Taking Wrongs Seriously: Acknowledgment, Reconciliation, and the Politics of Sustainable Peace, Trudy Govier

Calls for truth commissions and similar public processes topromote social reconciliation after national conflicts oftenreflect admirable aspirations but muddy thinking. This subtleand careful analysis of the processes of political reconciliationafter periods of mass violence opens for analysis the spectrumof potential meanings associated with ‘reconciliation,’ranging from social unity and harmony to the cessation of physicalviolence. Informed by philosophic analysis, social psychological studiesand historical case studies, Taking Wrongs Seriously     

NGO–government partnerships for scaling up: sexuality education in Mexico

Governments in developing countries need effective programmes to advance public policies and improve social welfare. NGOs often have well-tested programmes and research outcomes that are relevant to such needs, yet the scaling up of pilot programmes to national level is difficult to achieve and frequently unsuccessful. This article presents a case of successful scaling up for an adolescent sexual-health and psychosocial-competencies programme in Mexico, through an NGO–government partnership involving IMIFAP, a Mexican NGO. The case illustrates how an NGO can create a successful partnership with government to scale up effective programmes, in ways that meet key needs of the target population while protecting the NGO's core values.     

A comparison of adolescent inpatients with and without substance abuse using the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory

We compared clinical syndromes, expressed concerns, and personality styles of adolescent inpatients with substance use disorders (SUD; n=44) vs. without substance use disorders (non-SUD; n=61) using the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory. The two groups did not differ with regard to age, sex, ethnicity, functional severity, or the frequency of other major psychiatric disorders, and were drawn from the same overall sample population. SUD subjects showed significantly higher levels of delinquent predisposition and lower levels of anxiety. Consistent with these syndromal findings, we found that SUD subjects were characterized by higher levels of unruliness and social insensitivity and lower levels of submissiveness. Our findings suggest that, in severely disturbed adolescents who require psychiatric hospitalization, externalizing phenomena are closely associated with SUD. Our findings also suggest that internalizing problems also exist in SUD, although not at levels greater than that observed in non-SUD inpatients.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. Research interests include eating and weight disorders, addictive behaviors, behavioral medicine, psychological assessment, and psychiatric comorbidity.Received Psy.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Hartford. Research interests include psychological assessment, adolescent psychopathology, and psychiatric comorbidity.Received B.A. in Psychology from Swarthmore College. Research interests include perception, developmental psychopathology, and psychosis proneness.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychiatry from DePaul University. Research interests include the assessment and treatment of substance abusing psychiatric populations.     

What About Syria?

The following is the edited text of the presentations at the September 30, 1999, meeting of the Sadat Forum at Brookings, cohosted by Richard Haass, vice-president and director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, and Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Chairfor Peace and Development at the University of Maryland.     

Women in the public service - a thirty-year perspective

Abstract: Over the last thirty years, there has been a substantial improvement in the representation of women throughout the federal public service. The expectations of and about women in the workplace have also changed immeasurably. However, there are still important differences in the way men and women deal with their environment. The different ways in which men and women are socialized continue to have an impact on women's experience in the workplace. There are still too many places in the public service where a traditional “competitive” (some would say “male”) approach to management prevails. The contrasting “integrative” style of management, which values team-building, participation, responsiveness, and the ability to integrate various points of view, more closely reflects the way in which many women have been socialized and behave in the work environment. It is also the style valued in “well-performing organizations.” In addition, there are important differences in the way many men and women communicate. These differences can lead to misinterpretation and misunderstanding, and, in a culture where “toughness” is valued, this can sometimes result in men underestimating the competence and effectiveness of women. What is required is for management to move beyond employment equity, where the emphasis is on increasing the representation of women and minorities, to a focus on valuing and managing the diversity that women and minority groups bring to the workplace, so that full advantage can be taken of the variety of perspectives, skills and abilities of all employees. Sommaire: Au cours des trente dernières années, la représentation des femmes dans la fonction publique fédérale a connu une amélioration considérable. Ce qu'on attend des femmes sur les lieux de trevail anisi que leurs propres attentes ont grandement évolué. La manière dont les hommes et les femmes réagissent à leur milieu resrte cependant assez différente. La socialisation différente des hommes et des femmes continue à se répercuter sur l'expérience des femmes au travail. Encore aujourd'hui, de nombreux secteurs de la fonction publique font appel à une gestion «compétitive» classique (certains diraient «masculine»). Par contre, le style de ges tion «intégrateur» qui met l'accent sur l'esprit déquipe, la participation, l'ouverture d'esprit et la capacité d'intégrer divers points de vue, reflète de plus prè la manière dont de nombreuses femmes ont été socialisées et dont elles se comportent au travail. D'ailleurs, c'est aussi le style que préfèrent les «organisations performantes». De plus, la manière dont communiquent les hbommes et les femmes peut différer considérablement, ce qui risque de mener à des malentendus et à des mauvaises interprétations; dans une culture ouG l'on admire la «poigne», les hommes en viennent parfois à sous-estimer la compétence et l'efficacité des femmes. La hommes en viennent parfois à sous-estimer la compétence et l'efficacité des femmes. La gestion doit main tenant aller au-delà de l'équité en matière d'emploi, qui met l'accent sur l'augmentation de la représentation des femmes et des minorités, pour gérer la diversité que les femmes et les groupes minoritaires apportent au miliey du travail afin de profiter pleinement de la variété de perspectives, de talents et d'aptitudes de tous les employés.     

The agency role of the physician in Ireland,Britain, and the USA

The USA and Britain have medical care delivery and financing systems which are polar opposites. The Irish system incorporates important features of both. Using original household survey data of medical care utilization in Ireland, and published data and studies of the USA and Britain, the effect of the incentive structures in the three systems on physician behavior, especially on the so-called agency role, is examined. We conclude that the incentive structure is of the utmost importance to policy makers concerned with health costs and economic rationality of medical care systems.