Meeting development goals: evidence from the Civil Society Education Fund

In recent years, the Civil Society Education Fund has supported national education civil society coalitions (NECs) in low-income countries so that they put pressure on governments and donors to implement the Education for All agenda and the Millennium Development Goal on education. This article draws on literature on global governance as well as on an extensive evaluation of the CSEF to explore the actual contribution of this initiative to the activity of NECs. The article highlights the achievements and shortcomings of the CSEF and includes a set of practical recommendations on the role of global civil society in international development processes.     

Cuba Just Yesterday and Today: Negotiating Toward What,Exactly?

Elise Andaya, Conceiving Cuba: Reproduction, Women, and the State in the Post‐Soviet Era. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2014. Notes, bibliography, index, 169 pp.; hardcover $80, paperback $26.95, ebook. Carmelo Mesa‐Lago and Jorge Pérez‐López, Cuba Under Raúl Castro: Assessing the Reforms. Boulder: Lynne Reinner, 2013. Notes, tables, bibliography, index, 310 pp.; hardcover $65, ebook $65. Archibald R. M. Ritter and Ted A. Henken, Entrepreneurial Cuba: The Changing Policy Landscape. Boulder: Lynne Reinner, 2015. Notes, tables, appendixes, bibliography, index, 384 pp.; hardcover $79.95, ebook $79.95. Paolo Spadoni, Cuba's Socialist Economy Today: Navigating Challenges and Change. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2014. Notes, tables, bibliography, index, 252 pp.; hardcover $65.     

The cognitive interview and its effect on misleading postevent information

Abstract

The present study investigated the effectiveness of the cognitive interview on reducing the impact of the misinformation effect. A 2×2 between-groups design was used, with interview type (cognitive or structured) and narrative type (misleading or neutral) as the independent variables. Adults (n=40) viewed video footage depicting a bank robbery and then received either a misleading or neutral postevent narrative. Participants were interviewed with either a cognitive or a structured interview regarding their memory for the original footage. The cognitive interview produced significantly more correct pieces of information than the structured interview, without an increase in errors or confabulations. An anomalous significant interaction was found regarding the number of incorrect pieces of information, where recipients of the structured interview made more recall errors when receiving neutral postevent information compared to neutral postevent information. A misinformation effect was successfully achieved but the enhancing effects of the cognitive interview were unable to reduce it. Results are discussed within the misinformation effect theoretical framework. The limitations of the present study are also discussed.     

GSR2005--continuity of the ENFSI proficiency test on identification of GSR by SEM/EDX.

Within the framework of the ENFSI Expert Working Group "Firearms" a proficiency test on the detection and identification of GSR by energy-dispersive scanning electron microanalysis (SEM/EDX) is carried out in a 2 years term. The latest test was performed in 2005/2006 and was denoted as GSR2005. Seventy-five laboratories from 28 countries participated in this proficiency test and submitted in total 83 independent data-sets. The participating laboratories were requested to determine the total number of PbSbBa containing particles on a synthetic test sample following their own laboratory specific methods of automated GSR particle search and detection by SEM/EDX. Furthermore size and position of the detected particles had to be reported by the laboratories and were evaluated statistically. The results were compiled by means of z-scores according to the IUPAC and EURACHEM guidelines-assessing individual laboratory achievements (inter-laboratory) as well as intra-laboratory performance-and were compared to the results of the previous proficiency test run GSR2003 (1). The comparison shows that there is a noticeable improvement in the method's detection capability.     

Book reviews

William H. Schauer, The Politics of Space: A Comparison of the Soviet and American Space Programs. New York and London: Holmes & Meier, 1976. vii+317 pp. $24.95.

Maureen Perrie, The Agrarian Policy of the Russian Socialist‐Revolutionary Party: From Its Origins Through the Revolution of 1905–1907. London: CUP, 1976. xii+216 pp. £6.75.

Peter Christian Ludz, Ideologiebegriff und marxistische Theorie: Ansätze zu einer immanenten Kritik. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1976. xviii+337 pp.

George R. Feiwel, Growth and Reforms in Centrally Planned Economies: The Lessons of the Bulgarian Experience. New York: Praeger, 1977. xxix+345 pp. £18.50.

Edy Kaufman, The Superpowers and Their Spheres of Influence: The United States and the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe and Latin America. London: Croom Helm, 1976. 208 pp. £7.95.

Jane Shapiro and Peter J. Potichnyj (eds.), Change and Adaptation in Soviet and East European Politics. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1976. 236 pp. $18.50. £12.05.

Jane P. Shapiro and Lenard J. Cohen (eds.), Communist Systems in Comparative Perspective. New York: Anchor Books, 1974. xv+530 pp. $4.95.

Alec Nove, The Soviet Economic System. London: Allen & Unwin, 1977. 399 pp. £10.50, or £4.95 (paperback).

Joseph A. Mikus, Slovakia and the Slovaks. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1977. xiv+224 pp. $14.00 or $8.00 (paperback).

Yeshayahu Jelinek, The Parish Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party 1939–1945. East European Monographs No. XIV. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. viii+206 pp. $18.75.

William C. Wallace, Czechoslovakia. London: Ernest Benn, 1977. xiv+374 pp. £9.50.

Josef Korbel, Twentieth Century Czechoslovakia. New York: Columbia UP, 1977. xii+346 pp. $18.70.

Vinod Mehta, Soviet Economic Policy: Income Differentials in the USSR. New Delhi: Radiant Publishers, 1977. viii+134 pp. Rs. 45.     

On the efficiency of equilibria in a legislative bargaining model with particularistic and collective goods

Voter initiatives are important for policy making in many countries. While much research shows that the initiative process affects policy choices, almost no evidence explains how the initiative process affects policy. Initiatives might change policy directly through voters approving laws that override the legislature; or the initiative process may change policy indirectly by providing a threat that induces the legislature to change policy. This article develops an empirical strategy to measure the direct and indirect effects of the initiative based on the idea that direct effects can be inferred from states that actually pass initiatives while indirect effects can be inferred from states where the initiative is available but not used. Evidence from 50 states on nine separate issues suggests that both direct and indirect effects are important, but the direct effect is several times larger than the threat effect.