Social and economic implications of family connections to prisoners

Research about incarceration has moved beyond studies of the individual prisoner to examine how incarceration impacts prisoners' families and neighborhoods. Much of the family-centered work highlights the potential benefits for the prisoner of maintaining ties to family during the incarceration period, and particularly after release. Less thoroughly considered is the potential benefits and costs to families of maintaining a relationship with an incarcerated individual. This article addresses this topic with a qualitative study of prisoners' families, as well as a review of census data in one high incarceration neighborhood. Research findings suggested that there were significant costs, both social and economic, to a prisoner's family if they desired to maintain the most basic level of connection with him. The study further suggested that families and prisoners were put in a position requiring constant negotiation of competing interests.     

Varieties of corporate social responsibility (CSR): CSR meets the “Nordic Model”

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly being promoted as an instrument for global governance to address the regulatory vacuum surrounding transnational business activities and as a method for encouraging business to contribute to sustainable development at the national level. Originally a business-driven, American concept, CSR has now been adopted and promoted by a wide range of governments and multilateral institutions. However, the socio-political model underlying CSR is far from neutral and may conflict with existing models in the societies in which it is introduced. In this article a typology of possible governmental interpretations of CSR is developed, and how CSR is transformed and adapted in its meeting with Nordic governments in order to fit the “Nordic Model” of state-market-society relations is analyzed. The analysis suggests that pre-existing political-economic institutions and cultural norms deeply affect the interpretation of CSR, and that this, when combined with ongoing national political processes, leads to a highly transformed concept of CSR.     

Peter Ebsen, Emissionshandel in Deutschland

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Zum Erfordernis eines Teilurteils trotz "Außerstreitstellung" des Mietzinsrückstandes

Bei Verbindung von Mietzins- und R?umungsbegehren ist ein Teilurteil auch dann zwingend zu erlassen, wenn zwar die H?he des qualifizierten Mietzinsrückstandes im darauf gestützten R?umungsprozess nicht strittig ist, aber der Mieter behauptet, er sei nach § 1096 ABGB von der Mietzinszahlung ganz oder teilweise befreit; dies gilt auch bei Au?erstreitstellung des Rückstandes der H?he nach. Das Teilurteil geht bei der Kombination von Mietzinsund R?umungsklage dem Rückstandsbeschluss zwingend vor.     

Les fonds renouvelables comme outils de gestion dans le secteur public

Sommaire: : Les méthodes de gestion du secteur privé peuvent-elles s'appliquer au secteur public? Certainement pas intégralement, un obstacle majeur tient au systéme budgétaire des gouvernements. Ce systéme en effet ne permet pas à un administrateur de relier les coûts d'une activitéà une forme quelconque de revenus qui y serait associée et de régulariser les dépenses en conséquence. La formule du Fonds renouvelable fait exception. Tout en demeurant intéagré au cadre financier gouvernemental le Fonds renouvelable finance certaines activités à même les revenus qu'elles générent plutôt que par les sources fiscales usuelles. La formule est séduisante mais ne peut s'appliquer avec profit qu'á certaines conditions. Une grille d'analyse en douze points permet de juger de 1'opportunité d'implanter un Fonds renouvelable. Abstract: Can the management methods of the private sector be applied to the public sector? Certainly not as a whole, because a major obstacle is created by the budgetary system of governments. Indeed, this system prevents an administrator from linking the costs of an activity to some form of revenues which would be related to it and from controlling expenses accordingly. The renewable fund formula is an exception. While remaining part of die governmental budgetary framework, the renewable funds finance some activities from the very revenues they generate rather than through the usual fiscal sources. The formula is attractive but can only be applied sucessfully on certain conditions. A twelve-point analysis grid shows whether it is appropriate to set up a renewable fund. Combien de fois a-t-on entendu des cadres du secteur privé reprocher à leurs collégues du secteur public leur manque de rigueur financeére? Bien à l'abri dans leur sécurité d'emploi, coupés des dures réalités du marché, ceux-ci n'auraient qu'un objectif: dépenser la totalité de leur budget avant la fin de l'exercice ou, mieux encore, dépasser le budget autorisé pour en justifier la croissance l'année suivante.     

Stammwähler und die opportunistische Wahl parteipolitischer Programme

This article explains political radicalism by the number of voters who are biased towards a party. With little voters biased in favor of a party, this party has to rely more heavily on its programmatic distance to other parties. Because large parties – i.e.: parties with a high number of biased voters – gain votes when they move to the center of the political spectrum, parties with a lower number of voters that are biased in their favor are forced to the edges of the policy space. We draw on a computational model of political competition between four parties in a two‐dimensional policy space to investigate this relationship. We use panel corrected OLS estimates to analyze the data generated by the computer simulation. Our results substantiate the hypothesis of a negative relationship between the number of biased voters and the inclination of a party to adopt a more extreme policy stance.     

Eating Problems and the Self-Concept: Results Based on a Representative Sample of Norwegian Adolescent Girls

The joint role of self-esteem and unstable self-perceptions for eating problems was investigated in a representative Norwegian population sample of girls in 3 age groups (N = 5287; aged 12–19 years). Three scales from the 12-item Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-12) measured eating problems: Restriction, Bulimia-food preoccupation, and Diet. Girls low on all EAT scales were most often characterized by high self-esteem combined with stable self-perceptions, whereas girls high on all EAT-scales were characterized by having low self-esteem and unstable self-perceptions. Bulimic tendencies and dieting were more common in older groups, whereas high scores on all EAT-scales simultaneously were equally common in all ages. The findings gave initial support to the continuity hypothesis in indicating that the age trends for eating problems, except for restrictive tendencies, followed those of eating disorders and in that the risk factors found for eating problems parallel those reported for eating disorders.