The Development of System Justification in the Developing World

System justification theorists have proposed that under some circumstances ‘‘people who suffer the most from a given state of affairs are paradoxically the least likely to question, challenge, reject, or change it’’ Jost et al. (2003). These claims are contrary to theories that suggest that group members seek to enhance their self-interest or group-interest (e.g., realistic group conflict theory, rational choice models). The present study, conducted in one of the poorest countries in the world, Bolivia, tested if even the most impoverished people of the world will endorse beliefs justifying the status quo. A survey of 356 Bolivian school children found that low-status children endorse beliefs in the effectiveness of government in meeting the people’s needs more than their high-status counterparts. The results suggest that system-justifying beliefs are endorsed by low-status group members in even the most extreme cases of poverty, and even among the youngest politically aware members of society, and they raise questions about the capacity for true social change in those parts of the world that may need it the most.

Security Council's Anti-terror Resolutions and their Implementation by Member States: An Overview

In the framework of the fight against international terrorismthe UN Security Council (SC) has adopted targeted sanctionsagainst individuals and corporate entities. Furthermore, ithas imposed on states a number of obligations of a general nature.The implementation of all these measures — some of whichbear on sensitive aspects of criminal law and procedure —is left to the Member States. This article attempts to providean overview of national implementation practices, based on thenational reports submitted by states pursuant to the relevantSC resolutions. Besides the many difficulties encountered bystates in implementing SC resolutions, the encroachment of anti-terrormeasures on human rights is a cause for concern. The currentattitude of the SC, which has integrated human rights considerationsinto the security concerns that inspire its action under ChapterVII of the Charter, should enhance the perception of legitimacyof its anti-terror policy and, arguably, improve the effectivenessof its measures.     

Budget-Making for Social Purposes

A theory of the budgetary process within public resource allocation has to recognize two basic properties of budgetary behavior and budgetary interaction: variation over time and program variation. Our results indicate that the hypothesis of program variation is worthy of effort, as we find different decision mechanisms operating in the six programs studied, which belong to different categories of public resource allocation. Variation over time is particularly difficult to accommodate within the framework of incrementalist notions: incremental decision rules imply structural stability over time slices. We find the opposite to be true in two of the program types analyzed, the transfer programs and the service programs. Bureaucratic programs may look incremental; however, that may only be an appearance, as a closer analysis of the data indicates that the decision mechanism involves the occurrence of shift-points or non-incremental changes. A theory of the public expenditure process has to take into account both incremental decision strategies and non-incremental ones, which requires an econometric methodology based on the possibility of structural variability. Such a methodology includes the use of both test statistics and estimation techniques suitable to the occurrence of structural variability.     

Causality of an accident in subsequent fatal pulmonary embolism a few hours after trauma

An 87-year-old woman, who was largely immobilized in a wheelchair, suffered rib fractures and an unstable fracture of the pelvic ring in a fall. Approximately 2 1/2 hours later she developed marked clinical symptoms of pulmonary thromboembolism and died 5 hours after the accident. The question to be discussed with regard to the causality was the unusually short interval of only 2 1/2 to 5 hours between the accident and the clinical signs of embolism leading to her death. Current literature gives only rough outlines stating that thromboembolism can occur as early as the first day after the trauma. An alternative theory explaining the pulmonary thromboembolism may be the breaking off of a pre-existing thrombus due to manipulation during transport or diagnostic measures in connection with the unstable fracture of the pelvic ring.