Reckoning Schemes of Legitimation: On Commissions of Inquiry as Power/Knowledge Forms

Abstract Drawing upon literature from Australia, Canada, England, India, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States this article offers an alternative framework for the study of Commissions of Inquiry. Conventional understandings of such inquiries as policy-making instruments of Government fail to grasp the significance of their political form. A reading which stresses the symbolic and ritual aspects of their work and analyses the forms of communication which are organized through public inquiries provides a better framework for grasping the place of these institutions in the reproduction of State power. This article argues that public inquiries derive authority from their distinctive legal, social, and epistemological status. The work of such inquiries can be characterized as 'reckoning schemes of legitimation', and this work structures political discourse in three phases: investigative, persuasive, and archival. The abiding significance of Commissions lies not simply in the investigation of facts and the recommendation of policy, but in the elaboration of the 'idea of the state'. Such schemes of legitimation serve in constituting a realm of discourse through which collective action vis-à-vis Society by those who act in the name of the State becomes thinkable, and thereby organizable.     

THE PRODUCTION IMPACT OF “CASH‐FOR‐CLUNKERS”: IMPLICATIONS FOR STABILIZATION POLICY

Stabilization policies frequently aim to boost spending as a means to increase gross domestic product. Spending does not necessarily translate into production, however, especially when inventories are involved. We look at the “cash‐for‐clunkers” program that helped finance the purchase of nearly 700,000 vehicles in 2009. An analysis of auto sales and production movements reveals that the program did prompt a large spike in sales. But the program had only a modest and fleeting impact on production, as inventories buffered the movements in sales. These findings suggest caution in judging the efficacy of such policies by their impact on spending alone. (JEL E23, E65, L62)     

REAL WAGE AND EMPLOYMENT UNCERTAINTY AND THE LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION DECISIONS OF MARRIED WOMEN

This paper argues that an important factor in a married woman's decision to enter the labor force is the degree of uncertainty associated with expectations offuture wages and (husband's) income, and that high levels of uncertainty during the 1970s may have contributed substantially to the growth in participation in that decade. We apply a model of autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity to aggregate time series data to measure the level of uncertainty in each period. Our estimates support our hypothesis that the level of uncertainty is an important determinant of labor force participation for married women.     

Graphical models for skew-normal variates

This paper explores the usefulness of the multivariate skew-normal distribution in the context of graphical models. A slight extension of the family recently discussed by Azzalini & Dalla Valle (1996 ) and Azzalini & Capitanio (1999 ) is described, the main motivation being the additional property of closure under conditioning. After considerations of the main probabilistic features, the focus of the paper is on the construction of conditional independence graphs for skew-normal variables. Necessary and sufficient conditions for conditional independence are stated, and the admissible structures of a graph under restriction on univariate marginal distribution are studied. Finally, parameter estimation is considered. It is shown how the factorization of the likelihood function according to a graph can be rearranged in order to obtain a parameter based factorization.     

INFLATION DYNAMICS AND SUBJECTIVE EXPECTATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

We estimate a forward‐looking New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC) for the United States using data from the Survey of Professional Forecasters as proxy for expected inflation. We obtain significant and plausible estimates for the structural parameters independently of whether we use the output gap or unit labor costs as a measure of marginal costs. Moreover, when estimating a Phillips curve where lagged inflation enters due to price indexation by nonreoptimizing firms, we obtain significant parameter estimates of the sign predicted by theory independently of the marginal cost measure used. (JEL E31)     

The Use of Bounded Recall Procedures in Single Interviews

This note describes procedures for bounding recall in a singleinterview. The methods tested seem to be as effective as themore traditional panel procedures in reducing telescoping. Nomajor administration problems are observed.     

Informal, Voluntary and Statutory Services: The Complex Relationship

Summary The argument of this paper is that equitable social care caneventuate only with the acceptance of a greater role for publicsector services. In debates about the development of socialcare, politicians in industrial societies who stress the virtuesof family care are either unaware of the costs to families ofproviding that care, or are cynically expecting a major shiftin social provision and social resources, with the result thatthose least able to provide adequately will find greater burdensthrust upon them. Responses to the exclusions experienced bypeople in the 1980s will require greater state interventionbecause families may have the willingness, but not the capacityto provide the high level care required by dependent relativesand because the voluntary sector is too diffuse and diverseto plan, develop and deliver the bulk of the services.