A Tran-Atlantic Condominium of Democratic power: the grand design for a post-war order in french policy at the Paris Peace Conference

This article offers a new interpretation of French policy at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Based on a close reading of the archival record generated by the government of Georges Clemenceau, it argues that the bases of French policy at the Conference have been misunderstood. For the past century the majority of scholars writing about this period have accepted the standard interpretation that premier Clemenceau and his advisors were committed practitioners of Realpolitik who aimed above all at the destruction of German power. The 'realism' of the French post-war vision is typically placed in opposition to the more idealistic post-war visions of the British and especially the American delegations. This essay rejects this standard view. It argues instead that the Clemenceau government's peace programme was based on a Transatlantic vision of post-war order. This vision was based on a fascinating combination of presumed ideological affinities and common common economic and strategic interests

PAC Spending and Roll Call Voting in the U.S. House: An Empirical Extension

This paper expands the investigation of how PAC spending affects the roll call voting behavior to the U.S. House of Representatives. Using a theoretical framework which draws on the voting literature, we develop two models that explain Representatives' voting behavior in a pre-PAC and post-PAC world. We find weak support for a Downsian view of voting participation in the first model, and strong support for the alteration of voting incentives resulting from PAC spending in the second model. These results are consistent with earlier findings that investigate Senate behavior.

A Critique of Wolak’s Evaluation of the NZ Electricity Market: The Incentive to Exercise Market Power with Elastic Demand and Transmission Loss

This paper is the second in a symposium of papers that examine the 2009 report by Frank Wolak into the New Zealand electricity market. In this paper, we discuss the Report’s measures of the ability and incentives of generators to exercise unilateral market power. We show that the construction and interpretation of these measures are highly sensitive to some key assumptions, particularly those concerning the elasticity of demand for electricity in the wholesale market and the amount of transmission loss on the national grid.Wolak Report; electricity markets; market power

Infection prevention as "a show": a qualitative study of nurses' infection prevention behaviours

Background: Control of infection and prevention of healthcare associated infections is an ongoing issue worldwide. Yet despite initiatives and strategies to reduce the burden that these infections cause, healthcare workers' practice is still reported as suboptimal and these infections persist. Much of the research to date has primarily focused on predicting infection prevention behaviours and factors associated with guideline compliance. While this has given valuable insight, an investigation aiming to understand and explain behaviours that occur in everyday practice from the perspective of the actors themselves may hold the key to the challenges of effecting behaviour change. This study questioned "How can nurses' infection prevention behaviour be explained?" This paper presents one of three identified themes 'Rationalising dirt-related behaviour'. Design: This interpretative qualitative study uses vignettes, developed from nurses' accounts of practice, to explore nurses' reported infection prevention behaviours. Participants: Registered nurses working in an acute hospital setting and had been qualified for over a year. They were recruited while studying part-time at a London University. Methods: Twenty semi-structured interviews were undertaken using a topic guide and vignettes. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using the framework method. Results: The findings demonstrate that participants were keen to give a good impression and present themselves as knowledgeable practitioners, although it was evident that they did not always follow procedure and policy. They rationalised their own behaviour and logically justified any deviations from policy. Deviations in others were criticised as irrational and explained as superficial and part of a 'show' or display. However, participants also gave a presentation of themselves: a show or display that was influenced by the desire to protect self and satisfy patient scrutiny. Conclusions: This study contributes to the identification and explanation of nurses' infection prevention behaviours which are considered inappropriate or harmful. Behaviour is multifaceted and complex, stemming from a response to factors that are outside a purely 'scientific' understanding of infection and not simply understood as a deficit in knowledge. This calls for educational interventions that consider beliefs, values and social understanding of dirt and infection. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

A Critique of Wolak’s Evaluation of the NZ Electricity Market: Introduction and Overview

This paper is the first in a symposium of papers that examine the 2009 report by Frank Wolak into the New Zealand electricity market. The Wolak report concluded that there had been a cumulative total of $4.3b (NZD) of overcharging in the New Zealand wholesale market over a period of seven years. In this paper, we introduce the Wolak findings in the context of the salient features of the New Zealand market, and explain that this headline figure is highly sensitive to some (quite unrealistic) assumptions about the structure of this market. The papers that follow this introduction (Hogan and Jackson, 2011, and Evans and Guthrie, 2011) examine Wolak’s methodology and its empirical application.Wolak Report; electricity markets; market power

Creating virtual communities of practice for learning technology in higher education: Issues, challenges and experiences

The need for a Web portal to support the rapidly growing field of learning technology has been well established through a number of national surveys and scoping studies over recent years. The overarching vision has been the provision of a virtual environment to assist in informing and developing professional practice in the use of learning technologies. This paper outlines the issues and challenges in creating such a portal through the experiences of developing the RESULTs Network. In the paper, design and participation issues are considered within the wider context of online and networked approaches to supporting practice and professional development. User participation methodologies and technical developments for RESULTs are described in relation to a review of existing representations of practice and a comprehensive survey amongst the learning technology users’ community. An outline of key achievements and experiences is presented, followed by some conclusions regarding the cultural and political issues in creating a viable and sustainable facility and suggestions for possible future direction in national provision