Regulatory beneficiaries and informal agency policymaking

Administrative agencies frequently use guidance documents to set policy broadly and prospectively in areas ranging from Department of Education Title IX enforcement to Food and Drug Administration regulation of direct-to- consumer pharmaceutical advertising. In form, these guidances often closely resemble the policies agencies issue in ordinary notice-and-comment rulemaking. However, guidances are generally developed with little public participation and are often immune from judicial review. Nonetheless, guidances can prompt significant changes in behavior from those the agencies regulate. A number of commentators have guardedly defended the current state of affairs. Though guidances lack some important procedural safeguards, they can help agencies supervise low-level employees and supply valuable information to regulated entities regarding how an agency will implement a program. Thus far, however, the debate has largely ignored the distinct and substantial interests of regulatory beneficiaries--those who expect to benefit from government regulation of others. Regulatory beneficiaries include, among others, pharmaceutical consumers, environmental users, and workers seeking safe workplaces. When agencies make policy informally, regulatory beneficiaries suffer distinctive losses to their ability to participate in the agency's decision and to invoke judicial review. This Article argues that considering the interests of regulatory beneficiaries strengthens the case for procedural reform. The Article then assesses some possible solutions.     

The Intergenerational Cycle of Criminality—Association with Psychopathy*

Abstract: Preventive interventions early in life are likely to lower the risk of intergenerational transmission of criminal behavior. We investigated if psychopathy among homicidal offenders is associated with criminal offending among the offenders’ offspring. The basic sample consisted of consecutive Finnish homicide offenders (during 1995–2004) who had been subjected to a forensic psychiatric examination and rated for a file‐based PCL‐R, and their offspring. Criminal behavior among both genders of the offspring was more common than in the general population. In general, the offspring’s crimes against others (e.g., threat, intimidation, deprivation of freedom, breach of domicile) were associated with their parent’s psychopathy. A grandfather’s major mental disorder was associated with a high rate of crime committed by the offspring. Especially, the sons of male psychopathic homicidal offenders had the highest rate of committing crimes, which was often expressed as vandalism. However, both genders of offspring seem to require special preventive programs to ameliorate these problems.     

Collateral times

Abstract

Today’s financial system essentially relies on the pledge of collateral. A closer look at this uniquely cross-disciplinary instrument not only reveals a remarkable absence in the modern disciplines but also a close relationship with money. This connection is brought into theoretical perspective by analysing the role of pledge in three historical configurations. In ancient Greece, symbola and horoi stones emerge as two distinct devices to secure contract that become entwined in seventeenth–eighteenth century pledge-theories of money as witness and object of exchange. Together these throw new light on the contemporary form of shadow money as a distinct marriage of security and safety.     

Towards an emerging paradigm of strategic communication: Core driving forces

Abstract

Major forces such as globalisation, the digital network revolution and the empowerment of myriad new stakeholders have resulted in a blurring of communication genres such as marketing and corporate communications, and are redefining the role of the communications professional within business and society. Such fundamental changes require that both scholars and practitioners challenge their own assumptions and consider the implications of these paradigm shifts. The values of the modernist age, resulting in linear, top-down, consensus-seeking decision-making behaviour, must be revisited to make way for emerging values such as activism, dialogue, communal values and dissent, which allow for co-creation and a multiplicity of viewpoints. This article reflects on paradigmatic debates and identifies shifts from modern to postmodern organisational practice, and how these impact on communication practices and integrated communication. Consideration is given to some theoretical, practical, research and educational implications of these shifts as core driving forces towards the new emerging paradigm of strategic communication, which can best be conceptualised as purposeful communication to realise the organisational mission.     

Stability not change: Improving frontline employee motivation through organizational reform is harder than it looks

As evidence mounts about the positive effects of autonomous motivation such as public service motivation, there is a growing case for public organizations to design reforms to better support public employees’ inherent desire to help others. But how feasible is this in reality? Most experimental evidence on autonomous motivation stems from interventions at the individual level, possibly exaggerating what government reforms can achieve in reality. We present a longitudinal study that analyses a three-year trial in Danish hospitals in which incentives and autonomy were changed to encourage autonomous motivation. This set-up offers a rare opportunity to observe the potential malleability of intrinsic, public service, user and external motivation. The results show little observable change in motivation due to the reform. We explore the practical difficulties of translating evidence about motivation into reforms given implementation challenges, contextual factors and a recognition that motivation might be less malleable than implied by research.     

Ludwig, Grit: Auswirkungen der FFH-RL auf Vorhaben zum Abbau von Bodenschätzen nach dem BBergG.

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Interrupted evolution: the Serbian medieval assembly (Sabor)

This article discusses the origins, evolution, composition and competence of the State Sabor – the assembly of medieval Serbia. Since there are no preserved written documents that prescribe its structure, competence or decision-making procedure, all research regarding the Sabor has to be based on the accounts of individual Sabors held throughout Serbian medieval history. This article also aims to show the power relations between the Sabor and the monarch and to determine the criteria according to which matters were taken before the Sabor. Finally, a short comparison is made of the Sabor to the assemblies of neighbouring countries – Bosnia, Byzantium and Hungary. The article concludes with some final remarks about the nature of the Sabor and its legacy after the conquest of Serbia by the Ottoman Empire.