TRIVIOCRACY: SAYRE'S LAW REVISITED

Triviocracy is a generalized organizational phenomenon; to the outsider or casual participant, the goals or issues which members of the organization pursue have little or no overt relationship to the well-being of the organization; and once attained, these goals do not appear to help individuals in pursuit of their professional goals in any easily desirable way. In this paper will will explore the concept of triviocracy in some depth, describe the process that unfolds and examine the dynamics of triviocracy and its functions and dysfunctions.     

Do We Need a Liberal Theory of Minority Rights? Reply to Carens,Young, Parekh and Forst

In their perceptive critiques of my recent book on Multicultural Citizenship , Iris Young, Joseph Carens, Bhikhu Parekh and Rainer Forst raise a number of interesting and important issues. In this short response to their critiques, I focus on two of them. First, whereas I tried to draw a sharp distinction between immigrants and national minorities, my critics argue that we should think of ethnocultural groups on a more fluid continuum. Second, whereas I tried to ground a theory of minority rights on specifically liberal principles, my critics argue that such an approach is unduly intolerant of non-liberal ethnocultural groups. In response to these challenging questions, I try to both clarify and strengthen the positions I outlined in my book.     

ACCESS TO SERVICES: ETHNICITY IN AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION

Abstract: This paper starts from an argument, developed by Jean Martin in 1978, which links recent ethnic differentiation of the activities and structures of our major institutions with an underlying social redefinition of migrants. It then extends Martin's analysis in the particular context of the service activities of one of the major line departments of Australian government — the Department of Social Security. It is argued that the accommodation of ethnic considerations within the daily activities of administration has occurred largely through the concept of "access to services". Using this concept, administrators have been able acceptably to define the problem of ethnic disadvantage and to develop programs which approach its solution. The formula has been applied to Aboriginal as well as migrant disadvantage and reasons for the similarity of approach are considered briefly. A range of recent initiatives which make reference to the migrant and Aboriginal clienteles of government are considered — in particular, DSS services, namely language services, migrant and Aboriginal public contact staffing, information services and advocacy/agency programs. All of these are seen within administration, as approaches to the "access" problem. The final section comments on the general characteristics of this "access" formula and on its success in both accommodating ethnic claims of disadvantage and reinforcing administrative commitments to universalism.     

The Transformation of the Western State: The Growth of Democracy,Autocracy, and State Power Since 1800

This article uses POLITY II, a new dataset on the authority traits of 155 countries, to assess some general historical arguments about the dynamics of political change in Europe and Latin America from 1800 to 1986. The analysis, relying mainly on graphs, focuses first on the shifting balance between democratic and autocratic patterns in each world region and identifies some of the internal and international circumstances underlying the trends, and deviations from them. Trends in three indicators of state power also are examined in the two regions: the state's capacity to direct social and economic life, the coherence of political institutions, and military manpower. The state's capacity has increased steadily in both regions; coherence has increased in the European countries but not Latin America; while military power has fluctuated widley in both regions. The article is foundational to a series of more detailed longitudinal studies of the processes of state growth. Ted Robert Gurr is a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland and Distinguished Scholar at the University's Center for International Development and Conflict Management (Mill Building, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742). Among his 14 books and monographs areWhy Men Rebel (awarded the Woodrow Wilson Prize as best book in political science of 1970).Patterns of Authority: A comparative Basis for Political Inquiry (with Harry Eckstein, 1975), andViolence in America, (3d edition. 1989). He is engaged in a long-term global study of minorities' involvement in conflict and its consequences and resolution. Keith Jaggers is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Colorado and research assistant in the Department's Center for Comparative Politics, Campus Box 333, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309. He is co-author with Will H. Moore of “Deprivation, Mobilization, and the State,” recently published in theJournal of Developing Societies, and is currently working on an empirical study of the impact of war on the growth of the state. Will H. Moore is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Colorado and research assistant in the Department's Center for Comparative Politics. He is also a co-author with Maro Ellena of a forthcoming article inWestern Political Quarterly on the cross-national determinants of political violence. His current research interests include the resolution of internal wars and the formation of coercive states.     

Morphological and spectroscopic measurements of plastic bags for the purpose of discrimination

The discrimination of noncolored transparent polyethylene bags was studied by several nondestructive and semidestructive analytical methods. X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, and optical microscopy (differential interference contrast microscopy and phase contrast microscopy) were applied to polyethylene films. X-ray diffraction was used to distinguish variations in the crystalline phase, infrared spectroscopy was used to distinguish variations in the molecular components, and optical microscopy was used to distinguish the different surface morphologies. The results show that X-ray diffraction classifies the crystalline phase of the film depending on whether it is made from low-density polyethylene, linear low-density polyethylene, or high-density polyethylene; that infrared spectroscopy is useful to distinguish the molecular components and it is the most discriminating technique; and that optical microscopy discriminate films easily by their morphological differences.