EVALUATING DARE: DRUG EDUCATION AND THE MULTIPLE MEANINGS OF SUCCESS*

Background and previous impact evaluations of “DARE” (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) are described along with an assessment of its im- plementation among fifth graders in Kokomo, Indiana. Building upon alter- native efforts, a multifaceted impact/process evaluation framework is developed; it is used to consider the multiple meanings of DARE'S “success” within the dimensions of program efficacy, the impact of micro and macro contexts upon its participants and outcomes, and as a form of symbolic politics. The results tend to support the conclusion that DARE produces anti-drug outcomes; also, the evidence suggests that drug knowledge and locus of control factors are involved in achieving these effects. Micro and macro contextual elements were found to produce important impacts upon the program's dynamics and effectiveness; finally, the data indicate that DARE includes an important symbolic politics dimension and is supported by important symbolic politics dimension and is supported by multiple stakeholders who define its success in terms of its popularity, which has significant utility for their interests.     

网络时代政府形象的维护和修复

政府形象直接反映政府的行政理念和能力，是政府得以正常运行的基本条件。网络时代，政府形象面临更多的挑战，影响政府形象的因素也变得更为复杂。政府及其官员只有增强形象意识，树立公共权力观念，进一步完善蓓息公开制度，建立健全责任机制，增强行政能力，才能避免形象危机事件的发生，最大限度地维护和修复政府良好形象。     

Institutional checks and corruption: The effect of formal agenda access on governance

Legislative checks give whoever wields them influence over policy making. It is argued in this article that this influence implies the ability not only to affect legislative content, but also to direct public resources toward private ends. Rational politicians should use access to checks to make themselves better off – for example, by biasing policy toward private interests or creating opportunities to draw directly from the public till. Disincentives exist only to the extent that those able to observe or block corruption do not themselves benefit from it. Political opponents thus can use checks to stymie each other, but legislative checks controlled by political allies create conditions for collusion and corruption. Testing this claim against data from a sample of 84 countries, the results presented in this article show strong support for the hypothesised relationship between institutional checks and corruption.     

The checks and balances of party federalism: German federal government in a divided legislature

In this study, we assess the potential for policy change of the German government of Helmut Kohl after unification combining party positions with formal bicameral settings in a spatial model of legislative action. We distinguish between two policy areas and two types of legislation, mandatory and non–mandatory legislation imposing either a symmetric or asymmetric power distribution between both German chambers. In order to identify German legislators' party positions in different policy areas, we use data from ECPR Party Manifesto research covering the period from German unification in 1990 to the end of the government of Helmut Kohl in 1998. We find that the federal government of Helmut Kohl had a policy leadership position until April 1991 with no procedural differences, but the gridlock danger for governmental proposals was higher on the societal than the economic dimension. Afterwards, the government's potential for policy change was considerably determined by the type of legislation, independently from the policy dimension. At the end of the Kohl era, the governmental policy leadership position was limited to policies that left even the opposition majority of German states better off. The procedural settings mattered greatly on the economic dimension, and the danger of gridlock on societal policy was smaller only for non–mandatory legislation.     

The checks and balances of party federalism: German federal government in a divided legislature

Abstract In this study, we assess the potential for policy change of the German government of Helmut Kohl after unification combining party positions with formal bicameral settings in a spatial model of legislative action. We distinguish between two policy areas and two types of legislation, mandatory and non–mandatory legislation imposing either a symmetric or asymmetric power distribution between both German chambers. In order to identify German legislators' party positions in different policy areas, we use data from ECPR Party Manifesto research covering the period from German unification in 1990 to the end of the government of Helmut Kohl in 1998. We find that the federal government of Helmut Kohl had a policy leadership position until April 1991 with no procedural differences, but the gridlock danger for governmental proposals was higher on the societal than the economic dimension. Afterwards, the government's potential for policy change was considerably determined by the type of legislation, independently from the policy dimension. At the end of the Kohl era, the governmental policy leadership position was limited to policies that left even the opposition majority of German states better off. The procedural settings mattered greatly on the economic dimension, and the danger of gridlock on societal policy was smaller only for non–mandatory legislation.     

Immigrants into Citizens

This paper examines the citizenship test which is part of the UK naturalisation process. The test is based on the government publication Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship. A detailed analysis of its two editions (2004 and 2007) reveals that the conception of the citizen, and the picture of British government and society underlying each are very different. There is, additionally, a mismatch between the rationale offered for the Life in the United Kingdom test and what the latter can in fact test: the attitudes and civic virtues mentioned in the rationale are untestable on-line. A society which aspires to be a democracy, it is argued, needs to scrutinise carefully the fairness and democratic appropriateness of its procedures for admitting new citizens.     

Transforming adversaries into collaborators

After more than a decade of sharp conflict, environmental and chemical industry lobbyists sat down in direct, private negotiations on reforming pesticides regulatory policy in the United States. This article examines the dynamics that transformed longtime adversaries into temporary collaborators during 1985–86. It also examines why the efforts of this ad hoc coalition eventually failed. In doing so, this case looks into the current state of relations among American interest groups, and between the interest group community and the Congress.     

Getting into the action

Using policy sciences in the federal government to create better public programs requires the right climate for analysis plus a good set of tactics for analysts to follow. The ideal climate includes close association between analysts and highest authorities, strong support from the top, the existence of expanding budgets and promising discontinuities—unusual events when the opportunity becomes ripe for dynamic change. Effective tactics for the policy science practitioner include staying in the real conversations where decisions are made, spreading the credit for findings, acquiring allies to support positions, winning early battles to prove their worth, and inviting intensive internal reviews. Suggestions on staffing and on choosing likely subjects so analysis can reap benefits, along with a list of dangers to avoid, conclude the paper. The points are illustrated with actual examples in the federal agencies.From an address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Boston, Massachusetts, December 28, 1969.     

The ECPR Venture into Retrieval

Sartori, G. (2005) Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis . Colchester: ECPR Press.
Parry, G. (2005) Political Elites . Colchester: ECPR Press.
Lukes, S. (2006) Individualism . Colchester: ECPR Press.
Kaplan, M. A. (2005) System and Process in International Politics . Colchester: ECPR Press.     

Looking into the dirty laundry

Ann Woolner, Washed in Gold: The Story Behind the Biggest Money‐Laundering Investigation in US History (New York, London and Toronto: Simon and Schuster, 1994). Pp. n/a. $25/£15.99. ISBN 0–6717–4194–2.     

实施社区警务的几点探索

社区警务在我国的推广，不仅是一种警务学说的实践，更是直接涉及我国公安工作在新时期可持续发展的重大战略问题。坚持一切从实际出发，结合科学原理以及我国警务工作发展需要探讨适用于我国国情并具有中国特色的社区警务模式，正视和解决社区警务工作中遇到的实际困难，进一步深化认识，统一行动；充分利用和整合各种警力资源、社会资源，构筑社会治安防控体系；建立与新型社区管理体制、新农村建设相适应的社区和农村警务机制，实现社区警务工作高度信息化等一系列有益实践探索，不仅是促使我国警务战略创新性转变的途径，也是在新形势下全面推进社区警务战略，进一步发展和完善我国社区警务工作，构建和谐社会的必然要求。     

论对实践的提问

对实践的提问是人的主体性和能动性在实践活动中的一个重要体现，也是实践活动的一种内在要求。对实践的提问受到许多主客观因素的制约，其中主观因素的制约起着主导的作用。改进和完善对实践的提问对于确保实践的客观性、科学性和合理性具有十分重要的意义。     

Investigations into Types of Wastefulness

Rosi Braidotti, Ewa Charkiewicz, Sabine Hausler, and Saskia Wieringa: Women, the Environment and Sustainable Development. London: Zed Press, 1994.

Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva: Ecofeminism. London: Zed Books, 1993.

Val Plumwood: Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. London: Routledge, 1993.

Joni Seager: Earth Follies: Feminism, Politics and the Environment London: Earthscan, 1993.

Vandana Shiva, ed.: Close to Home: Women Reconnect Ecology, Health and Development Worldwide. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1994.     

Semiotizing a product into a brand

A product is simply something that is material or substance of some kind. In order to be transformed into a brand with its own code of meanings and system of rhetorical allusions, it needs to be semiotized. And the marketing and advertising industries have become semioticians in this sense, semiotizing a product by assigning it a name, a visual sign (logo), a system of language forms (slogan, taglines, etc.), and then textualizing the brand by creating appropriate ads and commercials for it. This paper will show how this network of semiotizing events coheres into an overall macrotext to produce the brand as a sign system.