When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its first detainee decisions in 2004, many cheered the Court for serving as a check on the George W. Bush administration's unilateral detainee policies. A closer examination, however, reveals that the Bush administration was adept at retaining significant power over detainee matters in spite of the seemingly negative judicial decisions. This article explores four institutional and political factors that, individually and collectively, work to limit the Supreme Court's ability to serve as a significant check on presidential power in the area of detainee affairs in the war on terror. The article concludes that, even if the judiciary is inclined to be active in this area, these factors are likely to constrain any judicial attempts to significantly check presidential detention power in the war on terror.
Aim: To evaluate the predictive validity and responsiveness of the Home Falls and Accidents Screening Tool (HOME FAST). Methods: A prospective study of 727 community dwelling Veterans and war widows aged 70 years and over. The outcome was 6‐month recall of any fall at 3‐year follow‐up. Baseline measurements were taken of common falls risk factors, and home hazards (using the HOME FAST). Changes in the prevalence of HOME FAST items were calculated and a logistic regression model was computed to determine predictors of falls at follow‐up. Results: Prevalence of 14 HOME FAST items was significantly reduced from baseline to follow‐up ( P ≤ 0.05). Falls were significantly related to the baseline HOME FAST score (odds ratio (OR) 1.016, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.004–1.098, P = 0.006), and a reduction in home hazards at follow‐up (OR 0.984, 95% CI 0.973–0.996, P = 0.02). Conclusion: The HOME FAST can predict falls in older people and is responsive to change.
This study compared topical pimecrolimus with betamethasone in the treatment of pruritus and chronic skin lesions due to sulfur mustard exposure. Seventy male chemical‐injured war veterans participated in this investigator‐blinded clinical trial. They were randomized to receive pimecrolimus cream 1% (n = 35) or betamethasone cream 0.1% (n = 35) two times a day for 6 weeks. Dermatological examination and assessment of pruritus severity by a pruritic score questionnaire and visual analogue scale were done before and after the treatment course. A significant decrease (P 0.05). Mean (± standard deviation) pruritic scores at baseline for the pimecrolimus and betamethasone groups were 30.4 (± 8.0) and 33.6 (± 7.2), respectively (P = 0.103). These scores decreased to 18.8 (± 4.8) in the pimecrolimus and 20.8 (± 4.0) in the betamethasone groups after treatment; both showed a statistically significant decrease (P < 0.001). Change of pruritus score from baseline to after the treatment course was not statistically different between the two groups (P = 0.502). No serious side‐effects were reported during the course of the treatment. Topical pimecrolimus 1% was as effective as betamethasone cream 0.1% in controlling pruritus, burning sensation and skin dryness of sulfur mustard‐exposed patients.
In October of 2008, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) failed to obtain majority support to represent a 40,000‐member bargaining unit of public school teachers in Puerto Rico even though it had most of the odds stacked in its favor: a huge war chest, a decertified and bankrupt rival, and the Puerto Rican government qua employer's neutrality, if not outright support. The Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico, the SEIU's rival, campaigned against the SEIU's bid for exclusive representation by focusing on rank‐and‐file mobilization and a message against raiding by a “colonial” union. The event showed that even progressive and successful unions such as the SEIU are not immune to oligarchic tendencies and may raid other unions in pursuit of money and power. Strategies that combine more democratic, bottom‐up mobilization, including, in the case of Puerto Rico, strengthening the long‐established tradition of minority unionism, could dampen future oligarchic tendencies, buttress industrial democracy, and create better coexistence between trade union organizations. To move forward, especially given the global crisis that has befallen us, unions need to start acting in the most principled of ways and expressing solidarity in the deepest manners.
Japan’s policy toward the 2003 Iraq War is a test of the constructivist argument about the weight of norms as opposed to material systemic factors in foreign policy making. Constructions of external threats and interests were contested between a largely realist‐minded elite around prime minister Koizumi bent on Japan’s remilitarization and those still holding to antimilitarist norms. This contest is traced in an analysis of the policy‐making process, including the role of bureaucratic and political institutions, the opposition parties and the public. Indicative of the power of norms, Koizumi was forced to compromise his ambition to use the Iraq crisis to help make Japan a “normal” great power.
Although the “war for talent” at the executive level should theoretically have implications for executive pay, labor market competition and CEO career considerations have not been the focus of much executive compensation research to date. In this study, I utilize a multitheoretical perspective to examine the determinants of CEO annual compensation, with particular attention to external labor market factors and also to executive characteristics (e.g., experience and performance trajectory) that are conventionally believed to increase the labor market attractiveness (and alternative employment opportunities) of CEOs. In a sample of publicly traded firms, I find that these labor market‐related factors and characteristics explain additional variance in annual pay beyond that predicted by firm size, annual performance, board composition, risk, and measures of CEO power, and that the variance explained by labor market variables is of a magnitude comparable to that explained by many of these more commonly studied variables. Results are consistent with the idea that corporate boards design CEO pay with retention concerns in mind: Total pay and stock option grant levels are strongly influenced by competitors’ pay levels, and CEOs who are especially likely to be “raided” receive higher pay in some cases and, in other cases, have less risky (weaker) annual firm performance–pay relationships.
The history of education in relation to globalization is quite paradoxical. The first global phenomena of education emerged out of reactions against the Reformation in the late sixteenth century, when the Counter-Reformation Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, started to establish institutions of higher education, first in Europe and later in other parts of the world. Provided in architecturally standardized buildings, the Jesuit education was based on a standardized curriculum developed by international experts1 and used standardized quality rating systems to assess students’ achievement (see, for instance, Dainville, 1978). The historiography of education in relation to globalization can be called a paradox because it does not focus on this successful CounterReformation concept but rather, quite to the contrary, on the alleged spread of mostly secularized Protestant concepts. It is these Protestant concepts that—according to the historiographic accounts—have been diffused around the world since at least the end of the Second World War, constituting through a “cultural globalization” process a new “world culture” in which specific patterns of thoughts are brought about by transnational organizations and international experts. One definition of this process reads as follows: “Cultural globalization involves the worldwide spread of models or blueprints of progress and the networks of organizations and experts that transmit these logics of appropriateness to nation-states and other collectivities” (Suarez & Ramirez, 2004, p. 1). Educational expectations and organizations play a crucial role in this process. According to these interpretations, educational systems were the crucial means used in “developing the Western Europe model of a national society” (Ramirez & Boli, 1987, p. 3) that, even though transcended in the twentieth century, has not diminished the importance of education; quite the contrary. “Globalization” is a concept that refers to an encompassing process with radical effects, similar to concepts such as Christianization, confessionalization, secularization, or modernization. All of these notions serve to indicate fundamental theories describing these encompassing
The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (RTAA) of 1945 revolutionized U.S. trade policy and global economic order. Based upon a new conception of the United States' national trade interest and role in world economic affairs, the RTAA of 1945 initiated the nation's postwar drive to construct an open world trading system. Yet despite its epoch‐making character, the history of this statute has not been subjected to sustained analysis. Building upon the three dominant political science explanations for U.S. trade politics and policy formation—system, society, and state—this study traces the origins of the RTAA of 1945 to the impact of World War II on the formulation and enactment of this statute at the domestic level. It argues that it is impossible to explain the genesis of the RTAA of 1945 absent a consideration of the influence of World War II on the pattern of domestic politics that produced it.