THE FOCUS OF REFORM IN COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION*

Challenge to Established Convention … the simple image of the official as the instrument of Ministerial authority accountable to the Minister alone, working unseen, unheard and anonymous, is now seriously inaccurate.     

Effects of proportionate‐share impact fees

Abstract

When it comes to paying for the significant costs of growth, local governments throughout the United States are usually the first line of financing. Yet because of a variety of factors, existing tax, fee, and inter jurisdictional transfer revenues may not be sufficient. Many hundreds (if not thousands) of communities rely in part on proportionate‐share impact fees to provide facilities concurrent with the effects of growth.

Impact fees have numerous detractors, many of whom worry about their effect on affordable housing, economic development, and development patterns. A disparate literature has emerged addressing each of these concerns. This article synthesizes current knowledge about the market effects of proportionate‐share impact fees and finds that for the most part, they facilitate development in several important ways. Policy implications and guidance for future research are presented as well.     

Hypnotic interrogation,pretrial preparation,and witness testimony during direct and cross-examination

Subjects who witnessed a videotaped shooting were interrogated immediately after viewing the film and again several days later. Before their second interrogation half of the subjects received hypnotic suggestions for enhanced recognition. Hypnotic and nonhypnotic subjects failed to differ in the accuracy with which they identified a mugshot of the offender, but hypnotic subjects placed more confidence in their misidentifications than did nonhypnotic subjects. In a third session, subjects who had identified a mugshot returned to be examined and cross-examined in a mock courtroom setting. Before direct examination, half the subjects underwent pretrial preparation aimed at building confidence. When coupled with pretrial preparation, hypnotic interrogation led subjects to express relatively high certainty in their mugshot identification while testifying. Nevertheless, hypnotic interrogation did not deter witnesses from disavowing their testimony (i.e., breaking down) during cross-examination. In contrast, pretrial preparation induced substantial resistance to breakdown during cross-examination. Implications are discussed.This research was supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to the first author.     

The Bishops' letter revisited

Eclipse of Justice: Ethics, Economics, and the Lost Traditions of American Catholicism, by George E. McCarthy and Royal W. Rhodes. (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1992.)