Improving the Health Coverage of the Rural Poor: Does Contracting-Out Mobile Medical Teams Work?

Low population density in rural developing countries coupled with deficient infrastructure, weak state capacity and limited budgets makes increasing health care coverage difficult. Contracting-out mobile medical teams may be a helpful solution in this context. This article examines the impact of a large-scale programme of this type in Guatemala. We document large impacts on immunisation rates for children and prenatal care provider choices. The programme increased substantially the role of physician and nurses at the expense of traditional midwives. The results indicate that mobile medical teams substantially increased coverage of health care services in Guatemala, and could be effective in other developing countries.     

Electoral entry and success of ethnic minority parties in central and eastern Europe: A hierarchical selection model

The paper examines determinants of electoral entry and success of ethnic minority parties in central and eastern Europe. The application of a hierarchical selection model shows that the strategic entry of minority parties depends on their expected electoral success due both to observed and unobserved factors. Drawing on formal models of electoral entry, the electoral success of new (or niche) parties is expected to be influenced by the costs of entry (determined by electoral thresholds) and the potential for electoral support. The latter depends on the reactions of political competitors and electoral demand, measured here as the size of ethnic groups and the saliency of ethnic issues. In line with these expectations, parties only run if they can expect electoral support sufficient to pass the electoral threshold. This finding would have been overlooked by a naïve model of electoral success which does not take self-selection into account.     

Consultation,Participation and Policy‐Making: Evaluating Australia's Renewable Energy Target

A Review of Australia's Renewable Energy Target is used to contribute to the concept of negative externalities in consultation processes, including wasted investment by stakeholders and reduced investor confidence. The findings indicate that there is a need to establish clear consultation objectives. The paper concludes with a model for consultation agents to consider when initiating a consultation process. The model stresses the need to make objectives of the consultation process transparent to stakeholders, including the extent to which the outcomes of consultation are likely to result in changes to policy. Consultation agents and policy developers should seek to identify potential negative externalities at the outset of any consultation process, and address these within the consultation framework where possible.     

Application of Attachment Theory to Male Violence Toward Female Intimates

Ninety one men were interviewed regarding their intimate relationships and childhood experiences. A secondary analysis of an extant data set was conducted to explore the applicability of Bowlby's attachment theory in explaining the etiology of male intimate violence. Various attachment-related variables were hypothesized to be related to male intimate violence. Results of a hierarchical regression analysis indicated that the attachment cluster of variables served as unique predictors of male intimate violence. The male's perceived relationship support and recollection of maternal relationship were the two significant predictors of male intimate violence within the attachment cluster. Race and education were also found to be significant predictors of male violence toward a female intimate.     

The role of managerial self-efficacy in corporate compliance with the law

Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory is proposed as an alternative theoretical framework from which to view the role of managerial cognitions in determining corporate compliance with the law. A first test is made of the usefulness of the construct of managerial self-efficacy in predicting compliance. Data were drawn from interviews with 410 chief executives of small organizations. The predictive utility of self-efficacy is tested with three compliance measures: a self-assessed compliance measure. a government-assessed compliance measure taken at the same time as the self-efficacy measure, and a government-assessed compliance measure taken after a 2-year time lapse. After taking into account a number of significant background variables and making a distinction between self-efficacy beliefs and control beliefs, self-efficacy was found to be significantly related to compliance in all cases. The implications of these results for the regulatory process are discussed.This project has enjoyed the funding support of the Australian Department of Health, Housing and Community Services, the Australian Research Council, the American Bar Foundation, and the Australian National University. The author is indebted to her colleagues on the Nursing Home Regulation in Action Project-John Braithwaite, Valerie Braithwaite, Diane Gibson, Miriam Landau, and Toni Makkai.     

Stray bullets and “mushrooms”: Random shootings of bystanders in four cities, 1977–1988

Bystanders killed by bullets not specifically intended for them have long been a very small part of the homicide problem. But the frequency of press accounts of such killings and woundings has apparently increased nationally in recent years. To test this impression, we compiled all shootings of bystanders hit at random and reported in the published indexes of theNew York Times, theLos Angeles Times, and theWashington Post for 1977–1988, as well as a key word computer search of stories in theBoston Globe. We found a rapid increase in both bystander woundings and killings since 1985 in all four cities. The base rate was quite low, and total bystander deaths appear to comprise less than 1% of all homicides in these cities. Nonetheless, the numbers were large enough to show that most bystanders reported shot in New York and Los Angeles are victims of random shootings into crowds, rather than single stray bullets striking a lone individual mushroom. The reverse was true in Boston and Washington, with the effect of much lower rates of bystanders reported shot in those cities.