Outsourcing Public Service Delivery: Management Responses in Noncompetitive Markets

Capturing the benefits of competition is a key argument for outsourcing public services, yet public service markets often lack sufficient competition. The authors use survey and interview data from U.S. local governments to explore the responses of public managers to noncompetitive markets. This research indicates that competition is weak in most local government markets (fewer than two alternative providers on average across 67 services measured), and that the relationship between competition and contracting choice varies by service type. Public managers respond to suboptimal market competition by intervening with strategies designed to create, sustain, and enhance provider markets. In monopoly service markets, managers are more likely to use intergovernmental contracting, while for‐profit contracting is more common in more competitive service markets. The strategies that public managers employ to build and sustain competition for contracts often require tangible investments of administrative resources that add to the transaction costs of contracting in noncompetitive markets.     

A rapid method to detect dried saliva stains swabbed from human skin using fluorescence spectroscopy

Saliva on skin is important in forensic trace evidence. If areas where saliva is present can be outlined, this may lead to DNA analysis and identification. This study describes a rapid and non-destructive method to detect dried saliva on the surface of the skin by fluorescence spectroscopy. Eighty-two volunteers deposited samples of their own saliva on the skin of their ventral forearm. A control sample of water was deposited at three different sites on the contralateral arm. Saliva and water control were then allowed to air-dry. Swab samples were taken from dried saliva and control sites and were dissolved in 0.1M KCl solution. Emission spectra were obtained from the solution and were characterized by a principal maximum at 345-355nm with excitation at 282nm. The fluorescence emission intensity was greater than background readings obtained from the control swab site in 80 of 82 volunteers (approximately 97.6%). The fluorescence profile of saliva samples were similar to those obtained from aqueous samples of pure amylase and tryptophan, an endogenous fluorophore in alpha-amylase. The presence of an emission peak at 345-355nm with excitation at 282nm could provide a strong presumptive indication of saliva deposition.     

The Future of the 'Radical Centre' in Northern Ireland after the Good Friday Agreement

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement has provided a new political dispensation in Northern Ireland. Through the management of the competing aims of unionism and nationalism, the Agreement hopes to promote cross-community consensus and forge a new, moderate centre. However, the segmental autonomy evident under the consociationalism of the Agreement poses questions of the existing political centre in Northern Ireland. Traditionally, the centre, as represented by the Alliance Party, has rejected unionism and nationalism, believing either to be ideologies to be overcome, rather than accommodated. Under the post-Agreement political arrangements, Alliance has already been obliged to bolster pro-Agreement unionism, through the temporary tactical redesignation of three of its Assembly members as Unionist and through tacit support for selected unionist election candidates. Using the first ever membership survey of the existing centre party in Northern Ireland, this article examines whether its vision of a radical third tradition is sustainable in a polity in which unionist and nationalist politics are legitimised.     

Capturing high-resolution digital images for use in forensic document examination

In the past, pattern disciplines within forensic science have periodically faced criticism due to their subjective and qualitative nature and the perceived absence of research evaluating and supporting the foundations of their practices. Recently, however, forensic scientists and researchers in the field of pattern evidence analysis have developed and published approaches that are more quantitative, objective, and data driven. This effort includes automation, algorithms, and measurement sciences, with the end goal of enabling conclusions to be informed by quantitative models. Before employing these tools, forensic evidence must be digitized in a way that adequately balances high-quality detail and content capture with minimal background noise imparted by the selected technique. While the current work describes the process of optimizing a method to digitize physical documentary evidence for use in semi-automated trash mark examinations, it could be applied to assist other disciplines where the digitization of physical items of evidence is prevalent. For trash mark examinations specifically, it was found that high-resolution photography provided optimal digital versions of evidentiary items when compared to high-resolution scanning.     

Long live the doge? Death as a term limit on Venetian chief executives

Public Choice - Can an electorate use the projected life expectancy of a lifetime-appointed chief executive to enforce binding, informal term limits? Informal term limits based on the life...     

Individual Characteristics and the Multiple Contexts of Adolescent Bullying: An Ecological Perspective

This paper uses an ecological perspective to explore the risk factors associated with bullying behaviors among a representative sample of adolescents aged 11–14 Data derived from the Health Behavior in School Children: WHO Cross-National Survey were used to model the relationship between bullying and media effects, peer and family support systems, self-efficacy, and school environment. Overall, the results of this study suggest that bullying increases among children who watch television frequently, lack teacher support, have themselves been bullied, attend schools with unfavorable environments, have emotional support from their peers, and have teachers and parents who do not place high expectations on their school performance. In addition, we found an inverse relationship between being Asian or African American, feeling left out of school activities and bullying. Our results lend support to the contention that bullying arises out of deficits in social climate, but that social support systems mediate bullying behavior irrespective of the student’s racial/ethnic characteristics, parental income levels or media influences. Because the number of friends and the ability to talk to these friends increases the likelihood of bullying, we suggest that bullying is not simply an individual response to a particular environment but is a peer-group behavior. We conclude that limiting television viewing hours, improving student’s abilities to access family support systems and improving school atmospheres are potentially useful interventions to limit bullying behavior.

Reconsidering the role of non-public actors in Turkish policy-making

Indirect forms of government have become increasingly prominent in Turkey over the last few decades. After giving an overview of the growing role of non-public actors in Turkish policy-making, we depart from the common idea that the phenomenon is a result of neoliberalism only and examine the multiple genealogies and complex dynamics at work. The paper then questions the preconception according to which the involvement of non-public actors implies a retreat of the state and frames these developments in terms of changing forms of government. Finally, we question the outcomes of this phenomenon in terms of policy and power reconfigurations.