In search of an anatomy of African administrators

By way of welcoming one of the first—and still too few—accounts by African administrators of what it was like to have served under two masters, one British and one African, the article first reviews the chronology of the literature on and by Africa's administrators. Starting from a survey of the history of the British Colonial Administrative Service and some of the recent memoirs of its members, a milestone in the literature is signalled by the shift in emphasis of public service commissions of enquiry away from primary concern with salaries and conditions of service to concerns with the positive Africanization of the civil services. The gradual responsibility of Africans themselves for such reports is then noted, often culminating in a recommendation for the establishment of an Institute of Public Administration. While the quantity and quality of insiders' literature by Africa's civil servants still falls short of that which has characterized the writing by Indian members of the former Indian Civil Service, the position has improved since the publication of the proceedings of the Inter-African Public Administration seminars and by the noticeably less constrained comments by the bureaucracy during a period of military rule. The article concludes with a look at the Ife University project and calls for an extension of such primary research into African administration while the first, and historically unique, generation of African bureaucrats are still alive to record their memories and interpret their significance against subsequent analysis.     

Antemortem chemical hypothyroxinemia

Based on reports of hypothyroidism in intensive care unit patients, a preliminary study was instituted in which 40 patients coming to autopsy, with no history of thyroid disease, were studied to include gross and microscopic study of the thyroid gland and the performance of thyroid function tests on all serum specimens submitted within seven days of death. Initial studies show that with the exception of sudden cardiac death, all of the autopsy patients showed evidence of chemical hypothyroxinemia within three days preceding death without any histologic abnormalities of the thyroid gland. Thyroid function tests were subsequently studied of decedents and survivor controls matched for age, sex, disease, and stage of disease if applicable. The findings were similar.     

When complex facts threaten court reviews: Litigation over navigation projects

The capacity of the U.S. courts to provide effective review of cases involving complex scientific and economic analysis is declining. Rational action in such cases requires three things: a general rule by which to judge the appropriateness of actual or proposed actions; a set of facts sufficient for determining the consistency of the action with the general rule; and an independent review institution with power to enforce actions under the rule. Where the issues are complex, however, government agencies increasingly have tended to cloak their decisions in needlessly technical formulations and to buttress their presentations in masses of impenetrable data. Courts tend to avoid involvement in the complexities, resting instead on a presumption that government reports are accurate and government actions appropriate; this is a tendency we label “judicial math block.” Two cases taken from the complex area of public navigation investment illustrate the problem.     

The bird in hand: A feasible strategy for gun control

Policy analysis has failed to guide gun control policy away from its current impasse because analysts have avoided facing several crucially important features of the current reality: the existence of some widely held values in the United States public that favor the possession of guns; the limitations on the ability of public agencies in the United States to enforce restraints on the possession of handguns; and the implications of the fact that so many guns are already in the hands of the public. These factors greatly reduce the possibility that effective measures will be introduced to reduce the existing supply of guns. Some effective measures of gun control may be possible nonetheless, mainly through the mobilization of large metropolitan police forces.