Response to Peter Shergold

Andrew Podger wrote an article in the June 2007 AJPA entitled ‘What Really Happens: Department Secretary Appointments, Contracts and Performance Pay in the Australian Public Service’. Dr Peter Shergold replied to his criticisms in the September issue of AJPA. This short response from Podger is the final rejoinder. In a second paper following this rejoinder the present Australian Public Service Commissioner comments on public service independence today.     

The Lottery and Education: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul?

Despite the promises of some states to use lottery revenues to fund education, they may be guilty of robbing Peter to pay Paul. This study examines the question of revenue fungibility in the case of state lotteries. Using time-series analysis, the research suggests that education is not a big winner in state lotteries. Two different patterns of fungibility emerge from the analysis that are suggestive of underlying budgetary politics.     

Peter Berger’s Contribution to the Pluralism of Mediating Structures

This article examines the arguments of Peter Berger’s and Richard Neuhaus’s To Empower People for public policies to promote mediating structures. In so doing, it discusses the bearing of those arguments on our understanding of sociality, civility, and spontaneous order.     

上海市劳动模范潘鼎教授

潘鼎，东华大学材料学院教授，长期从事化学纤维成形、高性能纤维及其复合材料的理论及应用开发研究工作。他始终坚持在科研第一线，脚踏实地，不断开拓，勇于创新，在科研成果方面取得了累累硕果。他先后主持了十余项国家及部级科研工作任务，获得各类奖项近十项，     

Tear Your Mask, and Have it Too: A Reply to Peter Baehr

Peter Baehr highly praises Berger’s contribution to sociology, and yet sharply criticises his claim that unmasking or debunking is he signature method of sociology. Baehr hold such method of enquiry to be dangerously corrosive and in tension with the humanist intentions of Berger. I largely agree with this critique, but I have doubts that a viable alternative could be developed within the framework of the social sciences. Thus, I would suggest that Berger was right in linking unmasking/debunking with the humanist enterprise, despite the negative implications highlighted by Baehr.