公共选择的未来前景

公共选择理论是一门新的分支学科,它位于经济学、政治学、社会学等学科的交叉领域,目前公共选择研究的中心在美国乔治.梅森大学(George Mason University,USA),该校公共选择研究中心(Center for Study of Public Choice,GMU,USA)前任主任Roger D.Congleton教授师从诺贝尔经济学奖得主JamesM.Buchanan,在公共选择和公共财政研究领域有很深的造诣。Roger D.Congleton在第6届国际公共选择研究大会(日本,2002年7月21日)上的论文:The Future of Public Choice,系统地介绍了这一新兴分支学科的未来发展方向,指出公共选择理论在局部领域已经取得许多成果,今后最可能实施的研究课题将深化现存的研究分式和方法论基础,在基本不改变基础性结论的同时扩展研究模型。     

Jock Young (1942-2013)

More than any other criminologist of his generation, Jock Young shaped the nature and direction of the discipline and has been at the forefront of almost every major development in the sociology of crime and deviance over the past four decades. Revered and respected for his scholarly activities, he will also be remembered for his charisma, humour and famously warm and relaxed manner that inspired all those who knew and worked with him.     

The Liberal Peace at Home and Abroad: Northern Ireland and Liberal Internationalism

Northern Ireland, we are told, holds positive lessons for other societies emerging from violent conflict. As Britain is one of the leading proponents of liberal internationalism, this article considers whether the liberal internationalism pushed with so much enthusiasm abroad through British foreign policy has been applied with diligence at home—in the Northern Ireland peace process. The findings suggest that Northern Ireland is by no means a poster child for liberal internationalism. Instead, British government handling of the Northern Ireland peace process shows serious deviations from the liberal internationalist canon. This article argues that liberal peace-lite has been tolerated and facilitated at home, while a stricter variant is often expected in overseas contexts.     

Mediation in disputes between municipal governments

Emerging forms of intergovernmental management include roles for neutrals in a range of problem solving and conflict management situations. Third party intergovernmental mediation has been used to settle adversarial municipal boundary disputes in Virginia since 1980. Settlements fashioned through mediated negotiations are responsive to local officialst concerns. This paper reports on this innovation.     

Reducing criminal recidivism: evaluation of Citizenship, an evidence-based probation supervision process

‘Citizenship’ is a structured probation supervision program based on ‘what works’ principles, designed for offenders on community orders or licenses supervised within the UK National Probation Service. The program was evaluated using survival analysis comparing the reconvictions of a cohort of all offenders in one probation area eligible for Citizenship over a 2-year period (n = 3,819) with those of a retrospective cohort of all eligible offenders in the same probation area receiving ‘traditional’ probation supervision (n = 2,110), controlling for risk related factors. At the 2-year stage, 50% of offenders in the comparison group had reoffended compared to 41% in the experimental group, and the difference between the survival curves was statistically significant. The hazard ratio was 0.69, which represents a 31% reduction in reconvictions in the experimental group over the proportion in the comparison group at any given time. Time to violation of a supervision order or post custody license was also statistically significantly longer in the experimental group. A key element of the program, promoting contact with community support agencies, was statistically significantly related to reduced reoffending in the Citizenship group. The overall effects remained after controlling for differences in risk scores although effectiveness varied by risk level. Contrary to other ‘what works’ research findings, the program was found to be most effective across the low–medium and medium–high risk thresholds, and was not effective with the highest risk group. This difference can be explained and is discussed in terms of risk, need, and responsivity principles. The Citizenship program was found to be cost-beneficial.