Providing rural credit in southern India: A comparison of commercial banks and cooperatives

This paper contrasts the recent experiences of two different institutions in providing credit and savings facilities in the countryside of Tamil Nadu, southern India. Ever since the late-1960s, there has been a rising demand for credit to finance investment in agriculture. This has been reinforced by Government policy over the last two decades, and especially since 1980, to provide credit both to priority activities, including agriculture, and to disadvantaged rural groups. Part of that policy has been to encourage the commercial banks to offer services in the countryside, alongside the previously well-developed network of cooperatives offering formal rural credit. The commercial banks have had considerable success in expanding their network of branches, and in increasing bank deposits and loans in rural areas. Operating as corporate bureaucracies, the banks have been able to expand without being crippled in the process. On the other hand, their institutional strength has meant that Government credit policy has been implemented cautiously. The agricultural credit cooperatives, no newcomers to the countryside, have still to fulfil their long-declared function of providing short-term credit for crop production to the majority of agricultural households. Loan recovery by the cooperatives has been weak. The cooperatives have suffered partly from the internal contradictions inherent in any cooperative structure imposed upon the peasantry, from major flaws in the organizational structure of Tamil Nadu cooperatives, as well as from the increasing appropiation of the cooperatives for party political ends. The contrasting experiences of the two different institutions in providing rural credit illustrate how policy applied through different institutions can produce quite different outcomes. They also demonstrate how changes in the socio-political environment, neither immediately obvious nor predictable, can critically affect policy results.     

Depression,Suicidal Ideation,and Substance Use Among Continuation High School Students

This study examines the structural relationships among depression, suicidal ideation, gateway substance use (including cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana), and hard substance use (including cocaine, stimulants, and inhalants) in a sample of continuation high school students at high risk for drug abuse. When the model was examined separately by ethnic group (Latino and Caucasian) and gender, significant differences among the factor correlations emerged. Compared to Latinos and females, Caucasians and males, respectively, demonstrated a greater number of significant relationships among the factors. For Latinos and females, only the depression and suicidal ideation factors were significantly correlated with each other, as were the gateway and hard substance use factors. For Caucasians and males, four of the six factors were significantly intercorrelated. One implication is that mood enhancement may be a particularly important reason for hard substance use among Caucasian and male adolescents.     

Longitudinal Relations Among Depression,Stress, and Coping in High Risk Youth

The structural relationships among risk and protective factors were examined in a sample of 646 continuation high school students. Although depression predicted more perceived stress, it was not a unique predictor of anger coping, seeking social support, or substance use. Perceived stress increased seeking social support. Seeking social support decreased the utilization of anger coping, which suggests that it may be a means of prevention for adolescents. Anger coping behaviors were implicated as being significant in sustaining depression and perceived stress, and in increasing hard drug use over time. Moderation analysis indicated that although there was no difference in the stress–coping–depression relationship between Latinos and Caucasians, the relationship among perceived stress, anger coping, and depression was stronger for female than for male adolescents. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Cold War counter-terrorism: the evolution of international counter-terrorism in the RCMP Security Service, 1972–1984

This piece provides a detailed case study of the evolution of counter-terrorism within a specific domestic security agency of a liberal-democratic state in the context of the Cold War. It does so by examining the creation of a counter-terrorism unit within Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police Security Service and how it responded to international terrorism. This occurred in between major terrorist attacks in Canada in 1970 and 1985 and included a growing focus on counter-terrorism even as counter-subversion remained a top priority within a still dominant Cold War domestic security framework. Ultimately, the article, based on thousands of pages of previously secret documents, argues that the Security Service could conceive of in a broader strategic sense the threat of terrorism but found it more challenging, for a variety of reasons, including the dominance of the Cold War and the difficulties around infiltrating ethnic communities, to collect intelligence.     

How Can Subnational Governments Deliver Their Policy Objectives in the Age of Austerity? Reshaping Homelessness Policy in Wales

This article explores how a devolved government in a small country, faced with external constraints beyond its immediate control, can deploy policy resources to shape a distinctive approach to public services. We analyse recent homelessness policy in Wales using the NATO (Nodality, Authority, Treasure, Organisation) typology of tools of government proposed by Hood and Margetts, and show how this can be applied usefully to understand the choices that governments must make in conducting relationships with other institutions. We conclude that a combination of Nodality and Authority provide powerful resources for a subnational government which has only limited formal powers and fiscal autonomy.     

A COMMENT ON WILLIAM J. HOWE AND HUGH MCISAAC'S ARTICLE “FINDING THE BALANCE” PUBLISHED IN THE JANUARY 2008 ISSUE OF FAMILY COURT REVIEW

This article is a response to an article written by William Howe and Hugh McIsaac that questions their recommendations that court‐based mediation not be used when certain types of persons appear in court. We assert that it will be very difficult for the court to identify these people. Further, we argue that mediation practice has advanced so far that even these persons (those with serious issues of domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental health) should be given an opportunity to participate in mediation before being referred to the adversarial court process.