Topic Modeling the Research‐Practice Gap in Public Administration

The possible existence of a research‐practice gap is the topic of a long‐standing debate in the field of public administration. In this Viewpoint essay, the authors examine the agendas of scholars and practitioners using the topic modeling technique of computational social science. Topic modeling a content analysis of 35 topics identified in Public Administration Review and PA Times (3,796 articles) showed that just over 50 percent of topics were common to both groups, indicating shared interests. There were, however, topics that the two groups distinctly focused on. Moreover, scholars and practitioners attached significant differences to the weights allocated to the prominent topics in their writing. Taken together, these findings indicate that topic modeling can shed new light on the research‐practice gap in public administration.     

From human rights to human dignity

Abstract

Mainstream human rights ideas that most of us are familiar with today evolved from the European Enlightenment and the secularization of thought and society of the last 150 years. These ideas have contributed significantly to human civilization in at least four ways. One, they have endowed the individual with certain basic rights such as the right of free speech, the right of association, the right to a fair trial, and so on. Two, they have strengthened the position of the ordinary citizen against the arbitrariness of power. Three, they have expanded the space and scope for individual participation in public decision-making. Four, they have forced the state and authority in general to be accountable to the public.     

Problems and justifications of the theory of Drstisrsti

Journal of Indian Philosophy -     

DDR and transitional justice: bridging the divide?

This article explores the complex relationship between disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of ex-combatants (DDR) and transitional justice. While both DDR and transitional justice often operate simultaneously, neither process has traditionally been designed with the other in mind. In fact, they are often in tension or competition, pursuing competing demands and potentially drawing on the same scarce donor pools. While scholars and practitioners of transitional justice have become somewhat attuned to the presence of DDR processes in countries emerging from conflict, and the challenges and opportunities they present for transitional justice, we observe that by comparison, it is only fairly recently that DDR policies, if not programmes, have begun to take account of the demands and practice of transitional justice. We argue that while the activities of DDR and transitional justice may often be in tension, in some instances they might be designed to operate in a more complementary fashion. However, for this to even be conceivable, it is essential that scholars and practitioners of each seek to understand the work of the other better.     

High performance liquid chromatographic determination of alcohols with reference to body distribution of methanol.

A method has been developed on reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography for simultaneous determination of methyl, ethyl and isopropyl alcohols under refractive index detection using pure water as the mobile phase. A good separation has been achieved between these alcohols. Detector response was linear with a detection limit of 5 mg/100 ml. Recovery studies were performed by adding known amounts of methyl and ethyl alcohols to blood, lung and liver within the range 80-90%. The reproducibility of the results was always greater than 90%. The quantitative distribution of methyl alcohol in postmortem body tissues and fluids has been reported in three cases of poisoning.     

How MDMA flows across the USA: evidence from price data

This study uses wholesale prices of MDMA for 59 cities in the USA published by the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) over the period of 2002–2011 to identify trafficking patterns of MDMA. Price differentials and correlations between pairs of cities are used to infer the presence of a link and the direction of flow of MDMA. The presence of inward and outward links is used to categorise each city as a ‘source’, ‘destination’, ‘transit’, or ‘weakly integrated’ city. The analysis identified low prices close to the Canadian and Mexican borders, in a number of cities such as Chicago, Miami, New York City, a trio of cities in the Carolinas, and along the West Coast. A number of these cities are linked to large numbers of other cities, indicating hub- or source-like status. The findings generate insights into the status of major US cities in the MDMA trafficking network.     

Documents Received

Publications Received

Documents Received     

Indonesia and bilateral trade agreements (BTAs)

Abstract

This paper analyses the perspectives of Indonesian state and non-state actors towards their country's increasing tendency to use bilateral trade agreements (BTAs) as part of its foreign economic policy. Unlike the other original members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Indonesian government has been rather slow in pursuing a BTA policy with non-ASEAN member countries. Nevertheless, due to the proliferation of BTAs in other ASEAN countries' foreign economic policies, it was inevitable that Indonesia would pursue similar agreements with its non-ASEAN major trading partners. Despite this, it remains questionable whether Indonesia's participation in such trade agreements will produce such positive results for Indonesian economy. The attitude of the majority of Indonesian domestic constituents to date remains sceptical to this type of agreement. This is not only because BTAs create specific obligations on a range of issues, from trade and investment regimes, this trade strategy also involves deeper and more comprehensive commitments that those agreed at the multilateral level.