Governing strategically: the New Zealand experience

This article describes the evolution of New Zealand's approach to the strategic direction of its public service during a decade of reform. Problems of atomization and short-termism which emerged from the first phase of reform were addressed through the adaptation of the Cabinet and central agency processes for policy, budget and management. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding the Policy Process: The Work of Henry Mintzberg

Do Henry Mintzberg's writings make an enduring, invaluable contribution to our understanding of the contemporary public policy process? Mintzberg argues that organizations display eight structural configurations and corresponding coordinating mechanisms. Such structural configurations are shaped by a variety of contingency factors, especially power and environmental ones. Using Mintzberg's work, eight policy modes, corresponding to structural configurations within government organizations and political systems, are identified and placed on a matrix that comprises two dimensions: standardization and centralization. Six polarities in the policy process arise from this matrix. Mintzberg's work, the paper argues, remains of enduring value because it provides a seminal framework for a richer understanding of the current policy process, by offering a contingency theory of structures and policy modes, as well as by frank acknowledgment of the protean nature of the policy process.     

Predictors of the Authorities' Decision to Grant Asylum in Denmark

With the aim of identifying predictors for being granted a residencepermit, adult members of 149 refugee families from the MiddleEast answered a structured interview shortly after arrival onsocial and demographic background and family exposure to organizedviolence. At follow-up, 90 families (60.4 per cent) had beengranted a residence permit. This was positively associated withIraqi nationality, with the duration of the father's educationand the family's religion being another than Islam, and negativelywith being a single mother family. No association was foundwith exposure to war, having lived in a refugee camp or to humanrights violations. Without transparency of the asylum grantingdecision process the conclusion is that this seems to favourthe selection of socially and culturally well situated refugees,while human rights violations seem to play a diminishing role.In order to develop its quality, continuous and transparentmonitoring of the asylum granting decision process appears relevant.     

Community development: Freire and Grameen in the Barrowfield Project,Glasgow, Scotland

This article is an attempt to examine one of the better-known failures in UK community development – the Barrowfield Project in Glasgow (1986–1996) – and to compare and contrast it with other attempts at community development, especially some associated with the work of Mohammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, and the legacy of Paulo Freire. We conclude that both Freire and Yunus make assumptions about the pre-existence of community which limit the potential impact of their ideas in an area such as Barrowfield, where anomie and apathy were rife. We further find that just as actions intended to be liberating may reinforce the dominant hegemony, the converse may on occasion also be true. In recent years the Barrowfield Project has risen from the ashes of its previous demise, and so the present work needs to be seen in that context.     

The victim zone: Recent accounts of Burmese military human rights abuse in the shan state

Burma's little-known frontier war is the context of six interviews with tribal people affected by the conflict. Burmese military abuse of ethnic minority civilians in the war zone includes forced labor, systematic looting, torture and destruction of tribal villages. American aid, intended to combat the Golden Triangle's opium production, has added to the tribes' persecution, as the Burmese military uses the herbicide 2,4-D (an Agent Orange ingredient) in saturation spraying of crops as part of counterinsurgency efforts.Project MAJE is an independent project on human rights in Burma.Project Maje is an independent information project designed to encourage American awareness of the political situation in Burma, particularly the frontier war and related issues. For more information on human rights in Burma, the 2,4-D program, narcotics trade, and other related topics, please contact: PROJECT MAJE, 14 Dartmouth Road, Cranford, NJ 07016 USA, (201) 276-8494.     

Shorter notices

The Economics of Development: An Annotated List of Books and Articles Published. 1958–1962. By Arthur Hazlewood, London Oxford University Press, 1964. Pp. xii, 104, 12/6.

Libya : Its Oil Industry and Economic System. By Abdul Amir Q. Kubbah, The Arab Petro‐Economic Research Centre, Baghdad, Iraq, 1964. Pp. 274. 45/‐.

Levels of Economic Activity and Public Expenditure in India. By K. Mukerji, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Poona, Asia Publishing House, London. 1965. Pp. xvi, 140. 55/‐.

Leading Issues in Development Economics. Selected Materials and Commentary. By Gerald M. Meier, New York, Oxford University Press. 1964. Pp. xiii, 572. 35/‐.     

A comparison of the neuropsychological profiles of adult male sex offenders and non-offenders with a learning disability

Abstract

The present study compared the neumpsychologlcal pmfiles of a group of adult male sex offenden with a laming disability (n-42) with a group of adult male non-offenders with a learning disability (n-42) using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Revised (1986). The groups wen matched for full-scale IQ. Thc study found that the non-offender group had significantly higher Verbal 1Q scorn than the sex offender group. No significant differences wen found for Performance IQ. The non-ofinder group was also found to have significantly hlgher scores on the Vocabulary sub-test than the sex offender group and the sex offender group was found to have significantly higher scores on the ObJecr Assembly subtest than the non-ofinder group. Finally. the sex offender group was found to have a significantly lower Verbal IQ than Performance IQ. No significant Verbal-Performance discrepancy was found for the non-offender group. Possible implications of these findings are dlscusscd.