Globalization leads to the emergence of new factors that threaten security and the rule of law in Kazakhstan, which necessitates the constant improvement of the personnel qualifications in internal affairs bodies. The purpose of this study was to cover the vectors of updating the legal support for the professional training of law enforcement officers in Kazakhstan. The following methods of scientific research were employed in this study: analysis; synthesis; comparison; deduction; generalization; and formal–legal. It was found that a major part of the future development of the Republic of Kazakhstan is to uphold the principles of justice, protection of society and the rule of law. The effectiveness of ensuring these indicators depends on the level of competence of law enforcement officers, whose activities are aimed at preventing the commission of crimes, their investigation and protection of public safety in general. The study proved that changes in legal, political and socio-economic relations contribute to the emergence of new threats facing society. Thus, the complexity of law enforcement operations is increasing, which demonstrates the need to constantly update the knowledge and skills of internal affairs personnel in Kazakhstan. As a result, the study highlighted the priority of improving the curricula and standards by which police education and training are delivered. It was established that the improvement of legal support of professional training of personnel of internal affairs bodies should be provided based on several approaches, namely legislative, educational, scientific and personal. The results should be used to develop and update the educational policies in the field of professional development of police officers in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The literature on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) practitioner development suggests that extensive training that monitors adherence and reinforces skilfulness produces increased therapist competence, which is related to better patient outcomes. However, little is still known about how trainees perceive their training and its impact on what they understand to be competent CBT practice. Fifteen trainee and recently qualified CBT practitioners who were taking or had taken a UK BABCP Level 2 CBT training course were recruited and asked to complete a photo elicitation task followed by a semi-structured individual interview. Reflexive thematic analysis resulted in an over-arching theme of training as a personal odyssey, consisting of four main themes: (1) an opportunity to work in a meaningful and interesting profession; (2) a reflective learning process, (3) a well-rounded practitioner, and (4) a worthwhile outcome. The multi-faceted nature of each theme is described and related to existing theory and to author reflexivity. Recommendations are made for ways these findings might be applied to help make CBT training more effective and less demanding, and for future research. Limitations of the study include the preponderance of participants drawn from the NHS Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression programme in England and the lack of gender and ethnic diversity.

Key learning aims

1. (1) To understand better the motivation to train, and the experience of training and its outcomes for trainee and recently qualified UK CBT practitioners.

2. (2) To explore what competence in CBT means to participants, and how they evaluate their competence.

3. (3) To describe participants’ perceptions of how training has influenced their own development of competence including the role of the personal and professional selves.

4. (4) To consider practical implications for CBT training.

It is widely agreed that politicians are prone to hyperbole, proposing platforms that no one expects them to fully accomplish. We develop a theory of electoral competition focusing on politicians who differ in terms of both ideological preferences and in their capability to “get things done.” An imperfect ability to implement platforms introduces a novel role for status quo policies. We first show that the traditional left-right orientation of political competition arises only when the status quo is relatively moderate. Otherwise, an extreme status quo becomes the dominant dimension of electoral competition, providing a novel rationale for “populist” campaigns. Our second set of results address when campaign platforms can serve as effective empirical proxies for policies. We show that when there is a shock to voter preferences, the effect on platforms and policies is qualitatively the same, hence platforms are good qualitative proxies for policy implications. But when shocks are to the platform-policy linkage, platforms and policies respond in qualitatively different ways.

Research shows that meritocratic recruitment (MR) in public administration is positively related to improved government performance and developmental outcomes. However, the mechanisms behind these improvements remain understudied theoretically and empirically. This paper addresses this gap by theorising and testing two simultaneous pathways through which MR influences development outcomes. First, by prioritising competence over nepotism or political expedience, MR enhances the epistemic quality of bureaucratic personnel (the competence mechanism). Second, by creating incentive misalignment between bureaucrats and politicians, it enables bureaucrats to resist undue political influence, prioritise public interests in governance, and ultimately contribute to development (the impartiality mechanism). Applying mediation analysis to fourteen years of cross-national data, we examine whether changes in recruitment systems are associated with competence- and impartiality-laden indicators of government performance and developmental outcomes. The findings provide robust empirical support for these mechanisms, advancing theoretical understanding and empirical insights into the effects of MR.

Recent years have seen many cases where the moral transgressions of public figures have led to widespread disengagement from their work, such as no longer watching their shows or reading their books. In the academic context, this can manifest as not inviting an academic to speak, no longer citing or teaching their work, or even ending professional relationships. This paper aims to explore the question of whether there could be purely epistemic reasons that could underwrite such practices of disengagement; bracketing social, moral, or political concerns. In doing so, it addresses a common criticism: an academic’s moral transgression need not give us epistemic reasons to doubt the quality of their work, making disengaging unjustified. The main part of the paper investigates whether this criticism can be countered by viewing an academic’s moral transgressions as a defeater. After dismissing the option of undercutting defeat, it proposes a template argument for when there could be purely epistemic reasons for disengaging, namely if it takes place in areas where the moral transgression that motivates disengagement also functions as a higher order defeater.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems, notably ChatGPT, have emerged in legal practice, facilitating the completion of tasks, ranging from electronic communications to the drafting of documents. The generative capabilities of these systems underscore the duty of lawyers to competently represent their clients by keeping abreast of technological developments that can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their work. At the same time, the processing of clients’ information through generative AI systems threatens to compromise their confidentiality if disclosed to third parties, including the systems’ providers. The present paper aims to determine the impact of the use of generative AI systems by lawyers on the duties of competence and confidentiality. The findings derive from the application of doctrinal and empirical research on the legal practice and its digitalisation in Luxembourg. The paper finally reflects on the integration of generative AI systems in legal practice to raise the quality of legal services for clients.

Despite the ubiquity of guided self-help (GSH) interventions in Primary Care psychological services, there have been no previous studies of the relationship between the competence of qualified practitioners and treatment outcomes. This study compared competence-outcome associations in two types of GSH. Competence and clinical outcome measures were drawn from a clinical trial comparing the efficacy of two types of GSH for anxiety disorders, based on cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT-GSH) or cognitive analytic therapy (CAT-GSH). These interventions were delivered over the telephone by qualified and supervised practitioners. Audio-recordings of GSH sessions (n=94) were rated using a validated competence measure. Clinical outcomes were anxiety, depression and functioning. Secondary outcomes were attendance and need for further intervention after GSH. Competence ratings were highly reliable. No significant associations were found between competence and clinical outcomes, treatment engagement or need for further intervention. In this clinical trial, GSH competence ratings were not associated with clinical outcomes. Directions for future competence-outcome research are provided for GSH interventions.

Key learning aims

1. (1) Become familiar with the current empirical literature on therapist competence and associations with clinical outcome.

2. (2) Raise awareness of a recently developed alternative form of guided self-help based on the theory and principles of cognitive analytic therapy.

3. (3) Enhance understanding of the relationship between practitioner competence and clinical outcome in guided self-help for anxiety disorders.

This article examines how European Union (EU) arms control measures are tailored to its constitutional foundations. EU Member States subject shipments of arms and components to controls so as to screen them for risks and potentially block them. In this context different Member States may make different geopolitical and humanitarian risk assessments. Existing EU measures have achieved only limited security screening harmonisation, and have left room for Member States to shirk their obligations under international humanitarian law. But in case of joint arms production, which the EU subsidises to become more autonomous, one Member State’s arms controls may block another State’s exports and thereby jeopardise cooperation. This article posits that any reform of EU arms controls should start by re-evaluating their present legal basis. A constitutional competence analysis shows that controls on arms shipments to non-EU states should be regulated in part through the Common Commercial Policy (CCP), and not just through the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). This would be consistent with other EU regulatory regimes for trade security. While a joint CFSP-CCP approach cannot fully prevent conflict, since this would require further foreign policy harmonisation, it could help foster security convergence and strengthen humanitarian due diligence mechanisms.

While elections are an instrument to hold politicians accountable, corrupt politicians are often re-elected. A potential explanation for this paradox is that citizens trade-off integrity for competence. Voters may forgive corruption if corrupt politicians manage to deliver desirable outcomes. While previous studies have examined whether politicians’ competence moderates the negative effect of corruption, this paper focuses on voters’ priorities and directly assesses what citizens value more: integrity or favourable outcomes. Using a survey experiment, we assess citizens’ support for politicians who violate the law in order to improve the welfare of their community and, in some cases, benefit personally from these violations. The results indicate that citizens prefer a politician who follows the law, even if this leads to a suboptimal outcome. However, voters are more likely to overlook violations of the law that benefit the community if these do not result in a personal gain for politicians (i.e., in the absence of corruption). These findings suggest that the mild electoral punishment of corruption may be due to the public’s unawareness of private gains from malfeasance, or to the delay in these private benefits becoming apparent by election day.