Local Government and Strategies for Decentralization in the "State of the Autonomies"

The convergent forces of democratization, decentralization,the welfare state, and international integration have made Spanishlocal governments similar to their equivalents in other partsof Europe. Nevertheless, local governments are the most poorlydefined part of the post-Franco puzzle of reform. This articletraces the history and development of Spanish local governmentwithin the emerging state of the autonomies, and examines theirambivalent position and uncertain future. Despite the greatertransformative emphasis on building federal arrangements throughthe autonomous communities, local governments play importantroles in establishing self-rule and shared rule.     

Use of Embryos Extracted from Individual Cannabis sativa Seeds for Genetic Studies and Forensic Applications

Legal limits on the psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content in Cannabis sativa plants have complicated genetic and forensic studies in this species. However, Cannabis seeds present very low THC levels. We developed a method for embryo extraction from seeds and an improved protocol for DNA extraction and tested this method in four hemp and six marijuana varieties. This embryo extraction method enabled the recovery of diploid embryos from individual seeds. An improved DNA extraction protocol (CTAB3) was used to obtain DNA from individual embryos at a concentration and quality similar to DNA extracted from leaves. DNA extracted from embryos was used for SSR molecular characterization in individuals from the 10 varieties. A unique molecular profile for each individual was obtained, and a clear differentiation between hemp and marijuana varieties was observed. The combined embryo extraction–DNA extraction methodology and the new highly polymorphic SSR markers facilitate genetic and forensic studies in Cannabis.     

Globalisation of Commodification: Legal Process Outsourcing and Indian Lawyers

Legal process outsourcing (LPO) refers to the contracting of legal work from regions where it is costly to perform, such as the US to areas where it can be performed at a significantly decreased cost. LPO has been made possible by the disaggregation of the legal processes into discrete units, each of which can then outsourced to cheaper service providers. Anecdotal evidence suggests a variety of benefits such as financial gains, opportunities to perform “global” work in a corporate atmosphere and acquisition of important skills and training that enhances the prestige of the host country lawyers. In India, which has played a significant role, LPO firms are viewed as important catalysts in the transformation of the country’s highly stratified legal profession based on social identities. This qualitative study, based on 38 interviews, concludes that the corporate culture was an attractive proposition for lawyers from non-elite backgrounds; however, the commodification of offshored work led to a deprofessionalisation of lawyers, reducing them to “glorified clerks.” As a result, LPO firms only provided parallel avenues for career mobility but did not destabilise the local legal market which at its core remains socially networked.     

Indian Public Sector Trade Unionism in Context: Gujarat and West Bengal Compared

Using qualitative research methods and comparing two Indian states (Gujarat and West Bengal), the authors examine the relative power and influence of trade unions in three parts of the public sector, viz., state government employment, municipal bus and tram services, and telecommunications. The distinctive methodology and the findings emphasise the importance of caution in generalising about trade unionism and industrial relations in India as a whole; and indicate that the context of particular Indian states is a vital ingredient of trade union analysis. The authors identify a complex web of explanatory factors for the relative power and influence of the unions under study, within the distinctive political, economic and historical contexts of Gujarat and West Bengal. Thus, they demonstrate the largely untapped potential for primary, qualitative and comparative research to expand our understanding of industrial relations in India.     

Evaluating the Cost of Organised Crime from a Comparative Perspective

Whilst any estimation of crime costs is a challenge even at a national level and in respect to crimes not particularly problematic from the definitional viewpoint, like volume crimes, the task is much harder when one has to deal with the harm caused by organised crime, especially from a comparative perspective. First, notwithstanding many international acts and studies, the term ‘organised crime’ is still one of those most debated and blurred in criminology. To complicate matters further, any cross-country assessment encounters such a wide variety of national differences (cultural, in the definition of offences, and in crime data collection systems) that the results are hardly comparable. Though extremely difficult, discussing the topic makes a great deal of sense today, and especially within the European Union, because there is strong demand for sound knowledge on the most harmful activities perpetrated by organised criminal groups and where these are localised. Considering the increasing importance attached to the issue, this article critically discusses existing attempts to measure organised crime harm from a comparative perspective, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. It first reviews harm assessment models developed to date at the international level, and mainly consisting of surveys. It then presents a different approach to the subject, one more centered on official statistics and which has recently resulted in the development of a methodology in the context of a EU-funded study entitled IKOC (Improving Knowledge on Organised Crime to develop a common European approach).     

A Model of Spoils Politics

Accounts of state failure in the developing world frequently highlight a logic of "spoils politics" in which a government and an opposing faction vie for control of the state and the accompanying spoils. Attempts to buy the opposition off play a key role in this logic, and an informational problem often complicates these efforts. Because of limited transparancy, the government generally has a better idea about the actual size of the spoils than the opposition does. We formalize this aspect of spoils politics as a signaling game in which the government has private information about the size of the spoils and tries to co-opt the opposition by offering a share of the spoils. The opposition can accept the offer or reject it by fighting. Consistent with the strong empirical finding that the probability of civil war is higher when income is low, the probability of breakdown increases as the size of the spoils decreases. We also study the effects of uncertainty, the opposition's military strength, the cost of fighting, and power-sharing agreements on the probability of fighting.     

Assessing the Impact of Alternative Voting Technologies on Multi-Party Elections: Design Features,Heuristic Processing and Voter Choice

This paper analyzes the influence of alternative voting technologies on electoral outcomes in multi-party systems. Using data from a field experiment conducted during the 2005 legislative election in Argentina, we examine the role of information effects associated with alternative voting devices on the support for the competing parties. We find that differences in the type of information displayed and how it was presented across devices favored some parties to the detriment of others. The impact of voting technologies was found to be larger than in two-party systems, and could lead to changes in election results. We conclude that authorities in countries moving to adopt new voting systems should carefully take the potential partisan advantages induced by different technologies into account when evaluating their implementation.     

Possible Fatal Acetaminophen Intoxication with Atypical Clinical Presentation

Acetaminophen or paracetamol, a commonly used over‐the‐counter analgesic, is known to elicit severe adverse reactions when taken in overdose, chronically at therapeutic dosage or, sporadically, following single assumptions of a therapeutic dose. Damage patterns including liver damage and, rarely, acute tubular necrosis or a fixed drug exanthema. We present a case of fatal acetaminophen toxicity with postmortem blood concentration 78 μg/mL and unusual clinical features, including a visually striking and massive epidermolysis and rhabdomyolysis, disseminated intravascular coagulation and myocardial ischemia. This case is compared with the most similar previous reports in terms of organ damage, clinical presentation, and cause of death. We conclude that a number of severe patterns of adverse effects to acetaminophen are emerging that were previously greatly underestimated, thus questioning the adequacy of the clinical spectrum traditionally associated with acetaminophen intoxication and leading to the need to review this spectrum and the associated diagnostic criteria.