Federalizing energy? Agenda change and the politics of fracking

This paper focuses on agenda change affecting the politics of ??fracking operations?? in the US, a process of extracting natural gas from underground shale formations. We examine how the movement of this policy issue between the state and federal levels of government has become increasingly contentious because of rising public concern about pollution impacts. Using information obtained from documentary sources and media content analysis, we found that the natural gas policy coalition has largely focused on a political strategy based on maintaining fracking regulatory controls at the state level, while the environmental policy coalition has pushed for increased regulation of drilling practices in general, including a larger policy and oversight role for federal agencies such as EPA.     

Good governance as a foundation for sustainable human development in sub-Saharan Africa

Data indicate that good governance and human development continue to be major issues throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The findings show a significant relationship between the measures of good governance and human development. The findings suggest that policies and efforts aimed at improving government effectiveness and political stability would have the most significant impact on human development and poverty reduction efforts. The findings lend support to the adoption of integrated policy approaches that take into consideration political development along with economic development to reduce poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.     

‘Too Much,too Indigestible,too Fast’? The Decades of Struggle for Abortion Law Reform in Northern Ireland

In July 2019, the UK Parliament voted by an overwhelming majority for fundamental reform of Northern Ireland's archaic abortion laws. Regulations implementing the reform came into effect on 25 March 2020. Drawing on extensive archival resources and a small number of interviews, we locate this extraordinary political moment in a broader historical context. We explore the factors that blocked the possibility of reform in either Westminster or Stormont for over five decades and consider what it was that had changed in 2019 to render it possible. While the measure passed in Westminster represents a radical rupture with the past, we suggest that it was anything other than sudden, rather representing the culmination of decades of sustained campaigning. We conclude by briefly discussing what this change is likely to mean for the future.     

Political factors in the fall of RolIs-Royce

Abstract. While economic and technological difficulties greatly reduced Rolls-Royce's viability, its passing into receivership can be adequately explained only by invoking additional (and largely political) factors. In the absence of any automatic criteria for aborting a losing project, the Conservative government of the day responded to an abundance of consistently negative politioal implications. Unfortunately for its continued survival, the Rolls-Royce development of an RB-211 engine for Lockheed was civilian, not military; prosaic, not meta-phoric; ostensibly private, not openly governmental; internationally fluctuating, not domestically controllable; a weak coalition, not a strong partnership; profit oriented, not ideologically based; and narrowly subsidized, not internally fund-able. The Conservative response was probably not unique; and a Labour government wodd Iikely have reacted to these implications in roughly the same way. It is to the circumambient political factors rather than to determinative economic considerations, however, that the decisions reached by either party would be primarily traceable. Sommaire. Des difficultés économiques et technologiques réduisirent de beau-coup la viabilité de Rolls-Royce, mais sa mise en faillité ne peut vraiment s'expIi-quer qu'en invoquant d'autres facteurs complémentaires, surtout politiques. En I'absence de tout critère automatique pour faire avorter un projet non rentable, le gouvernement conservateur du moment réagit à une multitude d'implications politiques, toutes négatives. Malheureusement pour Rolls-Royce, la création d'un moteur RB-211 pour Lockheed était une entreprise civile et non pas militaire; prosaïque et non pas métaphorique; manifestement privée et non pas ouverte-ment gouvernementale; sujette à des fluctuations internationales et non pas contrôlable à I'échelle nationale; dirigée par une coalition faible et non pas par une association forte; à buts lucratifs et non pas idéologiques; subventionnée de facon limitée et non pas financée de I'intérieur. La réaction des conservateurs n'a sans doute rien de très étonnant et un gouvernement travailliste aurait sans doute, en gros, réagi de la même façon à ces données. Ce sont à des facteurs politiques ambiants plutòt qu'à des considérations économiques déterminantes qu'il faudrait attribuer avant tout les décisions prises par l'un ou I'autre parti.     

A simple, rapid 125I radioimmunoassay for the detection of barbiturates in biological fluids.

A simple, rapid radioimmunoassay employing 125-I-labeled secobarbital derivative has been developed and has been shown to be capable of detecting at the nanogram level a variety of barbiturates in urine as well as in plasma.     

Constitutionalism and Hong Kong's future

This paper considers the transition and handover processes in Hong Kong in terms of constitutional development. It is argued that the Sino‐British Joint Declaration effectively promises Hong Kong a liberal constitutional system and that this system has been implemented in part and eroded in part. It considers the health of Hong Kong's constitutional system in the first year‐and‐a‐half of the handover. The paper then identifies the three central threats to Hong Kong's continued constitutional health: a Chinese and SAR policy vision that favors economic over political liberalism; the threat of mainland intrusion upon Hong Kong's autonomy; and any mainland failure to respect Hong Kong's viable international status to the extent guaranteed in the Joint Declaration. The history of Chinese policy calls into question its appreciation of these threats.