Showing papers on "Legislation published in 1974"

Law Enforcement, Malfeasance, and Compensation of Enforcers

Abstract: THE new economic approach to political behavior seeks to develop a positive theory of legislation, in contrast to the normative approach of welfare economics. The new approach asks why certain industries and not others become regulated or have tariffs imposed on imports or why income transfers take the form and direction they do, in contrast to asking which industries should be regulated or have tariffs imposed, or what transfers should be made.

Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach

Abstract: Since the turn of the twentieth century, legislation in Western countries has expanded rapidly to reverse the brief dominance of laissez faire during the nineteenth century. The state no longer merely protects against violations of person and property through murder, rape, or burglary but also restricts ‘discrimination’ against certain minorities, collusive business arrangements, ‘jaywalking’, travel, the materials used in construction, and thousands of other activities. The activities restricted not only are numerous but also range widely, affecting persons in very different pursuits and of diverse social backgrounds, education levels, ages, races, etc. Moreover, the likelihood that an offender will be discovered and convicted and the nature and extent of punishments differ greatly from person to person and activity to activity. Yet, in spite of such diversity, some common properties are shared by practically all legislation, and these properties form the subject matter of this essay.

Minimum wage legislation in the united states

Abstract: : A report is made on the provisions and effects of U.S. minimum wage laws, referring almost entirely to teenage youths. The discussion involves employment, the business cycle, job distribution, school attendance, and policy interactions.

Legislation, Ideology and Economy in Post-1948 South Africa

Abstract: (1974). Legislation, ideology and economy in post‐1948 South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 5-35.

Mastered for Life: Servant and Wife in Victorian and Edwardian England

Abstract: During the f1rst half of the nineteenth century, an increasing proportion of the working population was employed as factory labor. Factories and workshops were growing larger. At the same time the nature of farm labor changed as the yearly hiring was gradually replaced by a more casual monthly contract and young, unmarried farm servants no longer lived in their employer's household. Integral to this fundamental change to a more limited contract, was the long and sometimes savage conflict over the abolishing of the Law of Master and Servant and its replacement by the Employer and Workman Act of 1875.1 At about the same time, there began a very gradual shift in the conception of the married woman's relationship to society (a process that is by no means complete even now), a move to make marriage a contract, voidable like other contracts involving two legal personalities.2 This basic change, too, was reflected in some of the legislation that made inroads into the ancient common law concept of couveture: "the husband and wife are one and the husband is that one," Blackstone. Despite all the political and social ferment these changes generated, the impassioned debates in Parliament and in the press, there were two groups who, almost unnoticed, were hardly touched by the new order. Domestic servants and working-class married women continued, up to the First World War and beyond, in their pre-industrial, almost 13iblical, subordination to their masters and husbands. Regulation by Factory and Workshops Acts, Trades Boards or investigations into sweated labor passed them by. Trade Union organization proved to be unworkable for servants, untllinkable for wives. Insurance schemes left them aside. Enfranchisement was not for them for they had neither domicile nor property of their own. Their legal definition and, in signiElcant ways, their real situation was closer to the age-old common law doctrine of potestas: children, wives and servants are under the protection and wing of the Master.3 He is the intermediary to the

Determinants of the Passage of Right-to-Work Laws: An Alternative Interpretation

Abstract: IN a recent study, "Right-To-Work Laws: A Suggested Economic Rationale,"1 Neil and Catherine Palomba addressed themselves to the question of why some states had adopted right-to-work legislation (RTW) and others had not. The authors hypothesized that all states are under pressure to consider passing RTW legislation because it is generally believed that such legislation "makes a state's labor force more attractive, at the margin, to new industry (and investment) than the labor force of a state with no right-to-work law."2 The Palombas constructed a conceptual model explaining the passage of such legislation in terms of two major variables-the level of economic development and the degree of unionization within a state. They argued:

A Conceptual Framework for Accountability in Education.

Abstract: "Accountability" is bandied about today by educators and noneducators alike. Any examination of the use of the word suggests that there is a variety of meanings implicit in it. Unfortunately, the rapidly burgeoning literature on accountability rarely addresses the underlying concepts which link these diverse uses. Some authors assert that the provision of information on the performance of schools constitutes accountability. Others see accountability as a matter of redesigning the structures by which education is governed. In some cases accountability is defined as a specific approach to education such as performance contracting or educational vouchers, while in others accountability is referred to as a part of all educational systems. It is common to hear that statewide testing programs as well as recent state legislation which would enable schools to terminate the appointments of "poor" teachers represent a response to the need for accountability.

The Control of Industrial Accidents: Economic Theory and Empirical Evidence

Abstract: The passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 represents the latest extension of a form of government regulation that began in the United States almost a century ago. Government standards concerning the physical environment of the workplace were first promulgated in America by Massachusetts, which required in 1877 that "[t]he belting, shafting, gearing and drums of all manufacturing establishments, when so located as to be, in the opinion of the inspectors hereinafter mentioned, dangerous to employees while engaged in their ordinary duties, shall be, as far as practicable, securely guarded."1 This standard covered less than 350,000 employees. Today, under federal legislation, 62 million American workers are covered by safety rules which govern virtually every aspect of the workplacefrom asbestos particles to toilet partitions. Compared to other significant government programs, safety legislation has historically been uncontroversial. Early legislation was adopted in an era when most forms of government intervention in business and labor affairs were regarded as unconstitutional. A similar accommodating attitude has prevailed in more recent times. The debate prior to the 1970 federal Act focused on the administrative details of the proposed legislation rather than on the wisdom of a large federal safety effort. The typically noncritical nature of the debate is surely due to the moralistic nature of the safety issue. Even to question the basic premises of regulation via safety standards is often associated with an insensitivity toward workers' safety. It is just such an examination, however, which is necessary in order to understand the regulation of safety and to evaluate particular statutes such as the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. It is the purpose of this paper to examine both the theoretical and empirical premises of alternative methods available for industrial accident control.2

Political Parties and the Porkbarrel: Party Conflict and Cooperation in House Public Works Committee Decision Making *

Abstract: In the annals of American political lore, porkbarreling has long been synonymous with domestic legislation having obvious political content. The term "porkbarrel," meaning the distribution of public works expenditures on the basis of political influence, has been applied most frequently and most pejoratively to the legislation processed by the House Public Works committee.' And understandably so, for political meaning does inhere in public works proposals; public works projects can profoundly alter the living circumstances of citizens within and beyond the areas in which they are built. Thus members of the committee that recommends the construction of roads, dams, public buildings, water pollution treatment plants, the drafting of harbors, the abatement of beach erosion, or any number of economic development projects, are presumed to be in a unique position to alter electoral probabilities in 'avor of themselves and other members of the. House.2 In the lore of American politics, then, authorizing public works projects is the result of spontaneous, widespread favor trading. One can account for the authorizations by the "simple matter of quid pro quo . . . , you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. . .. 3

The Concept of Unfairness as It Relates to Advertising Legislation

Abstract: PROTECTION of the consumer from advertising abuses evolved slowly in American legislative history. Recently, however, this evolution has shown signs of accelerating. One such indication is the expansion of the consumer protection network emanating from advertising legislation. Based on past public policy constraints, activities in this area have been restricted to the elimination of deceptive practices. As a result of a more recent interpretation of public policy goals, however, future protection activities will also encompass the "doctrine of unfairness to consumers."

A legislative‐political history of the coastal zone management act of 1972

Abstract: The substance and direction of the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 have antecedents in earlier governmental programs. The Act evolved through phases emphasizing, in turn, concern with recreation, estuary protection, ocean development, and land use policy. The fact that the act reflects something of each of these concerns and incorporates ideas or devices associated with each historical phase perhaps accounts for its form and contents, its gaps and contradictions, and the uncertainty of its future. By the time the act was signed into law on October 27, 1972, some of the original concepts for dealing with the coastal troubles had been discarded and others drastically scaled down in face of determined opposition by vested interests, both governmental and non‐governmental. The act was signed unenthusiastically and initially denied fiscal support. The legislative‐political history of the act does not augur well for the future of the nation's coasts.

The Concept of Unfairness as it Relates to Advertising Legislation: The concept of unfairness adds a new dimension to consumer protection legislation.

Abstract: P of the consumer from advertising abuses evolved slowly in American legislative history. Recently, however, this evolution has shown signs of accelerating. One such indication is the expansion of the consumer protection network emanating from advertising legislation. Based on past public policy constraints, activities in this area have been restricted to the elimination of deceptive practices. As a result of a more recent interpretation of public policy goals, however, future protection activities will also encompass the \"doctrine of unfairness to consumers.\

Parliament in a One-Party State—the Bunge of Tanzania, 1965–70

Abstract: The introduction of the one-party system in Tanzania in 1965 was in part explained as a means of rescuing the National Assembly or Bunge from decline and decay. This institution had become a rubber stamp, according to the Presidential Commission, making few meaningful contributions to the system of government: debates had become ‘lifeless and superficial’, and legislation was passed rapidly and uncritically, ‘without challenge to basic principles or careful examination of detailed provisions’. The President had appropriately raised the question of whether the National Assembly should be formally removed from the structure of the state, or amalgamated with that of the ruling party.

The Federal Advisory Committee Act

Abstract: The Federal Advisory Committee Act, enacted on October 6, 1972 is a congressional attempt to institute administrative controls and to open to public scrutiny the operations of nongovernmental groups that supply advice to the government. Because many such groups have an interest in any action that the government may institute, the danger of abuse is apparent. Moreover, advisory groups are often used to divert attention from sensitive issues, or even to delay a decision on an issue where there are strongly different views. And, all too often, the advisory committee system provides a medium for bestowing political favors, such as appointment to a prestigious commission. This legislation seeks to correct such abuses by requiring balanced membership, mandating that the use of an advisory committee be justified, and opening advisory committee operations to public scrutiny. The statute also seeks to curb unnecessary expenditures on such committees through administrative controls and to terminate committees that are no longer fulfilling a useful function. This Article analyzes the problems that the statute was designed to remedy and proposes a construction to fulfill these purposes.

An evaluation of the effects of population control programs.

Abstract: Population size and population growth have become problematic not only to some demographers but to ecologists and environmentalists, economists, public health administrators, politicians and statesmen, and informed citizens. Population, in short, is now defined as a problem, though not always the same one by any means. In earlier times, problems of this character were not so readily identified and, when they were, not so readily addressed. These days the very recognition of a public problem means that something must be done about it. I propose to evaluate that something. But before evaluating, let us be reasonably clear about what that something is. For my purposes here, it is the more or less deliberate effort by governments to affect the rates of population growth in their countries not the incidental demographic effect but the intended one. I limit myself to governmental actions and to population growth; there are nongovernmental efforts at "population control" as well as governmental policies to affect population distribution, but those are other stories. And I address myself to the current situation, not the historical one. So the question becomes: what have governments done recently to affect population growth, and how have those efforts worked out? What can governments do? Broadly speaking, there are only five things they can do. They can (1) communicate with people in order to influence their demographic behavior in the desired manner, (2) provide services to effect the desired behavior, (3) manipulate the balance of incentives and disincentives to achieve the desired regulation, (4) shift the weight of social institutions and opportunities in the desired direction, and (5) coerce the desired behavior through the power of the state. As framework to what follows, let me elaborate that classification somewhat. With regard to communication, we can distinguish three things governments can do, in principle. First, they can provide, or encourage others to provide, factual information about populationand fertility-related matters-for example, information that a particular growth rate appears to have specified collective effects on the economy or the environment, or that children born to older mothers have a specified higher risk of certain abnormalities, or indeed that birth control is possible, practiced, effective, safe, and available, with the appropriate specifications. Second, they can provide what might be called education or enlightenment-a blend of the "alleged" facts and the values to which they relate, with analysis and "soft" recommendations as to the path of wisdom, individual or collective. Such programs can be carried out within formal school systems, through systems of adult education, through the mass media, or through such institutions of government as Presidential or Royal Commissions. Third, they can directly persuade people, or try to, by means of "hardsell" argumentation and exhortation -for example, dire predictions of what will happen if the desired behavior is not adopted, calls to patriotic obligation, demands that individual preference be subordinated to the national need, whatever that is perceived to be. With regard to services, governments can do two things: (1) they can legislate or decree what are medically and morally acceptable as means to demographic control in their societies (and make the use of such means easier or harder through tax, tariff, regulatory, or police powers); and (2) they can provide and/or support the related services alongside the private sector, typically through the public health network. As examples, governments can say that the oral contraceptive or sterilization or abortion is or is not legitimate within the country, and specify conditions; and they can take the initiative in making available actual services, including supplies, to the entire population at risk or to that segment deprived of such services under current circumstances -that is, they can establish family planning programs, as they are now called. With regard to incentives, governments can raise or lower the costs of having children through such measures as maternity leaves and benefits, family and child allowances, tax benefits or penalties, social security provisions, educational fees, child labor legislation, and money payments for the nth birth or for periods of nonbirth or for the initiation or continuation of the practice of fertility control. Money is clearly a powerful motivator of human beings, and it can be applied in this case as in any other. With regard to social institutions and opportunities, governments can influence the social situation in a variety of ways that in turn influence the demographic outcome, or at least have the potential of doing so: they can regulate marital status, and particularly the age of marriage; invest in nutrition and sanitation and health sufficiently to affect the mortality rate, especially the infant or child mortality rate; determine the extent to which public education will be available, especially for females; control the extent to which subsistence agriculture is replaced by modernized agriculture on the one hand and industrialization on the other; affect the distribution of income with a view to raising the living standards of the poor; determine how much housing of what kinds will be available to whom, with particular reference to family size; encourage or discourage certain religious observances; affect the status of women within a society, especially with regard to their employment outside the home. According to the accumulated wisdom, such institutional factors largely determine human fertility, up or down, at least on the historical scene. Finally, with regard to coercion, governments can seek to achieve the desired rates or numbers through the power of law and its penalties: for example, as has been suggested, by declaring the nth birth illegal and making it punishable in some way, or through forced sterilization. Those are the things that governments can do, by way of formal policy, to affect population growth. Let me now inquire into what is actually being done in the world today and what difference such policies and programs seem to make. The topic of government activities to control population is

The Law of the Sea Conference

Abstract: F OR four years now preparations have been going on for the Conference on the Law of the Sea that is to begin in Caracas this June. The total agenda is vast. It includes 25 major areas, including altogether about 90 sub-items, each of considerable complexity. These range from the law governing archaeological treasures to pirate radio; the law on pollution control to fishing limits; the breadth of the territorial sea to the law governing the continental shelf; the law governing islands to the law governing international straits. But by far the largest and probably most important issue will be the international ' regime' to be established for the deep sea-bed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction, an area never previously covered by any form of international legislation. With the partial exception of the territorial sea, there is little agreement about any of these issues at present. Few people think that it will be possible to come anywhere near agreement at one session of the cQnference, or even at two (a second session in Vienna is already envisaged for 1975). The difficulties are compounded by the fact that it has always been accepted that the issues represent a vast package. In particular there is a direct linkage between agreement on the strict law-of-the-sea issues, especially limits, and on the sea-bed regime: the Latin American countries only agreed to the conference on the basis that there would be no new agreement on limits unless there was also agreement on an international regime. But the complexities and disagreements that exist on the latter subject are if anything even greater than those surrounding the limits, which are themselves sufficiently large. So the probability is not of a short sharp conference ending with all signing on the dotted line; but of something like a decade of negotiations, manoeuvring and controversy over this vast range of issues. It may, however, be worth attempting at this stage to survey the main issues to be discussed and considering the differences of interest and viewpoint which have emerged on them during the four years of negotiations preceding the conference. Of the legal issues, perhaps the simplest, as well as that which is closest to agreement, concerns the breadth of the territorial sea. Since the two conferences in 1958 and 1960, there has been a general widening of claims to this area. The most extreme are those claiming a limit

A critique of the present and proposed strategies for redistributing resources in the health sector and a discussion of alternatives.

Abstract: This paper is divided into three parts. The first contains a brief description of the past and present distribution of physicians in the United States 1) by levels of care in the four United States census regions, 2) by community size in the nation, 3) by areas, according to the median income of the population in areas within an Eastern state, and 4) by the four main sections of a metropolitan region in that Eastern state, i.e., the business district, the inner city, the middle city, and the suburbs. Past and present distribution of physicians is analyzed, and it is shown that there is an increase in secondary and tertiary care physicians and a decline in primary care ones, with a growing concentration of physicians in the larger communities, in the wealthier areas, and in the suburbs. In part two, it is postulated that the present strategies for change based on the “market” ideology implicit in most types of health legislation (CHP, RMP, PSRO, HMO, COLC, HCRC, and others) will not correct, but may strengthen, the maldistribution. Indeed, these pieces of legislation respond to different constituencies that make up the main loci of economic and political power in the health sector. It is postulated that it is precisely these loci of power that are the cause (rather than merely a symptom) of the maldistribution of resources. In part three, alternative strategies for change are presented, with recommendations for 1) shifting the planning and regulatory powers over the health sector from the private to the public sector, and 2) democratization of health institutions, with control of these institutions by elected representatives of both those who work in them and those in the communities who are served by them. The possibilities of adopting these strategies in this country are discussed in the light of some international experience, and with consideration of the present economic and political realities of the United States.

The Uses of Scientific Information in Environmental Decision Making

Abstract: This Article explores the response of the legal system to the uncertainty which is inherent in the scientific analysis of environmental impact The first principle of due process is that the assignment of responsibility correspond with the actor who did in fact cause the injury We argue that existing concepts of cause-in-fact, the foundation of liability, place potentially severe constraints on the ability of the legal system to respond to the need to minimize the risks of future environmental injury Further, these constraints exist to some degree regardless of whether the prohibitions or restrictions take the form of adjudication, administrative rulemaking or legislation In any of these contexts a court or agency applying a standard or reviewing a regulation may respond to the claim that an activity should not be allowed because of its potential future adverse impact by deciding that it would be speculative to conclude that the activity might cause harm, or that the party seeking to assign responsibility has merely established a possibility rather than a probability of such impact In short, an essential element of responsibility—cause-in-fact—may not have been established

the new weather modification law for Illinois

Abstract: The Illinois State Water Survey, a state water resources research agency, initiated efforts in 1971 to develop and secure a law for Illinois that would permit and regulate weather modification activities. Such legislation was deemed a prime requirement, not only for the proper execution of scientific experiments on weather modification in Illinois but for the general benefit of citizens of Illinois through encouragement to properly conducted activities and protection from improperly conducted weather modification operations. (It was our intention to develop a “model law” that reflected the best aspects of weather modification legislation and experience in other states, and which would serve as a model for future legislation in other states.) The efforts began in October 1971 and were completed in September 1973 with the signing of the Illinois Weather Modification Control Bill and its accompanying appropriation bill. This paper describes the type of law desired, the activities performed to secure...

The Consequences of Public Utility Regulation of Hospitals

Abstract: The health care delivery system is among the most extensively regulated sectors of the American economy. Professional licensure, hospital accreditation and certification, qualification requirements for federal subsidies, and governmental oversight of the third-party payer system constitute a complex set of institutional constraints on the structure and performance of the hospital industry [see Somers]. Beginning about a decade ago, serious demands have been made—notably by some of the trade associations and professional societies in the industry—to complete the circle of regulation by establishing administrative agencies, at either the state or federal level, to subject the industry to "public utility" regulation. These pressures have yielded results: most states have either established hospital regulation, or are considering legislation that would accomplish that end. The purpose of this paper is to explore the causes and likely consequences of hospital regulation. Its point of departure is not the actual operation of the health care delivery system in the United States. Instead, the starting point is a growing body of literature in economics, law and political science on the operation and performance of regulation generally. The first section presents some general observations on the factors that cause regulatory agencies to be established and that influence the outcomes of regulatory procedures. The second section describes some of the problems that seem to recur in regulated industries, and why these are probably inevitable consequences of imposing regulation. The third section applies these general theoretical and empirical observations to the specific case of the medical care delivery system and offers some conclusions about the relative merits of alternative methods of government intervention in the industry.

The Waltham Blacks and the Black Act

Abstract: The measure of 1723 known as the ‘Waldiam Black Act’ (9 Geo. I, c. 22) has acquired a lasting notoriety. Lecky called it ‘a special and most sanguinary law’, and even Sir Leon Radzinowicz finds it ‘remarkable’ as the most severe legislation of the eighteenth century, its comprehensive nature making it an ‘ideological index’ to the capital laws at large. The Act was extended for five years in 1725 (12 Geo. I, c. 30), amended in 1754 (27 Geo. II, c. 15) and made permanent in 1758 (31 Geo. II, c. 42). Effectively it survived for a century, until Peel took it off the statute book despite opposition from the Quarterly Review. Its main provisions were directed against ‘wicked and evil-disposed Persons going armed in Disguise, and doing Injuries and Violences to die Persons and Properties of his Majesty's Subjects’. It became a felony without benefit of clergy to go abroad into woods in any form of disguise or with a blackened face. Commission of a specific act of destruction or larceny was not necessary for a prosecution to lie.

Marketing in the Age of Strict Liability

Abstract: T HE practice of marketing, although normally in a state of flux, is from time to time subject to major shifts, which most often occur as a consequence of changes within the environment. The current marketing era began after World War II, when business recognized that technology had solved many of the problems of production and when the life style of consumers had been transformed from one of scarcity to one of limited abundance. During this era, business has moved to adjust production to the needs of consumption. The resulting consumer orientation, with related changes, has been called the marketing concept. Accordingly, many changes have occurred in marketing strategy; the change in emphasis from price competition to nonprice and innovative competition is among the most important.1 Currently, the environment of marketing is again in ferment. Growing awareness of the social responsibility of business, along with the corresponding rise of consumerism, has triggered investigations by federal agencies and state legislatures. These actions have resulted in the passage of legislation to establish guidelines for marketing decisions and the creation of agencies to administer these standards. Another aspect of this changing environment is that many courts have reconsidered the traditional legal doctrines relating to the liability of manufacturers for the goods they sell. While manufacturers were once relatively well insulated from loss due to actions by injured consumers who had purchased from resellers, they are now vulnerable to suit from a vast array of claimants in most jurisdictions.2 It is quite possible that marketing is at the threshold of another momentous change. The changing social and legal environment is forcing manufacturers to take greater responsibility for the goods they produce and sell. The signal for this change is the evolution and widespread acceptance of the doctrine of strict liability.

The Status of Florida's Black School Principals.

Abstract: In 1896, the case of Plessy v. Ferguson was before the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring "separate but equal facilities" for Whites and Blacks on railroads was permissible. This court ruling was prescribed for transportation, but the doctrine of separate but equal facilities was gradually applied to other forms of public services, involving public schools.' The Supreme Court, in 1954, reversed its decision of 1896 with the decree rendered in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. It ruled that "in the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place because separate education facilities are inherently unequal."2 The Court decided that racially segregated public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment which guarantees equal protection of the laws to all citizens. In 1964, Congress passed the most comprehensive civil rights law in United States history. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was aimed at ending discrimination against Blacks and individuals of other minority groups. This legislation, however, provided measures designed to insure the rights of all Americans. The specific areas of voting, working public accommodations, and public education were the most critical.3 In spite of the numerous federal court decisions in the past seventeen years which were consistent with the 1954 Brown decision and the acts of the United States Congress, the attempt to desegregate public schools met with considerable resistance. Many communities defied the law, but the resistance, in most instances, was unsuccessful. Public schools separated by race on the pupil, teacher, and administrative levels began to disappear. At first, the

Rational Planning and Organizational Imperatives: Prospects for Area Planning in Aging:

Abstract: The federal grant strategy found in the Older Americans Comprehensive Services Amendments of 1973 represents a marked departure from earlier strategies of the Older Americans Act. While the national goal of the legislation is more clearly specified and funding has sig nificantly increased, the introduction of new substate plan ning bodies—Area Agencies on Aging—is seen here as the most important change. The new national strategy is geared toward the development of these new agencies, and its success will depend very much on their discharging the functions assigned to them. This paper argues that, because the new legislative strategy is based on a rational goal model and conceptualizes the area agencies accordingly, it neglects certain requisites of organizational life. Using, instead, a social system perspective of the area agencies and their environment, the paper suggests that these agencies will, of necessity, concern themselves with matters other than those mandated in the legislation. These other con...

Public opinion and the death penalty in south africa

Abstract: The role of public opinion in the formation of social policies has not been adequately assessed. In some cases public attitudes are highly congruent with progressive social ideals. In others public opinion has reacted strongly against attempts to introduce social reforms. The issue of capital punishment is a case in point. In the United Kingdom and the United States of America, it has been felt that in this area of criminal justice policy reform must precede public opinion. Capital punishment has been an integral part of South Africa's criminal justice legislation for many years and, contrary to trends in other western countries, the use of the death penalty has been gradually extended. The annual number of executions has risen steadily and is far higher than in other western countries. In response to these developments an abolitionist move ment, seeking to educate public opinion, has emerged. One of the major arguments for retention (and one that the abolitionists have had to face) is that the white electorate will not tolerate abolition. Public opinion in white South Africa does not wish the hangman to become redundant. The validity of this argument needs to be established. The degree to which opinion leaders and the man in the street support the death penalty needs to be assessed.