'Building a Better World'

Garran Oration Royal Institute of Public Administration Australia National Conference, 29 November -1 December 2003     

The day care clinic as container

He is co-author (with Mara Sidoli) of Incest Fantasies and Self-Destructive Acts in Adolescence,to be published by Transaction Publishers.     

Battered women who kill

This study assesses acquital rates using mock jurors in cases involving a battered woman charged with killing her husband. The simulated trial format was based on actual courtroom proceedings including witness cross-examination and jury deliberation proceedings. The type of plea entered was varied and reflected either self-defense, automatism, or a hypothetical plea of psychological self-defense. The severity of abuse incurred by the defendant was also varied along with expert testimony. Jurors more frequently found the defendant not guilty when a plea of automatism was entered compared to a plea of self-defense. The frequency of acquittals following a plea of psychological self-defense resulted in more acquittals than the self-defense plea but significantly fewer than the automatism plea. The likelihood of acquittal increased under conditions of severe abuse as opposed to moderate abuse. Expert witness testimony was observed to influence verdicts during juror deliberations.     

Do Anti‐immigration Parties Matter? The Case of the Sweden Democrats and Local Refugee Policy

With the increased electoral success of anti‐immigration parties, questions regarding what impact the parties actually have naturally follow. Previous research has rarely explored this question. Furthermore, within this body of research, one is given different answers. While some argue that anti‐immigration parties have made an impact on public policy, others find no such evidence. This article shows that some of this inconsistency is a consequence of the methodological strategies that have been employed. Previous studies are either single case studies or comparisons of a small number of countries. Consequently, different parties in different institutional settings are compared, making it difficult to estimate the actual impact of the party of interest. In order to circumvent such methodological problems, this article explores the question of anti‐immigration party impact on a local level and asks if the Sweden Democrats (SD) have managed to influence decisions on refugee reception in Swedish municipalities. The analysis shows mixed results. First, while unable to find an independent effect of the size of the representation of the SD, it appears that the party's impact is conditioned by them holding the balance of power. Second, the SD's impact is not dependent upon whether there is right‐wing or left‐wing rule, although local migration policy is stricter when the main right‐wing party has strong support.     

Book reviews

John P. Willerton, Patronage and Politics in the USSR. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, xv+305 pp., $59.95, £40.00.

Michael Ellman & Vladimir Kontorovich, eds, The Disintegration of the Soviet Economic System. London and New York: Routledge, 1992, xv+281 pp., h/b £45.00., p/b £14.99.

Paul R. Josephson, Physics and Politics in Revolutionary Russia. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991, xix+423 pp., $39.95.

Hélène Carrère D'Encausse, The Great Challenge: Nationalities and the Bolshevik State 1917–1930. Nancy Festinger, Trans., Richard Pipes, Foreword. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1991, xviii+262 pp., $39.95.

Niels Erik Rosenfeldt, Stalin's Secret Chancellery and the Comintern. University of Copenhagen, Institute of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1991. 116 pp.

Christoph Bluth, Soviet Strategic Arms Policy Before SALT. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, 317 pp., £40.00.

Roger E. Kanet, Deborah Nutter Miner & Tamara J. Resler, Soviet Foreign Policy in Transition. Cambridge University Press, 1992, xvi+308 pp., £40.00, $59.95.

M. A. Babkina, ed., New Political Parties and Movements in the Soviet Union. Commack, NY: Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 1991, 156 pp., $35.00.

S. Berglund & J. A. Dellenbrandt, eds., The New Democracies in Eastern Europe: Party Systems and Political Cleavages. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1991, xii + 237 pp., £39.95.

Gyorgy Csepeli & Antal Örkény, Ideology and Political Beliefs in Hungary: The Twilight of State Socialism. Trans., Brian McLean & Julianna Parti, London: Pinter, 1992, viii+148 pp., £35.00.     

Reviews

Gilbert Rozman, Seizaburo Sato & Gerald Segal, eds, Dismantling Communism: Common Causes and Regional Variations. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993, x + 405 pp., £28.50. Ben Fowkes, The Rise and Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1993, xv + 228 pp., £40.00

Stephen Whitefield, Industrial Power and the Soviet State. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, 279 pp; £35.00

Steve H. Hanke, Lars Jonung & Kurt Schuler, Russian Currency and Finance: A Currency Board Approach to Reform. London and New York: Routledge, 1993, xvi + 222 pp., £35.00.

Gregory S. Alexander & Grazyna Skapska eds, A Fourth Way? Privatization, Property, and the Emergence of New Market Economies. New York, London: Routledge, 1994, xxiii + 336 pp., £40.00 h/b, £14.99 p/b.

John and Carol Garrard (eds), World War II and the Soviet People. Selected Papers from the Fourth World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies, Harrogate, 1990. New York: St Martin Press, 1993, 268 pp. $45.00.

John Barber & Mark Harrison, The Soviet Home Front: A Social and Economic History of the USSR in World War II. London and New York: Longman, 1991, xiii + 252pp

Richard Debo, Survival and Consolidation: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia, 1918–1921. Montreal: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1992, xiii + 502 pp., £42.00.

Amy Knight, Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993, xvii + 312 pp., $24.95, ;19.95.

Ronald Grigor Suny, Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993, xi + 289 pp. £32.50 h/b, £12.99 p/b.