The risks of contract law

The economic analysis of law may be able to provide some reason why it is efficient to enforce wholly executory contracts, but (I submit) it has not done so.     

The leadership styles of police managers

Leadership involves both the activity and behavior of managers. There are at least six leadership theories, one of which, the personal-situational, has resulted in the development of a number of contingency models of managerial style. The one created by Hershey and Blanchard is used to assess the styles of 155 police managers. Findings of this research indicate that police managers use two or three styles, are as effective as nonpolice managers, and tend to avoid “risky” styles, particularly delegating.     

A case of homicide by lethal injection with lidocaine

This report describes a homicide by overdosage with lidocaine. The decedent, a 32-year-old male hospitalized for a lengthy period with acute intermittent porphyria and chronic pancreatitis, suffered apparent asystole and seizure. Failed resuscitation preceded death. A forensic autopsy was conducted based upon suspicions of alleged patient mistreatment by one of the attending nurses. Toxicological analyses revealed the presence of lidocaine in blood, liver, kidney, brain, and heart at 22.2 mg/L and 43.6, 28.3, 23.1, and 13.1 mg/kg, respectively. Also present were diazepam, phenytoin, and promethazine. Both diazepam and phenytoin had been administered during resuscitation, but lidocaine had not. The cause of death was determined to be ventricular arrhythmia precipitated by lidocaine overdosage. The administered dose was calculated to have been approximately 1500 mg. The manner of death was determined to be homicide. The nurse was arrested and subsequently tried for murder by administering a lethal quantity of lidocaine.     

Dueling Security Stories: Wilson and Lodge Talk Strategy

Perhaps the most consequential effort to expound a grand strategic narrative was Woodrow Wilson's campaign to persuade the American people, the US Senate, and world public opinion to embrace his concept for making the world safe for democracy. Wilson and his interlocutors in grand strategy illustrate the role of rhetoric and narrative in managing two kinds of complexity in discussions of grand strategy: the conceptual integration of facts and values (of “is” and “ought”) in strategic persuasion and the political integration of diverse perspectives among partners in a strategic coalition. In particular, I explore the hypothesis that rhetorical and narrative persuasive devices permit grand strategists to obfuscate internal contradictions in their vision, facilitating persuasion in the short run but producing characteristic patterns of eventual policy failure and thereby serving as an engine of change in grand strategy.     

Westminster in small states: comparing the Caribbean and pacific experience

Small states, and those in the Caribbean and Pacific regions in particular, are among the most stubbornly and disproportionally democratic countries in the world. And yet, they are rarely studied comparatively, despite sharing seemingly obvious similarities – aside from being small island states with developing economies they also tend to share a British colonial heritage and Westminster-inspired political institutions. This omission is all the more puzzling if we consider that the group does not conform to the standard battery of explanations developed by democratization theorists. To pave the way for further research across these two regions, this article provides a synoptic comparison of the process of democratization in Caribbean and Pacific small states. We highlight important similarities and differences that stem from the interaction between formal institutions and informal practices. We conclude by reiterating the benefits for scholars of democratization by looking at these significant yet hitherto rarely compared cases.     

Someone has to do it: towards a practical defence of politicians

In response to rising popular disenchantment with elected officials, numerous scholars have sought to defend politics and restate why it matters. For the most part, however, these theoretical arguments overlook the views and reflections of politicians themselves. As a step towards filling this gap, the author surveys politician-centred studies from around the world and the reflections of academics who have become politicians. By paying careful attention to what ‘insiders’ say about life in politics, the author constructs a practical rather than theoretical defence of the vocation and the people who undertake it. The author argues that politicians' views remind one that human endeavour is central to the purpose and function of politics and associated political institutions. To link the practical views and experiences of politicians with the emerging literature on demonisation, the author revisits the work of Arendt and Weber. The author concludes that while one may not always like who politicians are or the ways they operate, revaluing endeavour allows one to give credit where credit is due; politicians may regularly disappoint people but representative democracy does not work without them.