The Market for Scientific Crime Prevention: A Comparative Study of Canada and Venezuela

Crime prevention is an activity that, sooner or later, requires the concourse of science. But the dictates of science may not mesh well with the social, institutional and political considerations that are persistent and powerful determinants of collective action. To the extent that they are ignored, crime prevention is less scientific and more pragmatic. Using a marketing metaphor, this paper examines selected aspects of the supply of and demand for scientific crime prevention in Canada and Venezuela from 1949 to the present. In both countries, academic entrepreneurs are revealed to be a necessary factor in the sale of crime prevention to government. On the demand side, governments adopt and adapt crime prevention policies in relation to their broader perspective on social problems and social change. However, rising crime rates and climates of urgency reduce the attractiveness of crime prevention. Scientific crime prevention is easier to sell when crime rates are stable or declining.     

Canada and the Honduran Coup

The purpose of this article is to expose the part played by Canadian imperialism in Honduras before and after the military overthrow of democratically elected Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, on 28 June 2009. It draws attention to the neglected role of the Canadian state's efforts to protect the interests of Canadian capital in Honduras and Latin America more generally through the constant undermining of Zelaya's attempts to return to his legitimate office, and in the ultimate consolidation of the coup under Porfirio ‘Pepe’ Lobo in early 2010. The article simultaneously develops a critique of what has become the standard account of the Honduran coup of 2009. We show how Zelaya was neither a puppet of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, nor an autocrat seeking to entrench his power indefinitely through illegal constitutional reform when he was violently tossed out of government.     

Federalism, Political Structure, and Public Policy in the United States and Canada

Two of the three large countries on the North American continent—the United States and Canada—share a number of similarities that often make it difficult for the untrained observer to differentiate between the two nations. On the surface, the two are structured similarly as federal systems that, by definition, exhibit shared power between the national government and provincial or state political entities.Although there are other important social and economic characteristics of the two countries that help explain differences in policy processes and outcomes, it is the contention of this article that one gets the clearest sense of what Elazar has called thinking federal by utilizing an analytical approach that joins questions related to federalism with some conceptual frameworks of the public policy field. Two frameworks undergird the argument in this article—the Lowi typology of different types of policies and Deil Wright's typology of different models that describe the American inter-governmental system.In both countries, policies must be sensitive to the greater interdependencies between units of government as well as to linkages between policy areas. The mechanisms or instrumentalities for dealing with policy issues are intrinsically complex. It is also clear that the intergovernmental networks that exist in both the U.S. and Canada are composed of an array of actors. The differing political structures of the systems do impact the types of intergovernmental policies that have emerged in the two countries. The executive dominance so imbedded in Canadian governments has contributed to their ability to adopt and implement certain controversial redistributive policies, such as a national health insurance program. By contrast, the fragmentation of the U.S. system makes redistributive policies more difficult.     

Sex and the genuine marriage: consummation and conjugality in Canadian citizenship

The idea of consummation as definitive of a marriage seems antiquated today. Yet, consummation operates as a central criterion in determinations of a ‘genuine marriage’ in Canadian immigration law. Drawing on the marriage and migration literature, theorizations of sexual citizenship, and critical multiculturalism, we explore recent judicial considerations of consummation in Canadian family sponsorship adjudications. We searched the CanLII database (a Canadian database of legislation and judicial records) for the keywords ‘non-consummation’ and ‘genuine marriage’ and identified 68 cases. Of these cases, three primary themes emerged: the use of consummation as a ‘technology of love’ – a requirement for assessing the authenticity of the spousal relationship and hence the worthiness of sponsorship; the discursive construction of sexual and gendered norms in expectations around marital intimacy, and the articulation of liberal tolerance and the cultural other in the assessments of genuine marriages among primarily racialized Canadians or permanent residents and their foreign spouses. We challenge these discursive narratives and conclude by arguing that instead of consummation as the basis for genuine marriage, the Law Commission of Canada’s ‘close personal relationship’ model is a better way to assess the ‘genuineness’ of relationships for determining Canadian citizenship.     

中加环境治理协调模式比较研究

加拿大在环境治理中面对日益突出的协调问题,发展出跨界合作模式,强调环境治理主体间的平等协商,并在众多环境领域创设出许多绩效显著的典型治理机制,解决了制度供给问题。而我国传统的行政调控模式,强调上下级间的权威性调解和控制,并弱化政府之外的利益相关者和公众参与,虽然具有高效权威的优点,但在实践中并不能有效化解环境治理主体间的恶性博弈,不断酿成公地悲剧事件。加拿大模式具有奥斯特罗姆提出的多中心自主治理理论特征,为我国环境治理提供了新的思路。虽然我国借鉴加拿大模式时在制度供给上受到了体制制约,但仍有制度创设空间。     

Advancing Knowledge through Grassroots Experiments: Connecting Culture and Sustainability

Since 2006, hundreds of communities in Canada have produced Integrated Community Sustainability Plans, based on a four-pillar model of sustainability and developed in consultation with residents and stakeholders. These community-based experiments have developed models, knowledge, and insights about the place of culture in local sustainability. Both conceptual thinking and planning practices regarding the role of culture in sustainable communities were at an embryonic stage when these initiatives took place. The discussions, plans, and implementation processes have advanced both theory and “leading edge” practices with regard to culture and community sustainability, illustrating the importance of a robust relationship between research and practice.     

Federal Dynamics of Changing Governance Arrangements in Education: A Comparative Perspective on Australia,Canada and Germany

Abstract

Education policy is a highly interesting field from the point of view of governance, given the substantial changes that have been made throughout the world to the governance of such policy over the last 30 years or so. Western governments in particular have made significant changes in the governance arrangements of their education policy in order to achieve two fundamental goals: increased efficiency and greater accountability. In this process, the role of governments has changed but not diminished. This paper explores such developments by comparing the trajectories of governance reforms in three federal countries (Australia, Canada and Germany). What emerges is that the role of governments is key to all governance mixes modelled by the reform processes in the three analysed countries, and that there is greater “national” coordination than before, but also significant differences in the strategies adopted and in the content of reform, due to the differing nature of such countries’ federal dynamics.     

加拿大竞争局的执法方法简介及评价

加拿大竞争局在执行竞争法的过程中,确立了以最大限度地遵守竞争法为目标定位的方法体系, 包括通过教育遵守竞争法的措施、促进遵守竞争法的措施、对不遵守竞争法的应对措施三个方面 的内容。这一执法体系,强调对不正当竞争行为和限制竞争行为的预防和指导,强调和经营者、 政府部门的合作,注重非对抗性程序的应用,提倡高效、及时的解决竞争问题,符合市场经济条件 下效益优先的原则,很好地适应了全球化背景下加拿大解决竞争问题的需要,对我国的竞争执法 工作有相当的借鉴意义。     

Assessing the psychological and mechanical impact of electoral rules: A quasi-experiment

The paper assesses the influence of electoral rules on vote choice and election outcomes using a quasi-experiment conducted during a recent Canadian provincial election. Respondents were invited to vote under three voting systems (first past the post, alternative voting and proportional representation) and to answer a short questionnaire. We examine how the distribution of votes and seats is affected, and we ascertain how much of the total difference is due to psychological and mechanical effects. We find that a PR system would have increased legislative fractionalization by the equivalent of one effective party and that the mechanical effect is much more important than the psychological effect. As for AV, its mechanical and psychological effects act in opposite directions.