DEPENDENT AUTONOMY: A NEW PHASE OF INTERNAL COLONIALISM

The history of colonialism in Australia is summarised into four phases, called external colonialism, internal colonialism, welfare colonialism and dependent autonomy. Four policy frameworks for Aboriginal affairs: subjection and exploitation; protection and segregation; assimilation and integration; and self-determination and reconciliation; coincide with these phases. Contradictions arising from irreconcilable tendencies in liberal-humanist philosophy marked official discourses, practices and strategies during each phase of colonialism. Current policies are analysed in terms of political paradox. The self-determination policy, which promotes autonomy through increased dependency on the state, is analysed as a new phase of colonialism which is called ‘dependent autonomy’.     

AN ALGORITHM FOR CHOOSING THE SAMPLING TIMES FOR AN EXPERIMENT ON A CONTINUOUS PROCESS

Saunders & Eccleston (1992) and Saunders, Eccleston & Spessa (1992) developed an approach to the design of factorial experiments on continuous processes that allows for the correlation present in such processes. Their methods concentrated on identifying the order of application of treatments in such experiments, assuming that the spacing between experiments is constant. On a continuous process, there is no necessity to maintain equally spaced sampling times. This paper gives an algorithm for choosing the optimal sampling times for a factorial experiment aimed at estimating a particular parameter or set of parameters. It is shown that in practical situations the optimal sampling times give considerable improvements in the accuracy of the parameter estimates.     

Computers in local government: Malaysia

The utilisation of computers in three local authorities of varying sizes and responsibilities in Malaysia is reviewed with reference to a conceptual framework developed by the Public Policy Research Organisation of the University of California at Irvine. The importance of three sets of necessary and generally sufficient considerations for the effective utilisation of computers in local government is demonstrated. These are: the existence of an overall management strategy based on the user needs of the agency and the resources at its disposal; the personal commitment of individuals at all levels of the organisation; and stability in terms of personnel, administrative structures and environmental conditions. The findings of the study indicate strong similarities between Malaysian and US and British experience in this field.     

The Entrepreneurial Tendencies of Managers: a Research Note

In this study associations are sought between certain biographical, family, personality and career variables and the likelihood that managers will develop their own business venture. Results, based on an analysis of questionnaires completed by 194 managers, reveal that ownership of a business by self or parents together with certain personal characteristics predispose managers towards business founding. Contrary to expectations, job and career frustration does not incline managers towards proprietorship.     

Analysis of the reliability of a new scale for housing quality

This article reports the results of a variance components investigation of the reliability of a new scale of measurement of the quality of a dwelling unit. A balanced incomplete block design was utilized. A method for selecting among competing unbiased estimators of the variance components is presented. These components furnish a measure of the stability of the new dwelling quality scale. The validity of this new scale was investigated by comparison with experienced housing inspectors' reports.     

Methods for comparing policies using multiple criteria: an urban example

This paper looks at a variety of methods that can be used in evaluating a set of alternate policies using multiple criteria. The methods examined are the structural mapping of indifferences, utility values, lexicographic ordering, factor analysis, concordance analysis and multidimension scaling. Each method is tested using hypothetical data for a problem in which alternative policies are proposed for allocating monies to housing and health projects in a town. The aim is to try to reveal as objectively as possible, a set of preferred alternatives from which one can be chosen in the political decision-making process. After describing and testing the methods individually, they are compared both on the basis of their results and on the principles involved in their approach. Conclusions about the validity of each method are given, and it is emphasized that all methods should only be used as aids in the choice of an optimal policy.     

Hellinger distance as a penalized log likelihood

The present paper studies the minimum Hellinger distance estimator by recasting it as the maximum likelihood estimator in a data driven modification of the model density. In the process, the Hellinger distance itself is expressed as a penalized log likelihood function. The penalty is the sum of the model probabilities over the non-observed values of the sample space. A comparison of the modified model density with the original data provides insights into the robustness of the minimum Hellinger distance estimator. Adjustments of the amount of penalty leads to a class of minimum penalized Hellinger distance estimators, some members of which perform substantially better than the minimum Hellinger distance estimator at the model for small samples, without compromising the robustness properties of the latter.