Message effects on the perceptions of the fairness of gender-based affirmative action: A cognitive response theory-based analysis

The controversy surrounding the implementation of affirmative action interventions in organizations underscores the importance of understanding fairness perceptions of such policies. There is a need for research on the variables which influence evaluations of affirmative action policies and on whether the content of organizational communications can alter these evaluations. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of proaffirmative action and antiaffirmative action communications on fairness evaluations. Cognitive response theory was used as a framework for predicting reactions to pro- and antipreferential treatment messages and subsequent fairness perceptions. While the results indicated that cognitive responses added to the prediction of fairness judgments, initial attitude, and message content also had strong effects on the fairness judgments.     

Human Security as Global Security: Reconceptualising Strategic Studies

The article argues that global security should be seen as synonymous with human security, and that strategic studies should be located within that broader rubric. Mounting such an argument means meeting the charge of those who see the broader construction of strategic studies as vague and meaningless, and as detracting from the ability to make good policy. The article attempts, therefore, to map human security in as inclusive and systematic a way as possible. It attempts to show that the concept is neither vague nor meaningless, and is suitable, therefore, to be the basis for a comprehensive account of global security.     

Reasonable expectation of privacy and third-party consent searches

Reasonable expectation of privacy is discussed in the context of searches conducted without the warrants usually required by the Fourth Amendment but with the consent of a third party, who is not the target of the search. Case law on this issue is neither consistent nor clear-cut. Psychological theory and research clarify this issue by establishing closer correspondence between legal concepts and assumptions and individuals' actual behaviors and social expectations. The key legal components of reasonable expectation of privacy are delineated, with regard to third-party consent: “common authority” areas versus “exclusive use” areas and theassumption of risk doctrine. Next, the psychological theory and research on interpersonal relations and human territorial functioning are reviewed as they relate to the legal components of privacy regulation. Taken together, the legal criticisms of this warrant exception category, and possible discrepancies between the legal assumptions concerning interpersonal and territorial functioning among co-residents and the actual behaviors and expectations suggested by psychological theory and research, raise questions about its validity.     

Police discretion: Relations of experience to officers' beliefs and arrest decisions

Questionnaires to assess generalized beliefs about people and factors associated with arrest decisions were completed by police officers. Responses to the Philosophies of Human Nature Scale (Wrightsman, 1974) and to statements about law enforcement and arrest decisions indicated divergent beliefs and interpretations associated with different amounts of experience in the police role. Results are discussed in terms of socialization pressures on officers, and a broader perspective to understand the dynamics of that socialization is proposed.     

Vanuatu: The evolution of the administrative and political context of decentralization

Local government came late to Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides) and even then was more a response to external events than a reflection of community interests. The first local council experiment, from 1957 to 1958, failed because of rivalry between the colonial powers, Britain and France. Subsequently national political developments set up additional obstacles to the successful functioning of local government. Political conflicts at the national level, reflecting the divisions created by the Anglo-French condominium, delayed implementation and undermined the administrative viability and democratic quality of local councils. Popular support for and trust in local government has not developed. A system created in haste and altered to serve the interests of competing national elites has not been able to adapt to the needs of local communities. A viable system of decentralization requires a degree of national consensus to be combined with local involvement in planning and implementation.