Technological innovation in the semiconductor industry

A comprehensive list of innovations in the semiconductor industry during 1970 to 1980 was derived. The patterns of innovation across eight organizations showed consistency between the stages of initiation, adoption and implementation. Smaller organizations compared to large implemented a lower percentage of the innovations they initiated. The value of organization net sales and the dollar amount of the R&D budget, but not the number of organization of R&D personnel were significantly related to the number of innovations.     

A differential survey of the problems of privileged and underprivileged adolescents

The problems of adjustment during the midadolescent years were examined in 1298 privileged and underprivileged adolescents from the Sydney Metropolitan Area, Australia. Girls reported more problems than boys in all areas of adjustment and underprivileged adolescents more problems than the privileged group; however, a significant interaction effect was also found. Whether high-income or low-income group, the overwhelming number of problems were associated with educational adjustment and were interpreted as the reaction to pressures to achieve imposed on adolescents of this age.Received her M.A. (Hons.) and Ph.D. from Macquarie University. Member of Australian Psychological Society. Principal research interests are child psychopathology and psychology of adolescence.Received his M.A.(Hons.) and Ph.D. from Sydney University. Fellow of Australian Psychological Society. Principal research interest is psychology of adolescence.     

Obstacles to NGOs’ accountability to intended beneficiaries: the case of ActionAid

While NGO accountability is widely discussed in the literature, there has been little work done on how accountability systems operate in practice. This article aims to address this gap by using qualitative empirical data to provide a case study of one NGO’s initiative in this area. ActionAid has made substantial, high-profile efforts to improve its downward accountability since 2000. Using data from fieldwork conducted in Uganda and internationally, the article reveals the operational obstacles which have hindered ActionAid in its attempts to strengthen its accountability to intended beneficiaries at the community level, and reviews ActionAid’s ongoing commitment to this goal.     

Healing Families: Outcomes from a Family Drug Treatment Court

Family drug treatment courts (FDTC) have been acknowledged as a promising intervention for substance‐abusing parents involved in the child welfare system. Over the past decade, the number of FDTC programs has grown substantially, yet questions remain regarding the efficacy of these courts. This study examines the ability of the Snohomish County (WA) FDTC to address the three main goals of the Adoption and Safe Families Act. Utilizing propensity score matching, this study found that participants were more likely to have their children returned, experienced stronger treatment completion rates, and had less use of foster care. Implications for replication and further analysis are discussed.     

Autonomie des Rechts? Niklas Luhmanns soziologischer Rechtspositivismus — Eine kritische Rekonstruktion

Beside Hans Kelsen’s pure theory of law, Niklas Luhmanns autopoietic theory of law offers the most elaborated attempt to defend the conception of the autonomy of law. According to this approach, the functionally differentiated legal system obeys in its internal logic completely its own legal operations. Law represents a basically closed system in which law can be only (re-)produced through law. Firstly, this article reconstructs Luhmann’s sociological transformation of central problems in legal theory. Secondly, in focusing on the paradoxical constitution of the legal system, it mainly demonstrates how the notion of the autopoietic autonomy of law must fail in virtue of its inner-theoretical shortcomings. Luhmann cannot avoid to concede that law is ultimately founded on politics. Finally, this essay tries to develop an alternative political theory of law in which the concept, validity, relative autonomy, and function of law is, in the last instance, based on the historically varying relations of power and the struggle for their maintenance or change.     

Sachpolitik oder Parteipolitik?

The article analyzes the roll call voting behavior of German Länder governments in the Bundesrat from 1990 to 2005. We examine if, when, and to what extent the German Bundesrat is dominated by federal party politics rather than by an appropriate conflict of policy interest between states and state governments. We develop and apply a method to separate the effect of policy preferences and of parties’ politics on the voting behavior of Länder governments.