‘imperfect’ women – what right have they to expect ‘perfect’ treatment? This paper approaches this issue from the other end of the lens by considering the positive lessons to be learned from how ‘perfect victims’ were policed. The material presented is based on interviews conducted with 14 of the women attacked by the same serial rapist, supplemented by interviews with police investigators. The paper aims to identify what contributed most to victim satisfaction with police performance, and to present this as evidence of ‘best practice’ to inform future developments in adult sexual assault investigations.     

CONTROLLING DRUG AND DISORDER PROBLEMS: THE ROLE OF PLACE MANAGERS*

This article explores the role of place managers in controlling drug and disorder problems on 100 street blocks in Oakland, California. We use self-reports from a sample of place managers to explore their role in changing the social and physical conditions of street-block activity within the context of a randomized field trial in Oakland. On-site observations of the changes in the social and physical conditions of 100 street blocks were conducted and used as our outcome measures. Our results suggest that street blocks where place managers engaged in collective crime control activities had significantly fewer signs of disorder and greater levels of civil behavior. Our results also show that community cohesiveness on a street block was associated with fewer males selling drugs     

A CASE OF PARTIAL CONVERGENCE: THE EUROPEANIZATION OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

This article compares the Europeanization of central government in four Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs): Estonia, Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia. Using a large N survey of ministerial civil servants, it finds that the Europeanization of central government is characterized by partial convergence. The scope of Europeanization is large and similar among CEECs, reaching widely and deeply into government ministries. Moreover, patterns of Europeanization are similar among CEECs: the same ministries form the ‘inner core’ and ‘outer circle’ of Europeanized ministries; only a small proportion of civil servants work full‐time on EU issues and routinely engage in activities that ‘project’ national policies at EU level. Compared to old member states, patterns of Europeanization show signs of convergence, while the scope of Europeanization is larger in CEECs.     

ON THE BUREAUCRACY OF BUREAUCRACIES: ANALYSING THE SIZE AND ORGANIZATION OF OVERHEAD IN PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS

Governments across the globe try to rebalance their budgets by rationalizing overhead operations. When overhead‐reducing policies are adopted, it is important to understand why some central government organizations have a higher overhead than others, and why organizational models to produce overhead efficiencies are used to different degrees. This study focuses on the Flemish context to analyse differences between central government organizations in the size and organization of two overhead processes: human resources management (HRM) and finance and control (FIN). Significant effects are found for autonomy, organizational size, spatial dispersion and budgetary stress, yet effects vary according to whether HRM or FIN is considered and whether the focus is on the size or the organization of HRM or FIN. Our findings have practical implications to get a process‐sensitive understanding of the size and organization of overhead, and theoretical implications as they cast light on factors that shape decision‐making in public organizations.