New Zealand

European Journal of Political Research -     

A Trojan horse: Anti-communism and the war on drugs

This work argues the U.S. War on Drugs is a misnomer. We suggest, instead, that it is secondary to traditional anti-Communist foreign policy concerns. Thus, the war on drugs serves to mask the U.S. counter-intelligence and paramilitary presence abroad.This paper in slightly different form was originally presented at the meeting of the Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, D.C., October 1988.     

THE PLURALITY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING POLICYMAKINC: SCHOOL REFORM LEGISLATION IN THE AMERICAN STATES, 1982–84

This paper attempts to explore recent efforts of American state legislatures to improve the quality of public schools. Which state legislatures have passed school reform legislation? At what aspects of public education is this reform legislation aimed? Are there significant variations across states in such reform legislation? What has contributed most to the passage of such legislation? Is it the socioeconomic characteristics of individual states or the structural and procedural characteristics of their legislative branch that better explain school reform legislation? Analysis of data from the 50 states reveals greater variation in legislative results that reform public schools. The regional locus of most reform was the south. Most importantly, school reform legislation was found to be influenced by the interaction of a multitude of divergent forces. This finding suggests that researchers interested in the determinants of legislative action must move beyond analysis of whether economic or political forces shape legislative outcomes to inquire how economic, political and other forces interact when a given reform effort reaches the legislative halls of the states.