Exhuming Death of a Bureaucrat

Death of a Bureaucrat ( Alea, 1966 ) has never received the recognition or in‐depth study that it deserves, yet this is a key film that marks Cuban film’s early success in addressing both local and global concerns. While remaining steadfastly Cuban, the film borrows knowingly from many sources, from Hollywood comedies to Buñuel. Crucially, it has a Brechtian note, and an eclectic use of montage is clearly informed by Eisenstein. Together, these approaches lead to an inventive, imaginative work. The film heralds a radical style of filmmaking that emerged precisely from Cuba’s revolutionary political culture.     

Child Abuse,Neglect, and Dependency Mediation Pilot Project

The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) established a goal of one year from removal to permanence for all children taken into protective custody. When the Family Court of Mecklenburg County (Charlotte), N.C., opened its doors in 1999, more than half of the children in the protective custody of the Department of Social Services had been in custody for 12 months or more. Innovative approaches were needed to provide children in Mecklenburg County with a safe and permanent home in a more timely manner. The Child Abuse, Neglect, and Dependency Mediation Pilot Project was one approach selected by the Mecklenburg County Family Court to help achieve ASFA's goal of one year to permanence. This article details the court's two‐year journey to make dependency mediation a reality.     

The Many Beginnings of Philip Aneurin Thomas

This volume pays tribute to the many achievements of Philip Aneurin Thomas. When asked to write a biographical account of his life, I was struck by how many beginnings Phil had been involved in. Early experiences in the United States and East Africa made him part of an important group of scholars who brought new ways of thinking about law and the law school to the United Kingdom in the 1970s. He was there at the beginning of the socio-legal movement, making a major contribution to the multi-disciplinary research environment that socio-legal scholars now take for granted, and instrumental in establishing a number of institutions, including this journal. Finally, his personal and academic trajectory cannot be fully understood without an understanding of the importance of his being Welsh and a committed socialist.     

The Concept of Subsidiarity and the Debate on European Cooperation: Pitfalls and Possibilities1

This article explores whether and how subsidiarity can serve as an instructive aid to discussion and clarification of the current and future structure and functioning of the European Community. W e argue that the debate over the principle of subsidiarity may be undermined or cut off prematurely in at least three ways. First, if the debate is conducted with a view to arriving at a fairly fixed, detailed and instrumental understanding of the allocation of responsibilities and tasks between different levels of government. Second, if the principle of subsidiarity is mainly used as an instrument of political expediency and opportunism to further organizational or self interests. Third, if the principle is linked to and interpreted as an endorsement and justification of existing (entrenched) political and social doctrines. In a concluding last section we consider how the principle of subsidiarity may contribute to constructive discussion.     

Measuring government duration and stability in Central Eastern European democracies

Existing studies of government duration in parliamentary democracies typically measure the length of a government's tenure in office without accounting for delays in the government formation process. By assuming that a cabinet leaves office on the day prior to the new cabinet taking office, these measures ignore periods during which a government has lost its mandate but is still legally in power as a caretaker government. A consequence is that governments that are actually stable and governments that only appear stable because replacement governments take a long time to form are observationally equivalent. This suggests that some existing studies of government stability are potentially flawed. It also means that a number of interesting research questions cannot be answered with existing data. Many of these questions address the various consequences of caretaker governments. The answers to these questions are relevant for scholars interested in representation and accountability. This article presents a new dataset collected on government duration in eleven Central Eastern European democracies from 1990 to 2008 that specifically takes account of caretaker periods and delays in the government formation process. These data will provide scholars with more flexibility to choose the measure that best reflects their underlying conception of government stability.     

The Internationalization of Early Childhood Education and Care Issues: Framing Gender Justice and Child Well‐Being

This article investigates the extent to which early childhood education and care (ECEC) issues have been internationalized to become the focus of attention of a number of international organizations (IOs). Through an examination of policy statements and other primary documents, the article explores how these IOs frame the ECEC policy debate. While a great deal of those IOs' recommendations are increasingly cast in human capital development terms, multiple and competing frames are in evidence: one that rests on more social pedagogic norms that promote a concern for the well‐being of the “whole child”; another that focuses on children's rights to services and countries' obligations to deliver services; and another that focuses on parental employment concerns and the connection between ECEC policies and programs and women's employment. The article examines each of the frames in evidence and evaluates their ability to address concerns of both gender justice and child well‐being.     

The Social Psychology of Making and Responding to Hospital Complaints: An Account Model of Complaint Processes*

Drawing on a study of 399 hospital complaints entering the National Health Service formal complaints procedure, this paper analyzes the interaction between complainant and hospital as a social episode in which the hospital is called to account for violation of the complainant's normative expectations and makes its response. The non-instrumental and uncrystallized character of many complaints is emphasized. Letters of complaint and replies from the hospital were readily analyzed in terms of the proposed model, providing insights into the social psychology of complaining, the goals of complainants, and the elements of successful apologies. Factors correlating with complainants' satisfaction further support the model and confirm the importance of a socially appropriate response to complaints. The implications of the study are discussed both in relation to hospital complaints and in the context of the literature on disputing more broadly.     

BUREAUCRATIC POLITICS AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN BRUSSELS

Political leadership offers an exceptionally important vehicle for democratic control in modem political systems. In national political systems this may be exercised by ministers. In the European Community the closest equivalent to a national minister is the commissioner. How well equipped are commissioners to exercise political leadership? This article examines the backgrounds and careers of all 76 commissioners, past and present, and argues that a ‘democratic deficit’ within the Commission is at least as important as the democratic deficit more conventionally associated with the demand for increased powers for the European Parliament.