City Officials and General Revenue Sharing: Attitudes, Perceptions and Implications for Future Intergovernmental Policy

This article describes the 1972 State and Local Fiscal AssistanceAct(General Revenue Sharing), its perceived impact on city expenditures,its impact on the attitudes of city officials, and GRS's implicationfor future intergovernmental policy. Using data from nine yearsof an annual survey to chief executives in cities with over50,000 population, we conclude the program's most importantcontribution was in the general attitudes it fostered amonglocal officials. Our analysis indicates that GRS remains extremelypopular with urban chief executives and that its impact variesamong expenditure categories and cities. We conclude that theReagan administration may be able to develop viable policy alternativesbecause of the lack of consensus among many city officials whoalso exhibit varying degrees of support for the president'sproposed policies. In addition, the consensus which characterizedthe public interest groups in prior years may be eroding, andthis could create greater possibilities for policy change. ^* We would like to thank Tracey Gladstone and Eila Pakkanenfor their coding assist-ance. Ilese Hoyniak provided data processingassistance. We would like to thank Purdue University for providingcomputer time and other assistance.     

Negotiating Durable Solutions for Refugees: A Critical Space for Semiotic Analysis

Despite the proliferation of specialised agencies designed to reduce the prevalence of refugees worldwide, the number of individuals fleeing persecution is increasing year on year as endemic violence in countries such as Iraq, Somalia and the Syrian Arab Republic continues. As a result, media broadcasts and political dialogues are saturated with discussions about these “persons of concern”. Fundamental questions nonetheless remain unanswered about what meaning these actors attribute to the label ‘refugee’ and what intent, other than paucity of knowledge, might be driving the term’s use or manipulation. Though this is evidently important in the public arena, where incorrect conflations fuel mistrust and misunderstandings, the ramifications of these divergent understandings at the level of multi-lateral politics have yet to be critically explored. This article applies Barthes’ theory of the multiple orders of the sign to address this. Using the case study of the negotiations preceding the invocation of the Cessation Clause for Rwandan refugees, it illustrates how the word refugee is susceptible to numerous, simultaneous understandings, and discusses the implications of these manifold interpretations for how durable solutions are envisaged and negotiated in the refugee regime. In the case of Rwandan refugees in Uganda, this has meant that over a decade of stalemated discussions between the Governments of Uganda and Rwanda and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees over their future have been broken by a series of bilateral concessions that, whilst diminishing the political significance attached to this protracted caseload, have failed to address the continuing precarity of their situation. By conceptualising the word refugee as a sign according to the Saussurean model of semiotics, this paper therefore argues that despite the term’s established legal-normative definition, its inherent malleability makes it susceptible to processes of political instrumentalisation. This elevates the refugee as a rhetorical figure above the refugee as a physical-legal body entitled to certain forms of assistance.     

Differential characteristics of intimate partner, acquaintance, and stranger rape survivors examined by a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE)

Relatively little is known about characteristics of sexual assault survivors who present to the emergency room. Examination of differences in survivor, assault, and exam characteristics by type of offender (intimate partner, acquaintance, acquaintance-just-met, and stranger) was conducted using intake data collected from 331 women who presented to an emergency room and were examined by a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner between 2001 and 2004. First, the data suggest there is a difference in injury patterns depending on the survivor-offender relationship. Second, there was a high rate of women assaulted by a known offender presenting to the emergency room. Third, there are important differences in survivor substance use among women assaulted by different offenders. Implications for research and practice are discussed.