Reforming parliament in the United Kingdom: The report of the commission to strengthen parliament

This article explores the effects of new media upon representative democracy. It begins by considering the lessons from studies of the effects of previous communication media, such as television. A survey of British MPs' use of and attitudes towards new media is reported, as is another survey of British citizens' attitudes towards new media and political institutions. The article concludes by suggesting that systemic changes to democratic representation might occur as a result of new media and setting out some principles likely to result in the best use of new media in representative democracies.     

Winning the war but losing the peace: The British House of commons during the Second World War

This article considers competing hypotheses ‐ the marginalisation and the constraining hand theses ‐ about the relationship of the House of Commons to government during the Second World War and the consequences of that relationship for the House of Commons in peacetime. The evidence supports the constraining hand hypothesis, with the situation created by war generating a House of Commons with more influence over the executive than is generally conceded. However, the consequence of that experience was to deter the House of Commons from undertaking significant, and arguably necessary, institutional reform in peacetime.     

The Role of Ethnicity in a Local Drug Dealer Network

This article analyses the role of ethnicity in a heroin dealer and consumer network of young men of Chilean descent in Norrköping, Sweden. At the end of the 1990s the young men became involved in the network through contact with a large‐scale dealer who was also of Chilean descent. They worked as street dealers for the top dealer; many of them also began using heroin and eventually developed an addiction. Through over 100 qualitative interviews with 17 of these young men, the article examines identity construction and the competencies they developed on the street that facilitated their eventual work as dealers, as well as the social relations and contacts within the dealer network that played a role in their becoming dealers and users. The findings reveal that due to their perceived experience of being subordinated in society, they became involved in heroin as a means of gaining self‐respect, dignity, and wealth. Arriving at a view of ethnicity as something that is constructed rather than fixed and intrinsic, the findings point to how ethnicity, through the young men's development of and participation in the street culture, merges with aspects of identity including social class and gender, as well as with aspects of ethnicities from other parts of the world. On the whole, the findings suggest that ethnicity as a concept of analysis within drug cultures is less fruitful when separated from other aspects of identity, such as social class and gender.     

How long did it last? A 10-year reconviction follow-up study of high intensity training for young offenders

Objectives

Most research has suggested that correctional boot camps are not very successful in reducing reoffending, but recent evidence has been more encouraging for programs that include significant rehabilitative components. In line with this, High Intensity Training (HIT) for offenders aged 18–21 at Thorn Cross Young Offender Institution in England was followed by a significant reduction in the number of reconvictions in a 2-year follow up. This article aims to evaluate the impact of the HIT program after 10 years.

Methods

The evaluation used a quasi-experimental design in which male young offenders who received HIT were individually matched, on their risk of reconviction, to a comparison group who went to other prisons. Official reconviction data, including the prevalence, frequency, types, and costs of offenses were used as the outcome measures.

Results

Offenders who received HIT had a significantly lower prevalence and frequency of reconvictions, but their superiority over the control group reduced over time (after about 4 years). However, the cumulative number of convictions that were saved increased steadily over time, from 1.35 per offender at 2 years to 3.35 per offender at 10 years. The cumulative cost savings also increased over time, and the benefit:cost ratio, based on fewer convictions, increased from 1.13 at 2 years to 3.93 at 10 years.

Conclusions

The beneficial effects of the HIT program became more obvious over time. More randomized experiments and long-term follow-up research, including regular interviews, are needed to evaluate the cumulative and persisting effects of correctional interventions more accurately.     

Upgrading the ‘software’: The EU–Korea Free Trade Agreement and sociocultural barriers to trade and investment

Abstract

In October 2010, the European Union (EU) and the Republic of Korea signed a free trade agreement that went into effect in July 2011 and aims to increase levels of bilateral trade and investment by dismantling existing tariff and non-tariff barriers. In this article, we highlight the importance of a third class of barriers: social, cultural and institutional barriers to trade with and investment in Korea that cannot be legislated for under the new agreement but that can serve as ‘hidden stumbling blocks’ to its implementation and effectiveness. We argue that the phenomenon of ‘mismatched globalization’ (in which economic globalization outpaces cultural globalization) is still apparent in Korea, as evidenced by the continuing existence of these ‘soft’ barriers which include, inter alia, the gap between policy and implementation; the lack of predictability, consistency and transparency in the regulatory environment (including IPR protection); education systems; labour militancy; and attitudes towards globalization. These findings resonate with Dent's (2006 Dent, C. M. 2006. New Free Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) argument that ‘deficient capacity’ in terms of technocracy, industry and/or institutional arrangements can pose problems for developing countries seeking to negotiate and implement bilateral trade agreements with more developed countries. In the case of Korea, the long-term ‘soft’ social, cultural and institutional barriers identified and discussed in this article act as a constraint on the country's institutional capacity functions and thus have the potential to hinder the full and effective implementation of the EU–Korea Free Trade Agreement and reduce the economic benefits that the signatory parties hope to gain from it.     

ASEAN’s inheritance: the regionalization of Southeast Asia, 1941–61

This article explores the establishment of Southeast Asia as a regional space in the international system before the advent of ASEAN. It challenges the traditional view that the region emerged from Japanese and Allied strategies and operations during the Second World War, focusing instead upon the important role played by academics in the creation of ‘Southeast Asian studies’ in the United States and Britain in the 1940s and 1950s. On a broader level, the article highlights the cyclical nature of the regionalization process. It suggests that once a region has been ‘created’, the repeated use of the regional idea by a variety of state and non-state actors fixes it in a broad cultural context, and opens the way for subsequent appropriation by regionalizers.     

Political party and party system institutionalization in Southeast Asia: lessons for democratic consolidation in Indonesia,the Philippines and Thailand

Abstract

This article analyses the Kim Dae-jung government's industrial realignment (‘Big Deals’) policy in post-crisis Korea, which offers a valuable insight into the state's role in managing the transition from a developmental state to a free-market economy and into the changing nature of government–business relations. Although Kim was committed to creating a free-market economy in Korea, as the ‘Big Deals’ got under way critics accused him of violating market principles and employing tactics of intervention and coercion used by previous authoritarian regimes. The ‘Big Deals’ experience suggests a further stage in the evolution of the Korean developmental state; the dismantling of state powers and the implementation of neoliberal reforms in the 1990s had led to the emergence of a ‘transformative state’ in which the state acted as ‘senior partner’ rather than ‘commander-in-chief’. The transitional state charged with the task of rebuilding the economy after 1997 regained some of its lost powers and used some familiar methods of achieving its ends. However, it also demonstrated by the nature and scope of its interventions that it was gradually evolving and adapting to meet the changing economic environment. Although Kim's actions prompted allegations from the chaebol and their conservative allies of a return to autocratic economic management by the government, it was clear that the developmental state had not been resurrected. Rather, these criticisms serve to highlight the continuing antagonism in the state–business relationship; neither side had developed new strategies for dealing with each other and their relations were still characterized by mutual mistrust and staunch chaebol resistance to key reforms demanded by the government. Although suspicions of a permanent return to extensive state intervention were unfounded, they nevertheless diminished the prospects for the creation of a cooperative relationship between the state and big business that would be a crucial factor in revitalizing the Korean economy.     

Job–Worker Balance and Income Match in the United States

This study uses journey-to-work data from urban census tracts across the United States to investigate whether people living and working in the same area is related to job–worker balance or to the income from jobs. The results indicate that more people live and work in the same commute shed if there is job–worker balance and income matching.