Verifiability, Incomplete Contracts and Dispute Resolution

Recent literature on incomplete contracts attributes noncontractibility of certain contingencies to their unverifiability. This paper questions the underlying assumption of this theory and argues that the court (or arbitrator) need not observe relevant contingencies with the same degree of accuracy as the contracting parties in order to enforce a contingent contract. In a simple procurement model, it is shown that as long as the ruling of the court (arbitrator) is not arbitrary, the first-best outcome can be implemented under certain ideal conditions by a contingent contract even if contingencies are costly to verify and verification is imperfect.     

Integrating information technology into public administration: Conceptual and practical considerations

Abstract: Both theorists and practitioners of public administration continue to debate the extent to which public institutions and organizations are likely to be transformed by the burgeoning adoption of information technology (it). Among those who believe that there will be a substantial, even a revolutionary, transformation, are scholars who emphasize the concept and impact of “informatization.” This article focuses on the implications for public administration of the public sector's increasing reliance on it. It is argued that it, like information itself, is a vital resource for achieving organizational objectives. The use of it by public organizations predisposes them to change in particular ways. As a resource, it has inherent predispositions (e.g., requiring certain skills and investments) that lead to changes in organizational structures and management (e.g., increased dependence on the private sector). Overcoming obstacles to the potentially powerful impact of these it predispositions will require both short‐term reforms (e.g., improved partnering skills) and longer‐term reforms (e.g., changes in organizational culture). Sommaire: Les théoriciens comme les praticiens de l'administration publique continuent à débattre sur la question de savoir dans quelle rnesure les établissements et organisrnes publics risquent d'être transformés par I'adoption croissante de la Technologie de I'inforrnation (ti). Parmi ceux qui croient que l'on va assister à une transformation importante, voire même révolutionnaire, il y a les chercheurs qui soulignent le concept et I'impact de « l'informatisation)>. Le présent article se concentre sur les répercussions que la dépendance croissante du secteur public à l'égard de la ti aura sur I'administration publique. On argumente que la ti, tout come I'information elle‐même, est une ressource essentielle pour atteindre les objectifs organisationnels. Le recours à la ti prédispose a des changement particuliers les organismes publics en question. En tant que ressource, la ti comporte des prédispositions inhérentes (p. ex., exigence de certaines compétences et certains investissements) qui conduisent à des changements dans les structures et la gestion organisationnelles (p. ex., une dépendance accrue à l'égard du secteur privé). Pour surmonter les obstacles à I'impact potentiellement puissant dc ces prédispositions de la ti, il faudra entreprendre des réformes à court terme (p. ex., améliorer les compétences en partenariat) et des réformes à long terme (p. ex., apporter des changements à la culture organisationnelle).     

Appropriators not Position Takers: The Distorting Effects of Electoral Incentives on Congressional Representation

Congressional districts create two levels of representation. Studies of representation focus on a disaggregated level: the electoral connection between representatives and constituents. But there is a collective level of representation—the result of aggregating across representatives. This article uses new measures of home styles to demonstrate that responsiveness to constituents can have negative consequences for collective representation. The electoral connection causes marginal representatives—legislators with districts composed of the other party's partisans—to emphasize appropriations in their home styles. But it causes aligned representatives—those with districts filled with copartisans—to build their home styles around position taking. Aggregated across representatives, this results in an artificial polarization in stated party positions: aligned representatives, who tend to be ideologically extreme, dominate policy debates. The logic and evidence in this article provide an explanation for the apparent rise in vitriolic debate, and the new measures facilitate a literature on home styles.     

Playing at peace: Western politics,diplomacy and the stabilization of Macedonia

On 27 July 2001 negotiators of the ethnic Slav and ethnic Albanian political parties from the self‐proclaimed unity government of the Federal Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) met at Ohrid, a lakeside resort in the southwestern corner of the war‐torn country. The negotiators had fled Skopje, the country's starved, gray capital, because the pressures from the spreading war between ethnic Albanian insurgents and the dominantly ethnic Slav security forces had made constructive political dialogue nearly impossible. Ohrid, on the other hand, was a community that embraced many of the region's historical contradictions. The town had seen Romans, Byzantines, Franks, Ottomans, Serbs, Greeks and Albanians all come and go. Saint Clement of Ohrid (d. 916) had once lived and worshipped in the city, and much of the architecture, with its winding streets and numerous churches and monasteries, still bore the marks of its medieval and diverse past. All parties arrived in this contemplative setting under intense diplomatic pressure from the European Union (EU), the United States (US), and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to find a constitutional and political solution to the crisis, and find one soon. As all parties sat down to thrash out a compromise, a senior EU mediator was heard to remark: ‘This country doesn't need mediators, it needs a psychoanalyst.”     

Intergroup Contact and Beliefs about Homosexuality in Adolescence

This study examines the relationship between intergroup contact and adolescents’ attitudes regarding homosexuality and the treatment of lesbian and gay (LG) peers. Fourteen- through 18-year-olds (n = 1,069, 59.7% females) completed self-report attitude and judgment questionnaires about the acceptability of homosexuality, levels of comfort around LG peers, and the acceptability of excluding or teasing an LG peer. The results suggest that having an LG friend is related to more positive attitudes toward homosexuals/homosexuality and less tolerance toward the unfair treatment of LG peers. The findings lend further support to intergroup contact theory and provide evidence that the intimacy of contact is related to prejudice reduction, and offer general support that age is related to prejudicial attitudes, but less so to prejudicial behaviors.     

A Contingent Approach to the Organization and Management of Public–Private Partnerships: An Empirical Study of English Health Care

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) have become a prominent feature of contemporary public policy. Although research shows variation in the contractual configuration of partnerships, there is little evidence of how these shape service and workforce organization. Through comparative ethnographic research on two PPP health care providers in the English National Health Service, this article develops the idea that PPPs exhibit “tight” and “loose” arrangements that relate to “downstream” service and workforce management. It induces four empirically grounded mediating factors to describe this relationship. The first relates to the “dependence” between partners in terms of financing, strategy, and resource sharing; the second to the “strategic orientation” of leaders; the third to the composition of the “professional workforce”; and the fourth to the “management approach” to service and workforce organization. The article contributes to the research literature by exploring the contingencies in how PPPs are operationalized on the ground.     

The urbanisation of justice movements? Possibilities and constraints for the city as a space of contentious struggle

Have urban areas become strategic sites for the formation of justice movements? A justice movement is conceptualised as geographically extensive mobilisations that achieve a degree of territorial fixity at different spatial scales. It is proposed that a number of factors can encourage organisations implicated in this movement to make the urban arena a key front in their struggle to achieve justice. These factors include the intensification of urban inequalities, increased political opportunities resulting from the devolution of state capacities to sub‐national levels of government and new actors interested in pursuing innovative strategies and tactics. This hypothesis is tested through a comparison of movements in three different cities: Los Angeles, USA; Rotterdam, Holland; and Toulouse, France. The findings show that, despite the fact that new actors have begun to mobilise in these three cities around justice issues, they have experienced different degrees of territorialisation. The divergent outcomes are explained by the particular state–civil society power relations found in each of the cities. Thus, the paper concludes that, though the factors in our hypothesis may encourage actors to initiate urban justice movements, the degree of their territorialisation ultimately depends on local state–civil society power relations.     

The possible ��backfire�� effects of hot spots policing: an experimental assessment of impacts on legitimacy, fear and collective efficacy

Objectives  

To examine the impacts of broken windows policing at crime hot spots on fear of crime, ratings of police legitimacy and reports of collective efficacy among residents of targeted hot spots.