Copenhagen Accord: Outcomes,Next Steps,and Business Implications

Although the United Nations Climate Change Conference, held recently in Copenhagen, fell short of expectations by failing to achieve a legally binding agreement to fill the gap when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, there were some positive outcomes. A negotiating gridlock limited the resulting Copenhagen Accord to a nonlegally binding treaty drafted in part by the United States. The Accord was not adopted.

This article discusses key elements of the Accord, identifies those countries that have committed to greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, and offers insights into the positive outcomes, shortcomings, and business implications of the Accord.     

Examining All-cause and Cause-specific Mortality among Former Prisoners in Pennsylvania

Former prisoners have a higher than expected risk of death following release from incarceration. However, little is known about the specific risk factors for post-release mortality among former prisoners. The current study uses a unique set of measures obtained from administrative records from Pennsylvania to examine demographic, custodial, behavioral, and criminal history factors that impact mortality risk following release from incarceration. Moreover, this study is the first to assess whether risk factors for post-release mortality are consistent or variable across race and ethnicity. Using data from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and mortality records from the Pennsylvania Department of Health we find several demographic, custodial, behavioral, and criminal history measures are related to post-release mortality risk. Moreover, while most risk factors for mortality are generally consistent across race and ethnicity, we find evidence that some custodial and criminal history factors vary by race and ethnicity.     

Designing an International Liability Regime to Compensate Victims of Solar Radiation Management

Solar radiation management (SRM) is a geoengineering method that promises to forestall the devastating impacts of climate change by cooling the atmosphere. Although SRM could avert a climate disaster, it also carries the potential to cause numerous, grave, and unequally distributed harms. In fact, some of these harms are unavoidable. A carefully designed liability regime can resolve SRM-related disputes and compensate victims of SRM deployment. This article considers existing international liability regimes in the context of the practical and normative challenges posed by SRM to offer recommendations for an international liability regime to govern SRM.     

Obstruction in parliaments: a cross-national perspective

ABSTRACT

In legislative institutions, disruptions to the agenda and delays in processing legislation can have a significant impact on the ability of legislative majorities to realise success. Few previous studies have systematically examined parliamentary obstruction in non-U.S. settings. In this article, I investigate the extent to which obstruction occurs in parliaments around the world. The evidence, drawn from a 2016 survey of members of the Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments (ASGP) and supplemented with documentary evidence and interviews with parliamentary clerks and members of parliament in several countries demonstrates that obstructive behaviour occurs in a variety of types of national legislatures and across different political systems and institutional settings.     

Addressing Restrictive Zoning for Affordable Housing: Experiences in Four States

Affordable housing development in suburban locales is often constrained by zoning and other municipal land-use restrictions. This article explores experiences in four states that have been recognized for exemplary interventions that address “exclusionary zoning.” Using quantitative and qualitative methods, the article examines overall production levels resulting from the specific program, the extent to which such production is occurring in locales with more White residents and more higher-income residents, and the levels of compliance with state-specified goals, where such goals exist. When possible, cross-state comparisons are provided. Although there are clear signs of progress, with municipalities increasing their affordable housing stocks and with some of this production occurring in locales that probably would not have developed such housing without such state (or county) intervention, the pace has been slow. A number of recommendations are offered for these and other states contemplating strategies to address exclusionary land-use practices.     

A client-community assessment of the NGO sector in Uganda

Using original data from client-community assessments, we examine motivations in the Ugandan NGO sector. In general, client-community satisfaction with NGO interventions is high, even though some NGO staff are viewed as unresponsive, underskilled, or self-serving. We find evidence that NGOs endeavour to redress the balance between rich and poor, although more remote communities suffer neglect, possibly for cost reasons. NGOs are less inclined to maintain a permanent presence in more remote and poorer client-communities, which impacts negatively on their assessment scores. We also find evidence that NGOs too often operate in the same location, resulting in some duplication of effort. Finally, results indicate that community participation enhances satisfaction.     

Does Performance Management Lead to Better Outcomes? Evidence from the U.S. Public Transit Industry

Although performance management processes are widely assumed to be beneficial in improving organizational performance in the public sector, there is insufficient empirical evidence to back this claim. In this article, the authors examine the impact of performance management practices on organizational effectiveness in a particular segment of the public transit industry in the United States. The analysis utilizes original survey data on performance management practices comprising both strategy formulation and performance measurement in 88 small and medium‐sized local transit agencies in conjunction with comparative outcome data drawn from the National Transit Database maintained by the Federal Transit Administration. The results provide evidence that more extensive use of performance management practices does in fact contribute to increased effectiveness in this segment of the transit industry.     

Gendering the Cult of the Offensive

Theorists of the offense-defense balance frequently note that perceptions of technology, as well as military doctrine, play a role in states' perception of offense dominance or the “cult of the offensive.” I argue that gender may constitute the missing link in explaining this misperception and suggest three possible areas of investigation. First, the perceptions and uses of technologies are dependent upon gendered ideologies which encouraged disastrous strategies in the First World War. Second, gender is an integral part of nationalism that promotes offensive policies by defining masculinity in terms of heroic service to the nation. Third, gendered discourses of protection use the language of defense to legitimate offensive policies. By analyzing the roots of perceptions of offense dominance, feminist analysis shows how gender discourses and the production of gender identities are not confined to individuals and the private realm but rather are a pervasive fact of social life on an international scale.     

An Investigation into Whether or Not the Class and Individual Characteristics of Five Turkish Manufactured Pistols Change During Extensive Firing

Abstract:  In order to assess whether or not the class and individual characteristics of a firearm change over time, five different makes of Turkish self-loading pistol were tested and were each fired a large number of times. The class and individual characteristics were identified for each pistol and the first fired cartridge case was compared with the subsequent consecutive 250th fired cases for each pistol. It was found that there were slight changes in some of the individual and class characteristics; however, this was not statistically significant and did not affect the ability of the firearms examiner to match the first fired case to the last fired case for each firearm tested.