Technical progress in bureaucracies

In this paper we raise the question whether in bureaucracies incentives are existing to implement technical progress into public goods production as it may be observed in the private sector. Therefore the well-known models of the theory of bureaucracy will be enhanced by technical progress modelled as process innovations. Depending on bureaucrats' preferences two results can be obtained: (a) If bureaucrats maximize their budget or if output or the classical production factors enter their utility function, R&D will be used efficiently due to cost reductions increasing the bureaucrats' budget or utility; (b) if bureaucrats prefer R&D as an end itself, they will use this factor like other factors by more than the efficient amount. In both cases an allocative inefficient output of the public good is produced. As a consequence society cannot benefit from gains by technical progress since net social welfare is appropriated totally by bureaucrats, even if it is increased by R&D-efforts.     

The 1984 election as Anthony downs and Stanley Kelley might interpret it

This paper is an analysis of two rational choice theories of elections. Anthony Downs and Stanley Kelley's theories yield complementary interpretations of the 1984 U. S. election. Reagan's victory was based on both prospective and retrospective judgments as well as on candidate and policy considerations. Reagan won that element of an incumbent's reelection that is a referendum on his performance as president. However, people also voted on the basis of domestic and foreign policy preferences for the second term. On these issues voters preferred Mondale as much as Reagan. Reagan's victory owed remarkably little to his conservative agenda and to a warm regard for his personal qualities as a leader. His landslide was deceptive. The two Reagan victories were among the weakest of the six landslides of the postwar period by Kelley's test of decisiveness. The Reagan elections have not set the United States on the course of a long-term conservative agenda in either domestic or foreign affairs.     

Accidental drowning due to tropane alkaloid abuse

The cause of drowning deaths in good swimmers may be difficult to solve. After homicide, suicide and other kinds of immersion deaths have been ruled out, not only alcohol and narcotics, but also other psychotropic substances such as thornapple and angel's trumpet should be taken into consideration--at least in adolescents and young adults. The article reports on an accidental death by drowning under the influence of tropane alkaloids after consumption of a decoction of the flowers of angel's trumpet.     

Besprechungen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Föderalismus und wohlfahrtsstaatliche Entwicklung. Österreich und die Schweiz im Vergleich

Starting from the stylised fact that federal institutions are held to be inimical to welfare state expansion, this paper examines the ways in which federalism has shaped the dynamics of welfare state development in Switzerland and Austria. A comparison of these different federal polities reveals that the welfare breaking effect attached to federalism crucially depends on the extent of vertical power separation. In both countries economic competition among constituent units did not fuel a race to the bottom in social standards. In Switzerland, the most important reason connected to federalism for why federal social policy was delayed and downsized was policy-preemption by the cantons and their considerable influence on the federal policymaking process. In contrast, the Austrian Länder neither had major social policy competencies nor an effective veto power which allowed them to block the centralisation of public policy. Instead, federalism is subordinate to the partisan arena at the central state level which itself is dominated by political parties quite favourable to welfare state expansion.     

Interministerielle Netzwerke: Formale und informelle Koordinationsstrukturen bei der Vorbereitung der deutschen Verhandlungspositionen zur Regierungskonferenz 1996

How do German ministries manage the preparation of national negotiation positions for EU intergovernmental conference? After a survey of the debate on organizational deficits of the interministerial coordination in Germany, we are consulting decision- and organization-theoretic approaches in IR. Drawing on organizational economics we concretise and supplement these older frameworks. We conceive the management of a governmental organization as a specific aggregation of heterogeneous preferences and information. Applying social network analysis we take into account formal as well as informal aspects of coordination channels. The objective of this article is to make visible the complex structures and processes that constitute foreign policy making, and to provide a preliminary assessment of its efficiency.     

The incongruous achiever in adolescence

The authors wished to study some of the internal psychological dynamics of achievement in a nonpatient identified high school population. Questionnaires were administered to the Grade 13 students and their parents in a large high school. A number of students whose achievement and educational plans were not congruous with their general background were selected for interview. The findings suggest that a wide variety of ages and developmental stages can be discerned as critical points in the development of a student's attitude toward higher education. These students have many values in common, and their values appear related to a positive or negative identification with parental values. The students themselves show a wide range of personality integration. They relate in a special way to a wide variety of teachers' personalities.Received M.D. from University of Alberta, Edmonton, in 1969 and completed specialty training in psychiatry at University of Toronto in 1974. Main interests include psychoanalysis, community psychiatry, and currently antabuse implants.Received M.D. from University of Toronto in 1960, D. Psych. from University of Toronto in 1963, C.R.C.P.(c) in 1965, and F.R.C.P. in 1972. Main interests include adolescent psychiatry, psychoanalysis, psychiatric residency training programs, and mental health delivery systems.