State First,Then Democracy: Using Cadastral Records to Explain Governmental Performance in Public Goods Provision

This article presents a theoretical argument of how and why democratization at different levels of state capacity matters for public goods provision and subjects the argument to empirical tests. Building on rational choice theories of public goods production, we argue that credible enforcement before credible commitment—democratizing after the state has acquired high levels of state capacity—leads to a more efficient social order than the opposite sequence. Using a theoretically grounded and novel indicator of historical state capacity—the extent and quality of cadastral records—the analysis shows that those countries where the state developed extensive enforcement capacities before democratization exhibit, on average, better provision of essential public goods and are less corrupt.     

Governance criteria for effective transboundary biodiversity conservation

Intact ecosystems across jurisdictional boundaries are of growing importance as the world continues to experience the impacts of climate change. International boundaries have, however, been drawn for political rather than ecological reasons. Ecosystem components often occur in more than one nation and are consequently subject to conflicting management and land-use practices. This research integrates the legal, institutional and environmental management components of transboundary biodiversity conservation to propose a comprehensive framework for evaluating the potential effectiveness of transboundary conservation regimes. The paper presents twelve criteria for the effective transboundary conservation of terrestrial biodiversity. These criteria can assist in the evaluation of existing initiatives and the design of future ones. The criteria will be of increasing importance as decision-makers seek to adapt to climate change and conserve biodiversity at all scales of political organization.     

Prosecuting war criminals: the case for decentralisation

Michelle Sieff is a Senior Research Associate on African Affairs at the Eurasia Group, a consulting company in New York City. Leslie Vinjamuri is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science, and an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University, Washington, DC.¹     

Exploring the crime of identity theft: Prevalence, clearance rates, and victim/offender characteristics

Although the crime of identity theft has garnered a great deal of media attention, relatively little empirical research existed on the prevalence of the crime, its clearance rate by arrest, or the demographic characteristics of the victims and the identifiable offenders. The purpose of this article is to expand the knowledge of this growing crime. Using data from a large municipal police department located in Florida as a database, the findings suggested that the number of reported incidents of identity theft appeared to be growing at a greater rate than other theft-related offenses and the clearance rate for identity theft appeared to be declining. The typical apprehended offender was African American, female, unemployed, working alone, and was unknown to the victims, who tended to be White and male.     

Rape reform in Canada: Public knowledge and opinion

Rape reform legislation in Canada was designed to change: 1) the way sexual assault cases were processed by the criminal justice system and 2) public opinion about crimes of sexual aggression. This article reports findings from a representative survey of the Canadian public and an experimental analysis of the effects of the legislation on public knowledge and attitudes. Results from the nation-wide survey indicated that most people are unaware of the semantic shift (from the old language of rape and indecent assault to the new crimes of sexual assault). However, there is awareness of the substantive legal changes introduced by the rape reform legislation (such as the fact that husbands are no longer immune from criminal changes involving their wives). It is clear that rape reform legislation has affected public knowledge of statutory reforms regarding crimes of sexual aggression. Results from the experimental component of this research show that the new sexual assault label has not achieved one of the important goals, namely of changing public perceptions of the nature of crimes of sexual aggression. Indeed, one negative effect predicted by feminist writers seems to have emerged: sentencing decisions made by the public for the offense of rape were less severe when the incident was described as a sexual assault.     

Technology transfer in supplier-development programs

OEM (large firm) supplier-development programs have expanded from a quality focus to include more technologically sophisticated issues. The quality issues now require the supplier to supply functional sub-assemblies as well as discrete parts and to insure the capability of second- and third-tier vendors. In addition, the supplier must be prepared to participate in the design of a new product in a timely fashion in the case where the supplier may possess core manufacturing technologies that the OEM needs to complete the design cycle. The Northeast Manufacturing Technology Center (NEMTC) is developing a multistage evaluation and assessment process that will allow a small manufacturer to measure its business and technical capabilities against accepted benchmarks (such as ISO 9000). This development is being funded by a grant from the State of New York. Coincidentally, NEMTC is working with 31 OEMs to match their supplierassessment programs to the same benchmarks. This will allow the OEM and the small manufacturer to determine their compatibility. The program will be coupled with a support program that will bring the small manufacturer up to the desired performance level through the transfer of the appropriate technologies. It will allow NEMTC to target its program to small manufacturers with the potential to become vendors to OEMs. The center is supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.