New Governance in Australian Schools: A Place for Business Social Responsibility?

Many public policy areas are being transformed as traditional government roles and relationships with other actors are changing. This article reports on business not-for-profit support for Australian secondary schools revealing substantial contributions directed at core educational and schoolwork interface activities. The article explores the nature of these supports, the means by which the relationships between schools and businesses emerge, the motivation of business and broader issues arising from the involvement of business in this and other areas of public policy.     

“What's Newt Doing in People Magazine?” The Changing Effect of National Prominence in Congressional Elections

It is conventional wisdom in politics to believe that press coverage is beneficial. However, forms of press coverage are not created equal. Specifically, we argue that national media prominence is not inherently beneficial and can be detrimental to members of Congress. Using a measure of national prominence based on the number of national television appearances of House incumbents, this study finds national prominence was generally not a significant positive factor in incumbent popularity from 1982 to 1988. Moreover, after the anti-Washington, anti-incumbent mood burgeoned in the interim, national prominence became an important factor for incumbents, such that those who were more prominent in the elections of 1990–1996 were penalized.     

LOCAL ENTERPRISE INITIATIVES: BETWEEN STATE AND MARKET IN ESPERANCE*

Abstract: This paper presents an analysis of the Esperance Local Enterprise Initiatives Committee, which is at the heart of an archetypal emerging pattern of local economic development distinct both from top-down statist models and from market alternatives. The model is composed of a mixture of state resources (notably finance, information and legitimacy), elements associated with entrepreneurialism, grass-roots orientation, bottom-up implementation, the pursuit of profit, and a network system which interlocks the ELEIC with different government departments and agencies.     

Response to autobiographical essays by community psychologists

Autobiographical essays by five community psychologists suggest that members of this profession often grew up with a strong sense of community and an interest in human interactions, rather than more abstract intellectual ideas. Their life stories reflect the idealism of the 1960s and 1970s that motivated the development of the field. Although these authors have sometimes struggled in the more conservative atmosphere of the past three decades, they retain a characteristic American sense of optimism about the meaning of their lives.     

Do the poor want to be regulated? Public opinion surveys on regulation in the United States, 1981–2002

Public Choice - Recent research has demonstrated that public regulation of private economic activity often has regressive effects. Despite those effects, poorer Americans show strong support for a...     

Psychopathy among prisoners in England and Wales

Most research into psychopathy among prisoners is based on selected samples. It remains unclear whether prevalences are lower among European populations. This study aimed to measure the prevalence of psychopathy, and the distribution and correlates of psychopathic traits in a representative national sample of prisoners. Psychopathy was measured using the revised Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R) in a second stage, cross-sectional survey of prisoners in England and Wales in 1997 (n = 496). Poisson regression analysis was carried out to examine independent associations between correlates and PCL-R total and factor scores. The prevalence of categorically diagnosed psychopathy at a cut off of 30 was 7.7% (95%CI 5.2–10.9) in men and 1.9% (95%CI 0.2–6.9) in women. Psychopathic traits were less prevalent among women. They were correlated with younger age, repeated imprisonment, detention in higher security, disciplinary infractions, antisocial, narcissistic, histrionic, and schizoid personality disorders, and substance misuse, but not neurotic disorders or schizophrenia. The study concluded that psychopathy and psychopathic traits are prevalent among male prisoners in England and Wales but lower than in most previous studies using selected samples. However, most correlates with psychopathic traits were similar to other studies. Psychopathy identifies the extreme of a spectrum of social and behavioral problems among prisoners.     

From the ballot box to the bookshelf: Studies of the 1994 South African general election

Election ‘94 South Africa: The Campaigns, Results and Future ProspectsM edited by Andrew Reynolds.

David Philip, Cape Town, 1994. xvii plus 237pp. including index, photographs and tables.

Launching Democracy in South Africa: The First Open Election, April 1994 edited by R.W. Johnson and Lawrence Schlemmer.

Yale University Press, New Haven, 1996. xiv plus 412pp. including index and tables.

The Election Book: Judgement and Choice in South Africa's 1994 Election by Robert Mattes.

Institute for Democracy in South Africa, Cape Town, 1995. vii plus 150pp. including tables.     

Political economy of road maintenance: a utility diagnostic

Sub-Saharan Africa requires US$30 billion annually for its infrastructure maintenance, with every dollar spent saving the economy about four times that. However, many governments still do not recognise the need for road maintenance, increasing vehicle operating costs – to more than 1% of GDP in some regions. Still, there are too few political economy diagnostics of this problem and policy responses aiming to ring-fence dedicated funds have had mixed results. This article proposes a diagnostic through which to understand the institutional root causes of the problem using the case of Moldova.     

Can Politicians Exploit Ethnic Grievances? An Experimental Study of Land Appeals in Kenya

Political Behavior - Studies of conflict-prone settings claim that political leaders can increase electoral support by appealing to perceived ethnic grievances. Yet there is little empirical...