Implementing Public Utility Commission Web Sites: Targeting Audiences, Missing Opportunities

Research demonstrates that some government agencies are more accomplished than others when it comes to e-government. More generally, various scholars suggest that e-government is moving forward at a relatively slow pace, especially in relation to the sophistication of government Web sites. With these issues in mind, this research utilized interviews with state public utility commission staff members to explore their agencies' experiences with staffing, funding, coordinating, and prioritizing their e-government efforts, particularly their Web site activities. Assessing such efforts in both quantitative and qualitative terms, this research found that a mix of various factors, including financial resources, knowledgeable staff, and administrative oversight, related to better performance. Moreover, although public utility commissions have a clear mission to serve both consumers and regulated utilities, this research indicates that the commissions are focusing more of their e-government efforts on industry rather than citizens.     

The Theory of Universal Human Rights: A Comment on Talbott

In this analysis of William Talbott’s important book, I note with appreciation his defense of universal moral principles and of moral justification as a “social project,” his focus on the critique of oppression, and his emphasis on empathic understanding in the account of human rights. I go on to develop some criticisms regarding: 1) Talbott’s traditional understanding of human rights as holding against governments and not also applying to nonstate actors; 2) his account of the interrelations among well-being, autonomy, claims for first person authority in moral judgment, and human rights; 3) his strongly rationalist and liberal individualist interpretation of moral judgment and autonomy; and 4) the lack of a role for intercultural dialogue about human rights, which nonetheless are held to apply to all human beings across cultures. In each case, I briefly consider what an alternative approach would look like.     

Towards a right-to-development governance in Africa

In this article, I provide the rationale for conceptualizing a rights-based development model for Africa, necessitated by the conviction to seek African solutions to African problems. For the first time since independence, Africa has formulated a consolidated roadmap for development named “Agenda 2063,” which looks promising and attainable but leaves unanswered questions relating to the right to development enshrined in the African Charter and ancillary treaty instruments. In retrospect, I illustrate how the right to development originated and has evolved in Africa, potentially setting the pace for development and human rights protection but has not yet recorded significant impact. I contend that Africa's development future is attainable only through a self-reliant consciousness, not by letting the development agenda be shaped by imported paradigms. I justify why and how this is achievable by advancing arguments in favor of right-to-development governance as a homegrown model for development in Africa.     

Electoral Systems in a Divided Society: The Case of Afghanistan

Electoral systems can be powerful instruments for shaping the content and practice of politics in divided societies, such as Afghanistan; and their design needs to be closely linked to context. This paper explores the suitability of Afghanistan's electoral mechanisms in light of the nation's political system, social divisions, and the process, which led to their adoption. There is no perfect electoral system; and the winners of the country's first-ever presidential election and the subsequent assembly elections face the formidable challenge of transforming Afghanistan from a war torn fiefdom into a nation. Hamid Karzai's victory and Afghanistan's improved, although fragile, security environment appear to represent an important step toward democracy. Yet, elections and electoral mechanisms are a necessary but insufficient means to the introduction and endurance of constitutional democratic government. The legitimacy of Afghanistan's new democratic institutions will rest on the government's progress in producing results, such as disarming the private militias of powerful commanders, some of whom represent sizeable ethnic minorities, and curbing the burgeoning poppy cultivation. An electoral system is but one piece, significant but not the linchpin, of the schema of Afghan political dynamics.     

Family interaction patterns among families with normal,disturbed, and drug-abusing adolescents

The relationships between family interaction patterns and the symptomatology of the individual family member are central to many therapeutic approaches. This study was designed to determine whether family interaction patterns differ significantly among three groups of families defined according to the adolescent offspring's symptoms. Thirty families were evaluated in a one-hour interview while three observers behind a one-way mirror rated verbal behavior and the quality of interaction between father, mother, and adolescent. Assessed behaviors included the ability to reach a decision, decision time, scapegoating, and double-bind messages. In addition, the quality of the family's interaction was assessed at four different times during the interview. The results established that the three family groups did not differ demographically. A comparison of the two disturbed family groups yielded no significant differences, with the exception of the adolescent's presenting problem and behaviors. The normal group was significantly different from the other two groups in frequency of scapegoating of the adolescent and the ability to reach a decision. Additionally, the normal families displayed clearer communication, more freedom of expression, more cooperation, and greater sensitivity among members. Several variables did not discriminate the normal group from the disturbed family groups.Received her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College. Research interests are adolescent psychopathology as it relates to family, group psychotherapy with adolescents, and use of the therapeutic milieu.     

Preventing HIV transmission via HIV exposure laws: applying logic and mathematical modeling to compare statutory approaches to penalizing undisclosed exposure to HIV

Twenty-four U.S. states have enacted HIV exposure laws that prohibit HIV-positive persons from engaging in sexual activities with partners to whom they have not disclosed their HIV status. There is little standardization among existing HIV exposure laws, which vary substantially with respect to the sexual activities that are prohibited without prior serostatus disclosure. Logical analysis and mathematical modeling were used to explore the HIV prevention effectiveness of two types of HIV exposure laws: "strict" laws that require HIV-positive persons to disclose their serostatus to prospective partners prior to any sexual activity and "flexible" laws that require seropositive status disclosure only prior to high-risk sex (e.g., unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse). These laws were compared relative to each other and to a no-law alternative. The results of these analyses indicate that, under most (though not necessarily all) circumstances, both strict and flexible exposure laws can be expected to reduce HIV transmission risk relative to the no-law alternative, with flexible exposure laws producing the greater reduction in risk. This study demonstrates how logical analysis and mathematical modeling techniques can make an important contribution to the construction of a rational basis for decisions about a highly contested public health policy issue.     

Subterranean successes: Durable regulation and regulatory endowments

Scholars sometimes criticize durable regulatory systems for being costly, inefficient, ineffective, and inequitable. This article reassesses regulation, arguing that a mis-categorization of types of regulatory activity has led critics astray. More specifically, the article observes that regulation “hardened” by being built into infrastructure often ceases to be seen as regulation and its benefits are therefore inappropriately omitted from assessments of regulatory accomplishments. Hardening into one or another durable form can create two important benefits: durable regulation moves some items off the agenda of regulators, conserving resources for other regulatory work; durable regulation also creates regulatory endowments, preserving key bargains struck at the time infrastructure was created and reducing future opportunities for capture. Such endowments can then become the foundation for other regulatory work. Examples from the regulation of drinking water in the United States and brief discussions of road safety and disability regulation illustrate the argument.