Bankruptcy: Past Puzzles, Recent Reforms, and the Mortgage Crisis

This paper discusses four bankruptcy-related policy issues.First, what is the economic rationale for having a bankruptcyprocedure at all and what defines an economically efficientbankruptcy procedure? Second, why did the number of U.S. bankruptcyfilings increase so dramatically between 1980 and 2005? Third,a major bankruptcy reform went into effect in the United Statesin 2005—what did it do and how did it affect credit andmortgage markets? Finally, the paper discusses the mortgagecrisis, the high social cost of foreclosures, and the difficultyof avoiding foreclosure by voluntarily renegotiation of mortgagecontracts, even when such renegotiations are in the joint interestof debtors and creditors. I also discuss the pros and cons ofgovernment programs to refinance mortgages and the argumentfor giving bankruptcy judges new power to change the terms ofresidential mortgage contracts in bankruptcy.     

Examining the Use of Police in Schools: How Roles may Impact Responses to Student Misconduct

Prior research has suggested that the use of police in schools has resulted in negative outcomes for students; however, this line of research has failed to consider other factors that may influence an officer’s response outside of their mere presence. Over time, the roles and duties of police in a school setting have continued to expand as a result of social and political shifts in criminal justice and education policy. Paralleling this expansion has been the development of a more punitive school discipline environment where students are more likely to be suspended, expelled, a ticketed, and/or arrested. As these two separate bodies of research have been tangentially related, in this study, we use role theory as a guiding framework to connect these two bodies of research and examine how officers’ roles may influence their responses to student misconduct. Data was collected via an online survey distributed to a sample of commissioned law enforcement officers working in Texas schools. The survey included measures of officer roles as well as vignettes to assess how officers would respond to specific situations involving students. Results of this study suggest that an officer’s role may influence how they respond to student misconduct, and therefore, may be an important piece of information for both researchers and practitioners when looking to minimize the potential negative impacts of using police in schools. These findings related to officer roles are discussed in terms of both practice and future research, while considering the larger discipline environment of schools.     

Remembering the Indonesian Peasants’ Front and Plantation Workers’ Union (1945–1966)

The absence of a strong national peasant and agricultural workers’ movement in Indonesia can be traced back to the violent destruction of the Indonesian Peasants’ Front (BTI) and Plantation Workers’ Union (SARBUPRI) in 1965–1966. This contribution reflects on their role in building a progressive movement of peasants and workers in the face of continual attempts to squash them by the Indonesian state and military. How did the cadres learn about the situation and problems in rural areas, and what were their priorities in working with the peasants? Unpublished reports from the last round of the BTI's local-level ‘participatory action research’ conducted in 1965 provide some answers to these questions.     

Crises and Crisis Generations: The Long-term Impact of International Crises on Military Political Participation

Why do states facing high levels of international threat sometimes have militaries that are heavily involved in government and at other times relatively apolitical, professional militaries? I argue that the answer to this puzzle lies in a state's history of acute international crises rather than its chronic threat environment. Poor outcomes—defeats or stalemates—in major international crises lead to professionalization and depoliticization of militaries in both the short- and long-term. A poor outcome creates pressure for military professionalization and withdrawal from politics in order to increase military effectiveness. This effect persists years later due to generational shifts. As officers of the “crisis generation” become generals, they bring with them a preference for professionalization and guide the military towards abstention from politics. I test this theory using a new global dataset on military officers in national governing bodies from 1964–2008 and find strong support for it.