Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) and Interstate Conflict: Parsing Out IGO Effects for Alternative Dimensions of Conflict in Postcommunist Space

While the relationship between intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and conflict has captured the attention of international relations scholars for decades, the empirical results of this research agenda have presented contradictory conclusions regarding the pacifying effect normally attributed to IGOs. We address these contradictions by refocusing primarily on potential IGO effects on low-severity conflicts. We examine new states in the postcommunist space spanning Europe and Central Asia as a useful research site to explore these relationships in the post-Cold War era. We argue that especially in the case of newly emerging states, where there is little institutional memory and long-term experience in foreign affairs, IGOs expose differential policy preferences between members, and such information should be associated with the likelihood of increased low levels of conflict. We find a strong association between shared IGO membership and low severity conflict, a significant relationship between low and high severity conflict, and differences between IGO membership effects on low versus high severity conflict, consistent with our theoretical argument.     

Politics and the Public in Rawls' Political Liberalism

This paper is a critical discussion of a number of related themes in John Rawls' Political Liberalism. First, it considers whether Rawls' recent statement of his position proceeds from an adequate methodology for political theory. In particular, it questions whether Rawls has succeeded in accommodating both universalist, analytic and particularist, interpretive aspects of the political theoretical enterprise. Second, it engages in critical analysis of the conceptions of the political and the public which lie at the core of Rawls' theory. In this part of the paper, an important though not exclusive focus will be certain questions raised by Susan Moller Okin and other feminist critics of Rawls about the internal consistency of his conception of justice. It is argued that Political Liberalism neither addresses these questions explicitly nor, contrary to Okin's view, provides implicit conceptual tools which could allow a sympathetic interpreter of Rawls to do so. The direction of the argument will suggest certain preconditions for the development of a more substantively and methodologically adequate approach to political theory.     

Social,Academic, and Behavioral Competence of Depressed Children: Relationship to Diagnostic Status and Family Interaction Style

This study compared the social adjustment and academic performance of 15 psychiatrically hospitalized children with depression to 14 children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and 20 normal community children, ages 7–14. The relationship between children's interpersonal and academic competence and the quality of direct family interactions was also examined. Analyses revealed an association between children's adaptive functioning and both diagnostic status and family transactional processes, as assessed by two 10-minute conflict-solving tasks. Major findings were as follows: (a) depressed children and children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders received similarly low ratings of social competence in comparison to normal controls; (b) academic performance of depressed children was similar to normal controls and better than children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders; and (c) children with poorer social competence and more behavioral problems were more likely to have parents who showed negative affect during family problem-solving tasks. The implications of these results for understanding the relationship between psychiatric impairment and children's social and academic development were discussed.     

Implementing the Contract State

The term 'contract state' can capture three different types of contractual arrangements:
*employment contracts
*intra public sector service contracts (often used in the health and education fields)
*public-private service contracts or outsourcing.
Victoria, since the election of the Kennett government in 1992, has engaged in all three, but in particular, public sector change has been characterised by significant outsourcing. This article outlines the extent of outsourcing in Victorian state and local government, the managerial challenges of a contract state, and the need for continuous reflection on, and improvement of, the reform process.     

The Impact of Electoral Reform on the Public Service: The New Zealand Case

October 1996 marked the beginning of a new era in New Zealand politics, with the advent of a system of proportional representation based on the German model. This article explores the impact of electoral reform on the public service. First, it summarises the extensive public sector reforms during the mid-to-late 1980s and considers the preparations undertaken by the public service for proportional representation. Second, it outlines the concerns and expectations about the likely consequences of the new electoral system on the bureaucracy. Third, against this background, the article examines the extent to which the public service has been affected by electoral reform. It is argued that despite some notable changes to the political environment within which officials operate, the overall impact of proportional representation on the public service to date has been modest. The analysis presented here is based on a series of interviews conducted during 1997 with ministers, senior public servants, ministerial advisers and parliamentary officials, along with a range of secondary sources.