Practical Imagination: A Possible Future for Federal Budgeting

To develop a federal budget process that delivers better fiscal outcomes for the nation consistently over an extended period would require new information and analysis, applying these to decisions through properly designed procedures, and strengthening the institutions that support wise fiscal choices. Changes in each of these process components intended to contribute to good fiscal outcomes are described, and obstacles to their adoption and use are noted. Such reforms could yield budgets that deploy public resources today to carry out strategies promising to increase the nation's ability to survive inevitable social and fiscal shocks and to take advantage of expected and unexpected opportunities for its citizens to thrive, grow, and fulfill their dreams.     

Web-Based Accountability in the Nonprofit Sector: A Closer Look at Arts,Culture, and Humanities Organizations

ABSTRACT

Web-based accountability continues to be an important consideration for nonprofit organizations. This research examines the impact of certain variables on web-based accountability in the arts, culture, and humanities sector. A content analysis of eighty nonprofit organizations was performed and multiple statistical analyses were used. Findings indicated that regulatory measures, including the prosecution and a detection index, are the most significant variables for determining web-based accountability for this group of nonprofit organizations.     

Moroccan adolescent suspect offenders in the Netherlands: ethnic differences in offender profiles

Ethnic minority youths are over-represented in the juvenile justice system in Western societies. However, research on the nature of crime committed by these youths is lacking. In the present study, offending patterns of incarcerated native Dutch adolescents and adolescents of Moroccan origin were compared. Criminal record data were used to examine the offence history of 291 incarcerated adolescents. Offender types were determined through latent class analysis. Adolescents of Moroccan origin were incarcerated more often, for more offences and at a younger age than native Dutch adolescents. A four-class model of offender types was found: property offenders, violent offenders, sexual offenders and arsonists. Property offenders were mainly Moroccan adolescents, the other offender types consisted predominantly of native Dutch adolescents. Moroccan adolescents in pre-trial arrest in the Netherlands can be characterized as early starting offenders who persist in being incarcerated for property-based crime.     

Public policy and quality of community life in american cities: a search for linkage

The purpose of this research is to identify and examine linkages that exist between public policy and quality of life in American cities. A review and analysis of public policy research and social indicators research over the past twenty years is included. Social indicators are further defined into both objective and subjective indicators. The developing confluence of the two areas of research constitutes the basis for the remainder of the paper.

The data for this study are derived from a nationwide survey conducted by Louis Harris and Associates, Inc., in late December, 1977 and early January, 1978, for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Interviews were conducted for a sample of 7,074 adults, asking them about their perceptions on the quality of community life, government services, social problems, and future possibilities. The findings are analyzed through use of a frequency distribution of the quality of life measures and the quality of public service variables.

The pattern of statistical relationships indicates that the nine public service variables are sharply divided into two groups. One, seven variables (police, garbage, street lighting, fire, public schools, parks and playgrounds, and road and street maintenance) are all highly inter-correlated. The correlation coefficients among them range from a high of .411 (police and fire) to a low of .218 (garbage and public schools). The other, public transportation and public health service are also closely inter-correlated, but their relationships with the other seven are all uniformly weak.

These two groups of public services have distinct political and policy implications. The first group of services tends to represent those traditionally well-established public services that are considered “vitally important” for the well-being of the general public. The second group, in contrast, tends to represent those public services that are relatively new and serving primarily the needs of low income or minority groups in the community whose political influence is most likely to be marginal.

A few generalizations may be drawn from the statistical relationships. First, the general indicators of community life quality such as feelings about the overall community and neighborhood are more strongly correlated with the quality ratings of public services than the quality indicators of specific life domains. Second, some of the strongest relationships are found between specific public services and specific domains of life quality that might be expected logically to have close association such as police and safety (r=.317) and public schools and child raising (r=.427). Third, those public services that are considered part of mainstream local services and important for the daily life of the general public (such as police, fire, public schools, parks and playgrounds, etc.) tend to be very strongly correlated with the measures of community life quality. Fourth, in contrast, those services that are primarily affecting underprivileged groups in the community and not considered part of the mainstream of local services are poorly or insignificantly correlated with the measures of community life quality.     

A token operation: 204 military mission to China, 1941–1945

History of the Second World War: The War against Japan. Vol. II. H.M. Stationery Office. Pp. 519. Maps and Index. 55s.

The Pathans. By Olaf Caroe. Macmillan. 1958. Pp. 521 and xii. Maps; illustrations; appendix; index. 60s.

A Person from England: and Other Travellers to Turkestan. By Sir Fitzroy Maclean. Jonathan Cape. 1958. Pp. 384. Illustrations; map; bibliography. 21s.

The Fall of the Safavi Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia. By Laurence Lockhart. Cambridge: at the University Press. 1958. 8vo, cloth. Pp. xiii + 584. 10 plates; 6 maps and plans. 70s.

Kitchener: Portrait of an Imperialist. By Philip Magnus. John Murray. 1958. 8¾” × 5¾”. Pp.410. Index; maps; illustrations. 30s.

Egyptt. By Tom Little. Ernest Benn. 1958. Pp. 321. Map. 30s.

Alexander's Path. By Freya Stark. John Murray. 1958. Pp. 283. Ind.; app.; maps; ill. 30s.

Avicenna: His Life and Works. By Soheil M. Afnan. George Allen and Unwin. 1958. Pp. 298. 30s.

A History of Modern Burma. By John F. Cady. Ithaca New York: Cornell University Press. 1958. Pp. 682. Bibliography and index.

Mazdur: Labor Problems in the Industrialization of India. By Charles A. Myers. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pp. 297.

India Changes. By Taya Zinkin. Chatto and Windus. Pp. 234. 28s.

The Time of the Mango Flowers. By Roderick Cameron. Heinemann. Pp. 308. Index; illustrations. 30s.

An Economic Geography of East Pakistan. By Nafis Ahmad. Oxford University Press. Pp. 325. 50s.

Frontier Doctor. By Sir Henry Holland. Hodder and Stoughton. Pp. 256. Index; ill.; maps. 25s.

Moscow‐Peking Axis: Strengths and Strains. By Howard L. Boorman, Alexander Eckstein, Philip E. Moseley and Benjamin Schwarz. Foreword by Arthur H. Dean. Published for the Council on Foreign Relations by Harper and Brothers. New York. 1957. Pp. 231.

The Soviet Far East. By Erich Thiel. Translated by A. and R. M. Rookwood. Methuen. Pp. 388. Bibliography; index; 38 maps. 30s.

Syria and the Lebanon Under French Mandate. By S. H. Longrigg. Oxford University Press. 1958. Pp. xii × 404. Index; 3 maps. 42s.

Iraq. By Brigadier Stephen Longrigg and Frank Stoakes. Ernest Benn Ltd. Pp. 256. Appendices; map; index. 27s.

Tensions in the Middle East. Edited by Philip W. Thayer. Baltimore : The Johns Hopkins Press. London : Oxford University Press. Pp. 332. Index; map. 35s.

British Interests in the Mediterranean and Middle East. Report by a Study Group of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Published for the Royal Institute of International Affairs by the Oxford University Press. Pp. 123. 12s. 6d.

Doubts and Dynamite: The Middle East Today. By Emile Bustani. Published by Allan Wingate. Pp. 159. Map. 18s.

The Middle East. A Political and Economic Survey. Edited by Sir Reader Bullard. Oxford University Press. Pp. 569. Appendices; maps; index. 45s.

Muhammad and the Islamic Tradition. By E. Dermenghem. Longmans (Men of Wisdom). 191 pp. 111. 1958. 6s.

Islam—The Straight Path. (Islam interpreted by Muslims.) Edited by Kenneth W. Morgan. The Ronald Press, New York. 1958. Pp. 453. End‐paper map. $6.

A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecture. By K. A. C. Creswell. Peguin Books. Pp. xvi + 330, with 72 plates and 64 text figures. 7¼” × 4½” 8s. 6d.

Malay. By Norton Ginsbury and Chester F. Roberts, Jnr. University of Washington Press, Seattle. 1958. Appendices; maps; plans; bibliography; index.

Temiar Jungle. By John Slimming. Published by John Murray. Pp. 176. Ill. 18s.

The Opium War through Chinese Eyes. By Arthur Waley. George Allen and Unwin. 21s. Pp. 257. Index.

Catalogue of Translation from the Chinese Dynastic Histories for the Period A.D. 220–960. Compiled by Hans Frankel. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles. Pp. 295. $4.50.

Hazor I. An Account of the First Season of Excavations, 1955 (The James A. de Rothschild Expedition at Hazor). By Yigael Yadin and others. The Magnes Press of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1958. Distributed in Great Britain by the Oxford University Press, London. Pp. xxiv‐160. Plates clxxxiv including 13 plans). 8 guineas.

The Mahdist State in the Sudan. By P. M. Holt. Oxford. 1958. Pp. vii + 247. Index; bibliography; maps. 35s.

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. By Eric Newby. Secker and Warburg. London. 1958. Pp. 247. Illustrations; maps. 25s.

Adventurer's Eye. By Tom Stobart. Published by Odhams Press, Ltd. Pp. 256. Ill. Index. 21s.     

Measuring the Impact of New Public Management and European Integration on Recruitment and Training int he UK Civil Service

This article investigates the impact which the institutional development of the European Union (EU) and the new public management (NPM) have had on the process of recruitment and training of senior public officials in the United Kingdom between 1970 and 1995. Information provided by directors of personnel and training has enabled the extent of change observed in three government departments – Agriculture, Transport and Health – to be measured on a numerical scale. This is combined with a historical analysis rooted in practitioner experience. The evidence from both sources suggests that whereas NPM pressures have had a relatively similar impact on recruitment and training practices in all three departments, the response to EU pressure is much stronger in the Ministry of Agriculture than in the Departments of Transport and Health. The EU impact in Agriculture is particularly strong in respect of recruitment and career progression, the only area and the only department in which our index suggests that policy has been more heavily influenced by European pressures than by NPM. These findings reflect the strength of the political commitment to NPM and the power of the central departments in imposing it across Whitehall; and in the case of Agriculture the development of a cadre of senior officials who have almost all had experience of working in or with the EU institutions.     

Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus: Heavy Equipment Methods and Techniques for Complex Well Excavations

This technical note presents the methods and techniques developed by the Bi-communal Forensic Team (BCFT) of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) used to excavate and exhume the remains of missing persons, many of whom were buried in deep wells at sites across the island of Cyprus during the conflict period of the 1960s and 1970s. A total of 493 Turkish Cypriots and 1508 Greek Cypriots were officially reported missing by the two communities as a result of the conflict. Since the team's formation, in 2005, the BCFT has excavated 114 wells, resulting in the recovery of 195 missing individuals from 35 of these well excavations. The standard excavation approach used by the BCFT, especially for deep well recovery, consists of “ramp,” “pocket,” and “pool” components. These excavation features enable CMP archaeologists to excavate deep wells safely and efficiently while simultaneously permitting time for thorough documentation and unimpeded recovery of human remains. The team uses three variants of this approach to cope with the variety of geological, physical, and hydrological contexts faced in Cyprus’ wells, including hard and soft landforms, the presence or absence of water, and limitations imposed by surrounding infrastructure. The “terracing”, “double-ramp”, and “single-ramp” variations are detailed with respect to the environmental contexts which prescribe their use. The BCFT's general procedures for human remains recovery and standard well safety protocols conclude the article.