Regulation of technology transfer: The Mexican experience

Beginning some 20 years ago, regulation of technology transfer became common-place in a number of developing countries. Whether such regulation could prove beneficial was often questioned, particularly in the industrialized world. But with a 15–20 year history to study, we can now look at the impact that regulation has had. Mexico presents a good case study, as its original law was one of the earliest, and the country's political continuity has led to a detectable evolvement of the technology-transfer process that allows analysis of various factors over time.     

UNEMPLOYMENT POLICY: A CASE STUDY IN AGENDA MANAGEMENT

Abstract: Agenda management is a process in which governments attempt to prevent policy issues from emerging, to influence the public perception of issues and to shape or delete issues on the current agenda of policy making. Numerous techniques are available and governments may often resort to them for political purposes. Unemployment policy from 1976–82 provides a case study for assessing the significance of agenda management in the policy process. The many initiatives and announcements of the government and their presentation in the media are described. It is concluded that the government often appeared to employ agenda management techniques such as tokenism, symbolic reassurance, postponement and the selective presentation of social indicators. It is noted that the government's handling of the issue followed an annual cycle, superimposed on which was an electoral cycle. Its attempts to influence public perceptions of the issue had direct links with the nature of policy outputs.     

Predicting batterer recidivism five years after community intervention

The purpose of this study was to examine batterer recidivism rates 5 years after community intervention and to determine differences that discriminate between recidivists and nonrecidivists. Of the 100 men included in the sample, 40% were identified as recidivists because they were either convicted of domestic assault, the subject of an order for protection, or a police suspect for domestic assault. A discriminant analysis was conducted using a variety of background and intervention variables. Five variables were selected that significantly discriminated between recidivists and nonrecidivists and correctly classified 60.6% of the cases. Men who had been abusive for a shorter duration prior to the program, court ordered to have a chemical dependency evaluation, in chemical dependency treatment, abused as children, and previously convicted for nonassault crimes were more likely to be recidivists. Variables relating to intervention did not significantly predict recidivism. Implications for community intervention programs are discussed.     

Southern African contradictions: Part I,the role of U.S. based multinational corporations (MNCs)

Summary This is the first of two articles which seek to explain how the distorted growth of South Africa has enabled it to dominate and underdevelop the entire southern African region while itself becoming increasingly dependent externally on Western multinational corporations. A simple model provides the theoretical framework for this analysis. A brief historial sketch of the handful of powerful mining finance houses, led by the Anglo American Group involving U.S. and British interests, have joined the racist South African Government to build state capitalism and coerce the black Africn majority to work for less than subsistence wages. In this context, the largest U.S. multinational corporations, many of them linked through their boards of directors and financial ties to each other and high U.S. officials, play an increasingly critical role in providing sorely-needed capital and advanced technology to strengthen South Africa's industrial complex. At the same time, U.S. interests are attempting to influence the South African black trade union movement to acquiesce to the basic structure of the resulting exploitative political economy.The second article will outline the way South African and multinational corporate interests have penetrated the political economies of neighboring countries to obtain low-cost labor, raw materials, and markets for their expanding output of manufactured goods.