Public policy inquiry and advice as an aspect of constitutional reform

This article presents for the first time an outline of a classified review of the many types (some 20) of public policy inquiry or review exercises used in British public affairs. They are mainly created by the government but are also increasingly promoted by private bodies hoping to influence government and the established specialist interests in a policy field by supplying free and authoritative information and recommendations. A brief commentary on each of these ‘decision advice processes’ (DAPs) draws out their changing profile and questions the democratic propriety of the executive itself now investigating or reviewing important public policy issues which were, until quite recently, unquestioningly given out by departments for external and (normally) independent‐minded commissions and committees of inquiry to study and recommend upon. The question of whether the current movement for constitutional reform should include the overall ‘decision advice process’ and place it on a more independent and authoritative basis is raised. A parliamentary, rather than (or as well as) an executive, basis for most official ‘DAPs’ is proposed, while the currently flourishing practice of charitable foundations, think‐tanks and established interest groups promoting unofficial DAPs for the information and guidance of the government, parliament and the public is endorsed.     

Book reviews

Radical Transitions. The Survival and Revival of Entrepreneurship in the GDR. By Andreas Pickel. Boulder, San Francisco and Oxford: Westview Press, 1992. £25.95 pb.

Europe and German Unification. By Renate Fritsch‐Bournazel. Oxford: Berg, 1992. £30 hb, £8.95 pb.

The Oder‐Neisse Line ‐ A Reappraisal under International Law. By Philip A. Bühler. Boulder: Eastern European Monographs, distributed by Columbia University Press, 1990. $32.50 hb.

Recasting the Ruhr, 1945–1958. Manpower, Economic Recovery and Labour Relations. By Mark Roseman. Oxford: Berg, 1992. £42 hb.

The US Congress and the German Bundestag: Comparisons of Democratic Processes. Edited by Uwe Thaysen, Roger H. Davidson and Robert Gerald Livingston. Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press, 1990. £31.50 pb.

Der verkappte Einheitsstaat. By Heidrun Abromeit. Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 1992.

Wir Kollaborateure. Der Westen und die deutschen Vergangenheiten. Edited by Cora Stephan. Reinbeck bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1992. DM9.90 pb.

Die CDU. Organisationsstrukturen, Politiken und Funktionsweisen einer Partei im Föderalismus. By josefschmid. Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 1990. DM48.

Moscow, Germany and the West from Khruschchev to Gorbachev. By Michael J. Sodaro. London: I.B. Tauris, 1991. £29.95 hb, £12.95 pb.

Deutsche Irrtümer. Schönfärberei und Helfershelfer der SED‐Diktatur im Westen. By Jens Hacker. Berlin: Ullstein, 1992. DM68 hb.

Föderalismus in der Bewährung: die deutschen Länder vor der Herausforderung fortschreitender EG‐Integration. Edited by Bernhard Vogel and Günther H. Oettinger. Köln: Deutscher Gemeindeverlag/Kohlhammer, 1992.

The Territorial Imperative: Pluralism, Corporatism, and Economic Crisis. By Jeffrey J. Anderson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. £35 hb.

The Federal Republic of Germany and NATO: 40 Years After. Edited by E.J. Kirchner and J. Sperling. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992. £45 hb.

The Economy of United Germany: Colossus at the Crossroads. By W.R. Smyser. London: Hurst &; Co., 1992. £25 hb.     

American Based Biker Gangs: International Organized Crime

Many American based motorcycle clubs have evolved into biker gangs involved in organized crime nationally and internationally. Using the information contained on the national websites of seven biker gangs—Hells Angels, Outlaws, Bandidos, Mongols, Warlocks, Sons of Silence and the Vagos, this article provides a listing of the gangs by chapter in the United States and internationally. These gangs have exported organized crime to the world as they have formed criminal networks with new chapters established outside the Continental United States.     

The effects of tort reform on medical malpractice insurance markets: an empirical analysis.

I use statewide loss ratio data to assess empirically the manner in which tort reforms have affected relative prices and profitability, and underwriting risk in the medical malpractice insurance industry. The empirical evidence suggests that the imposition of statutory ceilings on recoveries both decreased risk and improved relative profitability. Reforms that codified the required standard of care appeared to have a beneficial effect on relative profitability in certain cases.     

Mandatory retirement and labor-force participation of respondents in the Retirement History Study

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) was amended in 1978 to prohibit mandatory retirement before age 70 in most occupations. The impact of this legislation on the probability of older persons remaining in the labor force is the primary concern of this article. Specifically, questions concerning which older workers are affected by mandatory-retirement provisions and the extent to which they are forced to retire and leave the labor force are examined. Tabular analysis of data from the Retirement History Study on persons aged 62-63 in 1969 shows significant variation in mandatory-retirement coverage between the public and private sectors and across industries, occupations, and demographic groups. Until age 65, the labor-force participation rate of those facing compulsory retirement is higher than or equal to that of those not covered but it drops significantly below the noncovered rate after 65. Logit analysis of the labor-force participation of persons before and after age 65 indicates that mandatory retirement at that age reduces the probability of retirement by approximately 16.7 percentage points for white men wage earners. This results in a decline in the labor-force participation rate of all men aged 66-67 of approximately 4 percentage points.     

Adolescent-Mother Agreement about Adolescent Problem Behaviors: Direction and Predictors of Disagreement

Correlations between adolescent and parent reports of adolescent problems are low in magnitude. In community samples adolescents tend to report more problems than parents and in clinical samples adolescents tend to report fewer problems than parents. Indices of agreement may be biased if some adolescents in a given sample report more problems and others report fewer problems than parents. In the current study, order and mean agreement between adolescent and maternal reports of adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems, taking into account the direction of disagreement, was examined in a community sample of 133 young adolescents and their mothers. Two-thirds to three-quarters of adolescents reported more problems than mothers. Accounting for the direction of discrepancies resulted in improved agreement between adolescents and mothers and differing patterns of predictors of discrepancies. Additionally, the results demonstrate the need to control for relations between adolescent-reported problems and discrepancies when exploring predictors of discrepancies. Erin T. Barker received her Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Alberta. Her research interests include internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescence and emerging adulthood. Marc H. Bornstein received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Yale University. He has contributed scientific papers in the areas of human experimental, methodological, comparative, developmental, cross-cultural, neuroscientific, pediatric, and aesthetic psychology. Diane L. Putnick received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from George Washington University. Her research interests include child and family processes across cultures. Charlene Hendricks received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from George Mason University. Her research interests are in the areas of early adolescent development and adjustment and families by adoption. Joan T. D. Suwalsky received her M.S. degree in Human Development from Cornell University. Her research interests include parent-child interaction and child development in at-risk populations, including families by adoption.     

Theoretical criteria for online consumer behaviour: web-based communication exposure and internal psychological behavioural processes approaches

Various theories, theoretical viewpoints and models on consumer behaviour stipulate consumers’ offline and online behaviour when purchasing a product or using a service. This article deviates from the purchasing perspective and instead proposes an information and web-based communication message ‘seeking and consumption¹ perspective. This new perspective is theoretically grounded in two new approaches to online consumer behaviour: the web-based communication exposure and internal psychological behavioural processes approaches; as well as the integration of various theoretical perspectives, approaches, theories and models that address fragments of offline and online consumer behaviour. The research problem is to address the existing limited and fragmented approaches, because existing purchasing perspectives arguably do not provide adequate theoretical criteria to explain online consumer behaviour during interactive information-seeking and consumption activities. Hence, the main aim of this article is to propose new theoretical criteria for online consumer behaviour to address these shortcomings.