Public policy evaluation in France

The future of public policy evaluation in France seems at once promising and uncertain. Although the signs of development are evident-increasing numbers of evaluations, aroused public and parliamentary interest, active administrative involvement-the process is not uniform, codified, or generally rigorous. The administration itself is the chief initiator of evaluations, possessing the greatest resources, yet only in a small minority of instances are the ideal conditions of evaluation met. Strong political pressure would almost certainly be essential to move the government toward the institutionalization of an effective appraisal system.     

‘This loopy idea’ an analysis of UKIP’s social media discourse in relation to rurality and climate change

This paper focuses on the way that United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) attempted to communicate its policies and messages about the topic of renewable energy during 2013–2014. Renewable energy is a fruitful topic to consider as it has a strategic importance in the discussion of the future of the UK. The emergent theme from the analysis was not only rurality and renewable energy but the connection of the issue to scepticism about climate change. This paper uses the qualitative analyses the social media posts and a sample of the linked materials, with newspaper coverage, to reveal the key themes in the UKIP discourse.     

Burkina Faso: Between Taiwan's active public diplomacy and China's business attractiveness

Burkina Faso and Taiwan restored official relations in 1994, after which Taipei's aid has been generous. Taiwan's approach to official development assistance has remained largely traditional, closely linking its public diplomacy to its foreign policy objectives. Trade between both countries has remained very modest. In the same period, because of mainland China's rise and active strategy of ‘going out’, Burkina Faso has developed a robust trade and business relationship with China. As a result, the pull to establish official ties with China (and thus end ties with Taiwan) has become a domestic political issue. After the ousting of President Blaise Compaoré in 2014, a failed coup and then the return to democracy as seen in the November 2015 elections, this debate has become more public. While Burkina Faso has remained faithful to Taiwan and continues to publicly appreciate its assistance, there is no certainty that the political values that both Burkina Faso and Taiwan share will prevent a Burkinabe move towards China.     

Life,Liberty, and the Pursuit of Anyone Who Gets in the Way: Lessons from a Comparative Analysis of U.S. Militias and Ulster Loyalists

This article presents a comparative analysis of the militia movement in the United States and the two major loyalist paramilitary organizations in Northern Ireland. The comparison reveals a similar history of economic transition that highlights the need to consider occupational factors in assessing the causes of violent extremism. The article reflects further on the evidence of a number of other similarities between the two groups: the preeminence of historical narratives, the tendency toward militancy and violence, and localist, antigovernment ideologies. It is argued that these similarities can be similarly understood within the same economic framework, and suggests further research in similarly comparative contexts would reveal greater insight.     

Election law violations as campaign effort: turnout in Japan's House of Councillors elections

Electoral fraud is a form of corrupt behaviour but it is also a form of electoral behaviour. Once the grosser forms of stuffing the ballot box have been eliminated, illegal campaigning often involves precisely the same activities as does legal campaigning. What makes it electoral fraud is ‘stepping over the line’, spending X?+?Y when the legal limit is X for example. In this study we analyse the determinants of legal and illegal campaign efforts as well as the impact of such efforts on voter turnout. We use the aggregate number of election law violations per district as a measure of Y, which is normally unobserved because it is illegal and thus unreported. We further distinguish between various types of election fraud such as vote-buying and canvassing and determine their effects on turnout. We find that electoral fraud is more common in close races and when there is intraparty competition. Similarly, illegal campaign effort in general mirrors legal efforts in increasing turnout although its effects depend on the type of violation in question.     

Criminal justice: An emerging academic profession and discipline

The recent history and current trends of criminal justice educational programs are examined in light of traditional definitions of professions, disciplines, and sciences. The author concludes that criminal justice is clearly emerging as a unique academic profession and as a nontraditional discipline. The nature of contemporary criminal justice education is discussed to develop predictions of its directions.     

Nonresidential criminal justice graduate degree programs

Nonresidential criminal justice graduate degree programs were recognized as significant elements within the contemporary educational scene. The structure, nature, and extent of such programs, as reflected in the professional literature, were reviewed. A survey of the state level governing bodies in the United States was reported, as was a case study of one state's evaluation of an out-of-state graduate degree program in criminal justice, operating without license within the host state. These were used as vehicles for a consideration of the issues important to the consumer of nonresidential graduate degree programs. It was concluded that innovative educational methods and structures are desirable, but that some nonresidential programs have been inadequate academically, and the danger exists that such programs may undermine criminal justice education and defraud the criminal justice students. Criminal justice scholars were encouraged to require rigorous standards for such programs.     

China in a New Era after the 19~(th) CPC National Congress: from A Rising Power to A World Leader

正Ⅰ.China decides to shoulder the leadership responsibility instead of adopting a low profile and being reserved.In December 2017,representatives of nearly 300 political parties from all over the world attended the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting.This meeting and the 19th CPC National Congress convened in autumn 2017,are both of far-reaching global significance.     

Detection and quantification of the age-related point mutation A189G in the human mitochondrial DNA

Mutation analysis in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region is widely used in population genetic studies as well as in forensic medicine. Among the difficulties linked to the mtDNA analysis, one can find the detection of heteroplasmy, which can be inherited or somatic. Recently, age-related point mutation A189G was described in mtDNA and shown to accumulate with age in muscles. We carried out the detection of this 189 heteroplasmic point mutation using three technologies: automated DNA sequencing, Southern blot hybridization using a digoxigenin-labeled oligonucleotide probe, and peptide nucleic acid (PNA)/real-time PCR combined method on different biological samples. Our results give additional information on the increase in mutation frequency with age in muscle tissue and revealed that the PNA/real-time PCR is a largely more sensitive method than DNA sequencing for heteroplasmy detection. These investigations could be of interest in the detection and interpretation of mtDNA heteroplasmy in anthropological and forensic studies.