Commonwealthmen and Republicans: Dr. H.V. Evatt, the Monarchy and India

H.V. Evatt's foreign policy has attracted considerable historical attention, but his response as Australian External Affairs Minister to Commonwealth constitutional issues remains neglected. Evatt sought to retain India in the Commonwealth in 1948–49, but he insisted that India ought to recognise the king's prerogatives in its constitutional arrangements. He had developed his defence of the monarchy and its place in the empire in his writings of the inter-war years, and sought to apply these ideas in his Commonwealth diplomacy of the late 1940s. Evatt's failure to have these ideas accepted resulted from his attempt to impose an ideal of the relationship between the monarchy and the Commonwealth, derived from his understanding of the evolution of constitutional relations between the United Kingdom and the old dominions, to the very different context of Asian postwar decolonisation.     

“Organized crime” and “organized crime”: Indeterminate problems of definition

Despite decades of effort, the search for a universal definition of organized crime has eluded both academics, criminal justice agencies, as well as international bodies. More than two decades ago, a content analysis of such definitional efforts by this writer (Hagan, 1983) noted that, while many writers, including those of textbooks, failed to supply explicit definitions of organized crime, some consensus was apparent. These earlier findings are explored and compared with updated content analyses of American criminology and criminal justice textbooks and organized crime textbooks. Also discussed are definitions offered by criminal justice agencies and those by international organizations. A distinction is made between “Organized Crime” groups and “organized crime,” activities by groups that are organized. This paper was presented at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Baltimore, Maryland, March 2006.     

Hierarchical resource allocation decisions

A model of resource allocations within a hierarchical bureaucracy is presented. Since at the departmental level programs of other departments overlap on certain objectives, allocations independently determined by departments are not optimal. It is well known that if only budgetary guidelines are transmitted by a central decision maker they are insufficient to assure desired allocations. A minimal set of guidelines exist which, when transmitted to departmental advisors, result in desired allocations.