Foreign Aid and Undeserved Credit Claiming

Politicians in developing countries misuse foreign aid to get reelected by fiscally manipulating foreign aid resources or domestic budgets. Our article suggests another mechanism that does not require politicians to have any control over foreign aid in order to make use of it for electoral purposes: undeserved credit claiming. We analyze the conditions under which local politicians can undeservedly take credit for the receipt of foreign aid and thereby boost their chances of reelection. We theorize that politicians can employ a variety of techniques to claim credit for development aid even when they have little or no influence on its actual allocation. Using a subnational World Bank development program in the Philippines, we demonstrate that credit claiming is an important strategy to exploit foreign aid inflows and that the political effects of aid can persist even when projects are designed to minimize the diversion or misuse of funds.     

Organized contraband smuggling and its enforcement in Canada: An assessment of the anti-smuggling initiative

This article provides an overview of contemporary cigarette and liquor smuggling affecting Canada and summarizes the results of research that evaluates a Federal enforcement program in this country entitled the Anti-Smuggling Initiative (ASI). To combat the escalation and increased organization of cigarette smuggling, the Canadian Government provided special funding to federal enforcement and prosecution agencies beginning in 1994. The program evaluation concluded that there was a substantial decrease in the contraband tobacco market as a result of the ASI initiatives; however, evidence suggests that reductions in Canadian cigarette taxes made during the same period were the most powerful policy tool in influencing cigarette smuggling. While the ASI laid the foundation for success in dismantling some of the largest known tobacco and liquor smuggling operations in Canada, it does not appear to have had a strong deterrent effect on organized smuggling in general. Instead, the impact on smuggling groups can more accurately be characterized as one of displacement. Indeed, history shows that early successes in organized crime enforcement are often followed by diminishing returns as criminal groups become more adaptive and sophisticated. This research concludes that to most effectively address the smuggling of legal goods, enforcement must be supplemented with taxation policies that reduce the financial viability and attractiveness of this trade.     

Feminism and Constructivism: Worlds Apart or Sharing the Middle Ground?

The discipline of international relations (IR) is witnessing a "constructivist turn." In this article, we argue that the new preoccupation with constructivism provides a unique opportunity to further understanding between feminism and the IR mainstream. Feminism and constructivism share a commitment to an ontology of becoming that can serve as a common basis for conversation. Yet there are also profound differences between feminists and constructivists. First, most IR feminists approach gender and power as integral elements in processes of construction, whereas most constructivists consider power to be external to such processes. This failure to conceptualize power and gender as social and pervasive leads constructivists to miss an important part of the empirical reality of power politics. Second, constructivists tend to ignore the implications of a postpositivist epistemology, whereas for feminists the question of "Who knows?" is crucial. We argue that the constructivist failure to problematize the research process as a social (and therefore political) process of construction is logically inconsistent with an ontology of becoming. We introduce empirical materials to illustrate the advantages of feminist approaches. We hope to advance a dialogue between feminism and constructivism because the two approaches add to each other and in combination can yield better theoretical and empirical understandings of the world.     

Efficiency and effectiveness control based on economic analysis: The example of the Austrian court of audit

The purpose of this article is fivefold: First, we demonstrate the potential and importance of central auditing in Austria in section 2.1 before identifying the causes of public-sector inefficiency in section 2.2. Then we outline the organizational structure in section 3 and describe the need for return in section 4. We develop proposals for improving the central auditing system in section 5. In so doing, we endeavor not to succumb to the pervasive influence of the well-established, yet objectionable Austrian status quo, realizing that our proposals may be rejected by politicians and bureaucrats as being unrealistic.     

What Can Be Done to Internationalize Teacher Training? A Research Report on the Undergraduate Training of Secondary School Teachers

Editor's Introduction : The following excerpted report discusses the interaction of the international studies field and teacher education programs at colleges and universities around the country. The reform of teacher education in whatever substantive area is a topic at the forefront of initiatives from the federal government in Washington, DC, as well as ones from private foundations. One such initiative has recently been launched by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and is called Teachers for a New Era (TNE). Linking 11 universities across the country, TNE can be viewed as an innovative attempt to better integrate the content education provided by colleges of arts and sciences with the pedagogical knowledge resident in schools of education. The ultimate aim is to impact student learning by producing better classroom teachers nation-wide. The following article engages many of these same topics as they relate to the international studies education. The Editors hope that you will find the article thought-provoking, and we invite comments and responses from members of the ISA community.     

ISFG: Recommendations on biostatistics in paternity testing

The Paternity Testing Commission (PTC) of the International Society for Forensic Genetics has taken up the task of establishing the biostatistical recommendations in accordance with the ISO 17025 standards and a previous set of ISFG recommendations specific to the genetic investigations in paternity cases. In the initial set, the PTC recommended that biostatistical evaluations of paternity are based on a likelihood ratio principle – yielding the paternity index, PI. Here, we have made five supplementary biostatistical recommendations. The first recommendation clarifies and defines basic concepts of genetic hypotheses and calculation concerns needed to produce valid PIs. The second and third recommendations address issues associated with population genetics (allele probabilities, Y-chromosome markers, mtDNA, and population substructuring) and special circumstances (deficiency/reconstruction and immigration cases), respectively. The fourth recommendation considers strategies regarding genetic evidence against paternity. The fifth recommendation covers necessary documentation, reporting details and assumptions underlying calculations. The PTC strongly suggests that these recommendations should be adopted by all laboratories involved in paternity testing as the basis for their biostatistical analysis.     

WHAT FAMILY LAWYERS ARE REALLY DOING WHEN THEY NEGOTIATE

How should lawyers negotiate? This article outlines an empirical study of how lawyers rate each other in negotiation behaviors. After discussing what skills are needed for effective negotiation behavior, we then look more closely at how family lawyers in particular are negotiating. Examining some troubling data, we find that family lawyers appear to be more adversarial and less problem solving than other types of practitioners. We conclude by discussing why this might be so and what the family law bar and family law professors should be doing in the future to address this problem.     

Comparative gas chromatographic studies of heroin samples. Results of a pilot project in West Germany in 1982

From 1.4. -30.10.1982 all heroin samples weighing more than 5 g seized in the States of Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and by the Bundeskriminalamt were analyzed by capillary gas chromatography during a pilot project. For comparison of samples ratios of concentrations of heroin (including its decomposition products 0(6)-acetylmorphine and morphine) and its natural by-products of synthesis acetylcodeine, papaverine, and narcotine (noscapine) were determined. The application of these parameters and further qualitative and quantitative criteria for heroin comparison for investigative and legal purposes are discussed.