bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Stress, alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use amongst nurses: a Scottish study
Authors: Plant Moira L , Plant Martin A , Foster Jean
Published: December 2006

This paper examines levels of stress amongst a representative sample of 600 qualified nurses in the Lothian Region of Scotland The results indicated a number of significant variations in the patterns of stress amongst different subgroups of nurses The highest stress levels amongst females were evident amongst medical nurses while the lowest levels were reported by those in psychiatry No comparable differences were evident amongst males in different fields of nursing Stress was also associated with the use of alcohol, but not with tobacco smoking Illicit drug use was associated with stress amongst females Amongst both males and females the variable most predictive of stress was concern about AIDS Amongst females, administrative workload was an equally important predictor It is concluded that as the HIV/AIDS epidemic spreads efforts will be needed to support nursing staff and to reduce stress levels
Case management in community care: concepts, practices and implications for nursing
Authors: Bergen Ann
Published: December 2006

Case management has recently become a prominent issue in British community policy and practice, but one which, at the same time, has been subjected to a variety of interpretations For this reason, it is considered useful to analyse it in terms of a framework embracing conceptual and operational components rather than within the more limiting confines of conventional definitions A review, within this framework, of initial research projects suggests case management to be a viable mode of community care, with generally favourable outcomes It also suggests a potentially significant role for community nurses as case managers, although several issues need to be considered when implementing these practices Finally, a number of questions emerge which should be the focus of future research in the area
Life history: a qualitative method of research
Authors: Hagemaster Julia Nelson
Published: December 2006

The life‐history method of qualitative research is an alternative to empirical methods for identifying and documenting health patterns of individuals and groups It allows the nurse researcher to explore a person's microhistorical (individual) experiences within a macrohistorical (history of the time) framework Life‐history information challenges the nurse to understand an individual's current attitudes and behaviours and how they may have been influenced by initial decisions made at another time and in another place This paper describes a new direction in nursing research and identifies specific steps for using the life‐history approach
Continuing professional education for qualified nurses: a review of the literature
Authors: Barriball K Louise , While Alison E , Norman Ian J
Published: December 2006

Reviewed literature identifies the importance of continuing professional education and professional development for nurses subsequent to initial registration (including enrolled nurses) However, there is a lack of empirically based work analysing nurses’ perceptions of their continuing professional education needs and the perceived outcomes of continuing professional education in terms of changes in knowledge accretion, attitudes, skills, job satisfaction, staff retention and career development It is suggested that this lack of empirical work needs to be addressed if the proposed plans of the United Kingdom Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC) to introduce mandatory continuing professional education are to have maximum benefits for clients, nurses and the service
The perception of time as a factor in Rogers’ Science of Unitary Human Beings: a literature review
Authors: Biley Francis C
Published: December 2006

This literature review examines an operationalization of Martha Rogers’ Science of Unitary Human Beings The principle of helicy and the theory of accelerating evolution has been used by a number of authors as a theoretical framework for the exploration of how patients, particularly those who are elderly, perceive the passage of time Although there is no conclusive evidence to support the aspect of Rogers’ theory of accelerating evolution that suggests that as people grow older they perceive time as passing more quickly, there is evidence that suggests that different elderly patients can have a variable perception of the passage of time For example, some patients perceive the passage of time as rapid and will be happy to sit quietly Others may perceive the passage of time as occurring more slowly and will require diversional therapy A conclusion is reached that nurses should include individual assessments of the patients’ perception of the passage of time in order to identify accurately the degree of need for diversional activities
Outcomes evaluation: measuring critical thinking
Authors: Miller Mary A
Published: December 2006

Nursing education, along with higher education in general, is increasingly focusing on educational outcomes, critical thinking is one of these outcomes This study examined the impact of a baccalaureate registered nurse programme on the critical thinking skills of students Students were tested upon entry and exit of the programme and a significant (0 05) difference was found Subtest gains were significant (0 05) on Recognition of Assumptions, and Deductions A significant relationship (0 05) between the nursing grade point average (GPA) and the post‐test total score existed, accounting for a variance of 4% No relationship was found between the post‐test total score and the general education GPA The two GPA correlation coefficients were significantly different from one another (0 05) Since one goal of professional nursing education is to prepare nurses who engage in complex problem solving and critical thinking, both the curriculum and teaching strategies need to enhance these skills
Lack of professional latitude and role problems as correlates of propensity to quit amongst nursing staff
Authors: Dolan S L , Van Ameringen M R , Corbin S , Arsenault A
Published: December 2006

Which job stressors are the best predictors of propensity to quit among the nursing staff in emergency wards and intensive care units are explored in this paper Employees of 30 Quebec hospitals (i e 60 wards in total) participated in the study (n= 1237) Stepwise multiple regression revealed that lack of professional latitude and role problems are the best predictors of the intention to quit the organization among all nursing staff These two job stressors are briefly addressed in the context of intervention and possible remedies aiming at improving quality of life, mental health and decreasing the rate of turnover It is argued that such intervention would benefit the nurses, the quality of patient care, as well as the respective hospitals
Seeking approval for research access: the gatekeeper's role in facilitating a study of the care of the relinquishing mother
Authors: Mander Rosemary
Published: December 2006

While undertaking a study of midwives’ care of mothers relinquishing a baby for adoption, the search for permission for access provided valuable insights into the role and functioning of the‘gatekeepers', who included a range of nursing/midwifery personnel and others The benefits and positive aspects of this process are discussed The variability of the response to the request for permission for research access gives insight into the gatekeepers’ decision‐making process The functioning of research ethics committees is shown to be unpredictable The gatekeepers’ comments are related to the comments made by mothers in an early stage of the study The way in which the gatekeepers utilize their own individual experience is crucial to their decisions regarding permitting research access This experience may take the form of personal experience, occupational experience or experience of research
Criteria for evaluating the clinical and practical utility of models used by nurses
Authors: Cormack Desmond FS , Reynolds William
Published: December 2006

Arguably, nursing, like all health care disciplines, is an applied science Essentially, this refers to the application of theory in order to understand and respond to the health problems of clients These theories may be drawn (borrowed) from any applied science, or generated inductively from clinical nursing practice Alternatively, nurses may attempt to apply deductive theory (global theoretical frameworks) known as nursing models In this paper, all theoretical approaches, irrespective of origin, are referred to as models used by nurses Thirteen criteria by which clinicians, and others, can evaluate the clinical and practical utility of models used by nurses which are expressed in the form of questions are identified and discussed The criteria are an extension, both in detail and in number, of those developed by Reynolds and Cormack and subsequently applied by those writers to the Johnson Behavioural System Model of Nursing The value, or otherwise, of individual models, or of models in general, will not be discussed in this paper However, the authors propose that if the evaluation criteria described here are applied to existing models, serious deficits will be identified in relation to their clinical and practical utility
Compliance of young diabetics with health regimens
Authors: Hentinen Maija , Kyngäs Helvi
Published: December 2006

The compliance of young patients with diabetes regimens is explored by means of a questionnaire filled in by both the patients and their nurses and compared with the patients’ glycosylated haemoglobin (HBA1) levels The structured questionnaire was completed by 47 diabetics aged between 15 and 17 years The adolescents had very similar views to the specialist nurse on their compliance with health regimens, and these assessments were also in line with the HBA1 values One‐third of the young patients showed a high degree of compliance with diabetes regimens, while just under a half showed average compliance, the remainder failed to comply adequately Compliance was highest in the case of insulin treatment, self‐care and co‐operation with the nursing staff, and poorest in following dietary and home monitoring instructions
The family, crisis and chronic illness: an evolutionary model
Authors: Shaw Maureen C , Halliday Patricia H
Published: December 2006

While chronic illness has a profound impact upon the individual, an immense burden is imposed upon the family When the competing demands of an illness and the family escalate exponentially, there may be a crisis Traditionally, crisis theory has been applied to acute care contexts such as emergency, intensive care and mental health nursing Yet, clinical experience with families and chronic illness supports the notion of periodic crises from the prediagnostic phase to the long‐haul of the illness Moreover, the authors hypothesize that the family's perception of the event determines whether the crisis is perceived as a threat or a challenge This paper thus addresses the perception of crisis within the framework of chronic illness from a biological and family systems nursing perspective First, the theory of Humberto Maturana, a Chilean biologist, is explored and applied to clinical observations regarding family, crisis and chronic illness Second, an evolutionary model for conceptualizing crisis and chronic illness is presented Third, the role of beliefs in the family perceptions of crisis and chronic illness is discussed
Staff anxieties about death in residential settings for elderly people
Authors: Robbins I , Lloyd C , Carpenter S , Bender M P
Published: December 2006

This study examined the relationship between death anxiety, the anxiety surrounding dealing practically with dying, and the level of experience of care assistants in residential settings for the elderly It also examined the perception of the officer in charge of the establishment of the care assistants’ level of anxiety Age was the best predictor of both death anxiety and practical anxiety, the two being correlated There was also a difference in perception of staff anxiety as a consequence of ethnic‐group membership The implications of this for training and practice are discussed
Assessing the outcomes of nursing care
Authors: Higgins Moira , McCaughan Dorothy , Griffiths Mary , Carr‐Hill Roy
Published: December 2006

There are many dimensions to outcome measurement for patient care and this study focuses on one aspect of outcome, namely that which is most concerned with the immediate effects of nursing care Traditionally, outcome studies have been almost exclusively concerned with measuring the clinical outcomes of care with very little attempt being made to assess the effect of the nurses’ contributions to that care One of this study's purposes has been to redress this imbalance As part of a research project on skill mix and the effectiveness of nursing care, a number of patient‐focused standards related to the outcome of nursing care were designed These were tested, in a case study situation, on 15 wards at seven acute hospitals Initial testing indicates that these outcome measures show promise as a valid and reliable evaluation instrument with the utility for easy application in the clinical setting They are being presented as a possible way forward to assessing the outcomes of nursing care
AIDS, nursing and occupational risk: an ethical analysis
Authors: Sim Julius
Published: December 2006

This paper examines the notion of risk assessment in relation to nursing patients with HIV infection or AIDS Risk assessment consists in examining three features of a given hazard, its magnitude, its probability, and its acceptability In relation to the last of these, an‘acceptability threshold’ can be identified If contact with HIV‐infected patients is perceived to pass this threshold, nurses may seek to abrogate the usual‘duty to treat’ Rather than endeavour to pinpoint this threshold, the paper explores some of the factors which may either raise or lower it, and their ethical implications In particular, the consequences of setting a high threshold, and thereby limiting or avoiding contact with patients infected with HIV, are examined In this debate, the burden of proof is seen as resting firmly on nurses themselves, not on the patients at risk of being deprived of care
The telephone survey: a methodological strategy for obtaining information
Authors: de Bortoli Cassiani Silvia Helena , Zanetti Maria Lúcia , Rotter Nilza Teresa
Published: December 2006

Studies have shown that students and the general population have little knowledge about nursing schools and the nursing profession This study investigates the extent to which a sample of the population of Brazil is aware of the existence of nursing schools, and how they have obtained this information Data were collected by telephone interviews The sample consisted of 326 subjects whose telephone numbers were taken from the telephone book. Analysis showed that 73% of the subjects were aware of the existence of two nursing schools in the city, however, 65 03% did not know the names of these schools Direct communication with friends and family, as well as indirect communication by television and advertising, were the sources of information mentioned by those questioned
Using repertory grid research methodology in nurse education and practice: a critique
Authors: Mazhindu Godfrey N
Published: December 2006

This paper defines and describes the repertory grid technique and critically evaluates its potential as an effective research tool in nurse education and practice Discussion includes a focus on both the merits and limitations of the technique, and suggestions for curriculum development in nurse education are put forward.
Empowerment in nursing education: concept analysis and application to philosophy, learning and instruction
Authors: Hawks Jane Hokanson
Published: December 2006

The Walker & Avant strategy is used to complete a concept analysis of empowerment Empowerment is defined as the interpersonal process of providing the proper tools, resources and environment to build, develop and increase the ability and effectiveness of others to set and reach goals for individual and social ends Empowerment occurs between two or more people the person who empowers and the person(s) who is (are) empowered The Murrell—Armstrong Empowerment matrix, with six categories of empowering behaviours, provides the theoretical framework References from organizational, nursing, educational and sociological literature provide support for the defining attributes, antecedents and consequences of empowerment A conceptual map depicts these relationships and demonstration cases serve to make the ideas more apparent The concept of empowerment is applied to philosophy, learning and instruction Pragmatism reflects the ideas presented on empowerment because both embrace individual and social goals, the student is active in the learning process, learning is lifelong, and the appropriate environment, tools and resources for learning must be present Kolb's experiential learning model corresponds with empowerment and pragmatism The works of Dewey, Lewin, Piaget, Rogers and Freire are used as the basis for the model Kolb describes learning as a four‐step process that includes concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation Transformative instruction is based on Freire's critical pedagogy, Belenky et al 's connected teaching, Schön's reflection‐in‐action, and activities that allow students to complete the experiential learning cycle Several strategies that promote transformative instruction are discussed
Socialist Pluralism and Pluralist Socialism
Authors: Barnard F. M. , Vernon R. A.
Published: December 2006

The English school of ‘socialist pluralists' of the early twentieth century pictured socialism as an order in which maximum autonomy of social and economic functions coexisted with a minimum of political functions. The ‘pluralist socialists' among the Czech reformers of the 1960s, by contrast, insisted that such autonomy can be realised and sustained only in conjunction with effective political modalities. The pluralization of socialist regimes entailed for them, therefore, not ‘the withering away of the state’ but its invigoration as a space for contesting general ends. Such contestation was envisaged principally in terms of competition between political parties which could give expression to ideological differentiation even within the confines of socialist belief, the implication being that agreement on fundamental societal values does not pre-empt diversity over political ends.
Class, Race Ethnicity and Political Action
Authors: Miles R. , Phizacklea A.
Published: December 2006

The article considers three potential processes involving the political action or inaction of West Indian and Asian immigrant workers in Britain. Drawing upon both documentary sources and the authors own research it argues that political organization across ethnic minority lines is neither a current reality nor a short-term possibility. In contrast, while members of ethnic minorities engage in class-based forms of political action, they sometimes organize along distinct ethnic lines due to the racial exclusion of white British workers in the industrial sphere. Furthermore, it is likely that such action will be used to bring pressure to bear on the formal sphere of politics when accommodation of ethnic interests is inadequate or fails to occur.
Loyalty and the EEC: The Limitations of the Functionalist Approach
Authors: Lodge Juliet
Published: December 2006

This article explores the question of public loyalty and the E.C. It is argued that public loyalty cannot be stimulated along the lines suggested by the Functionalists. Some of the weaknesses of Functionalist premises are discussed. It is argued that the concept of ‘loyalty transfers' has led to macro-level loyalty being regarded as indivisible and transferable only on a zero-sum basis; but that it would be more instructive to regard such loyalty as a divisible entity. Before public loyalty towards the E.C. can be generated, the relationship between the utilitarian and affective-identitive components of loyalty must be better understood. The E.C. must also be made more visible, tangible, and intelligible for citizens if they are to become aware of it, and if their interest in owing allegiance to it is to be stimulated.
The Concept of Political Development
Authors: Kumar Sushil
Published: December 2006

The assumptions of universal unilinear development were articulated with Weberian theoretical and methodological perspectives to discover principles of organizing politics and administration in the new nations. The focus was on the capability of political organization in relation to its socio-economic environment. The organismic criteria of structural differentiation and integration were applied to political organization. Its development in terms of these criteria was viewed as political development: an immanent process with an evolutionary spillover. Political development so conceptualized came to be characterized by a collectivist orientation. It increasingly diverged from the norms of democratic-liberalism. As a concept it became oppressive and inimical to freedom. The need was to restore a normative emphasis to it.
Representations of Political Argument: Applications within Meta-Planning
Authors: Budge Ian
Published: December 2006

Central to the best-known classification of Political Arguments is a distinction between want-regarding and ideal-regarding principles, upon which this paper bases alternative representations of the dynamics of political debate. These are discussed with specific reference to the possibility that want-regarding goals are served less well by British planning decisions than if ideal-regarding arguments were permitted. The representations provide a limited explanation of how such a situation might come about and be maintained. Initially they draw on Downs' models of voting and party competition, but explore alternatives because of: (1) the possibility that some assumptions needed for a Downsian representation cannot realistically be made about political arguments; and (2) the probability that factors other than verbal arguments enter into planning decisions.
Property Rights and Democratic Socialism
Authors: Furniss Norman
Published: December 2006

This paper attempts to throw new light on what one might terra the ‘operational component’ of social democratic thinking, functional socialism, by focusing on the creation. organization, and transformation of property rights. I argue that while democratic socialism does provide a political and philosophical schema that justifies distribution rules not sanctioned in ‘the market’,1 the novelty of the solution (and thus the necessary difference from existing advanced industrial societies, including the United States) is exaggerated. In addition. the tension between the attenuation of private property rights and their arrogation by the state on the one hand and citizen control over state activities on the other is not sufficiently perceived. My main purpose is to delineate and explore these problems. I also suggest ways in which the argument might be strengthened.
Modernization and Ethnic Conflict in Belgium
Authors: Mughan Anthony
Published: December 2006

In the specific context of Belgium, this article expounds and tests the thesis that regional (ethnically defined) contrasts in time sequence and rate of modernization have given rise to two distinct types of nationalism, one ‘cultural’ and the other ‘economic’, whose different origins and goals are reflected in the nationalist parties' loci of electoral support. The data provide considerable support for this thesis. But they also show the character of the parties' support to have become paradoxically less distinctive as ethnic hostilities escalated. It is suggested that this development reflects the influence of two changes in the political context of ethnic politics in Belgium, the defensive, accommodative reaction of the established, unitarist parties and the changing electoral strategies of the nationalist parties themselves.
‘Mere Auxiliaries to the Commonwealth’: Women and the Origins of Liberalism
Authors: Brennan Teresa , Pateman Carole
Published: December 2006

Married women pose an acute, but now unacknowledged, problem for liberal theory. The character and magnitude of the problem can only be fully understood if the development of liberal theory is examined in the context of the impact of the consolidation of capitalism upon the socio-economic position of married women. Because the conception of ‘natural’ individual freedom and equality was central to contract theory, Hobbes and Locke had to deal with the problem of married women in their argument with the patriarchalists. Their acceptance of patriarchal claims and assertions about women stands at the beginning of the reconciliation of liberal and patriarchal theory, a reconciliation which is now attacked by certain feminists in terms which echo Hobbes' original attack on patriarchalism.

…the peculiar character of man's domination over woman in the modern family, and the necessity, as well as the manner, of establishing real social equality between the two, will be brought out into full relief only when both are completely equal before the law. F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the Slate.
Spain: Eurocommunism and Socialism
Authors: Maravall J. M.
Published: December 2006

This article analyses the bases of the political competition between the Communist Party (PCE) and the Socialist Party (PSOE) in Spain. The historical backgrounds of this competition in the period of Popular Front strategies and civil war and under Francoism are discussed. The main decisions taken by the PCE seem to have traditionally followed a pattern of politics of broad alliances, generally moderate strategies and attempts to minimize the socialist influence. In the 1960s the socialist influence seemed to be limited as a result of cumulative difficulties, and the reproduction of an Italian style political situation was predicted. There was however a socialist renaissance in the last years of Francoism which was parallel to a more intense political struggle and an increasing crisis of the dictatorship. Secondly, the article looks at recent Spanish experience, the general elections of 1977 indicated the strong persistence of political memory, which favoured the PSOE. There was a remarkable political continuity with the loyalties and cleavages of the Second Republic, with a strong vote to the PSOE in the historical leftist areas, where socialism was able to survive notwithstanding its organizational crisis. The trade union elections of 1978 qualified however this predominance of the socialists on the left. Here, recent militancy at the shop floor level, represented by the communist-orientated Workers' Commissions, seemed more important than historical memory, although the socialist UGT produced a strong challenge. Finally the article examines the similarities between the programme of the PSOE and the Eurocommunism of the PCE and concludes that theoretical-ideological convergence, paradoxically, may well maximize political competition between communism and socialism in Spain.
Some Economic Aspects of Ethical-Behavioural Codes
Authors: McKean Roland N.
Published: December 2006

Some informal rules merely save decision-making costs in social exchanges, but we try to use others as social contracts to produce public goods. (In fact, effective ethical-behavioural constraints may be essential to retention and the useful functioning of markets and democratic government.) Ethical-behavioural tenets are themselves public goods, however, adherence to them being vulnerable to cheap- or free-rider difficulties. In the long run, therefore, desirable informal laws will be underprovided. Nonetheless, according to both theory and observation, individuals sometimes overturn their free-riderism, compulsively sacrifice their selfish interests, and maintain useful customs and rules. Conditions that determine the costs and ‘indoctrinated’ or psychic rewards to individuals for their adherence are discussed. These conditions will shape the degree of underproduction of advantageous behavioural codes.
Liberal Democracy and Group Rights: The Legacy of Individualism and its Impact on American Indian Tribes
Authors: Svensson Frances
Published: December 2006

Individualism is the foundation of democratic theory and practise in the United States. A multi-ethnic, but not really a multi-communal society in the same sense as Northern Ireland or India, the United States has not generally had to confront the nature and justification of its historical opposition to group rights and communal social and political organization. Only the American Indian tribes, with their treaty-mandated communalism, have presented exceptions to this pattern. This paper explores the assumptions underlying liberal democratic attitudes towards communalism, the ways in which group claims pose challenges to conventional notions of justice and equality, and the utility of introducing alternative assumptions about the nature and role of groups in democratic society. Discussion centers on the most recent attempt to reduce the group rights of American Indian tribes.
Marx, Engels and Dialectics
Authors: Carver Terrell
Published: December 2006

Two familiar ‘facts' about Marx, Engels and their views are in reality fictions. The first is that Marx and Engels speak with the same voice on all important theoretical issues; that their works supplement each other; and that they had a perfect intellectual partnership. The second fiction is that as Marx grew older, he embraced the positivism and determinism fashionable at the time. The strongest evidence for the second fiction is the claim that Marx approved of Engels's Anti-Dühring of 1877–8 and agreed in principle with other works by Engels, such as the Dialectics of Nature. I attack the second fiction in detail, and then use my conclusions to attack the first. This exposes a divergence between the views of Marx and Engels on classic problems in social science.
Executive Power and Constituency Representation in United Kingdom Politics
Authors: Gregory Roy
Published: December 2006

It is sometimes argued that what helps to limit the political influence exercised by elected representatives in the United Kingdom on behalf of those they represent is the inability of MPs to ‘command the power of the executive’. Some MPs, however, are also members of the Government, and do command the power of the executive. This article examines the circumstances in which a fusion of constituency interest and executive power may occur. It concludes that as regards individual grievances, ‘constituency specific’ policy decisions, and matters of ‘high policy’ with a particular impact on their own constituencies, a variety of safeguards and constraints considerably restricts, if it does not eliminate entirely, the scope for constituency-motivated influence on Ministerial decisions.
Is it Better to Be Powerful or Lucky?: Part I
Authors: Barry Brian
Published: December 2006

This paper is divided into two parts. Part I contains a critique of two existing ‘power indexes’—the Shapley-Shubik index and the Banzhaf index. Part II begins with a rigorous analysis of the relationship between luck, decisiveness and success. It is shown then that the supposed ‘paradoxes of power’ generated by the other indexes can be easily dissolved. An extended application of the method of analysis to the US Constitutional Convention of 1787 follows. Finally, the relation between decisiveness (a probability) and power (a capability) is presented, and the question posed in the title is answered. At two points, the relevance of the conceptual points made to the pluralist-elitist debate is made explicit, and support is offered for the view that each side's conclusions follow from its assumptions about the nature of power.
Political Solutions to the Collective Action Problem
Authors: Laver Michael
Published: December 2006

This paper juxtaposes two important political solutions to the collective action problem in the context of a common set of core assumptions. Once the core assumptions have been discussed, the distinction between the consumption and the production problems associated with public goods provision is elaborated. These assumptions and this distinction are applied to a comparison between a theory of individualistic anarchy, and a theory of competitive political entrepreneurs. Revisions of both are required to enable them to be placed within this framework. While the two theories are neither exclusive nor exhaustive they can, between them, be used to understand public goods provision in a number of different circumstances.
Women and Politics: A Re-Appraisal
Authors: Evans Judith
Published: December 2006

This paper reviews commonly held beliefs about women, such as the view that they are less likely than men to vote, or the claim that they are more right wing in their political orientation. The views are evaluated with reference to the classic works which have enunciated them or have been used in their support, and in the light of more recent research. It is concluded that certain traditional beliefs must be discarded or drastically revised; but that it is nevertheless mistaken to view the sexes as politically identical.
Presidential Power, Press Secretaries and Communication
Authors: Seymour-Ure Colin
Published: December 2006

This article explores the relationship between an American President's public communication and his power and illustrates it by considering his relations with his Press Secretary. Communication is central to the concept of power and to the functioning of the presidency, but the relationship has attracted insufficient attention in the literature. The article argues that a President's control over how he is publicly understood is weak. Communication being central to power, lack of control implies a ‘weak’ view of the power of the President. The ability of both President and Secretary to make the President understood is jeopardised by aspects of the Secretary's personality and performance and by the nature of the presidency and the style of the incumbent. The respective access of press corps and Secretary to the President, and the quality of the relations between President and Secretary, are critical in particular cases.
The Social Contract in Leviathan and the Prisoner's Dilemma Supergame
Authors: McLean Iain
Published: December 2006

The familiar problem of whether Hobbesian men in the state of nature would ever abide by an agreement to obey a Sovereign is a version of the puzzle now known as ‘Prisoner's Dilemma’. The present paper has the following aims: (1) To establish that the game-theory approach is a legitimate way to study Hobbes. (2) To see whether a proposed ‘solution’ to the paradox of Prisoner's Dilemma applies to this example. The paradox is that individually rational self-interested calculations sum to an outcome that is suboptimal not only for society but also for every single member of it. The solution is the Supergame which consists of indefinitely repeated plays of the simple Prisoner's Dilemma game. (3) To compare the results of the above with the similar conclusions reached by a different route by recent arguments in sociobiology.
British Chief Constables: The Americanization of a Role?
Authors: Morris Stuart
Published: December 2006

The accountability of the police has become momentarily as live a political issue in Britain as it has always been in the United States. The relationship implied in the term accountability is essentially one of agency, and presupposes the demonstrability and regularity of the relationship. In both the United States and Britain, the corporate accountability of the police has come to be exercised and articulated through chiefs of police and chief constables. In the United States, however, the professional autonomy of chiefs of police owes much to a strategy of reform designed to free urban police forces from the corrupting influence of partisan politics, whereas in Britain what has been called the ‘uncontrolled authority’ of chief constables is the result of an oblique approach to the entire question of the accountability of the police. While rejecting ‘politics' chief constables are assuming a more prominent politico-administrative role and are endeavouring to establish a more direct relationship with public opinion.
Liberty: A Correct and Authoritarian Account
Authors: Allison Lincoln
Published: December 2006

The criteria of conceptual correctness tell us something about liberty, but only a bare minimum. They tell us, as MacCallum puts it, that ‘freedom is … always of something (an agent or agents), from something, to do, not do, become or not become something; it is a triadic relation.’ Within this form, many different approaches are permissible, depending on how the nature of agents or the list of valid constraints is interpreted. One sense of liberty can, though, claim conceptual primacy. It is that implicit in capitalist law and economics: the freedom of a man, as he is, given only a fair access to significant information, from the sovereign acts of the state, to live his life as he chooses. There are many good arguments for constraining liberty in this sense in the fields of education and environmental planning. These arguments are best expressed as arguments against liberty in its primary sense and not, as they so often are, as arguments for re-interpreting ‘true’ liberty to suit the writer's policy preferences.
The Concept of Political Equality: A Post-Dahl Analysis
Authors: Ware Alan
Published: December 2006

This article presents an analysis of the concept of political equality that is derived partly from the analysis of Robert Dahl. Following an introductory section, the conservative nature of Dahl's idea of political equality is outlined from four perspectives. With the last of these perspectives, a distinction between ‘populist’ and ‘liberal’ theories of democracy is introduced. In the third section it is argued that there are three components of political equality within a liberal theory, and the fourth section is devoted to an analysis of one of these—equality of treatment in the promotion of interests.
Resurrecting the Dismal Parson: Malthus, Ecology, and Political Thought
Authors: Wells David
Published: December 2006

Although a familiar figure in the history of ideas, Malthus has been trivialized, misunderstood and ignored, particularly as a political thinker. Yet his most famous work, the Essay on Population, was conceived and gained recognition as a contribution to a passionate political debate. His major feat—the powerful introduction of an ecological viewpoint into political and social theory—was later over-shadowed by the theory of evolution and the eventual decline of biologically oriented ideology. With the current resurgence of biology as a basis for social science and political ideology his work has a new relevance. In its content and development Malthus's thought is both rich and complex, while his argument provides a useful eighteenth-century parallel to the modern ‘ecological’ debate. The ‘dismal parson’ deserves resurrection as a major figure in the history of political theory.
Locke and Nozick on Property
Authors: Drury S. B.
Published: December 2006

In this paper I hope to show that the differences between the Lockian and Nozickian ideas regarding the foundation of private property are far greater than is generally assumed. My purpose is not to criticize Nozick, but to show that the accepted interpretation of Locke on which he relies is mistaken. In particular, I hope to show (1) that the theory of appropriation by labour is not applicable after the invention of money; and is meant to show that the right to property is based on the right to life and self-preservation, and (2) that property arrangements after the introduction of money are justified primarily by utility rather than natural right, and (3) that the conditions created by the invention of money make the ‘regulation’ of private property necessary for the preservation of mankind which is required by the law of nature.
Obstacles to Equality: Government Responses to the Gay Rights Movement in the United States
Authors: Cohan A. S.
Published: December 2006

The Gay Rights movement in the United States, like other social movements, may achieve its goal of full equality before the law through actions by the legislatures or courts. Generally, action by the latter opens the door to concessions by the former. But the Gay Rights movement has not progressed as its adherents have wished for four reasons: (1) the unpopularity of homosexuals; (2) the disjointed nature of American government(s); (3) the absence of cohesiveness of the movement itself, possibly as a result of a lack of economic deprivation among homosexuals; and (4) most significant, the unwillingness of the Supreme Court to accord to homosexuals the same rights it has extended to other minority groups, thereby giving a lead to legislatures as they did in the area of civil rights for Blacks.
Realignment Theory and British Party Development: A Critique
Authors: Wald Kenneth D.
Published: December 2006

This article examines the applicability of critical election theory to British party development under the Third Reform Act. Contrary to claims by several authors, the general elections of 1886 and 1906 showed none of the features associated with critical realignments—high rates of participation, electoral instability, durable changes in the social basis of party support. The realignment model, which grew out of distinctive features of the American polity, does not seem appropriate in the British system.
Max Weber and the Unity of Normative and Empirical Theory
Authors: Portis E. B.
Published: December 2006

Although Max Weber is often invoked as an authority to justify the distinction between ‘normative’ and ‘empirical’ theory, both his methodological and theoretical work call into question any such distinction. All specifically social or collective concepts, Weber argued, are derived from the subjective commitments of the researcher. It is impossible for such concepts to be ‘objectively’ valid. In the first part of this essay, Weber's analysis of the role of values in the formation of collective concepts is discussed, as well as the sense in which he believed that social scientific knowledge could be objectively valid in spite of the normative nature of social conceptualization. The second part will demonstrate the normative basis of Weber's own social theory, and its consequent political prescriptions.
John Locke and Anglican Royalism
Authors: Goldie Mark
Published: December 2006

Whom did Locke attack? We know that the Two Treatises replied to Filmer, not Hobbes, and was written during the Exclusion crisis, not after the Revolution. Yet there is more to the historical context. Locke assaulted a whole generation of Anglican ideologists, who endorsed Bodinian doctrines of sovereignty and embarrassed the Whigs with the claim that their politics derived from both revolutionary Calvinism and ‘popish’ scholasticism. The clericalist hegemony in Restoration polemics, and the persecution, by statute, of Nonconformity, are constant themes for Locke and the Whigs. One result was an ambiguity about the Crown: they did not always align against Crown-and-Church, but sometimes with the Crown against the Church. The defence of Dissent, and the attack on the priestcraft of a hierocratic episcopate, render Locke's politics as much a work of radical Protestant ecclesiology as of secular revolutionism.
Pluralism and the New Corporatism
Authors: Martin Ross M.
Published: December 2006

There has recently been a revival of interest in the notion of ‘corporatism’, with particular reference to its application in the context of liberal democratic political systems. The principal authors of this revival have depicted ‘liberal corporatism’ as involving relations between government and interest groups that are radically different from those characteristic of ‘pluralism’. However, deficiencies in their definition of liberal corporatism and shortcomings in their perception of pluralism point to a different conclusion.
Foreign Policy Analysis: British and American Orientations and Methodologies
Authors: Smith Steve
Published: December 2006

This paper is concerned with examining the extent to which there is a geographical divide in the academic study of foreign policy analysis. Accepting that there are diverse approaches to that study in the academic communities of the United States and the United Kingdom, this paper argues that it is possible to distinguish between two ideal-types, each exemplified in one of the two communities. This paper outlines these—an American approach based on a desire to construct general theories of foreign policy behaviour, and a British approach which stresses the need for case-studies and eschews the possibility of general theory. The reasons for the development of these two approaches are then discussed, linking the study of foreign policy to the wider political arena, and the general academic orientation of the two countries. Finally, it assesses the possibility of arriving at a synthesis of the two approaches.
Hegel's Logic, Marx's Science, Rationalism's Perils
Authors: Cocks Joan
Published: December 2006

Marx's use of Hegel's logic in the Grundrisse and Capital allows him to analyse society as objectively determined while avoiding the crudities of mechanistic explanation. However, when combined with its influence on his theory of history, the logic's influence on Marx's science precipitates a fracture between the ideas of a past governed by a hidden dynamic and a future governed by human reason; and between the methods required to make sense of a past whose participants have made the wrong sense of it and a future which perfectly mirrors its participants' intentions and beliefs. It is argued that what Marx sees as two temporally distinct forms of action are, in truth, internal moments of action: all action is, if in shifting proportions, relatively opaque and relatively transparent to its own authors.
Accommodation or Defusion in the Management of Linguistic Conflict in Belgium?
Authors: MuGhan A.
Published: December 2006

Under the influence of the consociational model, conflict management in deeply divided societies like Belgium is usually viewed in terms of purposive accommodative behaviour on the part of established élites. This paper argues, however, that this perspective in fact misrepresents the nature of élite efforts to manage the linguistic conflict that has dominated Belgian national political life since the mid-1960s. Eschewing accommodation, the leaders of the country's three traditional parties have, instead, pursued a minimalist ‘defusionist’ management strategy because their aim has been not to institutionalize this conflict, but to make it ‘go away’ and, thereby, restore political stability and effective governance, under their well-tried collective political hegemony, to the country.
On the Alleged Differences between Marx and Engels
Authors: Stanley John L. , Zimmermann Ernest
Published: December 2006

The supposed differences between Marx and Engels hinge on Marx's failure to endorse Anti-Dühring, on his refusal to hypostatize dialectical categories independent of human reflection and on his refusal to formulate any cosmic super-laws of society or of nature. Engels, on the other hand, is supposed to have viewed man as a passive product of natural evolution governed by super-laws that belong to idealist philosophy. However, Marx strongly endorsed Anti-Dühring, took a strong interest in science and regarded a dialectics of nature as essential to his theory of a unified science, a science that was essential to non-alienated being. Neither Marx nor Engels was consistent on these questions, but their alleged differences really reflect an internal contradiction within their commonly held theory.