The International Community in Bosnia: Enduring Questions of Legitimacy

This analysis explores the legitimacy of the international communityin Bosnia and the outcome of international involvement in theprocess of democratization. The paper discusses normative definitionsof legitimacy and their relation to certain elements of theinternational community's involvement in Bosnia. The first partof the paper discusses the foundations of distrust of the internationalcommunity during the war, specifically the presence of the UN.The second part of the paper explores the legitimacy of theDayton Peace Agreement and the consequent Constitution. Thefinal part of this paper explains how the Office of the HighRepresentative presents an enormous challenge to legitimatedemocracy in Bosnia and concludes with questions relating tothe future of the Bosnian government.     

The Effect of Conjugal Visitation on Sexual Violence in Prison

Using yearly state-level data drawn from a variety of different sources and a pooled cross-sectional time-series research design, we examine whether conjugal visitation attenuates sexual violence in prison. The determination of whether sexual violence in prison is less apt to transpire in states that allow conjugal visitation is theoretically relevant. Feminist theory argues that conjugal visitation has little if any influence on the occurrence of rape and other sexual offenses in prison, notwithstanding the gender of the offender and victim, because such offenses are crimes of power that are employed by the offender as an instrument to dominate and humiliate the victim. On the other hand, sexual gratification theory postulates that conjugal visitation provides inmates with a means of sexual release. Therefore, conjugal visitation should reduce sexual offending in prison. Results support sexual gratification theory by showing that states permitting conjugal visitation have significantly fewer instances of reported rape and other sexual offenses in their prisons. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

Let the Sunshine In,or Else: An Examination of the “Teeth” of State and Federal Open Meetings and Open Records Laws

Public access laws are at the heart of transparent democracy, in place to ensure that government meetings and records are open to the public. However, compliance with these laws is often problematic, a fact that can be attributed, in part, to ineffective remedies available for violations of state and federal open government laws. This study examines the enforcement provisions of the public access laws in jurisdictions across the United States to explore the remedies available, including equitable relief such as injunctions and mandamus, actual and punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, and civil and criminal sanctions. Structural difficulties were revealed that can make these remedies toothless for people unlawfully denied access. The article concludes by suggesting improvements such as enhanced and uniform penalties, more consistent enforcement, and alternatives to litigation.     

Books notes

Economics

Governments and Growth, Francis Knox, Saxon House, 1976, pp. 138, £6.95.

Environment

Dictionary of Environmental Terms, Alan Gilpin, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976, pp. 174, £3.50.

Environmental Controls, Robert A. Leone, Lexington Books, 1976, pp. 123, £8.25.

Urban Growth Management Through Development Timing, Brower et al., Martin Robertson, 1976, pp. 116, £10.10.

Law

Sale of Goods and Consumer Credit, A. P. Dobson, 1975, Sweet & Maxwell, pp. 236, £2.85.

Political Geography

Modern Political Geography, Edward F. Bergman, Wm. C. Brown, 1975, pp. 393.

Political Behaviour

Political Behaviour, Howard Elcock, Methuen, 1976, pp. 309, £8.00.

Public Administration

Outlines of Public Administration, R. E. C. Jewell, 1976, Charles Knight, pp. 206, £4.50.     

Sicarii and the Rise of Terrorism

Abstract

The Jewish Sicarii, active during the Roman imperial period, are considered by many to be the world's first political terrorists. The Sicarii rejected not only Roman dominance over Judea, but all mortally imposed authority. They effectively used assassination and kidnapping to incite a Jewish uprising against Rome. Once war was inevitable, the Sicarii vied against other extremist factions for sole leadership of the rebellion. When they proved unsuccessful, they fled Jerusalem and sought refuge at Masada, where eventually they died at their own hands.     

International convention against the taking of hostages

Anthony H. Cordesman. After the Storm: The Changing Military Balance in the Middle East (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993). 811 pp. $68.50.

Tore Bjoergo and Rob Witte, eds. Racist Violence in Europe (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993).

Hugh Smith and Anthony Bergin, eds. Naval Power in the Pacific: Toward the Year 2000 (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1993), 186 + xiii pp. $35.00.

Max G. Manwaring, ed., Gray Area Phenomena: Confronting the New World Disorder (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993). 198 pp. $19.95.

Samuel M. Makinda. Seeking Peace from Chaos: Humanitarian Intervention in Somalia (Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner, 1993).     

The Indonesian 'New Order' as New Sovereign Space: Its Creation and Narrative of Self-concealment

This paper introduces and clarifies Carl Schmitt's analytical insights on emergencies and outlines their relevance in considerations of the creation of new sovereign spaces and polities. It then argues that Schmitt's analytical perspective may be used to understand recent and ongoing attempts by collective political actors to resolve circumstances of political and spatial unfamiliarity in East Asia. The tragic events of 30 September-1 October 1965 are examined in Indonesia's case. When perceived as an emergency, their resolution led to outcomes that were both anticipated by and beyond Schmitt's theoretical expectations. The most significant (and theoretically expected) outcomes of this historic moment - de facto sovereignty and a secure space - were so novel in the Indonesian context that their military creators were constrained to hide this fact. They did so by authoring a self-concealing narrative of both the moment itself and the political nature of the resulting 'New Order' polity. While the phenomenon of the self-concealing historical narrative was not anticipated in Schmitt's thinking, its appearance in the Indonesian case is, paradoxically, the clearest evidence of the occurrence of an emergency. Moreover, the creation and perpetuation of the new space by the emergency-ending actor, as well as the sovereign power to decide matters of identity and substance for this polity, matter more than the historical accuracy or longevity of the narrative designed to obscure their essence.     

Leader heuristics,political knowledge and voting in Britain's AV referendum

This paper uses data gathered in the British Election Study's 2011 AV Referendum Survey to investigate the impact of party leader images on referendum voting. The emphasis on leader images accords well with research showing that leader heuristics have sizable effects on voting in major referendums and general elections in Britain and other mature democracies. Reacting to these findings, some analysts have argued that the effects of leader images are heterogeneous, being stronger for voters with lower levels of political knowledge. In contrast, consistent with recent research in experimental economics and political psychology, it can be hypothesized that more knowledgeable voters rely more heavily on leader heuristics than do less knowledgeable individuals. Using multivariate statistical techniques developed for interpreting interaction effects in nonlinear models, analyses indicate that a political knowledge index focusing on the electoral system does not have statistically significant effects on referendum voting. However, voters' knowledge of leaders' positions on AV does interact with leader images. The analyses show that voters with higher levels of political knowledge are influenced more strongly by leader heuristics than are those who are less knowledgeable.     

Legal pragmatism and the pre-birth continuum: an absence of unifying principle

The common law has historically been clear - the rights of the unborn do not exist prior to birth. A child becomes a legal person and able to enforce legal rights upon being born alive and having a separate existence from her or his mother. This article assesses whether new developments in biomedical technologies have left this legal principle inviolate and explores what the state of law is in relation to pre-birth. It argues that there is a pre-birth continuum where the law punctuates points in a lineal timeline fashion as to when a pre-birth "non-entity" becomes a legal entity. The article concludes that there is no singular rule of law with respect to being or becoming a human but rather a collection of discrete and increasingly divergent legal categories. This recognition of a pre-birth continuum or timeline as to the legal recognition of this "non-entity" has significant ramifications for the future development of law and impacts on legal thinking about what it means to be human.