The status of women police officers: An international review

This paper reports on a survey of English-language police department websites, annual reports and other reports in order to identify key aspects of the status of women police internationally. Findings are reported for England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Eire, the United States, Canada, Australia (eight departments), New Zealand, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, and Fiji. Data on the proportion of female officers were available from 18 of 23 locations, with a range between 5.1% and 28.8%. Recruit numbers were available for six locations, and ranged between 26.6% and 37.0%. Limited data on rank and deployment indicated overall improvements. Available longer-term trend data suggested that growth in female officers was slowing or levelling out. Overall, the study showed an urgent need to improve gender-based statistics in order to better inform strategies aimed at maximising the participation of women in policing.     

No end to poverty

This commentary is designed to provide a critique of Jeffrey Sachs' The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It Happen In Our Lifetime, highlighting in particular the difficulties that arise from his focus on absolute poverty and his proposed recipe for its elimination. It begins by emphasising the many strengths of Sachs' arguments, but then suggests that these could usefully be tempered by greater attention to relative conceptualisations of poverty and the ethical grounds upon which his arguments are based. Six main issues are subsequently addressed: his use of the notion of a ladder of development; his concentration on countries rather than people; his understandings of geography and of history; his relative lack of attention to social and cultural dimensions of development; the inability of poor countries to absorb the levels of aid that he proposes; and the damage caused by suggesting that it is indeed possible to end poverty.     

Book reviews

Research on the impact of parties on public policy, and on immigration policy in particular, often finds limited evidence of partisan influence. In this paper, we examine immigration policy-making in the UK coalition government. Our case provides evidence that parties in government can have more of an impact on policy than previous studies acknowledge, but this only becomes apparent when we open up the ‘black box’ between election outcomes and policy outputs. By examining how, when and why election pledges are turned into government policies, we show that partisan influence depends not only on dynamics between the coalition partners, but how these dynamics interact with interdepartmental conflicts and lobbying by organised interests. In-depth process tracing allows us to see these complex dynamics, which easily get lost in large-n comparisons of pledges and outputs, let alone outcomes.     

The composite approach: Research design in the context of war and armed conflict

Researching in contexts affected by armed conflict presents many challenges beyond those normally encountered by social scientists. Focusing on these special difficulties has, in the past, often obstructed the task of understanding the methods that are applicable to situations of armed conflict. This paper aims to suggest a means of rectification. First, it introduces some of the particular issues that relate to field research under conditions of armed conflict and, second, it suggests a possible strategic approach to mitigating these. Overall, it is argued that a creative combination of different methods and techniques, broadly termed 'the composite approach', represents the most effective way of dealing with the challenges that working in a conflict-affected situation presents.     

The new international financial architecture and Caribbean ofcs: Confronting financial stability discourse

This article examines the role and force of international finance in contemporary capitalism and the norms being established by international financial governance structures. More than the matter of exclusion, the article argues that financial stability discourse girding issues related to the nature of capital market liberalisation, terrorist financing, money laundering and tax evasion attempts to suture over, erase and/or render illegitimate ideational resistance—particularly by offshore financial centres (ofcs) of the global South. The ongoing experience of the English-speaking Caribbean ofcs is discussed as local operatives have long been simultaneously framing as well as resisting Anglo-American insistence on a new configuration of market ethics, norms and sociality in the virtual world of ‘shores’ and high finance. This adds to the emerging body of work seeking to discursively unpack financialisation.     

Control versus consent in community-based long-term care services: the role of economic empowerment

Professor Kapp responds to the article in this issue by Safewright and McAuley. He discusses the use of economic empowerment as a public policy strategy that is essential to a meaningful consideration of enhancing consumer autonomy and choice within the context of publicly-funded home and community-based long term care programs.     

Book reviews

COMPANY LAW by Mary C. Oliver, (1967), published by MacDonald & Evans Ltd,, at 12s. 6d.

A CASEBOOK ON TORT by Tony Weir, published by Sweet and Maxwell Ltd. (1967). Bound: £3.17.6d. Paperback: £2. 2. Od.

PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW by Ian Brownlie, (1966), published by Oxford University Press, at 63/‐.

THE LAW OF CONTRACT by G. H. Treitel, Second Edition (1966) published by Stevens & Sons Ltd. Bound £3. 17. 6. Paperback £1. 18. 6,

CASEBOOK ON MERCANTILE LAW by E.R. Hardy Ivamy (1967) published by Butterworths: at 25s.

“COMMERCIAL LAW OF SCOTLAND”, by Campbell B. Burns, published by William Hodge & Company Limited, (1966), at 42/‐

BRITAIN AND EUROPE: AN INDUSTRIAL APPRAISAL, vol. 1. by the Confederation of British Industry (1966), published by C.B.I, at 10s.     

The importance of policy design fit for effectiveness: a qualitative comparative analysis of policy integration in regional transport planning

Policy Sciences - Policy design has returned as a central topic in public policy research. An important area of policy design study deals with effectively attaining desired policy outcomes by...