Worlds,Families, Regimes: Country Clusters in European and OECD Area Public Policy

This article focuses on the notion that the policies and politics of states and nations constitute distinct worlds or clusters. We begin by examining the concept of clustering as it has emerged in the literature on policy regimes and families of nations. We then address a series of empirical questions: whether distinct worlds persist in an era of policy convergence and globalisation, whether policy antecedents cluster in the same ways as policy outcomes and whether the enlargement of the EU has led to an increase in the number of worlds constituting the wider European polity. Our main conclusions are that country clustering is, if anything, more pronounced than in the past, that it is, in large part, structurally determined and that the EU now contains a quite distinct post-Communist family of nations.     

Rural household livelihood strategies in a Sri Lankan village

This paper examines the household income‐generating strategies in a Kandyan village. Pushed by population growth, heads of households are forced to enter into increasingly complex relations with the outside world. Those with the initial advantage of larger landholdings are able to educate their children, find more secure sources of outside income and invest in agriculture productivity. The tenants and landless are forced to sell their labour, often outside of the village. The critical contacts for both owner‐operator and other households are increasingly channelled through local political leaders, which adds political differences to economic tensions.     

The survival of Nepad and the African peer review mechanism: A critical analysis

A lack of definition, poor communication and organisational weaknesses are damaging Nepad just as its most important venture — peer review — begins. The article asks how long Nepad can survive without robust delivery and plain talk about its future.     

The Security Treaty System and the Japanese Military-Industrial Complex

Abstract

Recently much discussion has focused on the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, first signed in September, 1951, renewed in a more equitable form in 1960, and up for renewal again in 1970. Much less attention has been paid the U.S.-Japan military-economic relationship shaped largely by adminstrative agreements that followed in the wake of the first Security Treaty. This article deals with that military-economic relationship and other aspects of recent U.S.-Japanese relations relevant to the discussion of contemporary American imperialism in Asia.     

Report on Japan 1972

Abstract

Nothing has more mystified discussions of Japanese military development than the innumerable simplistic conclusions drawn from percentage comparisons with Gross National Product (GNP) or with international levels of military spending. This is seriously misleading from two broad angles: (1) the actual size and growth of the military and the hidden expenses of the military budget; (2) the key role that Japan’s defense expenditures play in supporting American imperialism in Asia.     

Japan studies old and new at the end of the eighties

Abstract

During the first two decades of the Cold War era, many historians of Japan in American universities sought to rise above the hatreds of the war era and develop a brighter, more positive image of Japan's recent past. Concentrating on the rational nature of the state-building process (but downplaying the ways in which irrationality was also institutionalized), they described how the Meiji oligarchs constructed a modern state that led Japan at the end of the nineteenth century into the worlds of capitalist industry, great-power politics, and colonial empire. This explicitly anti-Marxist phase of American historiography is known as the modernization perspective.     

Membership no longer has its privileges: The declining informal influence of Board members on IDA lending

This paper examines the ability of Board members of the most important multilateral donor to developing countries, the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank, to influence IDA allocations toward their home countries. I show that a system of Bank staff ratings of individual countries' policies, which has become more important in IDA lending over time, has systematically reduced the informal power of Board members. I show that while IDA Board members received more IDA commitments than their counterparts prior to 1989, this influence has disappeared since, as the importance of the policy index has increased. The findings are robust to the inclusion of fixed effects and a variety of relevant controls. In order to further support my argument, I also investigate the influence of Board membership on the Bank's policy index itself. I am unable to establish any positive relationship between Board membership and the index, either during the Cold War or afterwards. The findings not only shed important light on the internal workings of World Bank allocations to poor countries, but also highlight the ways in which institutional designs can affect the balance of informal power in international institutions.     

A case of stalking in the workplace and subsequent sexual homicide

A case of stalking in the workplace and subsequent sexual homicide by a 33-year-old male is reported. Following several months of stalking a 38-year-old female, the male subject went to the woman's office after business hours and restrained, raped, and murdered her. The cause of death was multiple stab wounds. The facts of the case reveal that the subject fits a predatory-type stalker, which represents a small subgroup within stalkers that has received little attention. Unlike other types of stalkers, the predatory stalker gives little warning to their victim (or multiple victims), as their stalking behaviors tend not to be very invasive or harassing. In general, most stalkers are not physically violent; however, predatory-type stalkers, given their tendency for sexual violence, are dangerous and the importance of identifying them is emphasized. Factors associated with perpetrators of sexual homicide are discussed.     

Autopsy at 2 months after death: brain is satisfactorily preserved for neuropathology

Disclosure of neurological disorders by neuropathological examination may be one important aim of forensic autopsies. There are insufficient data on human brain tissue preservation after prolonged postmortem periods. Here, we describe neuropathological findings in a brain of a 77-year-old woman that was fixed at autopsy 2 months after death. The body had been stored in a cooling chamber at 3 degrees C temperature. Gross inspection of the brain was satisfactorily possible. Histomorphology was excellently preserved. Many histochemical and immunohistochemical stains allowed satisfactory neuropathological evaluation of brain tissue and the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Nevertheless, some immunohistochemical stainings repeatedly yielded negative or suboptimal results. We conclude that neuropathological examination of human brain tissue extracted from the skull and fixed after prolonged body storage in a cool environment is feasible for forensic diagnosis of neurological disorders even several months after death. However, in such cases the significance of negative immunohistochemical staining results must be interpreted with caution.     

EU accession and the hardening of soft budget constraints: some macro evidence

The hardening of soft budget constraints (SBCs) is a central element in transforming the economies of Central and Eastern Europe into market economies. This paper presents macro evidence on budget hardening of transition economies comparing the performance of EU accession countries relative to non-accession countries. We estimate SBC hardening for 21 transition economies in a partial adjustment model by measuring the reaction of employment to output changes over a 10-year period. The paper finds that accession candidates have reduced excess labour demand substantially relative to non-accession countries.