Patients' Voices, Rights and Responsibilities: On Implementing Social Audit in Primary Health Care

This paper reports on an interpretive research project which examines the feasibility of implementing social audit within the general medical practice setting. The study aims to communicate patients' voices to aid evaluation of the potential contribution of social audit to the public health sector and also addresses particular conceptual problems which arise when attempting to implement social audit within this environment. The fieldwork focuses on one general health practice in Lanarkshire (in southern central Scotland). Consultative focus group discussions and individual interviews were carried out with a sample of twenty two patients. Patients were most concerned with health service organisational and delivery issues. Overall, the results suggest patients are enthusiastic about the ideas and process of the social audit. Patients were able to demonstrate a capacity for grasping accountability issues and balanced reasoning. There was an acute awareness of the constraints which exist in the public services. Patients addressed the broad rights and responsibilities issues, and highlighted the possible pitfalls of relying on a representational mechanism for ensuring their voices were heard. The study concludes that an involved and negotiative dialogue process of implementing social audit could provide beneficial understanding and ideas to the organisation which may be further researched.     

Disclosure of the impacts of adopting Australian equivalents of International Financial Reporting Standards

This study investigates two disclosure variables (Extent and Quality) in relation to compliance with paragraph 4.1 (b) of AASB 1047 Disclosing the Impacts of Adopting Australian Equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards. Using a sample of 150 Australian listed firms, I find that the extent and quality of disclosure is influenced by firm size, leverage and auditor firm size, with the latter variable being the most significant. In general, the results suggest that many companies might have relied on sample disclosures provided by their auditors, perhaps limiting both quality and intent. Additionally, the ultimate usefulness of broad and imprecise standards might be questionable. Smaller companies might also require more guidance and assistance with their preparation for the adoption.     

Distribution dynamics: stratification, polarization, and convergence among OECD economies, 1870-1992

Using a distribution dynamics approach, the growth experience of 17 OECD economies is investigated. After explaining the distribution dynamics approach, the empirical analysis examines both the observed period dynamics and the unique long-run equilibrium associated with three periods. This study suggests persistence and stratification, not convergence, characterized the pre-1914 regime, whereas convergence was the key feature of the post-war regime. However, a larger sample of OECD economies in the post-war period indicates that convergence was primarily a feature of the Golden Age and in the post-Golden Age period separation, polarization, and divergence came to the fore.     

A note on the role of memory in commercial loan officers' use of accounting and character information

A concept called “the five C's of credit” is the basis of a theory about the role of memory in loan officers' credit analysis. It is predicted that recall of two related types of information, accounting and information about borrowers' character, is greater when facts are consistent with loan decisions and judgments than when they are inconsistent. Results of an experiment support the prediction when information consistency is denned relative to decisions whether to approve or deny loans, but not when it is related to judgments of the risk of nonpayment.     

Post-Thatcherite Urban Planning and Politics: a Major Change?

The political ideology driving urban statutory planning in the United Kingdom has held a central place within planning literature during the 1980s and 1990s. The distinctiveness of leadership style and political ideology associated with the Thatcher governments have been widely recognized both in practice and academia. However, the distinctiveness of political ideology to determine the form and status of statutory urban planning since John Major acceded to the prime ministership in 1990 has not been assessed so markedly. Questions emerge on whether Thatcherite ideology is continuing in the 1990s within the realm of planning and environment, of whether a watered down version of New Right policies are being implemented, or whether central government policies towards planning over the last six years marked a change in ideological direction. This paper examines statutory planning during the Major years with reference to the ideological components of Thatcherism. From this assessment, a comparative analysis is undertaken of both political administrations. The paper concludes by finding that although elements of Thatcherite ideology are continuing, there have been initiatives that move away from the primacy of the market. However, these do not form any ‘big theory’: the differences between Thatcher and Major are more related to style than substance. Thatcherism is continuing but in a neo-Thatcherite way.     

Alliances and Mergers in Electricity Supply

The takeovers that have occurred within the Regional Electricity Companies (RECs) since the privatization of the UK electricity industry are reviewed. The article describes the nature and scale of the changes that have occurred, and the policy considerations that have influenced the behaviour of the companies. A variety of emergent behaviour patterns among the companies are identified, which reflect apparent differences in the RECs' policy objectives; the mergers are then grouped on the basis of this behaviour. There is strong evidence of a learning process among the companies.     

Aggregate demand, conflict and capacity in the inflationary process

This paper focuses on an alternative perspective on inflationto that of the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment(NAIRU). It indicates that there are no automatic forces leadingto a level of aggregate demand consistent with constant inflation.Inflationary pressures arise from conflict over income shares,and from cost elements, with the price of raw materials, especiallyoil, being the most important. There are supply-side factorsimpinging on the inflationary process, which arise from thelevel of productive capacity (relative to aggregate demand).The supply-side constraints are viewed as arising from capacityconstraints, rather than from the operation of the labour market.     

An Institutional Perspective to Finance and Development as an Alternative to Financial Liberalisation

This paper argues that financial liberalisation as practiced recently worldwide engenders widespread financial crises precisely because of the weak foundations of its theoretical framework and poor empirical performance. Financial liberalisation is critically evaluated on both theoretical and empirical grounds, which suggests that an alternative is vitally necessary. Based on institutional theory,a new approach is proposed the focus of which is on ways to affect financial and banking transformation that is more consistent with economic development. We demonstrate how this theoretical approach can be applied in the real world, and indeed how the theoretical propositions we put forward in this contribution, very different from those of financial liberalisation, produce a more developmentally oriented set of policies for the countries that are prepared to pursue them.