Rehumanizing Birth and Death in America

THESIS: Despite spending more on medical care than any other country in the world, the United States still boasts some of the worst patient outcomes of any developed nation. This disparity is especially true of how Americans give birth and die.  These natural human transitions have become catastrophically expensive and leave patients and their families traumatized from unnecessary interventions. This article examines the costs and outcomes associated with the medicalization of birth and death and argues that alternatives exist that improve patient outcomes while lowering costs. Access to these alternatives will require changing current regulatory and reimbursement structures and providing trained support staff to help families navigate beginning- and end-of life decisions.     

Alicia Alonso's Passion and Exuberance (An Interview with Alicia Alonso)

Abstract

Profiles of Excellence: Achieving Success in the Nonprofit Sector E. B. Knauft, Renee Berger, and Sandra T. Gray San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991, 197 pages, cloth $22.95

Strategic Management in Non-Profit Organizations: An Administrator's Handbook Robert D. Hay Westport, CT: Quorum Books, Greenwood Press, 1990, 408 pages, cloth $59.95

A Nonprofit Organization Operating Manual: Planning for Survival and Growth Arnold J. Olenick and Philip R. Olenick New York: The Foundation Center, 1991, 484 pages, paper $29.95

Reviewer Brann J. Wry is director of the Performing Arts Management program at New York University.

Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, eds. Washington, D.C. and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991, 468 pages, paper $15.95.

Reviewer Danielle Rice is curator of education for the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Accounting and Budgeting in Public and Nonprofit Organizations C. William Garner San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991, 272 pages, cloth $29.95

Reviewer Jan Masaoka is staff consultant/trainer for the Support Centers of San Francisco.

Quality Management in the Nonprofit World Larry W. Kennedy San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991, 194 pages, cloth $22.95

Reviewer Brian Backe is the national marketing director for the Support Centers of America, a national service organization that provides management consulting, training, and information to non-profit organizations across the country.     

Treaty Commitment as a Signaling Device: Explaining the Ratification of the International Covenant on Economic,Social, and Cultural Rights

This study investigates the determinants of the ratification of International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). To do so, it proposes an explanation that postulates that states employ treaty ratification as a device to signal their resolve to implement polices required by the treaty at issue in order to appease demanding domestic constituencies, predicting that states with lower compliance capacity tend to commit faster than states with higher compliance capacity. Applying this explanation to the ICESCR leads to two expectations. First, the larger government spending a proxy of high compliance capacity is hypothesized to delay the ratification process. Second, states with the unitary system are expected to ratify the ICESCR more promptly because the centralized power structure in unitary states significantly restricts the pursuit of the policy autonomy by minorities at local level that the right to self-determination entails. The Cox proportional hazard analysis lends support to both hypotheses.