Comparing Levels of Machiavellianism of Today's College Students with College Students of the 1960s

The tactics, strategies, and behaviors thatwere suggested by Niccolo Machiavelli in The Prince (1513) have become synonymous withmanipulative and unethical behavior. AlthoughMachiavelli wrote to the politician, hiswritings have since been expanded to describebusiness leaders as well as general behavior. The research we report examined theMachiavellian tendencies of current collegestudents and compares the results to theseminal study by Christie and Geis (1970). Theresearch reported here examined thecontemporary student's propensity towardMachiavellianism distinguished by major fieldof study and by gender. The data werecollected from students at colleges located inthe Midwest and the Southwest. We reportfindings that are similar to Christie and Geisand extend the trend line suggested by theirresearch. We believe these findings provideinsight for understanding the dynamics ofcontemporary college students and suggest acontinuing societal movement towardMachiavellian behavior.     

How Small Enterprises in Ghana Have Responded to Adjustment

Monitoring of adjustment has focused on larger, often state-ownedenterprises, many of which have been adversely affected by themore competitive environment. Little is known, however, aboutthe impact of adjustment policies on small firms. Firm-leveldata from Ghana show that the adjustment process was well underway across sectors and within firms and that new investmentwas taking place. The adjustment process had strained most firms'operations—profits were squeezed between rising inputcosts and weak domestic demand and low-cost competing imports.Small-scale industries were forced to become more competitiveto survive. Interviews with owners of small firms revealed considerableentrepreneurial initiative in changing product mix and seekingnewly opened market niches. Sample entrepreneurs fell into twobroad groups: dynamic, successful adapters with good prospects(found mostly among small-scale enterprises) and stagnant producerswho had not adapted to the new competitive environment (foundmostly among microenterprises). For potentially dynamic smallfirms, the most critical constraint was lack of access to financefor working capital and new investment. Many microentrepreneurswere seriously constrained by a lack of purchasing power amongthe lower-income population and by saturation of the sector.     

PLANNING BY COMMONHOLD

So-called 'gated' communities have become common throughout the continents of Asia and America. Such communities are characterised by the ability to provide public goods and perform governance functions, independent of central and local government. It would be surprising if such communities did not develop to a greater extent in Britain, especially as a more complete legal framework now exists for their governance. Examples in Asia and America demonstrate their effectiveness, as do historical examples in the UK, such as the garden city movement. There are outstanding legal and regulatory issues that will need to be addressed as 'gated' communities do develop.