The Doolittle commission of 1954

Many scholars and other writers have dismissed the 1954 Doolittle Commission as an Eisenhower administration tactic to protect CIA covert operations from congressional investigation. Evidence about the commission and its report, however, suggests that this view may be incomplete. Clarification of the commission's precise purpose may serve the wider study of US covert action policy in the 1950s and congressional oversight of the CIA. In particular, the report's recommendations for bold covert action abroad may reveal how administration covert action policy attracted congressional attention to the CIA.     

Managing conflict in divided societies: Lessons from Tajikistan

This article presents a new approach to managing conflict in divided societies and describes how it is being implemented in Tajikistan. This approach involves two interrelated strategies: (1) a five-stage unofficial dialogue process aimed at probing the dynamics of the conflictual relationships among the parties and designing a sequence of interactive steps to changing the relationships; and (2) a civil society strategy aimed at building institutions of civil society that transcend the traditional divisions in the society. Randa M. Slim is a program officer in charge of the international civil society programs at the Kettering Foundation, 200 Commons Road, Dayton, Ohio 45459.Harold H. Saunders, former member of the National Security Council Staff and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, is Director of International Affairs at the Kettering Foundation, 444 North Capitol Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. They co-direct the Tajikistani dialogue program.     

The transformation of the new deal party system: Social groups,political ideology,and changing partisanship among northern whites, 1972–1988

This paper examines the partisanship of a neglected segment of the American electorate—white northerners. Like their southern counterparts, northern whites have moved toward the GOP (Grand Old Party) and away from the Democratic party during the last two decades. In fact, a substantial plurality of northern whites now identify with the Republican party. Moreover, Democratic losses and Republican gains have not been confined to particular categories of social groups but have cut across groups traditionally identified with the parties. However, political ideology is closely related to the changing partisanship of northern whites. Liberals have become more Democratic and conservatives have become substantially more Republican since 1972. Moreover, the relationship between ideology and changing partisanship occurs within most categories of social group membership, suggesting that ideological orientations now override social group ties in the formation of partisanship. The northern white electorate, in sum, is undergoing an ideological transformation that is reshaping the contours of American politics.     

S.O.S. or Subsidy for Our Screen and An Examination of Subsidy Abroad

Discourse about the impact of art has been prominent in academic and arts industry discourse over the past two decades. Contention in the discourse has led to the call for new research frameworks that place the experience of the individual as central to understanding the impact of art. The authors present the background of this discourse and outline narrative inquiry as a research method that elicits individual experiences. The authors present the findings of a narrative inquiry and establish that the way individuals experience art and its impact is far broader in scope than previous research suggests.     

Damages in medical litigation in New South Wales

In the period 2001 to 2003, the New South Wales legislature enacted four Acts that impinge on the assessment of damages in litigation against health professionals. They are the Health Care Liability Act 2001 (NSW), the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW) (as originally enacted), the Civil Liability Amendment (Personal Responsibility) Act 2002 (NSW) and the Civil Liability Amendment Act 2003 (NSW). This article considers the principles on which damages are assessed in medical litigation and how those principles have been affected by these four enactments. It points out that each piece of legislation was retrospective in applying to events that occurred both before and after its commencement. However, proceedings already issued before a particular date were excluded in each case from the retrospective operation of the legislation. The article provides details of the relevant dates of operation of each of the statutes.     

Whose business is your pancreas? Potential privacy problems in New York City's mandatory diabetes registry

This article examines a recent New York City health regulation that mandates the compilation and storage of individual medical data from nearly all diabetics in a centralized registry. The authors distinguish this novel registry from prior health registries and scrutinize its potential to compromise individual privacy. In order to address privacy and other concerns, the authors offer suggestions for changes to the current statutory framework of the registry that will also be useful when considering the creation of similar public health registries in other cities.     

Hazardous waste,distributional conflict,and a trilogy of failures

Environmentally dangerous but profitable hazardous waste disposal is an instance of market failure. Tort law has failed as a social mechanism to sanction powerful corporations for such crimes against the environment. The federal Superfund hazardous waste cleanup program, a regulatory system created to fill this void, is also marked by failure. This article makes the case that the inability to resolve Superfund-engendered distributional conflicts has precluded the efficient and equitable outcomes that characterize a socially beneficial market, tort, or regulatory response. A political economy of regulation that links conflict, conflict resolution, and Superfund failure is examined.