EXTERNAL INFLUENCES ON PRODUCTIVITY: EPA'S IMPLEMENTATION OF TSCA

Discussions of governmental productivity typically focus on managerial improvements within bureaucratic organizations. A more balanced, political approach to governmental efficiency and effectiveness would give equal emphasis to productivity obstacles and opportunities In an agency's legislative mandate and working environment. EPA's implementation of the Toxic Substances Control Act illustrates how productivity can be signiflcantly affected by minor legislative provisions, b y the configuration of group interests and resources, and by other factors beyond the control of an administrative agency. Some of these obstacles could be reduced i f given appropriate attention in scholarly research and in policy deliberations.     

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES FOR HISTORICAL ANALYSES

One of the most obvious deficiencies in the literature on the criminal justice system is reflected in the lack of research on the historical development of the police, courts, and corrections. Even more evident is the paucity of research which is theoretically or methodologically grounded. As a result of the failure of historians to specify their a priori assumptions, methodology, and theoretical perspective, it is difficult for consumers of the literature to appreciate how researchers have selectively sampled and interpreted historical events and arrived at their conclusions. This article addresses this problem by adapting and applying to historical research on the juvenile justice system some of the theoretical and methodological insights presented by Thomas S. Kuhn (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and George Ritzer (1975) Sociology: A Multiple Paradigm Science. The study focuses upon outlining the assumptions and methodology underlying three theoretical perspectives which have been consciously or unconsciously adopted by a majority of historical researchers: the march of progress, social context, and conflict perspectives. After outlining these perspectives, a selective review of the juvenile justice literature is offered in order to demonstrate how these orientations have been applied in interpreting the origin, development, operation, and impact of the juvenile court and juvenile reformatory. Finally, suggestions are offered which provide general guidelines for applying these perspectives to any aspect of the criminal justice system within an historical context.     

The Canadian Legal Profession

This article seeks to weave together the limited information available on the legal professions of the Canadian provinces. Following the same general format as the other comparative studies in this series, it also offers several critical observations of special interest to readers in the United States, whose experience the Canadian bar so closely tracks. The phenomenon of stratification—familiar to American observers—is clearly visible in the Canadian legal profession. Combined with other centrifugal forces, it threatens the unity of a profession which, until recently, has managed to preserve a high degree of cohesion in training, ideology, and institutional structures. On the other hand, in certain respects, the Canadian experience seems to differ from that of the United States, especially in the strength and peculiar structure of publicly funded legal aid schemes, in the profession's continuing formal autonomy and relative immunity from public regulation, and in its long-lasting attachment to apprenticeship as a necessary stage in professional formation. These and other convergences and divergences between the two countries raise questions of general significance: To what extent do the similarities between Canada and the United States verify the assumption implicit in the theoretical literature (principally Abel, Freidson, and Larson) that there is an empirical referent for something called legal professionalism? And to what extent do the differences suggest that containing societies contribute distinctive characteristics to their legal professions, whose qualities are therefore highly contingent?