Internationalisation of the Public Sector

This article argues a case for exporting government services in cases where the public sector has relevant expertise and can operate within acceptable risks. Drawing on Victorian experience, it suggests structures and procedures for effective operation in international markets.     

OVERSIGHT AND COMPETITION IN PROFIT VS NONPROFIT CONTRACTS FOR HOME CARE

The paper reports the experience of the State of Illinois using proprietary and nonproprietary vendors to provide in-home services to the elderly. The analysis suggests proprietary vendors were associated with a significant increase in service costs when vendors were allowed to determine service needs of clients. However, such differences disappeared as the state implemented effortso increase political oversight and competition.     

The influence of brain abnormalities on psychosocial development, criminal history and paraphilias in sexual murderers

The aim of this study was to investigate the number and type of brain abnormalities and their influence on psychosocial development, criminal history and paraphilias in sexual murderers. We analyzed psychiatric court reports of 166 sexual murderers and compared a group with notable signs of brain abnormalities (N = 50) with those without any signs (N = 116). Sexual murderers with brain abnormalities suffered more from early behavior problems. They were less likely to cohabitate with the victim at the time of the homicide and had more victims at the age of six years or younger. Psychiatric diagnoses revealed a higher total number of paraphilias: Transvestic fetishism and paraphilias not otherwise specified were more frequent in offenders with brain abnormalities. A binary logistic regression identified five predictors that accounted for 46.8% of the variance explaining the presence of brain abnormalities. Our results suggest the importance of a comprehensive neurological and psychological examination of this special offender group.     

Hospice utilization: political, cultural, and legal issues

The provision of end-of-life care is considered a substantive part of nursing, and hospice is often considered the "gold standard" of optimal end-of-life care. Unfortunately, however, only an estimated 43% of patients eligible for hospice actually receive hospice services (Harrison, Ford, & Wilson, 2005). The purpose of this article is to describe the political cultural, and legal issues associated with the underutilization of hospice care. Specifically, this article will outline the policy issues for accessing hospice under Medicare and Medicaid, the cultural and social issues in hospice utilization, and the legal implications of these issues. In addition, this article will serve to offer initial solutions to the problems at hand in order to guide nurses in promoting effective, efficient, and realized access to hospice services.     

The Dual Discourse About Peruvian Domestic Workers in Santiago de Chile: Class, Race, and a Nationalist Project

This article examines the functions of the "dual discourse" about Peruvian migrant domestic workers in contemporary Santiago. A 2002 field study found that middle-class employers of Peruvian workers simultaneously praised them as superior workers and denigrated them as uneducated and uncivilized. While this response is not unique to Santiago, this study argues that it fulfilled particular ideological functions in this context. The praise served to discipline the Chilean working class, who middle-class employers claimed no longer knew their place. The epithets served as a foil for Chilean national identity. Stories about Peruvians serve as tools in ongoing ideological contestations over class, race, and nation in Chile and, at the same time, shape the working conditions and integration of the migrants themselves.     

The Social Security Administration's Death Master File: the completeness of death reporting at older ages

We examine the completeness of death reporting in the Social Security Administration's Death Master File (DMF) through comparison with deaths by year and age group reported in official U.S. vital statistics. For most years since 1973, results suggest that the DMF includes 93 percent to 96 percent of deaths of individuals aged 65 or older. Although studies have shown that the National Center for Health Statistics' National Death Index provides superior coverage of deaths, for many researchers the DMF may be a desirable choice. Some advantages of the Death Master File are discussed.     

On the Reasonableness of Compelling Citizens to 'Vote': the Australian Case

The legitimacy of compelling citizens to vote is rarely explored beyond claims about partisan benefit or infractions of liberty and democratic freedom of choice. Using the Australian model as a particularly successful and well administered case, I explore more deeply the issue of whether the state imposed obligation to vote is a legitimate one. The problem is approached via a number of questions, among them: Does compulsion have any properties that make it superior to a voluntary system? Does compulsion place an undue burden on voters? Is voting in the interests of individuals? Does voting do any good? Is there an obligation to vote? And, if so, to whom is the obligation owed?
I conclude that compulsion is reasonable because it yields collective (and ultimately individual) goods and protects a number of democratic, liberal and moral values. It is suggested that although there may be an obligation (but not a duty) to vote, this obligation is not owed to the state but rather to other citizens. An important effect of compulsory voting is its capacity to make voting a more 'rational' activity because it limits informational uncertainty and reduces opportunity costs. Compulsion removes most, if not all, the barriers to voting normally experienced by abstainers in voluntary systems. In doing so it releases or generates a variety of positive values, utilities and capabilities.     

Uniform State Law Adoptions in the American States: An Explanatory Analysis

No general explanation seems to distinguish popular from unpopularuniform state law proposals. Adoption appears to be a productof the timeliness of specific proposals rather than of the wisdomor "necessity" of the movement itself or of the purely technical,legal, or policy merits of individual proposals. Overall, thestates have not been highly responsive to uniform law proposals.The predominant factor discriminating high from low adoptingstates is political culture: moralistic states have, on average,the highest adoption rate; traditionalistic states have thelowest. This finding is plausible in terms of both the "goodcommonwealth" orientation of the moralistic political cultureand the "good government" orientation of many uniform law proposals.