Age Differences Among Homeless Individuals: Adolescence Through Adulthood

The present study examines differences between homeless adolescents, young adults, and older adults served by homeless shelters or food programs to inform service provision. Four homeless studies using the same sampling and measurement methods were pooled to permit comparisons across age groups. Results showed that homeless adolescents demonstrated greater resilience than younger and older adults. Adolescents reported the shortest duration of homelessness, lowest number of life stressors, fewest physical symptoms, largest social networks, and fewest clinically significant mental health problems. Adolescents also received fewer alcohol and drug abuse diagnoses than younger and older adults. Younger adults reported less time homeless and fewer physical symptoms than older adults, but more life stressors. Younger adults also endorsed higher levels of hostile and paranoid psychological symptoms. Implications for service provision and policy are discussed.     

Do Belgian parties undermine the democratic chain of delegation?

The Belgian party-archy violates the ideal-type chain of parliamentary delegation in many ways, insofar as political parties play a predominant role at each stage. They channel the delegation of power from voters to MPs, from Parliament to the cabinet, from the collective cabinet to individual ministers, and from ministers to their civil servants. Hence, they can be considered the effective principals in the polity, and many actors of the parliamentary chain of delegation, such as MPs, ministers, and civil servants have been reduced to mere party agents. The extreme fragmentation of the Belgian party system in combination with its increasing need for multilevel coordination have further enhanced the position of political parties in the Belgian polity. Yet, at the same time (since the early 1990s), Belgium has also witnessed a gradual decline in the informal system of partitocratic delegation and clientelistic excesses, thereby giving back part of their autonomy to some formal agents, such as the cabinet, top civil servants and some MPs. Still, one can wonder whether these corrections are sufficient to counter the strong outburst of public dissatisfaction with the way parties have run the country in past decades.     

Combining large-n and small-n strategies: The way forward in coalition research

Current research on coalition formation is plagued by two serious problems. First, we cannot predict more than about one-third of the Western European governments, and, second, we do not have a good understanding of the causal mechanisms that explain the effects found in large-n coalition studies. This article illustrates that by combining statistical and case study analyses we can solve these problems. Since statistical analyses are well equipped for measuring and isolating effects, we argue that a coalition study should start with such an analysis. Predictions made in this analysis are then used to select cases. In order to study the mechanisms underlying effects found in large-n coalition studies, we argue for selecting cases that are predicted, and then applying the method of process verification. In order to find new explanatory variables, we argue for selecting cases that are deviant, and then applying the method of process induction. Substantive results of our analysis for coalition theory point to the importance of party strategies based on parties' past experiences, which aim at curtailing present and future costs of competing and governing with other parties.     

The Trial of Scopes: Perestroika,Epic Political Theory,and the Dominance of Method

This work takes up where Vanessa Ruget's 2002 New Political Science article leaves off in discussing the nature of political science in light of the work of Pierre Bourdieu. Ruget argues that there is a clear “establishment” at work in the discipline, benefiting from various types of “capital” and other reproduction strategies. The Perestroika movement, she believes, seeks in part to expose the supremacy of certain approaches to political science. I build upon Bourdieu's notion of reproduction strategies and discuss the limiting of the scope of political theory over the past 30 years as part of the (re)production strategy of a “methodized” political science. In this I utilize Sheldon Wolin's arguments concerning political theory as vocation and the importance of “epic” political theory as an attempt to resist the narrowing re-scoping of political theory and science.     

T. Tamman (2011). The Last Ambassador: August Torma,Soldier, Diplomat,Spy

ABSTRACT

This article recounts the author’s experience as a junior diplomat in the British Diplomatic Service in the late 1960s handling the file of Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s ex-deputy serving a life sentence in Spandau prison in Berlin. As the only Nazi leader still imprisoned there after the release in 1966 of Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach, his fate as 'the lone prisoner of Spandau’had become an international issue. Sentenced at the Nuremberg trial of 1946, his fate was a matter for the four powers still occupying Berlin. Moscow was determined that as the last remaining symbol of the Hitler regime Hess should die there. In the West, however, and especially in Britain, there was a press campaign for his release that put pressure on the Foreign Office by way of letters from the public and parliamentary questions. As a desk officer for Germany, it fell to me to handle this by writing or drafting replies to the effect that as Hess was a prisoner of all four powers the decision required consent, that Moscow was adamantly opposed, and that Britain could not act unilaterally. But the real target of the press campaign, spearheaded by the Beaverbrook press through the Daily and Sunday Express, was Harold Wilson’s Labour Government. Anything that could demonstrate his alleged ‘appeasement’ of Moscow was grist to its mill. The now weeded file in the National Archives gives little hint of this politically-motivated agenda.     

Complexity and Counterterrorism: Thinking about Biometrics

Biometrics, which relies on physical characteristics to identify individuals, enjoys growing support as a counterterrorist tool. However, there is little evidence in this regard. On the contrary, one danger is that biometric systems, such as national identification cards, would create a new target for terrorists to strike, paralyzing critical infrastructure. Given these limitations, why are countries moving toward this questionable form of security? Advocates of biometrics have been able to make powerful claims that play to public perceptions of risk in general, and the threat of terrorism in particular. This article suggests decentralized methods of identification and verification.     

External sources of clean technology: Evidence from the Clean Development Mechanism

New technology is fundamental to sustainable development. However, inventors from industrialized countries often refuse technology transfer because they worry about reverse-engineering. When can clean technology transfer succeed? We develop a formal model of the political economy of North–South technology transfer. According to the model, technology transfer is possible if (1) the technology in focus has limited global commercial potential or (2) the host developing country does not have the capacity to absorb new technologies for commercial use. If both conditions fail, inventors from industrialized countries worry about the adverse competitiveness effects of reverse-engineering, so technology transfer fails. Data analysis of technology transfer in 4,894 projects implemented under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism during the 2004–2010 period provides evidence in support of the model.     

Danger to public health: Medical devices,toxicity, virus and fraud

The recent scandals involving the sale and manufacture of defective medical devices such as the PIP breast implants and the De Puy Implants have resulted in the long-awaited modernisation of the Medical Device Directive. Taking cognizance of the increasing integration of medical devices and technology, as well as the importance of electronic information, the proposed EU Regulation on Medical Devices promises greater European control on Notifying Bodies and more transparency to ensure patient's safety. This paper discusses the current directives and proposed legislation as well as the liabilities of manufacturers and software vendors for product failure.     

Did Age Discrimination Protections Help Older Workers Weather the Great Recession?

We examine whether stronger age discrimination laws at the state level moderated the impact of the Great Recession on older workers. We use a difference‐in‐difference‐in‐differences strategy to compare older and younger workers, in states with stronger and weaker laws, before, during, and after the Great Recession. We find very little evidence that stronger age discrimination protections helped older workers weather the Great Recession, relative to younger workers. The evidence sometimes points in the opposite direction, with stronger state age discrimination protections associated with more adverse effects of the Great Recession on older workers. We suggest that during an experience such as the Great Recession, severe labor market disruptions make it difficult to discern discrimination, weakening the effects of stronger state age discrimination protections. Alternatively, higher termination costs associated with stronger age discrimination protections may do more to deter hiring when future product and labor demand is highly uncertain.