Ethics and Public Sector Management: The Western Australian Experience

This paper considers two specific difficulties in developing a code of ethics for the public sector, the contested nature of the values to be expressed in a code of ethics and the organisational demands of a corporate managerialist framework which uses performance indicators. Using the example of the Western Australian public sector code of ethics, the authors conclude that a good strategy for developing a public sector code of ethics will recognise contestability, demonstrate philosophical integrity in the code, mesh the code with identified performance indicators and provide whistleblower protection. The strategy described provides a sufficient framework for any public sector bureaucracy to develop a justifiable code of ethics for use by public sector employees.     

Gordon Tullock’s The Organization of Inquiry: A critical appraisal

The major themes of Gordon Tullock’s 1996 book The Organization of Inquiry are identified. Tullock’s treatment of the philosophy of science is criticized, as is his explanation for the backwardness of the social sciences relative to the natural sciences. The paper closes with a listing of some of Tullock’s proposals for the reform of science.     

Making the difference: Deleuze's difference and Derrida's différance

This paper seeks to explore the differences between Derrida's différance and Deleuze's difference. Derrida ‘s différance can be seen as based on a phenomenological theory of time, whereby the future is ‘prior’ to the past, and on a Hegelian theory of negation (but without final term or synthesis). Deleuze's, by contrast, relies on a Bergsonian theory of time as the actualization of virtualities, along with a positive and qualitative notion of difference derived from Nietzsche, Leibniz and Spinoza. The paper suggests some implications of these differences for Derrida's and Deleuze's approaches to criticism.     

Object-oriented Bayesian networks for paternity cases with allelic dependencies

This study extends the current use of Bayesian networks by incorporating the effects of allelic dependencies in paternity calculations. The use of object-oriented networks greatly simplify the process of building and interpreting forensic identification models, allowing researchers to solve new, more complex problems. We explore two paternity examples: the most common scenario where DNA evidence is available from the alleged father, the mother and the child; a more complex case where DNA is not available from the alleged father, but is available from the alleged father’s brother. Object-oriented networks are built, using HUGIN, for each example which incorporate the effects of allelic dependence caused by evolutionary relatedness.