A general equilibrium model of two group conflict with endogenous intra-group sharing rules

This paper explores the interactions among intra-group sharing rules, the competition between two groups over the common pool of output, and the allocation of resources between productive and appropriate activities. In the interior solution, the use of egalitarian method for the distribution of group income among members plays no distributional role but only affects the allocation of resources. It releases resources into the productive sector from the group that adopts the egalitarian rule by making the internal conflict among the members less intense. The sequential choice of intra-group sharing rules and resource allocations produce the adoption of fully egalitarian intra-group sharing rules in both groups. These rules minimize the amount of resources allocated to appropriate activities and maximize the welfare level of all individuals in the economy. This result suggests that inter-group competition with the use of egalitarian principle in the distribution of group income among group members, which is not available to the Hobbesian state of nature, is one of the cheaper social devices in restraining individuals from engaging in costly appropriative activities.     

Conjugal Violence in Korean American Families: A Residue of the Cultural Tradition

The study explored the incidence of spouse abuse in Korean American families and interrelations between conjugal violence, marital power structure, stress, and socioeconomic and cultural factors. Rate of conjugal violence in these families is higher than those for other Asian American families. Data were collected from 256 families selected at random. In male dominant couples, rate of severe violence, wife beating, was four times higher than that of egalitarian couples. Husbands who experienced higher levels of stress had a greater rate of assaulting their wives. Wives in egalitarian and female dominant couples experienced a lower amount of stress and shared more decision-making power than did those in the male dominant couples. The longer the couples had been in the United States and the more American education they had received, the more egalitarian and female-dominant marital relations they tended to have. The residual influence of the traditional culture, in which they lived prior to immigration, is a factor suggesting why men were more abusive than women. Cultural differences associated with conjugal violence and needs for services are discussed.     

Decoding the Evolutionary Path of Chinese Foreign Policy, 1949–2009: Assessments and Inferences

Chinese foreign policy has made a grand transition during the post-Mao reform era. Chinese foreign policy of the 21st century has become much more open and pragmatic in its relations with the outside world, more extensive in its reach and coverage, highly diversified in its functions and partners, more committed to international norms than before, and much more sophisticated in its dealing with the international community. Yet, the precise balance between the changes and continuities is still quite difficult to gauge. Furthermore, despite crucial visible changes, concerns and worries - even some fears - are discernible with regard to the rise of China. In the last 60 years, Beijing has sought hard to sustain consistencies (shizhong ruyi) in its foreign policy. Perhaps, that is the best clue the world has in inferring the future trajectory of Chinese foreign policy.     

Improved gas chromatography-negative ion chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometric method for determination of 11-nor-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid in hair using mechanical pulverization and bead-assisted liquid-liquid extraction

A gas chromatography-negative ion chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometric (GC-NCI-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the determination of 11-nor-Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THC-COOH) in human hair. After decontamination, hair samples were weighed (25mg), mechanically pulverized with a bead mill, and incubated in 0.7 mL of 1.0M sodium hydroxide at 95 °C for 30 min. Bead-assisted liquid-liquid extraction was performed with n-hexane:ethyl acetate (9:1, v/v), a method developed in our laboratory. The extract was evaporated to dryness, derivatized with pentafluoropropanol and pentafluoropropionic anhydride, and analyzed by GC-MS/MS in the negative ion chemical ionization mode using methane as the reagent gas. The linear ranges were 0.05-10.0 pg/mg for THC-COOH with the coefficient of determination (r(2) = 0.9976). The intra-day and inter-day precisions were within 1.7 and 13.8%, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day accuracies were -4.8 to 10.0% and -3.9 to 3.8%, respectively. The limit of detection and quantification were 0.015 and 0.05 pg/mg, respectively. The recoveries were in the range of 79.4-87.1%. The results indicate that the proposed method is simple, rapid, accurate, and precise for determination of THC-COOH in hair. The method identified THC-COOH in hair specimens from suspected marijuana abusers.     

The Citizen Deliberator

Books reviewed in this article:
Bruce Ackerman and James S. Fishkin, Deliberation Day
Ethan Leib, Deliberative Democracy in America: A Proposal for a Popular Branch of Government     

Accuracy of facial soft tissue thickness measurements in personal computer-based multiplanar reconstructed computed tomographic images

The purpose of this study was to determine the precision and accuracy of facial soft tissue measurement using personal computer (PC)-based multiplanar reconstructed (MPR) computed tomography (CT) images and to evaluate the effect of the various CT scanning protocols on the facial soft tissue thickness measurement. Thirteen different CT imaging protocols were used to image a cadaver head. MPR reformations and three-dimensional (3D) reconstructions viewed on a laptop PC were used to make measurements at six specific sites on each set of images. These measurements were compared to physical measurements at the same sites. Increasing the slice thickness resulted in decreased image quality. Within the same slice thickness, increasing the pitch ratio in the spiral mode, resulted in decreasing image quality. The image quality of conventional CT scanning was relatively poorer than that of the spiral CT scanning. However, the mean deviation from the physical measurement was within 0.43 mm in every instance. This mean deviation was quite small and clinically acceptable for measuring the soft tissue thickness of the facial area. PC-based MPR CT images of the face using routine scanning CT protocols can be used to accurately measure soft tissue thickness in the facial region. However, for more fine and accurate data collection, scanning protocols with slice thicknesses less than 5mm, and a spiral/helical mode pitch less than 2:1 are recommended.     

What Drives For-Profit and Nonprofit Organizations’ Entry into Voucher Markets?

This study investigates a social service voucher program in Korea to examine why local governments rely on external actors, such as for-profit and nonprofit organizations, in provisioning social services and what encourages such market entry in view of the transaction cost theory. The social service voucher program, first introduced in 2007, offers a unique dataset of 1,101 local markets to examine how local governments are willing to stay in control of provisioning the nationwide program while promoting private actor entry. This study finds that local governments with lower fiscal capacities or in markets in which multiple existing organizations operate are more motivated to foster for-profit entry, whereas only existing nonprofit organizations in the market that provide the same services predict nonprofit entry. The implication is that the facilitation of for-profit entry is associated with local governments’ need to manage transaction costs, although this may not be true for nonprofit entry.     

The choice of electoral systems in new democracies: a case study of South Korea in 1988

Most theories about electoral system choice are based on the experiences of Western European countries, many of which shifted from majority/plurality rule to proportional representation (PR) at the turn of the twentieth century. This article aims to explain the choice of the South Korean legislative electoral system in 1988 as an example of electoral institution choices in new democracies, which may be different from those in the Western European countries. Through analysing multiple steps leading to the choice of a single-member district plurality voting system, this article suggests three potentially generalizable findings. First, in new democracies, labour parties can only induce old parties to shift to a proportional representation system if they have mobilized the working class prior to democratization. Secondly, parties in the developing world at times face unusual systems that are neither majoritarian nor fully PR. Under such unusual systems, party size would not be a reliable predictor for the party's preference over electoral institutions. Finally, when parties choose a legislative electoral institution in a presidential system, parties tend to prefer an institution that helps them in the subsequent presidential election even though the institution might harm them in the upcoming legislative election.     

Fighting COVID-19 with Agility,Transparency, and Participation: Wicked Policy Problems and New Governance Challenges

Governments are being put to the test as they struggle with the fast and wide spread of COVID-19. This article discusses the compelling challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic by examining how this wicked problem has been managed by the South Korean government with agile-adaptive, transparent actions to mitigate the surge of COVID-19. Unlike many Western countries, South Korea has been able to contain the spread of COVID-19 without a harsh forced lockdown of the epicenter of the virus. This essay argues that an agile-adaptive approach, a policy of transparency in communicating risk, and citizens’ voluntary cooperation are critical factors. It also suggests that the South Korean government learned costly lessons from the MERS failure of 2015. This essay suggests ways that Western countries can manage future wicked problems such as COVID-19 without paying too much cost and maintaining quality of life in open and free societies.