How pre‐ and postrecruitment factors shape role perceptions of European Commission officials

Individuals' role perceptions are central guides to their behavior and choices as members of an organization. Understanding organizational dynamics thus requires knowledge about the determinants of such role perceptions, as well as whether—and when—organizations can influence them. This article brings forward a theoretical framework allowing for both prerecruitment (extraorganizational) and post‐recruitment (intraorganizational) determinants of individuals' role perceptions, and examines its empirical implications using a large‐N data set of temporary officials in the European Commission. We find that intergovernmental and epistemic role perceptions are strongly linked to pre‐recruitment factors (such as educational and professional background), whereas postrecruitment factors (such as length of affiliation and embeddedness within the Commission) are the main driving force behind supranational and departmental role perceptions. This heterogeneity in the importance of pre‐ and postrecruitment factors for distinct role perceptions has important consequences for conceptualizing organizational change.     

The African renaissance and the Caribbean

In May 2010 South African President Jacob Zuma will have been in office for one year. During this time, the Zuma administration has been far less ambitious in its foreign policy than previous administrations. However, South Africa is not in a position where it is able to withdraw from foreign engagement, as regional issues — such as Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Swaziland — continue to demand attention. The Zuma administration's approach in the future, in terms of both substance and style, will need to be informed by lessons from past engagement, including South African peacekeeping efforts in countries such as the DRC and Burundi, and South African mediation efforts in countries such as Angola, Côte d'Ivoire and the Comoros. Certainly, South Africa's record of success in taking on international responsibilities over the past 10 years has been mixed, but there is scope for past experience to shape future engagement positively. Indications of this can be seen, for example, in Zuma's efforts to redress former President Thabo Mbeki's clumsy mediation efforts in Angola by deciding to make his first state visit as South Africa's president to Luanda. Zuma's approach to Zimbabwe could build on the foundation set by Mbeki's long engagement with that country.     

Tackling Ill-Treatment in Places of Detention: The Work of the Council of Europe’s “Torture Committee”

The article examines the working methods and effectiveness of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the CPT) which, since 1990, has been carrying out visits to places of detention. It also examines the impact the Committee has had upon European standards and expectations, and, in particular, upon the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, and raises certain issues in respect of the establishment of the United Nation’s Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of the Committee against Torture. This article draws upon material to be published in The Treatment of Prisoners: European Standards (Council of Europe Press: 2006).     

Conditional openness: young people define practices for successful child protection interventions

Taking the reforms of child protection legislation that have occurred since the 1980s as a backdrop, this paper considers young people’s perspectives on the factors that facilitated their engagement with child protection services and the barriers they perceived to effective service delivery. Drawing on findings from a New Zealand study of young people’s experience of multiple service use (child protection, mental health, youth justice and remedial education), the paper identifies that that rather than being ‘resistant’ or ‘hostile’ to statutory child protection intervention, young people reported a ‘conditional openness’. This conditional openness was characterised by three themes: communication; continuity and consistency; and contextual and cultural responsiveness. Interventions with these characteristics activated this conditional openness allowing effective interventions to occur. Using a series of case studies, comprising interviews and agency case file records; the paper considers the experiences of 109 young people (12–17 years) as well as those of the ‘person most knowledgeable;’ an adult nominated by young people because they knew the young person’s situation well.     

Tax morale and (de-)centralization: An experimental study

We consider an economy composed of two regions. Each of them provides a public good whose benefits reach beyond local boundaries. In case of decentralization, taxes collected by members of a region are spent only on that region's public good. In case of centralization, tax receipts from the two regions are pooled and used to finance both public goods according to the population size of each region. The experiment shows that centralization induces lower tax morale and less efficient outcomes. The reasons are that centralization gives rise to an interregional incentive problem and creates inequalities in income between regions.     

以关系为视角的加拿大原住民司法

司法除了应该及时保护社会外,还需要包涵以下目标:使得加害人在情感层面上了解犯罪所造成的损害不止发生在被害人一个人身上,与被害人有关的每个人都会受到伤害;确定加害人生活中的哪些不和谐因素导致了犯罪,并且为加害人努力塑造其他各种关系来减少重复犯罪的可能;寻求途径使得加害人和被害人双方都能摆脱受损的关系,因为在犯罪发生后他们都被束缚在了受损关系上.可见,关系模式中对加害人的惩罚和刑事司法制度中的惩罚,二者基础不同.后者的基础是与犯罪行为的社会危害性程度相适应的刑罚,而不考虑加害人对自身罪行的理解和悔罪程度.而在关系模式中,惩罚的重点在情感层面,惩罚的基础是悔罪.一旦用关系的视角看待犯罪,便开始重新审视西方刑事司法系统的一些基本理念,它们没有我们一直以为的那样精致.