Policy Community Realism versus'New' Institutionalist Ambiguity

There has been widespread interest in the term 'institution' within political science in the past five years. Two principal uses of this are identified. The first is associated with the policy community literature and in this sense the institution is an extra-constitutional policymaking arrangement between ministries and clientelistic groups. The second use of the term is associated with state-centred authors who wish to argue for the relative autonomy of political institutions. In this second use there is ambiguity about the scope of the term institution; whether it is, or is not, intended to be confined to traditional institutions or whether the disaggregated state embraces the newer policy community phenomenon.     

The Nationalization of Special Elections for the U.S. House of Representatives

Scholars and political commentators have argued that special elections to the U.S. House of Representatives are national contests, serving as a referendum on the president's party and a predictor of future election outcomes (Sigelman 1981; Smith and Burnnell 2010). But the empirical record is mixed, with one leading study demonstrating that candidate and district characteristics alone explain special election outcomes (Gaddie, Bullock, and Buchanan 1999). We investigate this disagreement by comparing special election and open-seat results using new data for the period 1995–2014. We find that while candidate characteristics affect special election outcomes, presidential approval is predictive of special election outcomes as well. Furthermore, we find that the effect of presidential approval on special election outcomes has increased in magnitude from 1995 to 2014, with the 2002 midterm representing an important juncture in the nationalization of special elections. We conclude that special elections have developed into national contests since the 1970s and situate this development within broader electoral trends.     

A Meta-Analytic Review of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—2nd Edition (MMPI-2) Profile Elevations Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Psychologists often use the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and, more recently, its successor, the MMPI-2, to assess personality and psychological disturbances following traumatic brain injury (TBI). The present meta-analysis examined the pattern of mean Hedges’ d values on MMPI-2 validity (L, F, K) and clinical (1–4, 6–0) scales in individuals with TBI. Database keyword searches yielded ten studies providing post-TBI MMPI-2 profiles. Studies were required to include a pure TBI sample, individuals who were ≥18 at injury, and means and standard deviations for most MMPI-2 clinical scales. Analyses showed large effects for MMPI-2 scales F, 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8. Using Q statistics, moderating effects were found for TBI severity on scale 7 and for compensation-seeking/litigation status on scales 1, 2, 3, and 7. No significant effects were found for time post-injury. The available information was insufficient to examine the effect of lesion location, pre-injury personality and psychopathology, or time post-injury for samples with differing injury severities on MMPI-2 profiles. Results suggest that individuals with TBI report significant levels of psychopathology that may be moderated by TBI severity and compensation-seeking/litigation status. Discussion includes a literature critique given the meta-analytic findings and implications for future study of personality following TBI.     

NEED TO BE HEARD: INCREASING CHILD PARTICIPATION IN PROTECTION MEDIATION THROUGH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MODEL STANDARDS*

There are more than three million reports of abuse and neglect each year. Some children may enter the court system while others will voluntarily or by court order enter a mediation program. What these children have in common is these youths are often removed from their home and placed in foster or institutional care without ever expressing their wishes or concerns. This Note advocates for the adoption of model standards drafted to ensure universal and meaningful child participation. The Model Standards are set forth in detail and accompanied by useful tips on their implementation. Through the course of this Note, the benefits of child participation are outlined, as are the reasons most often given for denying children the opportunity to meaningfully participate. The Note concludes with an explanation of how the benefits derived from implementing these standards far outweigh any potential negative side effects.     

Producing Knowledge,Producing Credibility: British Think-Tank Researchers and the Construction of Policy Reports

Think-tanks and their researchers are located within an interstitial and ill-defined ‘space between fields’; a space both constituted and divided by the worlds of academia, politics, journalism and business. This liminal position can be problematic for a think-tank researcher’s intellectual credibility as they lack the recognised cultural and symbolic capital derived from being located within an established profession’s jurisdiction. The question arises, how do think-tanks gain intellectual credibility? Drawing on interviews with think-tank researchers, this paper explores how these interstitial intellectuals produce policy reports. In following this process, we find that credibility emerges from a complex web of relationships across established fields/professions. Think-tank researchers must engage in a complex ‘dance’ of positioning the symbols, capitals and interests of a number of professions. To maintain their integrity, researchers must try to keep in step with competing interests from different professions; at times aligning them, at other times blocking or obscuring them from one another.     

Disproportionality and Disparities among Sexual Minority Youth in Custody

Research indicates that sexual minority youth are disproportionately criminalized in the U.S. and subjected to abusive treatment while in correctional facilities. However, the scope and extent of disparities based on sexual orientation remains largely overlooked in the juvenile justice literature. This study, based on a nationally representative federal agency survey conducted in 2012 (N?=?8785; 9.9% girls), reveals that 39.4% of girls and 3.2% of boys in juvenile correctional facilities identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. These youth, particularly gay and bisexual boys, report higher rates of sexual victimization compared to their heterosexual peers. Sexual minority youth, defined as both lesbian, gay, and bisexual identified youth as well as youth who identified as straight and reported some same-sex attraction, were also 2–3 times more likely than heterosexual youth to report prior episodes of detention lasting a year or more. Implications for future research and public policy are discussed.     

Neoliberalism: From New Liberal Philosophy to Anti-Liberal Slogan

In recent years, neoliberalism has become an academic catchphrase. Yet, in contrast to other prominent social science concepts such as democracy, the meaning and proper usage of neoliberalism curiously have elicited little scholarly debate. Based on a content analysis of 148 journal articles published from 1990 to 2004, we document three potentially problematic aspects of neoliberalism’s use: the term is often undefined; it is employed unevenly across ideological divides; and it is used to characterize an excessively broad variety of phenomena. To explain these characteristics, we trace the genesis and evolution of the term neoliberalism throughout several decades of political economy debates. We show that neoliberalism has undergone a striking transformation, from a positive label coined by the German Freiberg School to denote a moderate renovation of classical liberalism, to a normatively negative term associated with radical economic reforms in Pinochet’s Chile. We then present an extension of W. B. Gallie’s framework for analyzing essentially contested concepts to explain why the meaning of neoliberalism is so rarely debated, in contrast to other normatively and politically charged social science terms. We conclude by proposing several ways that the term can regain substantive meaning as a “new liberalism” and be transformed into a more useful analytic tool.

The Evolution of the Structure of Jihadist Terrorism in Western Europe: The Case of Spain

This article studies the structure of jihadist terrorism in the West from the perspective of the existence or absence of links between grassroots militants and organizations such as Al Qaeda Central and its regional affiliates. It undertakes a comprehensive case study of jihadist militancy in a European country (Spain) over a period of almost two decades, from 1995 until December 2013. The study analyzes the results of 64 antiterrorist operations carried out during this time.