Book reviews

Patterns of Democracy. Government Forms and Performance in Thirty‐Six Countries. By Arend Lijphart. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999. Pp.351, biblio., index. £26 (cloth); £10.95 (paper) ISBN 0–300–07893–5.

Critical Citizens. Global Support for Democratic Governance. Edited by P. Norris. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1999. Pp.xv + 303, 37 figures, 59 tables, biblio, index. £45 (cloth) ISBN 0–19–829479–4.

Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism. Edited by H. Kitschelt, P. Lange, G. Marks and J.D. Stephens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.xiii + 527, biblio, index. £45 (US$69.95) (cloth) ISBN 0–521–62446–2; £16.95 (US$27.95) (paper) ISBN 0–521–63496–0.

Comparative Public Policy ‐ Patterns of Post‐war Transformation. By Francis G. Castles. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 1998. Pp.368, £59.95 (cloth) ISBN 1–858989–816–0; £19.95 (paper) ISBN 1–858989–823–3.

The Political System of the European Union. By S. Hix. London: Macmillan, 1999. Pp.ix + 427, 52 tables and 28 figures, biblio, index. £16.99 (paper) ISBN 0–333–71654‐X; £49.50 (cloth) ISBN 0–333–71653–1.

The Long Presidency. France in the Mitterrand Years, 1981–1995. By Julius Friend. Boulder, CO and Oxford: Westview Press, 1998. Pp.xi + 308, biblio, index. £30.95 (cloth) ISBN 0–8133–2850–0.

Historical Dictionary of Modern Italy. Edited by Mark F. Gilbert and K. Robert Nilsson. The Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland and London, 1999. Pp.xxxvi + 463. 18 tables. $65 (cloth) ISBN 0–8108–3584–3

Zukunft der Sozialpartnerschaft: Veränderungsdynamik und Reformbedarf. Edited by F. Karlhofer and E. Tálos. Vienna: Signum, 1999. Pp.301, 9 tables, 3 figures, ATS 350 ISBN 3–85436–297–8.

Geografia della cittadinanza sociale in Italia. By Valeria Fargion. Bologna: II Mulino, 1997. Pp.351, biblio, index. L.45,000 (paper) ISBN 88–15–06127–4.     

Civil War and Social Cohesion: Lab‐in‐the‐Field Evidence from Nepal

We study effects of wartime violence on social cohesion in the context of Nepal's 10‐year civil war. We begin with the observation that violence increased levels of collective action like voting and community organization—a finding consistent with other recent studies of postconflict societies. We use lab‐in‐the‐field techniques to tease apart such effects. Our causal‐identification strategy exploits communities' exogenous isolation from the unpredictable path of insurgency combined with matching. We find that violence‐affected communities exhibit higher levels of prosocial motivation, measured by altruistic giving, public good contributions, investment in trust‐based transactions, and willingness to reciprocate trust‐based investments. We find evidence to support two social transformation mechanisms: (1) a purging mechanism by which less social persons disproportionately flee communities plagued by war and (2) a collective coping mechanism by which individuals who have few options to flee band together to cope with threats.     

Visualization of Fingermarks Deposits on Untreated Thermal Paper Exploiting the Near Infrared Luminescence

Thermal paper is widely used as a print medium for different applications but it constitutes a tricky substrate for fingermark visualization. An earlier work (J Forensic Sci 2015; 60 :1034) reported how to visualize fingermarks on untreated thermal paper by illuminating the item with a UV-A light source. In the present paper, the potential of the near infrared (NIR) luminescence has been tested on thermal paper compared to the mentioned method. A controlled study was carried out utilizing eccrine enriched fingermarks. The promising outcomes obtained were further confirmed by performing a pseudo-operational trial. Data clearly showed that the use of the NIR filter gave better results. Finally, preliminary tests suggested a different mechanism of reaction induced by fingermarks with respect to the one behind the thermal printing. Thus, NIR luminescence represents a refinement to the suite of optical examination processes, including the potential to increase the number of marks recovered in a noncontact, nondestructive way.     

Occlusion of left and right coronary arteries and coronary sinus following blunt chest trauma

Blunt chest trauma from rapid automobile airbag deployment causing coronary artery occlusion and myocardial infarction is a rare but potentially fatal condition. We present the case of a 37-year-old man who developed extensive anterior and inferior myocardial infarction because of occlusion of both left anterior and right coronary arteries following blunt injury to the chest in a car accident. The patient was scheduled for emergency coronary angiography but left and right coronary ostia were not cannulated because of thrombus formation probably. The patient died, and the autopsy revealed external compression by epicardial hematomas involving separately left and right coronary arteries and the coronary sinus without signs of coronary and/or aortic dissection. To our knowledge, this is the first case presenting occlusion of both coronary arteries secondary to blunt chest trauma causing acute myocardial infarction in a young man without signs of prior coronary artery disease.     

A View to the Future: A Novel Approach for 3D–3D Superimposition and Quantification of Differences for Identification from Next‐Generation Video Surveillance Systems

Techniques of 2D–3D superimposition are widely used in cases of personal identification from video surveillance systems. However, the progressive improvement of 3D image acquisition technology will enable operators to perform also 3D–3D facial superimposition. This study aims at analyzing the possible applications of 3D–3D superimposition to personal identification, although from a theoretical point of view. Twenty subjects underwent a facial 3D scan by stereophotogrammetry twice at different time periods. Scans were superimposed two by two according to nine landmarks, and root‐mean‐square (RMS) value of point‐to‐point distances was calculated. When the two superimposed models belonged to the same individual, RMS value was 2.10 mm, while it was 4.47 mm in mismatches with a statistically significant difference (p < 0.0001). This experiment shows the potential of 3D–3D superimposition: Further studies are needed to ascertain technical limits which may occur in practice and to improve methods useful in the forensic practice.     

Richard Mullender,Matteo Nicolini,Thomas D.C. Bennett and Emilia Mickiewicz (eds): Law and Imagination in Troubled Times. A Legal and Literary Discourse

Liverpool Law Review -     

The Use of Hypothetical Household Data for Policy Learning: Comparative Tax‒Benefit Indicators Using EUROMOD HHoT

Abstract

Tax?benefit microsimulation models are typically used to quantify the effect of specific policy changes on the income distribution based on representative microdata. Such analysis evaluates policies by considering how different tax?benefit elements interact given personal, household and labour market characteristics. Using hypothetical household data instead helps address broader questions of policy design and systemic (cross-national) differences. This article introduces the Hypothetical Household Tool (HHoT) in combination with the microsimulation model EUROMOD to analyse European tax?benefit policies from a comparative perspective. It presents a series of applications from social welfare analysis illustrating how hypothetical data can benefit comparative academic and policy research.