Marketing good works: new trends in how interest groups recruit supporters

Charities or interest groups need to attract supporters, who offer both financial support and participation, to achieve their overall goal of influencing public affairs. They can use political marketing to help them attract and retain such supporters. Existing literature indicates they use marketing techniques such as direct mail to communicate to potential new supporters, but new research has discovered that the influence of political marketing is much more comprehensive. The most effective groups are now using political marketing to design the package they offer to supporters. They go through a four‐stage process. First, they conduct market intelligence to understand what supporters want from the organisation and second, they design their product accordingly. Third, they communicate this to potential supporters and then finally deliver campaign progress and they communicate this to existing supporters. They use marketing concepts: they adopt a market orientation and build an organisation designed to take account of its users' needs and wants. Although such charities are often associated with non‐business behaviour, the most successful groups are adopting the concepts and techniques of comprehensive political marketing as the means to increase their influence on government and public affairs. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

Analyser les réformes institutionnelles sur le terrain: l'exemple de la réforme de l'armée suisse «Armée XXI»

L'étude des réformes de l'administration et des institutions publiques suisses a considérablement délaissé la problématique des conséquences des changements sur le terrain et surtout n'a pas analysé le vécu des acteurs administratifs de base. Notre étude vise, au niveau analytique, à rendre compte du vécu des réformes à l'échelon des «petits fonctionnaires»; sur un plan méthodologique, une enquête de nature ethnographique est introduite pour étudier ce questionnement. Notre enquête sur la réforme de l'armée suisse «Armée XXI» sert d'illustration. Si notre démarche permet de parvenir à des résultats intéressants sur les conséquences et le vécu de cette réforme, elle comporte également des enjeux empiriques spécifiques articulés autour de la question centrale de la relation du chercheur à son terrain. Au final, une microsociologie ethnographique du vécu des réformes par les acteurs de base nous semble susceptible de contribuer à un enrichissement de la recherche sur les transformations récentes des institutions publiques en Suisse.     

Coming to Terms with Separatist Insurgencies

Although insurgencies may begin their rebellions with expressed desires for outcomes unacceptable to opposing governments, the desired insurgent outcomes sometimes undergo modification, creating conditions that can make governments more amenable to external mediation. In certain separatist conflicts, the likelihood of external mediation increases when the political redefinition of the state insisted upon by the insurgents undergoes a revision, from secession to self‐determination, understood as a variant of autonomy. In the same vein, although it may not happen concurrently, insurgent movements become more amenable to external mediation if and when opposing governments revise the preferred conflict outcome from a military defeat of the insurgents to a containment of the movement. These two developments can serve as objective referents helping external parties to identify a ripe moment in the conflict and initiate mediation. But the implementation of an agreement ending separatist conflict may not occur if the government fails to submit the proposed territorial bounds of autonomy to prior review by constituents. Potential spoilers among government constituents should be identified and recruited to participate in the negotiations so that the likelihood of agreement rejection is reduced. In some states, however, the legal mechanisms and political opportunities for constituents to act as spoilers do not exist.     

Horizontalföderalismus und Schweizer Demokratie

Der Beitrag analysiert den zunehmenden Horizontalföderalismus im politischen Mehrebenensystem der Schweiz und fragt nach den Gefahren und Chancen für die Weiterentwicklung der Schweizer Demokratie. Die Evaluierung erfolgt auf der Basis der komplexen Demokratietheorie von Fritz Scharpf, ergänzt um die konstitutiven Perspektiven einer reflexiven Demokratietheorie. Insgesamt wird deutlich, dass der Horizontalföderalismus vor allem aus einer liberalen Position innerhalb einer Output‐ orientierten Demokratietheorie als problematisch angesehen werden muss, da die kantonale Exekutive gegenüber der Legislative gestärkt wird. Der Aufsatz betont aber die Chancen für die schweizerische Demokratie, da der Horizontalföderalismus grosse Ähnlichkeiten mit den Entscheidungsfindungsprozessen auf internationaler Ebene besitzt. Er liefert damit der Schweiz ein Übungsfeld, um ihr traditionell sehr introvertiertes Verständnis von demokratischer Selbstbestimmung zu überwinden und anzuerkennen, dass in einer interdependenten und mobilen Welt die “Einbeziehung des (externen) Anderen” ein Bestandteil einer legitimen demokratischen Ordnung darstellt.     

Putting a price on drugs: An economic sociological study of price formation in illegal drug markets

Prices in illegal drug markets are difficult to predict. Based on qualitative interviews with 68 incarcerated drug dealers in Norway, we explore dealers’ perspectives on fair prices and the processes that influence their pricing decisions. Synthesized through economic sociology, we draw on perspectives from traditions as different as behavioral economics and cultural analysis to demonstrate how participants in illicit drug distribution base their pricing decisions on institutional context, social networks, and drug market cultures. We find that dealers take institutional constraints into consideration and search for niches with high earnings and low risks. The use of transactions embedded in social networks promotes a trusting form of governance, which enables strategic network management and expedient distribution but also uncompetitive pricing. Finally, dealers’ pricing decisions are embedded in three different cultures narratives: business, friendship, and street cultural stories, with widely varying implications for prices. Our findings demonstrate how an economic sociology of illicit drug distribution can extend insights from behavioral economics and cultural studies into a coherent criminology of illegal drug markets.     

Feigning Hand Preference? A Case Report Preliminary Data

Hand preference may be crucial in the forensic domain, notably in cases where the assailant is known to be left‐handed and the defendant claims to be right‐handed (or vice versa). In such cases, forensic psychologists or physicians may be asked to test the hand preference of the defendant. However, hand preference may be faked. The case described here illustrates this problem and addresses potential solutions. We also present preliminary data showing that a standard instrument for measuring handedness is sensitive to feigning. We conclude that when hand preference is determined, multiple sources of information should be assessed in order to identify possible feigning.     

The Moderating Effect of Criminal Thinking on Certainty of Apprehension in Decisions to Engage in Antisocial Behavior: Replication and Extension

This study explored whether the rational (certainty of punishment) and nonrational (criminal thinking) aspects of antisocial decision‐making interact. A convenience sample of 319 undergraduates (106 men, 213 women) completed a measure of criminal thinking and responded to three fictional vignettes (i.e., cheating on a final examination in a class they were in jeopardy of failing, stealing $50 off a table in a dorm room, and selling marijuana for a friend) at three different levels of risk or certainty of apprehension (50%, 10%, and 1%). Results indicated that participants reported that they would be more likely to engage in antisocial behavior when the certainty of getting caught was low and the level of proactive (P) or reactive (R) criminal thinking was high. An interaction between certainty and criminal thinking was also observed in which the gap between lower and higher criminal thinking respondents grew as the probability of getting caught fell.     

Forensic Performance Analysis of Load‐Limiting Devices in Automotive Seat Belt Retractors

The introduction of frontal airbags and seatbelt pretensioners for front seat occupants provided an opportunity to address injuries caused by seatbelt loading by introducing load‐limiters, which were intended to reduce belt loading while maintaining proper restraint. Investigation and forensic analysis of real‐world crashes identified that the implementation of these devices, in some circumstances, increased the potential of injury. This paper focuses on the trade‐offs of load‐limiters, that is, the reduction loading to the occupant versus the corresponding increase in seatbelt webbing and occupant movement. If the additional webbing introduced is not controlled, the risk of injury to the occupant is increased and could result in more frequent and severe injuries rather than a reduction. This paper quantifies the webbing introduced by load‐limiter activation through forensic analysis of the seatbelt involved in real‐world crashes and testing and assesses its effect on the injuries sustained by the occupant.     

Sudden Unexpected Death Due to Left Subclavian Artery‐esophageal Fistula Caused by Fish Bone

A 53‐year‐old woman was admitted to the hospital due to unexpected dizziness and died the following morning. To investigate the cause of death, a forensic autopsy along with histological examination was performed 3 days after her death. The major findings of the autopsy were that a fish bone had pierced the left subclavian artery after perforating the esophagus with 680 mL of blood in the stomach and bloody and tarry contents were present in the intestines, and the cause of death was confirmed to be subsequent hemorrhagic shock. Unfortunately, none of her family realized that she had eaten a fish 4 days before the tragedy until the fish bone was found. The present case is rare and instructive. The histopathological findings of left subclavian artery‐esophageal fistula induced by a fish bone can be used as a reference in forensic practice.     

Finding of Hyperostosis Frontalis Interna During the Autopsy Procedure: Forensic Issues

Hyperostosis frontalis interna is a common phenomenon, which may have been overrated in its significance in the past, and may, currently be underrated in its significance. We present three cases of hyperostosis frontalis interna found during medicolegal autopsies and discuss their forensic considerations. The patients were all middle‐aged women with metabolic and endocrine manifestations and psychiatric ailments; thickening of the inner table of the frontal bone of the skull was found during each autopsy. We describe the relationship between hyperostosis frontalis interna, metabolic manifestations, and neuropsychiatric symptoms as part of Morgagni‐Stewart‐Morel syndrome. There is still considerable disagreement in the scientific community as to whether this syndrome is a clinical entity. Nonetheless, awareness of Morgagni‐Stewart‐Morel syndrome can be of help in understanding the circumstances surrounding death. In some other cases, hyperostosis frontalis interna could be used by forensic pathologists as criteria for sexing and aging a skeleton.