Selective adaptation

This paper is critical of some loose speculations about cybernetics, computers and systems, especially as to their role in organization and planning. There is a widespread tendency to believe that human and organizational vagaries can be eliminated by some combination of the former techniques. This tendency is encouraged by a bias towards mechanistic and abstract solutions for social problems. Further, there is a failure to properly take into account natural laws, in the sense of limitations on human and organizational ability, when developing normative models for policy and planning problems. Viable holistic models, supposedly, should replace human and organizational haphazardness; attention has been devoted tosubstituting the machine-techniques for the man, rather than concentrating on man-machine interactions, based on selective adaptations to natural laws.     

The institutional problem in the programs drawn up by the political parties for the election of the European parliament by direct universal suffrage

Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond / by Michael Ignatieff. ‐ New York : Henry Holt, 2000. ‐ 176 p. ‐ ISBN 0–8050–6490–7

Kosovo, War and Revenge / Tim Judah. ‐ New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000. ‐ 288 p. ‐ ISBN 0–300–08313–0, ISBN 0–300–08354–8 (pbk)     

Crop sales,shortages and peasant portfolio behaviour: An analysis of Angola

The article focuses on the influence of economic factors on sales of agricultural products in Angola. Between the early 1970s and the mid‐1980s the volume of sales declined by around 90 per cent, while during the late 1980s there was a significant recovery. This was partly due to non‐economic factors such as war and drought. However, the rural economy also experienced extraordinary regulatory changes which led to a severe shortage of consumer goods. The theory of peasant supply response in a rationed economy therefore provides a starting point for the analysis and is further extended to incorporate features particular to Angola.     

Citizenship and governance in Mercosur: arguments for a social agenda

This paper examines a neglected dimension of the debate about post-national citizenship by focusing on the articulation of citizenship demands at the level of the region. More specifically, it analyses the pressures for, and the constraints on, the project of social citizenship within Mercosur. Drawing on primary research in Argentina, the article identifies a number of initiatives that attempt to infuse Mercosur with a social agenda. I argue that the significance of these initiatives is that they represent the first coherent attempt to articulate a citizen-centred model of new regionalism in Mercosur. But I also suggest that a formidable combination of obstacles lies in the path of this alternative project of regional governance. Finally, I explore the consequences of excluding issues of citizenship, rights and welfare from the agenda of regionalism, highlighting in particular the possibility of societal rejection if region building remains empty of social meaning.     

Ethics in leadership: The case of local politicians

The mainstream literature on leadership has little to say about the role of ethics. Equally, much of this literature is concerned with the private sector and with managerial leadership. This paper addresses both these gaps, by reporting on the development of a scale for measuring ethical values in local political leadership, the public service values scale. This is one section of a larger instrument for assessing the skills of local political leaders: the Warwick Political Leadership Questionnaire. The paper reports on the use of this instrument in a 360 degree format, following piloting of a self assessment version. The responses of 19 elected members and 241 feedback givers are analysed. These data offer support for the validity and reliability of the public service values scale. The paper concludes with a research agenda, offering suggestions for how this scale can be applied to researching ethics in leadership.     

„Auch in unserer Zeit werden Götter in den Massen geboren“. Emile Durkheims Erklärungsansätze zur Entstehung gesellschaftlicher Ideale in der Moderne

The article focuses on Emile Durkheim’s complex and changing views concerning the evolution of morality and religion under conditions of modernity. While he foresaw a progressive weakening of traditional religions, Durkheim did not believe that modern societies would lose any sense of the sacred. He was convinced that a functioning morality needs a sacred object at its core. In modern times, with the increasing separation of religion and morals, the sacred object of morality is the human person. The article presents and discusses the account given by Durkheim of the emergence of the moral ideal of the person. It shows that Durkheim’s work contains two distinct accounts of this process: according to the course on Professional Ethics and Civic Morals, the modern ideal of the person is to a large extent a product of the state. In later texts, including the Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Durkheim increasingly emphasized the role of society itself: he tried to show, using examples from the French Revolution in particular, how ideals are forged in those particular moments of social excitation he used to call “collective effervescence”.     

A Fatality Following Ingestion of the Designer Drug Meta‐Chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP) in an Asthmatic—HPLC‐MS/MS Detection in Biofluids and Hair

A 20‐year‐old man, a cocaine addict and regular ecstasy user, with a medical history of allergic asthma died after ingesting half a tablet earlier the same day. The white tablet, stamped with a “smiling sun” logo looked very much like an ecstasy tablet and was sold as such. He experienced a severe asthma attack just after ingesting the half tablet and it evolved over the next few hours into fatal cardiorespiratory arrest. Biological samples, taken after embalming, were analyzed by high‐performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC‐MS/MS). Analysis revealed meta‐chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP) in concentrations of 45.8 mg in a similar tablet obtained later from the drug dealer, 5.1 ng/mL in the bile, 0.3 ng/g in the liver, 15.0 ng/mL in the urine, and its absence in a hair sample (<0.02 ng/mg), which indicated he was not a regular user (whereas strong concentrations of MDMA and cocaine were found in the hair). Interrogated by the police after his arrest, the dealer said that he had sold the victim and for the very first time two tablets with the same “smiling sun” logo. The tablet used for analysis was from the same brand as the one ingested by the victim. The autopsy excluded other causes of death, while the histological analyses showed a large number of polynuclear eosinophils in the bronchial walls, confirming the asthmatic pathology. None of the other organs examined (larynx, liver, heart, adrenal glands, and kidneys) showed any distinctive signs, and in particular no inflammatory infiltrate. The death was the result of an asthma attack in an asthmatic person, violently decompensated following ingestion of approximately 20 mg of mCPP.     

Mental Health Review Tribunals: A comparison of the content of tribunal reports for discharged and not discharged patients and for the effect of legal classification

Abstract

This study examined the content of reports provided for Mental Health Review Tribunals. A retrospective design was used to compare the tribunal reports of fifty patients. Two groups of twenty five patients were compared, one including patients discharged by tribunals and the other patients not discharged. Social combination theory and valence theory were used to analyse the content of the reports and to assess whether they were associated with tribunal outcome. Opinion statements discussing suitability for discharge were more closely associated with outcome than fact statements. For the statements presenting subjects positively or negatively, fact statements were more closely associated with outcome. The valence of both types of statements was also found to be related to outcome, with more positive values being achieved for discharged subjects. Comparison of reports written for previous tribunals before any of the subjects in the study were discharged indicated that those subjects who went on to be discharged at their next tribunal had the least negative valences. In addition to this, the effect of legal classification on outcome was explored, and indicated a difference in the valence of reports for discharged and not discharged patients, depending on classification of mental illness or psychopathic disorder.     

The Inclusion of Nonsafety Criteria within the Regulatory Framework of Agricultural Biotechnology: Exploring Factors that Are Likely to Influence Policy Transfer

Policy makers of various countries are exposed to critiques that call for the consideration of issues that transcend human, animal, and environmental safety concerns when assessing agricultural biotechnology products. While some jurisdictions have decided to broaden the scope of their approval process for genetically modified (GM) foods, this paper analyzes legal, political, and economic factors that can influence the transfer of these initiatives. Drawing on mechanisms presented in the policy transfer literature, this article examines their mixed effects pertaining to the regulation of biotechnology. Although the mechanisms of competition and coercion do not preclude such a possibility, one must admit that they do not create any incentives for policy makers to include nonsafety criteria within biotechnology regulations. By contrast, to varying degrees, the mechanisms of mimicry and learning can foster the transfer of such a broadened scope that allows a better assessment of GM foods' social acceptability.