Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Policy Field (policy + field)
Selected AbstractsDeploying the Classic ,Community Method' in the Social Policy Field: The Example of the Acquired Rights DirectiveEUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009Gavin Barrett The use of the Community method of legislation, in particular the deployment of directives, has for a long time been at the core of EC labour market policy. This article seeks to reflect on the lessons to be learned from the experience of the adoption and operation of one particularly significant directive, namely the Acquired Rights Directive, and on the experience of its transposition in one Member State, Ireland. Among features noted at the EU level are the watering down of the Commission's initial legislative ambitions; the substantial lacunae, failures to address issues and ambiguities incorporated in the text of the directive, the consequent enlarged role for the Court of Justice and the apparent difficulty in changing policy direction in the event of errors being made. As regards the Irish experience of transposing the directive, lessons learnt have included the importance of the means of implementation chosen by the Member State; the obstructive effect which national industrial relations systems may have on the evolution of a common European approach; the significance which attaches to national sanctions and enforcement mechanisms; the importance attaching to the degree of collective organisation in workplaces where the implementing legislation is sought to be relied upon; and the potential which the implementation of a directive has for disruption of the harmony of a national policy approach. Finally, the use of a form of social dialogue in the implementation of employment-related directives in Ireland is also commented upon. [source] Litigation and alcohol policy: lessons from the US Tobacco WarsADDICTION, Issue 2009James F. Mosher ABSTRACT Aims This paper explores the role of litigation in preventing alcohol-related harms, identifying lessons from the use of litigation in tobacco control policy in the United States. It analyzes the key components of litigation in an international context, provides a case study of its potential use in addressing the marketing of alcopops to youth and offers recommendations for pursuing litigation strategies in future alcohol policy efforts. Methods The paper's analyses are based on both original and secondary legal research. State and federal case law and secondary sources are reviewed in assessing lessons learned from tobacco litigation in the United States and the potential role of litigation in alcohol policy, both in the United States and internationally. Assessment of alcohol litigation cases and state and federal laws and regulations provides the foundation for the alcopops case study. Findings The tobacco litigation experience demonstrates that litigation is a powerful tool in addressing aggressive marketing by purveyors of addictive products such as alcohol. Conclusions To be effective at both national and international levels, litigation should encompass a broad array of legal tactics designed to identify and restrict unfair, deceptive and misleading alcohol marketing tactics and should be utilized in conjunction with complementary prevention strategies. Research conducted on the impact of alcohol marketing on youth alcohol consumption and problems is needed to support potential litigation claims. Developing litigation expertise within the alcohol policy field and building collaboration with litigation specialists in tobacco control should also be considered a high priority. [source] Migrant mobilization between political institutions and citizenship regimes: A comparison of France and SwitzerlandEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2004Marco Giugni This article focuses on the political claims made by immigrants and ethnic minorities in France and Switzerland. We look at cross-national variations in the overall presence of immigrants and ethnic minorities in the national public space, and the forms and content of their claims. Following a political opportunity approach, we argue that claim-making is affected both by institutional opportunities and by national models of citizenship. The civic-assimilationist conception of citizenship in France gives migrants greater legitimacy to intervene in the national public space. Furthermore, the inclusive definition of ,membership in the national community' favors claims pertaining to minority integration politics. However, the pressure toward assimilation to the republican norms and values tends to provoke claims for the recognition of ethnic and cultural difference. Finally, closed institutional opportunities push migrants' mobilization to become more radical, but at the same time the more inclusive model of citizenship favors a moderate action repertoire of migrants. Conversely, the ethnic-assimilationist view in Switzerland leads migrants to stress homeland-related claims. When they do address the policy field of ethnic relations, immigration and citizenship, they focus on issues pertaining to the entry and stay in the host society. Finally, the forms of action are more moderate due to the more open institutional context, but at the same time the action repertoire of migrants is moderated by the more exclusive model of citizenship. Our article is an attempt to specify the concept of ,political opportunity structure', and to combine institutional and cultural factors in explaining claim-making by immigrants and ethnic minorities. We confront our arguments with data from a comparative project on the mobilization on ethnic relations, citizenship and immigration. [source] Governance and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa: rethinking best practices in migration managementINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 190 2006Thanh-Dam Truong This article explores the interface between migration and human trafficking in sub-Saharan Africa fromthe two angles of governance and poverty. A salient feature in the emerging frameworks of migration management is its implicit bifurcated vision of mobility. Trade-connected mobility is well protected by government rules whereas mobility to sustain livelihoods is subject to a punitive regime with a limited scope for resolving the discrepancy between the legal and social interpretations of human rights and well-being. The rise of migration by women, children and young people within and outside traditional practices under risky conditions may reflect deeper structural transformations than are commonly acknowledged by policy-makers. Reactions based on human rights concerns have contributed to new international, regional and national legislative frameworks for preventing abusive and exploitative practices in migration. The prevalence of glaring differences of interests in the variant policy approaches to all these issues , migration management, crime control, labour standards, poverty reduction and the particular needs of communities at risk , requires the concept of best practices to address the relationship between dominant forms of social knowledge and the policy field to situate and tackle issues of rights violation in different scales of governance and their interrelationships. [source] The World Bank's New Social Policies: PensionsINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 170 2001François-Xavier Merrien Over the last 15 years, the world has become the scene of struggles between major inter-national stakeholders regarding the policies required for economic prosperity and social development. The World Bank plays a dominant role here. In this article, the author highlights the epistemic revolution the policy field has undergone under the aegis of the Bank. He analyses the basic aspects of the new orthodoxy regarding pensions and the effects on the policies of the governments concerned. He concludes with an examination of the theoretical and practical relevance of the recommendations and asks to what extent the Bank is able to learn from its own mistakes. [source] Social planning: past, present, and futureJOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 7 2003Ray Bromley This article discusses the history of the idea of social planning, and of the pioneering Masters Programme in Social Planning established at the University of Wales Swansea in 1973. Swansea's initiative in social planning led to the creation of the University's Centre for Development Studies (CDS), and it broadened development studies as an academic and policy field. Social planning is a controversial term because it has sometimes been associated with social engineering and totalitarianism. Nevertheless, it has a very important intellectual and policy agenda, and if the word ,planning' proves a liability it can be replaced by ,policy' or ,strategy'. The major questions reviewed at CDS-Swansea in the 1970s are still pertinent, and new dimensions have been added through growing concerns for nation-building, sustainability, democracy, gender equity and human rights. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Making Child Protection Policy: The Crime and Misconduct Commission Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Foster Care in QueenslandAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2008Clare Tilbury Internationally as well as in Australia, public inquiries have become one of the dominant means of scrutinising child protection services. As such, inquiries have become a policy mechanism for defining the problem of child abuse, and developing possible solutions. This article examines the 2004 Crime and Misconduct Commission Inquiry into the Abuse of Children in Foster Care in Queensland. It discusses both the problems and potential of public inquiries in promoting positive change in a contested policy field like child protection. [source] Policy Consulting and Public PolicyAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 1 2000John Francis Martin The changing nature of governance in Australia over the last two decades has given rise to a broad range of new strategies to review the development and delivery of government policies and programs. Key factors affecting the relationship between citizens and the state have been the deregulation and liberalisation of the Australian economy, with its focus on the market for the delivery of services, once the exclusive domain of public sector organisations. The increased use of consultants over this period is an example of governments going to the market for professional services. Effective policy development and review by consultants requires that they be well versed both in the substantive issues surrounding the policy field as well as in the process required to properly frame and evaluate these issues. [source] Policy modes, firms and the natural environmentBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 2 2004Aseem Prakash This paper examines how different environmental policy types differentially impact firms and why firms vary in their responses to such policies. Based on the mechanisms embedded in policy instruments to create incentives for firms to comply, the characteristics of benefits/costs that policies impose on firms and the institutional context in which policy instruments were created and are sustained, the paper identifies five policy categories. These are category I (command and control), category II (market based), category III (mandatory information disclosures), category IV (business,government partnerships) and category V (private voluntary codes). Different policy types often bestow asymmetrical benefits/costs on firms. Some benefits/costs may constitute ,private/club goods' while others may constitute ,public goods'. Drawing insights from public policy literature, the paper argues that firms can be expected to favor policies whose benefits have the characteristics of private/club goods but the costs of public goods. Thus, understanding the nature of benefits/costs (private/club versus public) and the magnitude of their excludability is critical in explaining the variations in firms' responses. To understand how managers perceive the nature of benefits/costs (monetary as well as non-monetary), the paper draws on theories and perspectives in the business and public policy field. In doing so, the paper examines the ,demand' and the ,supply' sides as well as the market and non-market environments of a given policy. Thus, the paper makes a case for a multi-theoretic approach to understand variations in managerial assessments of benefits/costs, and consequently variations in their responses to various policy types. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] The Migration,Development Nexus: Evidence and Policy OptionsINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 5 2002Ninna Nyberg, Sørensen Migration and development are linked in many ways , through the livelihood and survival strategies of individuals, households, and communities; through large and often well,targeted remittances; through investments and advocacy by migrants, refugees, diasporas and their transnational communities; and through international mobility associated with global integration, inequality, and insecurity. Until now, migration and development have constituted separate policy fields. Differing policy approaches that hinder national coordination and international cooperation mark these fields. For migration authorities, the control of migration flows to the European Union and other OECD countries are a high priority issue, as is the integration of migrants into the labour market and wider society. On the other hand, development agencies may fear that the development policy objectives are jeopardized if migration is taken into consideration. Can long,term goals of global poverty reduction be achieved if short,term migration policy interests are to be met? Can partnership with developing countries be real if preventing further migration is the principal European migration policy goal? While there may be good reasons to keep some policies separate, conflicting policies are costly and counter,productive. More importantly, there is unused potential in mutually supportive policies, that is, the constructive use of activities and interventions that are common to both fields and which may have positive effects on poverty reduction, development, prevention of violent conflicts, and international mobility. This paper focuses on positive dimensions and possibilities in the migration,development nexus. It highlights the links between migration, development, and conflict from the premise that to align policies on migration and development, migrant and refugee diasporas must be acknowledged as a development resource. [source] In the twilight of democracy: public affairs consultants in SwitzerlandJOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2009Adrian Steiner Modernization processes within different fields of political communication rise new challenges. Public affairs consultants are said to meet these challenges in both an effective and efficient way. Nevertheless, the rise of public affairs consultants also poses the question of their accordance with basic principles of modern democracy. Do public affairs consultants foster or impede the democratic process with respect to participation and representation? This question is answered on the basis of empirical data on public affairs consultants in Switzerland. The analysis points out three distinguishable fields of service: lobbying, political public relations and campaigning. Whereas campaigning has the strongest public-orientation and emphasizes direct democratic institutions, the other two fields tend to be more in the backstage of the public. Results regarding public affairs services suggest a structural discrepancy between public and non-public forms of communication, which according to normative democracy theory has to be judged critically. With view to clients, policy fields and party affiliations, the results show strong imbalances in interest representation, which seem to have mainly structural and economic reasons. In the conclusion, these results are discussed with view to the necessity of more transparency and a further professionalization. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | |||||||||||||