Psychological variables in student activism: The radical triad and some religious differences

Thirty-six male students, drawn from a sample of 1195, were interviewed to obtain a personal history. A battery of projective psychological tests (Rorschach and TATs) were also administered to them. The students were divided into four groups of nine each, Jewish radicals (JR), Christian radicals (CR), Jewish moderates (JM), and Christian moderates (CM), to test the significance of religious background as it related to political outlook. Eight significant psychological variables were found and defined. No differences were found between JMs and CMs. Radicals differed from moderates on three variables: negative identity, masochistic surrender, and treating people as concepts. In addition, JR subjects demonstrated consistently a wandering fantasy, flight from the mother, the mother as salient, and machismo as psychological variables. CRs were not characterized by any of these variables. As with both groups of moderates, the father of the CRs was psychologically salient, but unlike the moderates, CTs perceived their fathers as flawed. The possible dynamic meaning of these configurations is discussed, as are their possible relationship to radical behavior and radical political ideology.This study was supported by grants from the American Jewish Committee and The National Science Foundation (GS35307A).Director of Resident Education, McLean Hospital. M.D., Harvard Medical School; residency training at Boston Veteran's Administration Hospital and Beth Israel Hospital in psychiatry. Psychoanalytic training, Boston Psychoanalytic Institute. Major interest: depression.Director of Training for Psychology Interns. Ph.D., Brandeis, 1960; Master's degree, University of Illinois. Major interest: schizophrenia.Professor of Political Science, Smith College. Major interest: modern European history — applying psychoanalytic methods to historical and social problems like student activism.     

Unitary regulatory supervision or multi-entity supervision? A computational approach to a numbers problem in financial regulation

Policymakers globally have debated (and often implemented) the idea of consolidating numerous financial regulatory supervisory entities into one unitary entity. This article uses a computational model to explore the effect such a decision would have on supervisory performance. Using insights from organizational scholarship on consensus-making among individuals within organizations, the simulation suggests that under most conditions a unitary supervisory entity yields lower performance than smaller, numerous entities with unique mandates, keeping the number of regulatory inspectors constant. This result arises from the heterogeneity of perspectives being shared within the entity and the influence of precedent actions. The results also show a decreasing utility to disaggregation: performance decreases when too few inspectors share among themselves in building consensus. When insufficient heterogeneity within supervisors exists, unitary frameworks outperform multi-entity frameworks. These findings have implications on the design of supervisory frameworks and contribute to research on consensus-building, heterogeneous group membership, and computational modeling.     

Out of Darkness into Light? Introducing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

On 13 December 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nationsadopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities(CRPD) and an associated Optional Protocol. The formulationof the CRPD has been hailed as a great landmark in the struggleto reframe the needs and concerns of persons with disabilityin terms of human rights. The CRPD is regarded as having finallyempowered the world's largest minority to claim their rights,and to participate in international and national affairs onan equal basis with others who have achieved specific treatyrecognition and protection. This essay interrogates the intellectualantecedents of the CRPD and its continuity and discontinuitywith 25 years of international law and its struggles with disabilityand human rights. It then explores the text of the CRPD, criticallyexamining its potential contribution to the realisation of therights of persons with disability.     

Consultation in Local Government: A Case Study of Practice at Devon County Council

This paper provides an evaluation of consultations undertaken by Devon County Council and is based on interviews with over 40 managers. Information is supplied about the details given to consultees, the methodological expertise of council employees, the extent to which consultations were co-ordinated across the authority and the results/impact of the consultations. This evidence is used to identify issues with a widespread application.     

My Two Homes

Irecently hadto fly back to Australia to have some urgently needed surgery. I have had the surgery, and my doctor has given me the all-clear to travel internationally, and to go back to teaching again. I will return to China very soon. Now, I am writing from my study in my modest but comfortable home in Robertson, Queensland. This is a very wealthy suburb of     

Explaining Institutional Change: Policy Areas,Outside Options,and the Bretton Woods Institutions

I propose and test a theoretical framework that explains institutional change in international relations. Like firms in markets, international institutions are affected by the underlying characteristics of their policy areas. Some policy areas are prone to produce institutions facing relatively little competition, limiting the outside options of member states and impeding redistributive change. In comparison, institutions facing severe competition will quickly reflect changes in underlying state interests and power. To test the theory empirically, I exploit common features of the Bretton Woods institutions—the International Monetary Fund and World Bank—to isolate the effect of variation in policy area characteristics. The empirical tests show that, despite having identical membership and internal rules, bargaining outcomes in the Bretton Woods institutions have diverged sharply and in accordance with the theory.     

Qualitative Differences Among Rural and Urban Intimate Violence Victimization Experiences and Consequences: A Pilot Study

Relatively little is known about rural women's intimate violence experiences in comparison to urban women's experiences, partly because of the difficulty in accessing rural women. This pilot study used a protective order sample of 23 women (15 urban and 8 rural), which provides an access point that is relatively similar for comparisons across rural and urban areas. The number of participants is low and, therefore, results are preliminary. However, several significant findings emerged. Rural women reported significantly less social support, less education, less income, more physical abuse in the preceding year, more childhood physical and sexual abuse, and worse overall health and mental health, as well as encountering abuse earlier in the relationship. Both groups reported higher rates of illegal drug and cigarette use than those among the general population. The findings highlight some overall important themes in examining rural and urban intimate violence victims by suggesting that rural and urban intimate violence victims have different victimization experiences and service needs. Implications for further research and intervention are discussed.