Functional mental capacity is not independent of the severity of psychosis

BACKGROUND: Function-specific mental capacities are the legal criteria for competence. These are regarded as superior to clinical assessments of mental state and general function. AIMS: To determine whether tests of fitness to plead and capacity to consent are independent of each other and independent of mental state and global function in psychosis. METHOD: The MacCAT-T and MacCAT-FP, PANSS and GAF were administered to 102 compulsorily detained forensic patients with psychosis. Criteria for incompetence were inability to express a preference concerning treatment, and independent rating as unfit to plead. RESULTS: MacCAT-T, MacCAT-FP totals and sub-scales correlated with each other and with PANSS and GAF. Those independently rated unfit to plead or who were incapable of making a treatment choice scored significantly worse on all rating scales. No test had satisfactory sensitivity or specificity. CONCLUSIONS: Legal definitions of mind and of functional capacity offer a basis for structured clinical judgement regarding decision-making capacity. However, function-specific measures of understanding, reasoning and appreciation generate much the same results as measures of mental state and global functioning.     

Tracing the Gordian Knot: Indeterminate‐Sentenced Prisoners and the Pathologies of English Penal Politics

This article explores some of the key pathologies of English penal politics by applying an interpretive political analysis perspective to the specific issue of the plight of the ‘prisoners left behind’, the thousands of indeterminate‐sentenced IPP (imprisonment for public protection) prisoners who remain incarcerated, notwithstanding the abolition in 2012 of this sentencing option targeted at ‘dangerous offenders’. The article draws on research findings from an ESRC funded study of penal policymaking to examine why the Gordian knot of the prisoners left behind has proved to be so hard to untangle. The broader lessons of this specific story are then set out. In particular, it is argued that the public and political debate around criminal justice has become damagingly narrow over recent years.     

Friendship,Recognition and Social Freedom: A Sociological Reconstruction

In Freedom’s Right, Axel Honneth articulates the social freedom of friendship with reference to its institutionalised norms. These action norms, however, are not specific to friendship; they apply to modern intimacy per se. Such non-specificity cannot adequately account for the experience of social freedom in friendship. Addressing this issue, I evaluate friendship as a form of recognition and identify a generative recognition deficit functional to its relational autonomy. Then, taking Honneth’s institutional approach to friendship as a point of departure, I ascertain an institutional deficit that both sustains friendship’s autonomy and constrains the generalisability of its social freedom by way of institutional connectivity to heterosexuality. I suggest that only a differentiating approach to friendship that fathoms its extraordinary position among interpersonal relationships can yield new insights. That done, friendship can in turn provide a prism through which to assess the conceptual approaches deployed in its analysis.     

The Salinity Crisis in Western Australia: A Case of Policy Paralysis

This article focuses on the Court government's development of a State Salinity Strategy during the 1990s which took nine years from the initial announcement to the final realease. Western Australia has 70 percent of the nation's dryland salinity, a figure widely regarded as representing a potential environmental disaster with significant flow-on economic and social impacts. The paralysis that has surrounded decision-making on this issue is examined as a case study in the lack of effectiveness of government policy-making capacity on the environment. The shortcomings of the Salinity Strategy examined in the article include a lack of a leadership role for government, inadequate resourcing and weaknesses in the supporting institutional arrangements.     

The uncertain future of US‐China relations

The coming months may be critical in determining whether it will be possible for the United States and China to forge a stable and productive relationship, says Harry Harding, Dean of the Elliot School of International Affairs, George Washington University. Problems are mounting in several sensitive areas of the relationship: human rights, trade, and security, and there remain differences between the two countries over Taiwan and Korea that could bedevil their bilateral ties. Furthermore, American critics of China are resuming their attacks on the relationship, charging that engagement has failed either to narrow differences or to promote common objectives. Harding argues that the benefits of the US‐China relationship are so great, and the costs of failure so large, that the two countries should make every effort to maintain the momentum toward building a constructive strategic partnership.     

Government stewardship and primary health care in Guatemala since 1996

This article analyzes the role of government stewardship in the expansion of primary health care in post‐conflict Guatemala. By the time the Peace Accords were signed in 1996, the country's primary health care system was scarcely functioning with virtually no services available in rural indigenous areas. To address this gaping void/deficiency, the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance (MSPAS) embarked on a progressive expansion of primary services aimed at covering the majority of rural poor. Through a series of legal, policy, and program reforms up to 2014, the MSPAS dramatically expanded primary coverage and greatly improved basic health indicators for the entire population. To succeed in this effort, the MSPAS and its partners needed to simultaneously grow their stewardship capacity to oversee and develop the primary health system. On the basis of recent health systems strengthening literature, we propose a stewardship framework of 6 critical functions and use it to analyze the gains in government capacity that enabled the achievement of many of the country's primary health goals. Of the 6 stewardship functions, “building relationships, coalitions, and partnerships” especially with civil society organizations stands out as one of the keys to MSPAS success.     

An evaluation of the application of the new public management principles in the South African municipalities

New public management (NPM) was introduced in the western world with a sole purpose of reforming the public sector and its approaches in managing affairs of the state. These reforms were later adopted in some parts of the African continent including in the sub‐Saharan Africa trying to emulate the successes of the developed economies of the world. South Africa as one of the countries in Africa also sought to shift from its apartheid bureaucratic, inefficient and rule driven management of public affairs. To this end, the democratic South Africa aligned its constitutional provisions with the principles of NPM which include but are not limited to participatory planning, decentralisation, performance management, effectiveness and efficiency. These principles were introduced precisely to better manage the state and its resources including at the local sphere of government. Local government in South Africa is underpinned by its own sets of policy frameworks. This conceptual paper seeks to evaluate the application of NPM principles in the South African municipalities. The said evaluation was undertaken through a review of existing literature. The paper concludes that the application of the said principles in the South African municipalities is confronted by some challenges including lack of political will, corruption as well as lack of skills and capacities. Necessary recommendations have been developed to enhance the performance of municipalities so as to achieve the otherwise good intended provisions of the NPM.     

Hedge fund regulation, market discipline and the Hedge Fund Working Group

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. Key points

• Against a general background of suspicion, criticismand even hostility, the recently formed Hedge Fund Working Group(HFWG), comprising 14 leading fund managers based mainly inthe United Kingdom, published their Final Report in January2008.
• The Report is based on standards of best practice (the‘Standards’ of which there are 28) that are, inthe final analysis, to be administered by a newly establishedHedge Fund Standards Board (HFSB)—a self-regulatory bodycharged with the responsibility of keeping the Standards up-to-dateand ‘fit for purpose’.
• Borrowing from both theFinancial Services Authority's Principles for Business, whichrepresent bold statements of good business practice within theUK's financial services sector, and the Combined Code on CorporateGovernance's voluntary approach of ‘comply or explain’,the Standards are heralded by the HFWG as ‘an exercisein market discipline, based on disclosure’.
• The unprecedentednature of recent financial market . . . [Full Text of this Article]