Hydro-politics and hydro-power: the century-long saga of the Inga project

The proposal to build the world’s largest hydro-power project on the Congo River is a century old. This article argues that the Grand Inga project could become the political, diplomatic, and economic driver to deepening integration between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries. The Inga delays were not without benefits. Twenty-first century sensibilities ensure revision of the proposed mega-project to minimize both ecological and social harm. While colonial-era projects were configured to maximize benefits to imperialist, settler, and corporate interests, independence and democratization are the prerequisites to facilitate the broadest possible distribution of the benefits of electrification. Since some of the countries involved have hybrid regimes, further democratization, and civil society lobbying, will be necessary to mitigate the downside of its ecological and social impacts.     

Concurrent Trajectories of Change in Adolescent and Maternal Depressive Symptoms in the TORDIA Study

Depression has a heightened prevalence in adolescence, with approximately 15 % of adolescents experiencing a major depressive episode by age 18. Depression in adolescence also poses a risk for future distress and impairment. Despite treatment advances, many adolescents relapse after initial remission. Family context may be an important factor in the developmental trajectory of adolescent depression, and thus in enhancing treatment. This study examined concurrent change over time in adolescent and maternal depressive symptoms in the context of the Treatment of Resistant Depression in Adolescents study. Participants were 334 adolescents (mean age: 16; SD: 1.6; 70 % female, 84 % Caucasian), and their mothers (n = 241). All adolescents were clinically depressed when they entered the study and had received previous selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) treatment. Adolescents received acute treatment for 12 weeks and additional treatment for 12 more weeks. Adolescent depression and suicidal ideation were assessed at 0, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 weeks, while maternal depressive symptoms were assessed at 0, 12, 24, 48 and 72 weeks. Latent basis growth curve analyses showed a significant correlation over 72 weeks between trajectories of maternal and adolescent depressive symptoms, supporting the hypothesis of concurrent patterns of change in these variables. The trajectories were correlated more strongly in a subsample that included only dyads in which mothers reported at least one depressive symptom at baseline. Results did not show a correlation between trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms and adolescent suicidal ideation. These findings suggest that adolescent and maternal depressive symptoms change in tandem, and that treatment for adolescent depression can benefit the wider family system. Notably, most mothers in this sample had subclinical depressive symptoms. Future research might explore these trajectories in dyads with more severely depressed mothers.     

Conscience in public administration: More than just a chirping cricket?

The policy and practice of public administration are caught between two seemingly incommensurate goals. Public servants are expected to be responsible to the oversight and control of democratically elected governments, yet, as the policy space becomes more complex, are forced to exercise more judgment and discretion in their responsibilities. Individual, collective, and professional conscience is motivated across this spectrum of challenges. This article explores the concepts of discretion and conscience in theory and practice in the Canadian context. It offers insights into how conscience can, and perhaps must, be both accommodated and supported more appropriately in the practice of 21^st‐century public administration and service. At root, we argue that an array of strategies and approaches may help to build relational reciprocity to a broader set of norms that are necessary for efficient and effective governance.     

Career De-Separation in Westminster Democracies

In Westminster parliamentary systems there was once a clear separation between the careers of public servants and of elected politicians. Politicians decided what policies they wanted to pursue, while public servants advised, devised and delivered the policies. This separation ensured that policy ideas were developed by a professional elite with experience and knowledge. Politicians came from a variety of backgrounds, entering politics for a variety of reasons. Over time, the source of policy advice for ministers has shifted from the professional public servant to political advisers lacking experience and with different career ambitions than public service. Increasingly, elected politicians are becoming ‘professionalised’—emerging from similar party and adviser backgrounds. The de-separation of what were once distinct career paths has led to poorer policy development, increasing public malfeasance, a lower-quality civil service, and democratic disenchantment. We need to separate the career paths once more.     

The use of error rates to predict and characterize the efficacy of presumptive field tests

From a forensic perspective, a presumptive test, one which indicates the presence or absence of a certain target material such as blood, is an invaluable tool. Among these tests, there are different specificities, sensitivities, and shelf lives. The accuracy of a test is an algebraic combination of the specificity and sensitivity of the test. Each test has limitations as given by its false positive and false negative rates. The aim of this study was to illustrate how the false positive and false negative rates are to be properly determined using a simulation study for the phenolphthalein test. New presumptive tests must be properly evaluated/validated through testing of commonly encountered household items and other potentially probative items usually found at crime scenes, however, the makeup of test sets must appropriately capture all error rates. In order to correctly use these results when the test is applied to an unknown sample recovered at a crime scene, the error rates cannot be applied directly to estimate whether or not the sample is actually the analyte of interest. In a validation study, the forensic scientist calculates the false positive rate as the p(Positive Reaction|Blood), whereas at the scene, the crime scene investigator wishes to determine the p(Blood|Positive Reaction). All crime scene investigators need to ensure that the conditional is not transposed when interpreting such results. Furthermore, this work provides a model for the assessment of a multiple test diagnostic system intended for investigators.     

A Constructive Quality: The Press,The CIA,and Covert Intervention in the 1950s

This article examines the relationships between the CIA and the US domestic press during the 1950s through the lens of CIA covert interventions in Guatemala and Indonesia. It disputes interpretations of the press/CIA relationship that argue for significant control exercised by the CIA, and contends that there were several types of press/CIA relationship, ranging from cooperation to hostility. The most common relationship was one of friendly confluence, rooted in Cold War considerations; even well-disposed reporters, though, tended to be careful about preserving their independence. This article concludes that while the CIA/press relationships generally resulted in reporting favorable to the CIA, there were counter-trends in the 1950s that laid the groundwork for the later collapse of the CIA's public image.     

Timing and Appearance of Postmortem Root Banding in Nonhuman Mammals,

A study was undertaken using nonhuman mammal specimens to better understand environmental influences on postmortem hair root band (PMRB) formation and to see whether PMRBs would occur in nonhuman mammal hairs in a similar fashion to human hairs. Carcasses from surrounding roadways were the primary source of specimens for this study, augmented by donated deceased domestic pets. Sections of pelt from each specimen were placed in controlled environmental conditions while the remainder of the carcass was left in a secure outdoor setting. Hair samples were collected daily from outdoor and control specimens and examined for evidence of PMRBs. Several environmental factors were also recorded on a daily basis. Results demonstrate PMRBs can occur in nonhuman mammal hairs, and they have microscopic characteristics similar to human PMRBs. Factors found to correlate with PMRB formation include postmortem interval, temperature, pH, and the formation and subsequent volatilization of ammonia from the surrounding tissue.     

The downsides of information transmission and voting

I analyze a model of information transmission in collective choice environments. An Expert possesses private information about the consequences of passing an exogenous proposal and engages in cheap talk to persuade voters to pass or reject the proposal. The Expert may successfully persuade the voters to take her preferred action even when all or most voters would receive a better ex ante payoff with no information transmission. I consider several remedies that an institutional designer may consider in order to avoid this problem while allowing information transmission that benefits the voters. I evaluate the effects of (1) limiting Expert communication to binary endorsements, (2) encouraging competition between Experts, and (3) restricting the agenda in order to consider only one dimension at a time. None of these proposals completely eliminate negative persuasion outcomes, but limiting the Expert to binary endorsements avoids the worst manipulation while preserving beneficial information transmission.     

Using Cultural Theory to Analyze the Metagovernance of the Nuclear Renaissance in Britain,France, and the United States

The governments of Britain, France, and the United States are seeking to promote renewed investment in nuclear power through metagovernance. Metagovernance describes the way governments can leverage state power and resources to shape the behavior of networked actors to advance policy goals. To metagovern, governments use a variety of policy tools but the factors shaping the design of these policy tools remains unclear. Grid‐group cultural theory is used to show that the design of the policy tools used in metagovernance reflects both an underlying cultural bias within government and prevailing institutional circumstances. The paper demonstrates the utility of cultural theory in the study of metagovernance.     

Defending the Articles of Conferation: A Response to Sobel

A fundamental mystery of the Articles of Confederation is why the statescontributed sizeable resources to the confederation government when theywere allegedly caught in a collective action problem. In a recent article,Russel Sobel denies the collective action problem and suggests that ourresearch on the incentive structure of the confederation contradicts theevidence. This note clarifies both of our arguments, introduces the typeof evidence that would determine whether national public goods weresub-optimally supplied, and explains why states contributed in a mannerthat is consistent with the evidence and with a deficient institutionaldesign.