Constitutionalism and Hong Kong's future

This paper considers the transition and handover processes in Hong Kong in terms of constitutional development. It is argued that the Sino‐British Joint Declaration effectively promises Hong Kong a liberal constitutional system and that this system has been implemented in part and eroded in part. It considers the health of Hong Kong's constitutional system in the first year‐and‐a‐half of the handover. The paper then identifies the three central threats to Hong Kong's continued constitutional health: a Chinese and SAR policy vision that favors economic over political liberalism; the threat of mainland intrusion upon Hong Kong's autonomy; and any mainland failure to respect Hong Kong's viable international status to the extent guaranteed in the Joint Declaration. The history of Chinese policy calls into question its appreciation of these threats.     

Political factors in the fall of RolIs-Royce

Abstract. While economic and technological difficulties greatly reduced Rolls-Royce's viability, its passing into receivership can be adequately explained only by invoking additional (and largely political) factors. In the absence of any automatic criteria for aborting a losing project, the Conservative government of the day responded to an abundance of consistently negative politioal implications. Unfortunately for its continued survival, the Rolls-Royce development of an RB-211 engine for Lockheed was civilian, not military; prosaic, not meta-phoric; ostensibly private, not openly governmental; internationally fluctuating, not domestically controllable; a weak coalition, not a strong partnership; profit oriented, not ideologically based; and narrowly subsidized, not internally fund-able. The Conservative response was probably not unique; and a Labour government wodd Iikely have reacted to these implications in roughly the same way. It is to the circumambient political factors rather than to determinative economic considerations, however, that the decisions reached by either party would be primarily traceable. Sommaire. Des difficultés économiques et technologiques réduisirent de beau-coup la viabilité de Rolls-Royce, mais sa mise en faillité ne peut vraiment s'expIi-quer qu'en invoquant d'autres facteurs complémentaires, surtout politiques. En I'absence de tout critère automatique pour faire avorter un projet non rentable, le gouvernement conservateur du moment réagit à une multitude d'implications politiques, toutes négatives. Malheureusement pour Rolls-Royce, la création d'un moteur RB-211 pour Lockheed était une entreprise civile et non pas militaire; prosaïque et non pas métaphorique; manifestement privée et non pas ouverte-ment gouvernementale; sujette à des fluctuations internationales et non pas contrôlable à I'échelle nationale; dirigée par une coalition faible et non pas par une association forte; à buts lucratifs et non pas idéologiques; subventionnée de facon limitée et non pas financée de I'intérieur. La réaction des conservateurs n'a sans doute rien de très étonnant et un gouvernement travailliste aurait sans doute, en gros, réagi de la même façon à ces données. Ce sont à des facteurs politiques ambiants plutòt qu'à des considérations économiques déterminantes qu'il faudrait attribuer avant tout les décisions prises par l'un ou I'autre parti.     

A simple, rapid 125I radioimmunoassay for the detection of barbiturates in biological fluids.

A simple, rapid radioimmunoassay employing 125-I-labeled secobarbital derivative has been developed and has been shown to be capable of detecting at the nanogram level a variety of barbiturates in urine as well as in plasma.     

A diamond in the rough: digging up and polishing Harold D. Lasswell’s decision functions

Policy Sciences - As part of Harold D. Lasswell’s policy sciences, the decisions functions emerged to explore and understand comparative policy processes. The decision functions specified...     

Culture and Relativism

The meanings and implications of cultural relativism have been debated for decades. Reprising this debate, Roger Sandall offers a pointed critique of the anthropological concept of culture and identifies relativism as the internal and corrosive enemy of the open society. I challenge his reading of our predicament. Considering the work of Franz Boas and his debts to the philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, I distance the social science concept of culture from positions—the rejection of standards of truth, beauty, and morality; the belief that cultural value systems and practices are all equally true (or untrue); the valorization of primitivism—that are not intrinsic to it. Next, I consider the use of culture in the “philosophy of primitivism” and its meanings in multiculturalism and identity politics. I argue that many ostensibly relativist claims are used to serve non-relativist agendas, or hide universalistic claims in unstated but essential premises and background assumptions. Rather than a world dominated by relativism, where cultural differences are held to be inviolable and cross-cultural judgments have been rendered impossible, I see something like the reverse. Our problem is not that we overvalue cultural differences but that we underestimate them. Even in our multiculturalism, we imagine a sameness of outlook and aspiration, an unwitting projection of ourselves in the end.

Horsing around: Using equine facilitated learning to support the development of social-emotional competence of students at risk of school failure

The social-emotional issues some students experience can place them at risk of school failure. Traditional methods of support can be ineffective or not sustainable and new alternative approaches need to be attempted to support social-emotional competency, school engagement, and success for students at risk. This article discusses preliminary outcomes of an equine facilitated learning (EFL) program specifically designed to focus on using horses to improve the resilience and social-emotional competency in students perceived as “at risk” of school failure. This qualitative exploratory study used interviews and observations over a six month period to listen to the voices of the students themselves about their experiences of EFL. Initial findings from the pilot study suggest that EFL programs can be a novel and motivating way to promote resilience training and social-emotional development of students at risk of failure and, in turn, improve their level of engagement and connection with school environments.