The effect of board size and composition on European bank performance

Banks are “special” financial institutions generating distinct corporate governance challenges. The present paper examines the relationship between two of the most pertinent corporate governance factors—that is, the size of the Board of Directors and the proportion of non-executive directors—and firm performance on a sample of 58 large European banks over the period 2002–2004. The empirical analysis embraces a number of bank-specific variables. Our results reveal that bank profitability is negatively related to the size of the Board of Directors, while the impact of Board composition, although positive in all models, is, in most cases, insignificant. The results are robust after controlling for firm-specific variables.      

Minority and Majority Adolescents’ Attitudes toward Mutual Acculturation and its Association with Psychological Adjustment

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Although acculturation is considered a mutual process, no measure assesses attitudes toward mutual acculturation. Through a novel four-dimensional measurement,...     

Class war-on-terror: counterterrorism,accumulation, crisis

This article discusses US counterterrorism from a class perspective. It sees counterterrorism as a state policy with differential effects on different social classes. In doing so, the article starts to address a lacuna in critical studies of counterterrorism, which tend to be rather structural and formal, thus ignoring the pertinence of counterterrorism to the field of social dynamics. To partly rectify this blind spot by addressing some class implications of counterterrorism, the article examines the effects of counterterrorism policy on capital accumulation and its social conditions. It notes that counterterrorism has different implications along class-lines: for dominant capital, it signifies appropriation of public money and direct participation in political decisions; for everyone else, it means material dispossession and political exclusion. Given that counterterrorism was developed between two crises of neoliberalism, the article distinguishes between economic crises, which tend to benefit capitalism, and political crises, which can be destructive, and suggests that counterterrorism is partly a restructuring of the neoliberal state so that it can manage recurring economic crises, while preventing their evolution into political ones.     

No exceptions: authoritarian statism. Agamben,Poulantzas and homeland security

This article outlines and compares two different ways of making sense of counterterrorism and the configuration of political power in its context. Against the backdrop of US homeland security, it first outlines Agamben’s thesis on the permanent state of exception. Despite its resonance with key aspects of homeland security, this thesis is found to be analytically limited and theoretically brittle. To overcome its shortcomings and provide a better understanding of contemporary organisation of political power, a strategic-relational approach is suggested, derived from Poulantzas’s state theory.     

Psychiatric Medication Intake in Suicide Victims: Gender Disparities and Implications for Suicide Prevention

Frequency and gender differences of psychiatric medication intake in a sample of suicide victims from the Athens Greater Area were investigated with a particular focus on the implications for suicide prevention. Data were collected from the toxicological analyses of the suicide cases of the period November 2007–October 2009. Information was available for 262 individuals, 196 men (74.8%) and 66 women (25.2%); 109 of these (41.6%) were receiving psychiatric medication(s). Women were statistically more frequently under treatment: antidepressants (32.8% vs. 11.3%, p < 0.001), antiepileptics (9.1% vs. 0.5%, p = 0.001), antipsychotics (24.2% vs. 9.2%, p = 0.003), and benzodiazepines (16.7% vs. 6.6%, p = 0.024). Campaigns aiming to bring men with psychological difficulties in contact with mental health services and to lessen the stigma of mental illness, together with better training of nonpsychiatrists into “suspecting” “male” depression, could be particularly helpful for decreasing male suicides. More thoughtful choice of psychiatric medication could possibly already prevent a number of female suicides.     

The rise of Pasok: The Greek election of 1981

Presidents and Prime Ministers. Edited by Richard Rose and Ezra N. Suleiman. Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1980. Pp. 347. £4.75.

Western European Party Systems. Edited by Peter H. Merkl. New York: Collier Macmillan, 1980. Pp. 676. £25.95.

Government and Administration in Western Europe. Edited by F. F. Ridley. Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1979. Pp. 244. £15 (hardback), £4.95 (paperback).

The Politics of Grandeur: Ideological Aspects of de Gaulle's Foreign Policy. By Philip G. Cerny Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980 Pp. 319. £1250.

Contemporary France. Politics and Society Since 1945. By D. L. Hanley, A. P. Kerr and N. H. Waites. London: Routledge &; Kegan Paul, 1979. Pp. ix + 325. £8.50.

Social Change in France. By M. Vaughan, M. Kolinsky and P. Sheriff. Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980. Pp. vii + 216. £9.95.

French Politics and Public Policy. Edited by Philip G. Cerny and Martin A. Schain. London: Frances Pinter, 1980. Pp. xxii + 300. £12.50.

The Unexpected Rebellion: Ethnic Activism in Contemporary France. By William B. Beer. Foreword by Nicolas Wahl. New York and London: New York University Press, 1980. Pp. 150.

La Décadence: 1932–1939. By J.‐B. Duroselle. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, ‘Politique Etrangère de la France’ Collection, 1979. Pp. 568.

French Conservatism in Crisis. The Republican Federation of France in 1930s. By William D. Irvine. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1979. Pp. xx + 256. Bibliography. Index. $17.50.

Vichy et La Corporation Paysanne. By Isabel Boussard. Paris: Presses de la fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1980. Pp. 415.

L'aventure algérienne, 1940–1944: Pétain, Giraud, de Gaulle. By Lucien Adès. Paris: Pierre Belfond, 1979. Pp. 258.

France and the United States. By Jean‐Baptiste Duroselle. The University of Chicago Press, 1978. Translation. Pp. 276. £12.60.

Dualism and Discontinuity in Industrial Societies. By Suzanne Berger and Michael J. Piore. Cambridge: CUP, 1980. Pp. xi + 159. £10.50.

Mobilità senza movimento: Le elezioni del 3 giugno 1979. Edited by Arturo Parisi. Bologna: II Mulino, 1980. Pp. 160. 29 tables. L.8,000.

Eminenza Rossa. By Giancarlo Galli. Milan: Sugar Co Edizioni, 1976. Pp. 232. L.3,200

Maurizio Valenzi—Sindaco a Napoli. Interview by Massimo Ghiara. Rome: Editori Riuniti, 1978. Pp. 190. L. 2,000.

L'Albero in Piazza: storia, cronaca e leggenda delle feste dell ‘Unità. By Claudio Bernieri. Milan: Gabrielle Mazzotta editore, 1977. Pp. 167. L. 2,000.

Le origini dello stalinismo nel PCI: storia della ‘svolta’ comunista degli anni trenta. By Ferdinando ORMEA. Milan: Feltrinelli Editore, 1978. Pp. 344. L.9,000.

Berlinguer. By Vittorio Gorresio. Milan: Feltrinelli Editore, 1976. Pp. 200. L.2,500.

Capital Markets and Industrial Investment in Germany and France. By B. T. Bayliss and A. A. S. Butt Philip. London: Saxon House, 1980. Pp. xiii + 198. £10.50.

Britain in Europe. Edited, by William Wallace. London: Heinemann, 1980. Pp. x + 213. £4.95 (paperback) £10.50 (hardback).

British Foreign Policy and the Atlantic Area. By ARTHUR Cyr. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1979. Pp. 172. £10.00.

The Reluctant Party: Labour and the EEC, 1961–1975. By L.J. Robins. Ormskirk: G. W. and A. Hesketh, 1979. Pp. 155.

Budgetary Politics: The Finances of the European Communities. By Helen Wallace. London: George Allen &; Unwin, 1980. Pp. 120. £6.95 (hardback), £2.95 (paperback).

The Economics of International Integration. By Peter Robson. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1980. Pp. ix + 197. £12.50. £4.95 (paperback).

Agriculture and the European Community. By John S. Marsh and Pamela J. Swanney. London: George Allen &; Unwin, 1980. Pp. 98. £6.95 (hardback), £2.95 (paperback).

The European Community and the Third World: The Lome Convention and its Impact. By Ellen Frey‐Wouters. Eastbourne: Hall‐Saunders Ltd., Praeger Special Studies, 1980. Pp. xii+290. £15.50.

The International Division of Labour and Multinational Companies. A study by P. K. M. Tharakan and a symposium at ECSIM. Farnborough: Saxon House, 1979. Pp. 152.

Regional Policy: Past Experience and New Directions. Edited by Duncan Macklennan and John B. Parr. Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1979. Pp. xviii + 334. £17.50 (hardback), £6.95 (paperback).

Regional Policy in the European Community. Edited by D. Yuill, K. Allen and C. Hull. London: Croom Helm, 1980. Pp. 251. £12.95.

A Political and Electoral Handbook for Wales. By Denis Balsom and Martin Burch. Farnborough: Gower, 1980. Pp. x + 195. £12.50.

Western European Cities in Crisis. Edited by Michael C. Romanos. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books, 1979. Pp. xviii + 243.

A Tale of Five Cities: Life in Provincial Europe Today. By John Ardagh, London: Secker and Warburg, 1979. Pp. 457. £8.95.     

Refocusing Public Diplomacy: The Need for Strategic Discursive Public Diplomacy

This article concerns itself with the agenda, the instruments, and the goals of public diplomacy (PD). Taking into account the current state of PD that concentrates predominantly on forging cultural and educational links and promoting values, but not policies, it refocuses PD in two substantial ways: driving it, first, to focus on the most significant global issues and, second, to employ profound discursive processes. The emphasis then shifts to how PD can strengthen the global public sphere with regard to the profoundly political and critical issues of the present era. It argues in favour of strategic discursive PD and suggests ways to enhance both the legitimacy and efficiency of states' foreign policies on the handling of the Greek economic crisis and the issue of economic governance.