How Public Opinion Information Changes Politicians’ Opinions and Behavior

Political Behavior - Numerous representation studies suggest that political elites are responsive to the expressed preferences of their voters, but scholars in the field have called for...     

The private security complex and its regulation in Africa: select examples from the continent

ABSTRACT

This article aims to provide an overview of the primary trends and developments of the domestic private security industry in select countries in Africa, while also further reflecting on a selection of operational challenges and obstacles inherent to the industry and its regulation. In particular, field research was conducted in Uganda to explore the nature of the state ownership of private security companies so as to further highlight the regulatory difficulties. Our findings raise a number of questions pertaining to the theorising of private security regulation answers of which, we conclude, may find utility in drawing on the concept of “hybridity” as an alternative heuristic tool to engage with the realities of state regulation in the Global South.     

Influencing Policy at the Top of the Federal Bureaucracy: A Comparison of Career and Political Senior Executives

Although we commonly assume that bureaucrats influence the policies which govern public behavior, we know very little about the individuals who occupy executive positions in the federal bureaucracy. Following the creation of the Senior Executive Service (SES) in 1978, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published guidelines detailing the skills and responsibilities required among both career and noncareer members of the SES. Although scholars have focused much attention on relations between these two groups within the federal bureaucracy, their day-to-day responsibilities remain understudied. This study reports results of a survey that was administered to 1,000 members of the Senior Executive Service to determine whether career and noncareer members of the SES have significantly different job responsibilities. Although both groups perform a variety of activities which provide them with numerous avenues to affect government policy, the research findings indicate that noncareer executives are more engaged in carrying out political liaison tasks and that career executives have slightly greater personnel responsibilities.     

Making a case for personal safety: perceptions of vulnerability and desire for self-defense training among female veterans

We assessed perceptions of vulnerability and the desire for personal safety/self-defense (PS/SD) training among 67 female veterans receiving outpatient mental health treatment, primarily for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from sexual and/or physical trauma. Consistent with the literature on the impact of such training on nonclinical populations and on individuals with visual impairments, the results of this study indicate that traumatized female veterans believe that PS/SD training would be an effective and powerful addition to more traditional treatments for PTSD. Study participants indicated they believe such training would positively affect their sense of personal safety; promote increased competence in thwarting future assaults; improve their self-esteem, confidence, and assertiveness; and reduce avoidant and agoraphobic behaviors. These pilot results support the development of an adjunct intervention to augment current PTSD treatments for women veterans with histories of sexual and physical trauma.     

In the Service of Power: The Global Political Economy of Citizenship and Human Rights

This article investigates how the idea of universal human rights has been co-opted by the prevailing (neo)liberal consensus in support of processes associated with capitalist globalization. So-called “civil and political” rights form the core of (neo)liberal values upon which free market, laissez-faire economics are based, but the idealism of the dichotomy of first and second generation rights is profoundly ideological. Through an examination of the idea of the international citizen, it is argued that the attempt to introduce a duty to promote the widest possible social good falls far short of an obligation to respond to claims for alternative conceptions of “economic and social” rights; far less alternative models of social affairs. Drawing on empirical evidence from Africa, the article contends that the dominance of (neo)liberal rights is integral to the emerging (neo)liberal constitution of the global order effected in the name of “human rights”, “democratization”, “citizenship”, “good governance” and “civil society”.

Never in the recent past have the founding principles of universal rights been so instrumentalized in the service of power, to such an extent that … in the opening years of the twentieth-century, we can speak of a veritable apogee of hegemony and an unprecedented crystallization of the hatreds that it arouses. (Bessis, 2003 Bessis, S. 2003. Western Supremacy: The Triumph of an Idea?, London: Zed.  [Google Scholar])     

Preferential extraction of hydrocarbons from fire debris samples by solid phase microextraction

Headspace analysis by extraction/GC-MS is a common method of detecting volatile hydrocarbon accelerants in fire debris samples. Solid-phase microextraction was tested to determine if there is selective extraction of chemically distinct compounds. It was found that both the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and Carboxen/PDMS solid phase microextraction fibers show preferential extraction of aliphatic or aromatic compounds from the headspace depending on fiber type and temperature. The Carboxen/PDMS fiber type showed particular (although not exclusive) selectivity for extraction of aromatic hydrocarbons. Other experimental considerations of SPME are noted.