Democracy and Justice

Mackies volume is a path-breaking, thorough, and innovative overview of the subject of social choice and its implications for understanding democracy. It is made up of various lines of analysis including historical interpretation, a review of massive numbers of statistical studies and a careful analysis of numerous aspects of the logical proof of Kenneth Arrows Impossibility Theorem. It will be must reading for all who wish to understand democracy given the work in the social choice field over the last 50 years. On the other hand, it has its shortcomings. By focusing on a particular school of attackers of democracy (led by William Riker), the book becomes less balanced and less useful than it might be. Most unfortunately, Mackie does not take the plunge to see what positive elements flow from such related fields as theories of justice. Finally, by avoiding these other fields, the centrality of politics in the pursuit of justice is one of the implications of the analysis that is missed.     

Brain amino acid abnormalities in kidney disease and diabetes mellitus

The present postmortem study examines whether specific amino acid abnormalities associated with renal diseases or diabetes mellitus in animal experiments and on clinical examination may also be found in human brain samples obtained at clinical autopsies. The material includes 12 deceased with renal insufficiency, 23 deceased with diabetes mellitus and 26 control cases with lethal cardiovascular diseases (without a history of hepatic, renal or metabolic disturbances). The autopsy and clinical records were retrospectively analyzed for age, sex, postmortem delay, cause of death, substantial preexisting diseases and histological findings. The analysis of free amino acid concentrations in human brain specimens was performed applying a Beckman amino acid analyzer. The results were evaluated using the U-test according to Mann, Willcox and Whitney. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered to be significantly different. Differences of amino acid concentrations attributable to sex, age and postmortem delay were not significant. The comparison of postmortem amino acid concentrations in the brains of patients with diabetes mellitus and controls did not reveal relevant changes. However, the patients with renal diseases, as compared to controls, showed a significant cerebral increase of urea, phenylethanolamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid. Thus, the postmortem amino acid analysis may contribute to the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms of uremic encephalopathy and may supplement the conventional postmortem morphological diagnosis in kidney diseases by indication of functional impairment.     

WOLF'S MODEL: Government Failure and Public Sector Reform in Advanced Industrial Democracies

Many developed nations have embarked on public sector reform programs based on the New Public Management (NPM) paradigm. This article seeks to evaluate the efficacy of NPM reform strategies as a means of dealing with the problem of “government failure” in public sector hierarchies by examining these strategies through the analytical prism provided by Wolf's theory of nonmarket failure. Drawing on the New Zealand experience, we explore the potential for NPM reform initiatives to mitigate the problems of nonmarket supply. Moreover, we examine how “autonomous policy leadership” and “advocacy coalition networks” can overcome the various obstacles to the successful implementation of reform strategies delineated by Wolf under his “conditions of nonmarket demand”. The article then focusses on the efficacy of NPM in removing, or at least reducing, the various forms of government failure identified in Wolf's taxonomic catalogue of nonmarket failure. We conclude by assessing some of the likely tradeoffs involved in the application of NPM reform programs.     

The economic model of voter participation: A further test

The central hypothesis of the economic model of voter participation was put to an empirical test. It was found that the coefficient of population size, which represents the subjective probability of affecting election results, is negative and significant in municipal local elections, but insignificant in national Knesset elections. Therefore, this variable is unable to represent subjective probability in the latter case.It was suggested that the economic model is more relevant to local elections than to Knesset elections. The empirical results revealed that the regression coefficients of municipal elections that took place separately from Knesset elections fit the expected outcome of the economic model whereas when municipal elections were held simultaneously with the Knesset election this did not hold true.     

Optimal Policies and Socially Oriented Behavior: Some Problematic Effects of an Incentive Compatible Device

Mancur Olson was pivotalin identifying the formal structure ofcollective action and the problems ofachieving optimal social outcomes with it. Using experimental methods, an incentivecompatible device is introduced in a5-person prisoner's dilemma. Thearrangements reflect constructs of Harsanyiand Rawls designed to identify optimal andfair outcomes. The device moves groupstowards optimality but its removalnegatively affects subsequent behavior,compared to a control with no ICD. Thisspill-over problem seems to reflect aweakened connection between sociallyoriented values and behavior, suggestingthat ICD's may have unanticipated negativeexternalities.     

Measuring Disparity in Government Procurement: Problems with Using Census Data in Estimating Availability

The Supreme Court's ruling in City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson (1989) has restricted the use of government procurement assistance programs for minorities and women without the prerequisite support of a disparity study. Recently, an increasing number of disparity studies have been rejected by the courts as "junk science" and the related programs have been ruled unconstitutional. A central issue in these cases has been the approach used to estimate the availability of minority and women firms. Data from the Economic Census are commonly used as the basis for these availability estimates. However, there are significant problems and limitations with the Census data relative to the Croson guideline that the availability of women and minority firms should reflect the number of qualified, willing, and able firms. Given the number and difficulty of the required adjustments to the Census data, it is unlikely that these data will provide availability estimates that are accurate enough to allow for valid statistical tests of an inference of discriminatory exclusion. If minimizing court challenges is a goal of the public administrator who is responsible for the program, then the recommendation here is that a primary source of availability data should be considered. Furthermore, the information system needed to support the women and minority assistance programs should be designed and installed prior to initiating the program.