TRIAL COURTS AS ORGANIZATIONS: A Critique and Synthesis

This article has two purposes: (1) to suggest that the informal workgroup is the most appropriate concept from organization theory to explain both participant behavior occurring in criminal trial courts and trial court outputs; and (2) to use the informal workgroup framework to structure the findings generated by previous studies of trial courts. The informal workgroup proves to be a useful way to account for the disjuncture between the adversarial expectations and regularized individual behavior patterns researchers find in criminal trial courts. Furthermore, this concept provides a vehicle to explain the development of uniformities in output such as a classification of criminals, the categorization of crime, and sentencing yardsticks. The conclusion discusses the implications of the informal workgroup for efforts aimed at court reform.     

TERRITORIAL PUBLIC EXPENDITURE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Although the devolution plans of the 1970s were abandoned, those debates had far-reaching consequences for the determination of relative public expenditure levels in the United Kingdom. The Barnett formula (10:5:85) of 1978 provided that increases in public expenditure in Scotland and in Wales for specific services within the territorial blocks would be determined according to the formula consequences of changes in equivalent English expenditure. A parallel formula allocated 2.75 per cent of the change in equivalent expenditure in Great Britain to Northern Ireland. The essential distinction is between base expenditure (whose current levels are carried forward) and incremental expenditure (which is determined by formula). The predicted convergence of block expenditure relatives on the LJK per capita average was frustrated by formula bypass, and in Scotland by relative population decline. The background to the 1992 recalibration of the Barnett formula (10.66:6.02100.00 and Northern Ireland 2.87 per cent) is analysed. Territorial block expenditure is set within the structure of territorial public expenditure aggregates, and evidence is assembled on identifiable public expenditure relatives between countries and by English region.     

GENERAL MANAGEMENT IN THE NHS: THE INITIAL IMPACT 1983–88

The Griffiths report of 1983 resulted in radical changes (to which the label 'general management' has been applied) to the formalities of organization and management in the national health service. We report the findings of a major study (involving more than 300 interviews) of the impact of these changes up to 1988. Although general management has been widely accepted in the service, and seems to have resulted in some improvements to management processes, there has been no substantial change in organizational culture. We conclude that the impact of the Griffiths model of management has been limited in comparison with the continued influence of medical autonomy and financial limitations.     

SELF-CONCEPT, DELINQUENCY, AND POSITIVE PEER CULTURE

This is an empirical attempt to assess juvenile delinquency and correction. in an institutional setting, in terms of agency and communion (two aspects of self) as defined by Bakan (1966). The Jusness Inventory, a standard inventory for assessing social adaptability and conformity, used with a multi scaled index was employed on juvenile delinquents in a positive peer culture program items of the Jesness Inventory judged to be a genetic and communal are listed.     

Varieties of Regulatory Capitalism: Getting the Most Out of the Comparative Method

The rationale behind this special issue’s stepwise analysis of cross‐sectoral and cross‐national variations and similarities of regulatory reforms is explained. The processes of case selection and inference are clarified and justified. At the same time, the article offers a strategy for an increase in the number of cases without compromising the strength of case‐oriented analysis. William Whewell’s notion of consilience is employed to (a) justify the inclusion of sectoral as well as national cases; (b) justify different degrees of in‐depth analysis according to the inferential role of the case in the research design; and (c) suggest a distinction in the inferential process between comparisons that enhance internal and external validity. The article concludes with a systematic examination of cross‐sectoral and cross‐national variations in a table that provides a “panoramic snapshot” and “holistic picture” of the combination of variations and commonalities of the cases analyzed.