Measuring Policy Success: Evaluating Public Sector Reform in Bhutan

There has been resurgence in evaluation of policy, reflected mostly by an increase in ex ante studies. Although there is a shift towards ex post evaluation, this has been gradual, resulting in a paucity of ex post evaluation literature. To address this gap, we apply a revisionist approach to evaluate a major public sector reform in the Bhutanese civil service. We conclude that it provides a more holistic approach for ex post evaluation policy, and also a more nuanced evaluation which moves us beyond the narrow binary view of success or failure in reform.     

Subjected to Sanitation: Caste Relations and Sanitation Adoption in Rural Tamil Nadu

If solving the global sanitation crisis lies within Indian borders, then it is important to understand the influence of caste relations on sanitation building and usage. Our ethnography investigated three villages in rural Tamil Nadu where seven separate sanitation interventions had failed. The analysis indicates caste relations played a key role in the failed interventions by creating and reinforcing the means by which caste groups distinguished themselves from each other at the village scale. Issues of cleaning, access to subsidies, latrine design, and purity served to facilitate and limit the processes that enable the everyday, unequal relationships of caste.     

Recent Publications

An Independent Woman: The Life of Lou Henry Hoover, by Anne Besier Allen. Westport, CT: Greenwood P, 2000.

Recovering the Black Female Body: Self‐Representations by African American Women, edited by Michael Bennett and Vanessa D. Dickerson. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2001.

Feminisms and Women's Movements in Contemporary Europe, edited by Anna Bull, Hanna Diamond, and Rosalind March. New York: St. Martin's P, 2000.

Female Communities, 1600–1800: Literary Visions and Cultural Realities, edited by Rebecca D'Monte and Nicole Pohl. New York: St. Martin's P, 2000.

Gender and Material Culture in Historical Perspective, edited by Moira Donald and Linda Hurcombe. London: Macmillan, and New York: St. Martin's P, 2000.

Asian American Studies: Identity, Images, Issues Past and Present, edited by Esther Mikyung Ghymn. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2000.

Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir, by Barry Gifford. Jackson, MI: UP of Mississippi, 2001.

My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home, by Amber L. Hollibaugh. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2000.

Body Matters: Feminism, Textuality, Corporeality, edited by Avril Horner and Angela Keane. Manchester and New York: Manchester UP, 2000.

The Recess, by Sophia Lee. Lexington, Kentucky: The UP of Kentucky, 2000.

Women Performing Music: The Emergence of American Women as Instrumentalists and Conductors, by Beth Abelson Macleod. Jefferson, NC: McFarland &; Company, 2000.

Unveiling Traditions: Postcolonial Islam in a Polycentric World, by Anouar Majid. Durham: Duke UP, 2000.

The Loony‐Bin Trip, by Kate Millett. Urbana and Chicago: U of Illinois P, 2000.

Thousand of Roads: A Memoir of a Young Woman's Life in the Ukranian Undergroud During and After World War II, by Maria Savchyn Pyskir, translated by Ania Savage. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland &; Company, 2001.

A Woman's Way: The Forgotten History of Women Spiritual Directors, by Patricia Ranft. New York: Palgrave, 2000.

Records of Girlhood: An Anthology of Nineteenth‐Century Women's Childhoods, edited by Valerie Sanders. England and United States: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2000.

Battered Women and Feminist Lawmaking, by Elizabeth Schneider. New Haven: Yale UP, 2000.

Food, Consumption, and the Body in Contemporary Women's Fiction, by Sarah Sceats. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.

Chaucer's Pardoner and Gender Theory: Bodies of Discourse, by Robert S. Sturges. New York: St. Martin's P, 2000.

Consuming Anxieties: Consumer Protest, Gender, and British Slavery, 1713–1833, by Charlotte Sussman. Stanford, California: Stanford UP, 2000.     

Not Just Robo-Students: Why Full Engagement Matters and How Schools Can Promote It

Research has long linked academic engagement to positive social, psychological, and physical developmental outcomes; however, qualitative studies in high-performing schools find that some students who work hard in school may be compromising their mental and physical health in the pursuit of top grades. Such research calls for closer and more contextualized examinations of the concept of engagement. This study examines academic engagement in a sample of 6,294 students (54 % female; 44 % White, 34 % Asian, and 22 % other racial or ethnic background) attending 15 high-achieving schools. Findings show that two-thirds of students at these schools are not regularly “fully engaged” in their academic schoolwork; that is, they do not regularly report high levels of affective, behavioral and cognitive engagement. Although most students report working hard, few enjoy their schoolwork and find it valuable. This lack of full engagement, particularly the absence of affective and cognitive engagement, is associated with more frequent school stress, higher rates of cheating, and greater internalizing, externalizing, and physical symptoms of stress. The study also finds that full engagement is strongly related to positive teacher-student relationships. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

Involved-Vigilant Parenting and Socio-Emotional Well-being Among Black Youth: The Moderating Influence of Natural Mentoring Relationships

Positive relationships with parents and nonparental adults have the potential to bolster Black adolescents’ socio-emotional well-being. Though each type of intergenerational relationship has been linked to more positive youth outcomes, few studies have examined the interactive influences of parenting and natural mentoring relationships on the socio-emotional development of Black youth. In the current study, we examined associations between involved-vigilant parenting and the psychological well-being and social skills of Black early adolescents (n = 259; 58 % female; mean age = 13.56, SD = .96) across types of natural mentoring relationships. Using K-means cluster analysis, we identified two types of mentoring relationships (less connected and more connected) based on relationship length, involvement, closeness, and frequency of contact. Youth with more connected mentoring relationships (n = 123) had higher psychological well-being and social skills than youth with no mentor (n = 64) or less connected mentors (n = 72). Youth without a natural mentor and youth with less connected mentors did not differ in their levels of social skills or psychological well-being. Structural equation modeling was conducted to determine if associations between involved-vigilant parenting and youths’ psychological well-being and social skills varied among youth with a more connected mentoring relationship in comparison to youth without a mentor or with a less connected mentor, controlling for participants’ gender, age, school, and parental education. The positive associations between involved-vigilant parenting and adolescents’ psychological well-being and social skills were weaker among adolescents with a more connected mentoring relationship in comparison to their peers without or with a less connected mentoring relationship. These results suggest that youth may be more strongly influenced by involved-vigilant parenting in the absence of a strongly connected natural mentoring relationship.     

Associations Between Adolescents’ Perceived Discrimination and Prosocial Tendencies: The Mediating Role of Mexican American Values

Experiences with perceived discrimination (e.g., perceptions of being treated unfairly due to race or ethnicity) are expected to impact negatively youths’ prosocial development. However, resilience often occurs in light of such experiences through cultural factors. The current longitudinal study examined the influence of perceived discrimination on the emergence of Mexican American adolescents’ later prosocial tendencies, and examined the mediating role of Mexican American values (e.g., familism, respect, and religiosity). Participants included 749 adolescents (49 % female) interviewed at 5th, 7th, and 10th grade. Results of the current study suggested that, although perceived discrimination was associated negatively with some types of prosocial tendencies (e.g., compliant, emotional, and dire) and related positively to public prosocial helping, the associations were mediated by youths’ Mexican American values. Directions for future research are presented and practical implications for promoting adolescents’ resilience are discussed.     

The intellectual legacy of J.E. Hodgetts

Abstract: J.E. (Ted) Hodgetts was influenced by both the political economy approach that he learned at the University of Toronto and by the comprehensive historical method developed by Leonard White, under whom he studied at Chicago. His first great project, Pioneer Public Service, convinced him that responsible government was impossible without responsible public administration. The authors examine how his response to management theories and practices evolved following his participation in the Glassco, Lambert and Gomery commissions. Hodgetts consistently refused the complete separation of politics and administration, and he promoted the use of management techniques to strengthen parliamentary supervision of the public service. The two key components of his legacy are thus a commitment to the democratic values of representative government and the comprehensive study of the internal dynamics of public administration in interaction with the relevant environmental factors.     

Disarmament,with special reference to Asia

On February 20 M. V. dc Korostovetz read a paper on Soviet Russia and her Southern Neighbours. The subject was divided into four parts: (a) The general trend of Russia's foreign policy, which, whether Imperial or Bolshevik, has differed in method rather than aim; (b) the States from Turkey to China, lying to the south of the Soviet block, with special attention to Chinese Turkestan; (c) the Ukrainian attitude to Communism; and (d) an outline of the new canals planned to make the Volga the chief waterway of Russia at the expense of the Don, and, with the refortification of the Straits, to turn the Black Sea into a mare clausum.