A Special Section: Negotiating and Psychoanalysis: Some Common Aspects of Practice

Negotiation Journal -     

Controlling Internal Controls

Two recent examinations of management practices in three federal departments provide contemporary evidence of the need to incorporate procedures like those of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the public sector. Although each department established what appeared to be well-designed internal controls, all lacked sufficient monitoring and assessment of the efficacy of those controls. By requiring senior management to attest to the strength of their control mechanisms, as required by the newly revised OMB Circular A-123, the quality of this monitoring should improve. Findings from a recent study of private-sector implementation of these reforms are described, along with suggestions for public administration research and practice at all levels of government.     

Property rights and unemployment insurance reserves

Unemployment insurance (UI) laws have recently come under considerable criticism for fostering employment disincentives. Imperfections in the experience rating tax schedule has been the primary causal factor behind most of these allegations. In particular, the insurance subsidies created by the tax schedule have been blamed for distorted labor markets and for increased layoffs.This article proposes that a property rights system be established for UI reserves which would enable a firm with an unemployment insurance reserve surplus to lend voluntarily to a firm in need of reserves. Such a system would allocate reserves more efficiently and eliminate some of the disincentives effects of the current unemployment insurance scheme. A property rights system would be a second best solution to perfecting the present unemployment insurance system and making it actuarially sound. However, assigning rights to UI reserves can be implemented without challenging the special interests of the politically dominant industries that have been responsible for maintaining the imperfections in the UI system for 50 years.     

加强未成年被害人的保护维护未成年被害人的利益

在未成年人犯罪预防中,我们的关注点常常集中在犯罪的预防上,期望通过未成年人的教育、保护等各种犯罪措施,来控制和减少未成年人犯罪,其实,犯罪作为一种社会现象,是由犯罪人、被害人和犯罪行为三个基本要素构成的。被害人学研究的大量成果表明,加强未成年被害人的保护,维护未成年被害人的利益,同样可以达到未成年人犯罪预防之目的。大量研究表明,现实生活的未成年人被害与未成年人犯罪是紧密联系在一起的,例如,未成年被害人和未成年犯罪人的角色往往是不固定的。从预防犯罪角度看,预防未成年人被害与预防