Reining in James: the limits of the task force

Abstract. Special planning groups composed of non-civil servants are useful in removing burdensome issues from officials and ministers, but if they seriously inconvenience an administration they will be restrained. This is an account of such a case, involving F. Cyril James's Committee on Reconstruction (1941-43), which shows how the Committee was brought under control for discussing post-World War Two plans with the provinces. This extreme case throws into question some conventional thinking about task forces. It also highlights an essential trade-off between coherent and comprehensive planning based in the bureaucracy, and ease of implementation based on a consensus which may be most effectively secured by the wide consultations characteristic of ‘extra-departmental’ committees. Sommaire. Les groupes spéciaux de planification composés de non fonctionnaires sont utiles en ce qu'ils aident à retirer des mains des fonctionnaires et des ministres des questions difficiles, mais lorsqu'ils dérangent sérieusement une administration, on limite leurs pouvoirs. C'est ce qu'illustre le présent cas du Comité de reconstruction de F. Cyril James (1941-43); l'article démontre comment ce comité fut réprimé pour avoir discuté avec les provinces des projets postérieurs à la Seconde guerre mondiale. Ce cas extrême remet en question l'idée que l'on se fait traditionnellement des groupes de travail. Il met également en lumiére un compromis essentiel entre la planification cohérente et compéte reposant sur la bureaucratie et la facilité d'exécution reposant sur un consensus qui peut être obtenu le plus efficacement par les consultations de grande envergure caractéristiques des comités extra-ministériels.     

What Does Corruption Mean in a Democracy?

Despite a growing interest in corruption, the topic has been absent from democratic theory. The reason is not a lack of normative issues, but rather missing links between the concepts of corruption and democracy. With few exceptions, political corruption has been conceived as departures by public officials from public rules, norms, and laws for the sake of private gain. Such a conception works well within bureaucratic contexts with well-defined offices, purposes, and norms of conduct. But it inadequately identifies corruption in political contexts, that is, the processes of contestation through which common purposes, norms, and rules are created. Corruption in a democracy, I argue, involves duplicitous violations of the democratic norm of inclusion. Such a conception encompasses the standard conception while complementing it with attention to the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion within democratic politics. By distinguishing the meanings of inclusion and exclusion within the many institutions, spheres, and associations that constitute contemporary democracies, I provide a democratic conception of corruption with a number of implications. The most important of these is that corruption in a democracy usually indicates a deficit of democracy.     

Race, Sex, and Clarence Thomas: Representation Change in the EEOC

The theory of representative bureaucracy concerns whether bureaucracy mirrors the origins and values of the population and, if so, whether such representation makes any difference. This article extends Hindera's examination of active bureaucratic representation within the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to determine the effect of introducing new goals (disability discrimination) and priorities (sexual harassment) on the EEOC's representational patterns. Using data from the late 1980s and late 1990s, we find the extent of active representation of African Americans declined. Although the EEOC is now pursuing more cases of sex discrimination, no evidence of active representation exists for women in EEOC district offices.     

The forensic analysis of soil organic by FTIR

In order to elucidate the discriminating power of various soil analytical techniques, over 100 soils samples were analyzed using conventional analysis (i.e., color, percent organic and density gradient) and a novel FTIR technique. The FTIR technique involves collecting a spectrum of a soil sample that has been oxidatively pyrolysed, and therefore all organic have been degraded. This spectrum is subtracted from the spectrum of the same sample that contained the organic prior to pyrolysis. This resultant IR spectrum represents the organic portion of the sample. The use of organic components increases the discrimination in soils that are otherwise similar. We have illustrated the usefulness of this technique by selecting four soil samples, which have identical Munsel color values but can be discriminated by subtractive ETIR. We propose that the ETIR spectra of the organic portion of soil serves a useful purpose in forensic investigations.     

Generational changes and party identification

The party identification of nonblack voters, separated by region, is examined within three broadly bounded cohorts or political generations consisting of those whose first votes were cast prior to 1932, those of the New Deal era whose first votes were cast between 1932 and 1964, and the post-New Deal generation who have come of voting age since 1964. Inter- and intragenerational comparisons are presented for three political eras reflected in NES data: 1952–60, 1964–76, and 1980–88. Outside the South, the post-New Deal generation was more pro-Democratic in the period 1964–76 than was the older New Deal generation. However, they also led the surge away from the Democrats and to the Republican party between 1980 and 1988. Nevertheless, in the latter period they were less dominantly Republican than were the members of the New Deal generation. In the South the better educated voters of the post-New Deal generation led the realignment that largely eroded the Democratic plurality between 1960 and 1988. Nationally, the policy preferences of the post-New Deal generation in the 1980s further polarized party differences between Democrats and Republicans. This occurred largely because of the substantially greater liberal cast of post-New Deal Democrats' preferences. On other issues, party differences were maintained, but Republicans as well as Independents and Democrats in the post-New Deal generation exhibited visibly more liberal preferences than did their older partisan counterparts in the New Deal generation.     

The experience of breast development and girls' stories about the purchase of a bra

Girls' experiences of secondary sexual characteristic development were explored via direct interview and protective techniques. In a pilot study (Study 1), 30 White middle to upper middle class 6th–8th-grade girls were interviewed about how they felt about breast and pubic hair growth, their comfort discussing these events, and their information acquisition. Breast growth was perceived as more important than hair growth, in part because the former is perceived as a more public event. Few girls reported intensely negative feelings to either change. Since responses to the direct questions were limited, 80 White 6th–9th graders were asked to tell a story (using a semi structured interview technique) about a picture of an adolescent girl, adult female, and adult male in which the adult female was taking a bra out of a shopping bag (Study 2). Affect, attitudes, and character alliances were coded. More girls attributed negative feelings to the father than to the mother character. Almost all girls describe the adolescent in the story as embarrassed. The daughter and father characters were described as uncomfortable more often than the mother character (50% vs. 10%). Positive maternal affect in the stories was associated with more advanced pubertal status, positive body images, more positive emotional tone, and lower anxiety scores. Affect ascribed to the father and daughter characters was less likely to be associated with girls' psychological functioning. Results are discussed in term sof the possible role of puberty upon parent-child relationships and communication.We wish to thank the W. T. Grant Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for their generous support of our research. This article was written while the first author was a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation; the support of the foundation is appreciated.Received Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.Received M.D. from Columbia University.