Demographic Shifts in the Czech Republic after 1989: A Second Demographic Transition View

A dramatic change in fertility,family formation and living arrangements tookplace in the Czech Republic over the 1990s. Theestablishment of democracy, profound socialtransformation and transition to the marketeconomy affected the values and demographicbehaviour of the young Czech generation. Thispaper examines whether these demographic shiftscan be interpreted within the framework of thesecond demographic transition. The theoreticalpart discusses the idea of the transition,outlining three distinctive conceptualisations.Two of them – the view of the transition as aprogression of characteristic interrelateddemographic changes and a broader viewstressing the importance of underlyingideational factors – fit the Czech situationvery well. A comparison with the Netherlandsreveals that the onset of the transition in theCzech Republic may be clearly located in thefirst half of the 1990s, lagging two decadesbehind the Netherlands.     

Using Probabilistic Terrorism Risk Modeling for Regulatory Benefit-Cost Analysis: Application to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative in the Land Environment

This article presents a framework for using probabilistic terrorism risk modeling in regulatory analysis. We demonstrate the framework with an example application involving a regulation under consideration, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative for the Land Environment, (WHTI‐L). First, we estimate annualized loss from terrorist attacks with the Risk Management Solutions (RMS) Probabilistic Terrorism Model. We then estimate the critical risk reduction, which is the risk‐reducing effectiveness of WHTI‐L needed for its benefit, in terms of reduced terrorism loss in the United States, to exceed its cost. Our analysis indicates that the critical risk reduction depends strongly not only on uncertainties in the terrorism risk level, but also on uncertainty in the cost of regulation and how casualties are monetized. For a terrorism risk level based on the RMS standard risk estimate, the baseline regulatory cost estimate for WHTI‐L, and a range of casualty cost estimates based on the willingness‐to‐pay approach, our estimate for the expected annualized loss from terrorism ranges from $2.7 billion to $5.2 billion. For this range in annualized loss, the critical risk reduction for WHTI‐L ranges from 7% to 13%. Basing results on a lower risk level that results in halving the annualized terrorism loss would double the critical risk reduction (14–26%), and basing the results on a higher risk level that results in a doubling of the annualized terrorism loss would cut the critical risk reduction in half (3.5–6.6%). Ideally, decisions about terrorism security regulations and policies would be informed by true benefit‐cost analyses in which the estimated benefits are compared to costs. Such analyses for terrorism security efforts face substantial impediments stemming from the great uncertainty in the terrorist threat and the very low recurrence interval for large attacks. Several approaches can be used to estimate how a terrorism security program or regulation reduces the distribution of risks it is intended to manage. But, continued research to develop additional tools and data is necessary to support application of these approaches. These include refinement of models and simulations, engagement of subject matter experts, implementation of program evaluation, and estimating the costs of casualties from terrorism events.     

Leveraging middle managers’ brokerage for corporate entrepreneurship: The role of multilevel social capital configurations

Building on recent efforts to bring a socio-political perspective to social capital research, we develop and test a multilevel framework that explains why middle managers who occupy brokerage positions differ in their ability and willingness to engage in entrepreneurial behavior. More specifically, we provide a contextualized understanding of the links among middle managers' brokerage, their political-support ties, and their personal initiative. Results derived from data on 383 middle managers and 72 top managers in 34 business units indicate that political-support ties with top managers strengthen the relationship between middle managers’ brokerage and personal initiative. However, this positive effect depends on the social capital resources available in the focal business unit. It is attenuated in business units with a supportive and trusting social context and amplified in business units with high levels of internal connectedness. By uncovering these incompatibilities and complementarities, our study demonstrates the value of accounting for different social capital configurations and the interplay of their inherent social capital resources when examining the effects of brokerage on corporate entrepreneurship.     

From QA to TQM

In the decade from 1950 to 1960, two quality-related processes--medical audit and total quality management--were being developed, one directly in the health care field and the other in the manufacturing sector. These processes remained isolated from each other until the mid-1980s. Each would have a separate but major effect on the health care industry.     

Internalized Other Interviewing in Relational Therapy: Three Discursive Approaches to Understanding its Use and Outcomes

For over 20 years, family therapist Karl Tomm has been engaging families and couples with a therapeutic intervention he calls Internalized Other Interviewing (IOI). The IOI (cf. Emmerson‐Whyte, 2010; Hurley, 2006) entails interviewing clients, from the personal experiences of partners and family members as an internalized other. The IOI is based on the idea that through dialogues over time, one can internalize a sense of one's conversational partner responsiveness in reliably anticipated ways. Anyone who has thought in a conversation with a family member or partner, “Oh there s/he goes again,” or anticipates next words before they leave the other's mouth, has a sense of what we are calling an internalized other. For Tomm, the internalized anticipations partners and family members may have offers entry points into new dialogues with therapeutic potential—particularly, when their actual dialogues get stuck in dispreferred patterns.     

The Lac‐Mégantic Derailment,Corporate Regulation,and Neoliberal Sovereignty

On July 6, 2013, Montreal, Maine, and Atlantic railcar 5017 hauling 72 tanker cars of Bakken crude oil derailed over the town of Lac‐Mégantic, Quebec. The town erupted in a fiery inferno as 5,560,000 liters of highly flammable Bakken crude oil exploded over the town, killing 47 people and contaminating 558,000 tons of soil and local waterways. While Montreal, Maine, and Atlantic Rail Chairman Edward Burkhardt initially blamed the derailment on the lone engineer and local firefighters, this study shows how Transport Canada and the rail industry undermined regulatory and safety measures for several years before the derailment. This study uses a Foucauldian theoretical perspective to conceptualize and explain a new political mentality that transfers existing state regulatory authority to the corporate sector. This new mentality, neoliberal sovereignty, is composed of sovereign and neoliberal logics that monopolize “correct” trajectories of human economic development. This absolute market mentality merges with state sovereignty and eliminates existing safety and regulation frameworks to pursue unregulated corporate profits. Le 6 juillet 2013, un train de 72 wagons‐citernes transportant du pétrole brute Bakken a déraillé de la ligne de chemin de fer de la Montréal, Maine et Atlantique, dans la ville de Lac‐Mégantic au Québec. La ville c'est transformé en véritable enfer, alors que 5 560 000 litre de pétrole brute Bakken très inflammable ont fait explosé la ville, tuant quarante‐sept personnes et contaminant 558 000 tonnes d'eaux et du sol de Lac‐Mégantic et ses environs. Alors que le président de la MMA, Edward Burkhart, a d'abord blâmé l'ingénieur et le service d'incendie local, les études montrent que Transport Canada et l'industrie ferroviaire ont amoindrit les mesures de réglementation et de sécurité plusieurs années avant le déraillement. Cette étude utilise une perspective théorique foucauldienne pour conceptualiser et expliquer une nouvelle mentalité politique qui transfère l'autorité de régulations gouvernementales existantes au secteur des entreprises. Cette nouvelle mentalité, souveraines et néo‐libérale, est composé de logique souveraines et néo‐libérales qui monopolise les trajectoires « respectables » de développement économique humain. Cette mentalité de marché absolu fusionne avec la souveraineté de l'État et élimine les cadres de sécurité et les réglementations existantes pour les bénéfices des entreprises non réglementaires.