Government Promotion of Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from the EU Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme

Governments play an active role in promoting corporate social responsibility and specifically environmental management system (EMS) programs, but few studies have examined the impact of such support on the decision of businesses to adopt EMS programs. We ask two questions in this paper: how does government support for EMS programs affect adoption of such programs? Second, what effect does this government support have on the pace of adoption of such programs? The answer to the first question can reveal how effective government programs are in boosting membership in EMS programs. The answer to the second reveals to what extent businesses within EU member states are converging upon particular EMS standards. We examine these questions in the context of the European Union’s Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), 2010–2014. There is significant variation in government support of EMAS across the EU and at the same time, EMAS competes for business attention with the more established ISO 14001. Our quantitative and qualitative analyses therefore reveal the effectiveness of government programs in boosting adoption, but also to the extent to which such programs cause convergence upon EMAS in the face of a competing standard such as ISO 14001.     

Hybrid Strategies: The American Experience

The United States has never followed only one grand strategy at a time. In this article, I develop the concept of “hybrid” grand strategies—strategies that vary by time and place, and combine the advantages (or disadvantages) of pure strategic archetypes such as containment, integration, regime change, bargaining, or non-intervention. I argue that hybrid strategies have been ubiquitous in American history, varying more by emphasis and degree than by absolute contrast. Moreover, U.S. hybrid strategies have often succeeded in accomplishing their major goals.     

Looking the Part: Television Leads Less Informed Citizens to Vote Based on Candidates’ Appearance

As long as there has been democratic government, skeptics have worried that citizens would base their choices and their votes on superficial considerations. A series of recent studies seems to validate these fears, suggesting that candidates who merely look more capable or attractive perform better in elections. In this article, we examine the underlying process behind the appearance effect. Specifically, we test whether the effect of appearance is more pronounced among those who know little about politics but are exposed to visual images of candidates. To do so, we combine appearance‐based assessments of U.S. Senate and gubernatorial candidates with individual‐level survey data measuring vote intent, political knowledge, and television exposure. Confirming long‐standing concerns about image and television, we find that appealing‐looking politicians benefit disproportionately from television exposure, primarily among less knowledgeable individuals.     

Who shall live when not all can live? Intellectual property in accessing and benefit-sharing influenza viruses through the World Health Organisation

This article addresses the development of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) arrangements for accessing viruses and the development of vaccines to respond to potential pandemics (and other lesser outbreaks). It examines the ongoing "conflict" between the United Nations' Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the World Trade Organisation's Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in the context of the debates about the paramountcy of intellectual property, and the potential for other (equity and development) imperatives to over-ride respect for intellectual property and TRIPS. The article concludes that the same intellectual property fault lines are evident in the WHO forum as those apparent at the CBD and the WTO fora, and an ongoing failure to properly address questions of equity and development. This poses a challenge for the Australian Government in guaranteeing a satisfactory pandemic influenza preparation and response.     

The decomposition of rabbit carcasses and associated necrophagous Diptera in Kuwait

Rabbit carcasses were used to compare rates of decomposition and associated assemblages of Diptera at four discernable habitat types in Kuwait; a country of a region with a paucity of such reference data. Carcasses in an urban habitat showed faster decomposition (as measured by percentage weight loss) than in agricultural, coastal or desert habitats, even with accumulated degree days (ADD) as the explanatory variable (t=2.73, df=34, p=0.010) to compensate for temperature differences. Taxa of Diptera at the four habitats became more similar as decomposition progressed, suggesting such differences between habitats were not marked. The occurrence of Chrysomyia megacephala and Lucilia sericata had not previously been recorded in Kuwait.     

Forecasting the 2005 General Election: A Neural Network Approach

Although neural networks are increasingly used in a variety of disciplines there are few applications in political science. Approaches to electoral forecasting traditionally employ some form of linear regression modelling. By contrast, neural networks offer the opportunity to consider also the non-linear aspects of the process, promising a better performance, efficacy and flexibility. The initial development of this approach preceded the 2001 general election and models correctly predicted a Labour victory. The original data used for training and testing the network were based on the responses of two experts to a set of questions covering each general election held since 1835 up to 1997. To bring the model up to date, 2001 election data were added to the training set and two separate neural networks were trained using the views of our original two experts. To generate a forecast for the forthcoming general election, answers to the same questions about the performance of parties during the current parliament, obtained from a further 35 expert respondents, were offered to the neural networks. Both models, with slightly different probabilities, forecast another Labour victory. Modelling electoral forecasts using neural networks is at an early stage of development but the method is to be adapted to forecast party shares in local council elections. The greater frequency of such elections will offer better opportunities for training and testing the neural networks.     

Promoting Public Service Integrity: A Case for Responsible Accountability

We discuss below difference between the concepts of accountability and responsibility, in the context of government administration. We argue that New Zealand's public sector reforms, in particular, have depended on an essentially mechanistic as distinct from an organic interpretation of public organisations. A mechanistic approach focuses disproportionately on notions of organisational accountability at the expense of responsibility, and as a consequence may prove counterproductive over the longer term in maintaining high standards of ethical probity. A concept of responsible accountability needs to be developed further as a means of countering this possibility. We speculate on whether the emphasis on contractualism has enhanced or undermined an integrity-based as opposed to a compliance-based ethics regime, and the possible implications of this for the maintenance of ethical standards.