Argentine Nacionalismo before Perón: The Case of the Alianza de la Juventud Nacionalista, 1937–c. 1943

As the 1930s moved towards their close, a new generation of young men began to dominate the political wing of a generally more radical and assertive Argentine Nacionalismo, replacing the old guard that had found its inspiration in General José F. Uriburu and the regime he had led between September 1930 and February 1932. The Alianza de la Juventud Nacionalista, set up in September 1937, was the most important nacionalista faction of the period. It shared with other nacionalista factions the rejection of liberalism, parliamentary democracy and communism, but in contrast to the elitist and anti-popular orientation of earlier organisations, it aggressively tried to enlist popular support by portraying itself as a group genuinely concerned about the needs of the masses. The Alianza also distanced itself from the glorification of nineteenth-century Argentina, another hallmark of previous groups. Although it failed in its efforts to build up a significant following, the analysis nevertheless demonstrates that the organisation can be described as a genuinely fascist movement.     

What happens when a reform works? The need to study unanticipated consequences of mandatory processing of domestic violence

One of the primary facets of the sociology of law is concerned with the relationships between formal rules and regulations having the force of governmental social control and the values, norms and practices of those who enforce them (or not). This “law in action” perspective enables research to test out the differential impact on legal decisions of both formal and informal aspects of social control (Hawkins, 1992). One of the limitations of recent work on domestic violence is that it focuses too narrowly on one or two negative sanctions, e.g., arrest or restraining orders, to the exclusion of the other options and the mix of formal and informal decisions in the criminal justice system as a whole (Reiss, 1974). This research attempts through a close analysis of the workings of the Quincy, Massachusetts criminal justice system in response to domestic violence, to identify the consequences, unanticipated and anticipated, of decisions made in several domains (public, police, prosecutors, and courts) of the criminal justice system. This study uses in-depth interviews with batterers, victims and criminal justice agency and related personnel as well as agency policies, training materials and records to examine possible unintended consequences of aggressive intervention in cases of domestic violence. This study will explore the impact of the Quincy Domestic Violence Program, considered to be a national model, on the lives of victims and offenders who are treated by the court. We have selected the District Court at Quincy, Massachusetts as our research site. It has a well deserved national reputation treating abusers systematically from the initial intake by arresting officers through close supervision in probation.     

Nanny Bloomberg

In his twelve-year tenure, now ex-Mayor Bloomberg came to be called Nanny Bloomberg for having introduced an unprecedented number of rules and regulations in the area of public health, to which citizens were then subjected. He operated in many different areas, as he would say, for our own good. The question is: did it ever help and at what price? And: Cui bono?     

The new Basle Accord, internal ratings, and the incentives of banks

The Basle Accord of 1988 regulates how much equity banks must set aside as a cushion against the default risk. In its 1999 proposal for a new Accord, the Basle Committee seeks to introduce different equity ratios for customers of different risk levels. The proposal strongly favors external ratings as a means of risk determination. German banks, on the other hand, demand acknowledgement of their internal ratings.This paper shows that, even if assumed that banks have better diagnosis skill than external rating agencies, external ratings are better able to implement the goals of the Basle Committee than internal ratings. This is due to a lack of incentives to truthfully reveal their diagnosis results. These incentives may be provided by supervision of internal ratings, even if imperfect and only occasional. However, this requires that a fine be imposed if the supervising authority comes to a result different from the internal rating assigned by the bank.     

Efficient compensation for employees' inventions

We analyze a legal reform concerning employees' inventions in Germany. Using a simple principal-agent model, we derive a unique efficient payment scheme: a bonus which is contingent on the project value. We demonstrate that the old German law creates inefficient incentives even if litigation cost is zero. However, the new law (concerning university employees) and the pending reform proposal (concerning other employees) also fail to implement first-best incentives. With suboptimal incentives to spend effort on inventions, the government's goal, an increase in the number of patents, is likely to be missed. A part of this research was done while I enjoyed the hospitality of the University of California in Santa Barbara (Economics Department) and Berkeley (Law School). Financial aid by the Thyssen Stiftung is gratefully acknowledged. classification K 12 . J 33 . C 72     

Le développement des décideurs publics: propositions pour les années qui viennent

Sommaire: Plus que jamais, les décideurs publics doivent alimenter la décision politi-que. Ils ne sauraient y parvenir sans une mise à jour continuelle de leurs connaissances. Les dornaines traditionnels ne sauraient cependant satisfaire à leurs besoins. C'est pourquoi l'auteur propose quatre domaines de formation pour les décideurs de la fin du millénaire. La maîtrise de l'infonnation s'appliquant tant au domaine des nouvelles qui ren-dent compte des événernents sociaux ou politiques qu'au domaine de l'information de gestion qui doit rester sous le contrôle des décideurs; La sensihilitéaux valeurs montantes dans le secteur du travail, de la santé et des Affaires sociales, de la politique et de l'économie. Selon l'auteur, les décideurs publics devront passer d'une gestion organique et pragmatique des services à une gestion sur laquelle des problèmes nouveaux et des valeurs nouvelles créeront des pressions de plus en plus considérables; La connaissance des institutions d du rôle de l'État - Une certaine perte de crédibilité des institutions publiques doit être contrée. Par ailleurs, la diminution du rôle des bureaucraties ne doit pas être confondue avec la diminution du rôle de l'État; L'hahilitédans le décodage de la prospective - L'administration publique exige de ses décideurs qu'ils regardent haut et loin mêrne si le quotidien les sollicite de façon très pressante. Les décisions autonomes deviennent de plus en plus rares et les liens entre les idées et les actions exigent plus que jarnais une ouverture sur le monde. Abstract: More than ever, public decision-makers must feed the policy-making process. To do that, they must continually upgrade their knowledge. However, the conventional fields of knowledge are no longer sufficient. The author hence proposes four areas of training for the decision-makers of the twenty-first century: - the mastery of informution, involving news reports on social and political events, and management information that must be at the decision-makers' fingertips; - sensitivity to emerging values in the fields of labour, health and social affairs, politics and economics. The author believes that public decision-makers must switch from an organic, pragmatic management of services to a management mode that will be subjected to ever-growing pressure by new problems and new values; - knowledge of the institutions and of the role of the state. A certain loss of credibility of public institutions must be countered. However, reducing the various bureaucracies must not be confused with reducing the role of the state; - ability to interpret forecasts. Public administration requires decision-makers to look beyond the horizon in spite of the pressing daily tasks. Autonomous decisions are becoming increasingly rare, and the links between ideas and actions require, more than ever, an opening to the world.