US Intervention in Colombia: The Role of Transnational Relations

In July 2000, US President, Bill Clinton, signed into law the aid package popularly known as ‘Plan Colombia’. Foreign policy analysts examining the ‘US drug war’ have generally focused upon the perceived national security interests of the US state and/or the intermestic nature of domestic politics, or the economic interests of an imperial US state in explaining US drug policy. I posit that the development, initiation and implementation of Plan Colombia cannot solely be understood through these various nation‐state paradigms, as this process was aided by, and facilitated through, an incipient transnational state. The emergence and consolidation into power of a neoliberal state within Colombia, the role of transnational lobbying by US and Colombian policy‐makers, as well as the influence of transnational corporations all played instrumental roles in the initiation, development and implementation of Plan Colombia.     

Congressional Leadership 1965–96: A New Look at the Extremism versus Centrality Debate

Abstract An examination of the differences between the ideological positions of leaders and other members in the U.S. House of Representatives (1965–96) demonstrates that Republican leaders tend to be significantly to the right of the median Republican member and Democratic leaders tend to be significantly to the left of the median Democratic member. Furthermore, leaders from both parties tend to be ideologically located near the mode of their party's ideological distribution. These empirical results have implications for issues such as party polarization, conditional party government, and the possibility of separating out party and ideology.     

国际劳工标准的理念

<正>很高兴再次访问中国,这也是我第一次在北京,到北大法学院及北大劳动法与社会保障法研究所出席这样一个会议。我要为您,叶静漪教授能够在中国举办这样一个会,表示祝贺。我希望这只是中国与西方、与美国,发展中国家与发达国家间交流联系的一个开始,将来还会有更多的机会,因为这样的交流联系对于中美两国友好关系的发展,以及建立有效的国际机构都是非常重要的。国际劳工标准的理念非常重要,在概念上它亦新亦旧。它发端于19世纪,当时市场力量     

Legal,Extra-Legal,and Organizational Factors in the Disposition of Juveniles

This paper examines the effect of legal, extra-legal, and organizational factors on the processing of delinquents in selected California counties. A brief review of each perspective is given followed by a discussion of the data base and variables included in the analysis. Overall, bivariate relationships stress the importance of legal compared to extra-legal characteristics. The analysis also reveals clear evidence of the importance of organizational differences in juvenile court processing. Multivariate analysis revealed few differences in this pattern with the exception of “race” where some degree of interaction was found to exist when controls for offense were introduced. An analysis of covariance model shows that case sequence, county, and referral source were the most important predictors of case outcome.     

The Funding of Political Parties

Despite attempts over the last decade to bring an end to what has become an ‘arms race’ between political parties, party funding in the UK continues to defy resolution. Drawing on the experience of the committee charged by the last Labour administration to put party funding and electoral spending on a more sustainable footing, this article examines the issues and the main sticking points. It outlines the basis on which the negotiations were undertaken, and the main hurdles they sought to overcome. It highlights the disagreement between the parties on the definition of the central issue, the problems associated with the main funding sources for each of the parties, and the viability of state funding. It discusses why success proved elusive, but also why a solution is necessary, since in the absence of robust rules, parties and therefore the UK political system more broadly, are ‘a hostage to the next scandal’.