The G20 Is the Key Forum for Adjusting Global Power Shift

For 500 years the West was on the rise, culminating in Globalizaiton 1.0—the open system of trade, information flows and the spread of technology on the terms and in the image of the West. The benefits of that system over the last 30 years have led to the rise of the emerging economies. As a result we are entering the new era of Globalization 2.0 characterized by new forms of non‐Western modernity and the interdependence of plural identities. The advent of this new era has been hastened by the fiscal and financial crisis in Europe and the United States. Turkey, with its Islamic‐oriented democracy that has become a template for the liberated peoples of the Arab Spring, and China, with its effective neo‐Confucian form of governance, are the most sharply defined new players in this multi‐polar and multi‐dimensional world. In this section, one of Turkey's most insightful sociologists examines the post‐secular transformation of that nation. One of China's more provocative philosophers proposes a hybrid model that combines what has been learned from the experience of Western and Chinese governance in a way that “enhances democracy” in both systems.     

Unionism after Good Friday and St Andrews

Unionism's response to the peace process and the Belfast Agreement was often characterised as incoherent, divided and reactive. This reflected the reality that the core of the peace process was the relationship between the British state and the IRA. Since the end of the IRA as a terrorist organisation and mainstream republicanism's embrace of a partitionist settlement, Unionism's political position appears stronger. However, although constitutionally secure it faces major ideological and strategic challenges     

Regulatory Competition and the Politics of Financial Market Reform in Britain and Japan

This article examines the impact that the internationalization of jnance has had on the regulation of domestic securities markets in Japan and Britain. In particular, it seeks to explain the apparent incompatibility of two distinct trends: deregulation (and state retreat) on the one hand, and increased regulation and state involvement in markets on the other.
Much of the literature about the efects of internationalization on domestic policymaking has drfjculty explaining these two distinct regulatory frends. First, there has been no uniform "competition in regulatory laxity." Second, the United States does not appear to have exerted hegemonic influence over outcomes. Finally, domestic-level explanations which deny the importance of systemic-level influences on domestic policy choices are unable to explain the similarity of policy choices undertaken by governments with very different regulatory traditions.
I argue instead that regulatory reforms have been undertaken primarily for the benefit of a particular set of private economic actors—mobile consumers of financial services, including both holders of liquid investment capital and large multinational borrowers. Internationalization has systematically strengthened their influence over the policymaking process by making "exit" from one political marketplace to another a more realistic and more potent bargaining strategy than the alternative of exercising "voice."     

IS JUSTICE “COLLAR-BLIND”?: PUNISHING MEDICAID PROVIDER FRAUD*

The question of punishment of white-collar criminals is addressed in this paper through an examination of sanctions imposed on health care providers convicted of defrauding California's Medicaid “Medi-Cal” system. Quantitative data were collected from Medi-Cal case files and, for comparative purposes, from a statewide data base maintained by the California Bureau of Criminal Statistics for grand theft arrestees. Qualitative data comprising interviews with Medi-Cal enforcement personnel supplement the analysis. The analysis of criminal sanctions reveals greater leniency in the punishment of Medi-Cal offenders than in the punishment of similarly charged non-white-collar offenders. The findings are related to recent debates regarding the severity of punishment for white-collar offenders.     

REEVALUATING THE CUSTODY-THERAPY CONFLICT PARADIGM IN CORRECTIONAL MENTAL HEALTH SETTINGS*

It has become almost axiomatic in sociological analyses of interactions between mental health and criminal justice personnel that their respective ideologies are inherently contradictory and produce conflict within organizations in which both groups are working. Because key components of the mental health system have changed dramatically since the seminal research in this area was conducted and because these concepts were never tested in certain criminal justice organizations, many commonly accepted generalizations about custody-therapy conflicts warrant new examination. Interview and questionnaire data from a national sample of 43 county jails with mental health programs were analyzed. In contrast to earlier research, fundamental conflicts between mental health and correctional staff were not frequent. Rather, Pondy's concept of frictional Conflicts, which are not fundamental to either individual interactions or organizational operations, were more typical. Jails, as short-term people-processing organizations, cannot be assumed to fit organizational research results generated from state prisons.     

Child Abuse,Neglect, and Delinquency: The Neurological Link

Recent research has demonstrated a clear connection between physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and neglect during childhood, and negative changes in a child's neurological development. Abnormal growth and developmental patterns in a child's brain as a result of abuse and neglect can lead to life‐long problems with self‐control, memory, emotion, judgment, consequential thinking, and moral reasoning, resulting in an increased likelihood of substance abuse, juvenile delinquency, and adult criminal behaviors. This article provides information on the abused child, neurological implications, and recommendations.