La fonction publique canadienne et québécoise‡

Abstract. The growing responsibilities of the state as provider call for ever more numerous and capable personnel. What were the main legislative stages in the evolution of the public service in Canada and in Quebec? Is our public service based on the British or French traditions or some other concept? These must be the preliminary questions concerning its legal status and framework. Is this legal status, that is to say its relationship to or that which binds it with the government, of a statutory nature in the realm of public law, or the opposite, contractual and belonging to the area of private law? The answer to this question determines. to a large extent, the responsibilities of the government towards the public service (remuneration, tenure, social and legal security), as well as the subservience of the public service to the government and to those administered (continuing and exclusive service, hierarchic obedience, discretion, integrity, loyalty). Furthermore, the rules governing the public service must state specifically the general conditions under which the civil service operates. This is what we call the legal regime of the public service. The next issue of the JOURNAL will deal with this regime. Sommaire. Les responsabilités croissantes de l'éltat-providence appellent un personnel toujours plus nombreux et compétent. Quelles ont été les principales étapes législatives de l'évolution de la fonction publique canadienne et québécoise ? Notre fonction publique est-elle de conception britannique, franqaise ou autre ? Voilà autant de question préalables à l'étude de son statut et de son régime juridiques. Ce statut juridique, c'est-à-dire la relation ou le lien qui l'unit à l'administration, est-il de nature statutaire et de droit public, ou au contraire, contractuel et de droit privé? La réponse à cette question conditionne pour me bonne part les obligations de l'administration à l'égard de la fonction publique (rémunération, stabilité d'emploi, sécurité sociale et juridique) de même que les sujétions de la fonction publique face à l'administration et aux administrés (service continu et exclusif, obéissance hiérarchique, discrétion, intégrité, loyauté). Le droit de la fonction publique se doit, en outre, de préciser les conditions générales de service des fonctionnaires. C'est ce qu'on appelle le régime juridique de la fonction publique. La prochaine livraison de cette REVUE en fera éat.     

Public perceptions of white-collar crime and punishment

Although financial losses from white-collar crime continue to exceed those of street crime, the criminal justice system has traditionally focused on the latter. Past research suggested that citizens are more likely to support punitive sanctions for street offenders than white-collar offenders. Recent corporate scandals have increased public awareness of white-collar crime, but whether public attitudes have been altered remains to be determined. Using a 2005 national sample of 402 telephone survey participants, the current study examined citizen perceptions of white-collar and street crime, as well as attitudes regarding apprehension and punishment. This research extended prior studies by also considering the influence of sociodemographic characteristics as well as perceptions of white-collar crime and punishment on the public's support for increasing resource allocation. Implications for future research and development of more effective white-collar crime control policy are discussed.     

Traditional and non-traditional occupations of law graduates: which jobs do law graduates enter?

This article does not have an abstract     

An Application of Rating Conjoint Analysis to Study the Importance of Quality-, Access- and Price-attributes to Health Care Consumers

Outside the health care sector, consumer preferences have been effectively studied using rating and ranking conjoint techniques. In the health care sector this technique has received less attention than its choice-based variant. Applications of rating and ranking method to health care issues are few. This paper presents an application of rating conjoint analysis to study the importance of quality, access and price to the health care consumers in Bulgaria. The paper first describes the rating conjoint method and its distinctive features compared to the choice-based and the ranking approach. The method is illustrated by the rating conjoint design applied in the study. Next, the impact of different quality-, access- and price-levels on the rating of physician profiles is analysed and the differences between the socio-demographic groups are examined. The results suggest that similar to other countries, the quality of care is a highly valued characteristic in Bulgaria, whereas access is perceived as less important. The considerable importance of patient payments further implies that Bulgarians are responsive to prices in the health care sector, especially the elderly, the village dwellers and the lowest income groups. The relevance of the results with regards to health policy and planning, as well as with regards to the methodology of rating conjoint analysis is discussed at the end of the paper.     

The Liechtenstein Foundation and the objectives of the New Foundation Law

This article first provides the reader with an overview of thelaw and benefits of private foundations in Liechtenstein andthen focuses on the objectives of the proposed new LiechtensteinFoundation Law.     

Legal Consequences of EU Accession for Central and Eastern European Health Care Systems

Since the ratification of the Europe agreements, Eastern European accession countries are transposing community law into their national legal framework. The law approximation process in the field of health concerns three themes, viz public health, health–related issues, and the internal market. Although the health acquis has been largely focused on public–health issues, it is increasingly becoming clear that internal market treaty provisions may also affect health–related rights. For candidate member states this means that the common market has important consequences for health and their health–care systems. Therefore, this paper will examine the impact of relevant treaty provisions on acceding countries' (public) health legal framework.     

Growing Up Poor: Examining the Link Between Persistent Childhood Poverty and Delinquency

Findings from aggregate-level and ethnographic research suggest that poverty and delinquency are related. The inability of individual-level quantitative research to demonstrate consistent evidence of this relationship, however, has been used to call into question whether poverty is indeed related to an increased propensity for delinquent involvement. This may be due to the difficulty individual-level analyses have in identifying the group most important in uncovering the relationship of poverty to delinquency—those individuals that experience persistent childhood poverty. This paper provides an assessment of the effects of both the level of exposure to poverty and its timing on delinquent involvement using fourteen years of longitudinal data for a national sample of younger adolescents. Findings indicate that exposure to poverty and the timing of such exposure are indeed related to an increased likelihood of involvement in delinquency.     

How Does Voting Equipment Affect the Racial Gap in Voided Ballots?

An accumulating body of research suggests that African Americans cast invalid ballots at a higher rate than whites. Our analysis of a unique precinct-level dataset from South Carolina and Louisiana shows that the black-white gap in voided ballots depends crucially on the voting equipment people use. In areas with punch cards or optically scanned ballots, the black-white gap ranged from four to six percentage points. Lever and electronic machines, which prohibit overvoting and make undervoting more transparent and correctible, cut the discrepancy by a factor of ten. Judging from exit polls and opinion surveys, much of the remaining difference could be due to intentional undervoting, which African Americans profess to practice at a slightly higher rate than whites. In any case, the use of appropriate voting technologies can virtually eliminate the black-white disparity in invalid ballots.