Transparency by Conformity: A Field Experiment Evaluating Openness in Local Governments

Sunshine laws establishing government transparency are ubiquitous in the United States; however, the intended degree of openness is often unclear or unrealized. Although researchers have identified characteristics of government organizations or officials that affect the fulfillment of public records requests, they have not considered the influence that government organizations have on one another. This picture of independently acting organizations does not accord with the literature on diffusion in public policy and administration. This article presents a field experiment testing whether a county government's fulfillment of a public records request is influenced by the knowledge that its peers have already complied. The authors propose that knowledge of peer compliance should induce competitive pressures to comply and resolve legal ambiguity in favor of compliance. Findings indicate peer conformity affects both in the time to initial response and in the rate of complete request fulfillment.     

Financing the UN development system and the future of multilateralism

This article seeks to accomplish four tasks. It explores the historical relationship between the financing instruments that dominated different phases of the evolution of the UN development system and the understanding of the concept of multilateralism. Bearing in mind this historical context, it seeks to analyse the defining characteristics of multilateral finance in the context of the UN, in particular the characteristics that make a financial instrument more or less multilateral. It then explores a number of new financial instruments and their possible impact on the future shape multilateralism takes in the UN system. The article concludes with some thoughts on financing for a new multilateralism. In order to go beyond the core/non-core stalemate, it is necessary to develop a new variable geometry based on function, which brings into play assessed, negotiated pledges, voluntary core and non-core instruments.     

The character and value of vernacular security: the case of South West Cameroon

ABSTRACT

This article reports the findings of field research into the vernacular understanding of security in South West Cameroon. It was found that security significantly contested; it is both objective and subjective; it is communal, whilst at the same time requiring individual l responsibility of personal security; it favours certainty and stability; it draws on a multiplicity of providers, and it goes beyond traditional conceptualisations. The findings make it clear that there are wide divergences between the typical state and donor driven security reform programmes, and people’s perceived security needs. The definition of security is challenged by popular understandings. In addition, though not rejecting the need for state security, it is evident that many more actors are engaged in security provision and personal safety than state actors, and that these actors need to be accounted for in reform programmes. Conclusion draw out advantages of the vernacular approach in security reform programmes.     

Spatial Distributions of Oxygen Stable Isotope Ratios in Tap Water From Mexico for Region of Origin Predictions of Unidentified Border Crossers

One of the many difficulties associated with identifying undocumented border crossers stems from an inability to narrow down the search area for the region of origin and family members to obtain family reference samples for DNA comparison. While the geography of regions of origins is wide, the biological profiles of the undocumented border crossers often show strong similarities, young and male. The isotopic composition of human bones, teeth, and hair has been demonstrated to be useful biomarkers for tracing locations and movements of individuals and for aiding in the identification of human remains. Data obtained from human remains can be compared to and aligned with various reference sources, such as soils and bedrock, archaeological remains, or cultural data. Here, the spatial deficiency in isotopic reference data for Mexico, specifically for oxygen (δ¹⁸O) isotopes in tap water, is being addressed through the collection and analysis of over 150 water samples and explored with tooth enamel isotopic values from recently identified Mexican nationals. The isoscape was developed using a Spine with Barriers interpolation method and shows sufficient detail to narrow down the regions where specific isotopic values are represented. The individuals were plotted on the developed isoscape using conditional correlations. The methodology was successful in assigning the correct regions of origin for the two individuals, which shows the tremendous potential of the developed isoscape. Nonetheless, there is more research needed to further improve upon this geolocation method, including analysis of multiple isotopes in different tissues, and the development of new isotopic methods.     

SCIENTIFIC‐BUREAUCRATIC MEDICINE AND UK HEALTH POLICY1

One prominent method for controlling health costs is to find measures for the management of demand. Various options exist for this; and many of them have been tried during the fifty years of the UK's National Health Service. Current policy now focuses on what may be called “scientific‐bureaucratic medicine.” This policy is based on the assumptions that valid medical knowledge is derived from accumulated research evidence and that such knowledge should be implemented through clinical guidelines which are enforced to some extent. This UK development has parallels with the US Agency for Health Care Policy and Research whose experience, therefore, raises some policy issues for the UK.     

Identifying the dead: methods utilized by the Pima County (Arizona) office of the medical examiner for undocumented border crossers: 2001-2006

The Pima County (Arizona) Office of the Medical Examiner has seen a dramatic rise over the past 6 years in the number of deaths related to the illegal crossing of our international border with Mexico. This rise in deaths is undoubtedly related to an increase in the number of foreign nationals who cross into the various Arizona jurisdictions that utilize the Pima County Medical Examiner to investigate their unnatural deaths. Because of the utterly dangerous nature of trekking across the Sonoran Desert, especially in the summer months, many of these unfortunate migrants succumb to the effects of heat-related illness and perish along the journey. The combined effects of a dry, hot environment and the remoteness of some of the trekking corridors can quickly render a deceased person unidentifiable by visual means. Thus, our office is faced with not only an increase in the number of deaths requiring medico-legal investigation but also an increase in the number of decedents needing additional specialized examinations in an effort to effect identification. This paper attempts to outline the problems and the methods utilized by our office over the past 6 years in the identification process of undocumented border crossers. It is hoped that this paper, as well as the others presented at this symposium, will allow for the sharing of information amongst all medical investigators who assist in the identification of these migrants. The identification of these individuals takes on added importance when one considers the possible nationalities, and perhaps motivation for entering into the US, of those that remain unidentified.     

A survey of background levels of explosives and related compounds in the environment

In this paper, swabbings from various public areas in 28 different cities throughout the United States were collected. A wide variety of objects were tested, ranging from park benches and telephones to sign posts and mailboxes. Inorganic anions and cations common in low explosives were detected simultaneously using capillary zone electrophoresis. Organic high explosives including nitroaromatics, nitramines, and nitrate esters were detected using gas chromatography with a pulsed-discharge electron capture detector. Confirmation of selected results was performed by ion chromatography and negative ion chemical ionization GC/MS. In general the results provide two major conclusions: (i) with the exception of nitrate, most low explosive oxidizers are rare in the environment; (ii) no organic explosives or significant interferences to these explosives were detected.