Good Urban Governance: Evidence from a Model City?

Few cities in Latin America provide much evidence of good governance. However, during the last fifteen years, Bogotá has been transformed and now qualifies in certain respects as an example of ‘best practice’. The paper considers how Bogotá changed and whether it can continue its improvement, an especially interesting question insofar as a left‐wing administration has been in charge since 2004. Of course, the city is by no means perfect and national issues continue to create difficulties both for the poor and for the local administration.     

Evaluation of Probation Case Management (PCM) for Drug-Involved Women Offenders

Based on availability of case management services, drug-involved women offenders entered either a probation case management (PCM) intervention (n = 65) or standard probation (n = 44). Participants were placed in the case management condition until all slots were filled, then placed in standard probation until case management slots opened. Participants were interviewed at program entry and at 6 and 12 month follow-up using measures of substance abuse, psychiatric symptoms, and social support. Results showed modest change over time in both conditions, but PCM did not result in more services or treatment, or in better outcomes, than standard probation. These findings are discussed in the context of study limitations, and in the context of state initiatives like those in Arizona and California designed to apply treatment as an alternative to incarceration.     

Models of liberty: Berlins's ‘Two Concepts’

According To Sir Isaiah Berlin; (a) freedom is an essentially ‘negative’ concept; (b) one's freedom can only be limited deliberately, by another person or persons; (c) the impersonal operation of a natural force, such as gravity, cannot be said to limit freedom; (d) the impersonal operation of a market force cannot be said to limit freedom. I argue that all four claims are false and that (b), (c), and (d) are logically incornsistent with (a). There would be less point to inevitably somewhat ‘picky’ exercise were it not for the fact that Berlin's account of freedom exemplifies a well-entrenched and influential orthodoxy. The fact is made particularly apparent by the prominent role played by assumption (d) in defences of the ‘free market’. I go on to discus this.