Spanning Organizational Boundaries in Emergency Management

Multiagency emergency management coordination requires stakeholders to span organizational boundaries and facilitate collaboration among other agencies within temporary supraorganizations. Multiagency coordination is important in emergency management as disasters often require the collaboration of multiple agencies into temporary supraorganizations. However, little is known about the boundary spanning activities that influence this collaboration. Based on 39 semistructured interviews with senior emergency management practitioners spanning organizational boundaries, this paper proposes a typology of boundary spanning activities for emergency management. Embracing these activities may address some of the challenges associated with the collaboration of multiple agencies in a disaster.     

Small carrots,few sticks: EU good governance promotion in sub-Saharan Africa

The European Union has developed a one-size-fits-all approach to promote good governance reforms in African countries, focusing on strengthening the effectiveness of state institutions while increasingly asking for reforms that also target their democratic quality. Assessing the EU's policies in Angola and Ethiopia reveals, however, that the implementation of this approach is more differential. While the EU has a hard time making the two governments address governance issues, it has been more successful in implementing its policy approach in Ethiopia than in Angola. These differences are largely explained by these countries' different degrees of interdependency with the EU rather than differences in stability and democracy. Unlike Angola, Ethiopia heavily relies on EU development aid, giving the EU greater leverage to push for governance reforms. While conditionality is more effective in making African governments address governance issues, it undermines the legitimacy of the EU's development cooperation, which emphasizes partnership and ownership.     

Antoine Deparcieux (1703–1768) and demographic data collection

In 1746, Antoine Deparcieux (1703–1768) published Essai sur les probabilités de la durée de la vie humaine [An Essay on the Probabilities of the Duration of Human Life]. Deparcieux analyzed in detail empirical observations. As a mathematician and physicist, he can be considered, after Halley and Struyck, one of the founders of the estimation of longevity and all the issues surrounding that concept. The article analyzes the statistical data Deparcieux presented in his book and examines the way he dealt with them. He criticized the methods of his predecessors and showed what, according to him, were “good” data. Although he only had lists of annuitants or ecclesiastical registers at his disposal and no data from the government or state, Deparcieux constructed his calculations with careful regard to the value and quality of the figures used. He also envisaged a specific project to collect data about infant mortality. His work holds an important place in the history of French demographic statistics.     

Judicial policy‐making in Germany: The federal constitutional court

The most powerful policy‐maker among German courts is the Constitutional Court. It is the thesis of this analysis that the danger of judicial review is a process of judicialisation of politics. More and more political questions are decided by the Constitutional Court and, thereby, political alternatives are reduced. Members of Parliament contribute to this development by carrying too far the consideration of legal arguments in legislation and judges by exceeding their competence in several cases. While it is an inadequate simplification of reality to claim that judicial review always serves the interests of the political elite, it is the growing influence of judicial review in policy‐making that sometimes prevents political reform.     

The stock market and U.S. presidential approval

Since the 1970s research has demonstrated a strong relationship between national economic performance and presidential approval. Traditionally, these popularity models rely on macroeconomic conditions; however, other economic performance measures may more fully capture the direction of the economy. One such measure, the stock market index, captures elements of national and household economic well-being. Therefore, market performance should impact presidential ratings. Our presidential approval model, based on quarterly data covering 1960–2011, demonstrates that approval is highly sensitive to the stock market's acceleration or deceleration, even with strong controls in the model for the other economic and political determinants of popularity. A rapid fall in the stock market index reduces president approval, while a sharp acceleration in the index growth boosts U.S. presidential approval.     

Diversity of Forensic Rove Beetles (Coleoptera,Staphylinidae) Associated with Decaying Pig Carcass in a Forest Biotope

Most forensic studies are focused on Diptera pattern colonization while neglecting Coleoptera succession. So far, little information is available on the postmortem colonization by beetles and the decomposition process they initiate under temperate biogeoclimatic countries. These beetles have, however, been referred to as being part of the entomofaunal colonization of a dead body. Forensic entomologists need increased databases detailing the distribution, ecology, and phenology of necrophagous insects, including staphylinids (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae). While pig carcasses are commonly used in forensic entomology studies to surrogate human decomposition and to investigate the entomofaunal succession, very few works have been conducted in Europe on large carcasses. Our work reports the monitoring of the presence of adult rove beetles (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) on decaying pig carcasses in a forest biotope during four seasons (spring, summer, fall, and winter). A total of 23 genera comprising 60 species of rove beetles were collected from pig carcasses.     

“It’s Going to Make the Whole Tower Crooked”: Victimization Trajectories in IPV

Interest in the mechanisms by which childhood maltreatment can lead to adult intimate partner victimization (IPV) is growing, though limited research has examined these mechanisms from the direct perspective of the victims. Using qualitative methods to examine childhood histories in a sample of 23 IPV survivors, we identified two trajectories, childhood emotional trauma and childhood physical trauma, which lead to revictimization in adulthood in the form of IPV. The emotional trauma trajectory was associated with a desire for intimacy and deficits in navigating interpersonal relationships. Problematic interpersonal schemas and a fear of loneliness swayed many of these women to stay with an abusive partner. The physical trauma trajectory was associated with desensitization and normalization of violence. Problematic interpersonal schemas, and the belief that the experience of violence is normal, promoted tolerance of IPV. Implications for research and intervention are discussed.     

Gender,Indigeneity, and the Criminal Courts: A Narrative Exploration of Women's Sentencing in Western Australia

Ethel Rosenberg's prison letters illustrate women's prison writing at a transitional point. Preceding her work are prison writings that focus on self-justification and autobiography; afterward come texts that assert the writer's pride and challenge the penal system and society. Rosenberg's correspondence includes elements of both traditional and contemporary women's prison literature. Along traditional lines, her letters focus on family matters and her own mental state as she attempts to adapt to imprisonment. In their outright assertions of pride in self and anger at perceived injustice, Rosenberg's letters point ahead to the writing of women inmates today.