Explaining differences in productive efficiency: An application to Belgian municipalities

The purpose of this paper is to measure and explain variations in productive efficiency of municipal governments in Belgium. Technical efficiency is evaluated using a non-parametric method based on the Free Disposal Hull (FDH) reference technology. We first calculate input, output, and graph Farrell efficiency measures for a cross-section of all 589 Belgian municipalities. In a second stage of the analysis we explain the calculated differences in efficiency in terms of variables related to the structural characteristics of municipalities and to the institutional environment.     

Nuclear perceptions from radioactive blue to sustainable green: The EU taxonomy as reflection of a divided public

Following the Fukushima disaster, several European countries revisited their policies and decided to phase out nuclear energy production. More recently, however, the EU taxonomy proposed a classification system of environmentally sustainable economic activities and consequently reopened the debate regarding nuclear energy. This study analyses public comments about the inclusion or exclusion of nuclear energy as a response to climate change, in the conceptual frameworks of ecological modernization, sustainability and technological neutrality. The study highlights the challenge of shaping energy policies amid dynamic circumstances and diverse viewpoints. Proponents of nuclear energy emphasised its low-carbon emissions and climate change mitigation potential, while opponents focused on issues of radioactive waste and environmental risks. The study reveals that sustainability emerges as a potential reconciling framework to match arguments to influence the EU's decision-making, while it reflects the political primacy of this process. Finally, this research recommends improving feedback visibility and enhancing clear communication, and suggests further research directions to understand future EU nuclear energy policies.     

The histopathological spectrum of myocardial inflammation in relation to circumstance of death: a retrospective cohort study in clinical and forensic autopsies

Interpreting a myocardial inflammation as causal, contributory or as of no significance at all in the cause of death can be challenging, especially in cases where other pathologic and/or medico-legal findings are also present. To further evaluate the significance of myocardial inflammation as a cause of death we performed a retrospective cohort study of forensic and clinical autopsy cases. We revised the spectrum of histological inflammatory parameters in the myocardium of 79 adult autopsy cases and related these to the reported cause of death. Myocardial slides were reviewed for the distribution and intensity of inflammatory cell infiltrations, the predominant inflammatory cell type, and the presence of inflammation-associated myocyte injury, fibrosis, edema and hemorrhage. Next, the cases were divided over three groups, based on the reported cause of death. Group 1 (n = 27) consisted of all individuals with an obvious unnatural cause of death. Group 2 (n = 29) included all individuals in which myocarditis was interpreted to be one out of more possible causes of death. Group 3 (n = 23) consisted of all individuals in which myocarditis was reported to be the only significant finding at autopsy, and no other cause of death was found. Systematic application of our histological parameters showed that only a diffuse increase of inflammatory cells could discriminate between an incidental presence of inflammation (Group 1) or a potentially significant one (Groups 2 and 3). No other histological parameter showed significant differences between the groups. Our results suggest that generally used histological parameters are often insufficient to differentiate an incidental myocarditis from a (potentially) significant one.     

Book Review

Andrea Dworkin. Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant. New York: Basic Books, 2002.     

Ireland 1785–1795

The Changing Peasantry of Eastern Europe by Joseph Obrebski, edited by Joel &; Barbara Halpern. Schenkman Publishing Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1976. Pp. 102. $11.25 (cloth), $5.95 (paper).

The Green Flag, Polish Populist Politics, 1867–1970, by Olga A. Narkiewicz. Croom Helm Ltd., London, 1976, Pp. 313. (index and bibliography). £7.95.

Agrarian Reform and Peasant Organisation on the Ecuadorian Coast, by M. R. Redclift, University of London, Institue of Latin American Studies Monographs 8, London: The Athlone Press, 1978, Pp. xi 186, £8.

Jhagrapur: Poor Peasants and Women in a Village in Bangladesh by Jenneke Arens and Jos van Beurden, Amsterdam, 1977. Pp. 189. Np.

Wort und Begriff ‘Bauer’. Zusammenfassender Bericht über die Kolloquien der Kommission für die Altertumskunde Mìttel‐ und Nordeuropas edited by Reinhard Wenskus, Herbert Jankuhn and Klaus Grinda. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck &; Ruprecht, 1975. Pp. 262. DM 69.00.     

Under development and modes of production: A reply to Nicos Mouzelis

What follows is a reply to a number of points raised by Nicos Mouzelis in his review of my book, From Modernisation to Modes of Production: A Critique of the Sociologies of Development and Underdevelopment (Macmillan 1979, £4.95 paper) in The Journal of Peasant Studies, Volume 7, No. 3, April 1980. I focus on Mouzelis’ arguments that my framework for analysing Third World societies is ideological and reductionist. I try to show how the analysis put forward in my book can be used to analyse what for me is the central problem of ‘development ‘ ‐ namely the relations between the restricted and uneven capitalist development characteristic of Third World societies, their class structures, forms of state and development strategy. I also examine the relevance of Mouzelis's alternative ‐ of inter‐relating structuralist and action perspectives ‐ and suggest that the framework put forward in my work can deal more adequately with the issues raised by Mouzelis in his review. I agree with Mouzelis that the most fruitful debates in the Sociology of Development currently centre on the relevance of the Marxist approach, and view my comments here as part of this wide‐ranging, continuing debate, of which my work forms a part.     

Boxers,Christians and the culture of violence in north China

History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth, by Paul A. Cohen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Pp.xviii + 249. £27.95/US$34.50 (hardback); US$18.50 (paperback). ISBN 0 231 10650 5 and 10651 3

On the one hand, the Boxers have been condemned as a product of uncivilised, irrational, superstitious anti‐foreignism among the common people. On the other, the Boxers are praised as patriotic anti‐imperialists. This latter characterisation remains the prevailing view not only in current Chinese writings but also in some recent Western accounts. While not denying the unsettling impact of certain aspects of foreign imperialism at the end of the nineteenth century, it is argued here that greater emphasis must be placed on the endogenous factors that gave rise to the Boxer Movement. In its broadest sense, the movement was a multi‐stranded and complex response to mounting internal and external pressures. A careful analysis of this conjuncture of factors will provide a more satisfactory explanation for the fateful events of 1898–1900.