Exhuming Death of a Bureaucrat

Death of a Bureaucrat ( Alea, 1966 ) has never received the recognition or in‐depth study that it deserves, yet this is a key film that marks Cuban film’s early success in addressing both local and global concerns. While remaining steadfastly Cuban, the film borrows knowingly from many sources, from Hollywood comedies to Buñuel. Crucially, it has a Brechtian note, and an eclectic use of montage is clearly informed by Eisenstein. Together, these approaches lead to an inventive, imaginative work. The film heralds a radical style of filmmaking that emerged precisely from Cuba’s revolutionary political culture.     

Neutralization and Tax Evasion: How Effective Would a Moral Appeal Be in Improving Compliance to Tax Laws?

The failure of individuals to pay their taxes in full is a serious budgetary problem for the federal government. Existing research (Schwartz and Orleans, 1967; Grasmick and Scott, 1982) suggests that efforts to increase the guilt feelings experienced for tax evasion might improve compliance. However, neutralization theory (Sykes and Matza, 1957) predicts that guilt feelings can be reduced by neutralization strategies which justify guilt-producing behavior, compromising the inhibiting effect of guilt feelings. Our research shows that through the use of neutralization strategies which justify tax evasion the inhibiting effect of guilt feelings is sharply reduced. The implications of this finding for tax compliance programs based on appeals to the moral obligation of paying taxes are discussed.     

The Constitution and Accountability for Public Functions

In review of judicial interpretation of the United States Constitution set against the current reality of American governance, the authors conclude that traditional separation of powers doctrines hold few constraints for delegation of "public functions" beyond the boundaries of the three branches. As the result of constitutional permissiveness, the legislative and executive departments have increasingly lost out (or abdicated) to private and quasi-governmental institutions to conduct core government functions. Public accountability has been lost in this exchange. At a time of revolutionary change across Eastern Europe and elsewhere, when newly forming governments look to the United States for structural models, they are unlikely to be informed about the functional reality of American governance by either the written constitution or doctrines articulating the constitution.     

NATIONALIZED INDUSTRIES AS ORGANIZED INTERESTS

The nationalized industries are usually regarded as bodies to be 'controlled' in some way by governments; but they have now developed sufficient autonomy to be able to exert influence on their own behalf within the political system. The emergence of the Nationalized Industries Chairman's Group is one aspect of their activity; the separate industries are also more outspoken in their own concerns. These developments deserve some consideration on both political and economic grounds. In the end the justification lies in their need to compete politically with other industrial interest groups. In the contemporary polity no one else will act for them, and so their leaders have a right, and perhaps a duty, to sustain their industries by 'pressure-group' tactics. Clearly the industries can be seen as 'state corporatist' bodies in the usual conceptualizations, but the development of political autonomy could contribute to a more open structure of the public sector.     

Voter Responses to Referenda Seeking to Exceed Revenue Limits

Following voter approval of California's Proposition 13, a body of research has attempted to explain referenda outcomes aimed at restricting public sector tax and spending authority. Evaluating the determinants of voter attitudes toward referenda to exceed spending/revenue limits, however, has received little attention. Using data for all Wisconsin school districts, we examine the outcomes of referenda to exceed revenue caps. A key finding of our research is that when voters support bonding for capital expenditures, they tend also to approve referenda to override revenue limits. This enables school districts to cover new operating costs often associated with new capital projects.