Showing papers on "Legislation published in 2002"

Deliberate Discretion?: The Institutional Foundations of Bureaucratic Autonomy

Abstract: 1. Laws, bureaucratic autonomy and the comparative study of delegation 2. Rational delegation or helpless abdication? The relationship between bureaucrats and politicians 3. Statutes as blueprints for policy making processes 4. A comparative theory of legislative discretion and the policy making process 5. Legislation, agency policy making and Medicaid in Michigan 6. The design of laws across separation of powers systems 7. The design of laws across parliamentary systems 8. Laws, institutions, and policy making processes.

How Can Comprehensive School Reform Models Be Successfully Implemented

Abstract: Comprehensive school reform, or CSR, a currently a popular approach to school improvement, is intended to foster schoolwide change that affects all aspects of schooling (e.g., curriculum, instruction, organization, professional development, and parent involvement). Federal, state, and local legislation and funding have supported CSR implementation, and in 1997 Congress enacted the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program, which gives financial support to schools adopting such reforms. This article reviews and synthesizes the literature that documents CSR implementation, positing that the more specific, consistent, authoritative, powerful, and stable a policy is, the stronger its implementation will be. It finds that all five policy attributes contribute to implementation; in particular, specificity is related to implementation fidelity, power to immediate implementation effects, and consistency, authority, and stability to long-lasting change.

Endogenous Political Institutions

Abstract: A fundamental aspect of institutional design is how much society chooses to delegate unchecked power to its leaders. If, once elected, a leader cannot be restrained, society runs the risk of a tyranny of the majority, if not the tyranny of a dictator. If a leader faces too many ex post checks and balances, legislative action is too often blocked. As our critical constitutional choice we focus upon the size of the minority needed to block legislation, or conversely the size of the (super) majority needed to govern. We analyse both 'optimal' constitutional design and 'positive' aspects of this process. We derive several empirical implications, which we then discuss.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

Abstract: The President has signed legislation, the “Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002”, (the “Act”) that amends the U.S. securities and other laws in significant ways. The law changes corporate governance, including the responsibilities of directors and officers; the regulation of accounting firms that audit public companies; corporate reporting; and enforcement. Many of the Act’s provisions will be enhanced by SEC rulemaking and, probably, by stock market listing standards as well. Generally, the Act applies to U.S. and non‐U.S. public companies that have registered securities (debt or equity) with the SEC under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Act is lengthy. The implications of the Act will not be fully known until the SEC adopts implementing rules and, thereafter, as interpretations develop, whether by the SEC or in litigation. This memorandum is a summary and not a complete description of the Act. It does not constitute legal advice for any particular situation.

Anti-vaccinationists past and present

Abstract: The British Vaccination Act of 1840 was the first incursion of the state, in the name of public health, into traditional civil liberties. The activities of today9s propagandists against immunisations are directly descended from, indeed little changed from, those of the anti-vaccinationists of the late nineteenth century, say Robert Wolfe and Lisa Sharp

Democracy, Institutions and Attitudes about Citizen Influence on Government

Abstract: Theorists such as Carole Pateman and Benjamin Barber suggest that democratic participation will engage citizens and lead them to have more positive regard for political processes and democratic practices. The American states provide a setting where provisions for direct voter participation in legislation vary substantially. If participatory institutions have an ‘educative role’ that shapes perceptions of government, then citizens exposed to direct democracy may be more likely to claim they understand politics and be more likely to perceive that they are capable of participation. They may also be more likely to perceive that government is responsive to them. We merge data on state-level political institutions with data from the 1992 American National Election Study to test these hypotheses with OLS models. Our primary hypotheses find support. We present evidence that the effects of exposure to direct democracy on internal and external political efficacy rival the effects of formal education.

The Mythologies of Faculty Productivity: Implications for Institutional Policy and Decision Making

Abstract: Research accomplishment, the most "cosmopolitan" academic function, has social and economic value. Research visibility certainly enhances institutional stature among peers (Alpert, 1985). Political and public support for academic institutions, however, rests on the perceived institutional commitment to "local functions," especially teaching and learning (Ewell, 1994; Hearn, 1992). Legislative calls for accountability and effectiveness, and public concern about increasing costs and the potential adverse consequences for access clearly focus on the teaching mission. Many state legislatures have focused on faculty commitment to teaching often in terms of instructional productivity. Efforts to eliminate tenure by the governing boards in Arizona and Florida, legislation in Ohio to mandate an increase in the time faculty spend on teaching, and growing legislative interest in post-tenure review are specific expressions of this concern. The focus of this reform movement is not limited to public institutions. The Nati onal Science Foundation, which supports and influences both public and private institutions, recently required grant applicants to state how their research work will affect their teaching effort. Much of the policy debate about the nature of faculty work is shrouded in myth, opinion, and conjecture. Critics of the perceived lack of emphasis on teaching in research universities may assume that this criticism applies equally well to teaching-oriented colleges, a questionable assumption at best. Parents, potential students, and even state legislators often overestimate the actual cost of attending college (National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education, 1998). Yet the perceived inattention to teaching and learning, particularly at the undergraduate level, is not off base (B ok, 1992; Fairweather, 1996). Boyer (1990) acknowledged the legitimacy of this claim when he attempted to encourage institutional responsiveness to public concerns about teaching and learning. He advocated considering teaching as a form of scholarship to increase its status on college campuses. The American Association of Higher Education Forum on Faculty Roles and Rewards took Boyer's concepts a step further, encouraging institutional teams to foster changes in local faculty rewards. The willingness and ability of academic institutions to respond effectively to these challenges is influenced by what Clark (1972) calls institutional sagas. These sagas contain a variety of beliefs or myths that help perpetuate organizational culture by socializing new participants (students, administrators, and especially the faculty) by establishing norms for their behavior. Among the set of beliefs held by many academic administrators and faculty members about the nature of faculty work and productivity are that (a) teaching, research, and service are activities imbedded in some form within each faculty member's work effort, (b) teaching and research are mutually reinforcing, and as a consequence (c) faculty can simultaneously be productive in teaching and research. Other than hiring new faculty members, the principal expression of academic values about faculty work lies in the promotion and tenure decision. It is here rather than in institutional rhetoric that the faculty seek clues about the value of different aspects of their work. It is here that productivity is most meaningfully defined and evaluated. Yet promotion and tenure decisions are both individual and private in nature. These characteristics make it difficult to identify the cumulative effects of individual decisions within an institution, much less identify patterns across types of institutions and disciplines. The purpose of this article is to identify these larger patterns by examining national data that represent criteria often used in local promotion and tenure decisions or in annual faculty reviews. I am particularly interested in the belief that all aspects of faculty work--particularly teaching and research--can be equally (or somewhat equally) addressed by the work of each faculty member. …

Social licence and environmental protection: why businesses go beyond compliance

Abstract: Traditionally, corporations which complied with the dictates of applicable legislation would have regarded not just their legal, but also their social obligations, as ending at that point. Socio-legal research suggests that corporations complied with law only for instrumental reasons (to avoid legal penalties) or, because "regulations are taken to be a measure of societal expectations, and [are] thus interpreted as a guide to an organisation's moral and social duties," (Wright, 1998: 14). From this traditional point of view, corporations could be expected to take actions which went 'beyond compliance' only where they saw some self-interest in doing so, such as increasing profit, usually over the short-term (Porter and Van der Linde, 1995)

Internet Seals of Approval: Effects on Online Privacy Policies and Consumer Perceptions

Abstract: The use of Internet seal of approval programs has been touted as an alternative to potential legislation concerning consumer-related online privacy practices. Questions have been raised, however, regarding the effectiveness of such programs with respect to maintaining privacy standards and aiding online consumers. The authors examine these issues in a series of three studies, the first of which is an exploratory application of Federal Trade Commission privacy standards to various online privacy policies in an effort to determine the ability of seal of approval program participation to act as a valid cue to a firm's stated privacy practices. The second and third studies are experiments designed to ascertain how online firm participation in Internet seal of approval programs affects consumers. Implications for consumer policy are discussed.

Managing Migration: Civic Stratification and Migrants Rights

Abstract: Nation States now increasingly have to cope with large numbers of non-citizens living within their borders. This has largely been understood in terms of the decline of the nation state or of increasing globalisation, but in Managing Migration Lydia Morris argues that it throws up more complex questions. In the context of the European Union the terms of debate about immigration, legislation governing entry, and the practice of regulation reveal a set of competing concerns, including: *anxiety about the political affiliation of migrants *a clash between commitment to equal treatment and the desire to protect national resources *human rights obligations alongside restrictions on entry. The outcome of these clashes is presented in terms of an increasingly complex system of civic stratification. The book then moves on to examine the way in which abstract notions of rights map on to lived experiences when filtered through other forms of difference such as race and gender. This book will be essential reading for students and researchers working in the areas of migration and the study of the European Union.Lydia Morris is Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex.

Farmers' market research 1940–2000: An inventory and review

Abstract: The number of retail farmers' markets in the USA increased dramatically in the twentieth century, with a burst of growth experienced after the passage of Public Law 94-463 (PL 94-463), the Farmer-to-Consumer Direct Marketing Act of 1976. This article inventories the literature since the Second World War on retail farmers' markets and direct marketing in North America. The inventory includes some lesser known studies from 1970 to 1985. The reports are grouped into four categories by topical area: consumers and vendors, economic impact, social impact and farmers' markets as research sites. Overall, the literature on farmers' markets is found to be scant, leaving ample room for new and exciting explorations of this venerable institution.

Children’s Rights

Abstract: Traditionally in our society, as in most if not all others, children are viewed as the property of their parents, who are invested with rights seen as necessary to carry out their duties However, during the course of this century we have begun to witness a fundamental change in attitudes towards parent/ child relationships First has been a growing recognition that parents’ rights over their children are not inviolable, and that the state has a right to intervene to protect children’s interests Our legislation marks those changes Until the divorce law reforms in the 1970s, decisions about children were based on the guilt or otherwise of the parent: the guilty partner lost custody regardless of the impact on the child Now, however, the welfare of the child must be the paramount consideration in decisions taken by the court under the Children Act 1989 We have also seen the growing recognition that parents are capable of harming and abusing their children This knowledge is now so commonplace it is difficult to comprehend the shock of the Maria Colwell case when it first hit the headlines, shattering comfortable assumptions about the nature of family life It is now clearly accepted that children have a right to be protected from such harm and that the state has a responsibility to intervene to provide that protection The other major change has been the recognition that parents do not have sole responsibility for their children The state is now acknowledged to have a key role to play in supporting parents The introduction of universal child benefits and fulltime education from the age of 5, free health care and, in particular, the provision for children of regular developmental health checks, the school health service, dental and optical care, all attest to a level of concern current in our society for the general well-being and protection of our children Whether that level of concern goes far enough is a matter for political debate which I will not pursue here But the central point is that we do have a broad consensus that neither the rights nor the responsibilities of parenthood are total or absolute although there are fundamental differences of opinion about where the lines should be drawn

Fundamentals of Decision Making

Abstract: In institutions ranging from private households, to companies, and public administration, people on whichever hierarchical level are responsible for certain domains, and thus make decisions on a daily basis. As some responsibilities are of a rather simple structure and of comparatively small impact, e.g. buying rolls at the bakery, or ordering a cup of coffee at the cafe around the corner1, the decision making takes place mostly in an intuitive way. Yet, there are many responsibilities which are of a complex structure or of great impact on the well-being of man and/or matter, and hence require careful preparation and analysis prior to implementing a decision. For a family, a complex decision is for instance whether, where, when, and how to build a home. A complex decision for a company executive is to determine which kinds of products to produce, or, respectively, which services to offer in which quantities at which price and with how many employees working on them. Governments take care of e.g. health-care programs or environmental protection legislation, and adopt defense strategies, while international organizations develop activities which affect peace, freedom, and prosperity on a global level.

Judicializing Politics, Politicizing Law

Abstract: I INTRODUCTION Since World War II, there has been a profound shift in power away from legislatures and toward courts and other legal institutions around the world. This shift, which has been called "judicialization," (1) has become more or less global in its reach, as evidenced by the fact that it is as marked in Europe, and especially recently in Eastern Europe, as it is in the United States. The spectacles of Italian judges undermining Italy's postwar system of musical cabinets, or of newly energized French judges hounding prime ministers and presidents, are only the most visible aspects of these developments. One could also point to the role, and recent success, of judges in seeking to arrest and prosecute dictators and military leaders. Additionally, our own United States Supreme Court's intervention into electoral politics in Bush v. Gore (2) was yet another manifestation of this trend. One can distinguish at least three ways in which courts have taken on new and important roles relative to legislatures. First, courts have been increasingly able and willing to limit and regulate the exercise of parliamentary authority by imposing substantive limits on the power of legislative institutions. Second, courts have increasingly become places where substantive policy is made. Third, judges have been increasingly willing to regulate the conduct of political activity itself--whether practiced in or around legislatures, agencies, or the electorate--by constructing and enforcing standards of acceptable behavior for interest groups, political parties, and both elected and appointed officials. But judicialization is not simply limited to the increasingly important, pervasive, and direct roles that courts play in making policy. The fact that courts frequently intervene in policy-making processes also means that other political actors, as well as groups seeking political action, have reason to take the possibility of judicial reaction into account. Proposals need to be framed in a way to ensure that legislation will neither be struck down nor interpreted in Undersirable ways. In order to achieve such a result, part of the policy debate over new legislation must aim at anticipating the response of legal institutions. So, we see a global application of one aspect of the phenomenon that de Tocqueville noted about American politics years ago: the transformation of political questions into legal ones. (3) This means that legal/constitutional considerations and rhetoric assume new and sometimes decisive importance in ordinary legislative policy-making. One aspect of judicialization can be observed in the widespread adoption of institutions and practices of constitutional adjudication, even in places with legal institutions and traditions that had long been inhospitable to this process. True, the modes of constitutional adjudication adopted in Europe and elsewhere do not precisely follow the U.S. model. Ordinary European judges are not permitted to strike down legislation; that authority is confined to specialized constitutional courts located outside the judicial system. Nevertheless, many of these new European constitutional courts have been at least as willing to invalidate and modify parliamentary legislation as the U.S. Supreme Court has been--even in its most activist periods. (4) Moreover, the existence of constitutional courts has, in effect, pressed ordinary judges to take account of constitutional issues in their everyday judicial activities. For example, European judges regularly interpret legislative statutes and administrative ordinances in view of the constitution and decide which issues need to be referred to the constitutional court. (5) Moreover, the rise of constitutional adjudication has transformed the landscape of parliamentary politics by forcing legislators to take constitutional considerations into account when crafting legislative schemes. …

Democratic Autonomy: Public Reasoning about the Ends of Policy

Abstract: What would our decision-making procedures look like if they were actually guided by the much-discussed concept of "deliberative democracy"? What does rule by the people for the people entail? And how can a modern government's reliance on administrative agencies be reconciled with this populist ideal? What form must democratic reasoning take in the modern administrative state? Democratic Autonomy squarely faces these challenges to the deliberative democratic ideal. It identifies processes of reasoning that avert bureaucratic domination and bring diverse people into political agreement. To bridge our differences intelligently, Richardson argues, we cannot rely on instrumentalist approaches to policy reasoning, such as cost-benefit analysis. Instead, citizens must arrive at reasonable compromises through fair, truth-oriented processes of deliberation. Using examples from programs as diverse as disability benefits and environmental regulation, he shows how the administrative policy-making necessary to carrying out most legislation can be part of our deciding what to do. Opposing both those liberal theorists who have attacked the populist ideal and those neo-republican theorists who have given up on it, Richardson builds an account of popular rule that is sensitive to the challenges to public deliberation that arise from relying on liberal constitutional guarantees, representative institutions, majority rule, and administrative rulemaking. Written in a non- technical style and engaged with practical issues of everyday politics, this highly original and rigorous restatement of what democracy entails is essential reading for political theorists, philosophers, public choice theorists, constitutional and administrative lawyers, and policy analysts.

Rights of Inclusion: Law and Identity in the Life Stories of Americans with Disabilities

Abstract: "Rights of Inclusion" provides an innovative, accessible perspective on how civil rights legislation affects the lives of ordinary Americans. Based on eye-opening and deeply moving interviews with intended beneficiaries of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), David M. Engel and Frank W. Munger argue for a radically new understanding of rights - one that focuses on their role in everyday lives rather than in formal legal claims. Although all 60 interviewees had experienced discrimination, none had filed a formal protest or lawsuit. Nevertheless, civil rights played a crucial role in their lives. Rights improved their self-image, enhanced their career aspirations and altered the perceptions and assumptions of their employees and coworkers - in effect producing more inclusive institutional arrangements. Focusing on these long-term life histories, Engel and Munger incisively show how rights and identity affect one another over time and how that interaction ultimately determines the success of laws such as the ADA. For anyone concerned with rights, disability and the law, "Rights of Inclusion" should be a landmark work.

Can Special Interests Buy Congressional Votes? Evidence from Financial Services Legislation*

Abstract: The challenge in the campaign contribution literature has been to overcome the simultaneous‐equation bias that is inherent in the vote‐contribution relationship. This paper proposes a new method to overcome this bias. It examines behavior at different points of time and relates it to contributions at different points of time. This method is applied to legislators’ voting decisions on financial services regulation. Analyzing this type of legislation is of particular interest because it allows an analysis of the net influence of competing interest groups. Consistent with the proposed model’s predictions, I find evidence that changes in contribution levels determine changes in roll call voting behavior, that contributions from competing groups are partially offsetting, and that junior legislators are more responsive to changes in contribution levels than are senior legislators.

Minorities and Direct Legislation: Evidence from California Ballot Proposition Elections

Abstract: Critics argue that direct legislation (initiatives and referendums) allows an electoral majority to undermine the interests and rights of racial and ethnic minorities. We assess this claim by examining outcomes of direct democracy in California since 1978. Our analysis indicates that critics have overstated the detrimental effects of direct democracy. Confirming earlier critiques, we find that racial and ethnic minorities-and in particular Latinos-lose regularly on a small number of racially targeted propositions. However, these racially targeted propositions represent less than 5% of all ballot propositions. When we consider outcomes across all propositions, we find that the majority of Latino, Asian American, and African American voters were on the winning side of the vote. This remains true if we confine our analysis to propositions on which racial and ethnic minorities vote cohesively or to propositions on issues that racial and ethnic minorities say they care most about.

The change in emphasis from people to person: introduction to the special issue on Assistive Technology

Abstract: In the last century, our global focus was on tackling such mass population problems as the containment of contagious diseases and infection, sanitation, the construction of bridges and highways, and the implementation of public education. While education is in continuous need of updating and improvement, while there is much work and repair needing to be done to our physical infrastructure, and there are disease processes still to be understood and controlled, we have made tremendous strides in conquering these massive, population-based, challenges. Today, we have a reasonably good service infrastructure and set of public policies and legislation internationally to protect and promote our health, safety, and education. As I have attempted to depict in ®gure 1, the 20th century focus was on people and their needs as a population. Often, each country had a fairly discrete population sharing a culture and language diVerent from many other countries. The individuals comprising any given country’s population were rarely the focus of attention, nor were products or devices uniquely shaped or crafted to ®t individual needs and preferences. In the 20th century, it was common to have, say, one style of wheelchair prescribed for many people. Options and choices in wheelchairs and other assistive technologies, if they existed at all, were certainly not vast. And to better contain and control disease and disability, society decreed that people had to be treated and managed by healthcare providers. Services for people with disabilities and chronic health conditions, thus, came under the purview of medical professionals who, in keeping with their training, viewed disability against the normal curve of the state of the mass population’s health and, thus, as a health problem which required treatment and cure.

The Role of Democratic Governing Bodies in South African Schools

Abstract: School governance reform in post-apartheid South Africa has been used instrumentally to democratise schooling and to calibrate governance functions to accommodate diverse school contexts. Through an analysis of relevant sections in legislation, the author shows how the reform was structured to allow for representative democracy and partnerships. But, drawing on two recent studies, she contends that the governance reforms failed to include measures that prevent a re-enactment of traditional South African power relations of race, class and gender at schools, and apartheid-era inequalities continue to manifest in schools. The author concludes that in general democratic school governing bodies have fallen short of the transformation vision.

Open coordination against poverty: the new EU `social inclusion process'

Abstract: Until the mid 1990s, the notion of Social Europe was primarily associated with the introduction of binding supranational rules aimed at safeguarding and possibly upgrading the social protection systems of the Member States. The political and institutional obstacles to such kind of rules were well known in practice and well understood in theory - especially in the wake of the negative vs. positive integration debate. But 'hard law' seemed to be the only effective strategy of action, given the low impact of weaker institutional tools such as recommendations, on the one hand, and the growing incentives for 'social dumping' generated by the completion of the internal market, on the other hand. The second half of the 1990s witnessed a gradual change of climate and perspective. Binding legislation continued to be seen as a very important ingredient of Europe's social dimension: indeed the debate on fundamental rights and on a possible fully-fledged EU constitution shifted the front of legal ambitions even further. But at the same time another strategy of policy intervention started to be considered and experimented with, resting on a complex mix of soft institutional ingredients, endowed with a strong potential of conditioning the direction of change at the national level. Originally applied in the area of employment, this new approach was then extended to other policy sectors - and most notably, policies to combat social exclusion - under the name of 'open method of coordination' (OMC), coined during the Portuguese Presidency in 2000. The main institutional ingredients of the OMC are common guidelines, national action plans, peer reviews, joint evaluation reports and recommendations. None of such instruments has a binding character, underpinned by legal enforcement powers. Moreover, while providing policy actors with a relatively clear agenda, the mix of these ingredients leaves ample room

Child Custody and Domestic Violence: A Call for Safety and Accountability

Abstract: Why Domestic Violence is Relevant in Child Custody Disputes Assessing Safety and Responsibility in Child Custody Disputes Changing Legislation and Legal Practice to Recognize Domestic Violence in Child Custody Proceedings From Theory to Practice: The Varying Responses of the Court System to Domestic Violence in Child Custody Cases A Framework for Action by Courts and Communities to Recognize the Plight of Abused Victims and Their Children After Separation

Erratum: A Formal Model of the Politics of Delegation in a Separation of Powers System

Abstract: in Political scientists have long been interested in conditions under which politicians delegate policy decisions to bureaucratic agencies (Wilson 1887; Landis 1938; Freedman 1981; Ara son, Gellhorn, and Robinson 1982; Fiorina 1982, 1986; McCubbins, Noll, and Weingast 1987, 1989; Moe 1989; Calvert, McCubbins, and Weingast 1989). With a recent focus on divided and unified government, scholars have claimed that bu? reaucratic discretion will be greater when the legislative and executive branches are closely aligned (Epstein and O'Halloran 1994,1996,1999). In these models, given uncertainty over policy and executive control over the agency, the legislature is only willing to delegate decisions to the agency when the executive's preferences are similar to those of the legislature, as under unified government.1 While these results seem intuitive, recent empirical analyses of delegation decisions paint a more complex picture. Epstein and O'Halloran, who initially formalized these results, examine the level of discretion in congres? sional legislation in the postwar years. They do, indeed, find support for greater discretion to executive-controlled agencies under unified govern? ment. However, they also find greater discretion to independent agencies under divided government. "The first two categories, [Executive Office of the President] and cabinet departments, are used relatively more often un? der unified government, while independent agencies and commissions are used more often under divided control" (Epstein and O'Halloran 1999, 154-155). This result is not predicted by present models of delegation, which do not differentiate among agency types. Current empirical work has also focused on the state level to assess whether there is a link between discretion and unified government. For ex? ample, Huber, Shipan, and Pfahler (2001) explore whether state governments restricted Medicaid bureaucrats more substantially under divided

In pursuit of equity : women, men, and the quest for economic citizenship in 20th-century America

Abstract: Few historians have contributed more to our understanding of the history of women, and women's effect on history, than Alice Kessler-Harris. Author of the classic Out to Work, she is one of the country's leading scholars of gender, the economy, and public policy. In this volume, Kessler-Harris pierces the skin of arguments and legislation to grasp the preconceptions that have shaped the experience of women: a "gendered imagination" that has defined what men and women alike think of as fair and desirable. In this brilliant account that traces social policy from the New Deal to the 1970s, she shows how a deeply embedded set of beliefs has distorted seemingly neutral social legislation to further limit the freedom and equality of women. Government rules generally sought to protect women from exploitation, even from employment itself; but at the same time, they attached the most important benefits to wage work. To be a real citizen, one must earn-and most policymakers (even female ones) assumed from the beginning that women were not, and should not be breadwinners. Kessler-Harris traces the impact of this gender bias in the New Deal programs of Social Security, unemployment insurance, and fair labor standards, in Federal income tax policy, and the new discussion of women's rights that emerged after World War II. "For generations," she writes, "American women lacked not merely the practice, but frequently the idea of individual economic freedom." Only in the 1960s and '70s did old assumptions begin to break down-yet the process is far from complete. Even today, with women closer to full economic citizenship than ever before, Kessler-Harris's insights offer a keen new understanding of the issues that dominate the headlines, from the marriage penalty in the tax code to the glass ceiling in corporate America.

Euthanasia, ethics and public policy : an argument against legalisation

Abstract: Part I. Definitions: 1. Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide 2. Intended v. foreseen life-shortening Part II. The Ethical Debate: Human Life, Autonomy, Legal Hypocrisy, and the 'Slippery Slope' 3. The value of human life 4. The value of autonomy 5. Legal hypocrisy? 6. The slippery slope arguments Part III. The Dutch Experience: 7. The guidelines 8. The first survey: the incidence of 'euthanasia' 9. Breach of the guidelines 10. The slide towards NVAE 11. The second survey 12. The Dutch in denial? 13. The Euthanasia Act and the Code of Practice 14. Effective control since 2002? 15. Continuing concerns 16. A right to physician-assisted suicide by stopping eating and drinking? 17. Assisted suicide for the elderly with 'completed lives' Part IV. Belgium: 18. The Belgian Legislation 19. The lack of effective control Part V. Australia: 20. The Northern Territory: ROTTI Part VI. The United States: 21. The United States: Oregon and six other jurisdictions 22. The US Supreme Court: Glucksberg and Vacco Part VII. Canada: 23. The Supreme Court of Canada: the Carter case 24. Canada's euthanasia legislation 25. Conclusion.

Impact of mandatory helmet legislation on bicycle-related head injuries in children: a population-based study.

Abstract: Objective. Childhood bicycle-related head injuries can be prevented through the use of helmets. Although helmet legislation has proved to be a successful strategy for the adoption of helmets, its effect on the rates of head injury is uncertain. In Canada, 4 provinces have such legislation. The objective of this study was to measure the impact of helmet legislation on bicycle-related head injuries in Canadian children. Methods. Routinely collected data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information identified all Canadian children (5–19 years) who were hospitalized for bicycling-related injuries from 1994–1998. Children were categorized as head or other injury on the basis of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision , codes. Rates of head injuries and other injuries were compared over time in provinces that adopted legislation and those that did not. Results. Of the 9650 children who were hospitalized because of a bicycle-related injury, 3426 sustained injuries to the head and face and the remaining 6224 had other injuries. The bicycle-related head injury rate declined significantly (45% reduction) in provinces where legislation had been adopted compared with provinces and territories that did not adopt legislation (27% reduction). Conclusion. This country-wide study compared rates of head injury in regions with and without mandatory helmet legislation. Comparing head injuries with other non-head-injured children controlled for potential differences in children’s cycling habits. The strong protective association between helmet legislation and head injuries supports the adoption of helmet legislation as an effective tool in the prevention of childhood bicycle-related head injuries.

School-to-Work: Making a Difference in Education:

Abstract: THE SCHOOL-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) was passed in 1994 after more than a decade of discussion and debate about the country's system for preparing young people for work. This discussion was particularly focused on the role of secondary schools. The STWOA built on a variety of educational strategies that were already being used, but by providing funding through high-profile national legislation, the act accelerated those activities, tried to give them greater unity and coherence, and provided a focal point around which to organize discussion of and experimentation with these educational innovations. However, the authors of the STWOA had not intended to create a permanent separate "program." Rather their goal was to generate activities that could then be incorporated into the normal functioning of the education system. As a result, the funding was scheduled to expire in 2001. We have now passed that funding endpoint, and educators and policy makers must look back over the experience of the last several years to decide what lessons have been learned from the social and educational experiment represented by the STWOA. In what ways, if any, can this approach improve schools, educational outcomes, and the country's system for preparing young people for work? Which aspects have been most successful and why? What should educators, policy makers, and organizations such as foundations do now? Our goal is to contribute to the discussion by gathering together and summarizing the research that has been carried out in the last several years to evaluate the effectiveness of the school-to-work educational strategy. Although the federal legislation has expired, the flow of research findings relating to school-to-work is, if anything, accelerating. Educational innovations take some time to organize and implement, so programs started in the mid-1990s may not have reached full operational levels until the late 1990s, and then there is a lag between implementation and the publication of research findings. Moreover, perhaps the most interesting and useful research tracks program participants over time, which creates an even greater lag between implementation and publication. Therefore, the last two years have seen a flourishing of research results, and some important evaluation projects are still ongoing. Our conclusion is that the research so far has found generally positive results: the school-to-work strategy does benefit students, teachers, and employers. Although critics of this educational approach feared that it would weaken academic achievement and divert students to low- skilled jobs, truncating their opportunities for college and further study, the growing body of evaluation work -- even at the most rigorous and definitive levels -- has turned up almost no evidence that such fears were justified. Background In the 1980s, several trends led to an extensive national discussion of education reform and work force development. The 1983 report A Nation At Risk claimed that profound weaknesses in the education system were undermining U.S. productivity and competitiveness. Researchers were documenting and analyzing the changing nature of work and changing skill requirements. Increasingly, young people without some postsecondary education could not expect to earn enough money to support a family. America's Choice: High Skills or Low Wages! pointed out that many young adults were spending their early years in the work force moving from one low-wage, dead-end job to another.1 At the same time, developments in research on learning and pedagogy emphasized the effectiveness of "learning in context." Cognitive psychologists argued that students learn most effectively if they are taught skills in the context in which they will use those skills. Advocates of constructivism argued for a pedagogical approach in which students are more active learners, guided by their teacher in such a way that they "construct" their own knowledge. …