Electoral engineering in Chile: the electoral system and limited democracy

On the eve of Chile's transition from military to elected government, the outgoing regime enacted an electoral engineering project intended to conserve the constitutional order it encoded in 1980. An analysis of 1989 and 1993 general elections shows that the way votes are translated into seats favors, as intended, the second largest electoral block, the Chilean Right. This bias, along with the number of appointed senators and the special majorities required for constitutional amendments, gives the Right a minority veto power on any reform initiative. Moreover, the electoral system produces incentives for parties, candidates and voters that enhances this balance of power. The role that the electoral system plays in Chile therefore consolidates a limited form of democracy, rather than a liberal one.     

Rondas Campesinas in the Peruvian Civil War: Peasant Self-defence Organisations in Ayacucho

Despite the fact that the Shining Path guerrilla movement in Peru enjoyed initial peasant support, the emergence and spread of rondas campesinas or self-defence committees in the Andean highlands of Ayacucho was principally a response against coercion and violence exerted by Shining Path against the very same peasantry. This article seeks to demonstrate that the ronda phenomenon must be understood as part of the complex changes brought about by the proliferation of violence in the Peruvian Andes. The spread of rondas campesinas cannot be reduced to a mere counterinsurgent strategy imposed by the security forces on the rural communities; communal initiative and peasant 'agency' were, at certain stages, at least as important. Only with the rise to power of Fujimori were the self-defence committees formally incorporated in the state's anti-guerrilla strategy. Subsequently, with the reduction in the level of violence, self-defence committees have been seeking new roles in relation to the challenges of re-civilianisation and reconstruction.     

An epidemiological assessment of problematic contacts to members of Congress

In order to assess the nature of threat assessment activity pertaining to members of Congress, 4387 cases involving threatening and other problematic contact were analyzed. The cases were studied regarding subject characteristics, articulated motives, as well as several aspects of contact behavior in relation to approach behavior. Approachers were significantly less likely to have articulated threat language prior to or during their contacts and were also less likely to have stated a policy grievance (foreign or domestic) as the source of their concern. Further, approachers were substantially more likely to have expressed help seeking requests as part of their prior and approach-related contacts and were less likely to have had racial or sexualized content within their contacts. Approachers were also significantly more likely to have had a criminal record as well as displayed symptoms suggestive of major mental illness. Subjects engaging in approach behavior were also less likely to have used an alias, were less likely to be a direct constituent of the target and were more likely to have contacted multiple congressional targets. The implications for threat assessment activity are discussed.     

Discriminant function sexing of fragmentary and complete tibiae from medieval Croatian sites

Previous studies have demonstrated that populations differ from each other in size and proportion and that these differences can affect metric assessment of sex. This paper establishes standards for determining sex from fragmentary and complete tibiae in the medieval Croatian population. The sample is composed of 180 tibiae (96 males and 84 females) from six medieval archaeological sites in Croatia. Three of the sites were located in continental Croatia, three on the eastern Adriatic coast and its immediate hinterland. Six tibial dimensions were measured: (1) length of the tibia; (2) maximum epiphyseal breadth of the proximal tibia; (3) maximum epiphyseal breadth of the distal tibia; (4) maximum diameter of the tibia at the nutritient foramen; (5) transverse diameter of the tibia at the nutritient foramen; and (6) circumference of the tibia at the nutritient foramen. Unifactorial and multifactorial analyses were performed on the collected data. Six discriminant functions were generated, one using six variables, two using two variables, and three employing one variable. Results show that complete tibiae can be sexed with 92.2% accuracy. Slightly lower accuracies (91.7 and 87.8%) were achieved using a combination of two variables, while functions employing one variable were accurate from 85.6 to 81.7%. The results of this study show that the medieval Croatian tibia is a good skeletal component for determining sex. Standardized coefficients of the discriminant functions generated in this study support the results of previous studies that found that breadth dimensions provide better separation of the sexes than length.     

Science ethics as a bureaucratic problem: IRBs,Rules, and Failures of control

“Institutionalized science ethics” refers to the statutory, professional and institution-based ethical standards that guide and constrain scientists' research work. The primary institution responsible for implementing institutionalized science ethics is the Institutional Review Board. We examine the limitations of IRBs and institutionalized science ethics, using bureaucratic theory and, especially, theory related to the development and enactment of rules. We suggest that due to the very character of rules-based systems, improvements in IRB outcomes are unlikely to be achieved through either more or better rules or even by bureaucratic reform. Instead, we suggest that improvements in human subject protection can best be advanced through increased participation. Ours is not a call for more participation by the general public but participation, via “Participant Review Boards” of persons who are eligible, by the protocols of the research in question, to serve as subjects. This provides a level of legitimacy and face validity that cannot be obtained by IRB affiliates, even by “external representatives.” In making these points, we review a recent science ethics controversy, the KKI/Johns Hopkins lead paint study. In spite of being approved by IRBs, the study resulted in a civil lawsuit that reached the Maryland Court of Appeals. The case illustrates the limits of institutionalized science ethics and the bureaucracies created for their enactment. The case also underscores the complex and equivocal nature of the ethical guidelines established under the National Research Act. We are grateful to – for providing helpful comments on an earlier draft.     

Contents of Volume 14

Volume Contents

Contents of Volume 14     

Ferrajoli on Rights

The author considers the distinction drawn by Ferrajoli betweenrights and their guarantees to be an important acquisition forpost-Kelsenian legal theory, but criticises the distinction drawn between fundamental rights and patrimonial rights, in particular contesting the hypothesis that non-disposability/inalienabilityis a characteristic of fundamental rights. On the contrary, Joribelieves that there is a substantial symmetry between fundamentalrights and patrimonial rights, because patrimonial rights can beseen as guarantees of the fundamental right of equal legal capacity.He also argues that the distinction between fundamental and patrimonial rights cannot be drawn solely on the formal terrain, but must beextended to their contents and their ethical importance. Finally,he studies Ferrajoli's thesis of citizenship: in his opinion, theabolition of citizenship hoped for by Ferrajoli would lead to asort of imperialism of rights, ethically a position fraught withproblems, in the light of the ethical value of individual autonomy.     

Risk and Trouble: Adam Smith on Profit and the Protagonists of Capitalism

To better account for deepening global inequalities, political theory could greatly enhance empirical and normative work by answering a fundamental question: What is profit? When engaging political‐economic questions, however, theorists often begin thinking from the concept of private property. This, I argue, has obscured the central role of profit as an organizing category for capitalist societies since the eighteenth century. Grounded in the dynamic and uncertain processes of production and accumulation, profit displaces the proprietary citizen and subject of natural rights and gives rise to new social protagonists, who lay claim to increasingly asymmetric rewards. In particular, the article calls attention to a dangerous contemporary sensibility, which sees profit as inherently unlimited. As a viable, robust alternative, it presents Adam Smith's idea of profit as a regular, uniform rate that acts as a productive constraint on business activity, shapes character, and safeguards against risk by widely distributing its costs.     

General Trends and Causes of High Compensation of Government Managers in the OECD Countries

Government managers play a central role in the public administration of countries to support their overall efficiency. The compensation of central government senior managers has received considerable attention in recent years since it has risen in many countries. The public, the media and academia see government senior managers as being overpaid, with salaries increasing in a disproportionate and inequitable way. The literature has analyzed some possible determinants of this socio-administrative issue. However, the political and institutional factors affecting public managers’ compensation are still largely unknown. This study shows that the average compensation of central government senior managers in some OECD countries seems to be positively associated with the average salary of members of parliament (MPs). Furthermore, high compensation of public managers seems to be more frequent in countries with low freedom of expression, of association and of the media, as well as low quality of contract enforcement, property rights and control of corruption. These results may provide fruitful insights into the possible causes of this relation, to support reforms and best practices which can improve the efficiency of the public administration in modern economies.