Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and the Art of Revolutionary Cinema

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea has been widely acclaimed for his cinematic production and for his role as a key figure in the elaboration of a distinctively Cuban aesthetic. Drawing on notions such as Martín-Barbero's mediations, Billig's banal nationalism, and Gutiérrez Alea's own viewer's dialectic, consideration is given here to the mutual influences of the Revolution's cultural policies on cinema, and of cinema on the Revolution. Analysis will focus on the films Memorias del subdesarrollo (1968), Hasta cierto punto (1983), Fresa y chocolate (1993) and Guantanamera (1995), which will allow for discussion of some of the director's key themes, including gender issues, the place and role of intellectuals and artists in relation to the Revolution, and the defence of a critical space in which to explore such issues.     

IDENTIFYING CAUSALITY IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE: THE ADAPTATION OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY FOR WALES TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

The aim of this article is to identify causes and effects of public institutional change. Analysis is centred on those endogenous, not exogenous, sources of political change that account for the institutional metamorphosis of the Welsh Assembly in its engagement with UK‐EU processes since 1999. The central research question addressed is to explain a qualitative shift in the logic of action of Assembly engagement, resulting in the conduct of a territorially sensitive ‘parliamentary’ EU scrutiny, but within a model of executive devolution. To capture agency and change, and to engage with sociological institutionalist debates, the article develops analytical tools of ‘framing’ and ‘operationalizing’ institutions to study the interplay between informal and formal processes of institution building since devolution. In so doing, we place refined sociological conceptions of institutions at the heart of analyses of political discontinuity and theorization of public institutional change.     

RESIGNED BUT SATISFIED: THE NEGATIVE IMPACT OF PUBLIC SERVICE MOTIVATION AND RED TAPE ON WORK SATISFACTION

This article examines the relationship between red tape, Public Service Motivation (PSM) and a particular work outcome labelled ‘resigned satisfaction’. Using data from a national survey of over 3754 public servants working at the municipal level in Switzerland, this study shows the importance of looking more closely at the concept of work satisfaction and, furthermore, of thoroughly investigating the impact of the different PSM dimensions on work outcomes. Unsurprisingly, research findings show that red tape is the most important predictor of resignation. Nevertheless, when PSM dimensions are analysed separately, results demonstrate that ‘commitment to public interest/civic duty’ and, to a lesser extent, ‘attraction to policy‐making’ decrease resignation, whereas ‘compassion’ and ‘self‐sacrifice’ increase it. This study thus highlights some of the negative (or undesirable) effects of PSM that have not been previously addressed in PSM literature.     

A NOTE ON PERCEPTUAL DETERRENCE,RELIGIOUSLY BASED MORAL CONDEMNATION,AND SOCIAL CONTROL*

Empirical investigations of social control mechanisms are often limited to single sources of control, such as the efficacy of legal punishments. Because research has produced only moderate support for the hypothesis that perceived risk of legal punishments reduces the likelihood of nonconformity, some have searched sources of control that condition this relationship. such as the degree of moral condemnation individuals hold toward a criminal/delinquent act. However, relevant research has resulted in contradictory findings. Using cross-sectional and panel data, we obtained results that show that moral condemnation of an act conditions the deterrent relationship and that findings from previous studies may have underestimated the effect of legal deterrents given the presence of those in the population who refrain from marijuana use because it is believed to be sin fur. Implications of the findings for the relative deterrability of serious versus minor offenses and the relevance of this distinction for issues of social control are discussed.     

NARCOTIC ABUSERS AND POVERTY

This paper examines whether narcotic abusers known to the Maryland Narcotic Addicts Register are indigent. Samples were drawn from this register and several determinations made as to their membership in populations receiving: medical assistance, public assistance (past and present), residing in public housing or in a low income area. Overall, the proportion of narcotic abusers defined as indigent ranged from 82% to 8.5% for Baltimore City residents However, this same finding did not hold true for those in Maryland counties.