Peace building and the depoliticisation of civil society: Sierra Leone 2002–13

Over the past two decades there has been a rapid increase in funds for local civil society actors in fragile states. Current peace-building and development efforts strive for the recreation of a vibrant, active and ‘liberal’ civil society. In the case of Sierra Leone, paradoxically, this growing support has not strengthened civil society actors based on that liberal idea(l). Instead of experiencing enhanced proactive participation stemming from the civil sphere, Sierra Leone’s civil society appears to be largely depoliticised. Drawing on empirical data gathered over the past four years, this article offers three interrelated causal explanations of why this phenomenon occurred during the country’s peace-building phase from 2002 to 2013. First, Sierra Leone’s civil society landscape has become instrumentalised to serve a broader liberal peace-building and development agenda in several ways. Second, Western idea(l)s of participatory approaches and democracy are repeatedly challenged by the legacies of colonial rule and socially entrenched forms of neo-patrimonialism. Third, abject poverty and the lack of education affect activism and agency from below.     

The Elasticity of the Migrant Labour Supply: Evidence from Temporary Filipino Migrants

The effect of immigration on host and origin countries is mediated by the way migrants take their labour supply decisions. We propose a simple way of integrating the traditional random utility maximisation model used to analyse location decisions with a classical labour demand function at destination. Our setup allows us to estimate a general upper bound on the elasticity of the migrant labour supply that we take to the data using the evolution of the numbers and wages of temporary overseas Filipino workers between 1992 and 2009 to different destinations. We find that the migrant labour supply elasticity can be very large. Temporary migrants are very reactive to economic conditions in their potential destinations.     

Counting the Cost: A Critical Evaluation of the Australian National Broadband Network Roll-Out under the Rudd/Gillard Governments

A nascent literature has examined recent controversial policy initiatives by the Australian Government using insights from the literature on public policy evaluation. Scholars have considered inter alia the Mineral Resources Rent Tax, the Home Insulation Program, the Green Loans Program, the Building the Education Revolution and the macroeconomic stimulus package after the global financial crisis. The present paper adds to this literature by considering the National Broadband Network (NBN). The costs of implementing the NBN are examined and the paper attempts to draw some broader public policy ‘lessons‘ to inform future public policy making both in Australia and elsewhere.     

Kogan v Martin: A New Framework for Joint Authorship in Copyright Law

The Court of Appeal has set out a new framework for the application of copyright law's joint authorship test in a recent landmark case. Kogan v Martin brings some welcome clarity to the complex joint authorship landscape, embedding an inclusive pro-collaboration default standard. This case note contrasts the appeal court's nuanced framing of the dispute with the first instance court's narrower approach. The note then examines the new joint authorship framework and explains how it allows the test to be applied with an eye to the reality of collaborative creative endeavours. Finally, the significance of Kogan v Martin is highlighted, as are some questions which remain unanswered.     

Psychopathic personality and utilitarian moral judgment in college students

Purpose

Although psychopathy is characterized by amoral behavior, literature on the association between psychopathy and moral judgment pattern is mixed. Recent evidence suggests that this may be due to the moderation effect of anxiety (Koenigs, Kruepke, Zeier, & Newman, 2011). The current study aims to examine the psychopathy-utilitarian judgment association in college students.

Method

In this study, a group of 302 college students completed a moral judgment test involving hypothetical dilemmas. Their psychopathic traits were assessed by the Psychopathic Personality Inventory – Short Form (PPI-SF) (Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996).

Results

Individuals with higher psychopathic traits were more likely to make utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas. Furthermore, the association between utilitarian responses and psychopathy was more salient for the behavioral factor of psychopathy (PPI-II), and this association was mediated by self-reported aggression. However, the moderating effect of anxiety was not found.

Conclusions

These results build upon work on utilitarian moral judgment in psychopathic individuals in a non-incarcerated, non-institutionalized sample, and have important implications for the behavioral correction system.     

The relationship between schemas and offence supportive attitudes in mentally disordered sexual offenders

Abstract

The study of schemas in sexual offenders is a relatively new approach in attempts to understand the deviant beliefs and attitudes of sexual offenders. Emerging findings suggest that offence supportive attitudes may be the product of an offender's underlying schemas. This study aims to establish the relationship between offence supportive attitudes and schemas in a sample of mentally disordered sexual offenders (MDSOs). Thirty-one male sexual offenders held within low through high security forensic mental health units were assessed using the Young Schema Questionnaire - Short Version 3 and the Questionnaire on Attitudes Consistent with Sex Offending. Correlational analyses suggested a pattern of relationships in which Insufficient Self-control, Entitlement and Enmeshment arose as the schemas associated with most offence supportive attitudes. This supports a relationship between schemas and offence supportive attitudes in MDSOs and is consistent with the literature to date. Implications for further research and treatment are considered.     

Introducing and applying a new Australian alcohol advertising code

This article introduces the new Australian Alcohol Advertising Review Board (AARB) Code and assesses television advertising practices against its advertising content provisions. The Code is administered by independent experts to provide an alternative to the industry‐led Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code Scheme that has attracted substantial criticism. The new Code aims to balance the alcohol industry's right to promote a legal product against critical protections for young people and public health. To assess whether the new Code will require substantial changes to alcohol advertising practices, a content analysis was conducted of alcohol advertisements aired prior to its introduction on all four free‐to‐air commercial television channels over two months. A majority of the analysed advertisements (48 of 64) contained at least one element that could be construed as a breach of the AARB Code. The largest numbers of potential breaches were for the provisions relating to the association of alcohol with success and using appeals that are likely to be attractive to young people. The results demonstrate that the Australian alcohol industry will need to reassess current advertising practices to achieve compliance with the new Code. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.