Changes in the urban population of the USSR, 1939-1979

The authors analyze trends in the spatial distribution of the urban population among the republics of the USSR between 1939 and 1979. The increase in the number of large cities and changes in the percent of the country's urban population living in these cities are discussed, and the relationship between levels of urbanization and industrialization is examined     

Charity Watchdogs and the Limits of Information-Based Regulation

Transparency concerns and the concomitant accountability challenges have motivated policy and legal scholars to explore information-based regulatory approaches. We examine their usefulness in the context of the nonprofit sector which tends to show signs of governance failure. Although nonprofits are required by law to disclose information on fund use, nonprofit donors face difficulties in accessing and interpreting information about how nonprofits are deploying resources. Charity watchdogs make this information available to donors in a convenient format. In theory, this should allow donors to reward nonprofits that devote resources to service delivery and to punish those that are less careful about controlling overheads. To test the relationship between charity ratings and donations, we examine 90 nonprofits in the state of Washington for the period 2004–2007. Drawing on ratings data provided by Charity Navigator, we find that changes in charity ratings tend not to affect donor support to these nonprofits. We explore this statistical finding via interviews with 10 charities located in Washington State. Supporting the statistical results, we find that charities believe that donors tend not to systematically embed ratings in their donation decisions. Instead, they believe that donors assess nonprofits’ effectiveness and trustworthiness via other means such as familiarity, word-of-mouth, or the visibility of the nonprofit in their community. In sum, the policy challenge is to provide information which users desire such as organizational effectiveness as opposed to basic fund allocation in the case of non-profits. What matters for policy efficacy is not how much information is provided but of what type.     

The case against union-only project labor agreements on government construction projects

Imposition of union-only PLAs in the public sector cannot be shown to serve the public interest. The government should not enter into the realm of labor management relations by arbitrarily creating a protected enclave for union work at the expense of taxpayers and to the detriment of fair and open competition. Government agencies that impose union-only PLAs in response to short-term political pressure from labor organizations will suffer long term consequences, in the form of litigation, increased costs of construction, and adverse taxpayer reaction. Mr. Baskin is a partner with the Washington, DC. law firm of Venable, Baetjer, Howard & Civiletti, LLP. He focuses on all aspects of labor and employment law representing management and serves as General Counsel of Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc.     

Whose Job Is Job Placement?

Thh locus of responsibility, the role of societal agencies, and placement as part of career development are among dimensions discussed in a dialogue between Charles E. Odell, Assistant to Executive Director, Bureau of Employment Security, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and David H. Pritchard, Education Program Specialist (Research), U.S. Office of Education, Washington, D.C., moderated by Daniel Sinick, Professor of Education, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., and editor of The Vocational Guidance Quarterly. (Note: The views expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of their employing institutions.)     

Returns on Fundraising Expenditures in the Voluntary Sector

There has been much interest of late in the relative efficiency of various forms of fundraising activity. It is the purpose of this article to establish the typical returns that might be expected to accrue from a variety of fundraising methods. Based on a postal survey of the United Kingdom's top five hundred fundraising charities, this article presents the average returns for nine different forms of fundraising. The authors also examine whether differences in returns between charities can be explained by size or sector effects.     

Further developments in Societies for Clinical Social Work: A ten-year follow-up study

In 1973, the first report of the development of Societies for Clinical Social Work was published, describing a fledgling movement among clinical workers across the nation. The present survey offers parallel data on that movement ten years later. The movement apparently continues robust growth, and seems more tightly focused on very specific goals which rank highly with society members and their leaders, particularly vendorship issues and education for clinical social work. The opinions of members of these societies suggest that they are firmly identified with social work history, education, and values, but are committed to parity with other independent professionals in the field of psychotherapy.The address of the Washington office of the National Federation of Societies for Clinical Social Work is 2101 L. Street N. W., Washington, D. C. 20037. Ken Adams of Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin is the Legislative Representative and Karen Corey is the Administrative Assistant: phone (202) 785–9700.     

Ethno-social peculiarities of the reproduction of the intelligentsia

Trends in the formation of a multiethnic intelligentsia in the USSR are analyzed. "Fundamental attention [is] given to the numerical dynamics of students and specialists from the indigenous population within the over-all makeup of the intelligentsia; to factors ensuring a stable reproduction of a non-Russian intelligentsia; to peculiarities of the ethnic composition of the intelligentsia in the various republics; and to the role of the geographical mobility of school graduates and young specialists in the formation of the ethnic make-up of the student body and the intelligentsia." The analysis concerns the nationalities for which the various republics are named.     

FUNDRAISING INTERMEDIARIES INHIBIT QUALITY‐DRIVEN CHARITABLE DONATIONS

Charitable donations are frequently raised by an intermediary, which accepts donations and subsequently sends the proceeds to the chairty—for example, a workplace campaign for United Way, a 5‐km walk for Susan G. Komen, or buying cookies from a local troop for the Girl Scouts. These fundraisers can greatly increase donations received by a given charity, but how do they affect what types of charities we support? This article shows intermediary fundraisers can make donors insensitive to differences in charity quality: Unattractive charities can receive the same financial support as an attractive charity. In a series of across‐subject experiments, when donations are framed as going directly to the charity, unattractive charities receive fewer and smaller contributions relative to attractive charities; however, when donations for the same charities are collected by (meaningless) intermediary fundraising campaigns, donations become indistinguishable across charities. The fundraising campaign does not affect donor recall of charity identity or evaluation of charity quality; it simply precludes donors from using these data in the donation decision. Follow‐up experiments suggest the results are driven by information overload. (JEL A13, C91, C93, D61, D64, H41)     

Accountability of nonprofit organizations and those who control them: The legal framework

Legal accountability, understood as either an obligation to meet prescribed standards of behavior or an obligation to disclose information about one's actions even in the absence of a prescribed standard of behavior, is imposed on nonprofit organizations and those who manage them by state law and by fedral tax-exemption law. A perception that charities are exempt from both the electoral control that holds government accountable and the market forces that discipline business encourages a tendency to look to law to ensure accountability in the charitable sector, to perceive that shortcomings in the law are responsible for shortcomings in the sector, and to conclude that repair or reconstruction of the legal framework is the appropriate corrective. However, although the legal framework is far from perfect, sweeping change will not likely solve the problems and may well undermine the most positive characteristics of the sector. Some aspects of accountability cannot and should not be the subject of legal rules. Efforts to make charities accountable by redrawing legal standards of behavior in accord with popularly recognized standards of propriety, or even “excellence,” are likely to be counterproductive. Instead, adjustment of the legal framework in the hope of improving accountability should be incremental and should be evaluated in the context of organizing principles and core values that reflect our best understanding of the unique strengths of the sector and the functions it serves in our society.     

RANKING LAW JOURNALS AND THE LIMITS OF JOURNAL CITATION REPORTS

Journal rankings published by Journal Citation Reports (JCR) are widely used to assess research quality, which influences important decisions by academic departments, universities, and countries in the allocation of research funds. We study refereed law journal rankings by JCR and Washington and Lee Law Library (W&L). JCR's rankings are uncorrelated with W&L's. The differences appear to be attributable to underrepresentation of law journals in JCR's database. We illustrate the effects of database bias on rankings through case studies of three elite journals, the Journal of Law and Economics, Supreme Court Review, and the American Law and Economics Review. (JEL C18, C81, Y10)     

When Will the Russians Come? On Post‐Soviet Immigration and Integration in Sweden

The focus of this paper is one of the paradoxes of international migration: the unexpectedly low level of migration between neighbouring countries with large macro‐economic differentials; in this case migration from the former Soviet republics to Sweden. In line with Faist (2000) , one assumption in the study is that the dynamics of international migration are strongly influenced by the emergence of a transnational social space. Based on a database (ASTRID) containing individual information about all residents in Sweden for the period 1986–2003, the study includes an analysis of migration in relation to the transnational social space ‐‐ its bridging and adaptive functions ‐‐ including labour market integration, family situation, intermarriage, population circulation and the spatial clustering of immigrants. The study reveals an over‐representation of female immigrants and a high frequency of intermarriage among women migrants. Moreover, a changing migrant composition over the past decades was found, including a growing number of students, whereas the empirical analyses indicate a rather weak labour market position among immigrants from former Soviet republics. However, the position of recently arrived migrants has been enhanced over time, and migrants who stay for longer periods attain a stronger position on the labour market. The analyses also show an increasing number of highly educated persons among immigrants from the former Soviet republics. Furthermore, migrants from the former Soviet republics who move to Sweden tend to remain rather than return. In addition, the empirical analysis shows only minor tendencies of spatial clustering among the migrants. In sum, the study indicates that the lack of a more developed transnational social space may explain the rather low level of migration but also that the changing mobility patterns could represent an initial phase of a denser transnational social space that may trigger higher migration rates between the former Soviet republics and Sweden in the near future.     

Editorial comment

The special issue of theJournal of Gambling Behavior, dedicated to a discussion of compulsive gambling and the law, represents a first effort in addressing some of the many complicated issues on this topic. Articles by experts on compulsive gambling—written by legal authorities, a treatment provider, and victims of the disorder—are included to present the broadest possible forum to analyze the turmoil the idea of compulsive gambling is having on the American legal system. Included are an historical account of how changing laws affect compulsive gamblers, problems facing the expert witness, effects of civil service policies and military law, comparisons of U.S. and English legalization debates, lottery issues, concerns of a lawyer representing casinos, and personal accounts by those who are suffering from this disorder.I. Nelson Rose is an Associate Professor of Law at Whittier College School of Law as well as a licensed attorney. Professor Rose is recognized as the nation's leading authority on gambling and the law.Dr. Valerie C. Lorenz has specialized in research, education and treatment of compulsive gamblers since 1973. She has extensive experience in military, state and federal courts, having served as a qualified expert witness on compulsive gambling.     

National and ethnographic groups in Central Asia as reflected in ethnic statistics (Part 1)

The author examines trends in population growth and development among the national and ethnographic groups of the republics in Central Asia. The historical processes of ethnic groups consolidation, population growth and distribution, and socioeconomic development are traced from the period of the Czarist empire to the present. Data are primarily from population censuses of the USSR     

Politics in the Consulting Room: Hate in the Countertransference Revisited

This paper focuses on the way political ideas infused the psychoanalytic treatment of Mr. N., a man who struggled with low self-esteem, paranoia, and rage. Mr. N. became increasingly identified with Republican political goals and attacked what he considered my Democratic political views and legislative advocacy. The way that his anger became focused on my political activity had a profound impact on me, leading to strong countertransference feelings of depression and hate. The ways that I tried to accept and use this countertransference in the treatment are summarized, in the context of D.W. Winnicott’s paper on “Hate in the Countertransference” and others. During the course of the treatment Mr. N. became less judgmental of others and himself, learned to give and accept love, and developed the capacity for self-reflection through use of the therapeutic relationship.     

Reassessing Charity Trusteeship in Britain? Toward Conservatism, Not Change

The growing prominence given to charity trustees' strategy-making roles and responsibilities is encouraging reassessment of the values and purposes of trusteeship in Britain. This occurs against a background of an increasingly professionalized and managerialist charity sector. Trustees are seen, in public policy terms, as a homogeneous and leadership-oriented group, while some charity managers aspire to or are already fulfilling leadership roles. This research note reviews these developments, considering trustees' strategy-making and controlling functions, and the nature of the relations between charity staffs and trustees. It describes the development of a tentative typology by the authors, characterizing trustees' approaches to their roles, as a means of illustrating the heterogeneous rather than homogeneous nature of the overall charity trustee body. The research process, leading toward the typology's development, is outlined and critiqued. Reflections on the value of the typology are given and possible future developments in trusteeship are considered. The authors consider that those trustees willing to remain in role are likely to adopt custodial rather than entrepreneurial approaches to their trusteeship. Such a role is likely to be increasingly at odds with the role sought or adopted by senior managers in some charities, and also with the proactive model of trusteeship that is being encouraged by the regulatory systems for British charities.     

Russian refugees. A tragedy or the costs of imperial consciousness?

The author attempts to estimate migration of Russians from other republics of the former Soviet Union back to Russia, and factors causing this migration. The encouragement by many local authorities of anti-Russian feeling for political purposes is identified as a major cause of such re-migration. This is a translation of the Russian article in Sotsiologicheskie Issledovaniia (Moscow, Russia), No. 9, 1992, pp. 59-64.     

Will You Trust Me?: How Individual American Donors Respond to Informational Signals Regarding Local and Global Humanitarian Charities

When making charitable donations, individuals would like to have some assurance that their resources will be used appropriately, but they do not necessarily have the time to research charities thoroughly. Charities have thus joined voluntary regulatory programs to signal trustworthiness and good governance. We conduct a survey experiment to explore if individual donors in the United States are more willing to give to a charity participating in a voluntary regulatory program. Because voluntary programs vary in their institutional design, we further test whether the provision of third-party auditing (to ensure that charities abide by program rules and obligations) enhances donor confidence in the voluntary program. Finally, we explore whether individuals seek to circumvent information problems by donating to local charities as opposed to overseas charities. We find that charity membership in a voluntary program does not influence people’s willingness to donate significantly, but that location of operations is significant.     

The why and how of volunteering

Volunteers: A Social Profile, by Marc A. Musick and John Wilson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007. 680 pp., $39.95 cloth. The Decision to Volunteer: Why People Give Their Time and How You Can Engage Them, by Beth Gazley and Monica Dignam. Washington, D.C.: ASAE and the Center for Association Leadership, 2008. 144 pp., $89.85 paper. Challenges in Volunteer Management, edited by Matthew Liao‐Troth. Charlotte, N.C.: Information Age, 2008. 292 pp., $73.99 cloth, $39.99 paper.     

The Disclosure Panacea: A Comparative Perspective on Charity Financial Reporting

This article examines the charity financial reporting regimes of three common law jurisdictions: Ireland, the UK and the US. It assesses whether these respective disclosure models improve either nonprofit behaviour or enforcement odds. Three core aspects of the regimes are reviewed: the reliability of the disclosed information, the consistency of such information and its ability to facilitate comparison between charities, and the level of enforcement arising from disclosure. Particular attention is paid to oversight mechanisms, including audits, and their rates of effectiveness in the regulation of charities. The article examines ongoing efforts to reform broader international accounting standards and considers the impact such moves are likely to have at both regional and national level for charity accountability. It concludes that given the markedly different spheres in which for-profits and nonprofits operate, care should be taken in modelling charity disclosure regimes on those developed for for-profit entities.     

Gambling and Federal civil service employment law

Federal sector employment law concerning employee misconduct in which gambling is a factor has evolved significantly since the enactment of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, and is breaking new ground in this aspect of civil rights and employment law. Among other things, a debate is taking place in this sector as to whether compulsive gambling is a handicapping condition similar to alcoholism and drug addiction. Traditionally, disciplinary cases in the Federal Sector may be classified in two categories. The first involves misconduct related to compulsive gambling. The second concerns gambling on-the-job, either through promotion of gambling by, for example, running a numbers game, or by placing bets. While employees who promote gambling by running numbers games can be fired for just one instance of such misconduct, employees whose misconduct on or off the job is the result of compulsive or pathological gambling have a strong affirmative defense restricting the employer's attempts to fire for just cause. As defined by administrative agencies which have primary jurisdiction over Federal civil service law matters, compulsive gambling, generally, is not recognized as a handicapping condition. Developments in Federal sector, however, have required the federal manager to consider the existence of a condition of pathological gambling as a mitigating factor in deciding upon appropriate discipline. Other related developments indicate that compulsive gambling may, in fact, be reclassified as a handicapping condition.The author is an Assistant Professor (Adjunct) of Public Administration at John Jay College, C.U.N.Y., where he teaches Administrative Law and Regulation and Labor Relations in the Public Sector and Employment Discrimination Law in the Master of Public Administration Program. This article is adapted from remarks made at the Second Annual Conference on Gambling Behavior held at Philadelphia, PA, November 19–21 1986.