Taking adoption seriously

He is the former Assistant Executive Director of both the Child Welfare League of America and the Day Care and Child Development Council of America. He has published widely on the issue of adoption. Among other works, he served as the chief editor of the Adoption Fact Bookand co-authored the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Adoption.     

Redefining goals and images

He directs longitudinal studies designed to test general models of deviant adaptations to stress. A past editor of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior,his recent publications include “Self-Rejection and the Explanation of Deviance,” “Escalation of Marijuana Use,” and “The Sociological Study of AIDS”; as well as Social Psychology of Self-Referent Behavior, Patterns of Juvenile Delinquency,and Psychosocial Stress.     

Books in review

A former editor of theAmerican Historical Review, he has written extensively on the history of modern Great Britain and more recently has published essays on the nature of the contemporary urban university.     

The 2001 “spy” plane incident revisited: the Chinese perspective

The 2001 “spy” plane incident was probably the most serious military incident in Sino-American relations since the 1970s, and it generated a crisis in the already brittle relationship since the new Bush administration came into office. This article attempts to revisit this incident from the Chinese perspective and provides some insight into the understanding of the Chinese foreign policy behavior and position on Sino-American relations. It presents the respective arguments concerning the responsibilities of the incident, explores the Chinese historical memory of US hegemonic behavior, and examines the Chinese perspective and attitude towards the incident and their causes through a study of the reactions of the Chinese government and the Chinese people to the incident.¹ He is the founding editor of theHong Kong Journal of Social Sciences and theJournal of Comparative Asian Development. He is also Guest Lecturer at the School of Government, Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, China. The author wishes to thank anonymous reveiwers for their helpful comments made on earlier drafts of this paper.     

"There Was No Plan": An Interview with Rajiv Chandrasekaran

The George W. Bush administration’s doctrines of preemption and democratization through military action have been much debated. Discussants have included former members of the military, students of international relations and diplomacy, philosophers, and legal theorists, to name a few. Not surprisingly, the focus of these expostulations has been on the utility of hard and soft power, the international ripple effects of military action and state toppling, and the legal and moral propriety of preemption. For the most part, public administrators have little participated in these debates. This is regrettable, for the central question nestled within any debate over public policy is the question of plausibility. Can this policy be executed successfully? The governance challenges in postconflict states are profound. Who should rule? How should the state be reconstructed? What administrative structures should be erected? Who should staff government offices and bureaucracies, and what principles should guide them? If preemption and democratization are to succeed, then these questions must be answered. Rajiv Chandrasekaran is an assistant managing editor of the Washington Post. His book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone (Alfred A. Knopf, 2006) is an examination of the Coalition Provisional Authority that governed Iraq from April 2003 through June 2004. Mr. Chandrasekaran has served as the journalist in residence for the International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies and as a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C. In March 2007, Mr. Chandrasekaran was interviewed by Kevin Kosar on behalf of the Public Administration Review.     

The World Bank's perspective on how to improve administration

The editor assesses the World Bank's World Development Report 1983 in which the World Bank reviews how to improve administration and management. In particular he questions the assumptions underlying the case made in the report for the market as a versatile instrument of administration.     

Editorial Report on Public Administration Review, 2006–2011: A Global Graduate Seminar,a Privilege,and a Challenge

In this final wrap‐up, PAR’s editor in chief, Richard Stillman, and managing editor, Jos C. N. Raadschelders, summarize the last six years of the journal’s objectives, contents, and accomplishments. The authors broadly discuss their editorial activities, past and present, and candidly and succinctly outline the ongoing challenges facing PAR in the future as the leading global journal for interdisciplinary public administration.     

From Uniformity to Diversity? Reinventing Public Sector Industrial Relations in New Zealand

Since 1988 industrial relations in New Zealand's public sector have changed significantly. This paper discusses the changing roles of the State Services Commission and chief executives in bargaining with public sector employees, and how these changing roles have affected union representation and wage rates. While the Employment Contracts Act, 1991 resulted in changes to bargaining, generally its effect was minimal in the public sector with respect to bargaining outcomes. However, one of the more significant changes as a result of the Employment Contracts Act has been a move to direct employer — employee negotiations. Bargaining in New Zealand's public sector has moved, in the last nine years, from uniformity to diversity, but to what extent?     

Review essay

Lauren Weiner has written on Latin American affairs for the American Spectator,the Washington Times,and many other publications.     

Sociobiology: Science or ideology?

Arthur Fisher is science editor of Popular Science Magazine.He is a director of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.     

Arthur O. Lovejoy andThe Revolt against Dualism

He is the author of Abortion and the Private Practice of Medicine(1986) and editor of The Feeling Intellect: Selected Writings of Philip Rieff(1990). He also edited (with Alan Woolfolk) a volume of Thomas G. Masaryk’s major writings entitled Constructive Sociological Theory(1994), published by Transaction. He is the current editor of The American Sociologist.     

The Minos and the Socratic Examination of Law

The Minos is said to initiate the natural law tradition because it claims that an unjust law is not truly a law. But the dialogue also shows that reason cannot recognize that a given statute, as such, is a law. Along with this criticism of law, the Minos shows why the Socratic inquiry into law must consider whether divine law is based on a kind of knowledge through which law can be recognized as authoritative. Thanks to the Minos, we see that Plato's Laws begins by examining the kind of knowledge that underlies divine law and that throughout the dialogue the Athenian Stranger is testing whether human reason can know and establish divine law. In the end, the Minos and Laws establish a once influential but now neglected Socratic tradition of inquiry into law.     

The failure of federal job training

James Bovard is a journalist who writes frequently for publications, including the Wall Street Journaland the New York Times,on job training, foreign aid, farm policy, and other issues. He is affiliated with the Cato Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C.     

Why PAR Matters: Reflections after Seven Decades and Beyond

In this last issue under his supervision, PAR’s editor in chief reflects on the value and worth of the journal over the last seven decades and the competitive challenges that PAR faces today, and presents a modest blueprint for strengthening PAR in the future.     

Veblen’s Imperial Germany revisited

He is editor of Intereconomics,a journal issued in English, and author of major policy statements on economic and social issues.     

After the cold war

He is co-editor (with Kenneth W. Thompson) of Truth and Tragedy: A Festschrift for Hans J. Morgenthau,and editor of The Political Morality of the IMF.He is currently writing a book on Understanding Ethics.     

Contested community

He also taught at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Chicago, and Maryland. Among his leading works are Collective Actionand Morality within the Limits of Reason.He was for many years the editor of the journal Ethics.     

Term-limitation express

He is co-author of The American Presidency,and editor of The Politics of Interests.He has written extensively on term limits and rotation in office and related topics and commentaries.     

The future of capitalism II

Presently editor of Studies in Comparative International Development,he is the author of many works, including the recent The Politics of Petroleum in Ecuador;and United States Policy in Latin America.     

The good society redux

He is coeditor (with Kenneth W. Thompson) of Truth and Tragedy: A Festschrift for Hans J. Morgenthau,and editor of The Political Morality of the IMF.He is currently writing a book on U.S. foreign policy.