Sharecropping contracts in rural India: A note

In this article we examine the terms of sharecropping contracts using data from rural India. We examine the effect of - (1) the sharing of input costs between landlord and tenant; (2) the tenant's capacity to borrow; and (3) the existence of outside employment opportunities for the tenant — on the share parameter. We regress the share paid by the household on a set of cultivating household and village level characteristics and find that cost sharing and the existence of outside employment opportunities significantly affect the share parameter.     

Democracy and Nuclear Arms Control—Destiny or Ambiguity?

Is there a particularly democratic way of dealing with nuclear arms control? Against the background of democratic peace (DP) theory, and using Immanuel Kant's writing as a starting point, this article argues that democracies should indeed develop a preference for arms control, but that Liberalism as well as the nature of nuclear weapons opens the possibility for contingent developments within a DP framework. While DP theory can thus account for the existence of variance, we maintain that a social constructivist complement based on role, identity, and enemy perception can best explain why a given democracy follows a specific path. Case studies of six Western democracies reveal a considerable variance in their nuclear arms control policies, which can indeed be traced back to the countries' respective roles, identities, and images of the Kantian “unjust enemy.”     

EXECUTIVE BRANCH REFORMS IN THE REPUBLIC OF LATVIA

The Latvian government is being praised for successful national recovery from the severe economic crisis. However, the praise is followed by accusations that it is achieved at the cost of socially vulnerable populations who are still unable to recover from the economic crisis or simply decided to leave the country. Was the cost of victory too high？ The question still remains to be answered,＂ however it highlights the fact that such a problem exists. Problems and the ability or inability to resolve them are especially brought to the fore during such crisis situations and it is clear that the Latvian government model is not effective enough. The low level of public confidence level towards the Saeima and the government, frictions between coalition partners, lack of responsibiBty, unprofessionalism - are just some of the problems that characterise it. Is an executive branch reform necessary or just some improvements？ Is legal regulation or legal nihilism to blame？ How to make the executive branch stronger and more responsible？ These questions have been addressed during recent years within the context of administrative reforms as the process of forming the government and the executive branch plays a very big or deciding role in national development. The existing system has run its course and no longer provides qualitative government which underlines the necessity for change.     

An Eventful Journey from Christian Feminism to Christian Humanism

This article tells the life story of Una Kroll, a retired medical doctor and Anglican priest, born in 1925. It describes her journeying through life, her higher education at Girton College, Cambridge and training as a doctor in the 1940s as well as the forces leading to her decision to become a missionary nun. The conflict she experienced between her Christian discipleship and her vocation as a doctor came to the fore when she worked in Liberia. In 1937 she married a monk, at considerable cost to his own reputation, and then worked for the National Health Service in England. She became increasingly drawn into the campaigns for the ordination of women as priests in the Church of England and in later life joined the Roman Catholic Church.     

Is a Computer Worth a Thousand Books? Internet Access and the Changing Role of Public Libraries

The ongoing debate on the “digital divide” is centered on improving Internet home‐access penetration rates through two instruments, price subsidies and capital subsidies. Subsidizing home access can be expensive and difficult because of the inherent difficulty of identifying target households. Increasing the availability of public access terminals instead can be an effective way for achieving universal access. The analysis of this article considers public libraries because of their national reach and existing Internet service offerings to users. It finds strong evidence of a need‐based use of access facilities at these libraries, and also identifies a clear increasing trend in visits over time by patrons for getting online. Upgrading and maintaining these facilities would be a better use of funds than indiscriminately providing subsidies to households.     

A proposed method for the identification of race in sub-adult skeletons: a geometric morphometric analysis of mandibular morphology

The identification of biological race (ancestry) in skeletal material is an important aspect of forensic investigations. While techniques for race determination are well established for adult skeletons, identification of race in sub-adult specimens has not been widely addressed. The present study investigates racial differences in the mandibular morphology of sub-adult specimens using geometric morphometric analyses. One hundred and seventy-four mandibles from five morphologically distinct samples were digitized and subjected to general Procrustes analysis. Results showed significant morphological differences between the samples and obtained cross-validation results of over 70% accuracy in identification of unknown individuals using the complete mandible. It is suggested that these techniques could provide a method for the identification of race in sub-adult individuals.     

Russian defense spending after 2010: the interplay of personal,domestic, and foreign policy interests

Since 2010, Russia’s defense spending has seen an average annual real growth of 10%, causing a profound shift in the composition of government expenditure. This article examines the formal and informal processes through which Russia’s level of defense spending is determined and identifies personal, domestic, and foreign policy interests behind the rise in defense expenditures. Drawing on a combination of elite interviews and document and news analyses, I argue that domestic political and socioeconomic factors are at least as important as geopolitical and security ones in explaining Russia’s decision to push defense to the forefront of the political agenda. The findings suggest that high levels of defense spending may be politically sustainable in Russia, at least in the medium term, even though it comes at the cost of other public goods.     

Service Providers’ Knowledge and Perceptions of the Legal Service Needs of Crime Victims

Currently, there is an expansive body of victimization literature within the criminal justice field, which covers a number of essential topics such as victimization trends and patterns, short-and long-term effects of victimization, as well as specific effects of intimate partner violence and sexual assault victimization. Despite the variety of topics examined by empirical research, there is a noticeable lack of discourse pertaining to civil legal services for crime victims. This study is among the first to take a close look at civil legal services for victims by exploring three uncharted areas including: (a) service providers’ knowledge of civil legal services, (b) the legal needs of crime victims and available services, and (c) barriers between victims and accessing civil legal services. Using quantitative and qualitative data from interviews with service providers, policy implications and future research recommendations are discussed.