Democratization and decline of trust in public institutions in Hong Kong

The article examines the considerable literature on the relationship between sustainable development and democracy beginning with an exploration of the concepts. Various models have been put forward to describe this relationship and these can be viewed as various pathologies of development that may trap the unwary. Participation and empowerment are seen as a key to sustainable development by many authors, although there are widely differing interpretations of what this should mean. The search for people's empowerment has centred on moves towards decentralization and the strengthening of civil society. Decentralization has proved extremely difficult to implement in practice and having civil society act as a balancing mechanism to the power of the political elite has often proved to be no less illusory. Political participation is no guarantee of sustainable development as local and national elites will inevitably try to hijack the process. Whilst there is no strict correlation between democracy and sustainable development some items in the democratic package are capable of being prioritized and can help build sustainable development, in particular transparency in the management of resources, protecting human rights and encouraging social participation.     

Central America,civil society and the ‘pink tide’: democratization or de-democratization?

In the literature on the turn to the left in the wider Latin American region, Central America has generally been neglected. The aim of this article is to seek to fill that gap, while specifically assessing the left turn's impact on prospects for democratization in the sub-region. Using three case studies – El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua – the article questions the usefulness of transition theory for analysis and instead offers a framework based on state/civil society interaction within the context of globalization. Four key conclusions are made: First, democratization is not a linear process, but can be subject to simultaneous processes of democratization and de-democratization. Second, continued deep structural inequalities remain central to the region's politics but these often provoke unproductive personalistic and partisan politics which can inhibit or curtail democratization. Third, interference from local and/or international economic actors can curtail or reverse democratization measures, underlining the influence of globalization. Fourth, Central America is particularly revelatory of these tendencies due to its acute exposure to extreme oligarchic power and outside influence. It hence can help shed light on wider questions on the blurring of boundaries between state, civil society and market and its impact on democratization, especially within the context of globalization. In this way the article contributes to the analysis of Central America in the current context of the ‘pink tide’, underlines the importance of continued analysis of Central America for democratization studies, and brings new insight to debates on transition theory.     

Youth offending and youth transitions: the power of capital in influencing change

Neither the literature on offending nor that on desistance adequately explains the short-term nature of youth offending, young people’s propensity to desist from offending as they reach early adulthood and the importance of youth transitions in helping or hindering young people’s access to legitimate and conventional opportunities and responsibilities. It is suggested in this article that the three phases of offending—onset, maintenance and desistance—run parallel courses with the three phases of youth transitions—childhood, youth and adulthood and that both these processes are influenced by discrepancies in levels of capital for young people at each stage. In a recent Scottish study of desistance, Bourdieu’s concepts of capital are used to demonstrate the commonalities between youth offending and youth transitions and to better understand young people’s search for integration and recognition—whether this be through offending or conventionality. The article concludes that the concepts of capital and youth transitions could both be employed more usefully in the field of criminology to explain the transient nature of offending in youth and the greater likelihood of desistance once legitimate and sustainable opportunities are found to spend as well as to accumulate capital in early adulthood.

The Ethical Health Lawyer: An Empirical Assessment of Moral Decision Making

Writing in 1999, legal ethics scholar Brad Wendel noted that "[v]ery little empirical work has been done on the moral decision making of lawyers." Indeed, since the mid-1990s, few empirical studies have attempted to explore how attorneys deliberate about ethical dilemmas they encounter in their practice. Moreover, while past research has explored some of the ethical issues confronting lawyers practicing in certain specific areas of practice, no published data exists probing the moral mind of health care lawyers. As signaled by the creation of a regular column "devoted to ethical issues arising in the practice of health law" in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , the time to address the empirical gap in the professional ethics literature is now. Accordingly, this article presents data collected from 120 health care lawyers. Presenting this population with a number of hypothetical scenarios relating to how they would respond when confronting an ethical dilemma without an obvious solution or when facing a situation in which their personal values were in tension with their professional obligations, this article represents a first step toward better understanding how lawyers who practice in health care settings understand and resolve the moral discomfort they encounter in their professional lives.     

Stereotypical Hate Crimes and Criminal Justice Processing: A Multi-Dataset Comparison of Bias Crime Arrest Patterns by Offender and Victim Race

Many hate crimes are not reported and even fewer hate crimes result in an arrest. This study investigates patterns of victim reporting and arrest for hate crimes in two parts. First, using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, we find that, controlling for offense severity, hate crimes are less likely than non-bias crimes to be reported to the police and that the police are less likely to take further action for hate crimes, compared to non-hate crimes. Second, we use data from the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and the National Incident-Based Reporting System to compare differences between types of hate crimes in the likelihood of crime clearance. We find that those hate crimes most likely to result in arrest are those that fit the profile of a “stereotypical” hate crime: violent incidents, incidents committed by hate groups, and incidents involving white offenders and black victims.     

资本主义与新兴世界秩序

西方长达两个世纪之久的霸权正在走向终结,曾经推动西方崛起的现代化革命,如今已惠及所有国家。因此,19世纪发展起来并为中心——边缘世界秩序（core-periphery international order）奠定了基础的国家间实力差距（power gap）正在缩小。这一变化带来的结果是世界由有中心的全球体系（centred globalism）向去中心的全球体系（decentred globalism）转变。与此同时,当权力变得越来越分散的同时,主要国家之间意识形态上的分歧程度也正在缩小。事实上,当代世界中所有大国在某种形式上走的都是资本主义道路,在兴起中的世界新秩序中,意识形态上的差异比它在过去一个世纪里所呈现的要小得多。问题是：意识形态上的相对同质性是否将在四种主要的资本主义国家治理类型（自由民主主义体制、社会民主主义体制、竞争性威权主义体制和国家官僚主义体制）中引起地缘经济或者地缘政治上的竞争？民主主义与威权主义类型的资本主义之间政治上的分歧是否会超越它们之间的共同利益？还是它们之间存在的共同利益消弭了彼此的分歧？当代世界会出现像20世纪初那种不同类型而互为冲突的资本主义模式吗？或者会产生某种形式的“协和资本主义”？在未来一段时间里,我们很有可能仍然会处在一个政治上分化的多种类型的资本主义世界。由此,对于决策者来说所面临的重要任务就是要确保地缘经济竞争将不会导致地缘政治冲突的发生。     

Red tape and technology transfer in US government laboratories

The purpose of this paper is to gauge the effects of red tape and bureaucratization on the technology-transfer activities and effectiveness of government laboratories in the United States. Two central questions are addressed: Do laboratories involved significantly in technology transfer have more red tape than others? and Does the level of red tape have an effect on technology-transfer success? Objective and perceptual measures of red tape are used. Technologytransfer effectiveness is measured in terms of getting other organizations to adopt technology developed in the laboratory (“out the door” success) and of the commercial impact of transfers. Data are derived from questionnaire responses provided by directors of 276 federal- and state-government laboratories. Results indicate that laboratories involved in technology transfer do not have higher levels of red tape. Out-the-door technology-transfer success relates strongly to low degrees of perceived red tape, whereas high ratings for commercial impact are associated with actual low levels of red tape in acquiring project funding and lowcost equipment.