Educational Vouchers: The Case for Public Choice Reconsidered

Parental choice and operational efficiency are the key features proponents use to promote the desirability of educational voucher programs. The argument is that educational vouchers increase competition among schools by allowing parents the freedom to choose which schools their children attend. In turn, competition improves the performance of individual schools. This article argues that, as currently put forth, the case for vouchers minimizes the special position of public schools with respect to their equity goals. Equity, arguably, has been one of the most significant tenets of public education policy in the last half-century. Moreover, vouchers have significant hidden costs that could compromise any efficiency.     

The Use of the Developmental Rate of the Aquatic Midge Chironomus riparius (Diptera,Chironomidae) in the Assessment of the Postsubmersion Interval

Nonbiting midges (Diptera, Chironomidae) are the most abundant members of the fauna associated with submerged carcasses, but their use in the medicolegal context is very restricted because of their complex ontogeny. In this case, the corpse of a woman was recovered in late spring from a river in Granada (Iberian Peninsula). It showed obvious signs of long permanence in the aquatic environment and, along with pulmonary and microscopical analyses, led to the conclusion that the cause of death was drowning. Several larvae‐like specimens were sampled from the scalp and later identified by morphological external features as IV instar larvae of Chironomus riparius Meigen, 1804 (Diptera, Chironomidae). Sequencing of cytochrome oxidase subunit I was performed to confirm the identification. The knowledge of the biology of C. riparius at low temperatures was critical to assess a postsubmersion interval of 16–17 days.     

Analyzing approaches to internet jurisdiction based on a model of harbors and the high seas

The inherent cross-border nature of the internet has challenged the legal system for over two decades. In this paper we introduce a model in which the internet is approached as if it were the high seas, the harbor of origin, the harbor of destination, or a combination of these. This model is used to rephrase existing case law related to internet jurisdiction from an international law perspective, the US and the EU (in particular Germany and the Netherlands). The model helps to illuminate the positions taken by the parties and the judge, and to indicate possible alternative interpretations. In some cases a high seas approach would have made sense (Yahoo!), or more recently the Vacation Rental by Owner case about trademarks where registration in one country was deemed to have an effect everywhere a person had the trademark on his or her computer screen. In H&M v G-star the Dutch Supreme Court even established jurisdiction based on an infringing product that was not available in the city of the court but was to become available on the internet some time in the future. We do not take a position in this paper on what perspective, based on our model, is best, but make clear how to identify the possible arguments.     

The Image of the Loyal African During World War II and its Postwar Use by the French Communist Party

In 1926, the United States (US) company Firestone Rubber in Akron, Ohio initiated a second practice of segregation in Liberia. The first practice began with the minority regime of the Afro-American settlers over 17 ethnic groups in the Republic of Liberia in 1847. Civil rights were unheard of in Liberia during either of these two periods. This changed when Liberian students travelled to the US on government scholarships, primarily to study in historical black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the 1940s and 1950s. When the Liberian students were exposed to the Civil Rights Movement, they fully understood the injustice of the situation in Liberia. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and others travelled to the Gold Coast for its transition into becoming the nation of Ghana on 6 March 1957. Meetings between King and Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah led to collaborative efforts towards ending colonial racism in Africa and segregation in the US. During the Cold War, segregation in the US and Liberia was a source of shame for both nations. Liberian students returning from the US began “sit-ins” in protest against segregated Firestone facilities. The Liberian government responded by enacting its first Civil Rights Act against Firestone in 1958 and ending discrimination, except in segregated schools. This article shows, however, that it took more than another 30 years for the first decolonisation process to end the minority regime after the Civil Rights Acts of 1958, and to end the original form of ethnic segregation, which began in 1847 and ended as a result of the violent civil wars of the 1980s and 1990s.     

Toward Drug Control: Exclusion and Buyer Licensing

The uncertainties associated with the precise nature of legalization regimes and with their expected outcomes sometimes are used to justify the maintenance of drug prohibition. This paper details the role that buyer licensing and exclusion might play in implementing a low-risk, post-prohibition drug regulatory regime. Buyer licensing and exclusion provide assistance to those who exhibit or are worried about self-control problems with drugs, while not being significantly constraining upon those who are informed and satisfied drug consumers. Relative to prohibition, licensing and self-exclusion can be part of a drug regulatory structure that is much more finely tuned to the risks of harms stemming from drug use.     

Contesting Europeanisation: Agents,institutions and narratives in British monetary policy

This article investigates how Europeanisation can sometimes generate controversy at the domestic level by exploring British policy towards ERM in the 1980s and 1990s. It argues that existing approaches which point to the occurrence of ‘misfit’ between domestic and European institutions/policies only go part of the way to explaining the contentious nature of this process. Europeanisation was disputed in this instance because it produced competing narratives as the question of fit/misfit (as well as adaptational pressure) was discursively constructed in different ways by different groups with different normative positions. The article concludes by briefly considering the implications of this case study for future theories of Europeanisation.     

Traditions of Populism

This paper argues that the notion of a ‘Keynesian revolution’ in economic policy in twentieth-century Britain as commonly presented in the literature is misleading. The conception of such a revolution is dependent on implausible notions of how economic policy is made, above all on an exaggeration of the role of economic theory. It is contended that such a stress on the theory allegedly adhered to by policy makers is complicit with some common socialist arguments on the role of ‘ideology’ in policy making, and that this leads to an inadequate analysis of the constraints facing socialist economic policy.     

Using wilderness therapy in treating adolescent sexual offenders

Abstract

This article describes a follow-up study of 14 adolescent sexual offenders who had attended a community treatment programme. A core component of their treatment included outdoor wilderness group therapy. Interviews were conducted with adolescents and parents and tapped several areas including social skills and peer relationships, victim empathy, cognitive distortions, safety plans and coping with high risk situations, sexual offending cycle, perceived level of risk, intimacy and sexuality. The study also examined the child protection service records of the It adolescents. Data from child protection service computer records showed that none of the adolescents had reoffended. Interviews with adolescents and families focusing particularly on the wilderness component of the programme showed positive changes.     

Australian National Anthologies: A Study of Poems and Poets

This article analyses the contents of fifteen Australian “national” poetry anthologies published between 1946 and 2011. The study has three basic aims: to identify the most anthologised poems (as determined by the greatest number of inclusions in all anthologies), to identify poets with the most poems anthologised, and to identify the poets most consistently represented during this period. Based on quantitative data derived from each anthology’s table of contents, this article provides an empirical and analytical account of Australian national poetry anthologies over a six-decade period. The results reveal a core group of consistently anthologised poems and poets. While each anthology is different, there is a degree of consensus among national anthologists regarding the inclusion of “standard anthology pieces”. This article also considers the role of national anthologies in supporting a hierarchy of established literary reputations and perpetuating a poetic tradition in Australian literature.