MAGNA CARTA 1215: A GLORIOUS FAILURE

Along with the tradition of celebrating the importance of the Charter of 1215, there is a long tradition of skepticism concerning its purpose (which was not to achieve responsible government but to preserve the property of wealthy landowners), its force (it was annulled by the Pope and repudiated by the king within a few weeks), and even its success as a peace treaty (war broke out within a few months). The author will outline the reasons for skepticism, because we can only see what there is to celebrate in 2015, if we understand that the Charter of 1215 was the failed result of a reactionary armed tax rebellion by wealthy and powerful landowners, who were not trying to make a new constitution. What is there to celebrate? The author will address that question by asking why the Charter of 1215 was neither void (as the Pope asserted) for repugnancy to the King’s authority, nor voidable for duress. The author challenges the idea that the Charter of 1215 is the foundation of the rule of law in England, arguing that the rule of law goes back farther, and that the Charter of 1215 was very limited in its impact. But it did promote the rule of law in two ways: by giving new specificity to legal duties and restrictions that the king had already been subject to, and by highlighting the country’s need for effective processes for giving effect to those duties and restrictions.     

March of the chekists: Beria’s secret police patronage network and Soviet crypto-politics

Lavrentii Beria built up one of the most powerful patronage networks in Soviet history. Its success represents a unique case in Soviet history in which a regionally based secret police patron-client network, comprised primarily of representatives of ethnic minorities, took control first of the civilian leadership of one of the major regions of the Union, and then of the most powerful institution in the USSR, the national secret police, and subsequently became one of the main competing factions in the “crypto-politics” of the late-Stalin era. The fact that the Beria network emerged from the secret police gave it certain advantages in the political struggles of the period, but it also held weaknesses that played a role in Beria’s final undoing. The evolution and political struggles of Beria’s network also shed light on the inner workings of the competition among informal networks that made up the crypto-politics of the period. Using recent memoirs, new archival sources and interviews, this article will examine how Beria developed, managed and advanced his informal network, giving particular attention to the specific and unique outcomes that resulted from the rooting of this network in the secret police, at five critical junctures in Beria’s career.     

Case series of completed suicides by burning over a 13-year period

Suicide by burning is an extreme act that is uncommon in the United States and throughout the Western world. The characteristics of people who complete such acts are not well understood. To address this issue, we examined the death records of the King County Medical Examiner's Office in Washington State over the 13 years from 1996 to 2009. Twenty-five cases of suicide by burning were identified and used to characterize decedent demographics, circumstances of death, and motivating factors. Compared to other methods of suicide, burning demonstrated a significant overrepresentation of decedents who were women, 40-59 years of age, and Asian/Pacific Islander. They also tended to have previous psychiatric illness and/or substance abuse issues. Self-burning predominantly occurred at the decedent's residence with the intent of suicide given. There was no unifying theme in motivating factors. Together, these data represent the characteristics of people whose death is because of suicide by burning in King County, Washington.     

Expert Testimony Regarding Child Witnesses: Does It Sensitize Jurors to Forensic Interview Quality?

Does expert testimony on forensic interviews with children help adults distinguish between poorly conducted and well-conducted interviews? This study evaluates the effects of social framework expert testimony regarding child witnesses in a case involving allegations of child sexual abuse. A 2 (Expert Testimony: present or absent) × 3 (Child Forensic Interview Quality: poor, typical, or good) × 2 (Child’s Age: 4- or 10-year-old) factorial design was used to examine whether expert testimony is prejudicial or beneficial to jurors (N = 463). The results revealed that, without expert testimony, mock jurors did not consider the forensic interview quality when reaching a verdict. However, with expert testimony, mock jurors were more likely to render guilty verdicts if the interview quality was good versus poor. Further expert testimony increased mock jurors’ knowledge about child witnesses. These findings suggest that expert testimony related to the impact of interview techniques on the reliability of children’s reports may assist fact-finders in evaluating child abuse cases.     

Conceptualising and combating transnational environmental crime

To date, transnational environmental crime has been poorly attended to by the transnational organised crime and transnational policing discourse. Academics have focused on individual elements of environmental crime, neglecting a broader theoretical discussion, while national and international institutions have prioritised other forms of organised crime, giving little thought to the nuanced nature of transnational environmental crime and how this should be reflected in policing and countermeasures. This paper attempts to rectify this by conceptualising transnational environmental crime and suggesting ways forward for countermeasure development. The paper will begin by looking at the problem of environmental crime, its value, scope and effects, concluding that the damaging nature of transnational environmental crime demands a greater focus on its policing. The nature of transnational environmental crime will then be discussed by reference to traditional forms of organised crime. It will be argued that, while transnational environmental crime is a form of organised crime, and has some features in common with the traditional organised crimes, such as drug smuggling and people trafficking, it is the substantial differences that should guide the approach to developing countermeasures. The development of effective countermeasures, it is concluded, requires a significant change in policy at every level.     

Working or shirking? Expenses and attendance in?the?UK?Parliament

This paper studies the determinants of MPs?? expense claims and of their attendance at Parliamentary meetings. Using a multiple regression framework, we correlate the expenses with three sets of variables: constituency characteristics, political variables, and individual characteristics. We then look at the ratio of parliamentary expenses claimed to votes cast in Parliament as a crude measure of value for money. This take on the data provides a somewhat benign view of the usage of expense claims. We use the results to reflect on two views of the motivation of MPs??the public choice view and the public service view.     

Public Administration as an Interdisciplinary Field: Assessing Its Relationship with the Fields of Law,Management, and Political Science

Public administration is an interdisciplinary field, building on a variety of disciplinary approaches and values. But how well does the field of public administration reflect those values and processes? In contrast to previous arguments regarding the degree to which the field does or should incorporate values and lessons from other academic disciplines, this study provides a systematic assessment of the field’s reliance on research and theory from the fields of law, management, and political science. An analysis of journal citations across these fields suggests that research in public administration is largely isolated from the three disciplines that are commonly believed to form its foundation.     

Public opinion, party messages, and responsibility for the financial crisis in Britain

The political consequences of the crisis in world financial markets are only beginning to be understood. In this article, we take up one of these many repercussions by examining public beliefs of who’s to blame for a complex and unparalleled set of events. Analyses of survey data from Britain find that while most assign responsibility for the crisis to market actors, the likelihood of blaming governments, as opposed to blaming banks and investors, is greater among low sophisticates and Conservative Party identifiers. We further show how elite messages from competing political elites evolved over-time and were reflected in mass beliefs about the crisis. Results highlight the centrality of partisan cues and, in particular, of political sophistication in understanding the dynamics of responsibility attributions. Lastly, we estimate the consequences of blaming the government for the crisis for voter choice.     

The Invisible Hand and the Wisdom of the Hive

Self-interest is required for survival and reproduction and lies at the foundation of economic theory. But the presence of social groups with functional internal structure is incompatible with unmitigated self-interest. This essay compares the control of self-interest in humans and honey bees, showing the reasons for different evolutionary outcomes. The less effective checks of self-interest in humans lead to familiar forms of social discord, and in our capitalistic democracy, negative economic and ecological consequences of growing scope. Change will require moderating some firmly held political beliefs.     

Agency and similarity effects and the VC’s attitude towards academic spin-out investing

Our research seeks to develop understanding of the factors explaining venture capital investment managers’ attitudes towards investment in the unique context of academic spin-outs. We provide a novel integration of both VC fund characteristics and investment managers’ human capital characteristics with a unique hand-collected dataset of 68 early stage VC investment managers in Europe. Attitudes toward academic spin-out investing are positively affected by the presence of public sector capital and by investment managers who are more intensively involved with the entrepreneur. Specific human capital in investment managers who had worked in an academic environment is more likely associated with investment in academic spin-outs. In terms of general human capital, financial experience is positively related while entrepreneurial experience is negatively associated with investment attitude towards academic spin-outs. There may be a need to facilitate the attraction of people from industry and investment banking into public VC funds in particular.