SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC INSTABILITY IN COSTA RICA: PRE-CONDITIONS FOR MILITARIZATION?

Controversy continues to surround the issue of militarization in Costa Rica. On one side, claims are made that external forces such as the Reagan administration or other foreign powers have created the recent period of social and economic instability in order to militarize Costa Rica and extend military influence in Central America. On the other hand, it has been argued that some of these external agents are simply offering aid to their Costa Rican friends during a period of social and economic instability. Similar contentions suggest that Costa Rica is only protecting itself from its neighbor to the north, Nicaragua, or that the present move toward militarization is only the professionalization of the police force. This paper examines some of the conditions that promote militarization in Costa Rica and explores moral, economic, and political issues related to the militarization of a country that has pursued a "no army" policy for almost forty years.     

A NEW DEFENSE POLICY FOR COSTA RICA: CONSTRUCTING REALITY AND THE POLICY AGENDA

This paper examine5 the policymaking progress in Costa Rica, specifically the creation of a new item for the governmental agenda. This new agenda challenges the traditional Itno army" policy of Costa Kica. Following a brief historical overview of the traditional policy, the paper considers the role of specific factors that promote structural conduciveness for the new "defense" policy and the attendant transformation of political symbols and definitions. The impact of the definitional and organizational changes on the implementation stage of policy is explored. This article suggests the importance of studying the role of hegemony in the construction and transformation of political and cultural definitions, an explication of deci- sionmaking as well as nondecisionmaking processes, and the influence of external and internal threats on nation-state dependency.     

Heroin policy and deficit models

This paper critically assesses Left Realist approaches to understanding heroin use and to formulating policies with which to deal with heroin use as a social problem. It criticises the epistemological foundation of Left Realism, querying especially its prioritizing of inner city residents' experiences. Dorn and South's Left Realist account of heroin use and their formulation of an appropriate policy are then argued to have fundamental weaknesses as a result of their Left Realist assumptions. The paper then attempts to indicate some alternative paradigms for interpreting drug use, developing especially a focus on theorizing demand, and suggests alternative policy directions which emerge from this. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** AW502012 00003     

From Uniformity to Diversity? Reinventing Public Sector Industrial Relations in New Zealand

Since 1988 industrial relations in New Zealand's public sector have changed significantly. This paper discusses the changing roles of the State Services Commission and chief executives in bargaining with public sector employees, and how these changing roles have affected union representation and wage rates. While the Employment Contracts Act, 1991 resulted in changes to bargaining, generally its effect was minimal in the public sector with respect to bargaining outcomes. However, one of the more significant changes as a result of the Employment Contracts Act has been a move to direct employer — employee negotiations. Bargaining in New Zealand's public sector has moved, in the last nine years, from uniformity to diversity, but to what extent?     

Structure,culture and passivity: a case study of women in a semi‐state organization

Much of the Irish semi‐state sector is still characterized by permanent employment within male‐dominated hierarchical structures. This case study focuses on a rural semi‐state organization with a statutory obligation as regards the economic, social and cultural development of a particular geographical area. Documentary material showed that it was highly skewed in gender terms, with men holding the overwhelming majority (93 per cent) of the higher positions, and women the overwhelming majority (89 per cent) of the lower positions. Such patterns are by no means atypical as regards state and semi‐state structures. Drawing on qualitative material from taped focus group sessions with roughly 80 per cent of the women employed in this organization, the article illustrates the multifaceted ways (structural, cultural and individual) in which women's position at the lower levels of that organization was maintained. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.