Governmental corruption in Africa: Sierra Leone as a case study

This paper examines the definition and context of official corruption in the emerging African nation of Sierra Leone. Historical, legal and sociological studies of the development of Sierra Leone and corruption within that nation are reviewed, as well as the content of official ljudicial inquiries into administrative corruption. These investigations and studies are supplemented with data from the primary author's experiences as a prosecutor and judge in Sierra Leone. Predisposing factors which facilitate corruption are identified and a variety of policies aimed at reform are discussed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Frequency of paradox in a common n-winner voting scheme

This paper investigates the extent to which a commonly used electoral scheme — voting for n candidates when there are n vacancies to fill — is likely to lead, in practice, to paradoxical results. Two types of paradox are investigated. One occurs when an increase in the number of vacancies causes a candidate to drop from the list of winners. The second occurs when the Condorcet candidate fails to win. Using a Monte Carlo study, we show that the likelihood of paradox can be substantial and depends critically on the degree of homogeneity of voters' preferences and on the number of voters.     

When scientists are adversaries,do participants lose?

In considering questions of the confidentiality of data, courts have focused their inquiry on the interests of litigants and the public, but they have neglected the fundamental privacy interests of participants. Because participants divulge their most private thoughts and experiences in research, involuntary breaches of their confidentiality should be barred. Congress has recongnized this principle in the provision of certificates of confidentiality for mental health research, but ambiguity in the relevant section of the Public Health Service Act renders such protection less strict than Congress intended. Protection of confidentiality should extend beyond litigation to secondary data analysis, when there is a significant risk that participants' identity will be divulged.