State First,Then Democracy: Using Cadastral Records to Explain Governmental Performance in Public Goods Provision

This article presents a theoretical argument of how and why democratization at different levels of state capacity matters for public goods provision and subjects the argument to empirical tests. Building on rational choice theories of public goods production, we argue that credible enforcement before credible commitment—democratizing after the state has acquired high levels of state capacity—leads to a more efficient social order than the opposite sequence. Using a theoretically grounded and novel indicator of historical state capacity—the extent and quality of cadastral records—the analysis shows that those countries where the state developed extensive enforcement capacities before democratization exhibit, on average, better provision of essential public goods and are less corrupt.     

Writing stri dharma: international feminism,nationalist politics,and women's press advocacy in late colonial India

This article contributes to recent historical debates regarding the shared connections between the colony and the metropole in British-ruled India through the examination of Stri Dharma, a widely known journal started in India in 1918 by British feminists. Neither completely British nor Indian in character, this women-run journal emerged during the 1920s and 1930s as an international feminist news medium targeted at Anglo-Indian, Indian, and British women readers. This broad-ranging audience participated in a complex political dialogue determined by both class and race tensions that created a sometimes uneven forum for the exchange of ideas. Through a close examination of this title and other primary source materials related to the context of women's suffrage and Indian nationalism, this article engages with contemporary feminist scholarship in order to trace the underlying cultural and political factors that motivated British and Indian women writers to create a periodical based on universalist principles of gender solidarity and international cooperation during the late colonial period.     

Whose life is it anyway?

In this article, I discuss the way in which I am using reflection as an integral part of my research into the experiences of Jewish women teachers of European descent in non-denominational secondary schools in England. I acknowledge that through reflection on my role as a researcher I am learning and developing as the research proceeds and I use adaptations of the Johari Window (The Open University, 1995) to analyse the nature of the interviews for myself and the participants both in terms of our personal engagement in the process and the process itself. The second half of the article considers ways in which the interview process could be seen to be affecting both my own life and that of the participants. I deal with several issues which are concerning me as indicated by the title. I explore whose life is being researched—mine or my informants—and the issues concerning the implications for me as a feminist insider-researcher making use of (some would say exploiting) other people's lives, words and experiences.     

Norm shifting from EMP to ENP: the EU as a norm entrepreneur in the south?

This article focuses on the normative dimensions of European Union (EU) policy on the Mediterranean which, it is argued, give rise to a number of dilemmas and challenges. First, it scrutinizes the core raison d'être behind the EU's regionalist strategy within the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) context. Second, since it purportedly supplements the EMP, the article examines the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and its associated normative bilateral basis. In doing so, the article attempts to raise a number of broad questions about the nature, purpose and underlying logic of regional integration, the role of norms in international relations, and the changing nature of foreign policy. It is argued that EU endeavours at enhanced relations with southern partners point to the pursuit of a dual strategy: the identification of the EU as a ‘normative power’, on the one hand, and the attainment of political and economic interests, on the other. The challenges of this pursuit may in turn explain some of the main dilemmas facing EU–Mediterranean relations.     

Adjudicating the Market

The true governance challenge within Europe remains the resolution of conflict within the Internal Market and the identification of efficacious solutions, to its regulatory and redistributive problems. Absent the legitimising sovereign power once furnished by the national constitutional settlement and without recourse to a pre-political principle of pluralist self-limitation, Europe's law must supply a pluralist and contested internal market polity with authoritative adjudication on the meaning and content of institutions of market governance, including 'law' itself. In the endeavour to 'socialise the market', or to re-establish the determinative links between society, politics, and the market place caste asunder by a rationalising process of European economic integration, Europe's law is seemingly returning—via judicial dialogue between national and European courtrooms—to the ancient legal grammar and semantics of 'reasonableness' and 'equity'. Such an adjudicative return serves: (i) the processing of reasonable pluralism within the market in the light of deliberative values: and (ii), the re-establishment and maintenance of the law's factual (non-natural), logical (internally coherent and impartial) and moral (real-world) legitimacy.     

Drug testing sworn law enforcement officers: One agency's experience

The use of drug testing to detect drug use and to screen prospective employees has become commonplace in many occupations, both in the public and private sector. Due to the sensitive nature of their duties, drug testing in law enforcement agencies has become nearly universal, especially as a tool to screen applicants. Despite the fact that many large agencies routinely use drug testing, relatively little is known about the rate at which officers test positive for drug use, characteristics of officers who test positive, nor the drug of choice among currently employed sworn law enforcement personnel. The purpose of this article is to discuss various issues related to drug testing in the workplace and to explore one agency's experience with randomized drug testing of its sworn officers.     

The Endangered Species Act and Habitat Conservation Plans

Abstract

The federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) is over 40 years old. During those years, the landscape of endangered species issues and the tools we have to address them have changed considerably. Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP) under the ESA have been used throughout the country for 30 years and have significantly changed the way federal agencies address impacts to endangered species. The ever‐changing needs of endangered species, and the laws in place to protect them, affect all aspects of project planning. The history of these laws and the current issues today are key to understanding when an HCP may benefit your project or plan.     

The Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan: 10 Years Later

Abstract

Urban development in Southern California over the past few decades has largely concentrated on the coastal areas. In contrast, Riverside County, California's fourth largest county, which sits inland from the coast and is about the size of New Jersey, has until recently retained much of its rural and agricultural acreage with a significant percentage of its land undeveloped. With so much open space, western Riverside County was among the inland areas of Southern California left with a majority of the remaining intact habitat areas for species, sometimes making it “ground zero” for a battle between saving habitat for endangered species and building new homes and infrastructure in a fast‐growing area. That tug‐of‐;war eventually led to the formation of one of the nation's largest Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) covering nearly 150 plants and animals protected by endangered species laws or potentially in danger of becoming listed as endangered or threatened.