bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Honour and duty at sea, 1660–1815
Authors: Rodger N. A. M.
Published: December 2004

This article looks at the changing meaning of the concepts of honour and duty among sea officers over the ‘long eighteenth century’. As gentlemen and as fighting men, sea officers felt particularly close to the concept of honour; but as members of a skilled, semi–bourgeois profession which was substantially open to talent, they were seen by others as being on the margins of gentility. The rise of the middle–class virtues of duty and service in public esteem at the end of the century, benefited the sea officers by making their long–standing combination of honour and duty fashionable.
James Rogers and the Bristol slave trade*
Authors: Morgan Kenneth
Published: December 2004

This article examines the business failure of James Rogers, a large Bristol slave trader, within the context of the operation of the late British slave trade in west Africa, on the Middle Passage, and in the Caribbean. Based on a large cache of surviving manuscripts, the article shows that the credit crisis of 1793 led to the demise of Rogers's mercantile career but also that his business collapse stemmed from over-extending his slave trading activities, from relatively poor profit levels, and from attempts to expand his trading portfolio in the eighteen months before the national financial crash.
Executions following Monmouth's rebellion: a missing link
Authors: Timmons Stephen A.
Published: December 2004

The number of executions that the royal army carried out immediately following Monmouth's rebellion in July 1685 has always puzzled scholars. Contemporary sources offer little assistance: loyalist tories largely ignored the problem, while opposition whigs exaggerated both the number of hangings and the degree of sadism involved. A comparison between parish burial records in Somerset and a hitherto unnoticed document in the British Library (Additional MS. 32000 fos. 91–2) indicates that Colonel Kirke of the First Tangiers Regiment precisely followed orders given by Lieutenant-General Lord Feversham, and even offered mercy to some victims.
The Role of Job Attributes in Understanding the Public‐Private Wage Differential
Authors: Bender Keith A. , Elliott Robert F.
Published: December 2004

This study uses a unique data set for Great Britain to investigate the impact of differences in job attributes on the public‐private wage differential. The study reveals that (1) there are substantial differences in wage structure between the two sectors, particularly finding that the public‐sector wage structure is less sensitive to differences in the attributes of jobs, and (2) differences in job attributes play in a major role in accounting for pay differences across sectors.
Women as employees and entrepreneurs in the Polish transformation
Authors: Mroczkowski Tomasz
Published: December 2004

The article examines the experience of women compared to men in the new Polish job markets with special emphasis on their participation in the explosion of entrepreneurship that has occurred in the country since 1990. Tightening laws related to gender discrimination would have some limited impact on women's employment opportunities. Promotion of entrepreneurship is proposed as an important solution to joblessness – especially for women with general secondary education living outside major cities
Moving beyond adversarialism: industrial relations and change in the Australian shearing industry
Authors: Fells Ray , Skeffington Robert
Published: December 2004

The shearers have always played a prominent role in industrial relations in Australia. This article examines the transition from a long history of adversarial industrial relations to a new found cooperation and uses the case study to reflect upon current developments in Australian industrial relations.
Systems of collective employee representation in non‐union firms in the UK
Authors: Terry Michael
Published: December 2004

Legislative developments and some renewal of managerial interest are drawing attention to systems of employee representation in the non‐union sector. This article examines such data as exist on the extent and effectiveness of such systems, asks whether they can provide effective substitutes for union‐based systems, and argues that this appears unlikely.
The new politics of pressure – the Trades Union Congress and new Labour in government
Authors: McIlroy John
Published: December 2004

The TUC’s political role has been in the forefront of its function for most of its history and has revived with the election of new Labour. This article argues that the TUC’s current political approach is unlikely to contribute towards significant union resurgence in the workplace or politically.
The regulation of health and safety in Britain: from old Labour to new Labour
Authors: Beck Matthias , Woolfson Charles
Published: December 2004

The Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA 1974), passed twenty‐five years ago, has been hailed as a significant advance for organised labour and a model for modern work‐place regulation. This article argues that, contrary to conventional interpretations, the making of the Act was dominated by business interests. We suggest that the Act’s emphasis on self‐regulation and goal‐setting made it vulnerable to deregu‐latory initiatives, which are unlikely to be reversed by new Labour in the foreseeable future.
Managing employment on greenfield sites: attempts to replicate high commitment practices in the UK and New Zealand
Authors: Hallier Jerry , Leopold John
Published: December 2004

Greenfield sites have been seen as the most favourable setting for the adoption of HRM‐style high‐commitment work practices. We present a comparative study of Scottish and New Zealand greenfield employers’ attempts to replicate a high‐commitment philosophy. After outlining the proprietary recipes of the organisations, we analyse a number of factors that threatened or undermined the practice of the philosophy and show how managers continued to rely on the language of high‐commitment by repackaging and re‐presenting the same philosophy.
The Evolution of Indian Industrial Relations: A Comparative Perspective
Authors: Bhattacherjee Debashish
Published: December 2004

This article examines the evolution of Indian industrial relations in an historical and structural context. In India, the evolution of industrial relations has been ‘incremental’ and ‘adaptive’ and not ‘discontinuous’ and ‘revolutionary’. The relationship between changing industrialisation strategies and industrial relations institutions and practices in India is considerably more subtle than is often supposed in comparative industrial relations narratives, especially when detailed endogenous political economy considerations are taken into account.
Job Requirements Biodata as a Predictor of Performance in Customer Service Roles
Authors: Allworth Elizabeth , Hesketh Beryl
Published: December 2004

A job requirements approach to biodata item specification, similar to the content‐valid job analysis approach developed by Pannone (1984), is used to predict customer service. Applicants rate the extent to which their current and previous jobs involve tasks and behaviours that have been identified through an analysis of the target job. On a sample of 245 employees in an international hotel, the criterion‐related validity of job requirements biodata compares favourably with traditional construct‐oriented biodata measures of customer service, cognitive ability and personality (Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Extroversion). The job requirements approach provides a simple, direct and content‐valid method of biodata item specification. As the approach can also be tailored for particular jobs or organizations, validity is also potentially optimized.
Towards a Theory of Socialization Impact: Selection as Pre‐Entry Socialization
Authors: Anderson Neil
Published: December 2004

A theory and model of the ‘socialization impact’ of selection methods is proposed. Developing and extending an earlier model proposed by Anderson and Ostroff (1997), this article proposes an empirically testable theory comprising four fundamental postulates and six corollary hypotheses. The fundamental postulates of socialization impact, varying degree of impact, individual differences between candidates, and sub‐group differences between gender and racial/ethnic origin are put forward as essential cornerstones of this theoretical approach. Socialization impact is articulated across five constituent domains: information provision (IP), preference impact (PI), expectational impact (EI), attitudinal impact (AI), and behavioural impact (BI). Contrasting this theory against the predictivist paradigm which has dominated selection theory, research and practice over the last fifty years, this article sets out an alternative but complementary perspective capable of being tested through subsequent empirical research. The implications of conceiving of selection methods not as ‘neutral predictors’ but as ‘interventive affectors’ are discussed in conclusion.
The Big Five Personality Dimensions and Counterproductive Behaviors
Authors: Salgado Jesús F.
Published: December 2004

Little systematic research on personality measures has been directed at investigating whether the Big Five are predictors of counterproductive behaviors such as absenteeism, accidents, deviant behaviors, and turnover. For example, published meta‐analyses did not investigate whether the Big Five personality factors predicted these criteria. The results of the meta‐analyses carried out here showed that conscientiousness predicted deviant behaviors and turnover, and extroversion, openness, agreeableness and emotional stability predicted the turnover criterion. However, none of the Big Five personality measures were found to be predictors of absenteeism or accidents. The implications of these findings for future research and practice are discussed.
Narcissism and Counterproductive Work Behavior: Do Bigger Egos Mean Bigger Problems?
Authors: Penney Lisa M. , Spector Paul E.
Published: December 2004

In accordance with the theory of threatened egotism and aggression, the relationships among narcissism, trait anger, job constraints and counterproductive work behavior (CWB) were explored in a questionnaire study. The results were supportive of the hypotheses that narcissism would relate to trait anger, job constraints, and CWB and that the relationship between narcissism and CWB would be mediated by anger. In addition, narcissism was found to moderate the relationship between job constraints and CWB, such that individuals high in narcissism reported more CWB when constraints were high, than individuals low in narcissism.
The need for employee training in hotels in Thailand
Authors: Saibang Praweena , Schwindt Robert C.
Published: December 2004

The growth of business and industry along with a rapid increase of tourism has resulted in the rapid expansion of hotels in Thailand. The hotel industry has become highly competitive with the quality of service provided having an effect on the profitability and success of individual hotels. Employees themselves have been considered to be the most important factor in the service industry. This article presents the findings of two studies involving the training needs of hotel employees in Thailand. One study was conducted in Bangkok and the other study in the province of Nakorn Sawan.
Social needs and the roles of governments and markets: The case of retirement pensions
Authors: Butare Théopiste
Published: December 2004

The present paper examines the role of the State and the market in meeting social needs, with particular emphasis on retirement pensions. The argument proposed is based primarily on an analysis of recently observed ideological developments as well as of the results of various empirical studies conducted on the topic. A review of several theories and current debates on the issue constitutes the introductory part of the analysis. This is followed by a discussion of retirement pensions and the shortcomings of governments in this domain and by a review of the evidence obtained on the interaction between retirement pensions, investment and growth. Data and calculations relating to several developed and developing countries are presented as an illustration of the State’s responsibility for social needs. The conclusion presents some reflections based on empirical evidence and a synthesis of insights obtained in this study.
From reform to crisis: Argentina's pension system
Authors: Bertranou Fabio M. , Rofman Rafael , Grushka Carlos O.
Published: December 2004

Argentina underwent economic and social collapse in December 2001. The crisis brought the worst socioeconomic indicators in its history, and the pension system was not immune from this disaster, which was unparalleled in any middle‐income developing country. In 1994 the pension system had been restructured, and was regarded as a viable model for other reforms elsewhere. This article discusses in general terms the features of the current pension scheme, the structural problems that were not resolved in the reform of 1994, the relation between that reform and the government's financial crisis, and the impact of the economic collapse on the pension system. Finally, it discusses some aspects of the challenges faced in building a system that is financially viable and has the potential to close the major gaps in coverage affecting both the working population and older persons.
Medical Confidentiality and Disclosure: Moral Conscience and Legal Constraints
Authors: Tur Richard H.S.
Published: December 2004

I argue that the duty of confidentiality is relative, not absolute; and that it is primarily a matter for the professional judgment of the reflective health practitioner to determine in the particular case whether competing public interests (or other compelling reasons) override that duty. I have supported that account with an analysis of medical practice as a recourse role and with an account of law that emphasises not only its duty‐imposing character but also, and crucially, an embedded liberty to depart from the plain requirements of a primary legal rule where in the conscientious judgment of the addressee of that law, there is ‘damn good reason’ to do so. This account of the moral nullification of law at the outer limits appears to be descriptively accurate over a wide range of law and normatively appealing not only to democratic citizens but also to professionals such as doctors and lawyers whose role involves testing the law on moral grounds and who should be ready to do so, if but only if, they believe in the good faith exercise of professional judgment that the outcome mandated by the literal application of the legal rule is inconsistent with the moral mission of their role.

The argument is illustrated with cases from American and English courts which, perhaps, render plausible the otherwise paradoxical notion that the law itself admits of departures from the legal rules.
The Anthropocentric Predicament and the Search for Extra‐terrestrial Intelligence (The Universe as Seen Through Our Eyes Darkly)
Authors: Werth Lee F.
Published: December 2004

Concepts from evolutionary biology are conjoined with a Kantian‐ and Nietzschian‐based critique to demonstrate that our human concepts and perspectives are hopelessly ‘earthbound.’ Unless the caprice of evolutionary biology on some Earth‐like planet replicates the evolutionary history of Earth, we shall not recognise alien intelligence. To suggest that another planet is likely to produce a recognisable intelligence because its evolutionary history is similar to ours is simply absurd, but will seem absurd only to those with a knowledge of bio‐evolution, an understanding of our linguistic and syntactical abilities, and concepts of space, time, and causality. This conclusion may appear heavy‐handed, even pedestrian. However, a closer scrutiny reveals that it is the search for extra‐terrestrial intelligence which is naive.
An Aristotelian Business Ethics?
Authors: Nelson Mark T.
Published: December 2004

Elaine Sternberg’s Just Business is one of the first book‐length Aristotelian treatments of business ethics. It is Aristotelian in the sense that Sternberg begins by defining the nature of business in order to identify its end, and, thence, normative principles to regulate it. According to Sternberg, the nature of business is ‘the selling of goods or services in order to maximise long‐term owner value’, therefore all business behaviour must be evaluated with reference to the maximisation of long‐term owner value, constrained only by considerations of Ordinary decency and distributive justice. This stands in sharp contrast to recently popular ‘stakeholder’ approaches to business‐ethical decision making. I argue that Sternberg’s definition of business, particularly in its maximising and long‐term conditions, is flawed, that her teleological method raises more questions than it solves, and that her Aristotelianism cannot be wedded happily to her libertarianism.
Liberal Nationalism and Territorial Rights
Authors: Meisels Tamar
Published: December 2004

Abstract This essay sets out from the strain of liberal political thought which, in recent years, has come to the defence of nationalism, and raises some preliminary thoughts concerning its appropriate application to the very concrete issue of national territorial rights. It asks what type of justifications could be morally acceptable to “liberal nationalism” for the acquisition and holding of territory. To this end, the paper takes a brief look at five central arguments for territorial entitlement which have become predominant in political debates. These are: so called “historical rights” to territory; demands for territorial restitution; efficiency arguments; claims of entitlement to territories settled by co‐nationals; and lastly, territorial demands based on claims of equal entitlement to the earth's natural resources. These popular arguments point towards several potential criteria for the arbitration of territorial conflicts. The paper attempts to outline the morally relevant guidelines for thinking about territorial issues that flow from, or are at least consistent with, applying liberal values to the national phenomenon. It places the territorial aspect of nationalism at the head of the liberal nationalist agenda and offers an initial common ground for discussion (including disagreement) among liberals, and for the mediation of claims between nations.
The political economy of intergovernmental grants: The Norwegian case
Authors: Sørensen Rune J.
Published: December 2004

The centralization of local public finance is commonly justified in terms of equality. The welfare state regulates local government and allocates grants in a way that sacrifices efficiency to achieve equality. The political economy model suggests that democratically elected national politicians may pursue policies that diverge from this. This article outlines a version of the political economy model based on seat‐maximizing politicians in central and local government. Both parliamentary policy making and local government lobbying may generate disparities in grant allocation. On the basis of data on central grant distribution in Norway, we observe persistent disparities in local government revenues that cannot be accounted for by regional policy aims or egalitarian objectives. Extensive data on local governments, the lobbying activities of local council members and the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament) allows us to test the political economy hypotheses. Disparities in the number of seats allocated to the national election districts, and differences in the local lobbying activities, influence the distribution of grants between municipalities and counties.
Europeanisation, mesogovernments and ‘safety nets’
Authors: Moreno Luis
Published: December 2004

This article examines two processes: the adaptation of national systems of social protection to operate within a European framework and the decentralisation of ‘safety net’ policies at the meso‐level in order to favour territorial subsidiarity and democratic accountability. It reviews the concepts and assumptions involved in welfare state research before moving on to reflect upon the so‐called ‘European social model’. Decentralisation and a greater regional say in areas of policy making closer to citizens' perceptions, such as the creation of ‘safety nets‘, have often been linked to cultural or identity considerations. However, demands are also based on claims for policy innovation and more effective management, as illustrated by Spain's devolution of welfare powers to the regions. This article concludes that in order to build up a macro‐community based on trust in the ‘Old Continent’, more attention should be paid to the increasing role of medium‐size layers of government.
Dynamics of support for European integration in post‐communist Poland
Authors: SLOMCZYNSKI KAZIMIERZ M. , SHABAD GOLDIE
Published: December 2004

Abstract. This study examines the dynamics of citizen support for European integration in Poland. Using data from 1995 and 1998 surveys and from a three‐wave panel study, we find that, as in Western Europe, both utilitarian calculations of self‐interest and political considerations are equally important determinants of support for membership in the European Union. Moreover, between 1995 and 1998 there was considerable polarization of opinion along economic, partisan and ideological lines. We also consider the impact of pro‐democratic and pro‐capitalist values on support for integration. Our results show that, all things being equal, such values are significant predictors of European Union support. In addition, they have a strong impact on individual‐level stability and change in attitudes toward Poland joining the European Union.
The diffusion of new environmental policy instruments1
Authors: TEWS KERSTIN , BUSCH PER‐OLOF , JÖRGENS HELGE
Published: December 2004

Abstract. New Environmental Policy Instruments (NEPIs) are becoming increasingly attractive. From a global perspective, there has been a rapid diffusion of these market‐based, voluntary or informational instruments. This article examines the spread of four different NEPIs – eco‐labels, energy or carbon taxes, national environmental policy plans or strategies for sustainable development, and free‐access‐of‐information (FAI) provisions. The adoption of NEPIs by national policy makers is not simply a reaction to newly emerging environmental problems or to real or perceived deficits of traditional command and control regulation, rather the use of NEPIs can also be ascribed to the inner dynamics of international processes of policy transfer or policy diffusion. These processes make it increasingly difficult for national policy makers to ignore new approaches in environmental policy that have already been put into practice in ‘forerunner’ countries.
Why Did Seattle Fail? Globalization and the Politics of Trade
Authors: Bayne Nicholas
Published: December 2004

THE THIRD MINISTERIAL MEETING OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO), held in Seattle from 30 November to 3 December 1999, was a resounding failure. It was intended to launch a new round of multilateral trade negotiations, in succession to the Uruguay Round which had ended seven years before. But even before it could begin, the proceedings were disrupted by massive demonstrations. Central Seattle became a war zone, with tear gas and rubber bullets, and then a ghost town, with empty streets and boarded-up windows. Inside the conference hall the atmosphere was little better. The conference chair (Charlene Barshefsky, US Special Trade Representative) and the WTO Director-General (Mike Moore, new in office) were booed in open session. In the end, the ministerial meeting was suspended with nothing agreed, only an exhortation from the chair ‘to take time out’ in the hope of resolving disagreements and reconvening later.

This article looks at what went wrong and why and what will be needed in future. It contrasts the failure at Seattle with the undoubted achievements of the international trade system in the 1990s. It examines three possible causes of failure: disruption by NGOs; organizational weakness in the WTO; and errors of government. Of these three, it finds governments most to blame. Governments generally, but especially the United States and the European Union, have not grasped the full extent of the demands placed on them by the advance of globalization. Seattle was a setback but need not be a disaster – provided governments correct the errors that allowed it to happen.
The Renewal of the Radical Right: Between Modernity and Anti‐modernity
Authors: Minkenberg Michael
Published: December 2004

FIFTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF FASCISM AND THE END OF THE Second World War, right-wing radical movements and parties are part of the political normalcy in many Western democracies. In the face of the twentieth-century experiences of fascism and state socialism, and their failures, this stubborn persistence seems at the same time anachronistic and frightening. While there is no shortage of explanations and interpretations of this phenomenon in an evergrowing body of literature, most studies focus on national trends and derive their criteria from country-specific histories and discourses. Serious comparative scholarship on the radical right is still in its infancy.

This article is a plea for more comparative research on rightwing radicalism at the turn of the century. It begins by highlighting the three central dimensions of the problem. First, one must state that contemporary right-wing radicalism is an international phenomenon. Thus, more than before, comparative studies are needed both to analyse the international quality and to specify the nation-specific characteristics of the radical right in each country. Secondly, it must be borne in mind that contemporary right-wing radicalism is a modern phenomenon. It has undergone a phase of renewal, as a result of social and cultural modernization shifts in post-war Europe. Thus it is only vaguely connected with previous versions. Terms like ‘fascism’ or ‘neo-fascism’ which suggest a historical continuity from Munich to Mölln and Magdeburg in Germany, or from Vichy to Vitrolles in France, become increasingly obsolete. The third factor to bear in mind is that contemporary right-wing radicalism is a complex phenomenon. The ongoing specialization and compartmentalization in the social sciences, such as discourse analysis, party and electoral research, and youth sociology – to name but a few of the approaches applied to the radical right – fail to do justice to the complexity of the subject. Clearly, the many faces of right-wing radicalism require clear analytical distinctions, but ultimately they need to be approached in a truly interdisciplinary way.
Parliamentary Elections and the Prospects for Political Pluralism in North Africa
Authors: Dillman Bradford L.
Published: December 2004

HAVE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN NORTH AFRICA IN THE 1990S bolstered prospects for democratization and greater pluralism? This study argues that, with the possible exception of Algeria's 1991 elections, they have not been harbingers of democracy in Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The elections can be viewed as public displays by the state or limited political barometers, rather than processes which create obligations for the government. They have been means through which regimes have sought to dampen reactions to political immobilism, structural adjustment and the death of a social contract. Some elections have been manipulative, exclusionary exercises of elites trying to roll back the liberalizations of the 1980s, while others have been pseudo-competitive instruments of regime maintenance. Most of the elections can be seen as mechanisms for a top-down ‘artificializing’ of pluralism in order to preserve the core of regime control. In Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria, there seems to be no contradiction between fostering a selectively pluralistic atmosphere and simultaneously undermining the transition to democracy. In Morocco, pluralism andalternanceseem to remain quite compatible with continued political domination by the Makhzen. Mona Makram-Ebeid's characterization of Egypt's 1995 elections could equally be applied to others in the region: ‘What has occurred is a pluralization of the political sphere, yet it has been liberal neither in intent nor outcome.’
Russia, Elections, Democracy
Authors: White Stephen
Published: December 2004

It was one of the defining features of the soviet system that it allowed no legal challenge to party dominance. Elections took place at regular intervals; but from an early stage they were based upon a single slate of candidates, the ‘bloc of Communists and nonparty people’. Voting was not compulsory, but it was difficult to avoid – canvassers went from house to house, ballot boxes were set up in hospitals, long-distance trains and polar observatories, and constituency officials competed with each other for the highest turnout. In theory it was possible to vote against, but this meant using the screened-off booth in the polling station, since a vote in favour, with a single candidate system, could be cast without marking the ballot paper or even looking at it. Some called these ‘Elections Paradise-style: as God said to Adam, “Here is Eve, the woman of your choice”’. Bertolt Brecht, commenting on the leaf lets that had been distributed in East Berlin after the rising of 1953 which announced that the people had forfeited the government's confidence and could ‘only win it back by redoubled labour’, put it more directly. ‘Wouldn't it be simpler,’ he asked, ‘if the government dissolved the people and elected another?’
Non‐Political Caretaker Administrations and Democratic Elections in Bangladesh: An Assessment
Authors: Zafarullah Habib , Akhter Muhammad Yeahia
Published: December 2004

The transition to democracy in bangladesh after the overthrow of the authoritarian regime in 1990 began with the formation of a non-political caretaker administration (NCA) to prepare the ground for the transfer of power to a popularly mandated government. Its other important purpose was to manage the affairs of the state during the interlude that separated the dissolution of the authoritarian regime (December 1990) and the complete installation of the democratically-elected government (September 1991) to rule the country in its own right.

The need for this NCA was imperative in the wake of the dismantling of authoritarian rule. The attempts of the ousted regime to conduct a third election, while still in power, were not acceptable to its political adversaries, given the former's proven tendency to unduly inf luence the electoral process in the past.
Civic Disengagement in Contemporary America
Authors: Putnam Robert D.
Published: December 2004

Over The Past Two Generations The United States Has Undergone a series of remarkable transformations. It has helped to defeat global communism, led a revolution in information technology that is fuelling unprecedented prosperity, invented life-saving treatments for diseases from AIDS to cancer, and made great strides in reversing discriminatory practices and promoting equal rights for all citizens. But during these same decades the United States also has undergone a less sanguine transformation: its citizens have become remarkably less civic, less politically engaged, less socially connected, less trusting, and less committed to the common good. At the dawn of the millennium Americans are fast becoming a loose aggregation of disengaged observers, rather than a community of connected participants.
The Fast Track from the Soviet Union to the World Economy: External Liberalization in Estonia and Latvia
Authors: Feldmann Magnus
Published: December 2004

There Exists An Extensive Literature On The Political Economy of external liberalization in emerging markets. However, the remarkable progress of Estonia and Latvia in external liberalization has not yet been addressed systematically in the academic literature from a political economy angle. This article aims not only to make a contribution to fill this gap in the literature by focusing on trade policy reform, but also to address three other issues.
The Risk Game and the Blame Game
Authors: Hood Christopher
Published: December 2004

Economists Say There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. The burgeoning ‘risk industry’ – no doubt set for further expansion after the terrorist attacks on US heartlands in 2001 – says there is no such thing as a risk-free lunch. Anthropologists say there is no such thing as a blame-free risk. And political scientists know blame is central to politics.

The growth of the ‘risk industry’, the associated explosion in discussion of safety and hazard issues and the search for better ways of assessing and managing risk, has been much commented on. The BSE issue, highlighted in the UK by the blockbuster sixteen-volume Phillips report in 2000, is taken by Ulrich Beck as emblematic of what he claims to be a ‘risk society’. Michael Power says an age of ‘new risk management’ has dawned in corporate governance, sparked by high-profile business failures and accidents. Much academic and media attention has been paid to risks from food, electric power lines, mobile phones, dangerous people, even dangerous dogs (ostensibly a rather traditional risk, but one that in recent years has been the subject of draconian new regulatory regimes in several countries, including France, Spain and Germany). Such developments in the ‘risk game’ have been described by best-selling sociologists like Beck and Giddens (who make much of their world-historical significance in an era of ‘high modernity’) and by social psychologists interested in what shapes risk perception or ‘amplification’.
Japan's Upper House Election of 29 July 2001
Authors: Inoguchi Takashi
Published: December 2004

The Election For Japan'S House Of Councillors Took Place On 29 July 2001. The result was a resounding victory for the major governing party, the Liberal Democratic Party, with its majority regained after the failure in the previous election in 1998. The election was very interesting in two senses. First, the deepening difficulty of the economy did not prevent the LDP from making a comeback of sorts. Normally, the Japanese voters, like most others, reward the governing party when the economy goes well. Secondly, its newly chosen maverick President, Junichiro Koizumi, successfully adopted a rhetoric of ‘Reform with Pain’ for the ostensible reason of escaping Japan's dilemma: the impossibility of allowing many business firms and banks to go bankrupt without thereby aggravating economic problems and antagonizing the electorate; its inability to drastically reduce the large number of public corporations with large registered deficits; and its inability to drastically reduce huge accumulated deficits. He came, he saw and he won. ‘How?’ is the question that the rest of this article attempts to answer.
The Americanization of the European Left
Authors: Esman Milton J.
Published: December 2004

In The Debate That Continues To Rage Over The Question Of American exceptionalism, two facts are historically well established that have distinguished the United States from European countries: the United States failed to develop and to institutionalize an electorally viable social democratic or labour party that represents the interests of its unionized working class and aspires to achieve a socialist society; and the United States has lagged behind its European counterparts in building the institutions of a comprehensive welfare state.
From Anti‐Communism to Anti‐totalitarianism: The Radical Potential of Democracy
Authors: Howard Dick
Published: December 2004

The Very Nature Of Democracy Makes Its Defence Difficult. In a democracy, the majority has the right to be wrong and the opportunity to make public its private passions while acting on its personal interests. What is more, democratic tolerance of pluralism and legitimation of social conf lict ensure that democracy will be characterized above all by self-criticism. As a result, when it is threatened, its enemies will find at least some domestic support from those who despair of democracy, or at least of this democracy, and who convince themselves that a better, more substantial or less superficial, democracy can be brought into being. Such critics of the really existing democracy are convinced that they are acting in the name of real democracy. So it was, for example, that the American Communist Party could claim to incarnate ‘twentieth-century Americanism’ following the same logic used by Marx a century earlier to criticize the ‘merely formal’ nature of bourgeois democracy. But so it was too when the CIA took it upon itself to finance not only political opposition to Soviet inf luence but also to support and encourage what Francis Stonor Saunders's recent study of The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters revealed. The shared logic of the CIA and the communists turns out, as the saying goes, to be no accident.
Speaking of Books: Homesteads Ungovernable
Authors: Smith Mark M.
Published: December 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Mark M. Carroll, Homesteads Ungovernable: Families, Sex, Race, and the Law in Frontier Texas, 1823–1860
Speaking of Books: A War to be Won
Authors: Strauss Barry
Published: December 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Williamson Murray and Allan Millett, A War to be Won: Fighting the Second World War
The development of the special educational needs coordinator role in a higher education setting
Authors: TAYLOR MARK
Published: December 2004

UK higher education appears to have generally been slow to adopt an organised means of provision for special educational needs for its students. This may be due to the fact that, historically, relatively few disabled students entered UK higher education. However, there is a growing number of disabled students entering UK higher education institutions, and the figure is likely to increase. It is therefore important and, under the UK Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001), legally binding, that UK higher education institutions make appropriate adjustments to their activities so as not to disadvantage or discriminate against disabled students. In this article Mark Taylor examines the development of the special educational needs coordinator role in a higher education setting based upon a two‐year case study in a UK university.
The Impact of Industrial Design Effectiveness on Corporate Financial Performance*
Authors: Hertenstein Julie H. , Platt Marjorie B. , Veryzer Robert W.
Published: December 2004

Despite the growing recognition of industrial design's value in creating sustainable competitive advantage, few studies have attempted to quantify the contribution that design makes to company financial performance. This article examines the relationship between industrial design and company financial performance in order to assess industrial design's contribution to this performance. Effective industrial design was evaluated by asking a panel of 138 industrial design experts to rank the industrial design effectiveness of publicly traded firms within nine selected manufacturing industries; the ranking process yielded 93 firms. Based on the rankings, firms within each industry were divided into two groups: those judged as exhibiting high design effectiveness versus those judged as low in design effectiveness. Audited financial data reported to the SEC across a seven‐year period from 1995 to 2001 were used to evaluate financial performance.

Using traditional financial ratios senior managers consider essential performance measures, those firms with high design effectiveness were hypothesized to have higher returns on sales, returns on assets, and growth rates of sales, net income, and cash flow than firms with low design effectiveness. High design effectiveness firms further were hypothesized to have higher stock market returns. These comprehensive, corporate financial measures incorporate expenditures made on industrial design (industrial designers' salaries, design consultants' fees, computer‐aided industrial design equipment) and expenditures that designers influence through their design choices (material costs, manufacturing equipment).

This analysis reveals that firms rated as having “good” design were stronger on all measures except growth rate measures. These results provide strong evidence that good industrial design is related to corporate financial performance and stock market performance even after considering expenditures on industrial design. Further, the patterns of financial performance over the seven‐year horizon suggest that these effects are persistent.
Calcium triggers β‐defensin (hBD‐2 and hBD‐3) and chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein‐3α (MIP‐3α/CCL20) expression in monolayers of activated human keratinocytes
Authors: Pernet I. , Reymermier C. , Guezennec A. , Branka J. ‐E. , Guesnet J. , Perrier E. , Dezutter‐Dambuyant C. , Schmitt D. , Viac J.
Published: December 2004

Abstract:  The inducible epidermal β‐defensins and the chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein‐3α (MIP‐3α/CCL20) are important mediators involved in innate and adaptive immunity and in the recruitment of immune cells. The aim of our study was to determine whether calcium could trigger the induction of β‐defensins (hBD‐2 and hBD‐3) mRNA and the release of MIP‐3α by normal human keratinocyte monolayers. Epidermal cells derived from foreskin were cultured in defined medium supplemented with different calcium levels (0.09, 0.8 and 1.7 mM) and were stimulated or not with the pro‐inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α 1–500 ng/ml) or interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ 1–100 ng/ml). A high calcium concentration (1.7 mM) alone applied in culture medium for 4 days was sufficient to induce hBD‐2 and hBD‐3 mRNA expression. Whatever interindividual variability in the expression of hBD‐2 and hBD‐3 mRNA and MIP‐3α secretion, the addition of TNF‐α for a short duration (16 h), initiated a dose‐dependent and coordinated up‐regulation of hBD2 mRNA and MIP‐3α release in keratinocyte cultures. Unlike hBD‐2, hBD‐3 mRNA was preferentially stimulated by IFN‐γ rather than TNF‐α. In our experimental conditions, l‐isoleucine, described to stimulate β‐defensins in bovine epithelial cells, did not exert any effect either on hBD‐2 and hBD‐3 transcripts or MIP‐3α protein. Taken together, these results confirm the major role of the maturation/differentiation process of normal human keratinocytes in the induction of inducible β‐defensins and MIP‐3α chemokine, which contribute in vivo to the immunosurveillance of the skin barrier function.
Possible involvement of epidermodysplasia verruciformis human papillomaviruses in the immunopathogenesis of psoriasis: a proposed hypothesis
Authors: Majewski Slawomir , Jablonska Stefania
Published: December 2004

Abstract:  We have shown previously in psoriasis a very high prevalence of epidermodysplasia verruciformis‐associated human papillomavirus 5 (EVHPV5) DNA and antibodies to human papillomavirus 5 (HPV5) virus‐like particle (VLP)L1, and we suggested that this benign hyperproliferative disorder could be a reservoir for EVHPVs. Here we provide new data confirming the expression of EVHPVs in psoriasis and present our hypothesis on their possible involvement in the immunopathogenesis of the disorder. The new important finding was detection by a radioimmunoprecipitation assay of a very high prevalence of antibodies to E6/E7 HPV5 oncoproteins, known to enhance keratinocyte proliferation. More recently, EV genes were identified, EVER1 and EVER2, whose mutations are responsible for epidermodysplasia verruciformis. Epidermodysplasia verruciformis‐associated human papillomaviruses are harmless to the general population as a result of genetic restriction, which in psoriasis appears to be partly alleviated, and this may allow the viral gene expression. We hypothesize that induction of keratinocyte proliferation in psoriasis by various stimuli initiates the EVHPV life cycle with expression of early (E6/E7) and late (L1) viral proteins. The early proteins may, in turn, enhance the keratinocyte proliferation, and the late proteins could serve as a target for specific B‐ and T‐cell‐mediated responses. Immune responses against the viral antigens in the epidermis may result in chemoattraction of leukocytes and Munro abscess formation, as well as in production of proinflammatory cytokines, leading to self perpetuation of the psoriatic process. The novel immunomodulatory therapies could also inhibit immune responses against EVHPV proteins, leading to decreased cytokine production, keratinocyte proliferation and EVHPV expression. Thus the beneficial effect of these therapies is not discordant with the proposed hypothesis of possible involvement of EVHPVs in the immunopathogenesis of psoriasis.
A novel function of theC‐terminal lipid moieties of Rab3A small G protein implicated in Ca2+‐dependent exocytosis — inhibition of interaction with GTP and reduction of this inhibition by phospholipid
Authors: Jin‐no Yasunari , Shirataki Hiromichi , Senbonmatsu Takaaki , Yamamoto Tomomi , Fujita Yasuyuki , Nakanishi Hiroyuki , Takai Yoshimi
Published: December 2004

Background: Rab3A small G protein is implicated in Ca2+‐dependent exocytosis. It undergoes post‐translational lipid‐modifications at its C‐terminal region. These lipid moieties are important for the actions of the regulators of Rab3A, but not for the interaction with its downstream target.

Results:We have found another function of the C‐terminal lipid moieties of Rab3A. GTP rapidly associates with the guaninenucleotide‐free form of unmodified Rab3A, but not with the same form of modified Rab3A. Moreover, GTP rapidly dissociates from the GTP‐bound form of modified Rab3A, but not from the same form of unmodified Rab3A. The association of GTP with the guaninenucleotide‐free form of modified Rab3A is stimulated by the Rab3GDP/GTP exchange protein (Rab3 GEP), and the dissociation of GTP from the GTP‐bound form is markedly reduced by synaptic vesiclephospholipid.

Conclusions: These results suggest that the interaction of the lipid moieties of Rab3A with Rab3GEP or synaptic vesicles is required for the interaction of modified Rab3A with GTP. Moreover, these results — together with the fact that Rabphilin‐3A associated withsynaptic vesicles inhibits the activity of Rab3GTPase‐activating protein — suggest that the GTP‐bound form of modified Rab3A is associated with synaptic vesicles through both Rabphilin‐3A and the vesicle phospholipid.
Effects of steroids on oxytocin secretion by the human prostate in vitro
Authors: Assinder S. J. , Nicholson H. D.
Published: December 2004

Oxytocin (OT) concentrations are elevated in prostate tissue of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Oxytocin specifically increases growth, 5 α‐reductase activity and contractility in the prostate. In the rat prostatic OT concentrations are regulated by gonadal steroids, with androgens reducing but oestrogens increasing OT concentrations. The regulation of prostatic oxytocin in man is not understood. This study investigates the effects of gonadal steroids on oxytocin production by the human prostate. Primary explants (approx. 1 mm3) of prostate tissue from patients with BPH were incubated in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's media in the absence or presence of 10 nmol/L testosterone (T), 10 nmol/L dihydrotestosterone (DHT), T or DHT plus 100 nmol/L of the anti‐androgen cyproterone acetate (CPA), 55 pmol/L diethylstilbestrol (DES), or DES plus DHT. The amount of oxytocin secreted into the media after 3 days was measured by radioimmunoassay. Testosterone and DHT significantly increased oxytocin concentrations secreted into the media from 0.86 ± 0.11 ng/g of tissue (control) to 1.51 ± 0.14 ng/g (p < 0.01) and 1.54 ± 0.13 ng/g (p < 0.05), respectively. Incubation of tissue samples with CPA resulted in oxytocin concentrations similar to control levels. Treatment with DES caused a significant increase from 1.99 ± 0.71 to 3.98 ± 1.36 ng/g (p < 0.05). A similar increase was measured in media of tissue incubated in DES plus DHT (p < 0.001). The results demonstrate that, unlike the rat where androgens decrease oxytocin, in hyperplastic human prostate tissue both androgens and oestrogens increase oxytocin. This imbalance in the regulation of oxytocin may result in promoting prostatic overgrowth in the pathogenesis of BPH.