Determinants of Organizational Failure in the Milwaukee School Voucher Program

In this article, we utilize 25 years of data on the Milwaukee voucher program to test the relationships among organizational liabilities of newness, institutional affiliation, market‐share, and regulatory environment on the cumulative risk of school failure. Overall, we find that 41 percent of all private voucher schools operating in Milwaukee between 1991 and 2015 failed. Start‐up voucher schools, and those unaffiliated with a larger institution, have comparatively higher failure risk over time. The results of our analysis shed light onto one of the long‐term impacts of a public policy reform premised on social entrepreneurship. We conclude that policymakers should consider the consequences of organizational failure when utilizing nongovernment entities in the provision of public goods, and that scholars focus increased attention to understanding the negative externalities created by public entrepreneurship.     

The Neurophysiological Aspects of Pavlov’s Theory of Higher Nervous Activity: In Honor of the 150th Anniversary of Pavlov’s Birth

Whereas Ivan P. Pavlov (1849-1936) is well-known for his work on classical conditioning, his contribution to neuroscience, particularly his interest in the function of neural centers in the central nervous system, is not as widely known. During the last three decades of his life, Pavlov explored cortical processes by salivary reflex conditioning, a method he used to develop his theory of higher nervous activity. This theory outlined the function of the brain in higher organisms in their interaction with the changing environmental contingencies. As early as 1908, Pavlov outlined a neurophysiological theory as the physiological basis of his theory of higher nervous activity. He maintained that the neural processes of excitation and inhibition irradiate and concentrate among the cortical neural centers. Most of all, he emphasized the plasticity of the cortex in higher organisms’ in the Darwinian struggle for existence.     

Informing Airmen? The US Army Air Forces’ Intelligence on Japanese Fighter Tactics in The Pacific Theatre, 1941–5

This article traces the development of US air intelligence on the tactics and weapons of Japan's fighter forces during the Pacific War. During the opening stages of the conflict, the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) struggled to set up an intelligence network in the Pacific theater because they were unprepared to wage a large scale conflict against the Japanese. Prior to December 1941, most American air commanders expected Japan to refrain from initiating hostilities with the western powers, and were thus caught unawares when faced with the onslaught of the Japanese air services. The setbacks which US forces suffered in the western Pacific regions during the opening stages of the conflict persuaded air commanders to create a more efficient apparatus that was designed to make good use of the information which aircrews gathered in their encounters with enemy forces. By the end of 1942, observations of the Japanese air forces' performance in combat enabled the Americans to acquire a rudimentary knowledge of the tactical procedures which pilots needed to follow in order to neutralize their opponent. After 1943, the tide of the air war turned decisively in favor of the Allies, owing to the fact that Japan's strengths were stretched to the limit, and its industries could not replace the planes and equipment which the armed forces had lost during the battle of Midway and the Solomons campaign. As the conflict progressed, US aviators noticed how the Japanese had suffered losses to the point where they could no longer defend the skies above their occupied territories, as evidenced by the fact that enemy interceptors were appearing in ever-decreasing numbers. The development motivated airmen to seek ways to destroy the remnants of Japan's air forces as quickly as possible and thereby hasten the tempo of the campaign in the Pacific theater. However, the USAAF remained mindful of the difficulties they faced in fighting the Japanese. This was mainly because the intelligence secured via encounters with enemy forces continued to suggest that they still possessed a good number of serviceable planes, along with trained pilots who were able to cause significant disruption for US air missions. The evidence was taken as a clear indication that the Americans needed to deploy sufficient aircraft strengths and simultaneously develop the tactical methods needed to protect friendly forces against unnecessary casualties.     

Giving the Game Away: Play and Exchange in Situationism and Structuralism

Since 1989 Situationism has been the object of renewed critical attention. Recent discussion has, however, tended to neglect the anthropological dimension of Situationist theory, and in particular the key relationship between play and exchange. In fact, this relationship, articulated through the Situationist account of the gift, is essential to an understanding of the antagonism between Situationism and structuralism, whose intellectual and academic hegemony established in the course of the 1960s serves to explain the exclusion of Situationism from the mainstream intellectual history of the period. Furthermore, the confrontation with structuralism and its post-structuralist successors reveals strengths and weaknesses in the Situationist position that account for the current revival of interest in the movement, offering a possible explanation for the contemporary image of the movement as both paradoxically radical and anodyne.     

Ruodlieb VIII, 103

The essential question in this article is why Cyprian chose to suffer martyrdom sub Valeriano and not sub Decio eight years earlier. In his letters Cyprian defended what he called his withdrawal from the persecutors by referring to his obedience to God but also to his responsibilities as a bishop. It is claimed that Cyprian both in 250 and 258 acted as a patronus for his congregation, his behaviour being typical of an aristocratic pattern of behaviour.     

Grappling with life in the urban milieu

Aidan Southall, ed. Urban Anthropology: Cross‐Cultural Studies of Urbanization. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. vi + 489 pp. Tables and bibliography. $4.95 (paper).     

Process,statistics and anthropological theory: An appreciation of harold E. driver

Joseph G. Jorgensen, ed. Comparative Studies by Harold E. Driver and Essays in bis Honor. New Haven: HRAF Press, 1974. 248 pp. Diagrams, tables, figures, maps, appendix, and bibliography. $20.00.