Crime and Sex in South Australia

Policing Images: Policing, Communication, and Legitimacy. Rob C. Mawby. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing, 2002. ISBN 1–903240 71–9. Hardback US $55.00. 214 pages.

Armed Robbery. Roger Mathews. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing, 2002. ISBN 1–903240–61–1. 162 pages.     

Post-Hospital Medical Respite Care and Hospital Readmission of Homeless Persons

Medical respite programs offer medical, nursing, and other care as well as accommodation for homeless persons discharged from acute hospital stays. They represent a community-based adaptation of urban health systems to the specific needs of homeless persons. This article examines whether post-hospital discharge to a homeless medical respite program was associated with a reduced chance of 90-day readmission compared to other disposition options. Adjusting for imbalances in patient characteristics using propensity scores, respite patients were the only group that was significantly less likely to be readmitted within 90 days compared to those released to Own Care. Respite programs merit attention as a potentially efficacious service for homeless persons leaving the hospital.     

“The past,present, and the perhaps’ is Germany a “normal” power?

Thomas Banchoff, The German Problem Transformed. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999).

Thomas U. Berger, Cultures of Antimilitarism: National Security in Germany and Japan. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998).

John S. Duffield, World Power Forsaken. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998); Christian Hacke, Die Aussenpolitik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Weltmacht wider Willen? 3rd ed. (Berlin: Ullstein, 1997).

Peter Katzenstein, ed., Tamed Power: Germany in Europe. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997).

Andrei Markovits and Simon Reich, The German Predicament: Memory and Power in the New Europe. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997).

Elizabeth Pond, The Rebirth of Europe. (Washington, D.C.: Brookings, 1999).

James Sperling, “Neither Hegemony nor Dominance: Reconsidering German Power in Post‐Cold War Europe,” British Journal of Political Science (forthcoming).     

Managing Military Transformations: Agency,Culture, and the U.S. Carrier Revolution

The marketplace of ideas within a mature democracy such as the United States is supposed to fairly reliably vet foreign policies through open, wide-ranging debate. It is widely recognized that the U.S. marketplace of ideas failed during the 2002-03 debate over going to war in Iraq. Examinations of this market failure have emphasized executive powers and public fear after 9/11 as the main reasons threat inflation succeeded; I show neither explains this case. The majority opposition was silenced throughout early 2002 and ultimately defeated in a struggle over the Iraq War Resolution by pressures to be patriotic. I contend that this silencing patriotism should not be considered ordinary patriotism for a democracy as it is anti-democratic. I discuss how two critical norms of behavior which silence debate of national security policies and cause deference to the executive branch on war powers became established as part of the militarized political culture that took root in the United States during the Cold War. Thus these norms, enforced by what I term to be militarized patriotism left over from the Cold War, silenced debate over Iraq and led to the failure of the marketplace of ideas.     

Interests over norms in western policy towards the Caucasus: How Abkhazia is no one's Kosovo

The potentially numerous cases of ‘genocide’ around the world can now invoke the precedent of NATO's use of military force for humanitarian purposes against Serbia in spring 1999. Such a claim was suggested by Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze over Georgia's disputed former autonomous republic of Abkhazia. The conflict over this former ‘Soviet Riviera’ again demonstrates the constraints behind gaining accurate information on the causes and consequences of a conflict. Particularly, it illustrates the difficulty of determining what constitutes ‘genocide’ and against whom, as both the Abkhaz and the displaced Georgians make such claims. On that basis, each party can expect ‐ and equally fear ‐ a NATO‐style military intervention. In the event, even if both sides view themselves as victims of ‘genocide’ and entitled to such intervention, Western perceptions of strategic interests in the Caucasus prevent this scenario. The determination of injustices, quite apart from their redress, goes unanswered.     

Executing priority national development in indonesia: Program innovation of the junior minister

In the process of Indonesia's administrative reform and conduct of its planned development efforts, several innovative measures evolved in its executive structure. One of these was the use of temporary organizational entities to expedite the achievement of development goals where sectors/programs of the national development plan encompass two or more executive agencies and/or levels of governments. In organizational design, the executive problem is the reconciliation between responsibility and authority with the purpose of achieving maximum technical efficiency in the execution of priority development programs. As an organizational device to deal with this problem, the offices of six junior ministers were established. By employing the technique of executive authority in rank, these ministers, heading temporary agencies organized in terms of program responsibility as specified in the development plan and as approved by the cabinet, have become the organizational means by which to integrate all of the disparate project activities vested in the executive line agencies in productive organizational cores. Should this organizational innovation prove successful, it will be one of the more important organizational contributions in recent years to the execution of centrally planned development programs in a developing society.     

The layfield report: Constitutional implications

Control and Power in Central‐Local Government Relations, R. A. W. Rhodes, Gower, 1981, pp. 194, £11.50.

Power, Property and Corporatism: The Political Sociology of Planning, James Simmie, Macmillan, 1981, pp. 348, £15.00 hardback, £6.95 paperback.

Policy and Politics in Britain: The Limits of Consensus, Douglas E. Ashford, Basil Blackwell, 1981, pp. 330, £12.00 hardback, £4.95 paperback.

Local Government in Britain, Tony Byrne, Penguin Books, 1981, pp. 347, £2.95.

International Handbook on Local Government Reorganization, Edited by Donald C. Rowat, Aldwych Press, 1980, pp.626, £27.50.     

Professional credentialing of american municipal managers: Searchings for national and cross-national experiences

Over the last several decades, American managers have not performed well. Municipal managers are no exception. Although considerable attention has been given to the need of strengthening upper levels of municipal management, the results have been disappointing. Too often these positions are filled by rank amateurs. The nation can no longer afford the cost of amateur managers.

Professional credentialing is proposed as a basic way to correct the situation. The discussion searches national and cross-national experiences in credentialing. It singles out Irish, Australian and American public school experiences as to possible developmental programs in this vital area.