Editorial

It was a good idea then and it is a good idea now. Since 1931 the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency has been working to coordinate the efforts of all who are concerned about crime.     

China Comes Home: The Re-integration of China into the World Economy

This paper examines changes in the Iranian educational system implemented by the Islamic theocracy of Ayatollah Khomeini and his religious followers in the decade after the Revolution overthrowing the Shah. The study demonstrates weaknesses in the theoretical literature on development and education because of its inability to anticipate people in a developing nation empowering a government controlled by religious leaders. Religious values dominate this society and they have significantly altered Iranian education in terms of who teaches; how political/religious ideology, gender roles, and other subjects are taught; who attends schools; and consequentially, these affect Iran's literacy rates.     

Beyond the ‘At Risk’ Individual: Housing and the Eradication of Poverty to Prevent Homelessness

A prevention framework represents one of the fundamental means of the Australian Government's contemporary drive to achieve permanent reductions in homelessness. Consistent with prevailing policies in the UK and US, Australia has approached homelessness prevention through identification and early intervention of individuals ‘at risk’ of homelessness. In this article we suggest that prevention strategies focused on the risk factors that individual pose obscures efforts to address the underlying structural factors that contribute to homelessness, or to reduce the prevalence of homelessness at the overall population level. The article examines the efficacy of increasing the supply of affordable housing to prevent homelessness, but suggests that the provision of housing alone may be insufficient to realising related well‐being objectives. In turn, it is proposed that policy which focuses on poverty reduction has the capacity to achieve the sustainable prevention of homelessness ambitions.     

Rethinking policy capacity in Canada: The role of parties and election platforms in government policy‐making

Abstract: There is an ongoing debate in western industrialized democracies about the genesis of government policy capacity. This article examines this under‐explored issue by looking at the election campaign commitments made by political parties. The author reviews the election policy manifestos of the parties that governed in Canada from 1984 to 2008, some of the proposed policy changes advanced during election campaigns, and the actions taken by governing parties to fulfil those commitments. This research demonstrates that parties were relatively unconstrained in advancing detailed election platforms to the electorate and that they were able to fulfil, or partially fulfil, those commitments at fairly significant levels – particularly incumbent governments, who could draw on their governing experience and the policy advice given by the public service. The author contends that governing parties in Canada possess a high degree of policy‐making capacity and that they have the ability both to advance and implement fairly detailed plans for governing. These findings confirm that political parties are an important source of policy‐making capacity and that such capacity is enhanced by public‐service input.     

Vietnam: Approaching the Asian‐pacific century with confidence

It has been twenty years since the fall of Saigon to Northern Communist forces on 30 April 1975. From that time, Vietnam has slowly, but steadily clawed its way back into the international mainstream, a trend prompted by the revival of the Vietnamese economy which has gained strength from a movement away from Communist economic ideology. The author, who recently paid an extensive visit to Vietnam, examines the process of development and the opportunities and difficulties that arise from it.     

Brokers and Key Players in the Internationalization of the FARC

The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—FARC) was originally founded to protect Colombian peasants from harsh landowner policies in exchange for food and supplies. Over time, it has evolved into an internationally connected, narco-trafficking organization that displays little concern for the peasants it once vowed to protect. In recent years, Colombian authorities have become more adept at countering the FARC, forcing it to operate increasingly outside of Colombia. The FARC's transformation from a local insurgency into an internationally connected one is the focus of this article. Using social network analysis it identifies key leaders who are tied to this transformation and discusses implications concerning the FARC's future.     

Regionalism,environment and Southern African class struggles∗

“In late April, 1992, the Malaysian government hosted an inter‐ministerial meeting for governments of the South in preparation for the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June. This would have been a praiseworthy initiative if not for the government's dismal record on environmental issues, especially on tropical timber logging. However, the government‐controlled media went out of its way to give the opposite impression in the weeks prior to the conference — just as it did before the 1989 Commonwealth Heads of Governments1 Meeting and other international forums.”