The Condorcet-Jefferson connection and the origins of social choice theory

This paper explores the relationship between Condorcet and Jefferson to gain insight into the early development of social choice theory. Jefferson does not seem to have read or understood Condorcet's theoretical work, but studying the relationship leads to the identification of intellectual intermediaries and a different perspective on the creation of social choice theory in the French Academy of Sciences.     

Urban homicide: Some recent developments

We examine homicide data from fifty of the largest U.S. cities for the years 1976–1977 and, in particular, compare them to similar data for 1971–1972. The results reinforce earlier predictions that one in seventy urban residents born this decade will ultimately be murdered. However, the dispersion of murder risk as a function of race, sex, and city has apparently dropped considerably in the last few years.     

Opiate levels in hair

By means of radioimmunoassay-technique, hair samples of users, drug related fatalities, carcinoma patients receiving morphine and of experimental guinea pigs receiving codeine were investigated for opiates. The RIA-investigations require a minimum of material; our routine procedures need only 50 mg of hair. No correlation existed between administered doses of opiates and their concentrations in hair of both human and experimental animals. By sectioning the hair, the approximate period of drug use in man could be detected. However, these findings could not be confirmed by the animal experiments. The growth rate of the hair, diffusion and adhesion processes may influence the transport of drugs along the hair. External contaminations and washing procedures were shown to increase or diminish the drug concentration of the samples.     

Military Criminal Procedures and Judicial Guarantees: The Example of Switzerland

Since the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials, scant attention has beendevoted to military tribunals. Only with the creation of theICTY and the ICTR has civil society started reconsidering thequestion of which fora might be better suited for trying individualsresponsible for war crimes and other gross human rights violations.The aim of this paper is to illustrate the Swiss military judicialsystem. It analyses, on the one hand, the judicial guaranteesprovided for in the Swiss Military Penal Code and the Code ofMilitary Penal Procedure. On the other hand, it discusses thejudicial guarantees afforded in the only two war-crimes trialsheld by the Swiss military justice — the G case and theNiyonteze case — which involved civilians with foreignnationality. Finally, the paper argues against the abolitionof military judicial systems.     

The Brownlow Committee, Regulation, and the Presidency: Seventy Years Later

Analyzing Robert E. Cushman's study within the context of the Brownlow Report substantiates the argument that the immediate failure of the committee's recommendations—and their influence in the longer term—is best explained within the conceptual framework of changing political orders in American political development. Seventy years later, the field has the historical perspective to see that the committee's work was buffeted by tensions between competing political orders. Today, far from being just an interesting episode in American public administration, we see that the Brownlow Committee's work on regulation, as much as work on executive organization, heralded and enabled a new era of presidential administration.     

Urban homicide: Still the same

We use 1984–1986 data to estimate lifetime risks of being murdered in each of 50 large American cities and then compare these projections to others made earlier from 1971–1972 and 1976–1977 data. We find strong constancy over time in the average urban resident's murder risk (essentially a 1 in 68 chance of eventually being slain). Moreover, we find a high stability in the dispersion of risk by region, race, and city size and in the relative rankings of the 50 cities by murder risk. We comment briefly about such recent phenomena as the proliferation of crack and the resumption of capital punishment.Throughout this paper, we use the words murder, homicide, killing, and slaying interchangeably, meaning in all cases murder and nonnegligent manslaughter as defined by the FBI.