Unity of effort requires unity of object: why industry should not be involved in formulating public health policy

This paper provides a framework for examining the general issue of public health authorities' collaboration with industry. The framework distinguishes between industry involvement in the development of public health policy and the implementation of policy‐driven interventions. A distinction is also made between industries marketing products conducive to good health versus products that impact negatively on public health (e.g. alcohol and energy‐dense, nutrition‐poor food and beverage industries). Drawing on concepts with respect to the effectiveness of military coalitions, it is argued that a common goal (i.e. ‘unity of object’) is a prerequisite for optimal co‐operation (i.e. ‘unity of effort’) between collaborators in any sphere of activity. However, this vital precondition does not exist in the public health arena because the end goals of industry and those of public health are fundamentally different, if not opposed (i.e. profits to owners/shareholders versus the social good). It is argued that because of this fundamental disjunct between industry profit goals and the public good, unity of effort will always be compromised in any form of collaboration with industry, and particularly where public health policies and interventions are designed to negatively impact on product consumption. Hence, while industry can be asked to co‐operate in implementing public health policy initiatives, industry should never be involved in developing policy initiatives. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stability of the Federal System in Nigeria: Elite Attitudes at the Constituent Assembly Toward the Creation of New States

The Constituent Assembly which approved the constitution forNigeria's Second Republic (1979–1983) decided that nonew states should be created at that time and adopted proceduresmaking state creation in the future virtually impossible. TheAssembly's action implied that elite consensus had been achievedon the existing territorial configuration of the federation.Yet events during the Second Republic seemed to belie such aninterpretation. To resolve the contradiction a content analysisof the Constituent Assembly debates was undertaken. It showedwidespread dissatisfaction with the existing nineteen-statestructure. The study concludes that the Constituent Assembly'sdecisions on state creation did not reflect an elite consensus.Instead, the period of relative stability in federal territorialconfiguration, which elsewhere seems to follow early years ofinstability, had not yet been reached in Nigeria.     

Quantitative measures of democracy in Africa: An assessment

Given the fact that quantitative measures of democracy in Africa are increasingly used in scholarly research, it is appropriate to ask the question: ‘Are such measures accurately reflecting empirical observations?’ To answer this question, data‐sets compiled by Zahra Arat, Tatu Vanhanen, Mark Gasiorowski, Keith Jaggers and Ted Robert Gurr, and Freedom House/Raymond Gastil are compared with qualitative observations of events affecting liberal democracy in Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Two types of problems are found. First, there are many discrepancies between empirical observations and what is shown by the data‐sets. Second, there are inconsistencies in the quantitative measurement of democracy across countries, for example, the same phenomenon does not seem to be measured by the Jaggers and Gurr and the Freedom House/Gastil indices in South Africa and Tanzania. The discrepancies in the quantitative measures suggest that the observations of area specialists of events related to liberal democracy are important not simply to help interpret quantitative measures but to reconstruct them.     

The government versus management controversy: Ascribing responsibility for the failure of a public corporation in Nigeria

Efforts to employ public corporations in African countries to promote development have had limited success. A major controversy has developed over who is responsible for such failure. On the one hand are those who accuse management; on the other hand are those who accuse government. This study seeks to assess the merits of the contending arguments through an analysis of Nigeria'S Cross River State Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC). There is a strong prima-facie case against management. It failed to sustain the enterprise; it failed to produce any profits; it failed to give employees satisfaction in their work; it failed to give strong direction to the corporation; it failed significantly to advance the technology of the ADC; and it made little contribution to the community. But, on close examination, it is apparent that management'S failure was a consequence of structural and financial constraints imposed on it by government. Thus, real responsibility for the failure of the ADC belongs with the government. The reasons for government ‘killing’ its own public corporation are partly constraints imposed on it and partly the opposition of its supporters to public enterprise.     

Computing in the USSR: Recent Progress and Policies

The paper evaluates a broad spectrum of Soviet computing capabilities ranging from the development, production and service sectors to applications in enterprise management, national security, education, and consumer products. Comparisons between Western and Soviet information technologies, summarized in tabular form, reveal gaps in Soviet computing and communications resulting from both technical limitations and administrative/political constraints in the economy. Programs designed to narrow these gaps are described in a final section. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 124, 635.