Are suicide terrorists different from ‘regular militants’?

Public Choice - We analyze the differences in the socioeconomic profiles between suicide terrorists and ‘regular’ militants using a dataset of 1596 militants (including 209 suicide...     

A Clinical Study of Competency to Consent to Hospitalization and Treatment in Geriatric Inpatients*

Abstract: This study used a Competency Questionnaire modified for medical surgical patients (CQ‐Med). Twenty‐nine patients (ages 65–94 years) admitted to a geriatric medicine unit were studied. Along with the CQ‐Med, patients were administered several WAIS‐R subtests, the Blessed Dementia Scale (BDS), and Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE). Additionally, a blind forensic evaluation for competency to consent to hospitalization and treatment was performed for the purpose of validation of the CQ‐Med. Results of the study found that, as expected, increased age was correlated with decreasing performance on the CQ‐Med and decreased findings of competence by clinical exam. However, there was great variability within each age group, demonstrating individual differences in the progress of declining competency. CQ‐Med scores also correlated well with the WAIS‐R subtest raw and scaled scores. Scores on the MMSE and BDS were less well correlated. The CQ‐Med may be a useful adjunct in assessing declining competency in geriatric patients.     

Turning ex-combatants into Sadris: explaining the emergence of the Mahdi Army

This article sets out to explain how the Sadrist movement targeted ex-combatant communities in their communication strategy to mobilize the Mahdi Army. The Mahdi Army was established by the Sadrist movement under the guidance of Muqtada al-Sadr in 2003. This article proposes that post-2003 Iraq experienced a demobilisation crisis, fostering segments of ex-combatant communities whose ingrained repertoires were prone to paramilitarisation. Contrary to many other paramilitary organisations around the world, the Mahdi Army was formalized through a bottom-up process by non-state actors, and only at a later stage was the Mahdi Army explicitly co-opted by the Iraqi state in 2005. The overarching argument of this article is that social networks with specific assets, skills and history are more vulnerable to paramilitarisation by entrepreneurs of violence than various other networks.     

On collective assertiveness and activism during the immigration process: a case study of Yemenite immigrants who founded Kiryat Shmona – 1949–1953

This article focuses on the ways in which over 200 families of Yemenite immigrants, who founded the city of Kiryat Shmona, the development town situated at the edge of Israel's Northern District, functioned as a group during the immigration process. This case study coincides with the trend – within research of mass immigration to Israel – that relates the historical narrative through the perspective of the immigrant and settler groups, rather than from the vantage point of the establishment in charge of their absorption. The affair could have gone down in the annals of history as a story of weakness and victimhood: hundreds of immigrants were sent off to settle in an outlying peripheral region and were compelled to integrate into an environment where the financially and political-powerful kibbutzim were preponderant. Yet the Yemenite immigrants of Kiryat Shmona turned out to be a consolidated, opinionated, fighting and stubborn force that succeeded, in trying conditions, to assert their voice, struggle for their values and identity, affect major changes within the immigration–absorption system.     

Rent-seeking in the classroom and textbooks: Where are we after 50 years?

In this paper, we provide an overview of the influence of Tullock’s work on rent-seeking in the area of economics education. After summarizing the basic rent-seeking model in both a domestic and international context, we conduct an analysis of undergraduate and graduate textbooks in public economics. We find a majority of undergraduate texts cover rent-seeking in depth, but two texts provide zero coverage. No graduate textbook surveyed mentions rent-seeking. We conclude by summarizing the economic education literature on rent-seeking, which can be divided into either classroom experiments or popular culture examples.