Do data breach disclosure laws reduce identity theft?

In the United States, identity theft resulted in corporate and consumer losses of $56 billion dollars in 2005, with up to 35 percent of known identity thefts caused by corporate data breaches. Many states have responded by adopting data breach disclosure laws that require firms to notify consumers if their personal information has been lost or stolen. Although the laws are expected to reduce identity theft, their effect has yet to be empirically measured. We use panel data from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to estimate the impact of data breach disclosure laws on identity theft from 2002 to 2009. We find that adoption of data breach disclosure laws reduce identity theft caused by data breaches, on average, by 6.1 percent. © 2011 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

The establishment of the South African Development Partnership Agency: Institutional complexities and political exigencies

Since 2007 there has been discussion to formalise, rationalise, coordinate and provide structure to South Africa's development cooperation through the establishment of a centralised South African Development Partnership Agency (SADPA). Progress in rolling out the new institution, however, has been extremely slow, owing to the political and technical complexities of South Africa's institutional environment. This paper elaborates on the rationale and driving forces which have led to the establishment of SADPA and the steps which have been taken to gradually operationalise the new agency and the partnership fund dedicated to providing development support on the continent. As plans move forward, will SADPA be expected to manage all of South Africa's development cooperation — bilateral, multilateral, regional, trilateral — as well as concessional loans, humanitarian aid and development financing, public and private? Clarity of roles and coordination is critical. The paper will examine the different mechanisms for the financing, implementation and oversight that need to be in place to take forward Pretoria's development cooperation, and the challenges of leadership, coordination, accountability and information management that face the new agency.     

Reform: health care

The Italian National Health Service was established in 1978 as three-tier system, involving State, Regions, USLs (Unità sanitarie locali, Local Health Care Units). The division between the responsibility of determining the general features of health care policy and financing it, on one side (the State), and that of managing services, on the order side (Regions and USLs), was bound to lead to increasing levels of expenditure and large financial deficits. An important reform has been carried out over the last five years, aiming toward a more decentralized system, which, although still public, were based on competition among suppliers and free choice for consumers. We argue that although the reform seems to have been successful in containing public expenditure, it has left some important issues still unresolved: the relationship between patients' freedom of choice and competition among providers, and the definition of a model of rationing the bundle of health services financed by the public sector.     

‘Fonder la République’. The French National Convention and the revolutionary government (1793–94)

SUMMARY

The article discusses the leading role played by the French National Convention in the process of nation-building, especially through the study of the main legislation adopted by the revolutionary government that was established during Year II of the French Republic. This article focuses on the acts and measures that led to the creation of a revolutionary government characterized by a strong ‘confusion of powers’, with the National Convention invested with both legislative and executive powers. More specifically, attention is paid to the Committee of Public Safety. This was established as a committee of the National Convention and, as a consequence of the influence of the most important political leaders of the Revolution – such as George Danton (1759–94), Maximilien Robespierre (1758–94) and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (1767–94) – it ended up becoming the key institution in the intricate constitutional framework that was established to save France and the Revolution from domestic and external enemies. In this line of research, this article first of all outlines the premises that led to the creation of the revolutionary government. Secondly, it outlines the main political events that made it possible to introduce important legislation, such as the so-called Code of 14 Frimaire. This law accorded extensive powers to the Committee of Public Safety, thereby eventually facilitating the establishment of the Reign of Terror, until the Thermidorian Reaction brought both the Reign of Terror and the revolutionary government to an end.     

Australia,the International Geophysical Year and the 1959 Antarctic Treaty

Australia's experience of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) in Antarctica (1957–8) tempers the dominant narrative of the IGY as a transformative event in Antarctic affairs. This article argues that the IGY was not a great rupture in Australia's relationship with Antarctica. Rather, because of a long cultural attachment to and continuing relationship with Antarctica based in concepts of national security and development, Australian government policy stubbornly adhered to the idea of territorial sovereignty. Recognising this continuity in Australia's relationship with Antarctica is important for reconfiguring our understanding of how the Antarctic Treaty took the form it did.     

Poverty,Ideology and Terrorism: The STAM Bond

This article focuses on the role of ideology in the decision of people who are not from societies’ worst-off socioeconomic groups to join a left-wing terrorist organization. Taking up the sociological perspective of Max Weber, Clifford Geertz, and Raymond Boudon, the author introduces the concept of the “terrorist of the first hour” and considers ideology as a type of social bond. The concept of ideology is here broken down into four dimensions: Social, Temporal, Affective, and Moral (STAM bond). This article also presents data on the ages, sex, educational level, and occupation of the Italian people arrested (2,730) or convicted (528) for crimes of terrorism from 1970 to 2011. Data on Italian terrorists were provided by the General Department of Prisoners of the Ministry of Justice. ¹ 1. The research was conducted between February and July 2011. The author wishes to sincerely thank Sebastiano Ardita—the Director of the General Department of Prisoners of the Ministry of Justice—who gave authorization to collect data on Italian people arrested or convicted of terrorism of which only the Ministry of Justice is in possession. This article considered only data regarding terrorists working to subvert internal order. The articles of the Italian Penal Code regarding “internal” terrorism are articles 270, 270 bis, and 306, and since 2001 further articles have been introduced in order to combat international terrorism.      

Annual report. Activities in 1980 and program for 1981

Promoting regional cooperation has been one of the EU priorities in South Eastern Europe since the mid-1990s. However, the EU's regional approach has often been weakened by the prevailing bilateral dimension of its policies towards SEE countries, and not adequately supported by stringent conditionality. Nevertheless, recent progress has been achieved in several specific areas of regional cooperation, such as trade, energy and parliamentary cooperation, and countries of the region are increasingly assuming responsibility on cooperation processes, as the transition from the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe to the regionally owned and led Regional Cooperation Council seems to prove.