The political economy of dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is defined as the psychological discomfort or annoyance that may exist when an individual's choice is not consistent with his values and beliefs. Dissonance may cause an individual to reconsider his values and beliefs, enter new choices with different parameters, respond to the constraints imposed, or change his individual preference function. This paper extends Festinger's (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance to the work of public choice theorists and seeks to explain the incentives of the iron triangle to foment and quell dissonance. Examples are provided for specific environmental and health and safety risks. Akerlof and Dickens (1983) used cognitive dissonance to justify public sector intervention as necessary to correct what they perceived as a market failure in the choice of safety equipment by workers in hazardeus industries. Unlike Akerlof and Dickens (1983), we argue that the concept of cognitive dissonance is applicable to the analysis of public sector decisions giving rise to government failure as well as private decisions involving possible market failure. This paper views the public sector as a market-like arrangement in which dissonance may be produced and exchanged like any other commodity. Cognitive dissonance provides a useful framework for examining individual choice and also expands our understanding of the unseen elements of rent-seeking.     

Books in review

Her published work deals with citizenship and the administrative state. Her forthcoming books is Claiming Legitimacy: Feminism and Public Administration.     

Responding to Gendered Violence Among College Students: The Impact of Participant Characteristics on Direct Bystander Intervention Behavior

ABSTRACT

Bystander intervention has been an effective strategy for crime prevention and has been successful in the context of campus sexual assault. Less is known about the extent to which individual-level factors correlate with intervention behavior in situations of intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual harassment. The present study used a sample of 377 undergraduate student surveys on a campus without a bystander intervention program to examine the impact of individual-level participant factors on direct intervention across sexual assault, IPV, and sexual harassment scenarios. Findings demonstrated statistically significant differences where positive bystander attitudes and violence prevention efficacy correlated with direct intervention for sexual assault; positive bystander attitudes, personality extroversion, and exposure to a victim increased intervention behavior in an IPV scenario, and positive bystander attitudes and violence prevention efficacy increased direct intervention and lifetime experience of IPV decreased direct intervention in a sexual harassment scenario. Research and policy implications are discussed.     

"Publics" Administration and the Ethics of Particularity

Ethical orientations that emphasize universal duties, ideals, and values are well known to public administrators. We pay attention to principle, policy, ideals, shared goals, and the provision of a variety of commonly held values, such as clean air and water, mosquito abatement, and public recreation. The word "public" often seems to be a synonym for "universal." However, this article explores particularity in ethics, especially as it applies to the life of the public servant. It identifies three distinct orientations that focus on the concrete—as opposed to the abstract—and it shows how the exceptional cases are not administrative problems; rather they provide a reality check for public administrators who suppose rules, plans, and programs to be their primary orientation toward the management of public concerns.     

Physical Characterization and Recovery of Corroded Fingerprint Impressions from Postblast Copper Pipe Bomb Fragments

Pipe bombs made from 1 mm thick copper pipe were detonated with a low explosive power powder. Analysis of the physical characteristics of fragments revealed that the copper had undergone work hardening with an increased Vickers Hardness of 107HV1 compared with 80HV1 for unexploded copper pipe. Mean plastic strain prior to fracture was calculated at 0.28 showing evidence of both plastic deformation and wall thinning. An examination of the external surface showed microfractures running parallel with the length of the pipe at approximately 100 μm intervals and 1–2 μm in width. Many larger fragments had folded “inside out” making the original outside surface inaccessible and difficult to fold back through work hardening. A visual examination for fingerprint corrosion revealed ridge details on several fragments that were enhanced by selective digital mapping of colors reflected from the surface of the copper. One of these fingerprints was identified partially to the original donor.