International development institutions and national ­economic contexts: neo-liberalism encounters India’s indigenous political traditions

Drawing on the case of India, which since 1991 has been undergoing a far-reaching programme of market-oriented reform, this paper argues that the World Bank and other transnational development actors have been unable to adjust themselves ­sufficiently to indigenous ideological traditions that affect the sustainability of economic liberalization. While markets are becoming increasingly embedded at the level of institutions, they are not achieving what might be termed ‘ideological embeddedness’. The paper maps the ideological context facing market reformers in India by looking at the relationship between, on the one hand, the idea of swadeshi (an indigenous form of economic nationalism), and on the other, three competing forces in Indian politics. The paper concludes by arguing that it is the mutual antipathy among these political forces, rather than any fundamental incompatibility between swadeshi’s precepts and the embedded-market framework, that prevents organizations like the World Bank from adapting swadeshi as an indigenous basis for framing its approach to market embeddedness.     

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum? Reforming Patient and Public Involvement in the NHS in England

This article explores the introduction of a new system of patient and public involvement (PPI) in the NHS in England. After seeking to clarify the terminology found in this field, the article explores the background to the new system, why proposals were brought forward by the government and how they were implemented. The article also examines the main criticisms of the new system, which include under-resourcing, lack of capacity, complexity and fragmentation. The article concludes by drawing out lessons for future reform in this field.     

Comment on Francis van Loon,stephane delrue,and wim van wambeke, “sociological research on litigation: perspectives and examples”

The sociology of law has a long-standing tradition and indeed produced a vast literature in the area of litigation. Meanwhile, a complementary perspective has been presented which we discuss with the following four perspectives: the relationship between legal economists and legal sociologists; the project of Van Loon, Delrue, and Van Wambeke; an overview of law and economics research with respect to the legal process; and the question of whether both approaches are complementary.     

Single-item predictive validity of the Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START) for violent behaviour in outpatient forensic psychiatry

The single-item predictive validity of the Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START) has not been thoroughly investigated, although this has great clinical relevance for the selection of treatment targets. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether the characteristic START additions of scoring strengths next to vulnerabilities and selecting key items, add incremental predictive validity. Finally, predictive validity has primarily been studied in inpatient settings and included mainly patients with a psychotic disorder. We analysed data from a mixed diagnostic sample of 195 forensic psychiatric outpatients with a 3-month and 170 patients with a 6-month follow-up period, using logistic regression analysis. The occurrence of violent or criminal behaviour was established based on the case manager’s recordings in the patient’s file. Only 5 of the 20 START items were found to have predictive validity: Impulse Control, Attitudes, Material Resources, Rule Adherence and Conduct. The last three were the only items for which incremental predictive validity was found with respect to scoring it as a strength and a vulnerability. Selection of key items did not add to the predictive validity. While possibly having therapeutic significance, the scoring of strength next to vulnerability and the selection of key items, may not be beneficial for risk assessment.     

Assessing the Impact of Community-oriented Policing on Arrest

Community-oriented policing’s (COP’s) influence and effect on policing has been significant in recent years with evidence suggesting that it increases police satisfaction, partially improves police legitimacy and reduces citizen’s fear of crime. It has also been hypothesized to influence the likelihood of an arrest; however, this possibility presents competing theoretical mechanisms and limited empirical assessment. The current study uses a multilevel analytic approach to merge data from the National Incident Based Reporting System data base with information from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey to investigate this possibility. Results indicate that agencies engaged in greater and specific COP activities experience an increased likelihood of arrest in violent crime incidents. This effect varies by the type of violent crime and the amount of COP activity undertaken.     

Technology spillovers and stability of international climate coalitions

Cooperation in international environmental agreements appears difficult to attain because of strong free-rider incentives. This paper explores how different technology spillover mechanisms among regions can influence the incentives to join and stabilise an international agreement. We use an applied modelling framework (STACO) that enables us to investigate the stability of partial climate coalitions. Several theories on the impact of technology spillovers are evaluated by simulating a range of alternative specifications. We find that spillovers are a good instrument to increase the abatement efforts of coalitions and reduce the associated costs. In our setting, however, they cannot overcome the strong free-rider incentives that are present in larger coalitions, i.e. technology spillovers do not substantially increase the success of international environmental agreements. This conclusion is robust with respect to the specification of technology spillovers.