The Global Era of National Policy and the Pan-Oceanic National Fleet

This article develops a framework for considering the future requirements for U.S. maritime power. It does so by proposing that these requirements must be considered within the context of an integrated National Fleet—the combined capabilities of the three “Sea Services”—the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Coast Guard. It also would include their reserve components, as well as the Military Sealift Command (MSC) and the Maritime Administration's Ready Reserve Force (RRF)—the two organizations responsible for maintaining the nation's strategic sealift fleet.     

Law in South Africa and the Legitimacy Crisis

South Africa is presently confronting the possibility of a fundamental change in its political structure. In this context it is useful to consider the special character of the South African legal system and its role in the on-going legitimacy crisis in that country. This article attempts to delineate some of the principal dimensions of law and the types of legitimation issues in South Africa. It suggests that students of law and criminal justice have much to learn from the study of the South African case.     

A note on crop mixtures under indigenous conditions in Northern Nigeria

This note contends that crop mixtures are employed by farmers primarily as risk precautions and that the immediate objective of farmers is not only one of profit maximisation but also of stability of income. The results of an income stability model employed to verify this hypothesis seem to agree relatively well with existing information in parts of Northern Nigeria.     

Promises to keep: Enforcement of prepublication agreements and first amendment rights

Since the Supreme Court's ruling in Cohen v. Cowles Media, several courts have found that prepublication agreements are legally binding promises between journalists and their sources of information, and that the First Amendment does not protect journalists from civil sanction for the breach of such agreements. An agreement between a journalist and a private individual not to disclose a source's information or the source's identity might constitute a legally binding commitment, especially if the plaintiff is able to show that a clear and specific commitment was made not to reveal certain information and that as a result of the breach of promise the plaintiff suffered specific harm.

However, the Court's analysis of enforcement of confidentiality promises as having merely incidental effects is flawed. Because it did not balance the enforcement of prepublication agreements against the First Amendment interests in nonenforcement of the agreements, the Court in Cohen departed from its compelling interest analysis of prepublication agreements in Snepp v. United States as well as its previous standards in finding incidental effects of generally applicable laws.     

Women's work,artisanal discourse,and community: a response to Sheila Blackburn

This article is a comment on Sheila Blackburn's response to the author's original essay, ‘Gender Constructions and Gender Relations in Cotton and Chain-making in England: a contested and varied terrain’, which appeared in Women's History Review (6[3], 1997). As the author repeats in this response, the apparently dominant artisanal discourse of the male chainmakers of nineteenth-century Walsall, supporting the exclusion of female labor from the trade, was undermined by conditions existing in Cradley Heath, where the community depended on that labor. Foregrounding this division regarding gender understandings, it is argued, provides a vantage point from which to gain a fuller and more accurate picture of the ways in which those understandings, as well as gender and community relations, were negotiated in one industry towards the end of the nineteenth century     

Parole release decisions revisited: An analysis of parole release decisions for violent inmates in a southeastern state

In an attempt to discover the major predictors of parole decision-making in one southeastern state, this study examined the cases of 762 inmates under the supervision of the Alabama Department of Corrections who were eligible for parole from June 1, 1993 through May 31, 1994. Of the 762 eligible inmates, only 138 (18 percent) were granted parole. Using parole disposition (granted or denied) as the dependent variable, this study investigated the offense, offender, and general parole variables and their impact on parole decisions. Logistic regression findings indicated that the strongest predictors of parole release decisions were the length of the original sentence assessed for the offense, the total number of felonies for which the inmate was serving time, and the warden and senior officers' recommendations. These variables, which were also significant at the bivariate level of analysis, explained approximately 47 percent of the variation in the dependent variable. A major concern of the study was the generalizability of the findings.     

From dictatorship to democracy: the US and regime change in Paraguay, 1954–1994

Abstract— This paper seeks to analyse the external sources of democratisation in Paraguay, specifically how the US contributed to regime change in that country. In the small and vulnerable countries of Latin America, like in Central America, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Paraguay, where the US played a portentous role in the rise, consolidation and demise of authoritarian regimes during the Cold War, Washington has also rendered a vital, but often neglected role, in protecting and enhancing democratic rule. This paper also provides an analysis of the different forms of leverage exercised by the US before and during Paraguay's transition.