Whole‐of‐Government Approaches to Outsourcing and Market Testing by the Commonwealth Government

This article traces the development of approaches to outsourcing by successive Australian governments from 1995. The analysis focuses on strategies initially adopted for the outsourcing of government information technology (IT) services and, subsequently, includes the market testing approach adopted for the outsourcing of both IT and corporate services. The framework for analysis has been based on theories of privatisation developed by Feigenbaum, Henig and Hamnett (1999). This framework offers insights into the goals and strategies employed by commonwealth government that underpin their approaches to sourcing of services for their public sector. The article concludes by discussing some of the unresolved issues associated with the failure of government to formally evaluate the impact of their outsourcing policies.     

Respect response to Dixon et al. (2012) ‘Perpetrator programmes for partner violence: Are they based on ideology or evidence?’

Purpose. This article is a commentary on Dixon, Archer, & Graham‐Kevan's (2012) critique of the Respect position statement on gender, which concluded by calling for abandoning either Respect or the Respect accreditation system. Methods. The article starts by providing some factual information about Respect and about the accreditation system mentioned in Dixon et al. It then picks up on five specific aspects of the discussion: research notions, prevalence, homicide, the relevance of gender to work on intimate partner violence, and our work to support male victims. Results. Dixon et al. critique one document in order to call for the abandonment of a system of accreditation which is not connected to that document. Dixon et al. ignored other relevant research (such as that on partner homicide) and practice evidence that contradicts their assertions. This includes ignoring the existence of Respect's work with male victims, including running the male victims helpline. Conclusions. Respect work is informed by knowledge and experience from research and practice. There is substantial evidence from research to support the position statement on gender. The accreditation standard and system of accreditation was established before the position statement was written and is not included. Respect provides valuable services for male victims and for male and female perpetrators.     

Economic development strategies in the American states

Economic development has always been a moving target. Not surprisingly, there is growing evidence that the shape of economic policy and practice is significantly changing in many American states on the eve of the 21st Century. This article reviews the evolution and transformation of state economic development as well as its multidimentional character. The evolution includes roughly three broad, overlapping phases: a period when states focused on attracting businesses, a period when they focused on developing existing businesses, and a period when states refined and sharpened the strategies they already had in place. This article also offers evidence that a new, fourth phase is emerging in economic development. It is called cluster-based economic analysis and strategy development. This new approach has states addressing new issues, using new analytical tools, and experiencing new kinds of results.     

The Rhetorical Syllogism (Enthymeme) in Judicial Argumentation

The thesis here expounded can be divided in three parts: in the first place, it is supposed that the syllogism is not the rhetorical way, and less still the logical way, indeed used to reach the decision in the legal proceedings monopolized by the modern State. At the most, it can be seen as a form of presenting a decision that has already been reached by other means. It sure constitutes a highly functional procedure, effective and legitimating. It is generally not a conscious strategy on the part of the so called official legal agents (judges, prosecutors, state attorneys, lawyers, plaintiffs), which seem to believe that the decision before the concrete case is in fact produced by the previous general norm enunciated by the system. If there would be a chronological order, the general norm comes afterwards. In the second place, the judicial discursive structure seems to be rather enthymematic than syllogistic, because not all the effectively used norms are revealed, many of them staying not only out of question but also hidden. Finally, it is suggested that, in the atmosphere of faking dogmatic law in which acts the underdeveloped State, those implicit norms are not just presupposed as evident, but they are also uncertain, being rendered to manipulation.     

The Karimojong from Uganda: Genetic characterization using an X-STR decaplex system

The Karimojong, an African group from the Karamoja region of Northeast Uganda, were genetically analysed using a decaplex system for X chromosome short tandem repeats (X-STRs). A total of 255 individuals (117 males and 138 females) were genotyped for the following loci: DXS8378, DXS9898, DXS7133, GATA31E08, GATA172D05, DXS7423, DXS6809, DXS7132, DXS9902 and DXS6789. Allele frequencies and parameters for forensic evaluation were calculated for each STR. No association was found between any pairs of loci studied. DXS6789 was the most polymorphic marker in this sample, followed by DXS6809, with gene diversities of 84.79% and 83.94%, respectively. The less discriminating locus observed was DXS7133, with a gene diversity of 39.79%. High overall values of power of discrimination were obtained for female (1 in 1.8 × 10¹⁰) and male samples (1 in 1.6 × 10⁶), as well as high power of exclusion in father/mother/daughter trios (99.9997%), in father daughter duos (99.9862%) and in half sisters with same father (99.0331%). These results confirm the potential of this 10-plex in parentage testing and in human identification.