Official Date Research Articles

New Initiatives at Journal of Clinical Oncology

New Initiatives at <i>Journal of Clinical Oncology</i>

AAFP Membership Hits All-time High

AAFP membership surged to a record high in 2010, going above the 97,000-member mark for the first time ever. As of December 31, 2010 (the official count date), the AAFP had 97,600 members, nearly 3,000 more than at the end of 2009. All major membership categories had increases compared with 2009

National Institutes of Health public access policy and the University of Michigan Libraries' role in assisting with depositing to PubMed Central

On April 7, 2008, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) instituted the NIH public access policy implementing division G, title II, section 218 of Public Law 110–161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008) and affecting all peer-reviewed research funded through its grants [1]. Researchers receiving such funding are required to place “an electronic version of their final peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication” into “the digital archive PubMed Central,” thus making them freely available [1].

Thank you and very best wishes for 2011

For over 22 years Electroanalysis has been committed to publishing the very best in electroanalytical chemistry. To reflect our rapid growth and success we invited three Associate Editors in 2010. These additions have led to further improvements in the efficiency of processing and reviewing submitted articles. The new editorial team is committed to develop and enhance the high reputation of the journal and to offer a fair, just and efficient peer-review process. In 2011 we will focus on maintaining and improving our high standards, and on promoting good science and creativity. Special emphasis will be given to the latest innovations and significant advances in electroanalytical chemistry. These include the development of advanced electrode materials and tailored surfaces, interface with new nanoscale materials, new potentiometric and amperometric detection strategies, high-resolution surface characterization, studies at the cellular level, or early disease detection. For example, the latest advances in electroanalysis and biosensing at graphene electrodes will be the subject of a special issue in 2011. This present special issue covers the latest advances from leading European scientists and continues our tradition of publishing selected contributions from the ESEAC meeting. We will also thrive to further reduce the overall online publication time, including the peer-review and production processes. To reduce the carbon footprint of Electroanalysis, we will have 12 issues from 2011 onward rather than 24 issues in recent years. Certainly all articles will continue to be published online as individual EarlyView articles as fast as possible; they will have an official online publication date and can be fully cited via their DOI as usual. The change in publication frequency will by no means affect the number of published articles, as the acceptance of manuscripts for publication in Electroanalysis will continue to solely depend on the quality of the presented research work. We thus look forward to continuously receiving your best research articles as well as your suggestions. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the authors, readers, referees, and board members of Electroanalysis who contribute tremendously to the journal's health and success: Thank you all for making Electroanalysis so successful and very best wishes for 2011! 1 1 1 1

One date, one break?

This paper demonstrates that the conventional approach of using official liberalisation dates as the only existing breakdates could lead to inaccurate conclusions as to the effect of the underlying liberalisation policies. It also proposes an alternative paradigm for obtaining more robust estimates of volatility changes around official liberalisation dates and/or other important market events. By focusing on five East Asian emerging markets, all of which liberalised their financial markets in the late, and by using recent advances in the econometrics of structural change, it shows that (i) the detected breakdates in the volatility of stock market returns can be dramatically different to official liberalisation dates and (ii) the use of official liberalisation dates as breakdates can readily entail inaccurate inference. In contrast, the use of data-driven techniques for the detection of multiple structural changes leads to a richer and inevitably more accurate pattern of volatility evolution emerges in comparison with focussing on official liberalisation dates.

Constitutional and Legislative Provisions Governing the Use of Language in the Hong Kong SAR

By the year 2009, Hong Kong has been China’s Special Administrative Region (SAR) for more than a decade. To some, it must have sounded politically incorrect and utterly odd that Hong Kong is being referred as a post-colony. Yet, it is exactly this hybrid identity of being Britain’s former colony and China’s present SAR that has presented and confronted the ruler and its subjects with complex issues of governance. Among the older generation of Hong Kong, lingering sentiments to the colonial good-old-days may well be alive. Even among the younger generation, allegiance to the new ruler may yet to take deeper roots. This tension, between the past and the present mirrors the hopes and fears of the local inhabitants, maybe best reflected in the adoption and usage of language in Hong Kong. Since the colonial days in 1845, English has long been perceived by the public as the language of power and success. Mastery of it endows one with an aura of elitism. This continues to hold true at the back of the minds of many despite the change in political sovereignty. Partly this can be attributed to the fact that English is being the most commonly used language among countries in the age of internationalization and globalization. More significantly, English has often been trumpeted by the ruling regime to be indispensable for Hong Kong’s role as a leading international financial centre, in which the rule of law is an essential fuel. In contrast, Chinese language pales off. It belongs to the vernacular, to the private. It is easily understandable that English is essential for international trade and commerce. But as to whether the maintenance of rule of law in Hong Kong must be carried out in English is, perhaps, a topic too controversial to be easily settled. One has to bear in mind the simple truth that Hong Kong is the only common law system in the world where Chinese is used as a legal language. Inevitably, this would pose unique and unprecedented challenge to all those who have interactions with the legal system, including all living in Hong Kong, parties in lawsuits, court interpreters, lawyers and judges. To capture the above interplay of social and legal forces behind the use of language in Hong Kong, this study focuses on studying the legal judgments concerning bilingual language policy in Hong Kong after July 1, 1997, the official date of the transfer of political sovereignty from British to Chinese governance. The study of the judicial voice is of particular importance as the Hong Kong judiciary is often praised to be the crown jewel of the British legacy. It is highly regarded as being impartial, independent, and authoritative. It is seen as the guardian of the rule of law in Hong Kong. Given this context, when litigants to lawsuits, civil servants, university students and lawyers take their cases to court in the name of language right, they have turned the court rooms into the ultimate arena to test the equal status of English and Chinese. Thus, in examining and analyzing judicial decisions on the use of language right and policy, one can find that in interpreting the laws governing bilingual adoption in Hong Kong, judges have shaped, regulated and organized Hong Kong society and its subjects for easy and convenient governance. Indirectly and unconsciously, judges have also contributed to the consolidation and maintenance of English to be the genuine, elite and legal language. Through an analysis of various judgments, this paper argues that despite the popular use of Chinese in the community and in the court room, it is a language largely used to serve the functional purpose of easy governance. When it comes to priority of the powerful, authoritative and governing voice, English is still paramount. In particular, when law speaks, when judges speak, it must be pure, preferably in English.

What Next for the Millennium Development Goals?

It is just about time for yet another round of internationaldevelopment goals. The Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) – the eight goals, 20 targets and 60+ indicatorsthat came out of the United Nations in 2000 – are comingto the end of their natural life. Although the official enddate is not until 2015, if your country is not close to reach-ing the MDGs now, there is simply not much time tocatch up. (Helpfully, the UN’s MDG Monitor websitecounts down to 2015 by the second.)As 2015 ticks ever closer, international bureaucrats (andI use that term affectionately since I have been one) aredeciding how to cook up the nextround of goals. We can be assuredthat there will be another round ofMDG-like goals sometime fairly soonbecause this has been the consistentpattern for much of the last century.My colleague Michael Clemens docu-ments how global universal primaryeducation has been repeatedly prom-ised by grand international summitssince at least 1934, even if their actual impact has beenquestionable (Clemens, 2004).So what should MDGs redux look like if we want themto be constructive and not merely more of the same? Agood place to start is to consider the pluses and minuses ofthe current set. On the positive side, the MDGs have beenhugely successful at fundraising. The MDGs evolved outof a set of goals created at the OECD in the mid-1990s asa direct attempt to try to reverse the steep cuts in foreignaid after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Total aidplummeted by more than 20 per cent between 1992 and1997, prompting waves of panic within the aid community.At the time of the September 2000 UN Summit when theMDGs were adopted unanimously by the largest-ever gath-ering of heads of state, total aid was around $60 billion peryear. By 2005 the level had doubled to around $120 billionand it has hovered around this level ever since. Coinciden-tally, a series of ‘MDG costing studies’ suggested that justsuch a doubling was necessary for those goals to beachieved (Devarajan et al., 2002; Zedillo, 2001). A linkbetween the MDGs and this spike in aid seems highlyplausible. Nearly all donor countries justified their increaseson the basis of, if not directly meeting the MDGs, helpingto reach MDG-like goals, such as fighting poverty, educat-ing children or stemming the HIV⁄AIDS pandemic.Another useful contribution of the MDGs has been tofocus the development community – and the taxpayingpublic – on outcomes, if somewhat belatedly. Although itseems obvious today to track progress on intended targets,common practice in the past was simply to calculate inputs:how much money was spent, how many books werebought, etc., rather than on the hoped-for changes incountries, such as healthier and more educated people.Finding out what is actually happening on the ground notonly helps to establish if money andeffort are reaching their intendedobjectives, but also helps to makecritical efficiency decisions. If we aimfor educated children, a logical firststep is at least to know how manykids are enrolled in school. It alsoprovides a baseline for deeper evalua-tion that can help make policy deci-sions, such as: is it better to useadditional marginal dollars to build schools or pay teachershigher salaries or fight diseases that too often keep kidsout of school? In fact, the approach of finding out how weare actually doing is obvious now in part because of theMDGs. Tracking and reporting have become mainstream –and it is not too much of a stretch to give the goals part ofthe credit.Yet, the MDGs also have some serious weaknesses.While the goals were initially intended as global aspira-tions, they quickly became actual targets for countries.Some of this was (likely well-intentioned if lazy) misuse ofthe goals as a replacement for national targets. If Goal Fivesays that the maternal mortality ratio should be reduced bythree-quarters, then that has been the target assigned toNiger, Cambodia and Honduras as well. Some of thistransfer to national goals was however by design, such asGoal Two which calls for universal completion of primaryschooling.But does it really make sense for all countries around theworld to have the same goals? Should China and CapeVerde be applying the same objectives and measuringsticks? More to the point, should we be determining the‘success’ or ‘failure’ of a country’s efforts at progress based

Climate Adjustments over Africa Accompanying the Indian Monsoon Onset

Abstract Rainfall and circulation changes accompanying the Indian monsoon onset are examined, focusing on the African continent and neighboring areas. The Indian Meteorological Department official monsoon onset dates over Kerala (MOK; on average on 1 June) are used. Composites are formed at a pentad (5 days) time scale to compare pre- and postonset conditions. Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP) data for 1979–2007 indicate that a substantial rainfall decrease over several parts of Africa is associated with MOK. Significant rainfall anomalies, after removal of the mean seasonal cycle, are found in eastern Africa and the nearby western Indian Ocean. Indian monsoon onset dates over the period 1958–2001 are correlated at 0.55 with the cessation dates of the March–May rainy season (the long rains) averaged over Kenya and northern Tanzania. The rainy season cessation leads the onset by 12 days, on average. An early cessation of the March–May rains tends to precede an early onset over India. Over East Africa, the rainfall decrease is associated with a strengthening of the southerly winds (Somali jet) shortly before MOK, enhancing wind divergence and wind shear. A weaker rainfall signal is noted over western Africa and the Gulf of Guinea. MOK coincides with a pause in the progression of the West African monsoon. The pause is associated with anomalous descent over the Sahel, culminating two to three pentads after MOK. Composite maps further indicate that MOK is followed over much of the African continent by a sea level pressure rise and, between India and North Africa, a westward propagation of easterly wind and positive geopotential height anomalies. Many of these signals are associated with Madden–Julian oscillations, but independent features, suggesting Rossby wave propagation over North Africa, are also found to connect MOK and West Africa. Overall, these results are indicative of a large-scale adjustment of the atmospheric dynamics across both eastern and western Africa in conjunction with the monsoon onset over India.

TREATIES AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS TO WHICH THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS IS A PARTY: Conclusions and Developments 2008

This survey covers the treaties, international agreements, and other international instruments mentioned in the ‘Tractatenblad van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden’ – Treaty Series of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (abbr.: Trb.). Its purpose is to record the legal consequences of such agreements and instruments for the Netherlands, and Netherlands State acts in respect of them, such as signature, parliamentary approval, ratification, entry into force, provisional application, extension or limitation of territorial application, termination and abrogation. Signature by the Netherlands, however, is mentioned separately only if, in the case of multilateral treaties, such signature has taken place on a date different from the official date of conclusion of the treaty.

National Institutes of Health public access policy assistance: one library's approach

Over a year ago, on April 7, 2008, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) public access policy became mandatory. The policy directs NIH-funded researchers to: submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication. [1] At that time, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Biomedical Library, along with many other academic health sciences libraries, began to strategize about how it might help its NIH-funded researchers comply with the policy. Now, a year later, seems like a good time to reflect on the steps that this library took to offer policy assistance and to consider the benefits to the library of doing so.

Stock Market Efficiency before and after a Financial Liberalisation Reform

This article focuses on the deviations from normality of stock returns before and after a financial liberalisation reform, and shows the extent to which inference based on statistical measures of stock market efficiency can be affected by not controlling for breaks. Drawing from recent advances in the econometrics of structural change, it compares the distribution of the returns of five East Asian emerging markets when breaks in the mean and variance are either (i) imposed using certain official liberalisation dates or (ii) detected non-parametrically using a data-driven procedure. The results suggest that measuring deviations from normality of stock returns with no provision for potentially existing breaks incorporates substantial bias. This is likely to severely affect any inference based on the corresponding descriptive or test statistics.

Qu'est-ce qu'une communauté à l'époque contemporaine ? À propos d'une recherche sur les Juifs en Sarthe, 1889-1945

Through the example of Sarthe, a French “departement”, this study focuses on defining the notion of Jewish community. Our investigation spans from the apparition of the first anti-Semitic archives in Sarthe to the official date that the number of deportees was known in the county. It depicts the arrival of foreign Jews in the county in the inter-war period and studies the migration phenomena of these individuals and families. We show that this immigration had direct consequences on the creation of Jewish communitarian structures. We also illustrate the events happening in Sarthe when it became part of the occupied zone and consequences for the Jews living in the area, the massive arrival of Jewish refugees from Paris as soon as the War is declared, the anti-Jewish persecutions, and the dispersion of the Jewish community. We also analyse the tentative ways they tried to reconstruct the Jewish community and the difficulties they faced with that Henry Rousso defined as “Syndrome de Vichy”, the French attitude when it comes to deal with the World War II.

Seasonal variation and its effect on semen parameters in infertile couples based in a rural setting

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of seasonal variation on sperm parameters from infertile couples in a rural setting. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort chart review. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 3,454 male semen samples were analyzed from the Geisinger Fertility Center in Danville, Pennsylvania from January, 1992 to February, 2009. Patients were male infertility patients between the ages of 18 and 65 years old. Using the Kruskal-Wallis test, the unadjusted relationship between semen parameters and seasonal variation was assessed. Age-adjusted results were checked using log-transformed semen outcomes in regression models with season as the main predictor. Seasons were defined using official calendar season dates (spring, summer, fall and winter). Year trend checks were done as well to rule out semen parameters changing over time instead of seasons. Abstracted data included age of the patient, date the specimen was collected, sperm volume, sperm concentration, total count, motile sperm/ml, total motile sperm, motility (%), percentage of dead sperm, and the percentage of abnormal forms. Results were considered significant when p<0.05. RESULTS: Sperm concentration, total count, motile sperm/mL, and total motile sperm were lowest in the fall season (p <0.0001). Sperm motility (%) was lowest in the winter season (p=0.021). The percent of abnormal sperm was highest in the fall (p=0.0002). There was no statistical significance in semen volume nor the percentage of dead sperm by season. CONCLUSIONS: In a rural setting, it can be concluded that seasonal variation plays a role with respect to several semen analysis parameters. Sperm concentration, total count, percent motility, motile sperm/mL, total motile sperm, and percent abnormal sperm appear to have significant seasonal variation even after adjustment for age and year-cohort trends.

The financial implications of a conversion from enoxaparin to dalteparin as the LMWH of choice at a comprehensive cancer center

e17566 Background: To assess the financial implications of a conversion from enoxaparin to dalteparin as the low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) of choice at a large, comprehensive cancer center. Methods: A full class review of LMWH's was conducted in September of 2007 resulting in dalteparin replacing enoxaparin as the LMWH of choice. The Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee approved automatic substitution with notification of the prescribing physician. The one exception to the policy was conversion if the patient was on enoxaparin at home, the policy would allow for continuation of therapy. Once the policy was approved, laminated dosing conversion cards and pre-printed order sets were developed. Multiple in-services were held prior to the official conversion date of October 15, 2007, to address any issues and to facilitate the conversion. Cost comparisons were made within individual settings adjusting for utilization levels. Results: In the fiscal year prior to the conversion from enoxaparin to dalteparin the cancer center purchased nearly $360,000 of enoxaparin for the inpatient and infusion center settings. In the year following the LMWH change, the total projected cost for LMWHs is $244,000, resulting in a 32% cost savings of $115,000. Conclusions: The change from enoxaparin to dalteparin resulted in significant cost savings for the cancer center. Additional studies are underway to examine the clinical outcomes of the LMWH change. No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Prediction of F-16XL Flight-Flow Physics

T HIS special section is the result of fruitful endeavors by an international group of researchers in industry, government laboratories, and university-led efforts to improve the technology readiness level of their CFD solvers through comparisons with flight data collected on the F-16XL-1 aircraft at a variety of test conditions. These 1996flight datawere documented in [1] and detailed theflightflow physics of this aircraft through surface tufts, pressures, boundary-layer rakes, and skin-friction measurements. The flight project was called the Cranked-Arrow Wing Aerodynamics Project (CAWAP), due to its leading-edge sweep crank (70 deg inboard, 50 deg outboard), and served as a basis for the international comparisons to bemade, called CAWAPI. This highly focused effort was one of two vortical flow studies facilitated by the NATO Research and Technology Organization (RTO) through its Applied Vehicle Technology (AVT) Panel with a title of “Understanding and Modeling Vortical Flows to Improve the Technology Readiness Level for Military Aircraft.” It was given a task group number of AVT-113 and had an official start date of spring 2003. The companion part of this task group dealt with fundamentals of vortical flow from both an experimental and numerical perspective on an analytically describable delta-wing model, for which much surface pressure data had already beenmeasured at NASALangleyResearch Center at a variety of Mach and Reynolds numbers, and is called the “Vortex FlowExperiment–2” (VFE-2) as proposed in [2]. These two parts or facets helped one another in understanding the predictions and data that had been or were being collected. The CAWAPI facet had the distinction of using actual aircraft geometry, which is subject to the ITAR controls, and required much cooperation between NASA Langley Research Center, NASA Headquarters, and the leadership of the various NATO or Partnersfor-Peace participating organizations in establishing how the geometry and grids could be shared. This and other background information is contained in the first paper that follows. The second paper discusses how the supplied geometry was processed into acceptable computational grids for both the structured and unstructured solver communities, papers three to five detail the comparisons of three classes of grid solutionswith theflight data, and the last paper provides what has been learned from CAWAPI. The author is extremely proudof themany outstanding researchers and organizations that have had a part in the CAWAPI facet. These RTO task groups do not come with funded support, so each participating organization had to anticipate that the benefit it accrues would be greater than the expense encountered. The participating researchers accommodated the work often on their own time under the benevolent eye of their employers who saw this work to be of importance and provided an opportunity for their staff to make a novel contribution, as well as to test their own solvers. We have also benefited from significant graduate student involvement; in particular, CAWAPI has lasted long enough for some to complete their advanced degrees and to be part of the coauthorship of two of the following papers. The author alsowishes to thank theAIAA for providing ameans of rapid dissemination of results obtained duringCAWAPI through two special sessions at the 45th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit (January 2007), and now through the Journal of Aircraft. In particular, Professor Frank Coton (University of Glasgow) and the Applied Aerodynamics Technical Committee are thanked for advocating and facilitating these special sessions at the general meeting in which results from nine organizations were reported in 13 papers. The themes of these papers are carried over as articles in this special section, either individually or in combination. The Journal of Aircraft editors, editorial staff, and reviewers are also thanked for the many helpful suggestions made during the publication process.

Stock market liberalization, structural breaks and dynamic changes in emerging market volatility

PurposeThis paper aims to empirically reexamine the dynamic changes in emerging market volatility around stock market liberalization.Design/methodology/approachFirst, a bivariate GARCH‐M model which counts for partial market integration is developed for modeling stock market volatility in emerging market countries. Second, the Bai and Perron stability test in a linear framework and a pooled time‐series cross‐section model were employed to examine the empirical relationship between stock market liberalization and volatility.FindingsStructural breaks detected in emerging market volatility series did not take place at the time of official liberalization dates, but they rather coincide with alternative events of liberalization process. The effects of official liberalization on return volatility are on average insignificant. The stock return volatility is however lowered when the participation of the US investors becomes effective and important on emerging markets, and when emerging markets increase in size.Research limitations/implicationsThe study assumes a static degree of market integration. Future research should extend our model by using a time‐varying measure of market integration.Practical implicationsPolicymakers in frontier markets should open up local stock markets to attract foreign investments and to allow local firms to benefit from international risk sharing. Also, the gradual embankment of market‐liberalization is necessary to gain investors' confidence and to prevent the harmful effects of foreign capital flows.Originality/valueThe consideration of alternative events of liberalization process and the use of a powerful stability test to examine the time‐series properties of conditional volatilities.

Mandatory IFRS Reporting around the World: Early Evidence on the Economic Consequences

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the economic consequences of mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) reporting around the world. We analyze the effects on market liquidity, cost of capital, and Tobin's q in 26 countries using a large sample of firms that are mandated to adopt IFRS. We find that, on average, market liquidity increases around the time of the introduction of IFRS. We also document a decrease in firms' cost of capital and an increase in equity valuations, but only if we account for the possibility that the effects occur prior to the official adoption date. Partitioning our sample, we find that the capital‐market benefits occur only in countries where firms have incentives to be transparent and where legal enforcement is strong, underscoring the central importance of firms' reporting incentives and countries' enforcement regimes for the quality of financial reporting. Comparing mandatory and voluntary adopters, we find that the capital market effects are most pronounced for firms that voluntarily switch to IFRS, both in the year when they switch and again later, when IFRS become mandatory. While the former result is likely due to self‐selection, the latter result cautions us to attribute the capital‐market effects for mandatory adopters solely or even primarily to the IFRS mandate. Many adopting countries make concurrent efforts to improve enforcement and governance regimes, which likely play into our findings. Consistent with this interpretation, the estimated liquidity improvements are smaller in magnitude when we analyze them on a monthly basis, which is more likely to isolate IFRS reporting effects.

Did Darzi deliver or did he dither?

As the sexagenarian NHS, on creaking ageing joints, soldiers on, Lord Darzi delivered his long awaited review, High quality care for all: NHS Next Stage Review final report at the...

Political Culture and Post-Communism by Stephen Whitefield (review)

762 SEER, 86, 4, OCTOBER 2008 and Tymoshenko started would not triumph without widespread popular support. But it was also a verymodern revolution.Wilson perceptively highlights the unprecedented use of cell phone messaging, Internet, satellite television and rap music as political tools. His analysis is also strong on more traditional points, such as the cultural divide between Ukrainian-speaking western Ukraine and theRussian-speaking east, an issue on which the official candi date Viktor Yanukovych played. This ploy largely worked, as it did in all previous elections, but this time central Ukraine supported Yushchenko on civic issues,which made all the difference. Finally, the author provides a balanced treatment of the controversial issue of the financial support that Russia and the West gave to the two opposing sides inUkraine (pp. 118 and 183-84). In short, Western money went toNGOs rather than directly toYush chenko. The opposition thus spentmuch less than the authorities, and won because of itspopular support. Some of Wilson's forecasts for the future did not come true:Yanukovych's descent into a political afterlife, the collapse of his Party ofRegions, and the Orange Coalition's majority after theparliamentary elections of 2006 (pp. 155 and 171-71). But the author's warnings about Tymoshenko's perilous econom ic populism, the danger of her splitwith Yushchenko, and the president's own indecisiveness proved prophetic. Wilson's sympathies are clearly with theOrange side, yet readers of all political orientations will enjoy his superb analysis ofUkrainian politics. Department ofGermanicandRussian Studies Serhy Yekelchyk UniversityofVictoria Whitefield, Stephen (ed.). Political Culture and Post-Communism. St Antony's Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York, 2005. xvi + 234 pp. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. ?52.00. This volume celebrates the outstanding contributions of Archie Brown to the fields of Russian studies and political sciences. It is a result of a successful conference held tomark his retirement entitled 'Political Leadership, Political Institutions, and Political Culture'. The book's major claim is that our under standing of the dynamics of Communist systems has been substantially improved by taking political culture into account, as illustrated by the pupils and colleagues influenced by Professor Brown's work. Although the term 'political culture' was used as early as the eighteenth century, it came intowide usage in political science about half a century ago (Gabriel Almond, 'Comparative Political Systems', Journal of Politics, 18, 1956, 3, pp. 391-409). Even then, the tendency was to consider the 'culture' explana tion as a last resort, after other explanations (institutionalistor rational choice) were exhausted. Brown points out how undersold the political culture concept has been in thepast. Inmany ways it isBrown's work that has brought it into the centre of post-Communist studies. REVIEWS 763 Although political culture should not be expected to account forall political beliefs and actions ? as Stephen Whitefield emphasizes in chapter one? it is claimed that in a wide range of cases itcontributes something significant to our understanding. Most authors writing in the volume accept that political culture refers to the subjective understanding of politics and is concerned with people's values, attitudes and theirperception of history.Whitefield, as editor, distinguishes two contrasting approaches to political culture. First, there are those whose approach to political culture as a particular form of individual-level social-psychological attribute that can be measured and tested for its relationship to overt political behaviour (Whitefield and Jeffrey Hahn). According toHahn, political culture differs from 'public opinion' because it refers to 'deeper, sometimes even subconscious, values that are enduring' and which result from the process of political socialization. By contrast, the second approach (Richard Sakwa, Charles King and Mary McAuley) tends to view political culture as a property of social collectives, embedded in historically-conditioned social practices, thus generating some explanatory power, whether one uses the concept of political culture as such or not. Out of the formulae offered in the volume Brown himself favours the one whereby 'political cultures are socially constructed normative systems that are the product of both social [...] and psychological [...] influences but not reducible to either' (Richard W. Wilson, 'TheMany Voices of Political Cul ture:Asessing Different Approaches', World Politics, 52, 2000, 2, pp. 246-73: 264). Some contributors are critical...

Brace Yourself Here Comes Generation Y

Brace Yourself Here Comes Generation Y