The personal social services

The Future of London's Government: Research and Consultation Project by the Greater London Council, GLC, March 1986, pp.240. (Free ‐ available from Room 708, London Strategic Policy unit,. Middlesex House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SB.)

Welfare Rights Work in Social Services, Geoff Fimister, Macmillan, 1986, pp.166, £15.00 hardback, £5.95 paperback.

The Structure of Local Government in the European Community and The Structure of Local Government in 20 Arab Countries, compiled by Eileen Martin Harloff, WLA, The Hague, 1986, pp.74 and 64 respectively, each $6.00 IULA members; $10,000 others.

Decentralized Economic Development Activities and their Implications for In‐Service Training, Andrew Coulson, Local Government Training Board, 1986, pp.10, £6.00 (£3.00 for local authorities).

Council Non‐Manual Workers and Low Pay, Nasreen Rahman, Low Pay Pamphlet No. 41, Low Pay Unit, June 1986, £3.00.     

Russia's Response to Crisis: The Paradox of Success

Russia's recovery from the deep economic crisis it experienced in 2008–2009 did not deliver clear political dividends for the Russian leadership. This is because of the context in which the crisis occurred and the way that the leadership, particularly President Medvedev, and many of its critics described the crisis. The oil-fuelled boom that preceded the crisis had the effect of deepening it. Economic recovery based on rising energy prices looks like a failure, rather than a success, and highlights the underlying structural problems of the Russian economy. Arguments about the need for modernisation from within government exacerbated this perception. This seems to have weakened the connection between approval for the leadership and economic growth, a staple of pre-crisis politics.     

Negotiating chile's entry to nafta: trade and investment issues

In December 1994, the United States, Canada, and Mexico agreed in principle to extend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to Chile at the Summit of the Americas. This paper examines Chile's accession to NAFTA with special reference to key issues in the negotiations. It discusses the rationale for extending NAFTA to Chile from the U.S. and Chilean perspectives. The study also examines how NAFTA negotiators may address issues such as trade and investment rules, technical standards, dispute settlement obligations, intellectual property rights, phase-in periods, and labor and environmental standards.     

A Watershed in White House Journalism: Explaining the Post-1968 Rise of Aggressive Presidential News

Presidential journalism is known to have grown substantially more aggressive through the 1970s and beyond, but a definitive explanation for this trend remains elusive. Some suggest that events surrounding Vietnam and Watergate transformed the professional norms of journalism. However, the trend could also be a more superficial and transitory response to other circumstantial factors that converged in the same time period, such as president-level characteristics (the prevalence of Republicans, Washington outsiders, and more vigorous news management efforts), the political environment (the rise of official discord), and the economic environment (a downturn in the business cycle). This study disentangles these various factors and assesses their relative success in explaining trends in journalistic conduct in the postwar era. Data are drawn from a large sample of presidential news conferences from 1953 through 2000, focusing on the aggressiveness of journalists' questions. The results strongly support the normative shift hypothesis, although economic factors have also been consequential. These results suggest a punctuated equilibrium model of journalistic change in relations between the White House press corps and the presidency.     

Racial prejudice in the canadian legal system

The effects of defendant and victim race and the impact of judicial instructions on defendant verdict were examined using a simulated videotaped rape trial. Subjects were 243 Canadian university students randomly assigned to one of eight conditions. Subjects were asked to assume the role of juror and to view a videotape of a simulated rape trial. The results indicated that the defendant's overall attractiveness or “positive appeal” was the best predictor of defendant guilt, above and beyond defendant race. Neither victim characteristics nor the presence of judicial instructions was found to have predictive utility. Results are contrasted with findings from simulation studies in the United States.     

Municipal shared service collaboration in the Alberta Capital Region: The case of recreation

Abstract: This article examines the determinants of participation of Edmonton‐area municipalities in shared services arrangements for recreational and cultural services. Potential determinants emerge from the literature on inter‐municipal collaborative arrangements, but this analysis extends the empirical work on the determinants of participation to encompass small municipalities and to consider the appeal of potential partners. The major finding is that, in the Edmonton environment (and likely in many others), municipal population size is the critical determinant of participation, and participation is inversely related to population size. Sommaire : Le présent article examine les facteurs déterminants de la participation des municipalités de la région d'Edmonton dans les ententes relatives aux services partagés en ce qui concerne les services récréatifs et culturels. Les déterminants potentiels proviennent de la littérature sur les ententes de collaboration entre les municipalités. Cependant, l'analyse prolonge le travail empirique sur les facteurs déterminants de la participation pour y inclure les petites municipalités et pour tenir compte de l'appel à des partenaires potentiels. Le principal résultat est que, dans la région d'Edmonton (et vraisemblablement dans de nombreuses autres régions), la taille de la population municipale est le déterminant critique de la participation, et la participation est inversement proportionnelle à la taille de la population.     

Southeast Asia and the global ‘war on terror’ discourse

This study explores global and regional war on terror discourses. It focuses upon language construction ‘framing’ the character of, and global and regional responses to, terrorism. It is concerned with social power and critiques the war on terror discourse globally and in Southeast Asia. Central to this are constructions of Islam. The analysis assesses the complexities behind often essentialized depictions of Islam. The paper argues that a deeper understanding of the complexities of the discursive dimension of the war on terror can help provide an additional understanding of the ideational background for operational counterterrorism policies and practices.