Does Globalisation Threaten the State? Thesis on the Fractal State

There has been much recent debate concerning the role of the state. What should we make of this unease? There are two possibilities: the first involves taking a clear position on the debate by stating that globalisation leads to the downgrading of states in global regulation, to the benefit of the market. This suggests that the era of the state will be followed by the era of the market. While this thesis has many elements of truth, it underestimates the capacity of the state to transform itself, at the risk of opposing the state too systematically to the market. The second takes the opposite point of view by saying that the globalisation leaves the state neither defenceless nor weakened. The tenants of this analysis use the historical plasticity of the state and the falling numbers of states in the world as evidence. At the same time, they hide the size of the crisis of legitimacy of public policies. The problem comes from the fact that these two theses, reputed to be mutually antagonistic, are in fact perfectly complementary. Accordingly, instead of choosing between them, it seems useful to address them simultaneously before moving beyond them to propose the following thesis: globalisation develops at once against and with the state. This inherent contradiction transforms the state into a fractal actor, that is to say a state that no longer poises itself over society, but who at the same time remains the guarantor of a public rationality.     

MANAGING RAPE: EXPLORATORY RESEARCH ON THE BEHAVIOR OF RAPE STATISTICS*

This article explores interpretations of the UCR-NCS disparity in rape rates within the context of recent debates and research about the UCR-NCS relationship. Analysis of a variety of survey, organizational, and employee data together with UCR and NCS crime data yields a pattern of findings that makes sense if two assumptions are made: Downward trends in NCS data are an approximation of trends in the real rate of rape, and upward trends in UCR data are primarily a product of changes in the management of rape cases. The common attribution of disparities between UCR and NCS rape data to changes in public or victim reporting receives little support when compared with explanations stressing organizational change. Upward movement in official attention to rape could, in fact, account for downward movement in NCS rape rates. The implications of recent NCS efforts to improve the official measurement of rape for the future behavior of rape statistics are also considered.     

Assessing the President's Role as Party Agent in Congressional Elections: The Case of Bill Clinton in 2000

Presidents have become their parties' chief fund‐raisers and thus have the capacity to further their parties' collective fortunes by imposing a more efficient distribution of campaign resources than might otherwise prevail. In order to succeed, presidents must, first, accurately target their efforts where they will best improve candidates' prospects for winning seats, and second, either directly or indirectly (through signaling to other donors) generate sufficient new resources to affect the election outcome. Analyses of Bill Clinton's extensive fund‐raising efforts during the 1999–2000 election cycle confirm that presidents can indeed use their unmatched fund‐raising ability to help their parties win congressional contests they might otherwise lose. But analysis of the Clinton record also shows that presidential fund‐raising activities may be shaped by other purposes that lead to a distribution of effort that is suboptimal for the party.     

Women Victims of Violent Partners: The Italian Situation Amid Culture and Psychopathology

In 2006, the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) conducted a survey over the entire national territory of women victims of sexual, physical, and psychologic violence, a few years after the first survey, conducted in 2002. For the 2002 survey, respondents were 60,000 women, 22,759 of whom were aged 14–59 years. For the 2006 survey, the sample consisted of 25,000 women aged 16–70 years. Owing to the sensitivity of the issues, the telephone survey technique seems best suited because it provides more anonymity and guarantee of protection. The survey showed that the phenomenon of violence against women is most commonly perpetrated by the partner or ex‐partner, even in cases of homicide. A comparison of the Italian data with those of the U.S.A. for the period 2001–2006 showed a specificity of Intimate Partner Violence in Italy, that seems to be related to cultural elements and psychologic and psychopathologic factors.     

Real-time PCR designs to estimate nuclear and mitochondrial DNA copy number in forensic and ancient DNA studies

We explore different designs to estimate both nuclear and mitochondrial human DNA (mtDNA) content based on the detection of the 5' nuclease activity of the Taq DNA polymerase using fluorogenic probes and a real-time quantitative PCR detection system. Human mtDNA quantification was accomplished by monitoring the real-time progress of the PCR-amplification of two different fragment sizes (113 and 287 bp) within the hypervariable region I (HV1) of the mtDNA control region, using two fluorogenic probes to specifically determine the mtDNA copy of each fragment size category. This mtDNA real-time PCR design has been used to assess the mtDNA preservation (copy number and degradation state) of DNA samples retrieved from 500 to 1500 years old human remains that showed low copy number and highly degraded mtDNA. The quantification of nuclear DNA was achieved by real-time PCR of a segment of the X-Y homologous amelogenin (AMG) gene that allowed the simultaneous estimation of a Y-specific fragment (AMGY: 112 bp) and a X-specific fragment (AMGX: 106 bp) making possible not only haploid or diploid DNA quantitation but also sex determination. The AMG real-time PCR design has been used to quantify a set of 57 DNA samples from 4-5 years old forensic bone remains with improved sensitivity compared with the slot-blot hybridization method. The potential utility of this technology to improve the quality of some PCR-based forensic and ancient DNA studies (microsatellite typing and mtDNA sequencing) is discussed.     

Thomas Paine's influence on the Girondin constitutional project of 1793

This article aims to investigate what may have been Thomas Paine's influence on the Girondin constitutional project presented by Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat Condorcet to the French National Convention, of which he was a member, on 14 and 15 February 1793. Indeed, the English radical was part of the nine-member committee, by the majority Girondin faction, in charge of drafting a new constitution for France. That project, which was accompanied by a Declaration of Rights, never came to fruition, but it has always been recognized as an important document for the interpretation of the evolutionary dynamics that characterized the French revolutionary period. Many of the provisions in the constitution recall Painite political thought, and studying this element can also be useful for understanding the links between the American and French Revolutions, given the fact that Paine actively participated in the experience of institutional upheaval initiated by the American colonists in 1775. The English thinker elaborated a political theory in his writings inspired by the most important democratic principles and based on respect and protection of fundamental human rights, all elements that, in their different mode of expression and declinations, can be found again in the Girondin constitutional charter of 1793.