Inequality, the politics of redistribution and the tax mix

Political economy literature generally predicts a positive relationship between income inequality and redistribution. However, there is no clear empirical evidence supporting such a relationship. By incorporating an informal sector that evades income taxes, we account for the tax-base effect that, along with the political channel, determines the equilibrium redistribution and tax mix. We find a non-monotonic relationship between inequality and redistribution and explore under which conditions an unequal society relies more heavily on indirect taxes to finance redistribution. Ultimately, this paper shows the limitations of the income tax to finance redistribution in developing countries even when taxes are democratically chosen.     

Policy recontextualisation: the proposed introduction of a multiple-choice test for the entry-level assessment of the legal knowledge of prospective solicitors in England and Wales,and the potential effect on university-level legal education

Much of the substantive content of undergraduate law programmes in England and Wales is framed by the requirements of the legal regulators. There are now proposals for changes to the entry-level assessment of the legal knowledge of prospective solicitors, which include the use of a standardised multiple-choice test (MCT). It is anticipated that for most law students this would be taken alongside or immediately after their undergraduate studies. This paper uses discourse analysis to explore the positioning of the regulators in the consultation documents for this proposal, and undertakes a review of the literature on the use of MCTs in legal education. By using theoretical concepts derived from the work of Basil Bernstein, most notably the recontextualising rule, and classification, it explores the potential effects of this change in policy on university-level legal education.     

Integrating learning into organisational capacity development of Cambodian NGOs

A holistic learning approach to organisational capacity building with Cambodian NGOs produced impressive results in some organisations and important learning about blocks to change in others. The approach clearly demonstrates that moving beyond traditional training and organisational development interventions and into processes that promote learning and its integration into everyday work practices has positive and lasting impacts. Organisations willing to engage with the learning approach found that both individuals and the whole organisation were able to function more effectively, and that this contributed to sustainability and resilience. The approach also produced important lessons about organisational readiness to embrace learning and change.

Intégrer l'apprentissage dans le développement des capacités organisationnelles des ONG cambodgiennes

Une approche holistique (globale) de l'apprentissage en matière de développement des capacités organisationnelles avec des ONG cambodgiennes a produit des résultats impressionnants dans certaines organisations et donné lieu à d'importantes leçons sur les entraves aux changements dans d'autres. Cette approche démontre clairement que le fait d'aller au-delà des interventions traditionnelles de formation et de développement organisationnel pour entreprendre des processus qui promeuvent l'apprentissage et son intégration dans les pratiques de travail quotidiennes a des impacts positifs et durables. Les organisations disposées à adopter l'approche d'apprentissage ont constaté que tant les individus que l'organisation dans son ensemble étaient en mesure de fonctionner plus efficacement et que cela contribuait à la durabilité et à la résilience. Cette approche a aussi produit des enseignements importants sur la bonne disposition des organisations à embrasser l'apprentissage et les changements.

Integrando aprendizado no desenvolvimento da capacidade organizacional de ONGs cambojanas

Uma abordagem de aprendizado holística para a capacitação organizacional com ONGs cambojanas produziu resultados surpreendentes em algumas organizações e um importante aprendizado sobre obstáculos a serem superados em outras. A abordagem demonstra claramente que ir além dos tradicionais treinamentos e intervenções para o desenvolvimento organizacional e incorporar processos que promovam o aprendizado e sua integração em práticas de trabalho diárias promovem impactos positivos e duradouros. Organizações que desejavam engajar-se com a abordagem de aprendizado constataram que tanto os indivíduos quanto a organização como um todo eram capazes de atuar mais efetivamente e que isto contribuía para a sustentabilidade e resiliência. A abordagem também extraiu lições importantes sobre a preparação organizacional para incorporar aprendizado e mudança.

Incorporar nuevos aprendizajes al desarrollo de capacidades organizacionales en ONG de Camboya

En Camboya se aplicó un método de aprendizaje integral para la construcción de capacidades institucionales en ONG que produjo importantes resultados en algunas organizaciones y proporcionó datos relevantes sobre los obstáculos que impiden los avances en otras. Este método muestra con claridad que si se va más allá de las acciones habituales de capacitación y de desarrollo institucional y se abordan procesos que promuevan el aprendizaje integrándolos en el trabajo cotidiano, se pueden obtener resultados positivos y duraderos. Las organizaciones que se mostraron dispuestas a incorporar este método de aprendizaje consiguieron mejores resultados en el trabajo tanto de los individuos como de la organización y aumentó su sustentabilidad y flexibilidad. El método también generó importantes datos sobre la predisposición de las organizaciones a incorporar el aprendizaje y el cambio.     

Mitochondrial profiling of dog hairs

In order to make greater use of dog hairs as forensic evidence, we have developed a robust method for duplex amplification of adjacent 306 and 332bp amplicons within the 5' hypervariable region (5' HVR) of the canine mitochondrial control region. In support of this, a 595bp region covering 35 polymorphic sites has been sequenced from the blood of 105 UK dogs. In total, 30 different haplotypes were observed, 13 only once whilst the commonest was seen 14 times; the overall exclusion capacity is 0.929. One animal was heteroplasmic in blood for a single base deletion and showed phenotypes ranging from near complete deletion to a predominance of the base among a sample of 12 hairs. In contrast, no evidence of heteroplasmy was seen in single hairs from 20 dogs which were not visibly heteroplasmic in blood. Phylogenetic analysis and comparisons with other published databases highlighted instances of possible recurrent mutation which may be relevant when interpreting single base differences between samples.     

Les liaisons dangereuses: Relations between police commissioners and their political masters

This article reflects on the difficult and ambiguous relationship between Australian Police Commissioners and their political masters. The article looks at South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales and examines the nature of the conflict arising in these jurisdictions from the ambiguous nature of the roles Police Commissioners and Ministers are expected to play. In exploring the uncertainties and expectations that surround the Police Commissioner–Minister relationship, the article considers what lessons can be drawn from such examples. The article reflects on the political and social ramifications of such altercations and considers ways of managing future conflict.     

Creating a Space for Absent Voices: Disabled Women's Experience of Receiving Assistance with Daily Living Activities

Feminist research on community care and ‘informal carers’ identified this as a women's issue but failed to address the interests and experiences of older and disabled women - those who received ‘care’. One consequence is that such feminist research has implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, undermined disabled women's rights to a home, children and personal relationships. Using qualitative research, the article highlights the actual experience of women whose physical impairment means that they need help with daily living activities, looking at the different circumstances in which such help is received.The disability movement's concept of ‘independent living’ raises particular issues for disabled women. ‘Independent living’ is about having choice and control over the assistance needed, rather than necessarily doing everything for yourself. However, gender inequalities may also inhibit the choice and control that women have in their lives.Assistance can be given within a personal relationship as an expression of love, but disabled women may also experience abusive, restrictive or exploitative relationships. Public services do not generally provide assistance in a way which enables a woman to have choice and control in her life, or even to carry out child-caring or homemaking tasks. The research on the various ways of receiving personal assistance found that those women who were able to purchase their own help were most likely to be living independently, in the sense of exerting choice and control in their lives.Feminist research can help to create a space for disabled women's absent voices, and add to the pressure for change in the way that personal assistance needs are met. This is a human and civil rights issue which has a key impact on the control that disabled women have over their lives.     

Cross-National Adolescent Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Reports: Analyses of Mean Scores and Response Style Differences

Although numerous cross-national studies have assessed life satisfaction among adults, similar studies using adolescent samples have been rare. To address this shortage of research, a total of 1338 youth adolescents from two individualistic nations (Ireland, USA) and two collectivistic nations (China, South Korea) were administered the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS: Huebner, 1994) to assesses general life satisfaction and satisfaction with family, friends, school, self, and living environment. Responses were analyzed to assess potential cross-national differences in (a) mean levels of life satisfaction, and (b) response styles, specifically acquiescence and extreme responding. Mean scores revealed positive ratings by adolescents from all four nations across all domains, with the exceptions of satisfaction with school experiences (Ireland, South Korean, USA), living environment (China, South Korea), self (South Korea), and general life satisfaction (South Korea). Results also revealed significant response style differences across all MSLSS domains. Significant gender and gender-by-nation effects were observed for both mean score and response style differences, although the effect sizes were small. The implications of these findings were discussed, particularly with respect to “individualistic” vs. “collectivistic” cultural differences. Rich Gilman is Associate Professor in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at the University of Kentucky. His research interests include positive well-being among youth, perfectionism, and socially ostracized adolescents. Scott Huebner is Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Carolina. His research interests involve the conceptualization, measurement, and implications of positive psychological well-being constructs among youth. He is a fellow of Division 16 of the APA and the International Society for Quality of Life Studies. Lili Tian is Associate Professor at South China Normal University. She received her Ph.D. in psychology from Beijing Normal University. Her major research interests include adolescent's school well-being, acculturation of immigrant children and personality assessment. Nansook Park is Associate Professor at the University of Rhode Island. She received her Ph.D. from University of South Carolina. Her major research interests among youth include character strengths and virtues, positive experience and life satisfaction and how they are related to well-being, family functioning, health and education. Jenny O’Byrne received her BA in the Department of Counselling & Psychotherapy from the Dublin Business School. Recent research interests focus on child and adolescent development, and she recently completed her pre-clinical training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with the Lincoln Centre in London. Dina Sverko is a research assistant at the University of Zagreb (Croatia). She received her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Triest (Italy). Her major research interests include personality assessment and health psychology. Miriam Schiff is lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor) at the Hebrew University School of Social Work and Social Welfare in Jerusalem. Her major research interests include trauma and substance use, and general mental health among adolescents in clinic settings. Heather Langknecht received her Ed.S. from the University of Kentucky in 2004. She currently works as a school psychologist at Virginia Beach Public Schools (Virginia). Her primary research interests are cross-national quality of life issues among children and youth.     

Cross-Informant Ratings of the Emotional and Behavioral Functioning of College Students

One hundred seventy-four college students and a subset of their mothers and fathers provided ratings of college students’ emotional and behavioral functioning. College students and their mothers and fathers demonstrated variable levels of correspondence in their ratings of college students’ internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Similar findings were noted with t-test comparisons, with college students rating themselves as experiencing significantly higher levels of behavior problems than did their mothers and fathers. Further, college students’ ratings of their mothers’ and fathers’ parenting and their perceptions of their parents predicted significantly their ratings of their own behavior problems. Although mothers’ communication reciprocity and perceptions of their college students served as significant predictors of mothers’ ratings, a different pattern of results occurred with paternal variables. Overall, these findings further the understanding of correspondence and predictors of cross-informant ratings of college students’ emotional and behavioral functioning. Kimberly Renk is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, Florida, serving the Department of Psychology’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the University of Illinois, her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at Illinois State University, and her Doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of South Florida after completing a predoctoral internship in Clinical Psychology at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. Her current interests include parents’ perceptions of their children’s emotional and behavioral functioning and parent-child interactions. She and her graduate students pursue the study of these topics and provide clinical services to the community surrounding UCF through the Understanding Children and Families laboratory. Reesa Donnelly is a Doctoral student at the University of Central Florida. She received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Virginia and her M.S. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Central Florida. Her major research interests include parent-child relationships in the context of cognitive development and health psychology. Jenny Klein is a Doctoral student at the University of Central Florida. She received her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Florida and her M.S. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Central Florida. Her main research interests are in the area of family interactions, parenting, and child emotional and behavioral problems in minority populations. Arazais Oliveros is a Doctoral student at the University of Central Florida. She received her B.A. in psychology from Florida International University and her M.S. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Central Florida. Her major research interests involve the area of children and parenting, especially in families with risk factors for child maltreatment (e.g., marital abuse, medical concerns). Elizabeth Baksh is a Graduate student at the University of Central Florida. She received her B.S. in psychology and religious studies from the University of Miami and her M.S.W. from the University of South Florida. Her major research interests include parent-child relationships in the context of pediatric psychology.