Games borrower governments play: the implementation of economic adjustment programmes in Cyprus and Portugal

Research on the Economic Adjustment Programmes (EAPs) for Eurozone crisis countries has so far acknowledged the role of creditor countries and Troika institutions or has examined the economic effects or structural determinants of domestic implementation processes. The role of borrower governments as strategic actors within the ‘Troika complex’ has been neglected. Taking Cyprus and Portugal as cases in point, the article shows how reform-oriented borrower governments used the interaction with the Troika to overcome veto player opposition to programme implementation. Drawing on the two-level game and on negotiation theory, the study discusses borrower strategies in response to opposition from the court or parliament, and the costs of no agreement. Reform-oriented governments mostly used commitments to the international level or Troika pressure to pursue coercive strategies vis-à-vis domestic opponents. High costs of no agreement seem to be a necessary means to pass on political and market pressure through coercion.     

Material forces and the force of ideas: Interview with Robert Gilpin

The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT) is an innovative, multi-pronged action aimed at enhancing the domestic capacities of a state, as well as its ability to interconnect internationally and to deal with the risk of a terrorist attack involving nuclear or radioactive materials. The GICNT, a joint US-Russian initiative, has now evolved into an informal network of over 70 countries. It pursues an objective of boosting the protection, detection, prosecution and response capabilities of a state by fostering cooperation on three levels: between a government and its agencies; between government and the private sector; and between like-minded states. Given its comprehensive approach to the nuclear terrorism threat, the initiative has great potential. Nevertheless, structural flaws such as the absence of any evaluation mechanism and the exclusion of military-related nuclear materials and sites are likely to make its impact far less global than expected.     

The devil is in the shadow. Do institutions affect income and productivity or only official income and official productivity?

This paper assesses the relationship between institutions, output, and productivity when official output is corrected for the size of the shadow economy. Our results confirm the usual positive impact of institutional quality on official output and total factor productivity, and its negative impact on the size of the underground economy. However, once output is corrected for the shadow economy, the relationship between institutions and output becomes weaker. The impact of institutions on total (“corrected”) factor productivity becomes insignificant. Differences in corrected output must then be attributed to differences in factor endowments. These results survive several tests for robustness.     

Prevalence and correlates of psychopathic traits in the household population of Great Britain

There are no previous surveys of psychopathy and psychopathic traits in representative general population samples using standardized instruments. This study aimed to measure prevalence and correlates of psychopathic traits, based on a two-phase survey using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL: SV) in 638 individuals, 16–74 years, in households in England, Wales and Scotland. The weighted prevalence of psychopathy was 0.6% (95% CI: 0.2–1.6) at a cut score of 13, similar to the noncriminal/nonpsychiatric sample described in the manual of the PCL: SV. Psychopathy scores correlated with: younger age, male gender; suicide attempts, violent behavior, imprisonment and homelessness; drug dependence; histrionic, borderline and adult antisocial personality disorders; panic and obsessive–compulsive disorders. This survey demonstrated that, as measured by the PCL: SV, psychopathy is rare, affecting less than 1% of the household population, although it is prevalent among prisoners, homeless persons, and psychiatric admissions. There is a half-normal distribution of psychopathic traits in the general population, with the majority having no traits, a significant proportion with non-zero values, and a severe subgroup of persons with multiple associated social and behavioral problems. This distribution has implications for research into the etiology of psychopathy and its implications for society.     

“‘I have done it and I have got to die’: Coroners' inquests of abortion deaths in Rhode Island, 1876–1938.”

This article offers an analysis of abortion deaths among white working-class women in Providence County based on thirty-three coroners records from 1876 to 1938. Most women were single and in their twenties: they chose abortion either because their lover was married, or they were too ashamed of their premarital sexual activity to confront their parents. Married women, on the other hand, did so primarily due to economic factors, extramarital affairs, or a strong desire for no more children. In seeking abortions, single women depended on lovers while married women relied on sisters or sisters-in-law. In investigating the deaths resulting from these abortions, coroners called husbands, but not lovers, before the inquests and sought out antemortem statements. Yet only 39% of cases had dying declarations: either doctors refused to participate in interrogating women on their death beds, or women refused to identify abortionists. Of the abortion providers identified, 45% were physicians. Working-class status did not prevent these women, and later their families, from securing expensive medical care from doctors. Both inquests and newspaper coverage in Providence County differ from studies by other scholars who find these venues used as mechanisms to embarrass women and warn single women of urban threats, and to target midwives over physicians. The evidence points to analogous handling of doctors and laypeople, and of married and single women. No intimate details of women's lives were exposed and newspapers did not use sensationalized headlines to draw attention to the illegal activity of abortion. Coroner inquests asked questions necessary to investigate death from a criminal activity, not to take a moral stance on female sexuality.     

Detection of drugs in clothing]

The presence of drugs excreted from the body with the perspiration (without stimulation of the sweat glands) and deposed in the linens, was investigated. Linens were obtained from addicts and from smokers. The investigations demonstrated that cocaine, nicotine, cotinine and methadone excreted with the sweat are deposed in the linens. The drugs measurements were performed by radioimmunoassay and revealed by GC/MS.     

Use of polymerase chain reaction of the HLA-DQ alpha system in forensic trace analysis]

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can be used for genetic typing of minute amounts of biological stains. This is achieved by in vitro amplification of a well-defined and genetically polymorphic human genomic DNA sequence. Using the HLA-DQ alpha system, a population study was carried out among 212 unrelated individuals of German origin. The usefulness of this system is discussed by presenting examples of its application in forensic casework, i.e. the analysis of mixed (male/female) body fluids as well as segregation studies on embryonic and paraffin-embedded tissue samples.     

Same Menu, Seperate Tables: The Institutionalist Turn in Political Science and the Study of European Integration

Recent research on European integration has largely profited from the institutionalist turn in political science. Theoretical progress has, however, been hampered by the diverse understandings of this new research tradition. This paper tries to tackle the conceptual diversity in a positive way. We first analyze the neo–institutionalist turn in political science and European studies and then move on to a detailed analysis and comparison of the three competing approaches — sociological, historical, and rational choice institutionalism. Next, we will show that the main differences are as much epistemological as theoretical. A convergence towards a unifying institutionalist approach can thus only be possible if some sort of a methodological convergence takes place. We sketch how a synthesis between the competing schools might appear.     

Presence of methadone in apocrine sweat of the human

The presence of methadone was investigated in 24-h perspiration samples obtained from patients receiving daily maintenance doses of the drug. The samples were collected from the axillary region. The concentrations measured by radioimmunoassay ranged from 8.3 ng/cm2 per 24 h up to 25.3 ng/cm2 per 24 h. The concentrations determined by RIA are the sum of methadone and its metabolites. The presence of the drug in the perspiration samples were also revealed by GC/MS.