Reducing the legal consequences of a felony conviction: A national survey of state statutes ten years later

This study surveys all state and federal statutes in an effort to determine the current legal procedures available for restoring a convicted felon's civil rights, and then compares the findings with those of Burton et al. (1988). The findings report virtually no changes in legal codes over the past ten years by states to increase pardons, expungement, or automatic restoration of rights opportunities for former offenders. Southern states continue to be most restrictive of civil and legal rights, given the few existing legal mechanisms to remove the effects of a felony conviction. Explanations for this apparent legislative inactivity of legal remedies are discussed.     

Extension of the portfolio allocation model to surplus majority governments: a fuzzy approach

Scholars have long studied the conditions under which the cabinet making process will result in minority, surplus majority, or minimum-winning governing coalitions in parliamentary systems. Since Riker, a good number of these attempts have been based on rational choice assumptions. Among formal approaches in this vein, Laver and Shepsle’s (Making and breaking governments: Cabinets and legislatures in parliamentary governments, 1996) portfolio allocation model argues that parties centrally located in policy space have a greater potential for being part of any governing coalition and that parties located at the issue-by-issue median have a high likelihood of forming a minority government. However, the model predicts that surplus majority coalitions will only form when the number of salient policy dimensions in the political system is greater than two. We incorporate fuzzy set theory in the portfolio allocation model, permitting us to model ambiguity in parties’ policy preferences. The reformulated model accounts for the formation of surplus majority coalitions in two-dimensional policy space. We illustrate the model’s conclusions with a case study of the 1996 surplus majority coalition in the Lithuanian Seimas.     

Supplying Disadvantaged Schools with Effective Teachers: Experimental Evidence on Secondary Math Teachers from Teach For America

Teach For America (TFA) is an important but controversial source of teachers for hard‐to‐staff subjects in high‐poverty U.S. schools. We present findings from the first large‐scale experimental study of secondary math teachers from TFA. We find that TFA teachers are more effective than other math teachers in the same schools, increasing student math achievement by 0.07 standard deviations over one school year. Addressing concerns about the fact that TFA requires only a two‐year commitment, we find that TFA teachers in their first two years of teaching are more effective than more experienced non‐TFA teachers in the same schools.     

Government Expenditure and Quality of Life

Most of the empirical work on the optimal size of the fiscalstate has linked the level of taxation to economic growth. Inthis paper the level of government consumption expenditure thatyields the maximum physical quality of life is found, along withthose expenditures that cause equality between marginal benefitand marginal government expenditure out of GNP. Careful attentionis paid to the measurement of the physical quality of life, theweighing of the attributes in the construction of an aggregateindex of quality of life, and in the functional (parametric) formof the nonlinear equations utilized to calculate marginalbenefit. The conclusion of the paper is that governmentconsumption expenditure is considerably higher than is necessaryto maximize the physical quality of life, and that a reductionin government consumption expenditure would not lower quality oflife.     

Movers and stayers: mobility patterns among senior public servants in Canadian provinces

Abstract: There has developed in Canada a well‐established literature on bureaucratic elites at the federal level. There has not, however, been a systematic study of bureaucratic elites at the provincial level. While individual scholars have studied particular provincial governments, there have been few studies that covered more than one province. This paper, which analyses a census of assistant deputy ministers and deputy ministers in every Canadian province between 1988 and 1996, considers the mobility of these top two levels of the senior public service. The findings indicate that there has only been a slight decline in the number of senior public servants as governments have downsized. The findings also show that, unlike at the federal level, there is limited mobility among these senior public servants, with roughly one‐third of them changing each year. In some provinces, mobility levels increase slightly in the year after an election. Levels of mobility and changes in the number of senior public servants also vary across provinces, but there is no pattern based on the size of the province. Finally, there are important differences in the mobility depending on the type of department. In particular, in departments where there is a core knowledge or skill, mobility levels are much lower than in departments that lack such a core. These findings throw some light on the difficulties provinces may have in solving some of their more intractable policy problems. Sommaire: Il existe au Canada une bibliographie solidement implantée concernant les elites bureaucratiques au niveau fédéral. Il n'y a pas eu, par contre, d'étude systématique concernant les élites bureaucratiques au palier provincial. Des chercheurs ont analysé un gouvemement provincial à la fois mais peu d'études ont examiné plus d'une province à la fois. Dans cet article, qui analyse un recensement de sous‐ministres adjoints et de sous‐ministres dans chaque province du Canada entre 1988 et 1996, nous examinons la mobilité des ces deux niveaux supérieurs du fonctionnariat. Face aux réductions d'effectifs gouvernementaux, le déclin du nombre de hauts fonctionnaires semble avoir été léger. On constate aussi que, à l'encontre du palier fédéral, il y a une mobilité limitée chez ces derniers, environ un tiers changeant chaque année. Dans certaines provinces, le taux de mobilité augmente légèrement l'année qui suit une élection. Les taux de mobilité et l'évolution du nombre de hauts fonctionnaires varient aussi d'une province à l'autre, mais la taille de la province ne semble pas être un facteur déterminant. Enfin, il y a des écarts de mobilité importants selon le type de ministère. Notamment, les ministères exigeant des connaissances ou des aptitudes particulières ont des taux de mobilité très inférieurs à ceux des autres. Ces constatations mettent en relief les difficultés auxquelles peuvent se heurter les provinces lorsqu'elles essaient de régler certains de leurs problèmes les plus ardus en matière de politiques.     

The American West’s longest large mammal migration: clarifying and securing the common interest

Over the last 10 years, conflict has grown over a 170-mile pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana) migration between Grand Teton National Park and the Upper Green River Basin in western Wyoming. Resolving conflict in the common interest is proving difficult. This movement is the longest mammal migration in the lower 48 states, spanning the jurisdiction of three federal agencies, three Wyoming counties, and over 40 private landowners. In addition, there are over ten non-governmental conservation organizations, two major state agencies, Wyoming’s executive office, and many citizens involved in the issue. There are three major problem definitions serving the beliefs of participants: the ecological-scientific (conservation biologists, environmentalists), local rights (local control, property rights), and cultural value (historic, western heritage) definitions. These definitions challenge the social and decision making processes of regional communities and government agencies. Underlying the problem of securing the common interest is the highly fragmented patterns of authority and control, misorganized arena(s), and parochial perspectives of many participants. Options promoted by participants can be loosely classified as top-down (government, expert driven) versus bottom-up (local, practice-based) approaches and reflect preferences for the distribution and uses of power and other values. Given the social and decision making context of this case, the bottom-up, practiced-based approach would likely best secure a common interest outcome.     

State making and bomb making in the Cold War

Michael J. Hogan, A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State 1945-1954 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 2000), pp.xii + 525. ISBN 0-521-64044-X; pb. 0-521-79537- 0.

Lorna Arnold, Britain and the H-Bomb (Houndmills: Palgrave, 2001), pp.xiv + 273. ISBN 0-333-73685-0; pb. 0-333-94742-8.     

Britain,the united states and the control of nuclear weapons: The diplomacy of the Thor deployment 1956–58

The 'Tilea Affair' of March 1939 is among the most contentious of the short-term events leading to the Second World War. V.V. Tilea, the Romanian minister in London, brought information to the British Foreign Office, about an alleged German threat to his country. The guarantee to Poland soon followed and, in turn, the outbreak of the war. This article examines the evidence offered by contemporary British witnesses, the ensuing historical controversy - bringing to bear a variety of new revelations, including materials derived from the author's acquaintance with Tilea - and the present state of historical knowledge. It concludes that closure can be applied to most aspects of the 'Tilea Affair'.