The new global network of corporate power and the decline of national self-determination

The cold war years witnessed the steady deterioration of America's machine tool base and the start of the migration of U.S. production into Third World countries. Not merely America but also the very core of Western production was and still is going global. Quite recently a new development appears, namely, public and private sector corporations from once peripheral and semi-peripheral areas moving assembly plant production into North America and parts of Europe, and some of them have already purchased a number of American corporations which had not gone global. As the old center deteriorates, the once peripheral and semi-peripheral enterprises close in on it forming the present global corporate network — one which locks all national economies into the global economy and increasingly renders nations powerless to control their own socioeconomic destiny. In a very real sense, with the possible exception of nations that control giant public sector multinational firms, all nations are becoming peripheral, but peripheral to the new supranational network of corporate power. These complex processes which followed unerringly from corporate delinquencies of the cold war mean that the mainstream theories of global development as enunciated by Andre Gundar Frank, Samir Amin and Immanuel Wallerstein, for example, require overhauling. This paper expands this thesis and offers an alternative to contemporary global development theories.     

Changing expectations:COSMIC in the new world

Twenty years ago, in the olden days, computer software was a specialty niche open only to gurus who were willing to devote years of study to the field. In the last three years the picture has changed. With the advent of comfortable user interfaces, word processors, spreadsheets, and easy-to-use databases, almost every secretary in the country is conversant with computer technology and their bosses are catching on fast. The result is a heightened awareness of computer software. COSMIC, a longestablished, non-profit software distribution facility devoted to technology transfer, is reviewing and revising its operations, trying to meet the expectations of a wider audience.     

Curbing Chinese missile sales: From imposing to negotiating China’s adherence to the MTCR

This article explores and assesses the ongoing American effort to elicit Chinese adherence to the guidelines and parameters of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). In 1991 and 1992, the United States employed mainly economic pressure in pursuit of this goal, an approach that resulted in China’s first written commitment to respect the regime’s restrictions. Subsequently, although economic pressure has remained the primary tool, Washington has also begun of necessity to discuss Chinese proliferation concerns, American arms sales to Taiwan in particular. This development led to China’s reaffirmation of its MTCR commitment in 1994. Despite these agreements, however, this aspect of the Sino-American relationship remains fraught with potential problems and will require sustained diplomatic attention in the future.     

Sex Differences in Age Patterns of Delinquent/Criminal Careers: Results from Poisson Latent Class Analyses of the Philadelphia Cohort Study

Applications of latent class analyses to the study of criminal careers have yielded results with implications for criminological theory. Distinct latent classes of individuals within various samples have been identified based upon the similarity of individuals with respect to their rate of offending across the teen and adult years, net of the effects of other regressors. In previous research on samples of males taken from the cities of London and Philadelphia, four and five such categories have been identified respectively, ranging from a group of nonoffenders to a group of chronic offenders. However, the question of whether similar findings hold for females has not been adequately addressed, in part due to the scarcity of longitudinal samples with sizable female populations. Data from the Second Philadelphia Cohort are used to address this and related questions. First, are there latent classes of female offenders? Second, if such categories do exist, how do they compare? Third, how do classes of male and female offenders compare on key measures of criminal careers? Analyses of the samples yield differing numbers of classes for males and females. Gender invariances as well as differences in patterns of offending are also found and are discussed.     

Research on Gender and the Law: Where Are We Going,Where Have We Been?

This article provides an overview of issues related to research on gender and the law. Following a discussion of the ways in which gender and the law interact, we assess the extent to which Law and Human Behavior (LHB) has addressed the issue of gender. Specifically, we present the results of our analysis of the role of gender in articles published in LHB from 1990 through 1996. We discuss the relatively few gender-relevant studies that appeared, as well as comment upon the attention given to gender by research with other primary foci. We then discuss various strategies for conducting gender research and their implications for research on gender and the law. We conclude by introducing the articles in this special issue on gender and the law, commenting on how they add to our accumulated knowledge in this area.     

Government Shekels without Government Shackles? The Administrative Challenges of Charitable Choice

As President Bush plans to expand "Charitable Choice," civil libertarians worry that the legislation is part of a new assault on separation of church and state. Religious Right activists demand assurances that funds will not flow to groups like the Nation of Islam or Scientologists. African American pastors in urban areas—arguably the main targets of the initiative—are concerned that "government shekels" will be accompanied by "government shackles," that the costs and regulatory burdens accompanying collaborations with government will divert resources from client services and mute their prophetic voice.
Caught in the middle are public managers, who must make the legislation work in the face of significant administrative challenges. Those challenges occur in three areas: contracting procedures, contract administration, and evaluation. In each of these categories, political realities and constitutional constraints will significantly complicate the manager's job.