Hierarchical resource allocation decisions

A model of resource allocations within a hierarchical bureaucracy is presented. Since at the departmental level programs of other departments overlap on certain objectives, allocations independently determined by departments are not optimal. It is well known that if only budgetary guidelines are transmitted by a central decision maker they are insufficient to assure desired allocations. A minimal set of guidelines exist which, when transmitted to departmental advisors, result in desired allocations.     

The social composition of the Mau Mau movement in the white highlands

This article is an attempt to locate the social basis of the Mau Mau movement in the White Highlands. It is argued that the Mau Mau revolt was an outcome of a prolonged agrarian struggle between Kikuyu squatters and European settlers. In this agrarian struggle, the leading rôle was assumed by Kikuyu artisans and petty traders. This leadership provided the Mau Mau movement with the type of organisation and strategy that could unite the Kikuyu peasantry.     

Commonwealthmen and Republicans: Dr. H.V. Evatt, the Monarchy and India

H.V. Evatt's foreign policy has attracted considerable historical attention, but his response as Australian External Affairs Minister to Commonwealth constitutional issues remains neglected. Evatt sought to retain India in the Commonwealth in 1948–49, but he insisted that India ought to recognise the king's prerogatives in its constitutional arrangements. He had developed his defence of the monarchy and its place in the empire in his writings of the inter-war years, and sought to apply these ideas in his Commonwealth diplomacy of the late 1940s. Evatt's failure to have these ideas accepted resulted from his attempt to impose an ideal of the relationship between the monarchy and the Commonwealth, derived from his understanding of the evolution of constitutional relations between the United Kingdom and the old dominions, to the very different context of Asian postwar decolonisation.     

Fiction in Review: The Fictional World of Nina Berberova

Books reviwed in this article:
Nina Berberova, The Ladies from St. Petersburg
Nina Berberova, The Books of Happiness
Nina Berberova, Cape of Storms     

Political competition and legislative shirking in roll-call votes: Evidence from Germany for 1953–2017

Public Choice - We analyze the impact of elected competitors from the same constituency on legislative shirking in the German Bundestag from 1953 to 2017. The German electoral system ensures at...     

Gender Differences in Resistance to Schooling: The Role of Dynamic Peer-Influence and Selection Processes

Boys engage in notably higher levels of resistance to schooling than girls. While scholars argue that peer processes contribute to this gender gap, this claim has not been tested with longitudinal quantitative data. This study fills this lacuna by examining the role of dynamic peer-selection and influence processes in the gender gap in resistance to schooling (i.e., arguing with teachers, skipping class, not putting effort into school, receiving punishments at school, and coming late to class) with two-wave panel data. We expect that, compared to girls, boys are more exposed and more responsive to peers who exhibit resistant behavior. We estimate hybrid models on 5448 students from 251 school classes in Sweden (14–15 years, 49% boys), and stochastic actor-based models (SIENA) on a subsample of these data (2480 students in 98 classes; 49% boys). We find that boys are more exposed to resistant friends than girls, and that adolescents are influenced by the resistant behavior of friends. These peer processes do not contribute to a widening of the gender gap in resistance to schooling, yet they contribute somewhat to the persistence of the initial gender gap. Boys are not more responsive to the resistant behavior of friends than girls. Instead, girls are influenced more by the resistant behavior of lower status friends than boys. This explains to some extent why boys increase their resistance to schooling more over time. All in all, peer-influence and selection processes seem to play a minor role in gender differences in resistance to schooling. These findings nuance under investigated claims that have been made in the literature.     

JUSTICE IN HELMAND – THE CHALLENGE OF LAW REFORM IN A SOCIETY AT WAR

The author describes the shortcomings of the justice system in Helmand province and the problems of running an effective Western-style system when civil authority is strongly contested. Traditional methods of dispute resolution are examined, together with the approach followed by the Taleban. His conclusion is pessimistic. A choice has to be made between accepting an effective traditional system and supporting a system familiar to the West which has little local traction.