The system's rigged — or is it?

From the beginning of the Seventies until almost the end of the Eighties, the Public Prosecution Service in the Netherlands concentrated a major part of its resources on combatting white collar and corporate crime. This effort climaxes in a number of spectacular fraud trials, involving in one case the directors of a large commercial bank, in another high-ranking public officials. Almost all were acquitted. As dramatically as interest in white collar and corporate crime had increased, so too did it decline at the end of the Eighties, until by now public interest in fraud is primarily concerned with social security frauds at one end of the scale, and money laundering by organised crime at the other. This article examines the rise and fall of the fraud-issue in Holland, the parts played by the Public Prosecution Service and the media, and the structural (economic and social) limitations to the criminalisation of white collar and corporate behaviour.     

Beyond proportionate punishment: Difficult cases and the 1991 Criminal Justice Act

Within six months of implementation, the Criminal Justice Act 1991, which had been hailed as the most important piece of criminal justice legislation in England and Wales for many years, was already being undermined in practice, and a new Act, which amends or even reverses some of its more progressive principles, was brought before Parliament. This paper looks at some problems of proportionality in practice — through discussion of penological principles, and through consideration of the kinds of cases which are most difficult for a desert approach. Alternative ideas are examined to see whether they could offer any better framework for penal policy and practice. A mixed theory is advocated, with parsimony as its most important principle.I am grateful to Nicola Lacey, Mike Levi, Mike Maguire and Andrew Von Hirsch for comments on the first draft of this paper.     

The correlates of spouses' incongruent reports of marital aggression

Husbands' and wives' reports (n=97 couples) of engaging in or experiencing marital aggression were compared to determine congruence. Congruence was defined as spousal agreement on whether either spouse had been nonviolent, mildly violent, or severely maritally violent within the past year. Whereas approximately equal numbers of clinic couples were incongruent for husband and for wife violence (32% vs. 31%), only incongruence for husband violence (H W) was found to correlate with reports of affective and relationship functioning. Incongruent H W wives were more likely to be depressed and angry. H W incongruent wives were also more negative about the inter-spousal communication and rated the relationship as more unsatisfactory for them than did congruent wives. Incongruent H W husbands also perceived the relationship more negatively, but their levels of depression and anger did not differ from congruent H W husbands. These findings were not replicated for spouses who were incongruent for wife violence. Our results support the conclusion that spousal disagreement about H W violence has a more negative impact than does disagreement about wives' level of aggression.     

The hate that dare not speak its name: Pornography qua semi-political speech

In this essay we shall examine the contemporary jurisprudential thinking and legal precedents surrounding the issue of the sanctionability of pornography. We shall catalogue them by their logical presumptions, such as whether they view pornography as speech or act, whether they view pornography as obscenity, political hate-speech or anomalous other, whether they would scrutinize legislation governing pornography by a balancing of the harm of repression against the harm of permission, and who exactly they view as the victims.We shall take a special interest in the most recent, but unsuccessful, attempt by a subgroup of feminists to proscribe pornography by treating it as neither political speech nor sexual speech but speech which causes harm which is both political and sexual. They would like it to be considered as a special kind of odious propaganda undeserving of protection because it promulgates a mental state conducive to criminal activity, and hence is criminal in and of itself. However, the repression of propaganda, even odious propaganda, is not so easily accomplished in this country.Most anti-censors have emphasized the uncertainty of the causal connection between pornography and sexual violence. We shall contend that this is not the essential issue, and that, even if we agree with the allegations of pornography's prurient non-intellectual appeal and its tendency to excite criminal hostility, the current understanding of the Bill of Rights allows sanctioning only under the stringent requirement of the showing of a clear and present danger of specific and immediate acts.We raise the question of whether there should be a new standard for speech which is simultaneously political and sexual, and/or for speech whose harmful message is presented subliminally, on the grounds that such speech may not be adequately opposed by counter speech in the marketplace of ideas.     

Ethos,ideology, and partisanship: Exploring the paradox of conservative democrats

Despite the increasingly liberal cast of the national Democratic Party, self-identified conservatives continue to represent a significant segment of the party. At least 25 percent of Democratic identifiers considered themselves to be conservatives during the 1972–1988 period. This paper explores the puzzle of why significant numbers of political conservatives continue to identify with the Democratic Party. We argue that conservative Democrats relate to their party not because of political ideology, as do Republicans and to a lesser extent, liberal/moderate Democrats, but because of the symbolic values associated with the main groups in the party—what we refer to as party ethos. This proposition is examined by analyzing a new set of open-ended questions included in the 1988 American National Election Study probing citizens' images and assessments of the Republican and Democratic parties.The data utilized in this paper were made available by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. The data forAmerican National Election Study 1988: Pre- and Post-Election Survey were originally collected by Warren E. Miller and the National Election Studies. Neither the collector of the original data nor the Consortium bears any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here.     

The DutchAlgemene Rekenkamer and its role in light of practical experience

TheAlgemene Rekenkamer functions in the area around government and parliament. This chapter focuses on two questions: How does theRekenkamer ascertain loss of efficiency and effectiveness within government, and how does theRekenkamer restrict loss of efficiency and effectiveness within its own organization?

The goal of theRekenkamer is to provide parliament with reasonable assurances of the validity of expenses incurred and to promote the efficiency of the ministries and the effective spending of state funds. TheRekenkamer pursues a policy aimed at achieving these goals. Some central elements in this active policy are

• ? An independent position,

• ? Optimum reliability,

• ? Strategic planning,

• ? Both regularity and performance audits.

• ? The political and social relevance of research subjects, and

• ? Dialogue between parliament and theRekenkamer.

With regard to the audit theory of W.J. Van Braband, some suggestions for improvement are given.

     

Reviews

Aleksei Ulyukaev, Reforming the Russian Economy 1991–1995. London: The Centre for Research into Post‐Communist Economies, 1996, x + 138 pp., £9.95.

Joseph R. Blasi, Maya Kroumova & Douglas Kruse, Kremlin Capitalism. Privatizing the Russian Economy. Ithaca: ILR Press/Cornell University Press, 1997, xix + 249 pp., $16.95.

Grigory Ioffe & Tatyana Nefedova, Continuity and Change in Rural Russia: A Geographical Perspective. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997, ix + 315 pp., $59.95 h/b.

Patrick Artisien‐Maksimenko & Yuri Adjubei (eds), Foreign Investment in Russia and Other Soviet Successor States. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996, xxi + 277 pp., £45.00.

Kazimierz Poznanski, Poland's Protracted Transition. Institutional Change and Economic Growth 1970–1994. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, xl + 337 pp., £50.00 h/b, £16.96 p/b.

Padraic Kenney, Rebuilding Poland: Workers and Communists 1945–1950. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996, xx + 360 pp., £31.50.

Minton F. Goldman, Revolution and Change in Central and Eastern Europe: Political, Economic and Social Changes. New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1997, xiv + 497 pp., $32.95.

Jeffrey T. Checkel, Ideas and International Political Change. Soviet/Russian Behavior and the End of the Cold War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997, xiv + 191 pp., £18.00.

Roger E. Kanet & Alexander V. Kozhemiakin (eds), The Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation. London: Macmillan, 1997, xii + 208 pp., £40.00.

Vladimir Baranovsky (ed.), Russia and Europe: The Emerging Security Agenda. Oxford: Oxford University Press/Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 1997, xviii + 582 pp., £45.00.

Walter L. Hixson, Parting the Curtain: Propaganda, Culture, and the Cold War, 1945–1961. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997, xvi + 283 pp., £45.00 h/b, £16.99 p/b.

Kevin McDermott & Jeremy Agnew, The Comintern: A History of International Communism from Lenin to Stalin. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996, xxv + 304 pp., £13.99.

Geoffrey Hosking, Russia: People and Empire, 1552–1917. London: HarperCollins, 1997, xxviii + 548 pp., £20.00.

John P. LeDonne, The Russian Empire and the World, 1700–1917: The Geopolitics of Expansion and Containment. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, xxii + 394 pp., £19.99.

E. A. Rees (ed.), Decision‐making in the Stalinist Command Economy, 1932–37. London: Macmillan, 1997, xv + 331 pp., £40.00.

James Hughes, Stalinism in a Russian Province: Collectivization and Dekulakization in Siberia. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996, xi + 271 pp., £45.00.

Jonathan D. Smele, Civil War in Siberia. The Anti‐Bolshevik Government of Admiral Kolchak 1918–20. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, xix + 759 pp., £50.00.

G. A. Bordyugov (ed.), Istoricheskie issledovaniya v Rossii: tendentsii poslednikh let. Moscow: AIRO‐XX, 1996, 464 pp.

Peter Waldron, The End of Imperial Russia, 1855–1917. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997, viii + 189 pp., £37.50 h/b, £11.99 p/b.

Catherine Evtuhov, The Cross and the Sickle. Sergei Bulgakov and the Fate of Russian Religious Philosophy, 1890–1920. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997, x + 278 pp., £33.50.     

Book reviews

Vernon Hewitt, The New International Politics of South Asia (Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 1997), xxxvi +305 pp., ISBN 0–7190–5121–5 (hb), 0–7190–5122–3 (pb)

Ruth Lister, Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives (Macmillan, London, 1997), 284 pp., ISBN 0–333–53488–3

Martin Bull and Martin Rhodes (eds), Crisis and Transition in Italian Politics (Frank Cass, London, 1997), 253 pp., ISBN 0–7146–4816–7 (hb), 0–7146–4366–1 (pb)

Linda McDougall, Westminster Women (Vintage, London, 1998), 215 pp., ISBN 0–09–927405–1