The Language of Race

The 1991 Census form for households in Great Britain included, for the first time, a question about ethnic group. The question had nine boxes, eight for named ethnic groups and one for 'any other'. One box had to be ticked for each member of the household. Brian Klug discusses his own reaction to the (so-called) ethnic question, and explains why, as a Jew of European extraction, he did not tick the box marked White. He examines several issues raised by the ethnic question, including the following: why this question is different from other questions on the form; the definition and use of the words 'racial' and 'ethnic'; the vocabulary of colour ('black', 'white' etc.) in the language of race; the idea that 'white' is an ethnic category; the claim that the ethnic question is an instrument for combatting racism; one proposal for improving the question by removing the 'racial' components in the categories.     

Objectivity versus outrage

He wrote a background paper for the Committee on Health Care for Homeless Persons, “The Dynamics of Homelessness.” He has studied both the needs of homeless persons and the development of shelters and services for the homeless; he codirected a training tape for service providers; and he is coauthoring a book for shelter staff. He is author of Organization in a Changing Environment.     

The Classical Trinity and Kant's Aesthetic Formalism

Abstract

I identify two mutually exclusive notions of formalism in Kant's Critique of Aesthetic Judgement: a thin concept of aesthetic formalism and a thick concept of aesthetic formalism. Arguably there is textual support for both concepts in Kant's third critique. I offer interpretations of three key elements in the Critique of Aesthetic Judgement which support a thick formalism. The three key elements are: Harmony of the Faculties, Aesthetic Ideas and Sensus Communis. I interpret these concepts in relation to the conditions for theoretical Reason, the conditions for moral motivation and the conditions for intersubjectivity, respectively. I conclude that there is no support for a thin concept of aesthetic formalism when the key elements of Kant's Critique of Aesthetic Judgement are understood in the context of his broader critical aims.     

Assessing JPAM after 20 Years

JPAM aims to be the principal research journal for public policy scholars. A citation analysis of JPAM and competitor journals for the period 1986–1995 shows that JPAM's most frequently cited articles are cited more often than those of other broad policy journals, about as often as those in journals on specific policy areas, except for health policy, and less often than principally methodological journals. JPAM does meet its goal of serving as an outlet primarily for public policy scholars and it covers a wide range of policy topics. A survey of subscribers shows correspondingly broad interests and that members rated the journal among their most valued. However, few articles are frequently cited, very few of the citations appear in major journals, and the range of disciplines represented is narrow. Some suggestions are offered for strengthening the journal. © 2002 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Expenditures and votes: In search of downward-sloping curves in the United States and Great Britain

An earlier paper showed a negative relation between increases and accelerations in F, the ratio of federal expenditures to GNP and E, the reelection or defeat of the incumbent party in the White House over the last 100 years. This paper argues that there also exists a negative relation between V, the percentage of the popular vote cast for the incumbents, and F. This function is displaced by wars and depressions and can drift over time, making it difficult to discover negative curves in the data. Dividing British and US data for the last 50 years into party periods yields clearly discernable negative functions for F and V for the incumbents.     

National memory: The duty to remember,the need to forget

Ronald Koven has served as a correspondent in France for twenty-four of the past thirty-two years, successively as the de Gaulle watcher of the International Herald Tribuneand as the Paris correspondent of the Washington Post(for which he was the diplomatic editor and the foreign editor) and the Boston Globe.He concentrates on surveying and coordinating aid for independent news media in Eastern Europe.     

Using Carrots and Sticks to Improve American Colleges

An unintended consequence of making access to college an entitlement readily available to all high school graduates is that serious study in high school has become optional—even for those intending to apply for college admission. Without an incentive to study diligently, many students are disengaged in high school and, as a result, underprepared for college. Some freshmen arrive at college thinking that having fun is the main reason they are at college and that the pursuit of knowledge should be available for when they have nothing better to do. Before World War II academically excellent students from families unable to finance college for them could apply for competitive scholarships. Scholarships mutated into “financial aid” when the GI Bill of Rights financed college for discharged veterans of World War II. Pell grants should continue to be available to youngsters who want to go to college even if they are mediocre students—provided they can persuade a college to admit them. Mediocre students are being given a chance to become “late bloomers.” Loans, however, are expected to be repaid, and mediocre high school students with bad credit ratings are likely to default on their loans, causing serious financial problems for themselves and financial complications for the American economy. Targeting loans to students with good prospects for repaying them is more prudent financially and makes more sense educationally.     

Public affairs as reality construction: an established paradigm with new implications

• This article was initially a reaction to the special issues of the Journal of Public Affairs on the relative lack of theoretical foundations for the research and practice of public affairs (Vol. 1 no. 4, Vol. 2 no. 1, 2002).
• The social‐scientific approach that is known under the name constructionism has interesting implications for the study and the practice of this field. The authors explore some of its central concepts and implications such as framing, priming, typification, claims making, symbolic power, background, sense making and narrative construction. They test some of these concepts for their applicability and usefulness for research, theory building and practice in the field of public affairs.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From policy lessons to policy actions: motivation to take evaluation seriously

The purpose of this article is to analyse the institutional aspects of creating effective systems for monitoring and evaluations (M&E) in government‐led rural development efforts in developing countries. We argue that the ultimate challenge of creating effective M&E systems for public policy is not only related to the supply of information and the delivery of new knowledge to policy makers, but more importantly to their demand for lessons learnt about the effects of earlier policies. The challenge, then, is for governments to construct institutional arrangements that support the transformation of policy lessons into policy actions. This article shows that the likelihood of this transformation is closely related to the capacity of institutions to deliver mechanisms for downward accountability and processes for organisational learning. We add to earlier work in this area by considering the conditions under which such a transformation process is more or less likely, given the severe power and information asymmetries that characterise the institutional context of many developing countries' national governments. We use the tools of institutional analysis to examine the incentive structures of the actors involved in two concrete field settings, and assess to what extent these actors are likely to take evaluations seriously. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does social media matter in developing democracies? Examining its impact on citizen political participation and expression in Uganda

This study examines the impact of citizens' use of social media for political participation and expression in developing democracies of Africa in particular Uganda. Findings from studied N = 2,400 respondents, evidenced social media does matter in the developing democracy of Uganda as the second most preferred form of media (.95 ± 2.37). Findings also showed the use of social media for political participation in persuading others to vote for a given candidate or party was positively correlated r = .043*(p value at .05), n = 2,400, and p = .035 with R² = .002. Future studies should examine the use of social media platforms for policy implementation, civic engagement, and inclusiveness.     

Déjà vu all over again?

He has recently conducted research for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment’s project, Communication Systems for an Information Age, and for the Canadian Ministry of Communication. His latest books are The Pay-Per Societyand, with Janet Wasko, The Political Economy of Information.     

Longevity Ancient and Modern

The article examines illustrations from ancient and modern societies to consider the connections between power, social elites and knowledge of techniques to promote longevity. In pre-modern societies, knowledge of practices and substances to promote longevity were cultivated by elites such as the Chinese imperial court. In modern societies, new technologies—cryonics, cloning, stem-cell applications and nanotechnology—will offer exclusive and expensive methods for prolonging life for the rich. However one important difference between the ancient and modern world is that with secularization longevity is no longer connected with a moral life; longevity is not a reward for sanctity. We have democratized the ambition for long life but not necessarily its realization. The modern quest for longevity appears to be connected with the desire of Baby Boomer generations to hold on to their assets, but while modern medicine may help us to survive forever, it cannot tell us how to live forever.

The Political Economy of Public Reform Adoption: Patterns in Twenty Indonesian Districts

ABSTRACT

New Public Management (NPM) reforms are often perceived as technical, with little attention to political and institutional factors. Comparing choices in 20 Indonesian districts, we explore which of four political economic factors influence uptake of NPM-based service delivery reforms. We find that democratic political competition laid the groundwork for political alliances, patterns of patronage, and party provision of benefits that condition reform choices. State-led policy entrepreneurship was evident from education agency technocrats. Public sector modernization may have increased orientation towards performance, with education reforms adopted by districts already achieving relatively good sectoral results. Health reforms were more common in districts providing greater opportunities for citizen participation. The complex interactions among the factors argue for working within these realities, rather than seeing them as impediments to be avoided in a drive for reforms. Education technocrats’ dominance, bolstered by central policy priorities, argues for more nuanced mechanisms for meeting national goals to avoid crowding out responsiveness to local citizens.     

Developing the public affairs body of knowledge

• This paper examines the need for developing a public affairs body of knowledge (BOK). It examines the rationale for having a BOK within a larger context of professionalism in the field, identifies parallel developments in affiliated fields that may provide models for public affairs, and offers alternatives for stakeholders of the field to pursue this objective.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

China's reform,internal trade and marketing

Abstract

This article analyses Macau's casinos as an example for accumulation by dispossession, in which they serve to transfer wealth from Mainland China to Macau and the casinos' foreign investors. They also represent a model for economic development and this model has migrated to Singapore, where it also operates as a form of accumulation by dispossession. By requiring citizens to pay an entrance fee, Singapore's casinos explicitly appropriate other people's money. The efficacy for the use of casinos as economic development is interrogated here because Macau's casino experience has emerged as a model for economic development in Asia beyond simply Singapore.     

Federalism and Education Planning in the Federal Republic of Germany

In 1969 demands for greater rationality in education planninggave rise to new institutionalized forms of cooperation betweenthe federation and the Länder. Conflicts between the federaland Land governments, partisan conflicts, and financial conflictsoverlapped this cooperation. Despite the fact that the formalcapacity for dealing with conflicts had many shortcomings, ajoint general plan for education was issued in 1973 as a resultof favorable economic and political conditions. However, in1978 the federal government failed in its attempt to utilizethe dissatisfaction with the existing system of cooperationto extend its responsibilities for education. The deteriorationin economic and political conditions led to an end of effortsto formulate a general plan for education in 1982 and reducedthe scale of joint activities. Forms of educational cooperationbetween the federation and the Länder still exist, butthey no longer fulfill their original purpose. The centralizationof decisionmaking, which was originally expected, never cameinto being.     

Revisiting Adjusted ADA Scores for the U.S. Congress, 1947-2007

Philip Habel Department of Political Science, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Mailcode 4501, Carbondale, IL 62901 This paper replicates and extends Groseclose, Levitt, and Snyder,"Comparing Interest Group Scores Across Time and Chambers: AdjustedADA Scores for the U.S. Congress," which appeared in the AmericanPolitical Science Review (1999/93:33–50). We replicatethe most recent unpublished extension by Dr. Groseclose andresearch assistants for years 1947–1999, and then we extendthe analysis to include years 2000 through 2007. We make availableinflation-adjusted ADA scores from 1947 through 2007, allowingscholars to incorporate the most recent interest group scoresinto their analyses. Author's Note: Authors are listed alphabetically. The authorswish to thank Tim Groseclose for making available both the nominalADA scores from 1947 to 1999 and the Matlab program files usedin this analysis. SA gratefully acknowledges the support ofthe Hoover Institution during her time there as the 2006–07W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellowand the Robert Eckles Swain National Fellow. PH wishes to thankboth the Dirksen Congressional Center and the National ScienceFoundation, doctoral dissertation improvement division grant493469, for their generous support. He also wishes to acknowledgethe valuable research assistance of James Lewis, Joshua Mitchell,and Matt Bergbower. Special thanks to J. Tobin Grant, ScottMcClurg, and Wendy Tam Cho for their helpful feedback and assistance.All errors are the responsibility of the authors. Replicationmaterials and programs are available on the Political AnalysisWeb site.     

Three Sorries and You’re In? Does the Prime Minister’s Statement in the Australian Federal Parliament Presage Federal Constitutional Recognition and Reparations?

Then newly elected Labor Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, made a historic statement of “Sorry” for past injustices to Australian Indigenous peoples at the opening of the 2008 federal parliament. In the long-standing absence of a constitutional ‘foundational principle’ to shape positive federal initiatives in this context, there has been speculation that the emphatic Sorry Statement may presage formal constitutional recognition. The debate is long overdue in a nation that only overturned the legal fiction of terra nullius and recognised native title to lan with the High Court’s decision in Mabo in 1992. This article explores the implications of the Sorry Statement in the context of reparations for the generations removed from their families under assimilation policies (known since the Bringing Them Home Inquiry as the Stolen Generations). We draw out the utility of recent human rights statutes—such as the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT)—as a mechanism for facilitating justice, including compensation for past wrongs. Our primary concern here is whether existing legal processes in Australia hold further capacity to provide reparation for Australian Indigenous peoples or whether their potential in that regard is already exhausted. We compare common law and statutory developments in other international jurisdictions, such as Canada, as an indication of what can be achieved by the law to facilitate better legal, economic and social outcomes for Indigenous peoples. The year 2008 also saw Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper express his apology to residential school victims in the Canadian Parliament, providing thematic and symbolic echoes across these two former colonies, which, despite remaining under the British monarchy, both forge their own path into the future, while confronting their own unique colonial past. We suggest that the momentum provided by the recent public apology and statement of “Sorry” by the newly elected Australian Prime Minister must not be lost. This symbolic utterance as a first act of the 2008 parliamentary year stood in stark contrast to the long-standing recalcitrance of the former Prime Minister John Howard on the matter of a formal apology. Rather than a return to a law enforcement-inspired “three strikes and you’re out” approach, Australia stands poised for an overdue constitutional and human rights-inspired “three ‘sorries’ and you’re in”.     

Bringing Home the Bacon or Not? Globalization and Government Respect for Economic and Social Rights

The impact of globalization on human rights has generated substantial debate. On the one hand, those making liberal, free-market arguments assert that globalization has a positive impact on developing countries through the increased generation of wealth (e.g., Garrett 1998; Richards et al. in International Studies Quarterly 45:219–239, 2001; Rodrik in Challenge 41:81–94, 1997). On the other hand, the critical perspective claims that globalization negatively impacts respect for human rights because trading arrangements, while open, are detrimentally uneven (e.g., Carleton 1989; Haggard and Maxfield 1996; Stiglitz and Charlton 2005). However, few have looked at the relationship between globalization and respect for economic and social rights. In order to test this relationship, I examine non-OECD countries utilizing two-stage regression analysis to control for investment-selection factors. I find mixed results for the hypothesis that globalization negatively affects respect for economic and social rights. Consistent with Richards et al. (International Studies Quarterly 45:219–239, 2001), I conclude by arguing for the need to disaggregate globalization in order to determine its true effects.