Critique of Schuker “J.M. Keynes and the Personal Politics of Reparations”

In “J.M. Keynes and the Personal Politics of Reparations,” Parts I and II, published in Diplomacy and Statecraft (2014), the American historian Stephen Schuker claims that Keynes’ scientific arguments against the policy of reparations were distorted by both political passion and his emotional attachment to the German banker, Dr. Carl Melchior. He provides no evidence for this argument, and Keynes’ analytic positions emerges without reference to either.     

Mass destruction

How international organizations influence the domestic politics and foreign policies of states is often ignored in the study of international cooperation. This article develops an approach focusing on how states may influence the international agenda, which then shapes the position‐taking opportunities and constraints politicians face as they try to maintain their domestic political positions. This article is a preliminary exploration of how agenda setting works, what kinds of agenda‐setting strategies are available, and under what conditions agenda setting matters. Aspects of past secessionist crises will be used to clarify the discussion. The interaction between domestic position taking and international agenda setting will then be applied to the current crisis in Yugoslavia to determine why Greece, in particular, has been more influential than one might have expected.     

Municipal politics and government: development of the field in Canadian political science

Abstract. Following what has become almost a tradition within the Canadian discipline of political science, this paper attempts an analysis of the development of one field in that discipline. In a sense, a main purpose of the paper is to define the boundaries of the field, an exercise which, given the nature of the field, results in a rather personal definition. Two approaches are taken. First there is a review of the Canadian literature since 1886. That review helps identify the more important sub-fields and analytical approaches. Secondly, the paper reports on a survey of the ways the field is presently taught in Canadian universities and colleges. Assuming that an image of a discipline or of a field is most accurately obtained by examining both writings over time and teaching approaches, the analysis proceeds to identify some of the problems within the field, and offers suggestions for future development of it. The author concludes that because of the highly eclectic nature of the field, in terms of both scope of subject matter and in approaches to analysis, there is a need for more integration among the sub-fields.     

Human Capital and Administrative Burden: The Role of Cognitive Resources in Citizen-State Interactions

One means by which the state reinforces inequality is by imposing administrative burdens that loom larger for citizens with lower levels of human capital. Integrating insights from various disciplines, this article focuses on one aspect of human capital: cognitive resources. The authors outline a model that explains how burdens and cognitive resources, especially executive functioning, interrelate. The article then presents illustrative examples, highlighting three common life factors—scarcity, health problems, and age-related cognitive decline. These factors create a human capital catch-22, increasing people's likelihood of needing state assistance while simultaneously undermining the cognitive resources required to negotiate the burdens they encounter while seeking such assistance. The result is to reduce access to state benefits and increase inequality. The article concludes by calling for scholars of behavioral public administration and public administration more generally to incorporate more attention to human capital into their research.     

States Divided: The Implications of American Federalism for COVID-19

The explosion of the coronavirus onto the global stage has posed unprecedented challenges for governance. In the United States, the question of how best to respond to these challenges has fractured along intergovernmental lines. The federal government left most of the decisions to the states, and the states went in very different directions. Some of those decisions naturally flowed from the disease's emerging patterns. But to a surprising degree, there were systematic variations in the governors’ decisions, and these variations were embedded in a subtle but growing pattern of differences among the states in a host of policy areas, ranging from decisions about embracing the Affordable Care Act to improving their infrastructure. These patterns raise fundamental questions about the role of the federal government's leadership in an issue that was truly national in scope, and whether such varied state reactions were in the public interest. The debate reinforces the emerging reality of an increasingly divided states of America.     

Preventive HIV/AIDS education through physical education: reflections from Zambia

Governments, UN agencies and international and local NGOs have mounted a concerted effort to remobilise sport as a vehicle for broad, sustainable social development. This resonates with the call for sport to be a key component in national and international development objectives. Missing in these efforts is an explicit focus on physical education within state schools, which still enroll most children in the global South. This article focuses on research into one of the few instances where physical education within the national curriculum is being revitalised as part of the growing interest in leveraging the appeal of sport and play as means to address social development challenges such as HIV/AIDS. It examines the response to the Zambian government's 2006 Declaration of Mandatory Physical Education (with a preventive education focus on HIV/AIDS) by personnel charged with its implementation and illustrates weaknesses within the education sector. The use of policy instruments such as decrees/mandates helps ensure the mainstreaming of physical education in development. However, the urgency required to respond to new mandates, particularly those sanctioned by the highest levels of government, can result in critical pieces of the puzzle being ignored, thereby undermining the potential of physical education (and sport) within development.     

Reliability and Validity of Prisoner Self-Reports Gathered Using the Life Event Calendar Method

Data collection using the life event calendar method is growing, but reliability is not well established. We examine test–retest reliability of monthly self-reports of criminal behavior collected using a life event calendar from a random sample of minimum and medium security prisoners. Tabular analysis indicates substantial agreement between self-reports of drug dealing, property, and violent crime during a baseline interview (test) and a follow-up (retest) approximately 3 weeks later. Hierarchical analysis reveals that criminal activity reported during the initial test is strongly associated with responses given in the retest, and that the relationship varies only by the lag in days between the initial interview and the retest. Analysis of validity reveals that self-reported incarceration history is strongly predictive of official incarceration history although we were unable to address whether subjects could correctly identify the months they were incarcerated. African Americans and older subjects provide more valid responses but in practical terms the differences in validity are not large.