Contributors to this issue

Contributors to this issue     

The plight of universal social services.

In the early 1960s, the motivating theme of social services in the American welfare state was reduction of economic dependency. At that time services were highly selective, aimed mainly at poor people. Between 1960 and 1980 there was a drift toward univeralism, as the welfare state expanded to serve an increasing number of middle-class groups. This expansion of the welfare state was related to several social and demographic trends, and was accompanied by basic changes in the scope and purpose of social services. As the welfare state has moved toward universal entitlement to social services, a number of contradictions between the theory and practice of universalism in a capitalist society have surfaced. These contradictions lend a degree of support to the resurgence of selectivity which the welfare state is currently experiencing.     

Cognitive links between economic grievances and political responses

Changes in the economy are associated with changes in support for the incumbent President (or members of his party) at the aggregate level but not generally at the individual level. That is, thepersonal impact of economic hardships has only rarely been linked to individual political responses. This paper finds again that various indicators of personal economic grievances are not in general associated with either economic policy preferences or support for President Carter. However, some rare circumstances in which the personal impact of economic grievances did have more power were identified, specifically when voters blamed the President for their economic hardships. Support was also found for Kinder and Kiewiet's (1979) notion that collective judgments about the health of the economy, rather than one's personal economic situation, drive political responses.     

WORSE THAN EXPECTED? A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DONOR PROLIFERATION AND AID FRAGMENTATION

The aid system itself is regarded by many as a major problem of present‐day development cooperation causing substantial transaction costs for recipients. Particularly, the expansion of bilateral and multilateral donors and the way they spread their aid money over many recipients, projects and sectors is seen as being at the base of these supply‐side problems. This article contributes to the discussion by bringing for the first time the non‐governmental organisation channel into the equation based on a data set of 73 Dutch non‐governmental organisations. Besides, it calls attention to the ‘philanthropist’ channel and shows that fragmentation and proliferation are not restricted to official aid agencies but constitute an aid channel–wide problem. This also means that solutions to this problem can no longer be restricted to only part of the aid architecture. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chinese National Identity and Its Implications for International Relations in East Asia

This article traces the evolution of heightened Chinese expectations and the resultant spike in national identity in 2010, using a six-dimensional framework: 1) ideological, 2) temporal, 3) sectoral, 4) vertical, 5) horizontal, and 6) intensity. A hybrid ideology rose to the forefront. Forceful historical arguments covered three distinct periods. The triad of economic, cultural, and political identity raised sectoral identity to an unprecedented level. The leadership kept pressing the case for vertical identity in contrast to the West. Above all, it put the spotlight on horizontal identity to draw a sharper contrast with the United States and neighboring states as well. If at the time of the Hu-Obama summit the tone softened somewhat, China continued its risky wager on widening the identity gap. Regardless of whether China's foreign policy is currently assertive, its national identity narrative remains a driving force for divisiveness in the regional and international order.     

Chinese Strategic Thinking on Multilateral Regional Security in Northeast Asia

This article argues that multilateral mechanisms for addressing security issues in East Asia are weak and that a key reason is the hollowness of China's ostensible and much-touted commitment to multilateralism. This is especially troubling when the region faces major security challenges and regional relations (and China's approach to them) appear to be moving from “economics in command” to “security in command.” The article concludes with a prediction that “A coordinated approach to combining alliances and quasi-alliances exclusive of China with multilateralism inclusive of it will best test China's intentions during this decade.”     

Fatal retroperitoneal haemorrhage: an unusual complication of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy

A 93-year-old lady with dementia, neurological dysphagia and aspiration pneumonia, died from massive retroperitoneal haemorrhage which developed as a rare and, it is believed, hitherto unreported, complication of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG), which was performed for feeding purposes. It is postulated that the initial, unsuccessful attempt at needle puncture of the stomach, under endoscopic guidance, had resulted in iatrogenic perforation and laceration of the splenic and superior mesenteric veins close to their confluence with the portal vein. It would also appear that dense fibrous adhesions between the pyloro-antral region of the stomach and the posterior hepatic surface had altered the immediate anatomical relations of the stomach in such a manner as to have predisposed to these events.