ADAPTIVE AND MALADAPTIVE RESPONSES OF MANAGERS TO CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS: A STUDY OF AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC SECTOR SENIOR EXECUTIVES

This paper examines data collected from senior executives in two Australian government agencies to identify patterns of adaptive and maladaptive responses to change in public sector environments. The conceptual categories of passive maladaptive, active maladaptive and active adaptive responses are all supported by the interview data, with half of the executives expressing predominantly active adaptive responses to external change and uncertainty and half displaying various kinds of passive and active maladaptive responses. The implications of the findings for managers as agents of organizational learning and adaptation in public sector environments are discussed.     

Reliability and validity of the 2002 and 2006 Chapel Hill expert surveys on party positioning

This research note reports on the 2002 and 2006 Chapel Hill expert surveys (CHES), which measure national party positioning on European integration, ideology, and several European Union (EU) and non‐EU policies. The reliability of expert judgments is examined and the CHES data are cross‐validated with data from the Comparative Manifesto Project, the 2003 Benoit‐Laver expert survey and the 2002 Rohrschneider‐Whitefield survey. The dataset is available on the CHES website.     

Jail-house Rock: Cuba, AIDS, and the Incorporation of Dissent in Bengt Norborg's Socialism or Death

Abstract — The demerits and merits of Cuba's quarantine facilities for AIDS patients and seropositives have been widely debated. This article expands the debate by referring to the phenomenon of HIV self-injection in Cuba, as documented in the 1995 film, Socialism or Death. There is an assessment of the economic, medical, and educational context which informed the events depicted by the film. HIV self-injection is discussed alongside reference to the development in Cuba of a counter-cultural youth movement based around a common interest in rock music. The testimony of self-injected patients and their families, and the reactions of Cuban medical officials are summarised. Comparisons are made between Cuban policy and radical queer theory.     

Changing the Conversation: Can the Phone Hacking Scandal Lead to a New Covenant on Media Responsibilities?

This article examines the implications of the 2011 phone hacking scandal for press freedom in the United Kingdom. Specifically, it argues that the language of rights has too long dominated public discourse, which has led to discussion of media responsibilities being evaded. The article argues that there is now an opportunity for a radical restructuring of the relationship between the press, the public, and the political system that restores the media to their rightful role as a watchdog on government and steward of the people. It points to the need for independent regulation of the press and a statutory right of reply as means through which the relationship between media and citizen can be recast on the grounds of obligation and responsibility but argues that it is only when we move away from a framework grounded in rights to one grounded in responsibilities that meaningful change can flourish.     

A POLITICAL THREAT MODEL OF INTERGROUP VIOLENCE: JEWS IN PRE–WORLD WAR II GERMANY*

Research often links minority group size and economic conditions with levels of intergroup violence, in line with facets of group threat and structural theories of intergroup crime. Building on the group threat perspective, we investigate the political antecedents of intergroup violence. This work tests the theoretical premise that violence against minority groups increases with the strength of political parties associated with minority group interests, independent of group size and economic conditions. This model is tested empirically for the case of violence against Jews in pre–World War II Germany, where Jews constituted a small proportion of the German population but were often associated with the leadership of the political left. Findings suggest that the gross domestic product and Jewish population size did not have predicted effects on major violent incidents against Jews. It was in fact the rising strength of leftist political parties that ignited anti‐Semitic violence. Other venues where this model could be applied are proposed, and the findings are discussed in the context of intergroup violence and theories emphasizing minority group threat.     

What Happens When House Members “Run with Congress”? The Electoral Consequences of Institutional Loyalty

This article characterizes the electoral consequences of messages of institutional loyalty and disloyalty sent by incumbent House members to their constituents. We show that, for the contemporary House, there is variation in these messages—not all incumbents in the contemporary House “run for Congress by running against Congress.” Moreover, we show that these messages can, under the right conditions, have significant electoral consequences, even after controlling for party affiliation and district political factors. In addition to demonstrating the electoral relevance of legislators' presentations, our results show an incumbent‐level link between constituents' trust in government and their voting behavior—a link created by interaction between constituents' perceptions, legislators' party affiliations, and the messages that legislators send to their constituents.