Gorbachev's Economic Reform: A Soviet Economy Roundtable

The proceedings of a panel of American specialists devoted to the recent economic reform are summarized. The panelists noted that the most substantial changes to date have accompanied efforts to restructure the decisionmaking hierarchy—in particular, a recentralization of authority through the creation of biuros and state committees and legislation on individual economic activity. Changes in the systems of economic planning and incentives, on the other hand, have been minor, suggesting a continuing debate over the extent to which price reform and various economic incentives should be implemented. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 113, 124.     

Integrating the Undergraduate Experience: A Course on Environmental Dispute Resolution

This paper describes a rigorous undergraduate course on environmental dispute resolution. Students get hands-on experience in negotiation cases, developing skills and building theoretical understanding through a series of exercises. With this foundation, the students advance to an extended role-playing case study on oil exploration in the Ecuadorian rain forest. The course provides an integration function both in terms of understanding environmental issues, but also in modeling reality, encouraging action, and building process tools that are essential in addressing environmental and social challenges facing the planet.     

Integrating Rijeka into socialist Yugoslavia: the politics of national identity and the new city’s image (1947–1955)

This article investigates the politics of national identity implemented in Rijeka after World War II, when the city was integrated into socialist Yugoslavia. These national and political transitions posed various challenges to the consolidation of the Yugoslav Communists’ power. The nationalities policy embedded in the slogan “Brotherhood and Unity” was the official answer to the national question, promoting collaboration among the Croatian majority, the Italian minority, and other national communities in the city. This article focuses on the definition of postwar Rijeka’s image, investigating the relationship between Yugoslav socialism and national identities in everyday political practice. The negotiation of the representation of national identities in a socialist society led to ambivalences, contradictions, and contentions expressed in and through Rijeka’s public spaces, highlighting the different orientations of cultural and political actors. The process of building socialist Yugoslavia in this specific borderland context reveals the balance and tension between the multinational framework and the integrative tendencies pertaining to the legitimization and consolidation of the socialist system.     

The New Model of Economic Management

One of General Secretary Gorbachev's key economic advisors outlines the basic components of a new “model” of economic management in the USSR (e.g., new forms of private and cooperative activity, increased flexibility in production, relationships in state enterprises, election of directors), to be in place by the early 1990s. Also presented is the rationale for the current timetable of the reform. American participants in the first joint Soviet Economy roundtable then discuss with the Academician the role of collectives and local Party officials in the new system of management. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 027, 052, 124.     

Co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders among male detainees in Italy

This paper presents data on the prevalence of co-occurring substance use and psychiatric disorders among newly imprisoned males in Italy. Interviewers conducted semi-structured clinical interviews with n = 302 male detainees seven days after their admission to the prison of Perugia from August 2005 through July 2006. Over half of male detainees (54.3%) had either a substance use disorder or another psychiatric disorder. One of every five detainees (20.9%) had comorbid substance use and psychiatric disorders. Compared to detainees with psychiatric disorder only, substance use disorder only, or no disorder, detainees with comorbid substance use and psychiatric disorders were significantly more likely to have severe impairment in the areas of employment, substance abuse, family and social functioning, and psychiatric symptoms. Findings underscore the need for careful diagnostic screening at intake, access to treatment during detention, and an effective transition to services at the time of release.