Legislation

About: Legislation is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 62664 publications have been published within this topic receiving 585188 citations. The topic is also known as: law & act.

Native Life in South Africa, Before and Since the European War and the Boer Rebellion

Abstract: First published in 1916 and one of South Africa's great political books, Native Life in South Africa was first and foremost a response to the Native's Land Act of 1913, and was written by one of the most gifted and influential writers and journalists of his generation Sol T Plaatje provides an account of the origins of this crucially important piece of legislation and a devastating description of its immediate effects

'They might as well brand us': working-class resistance to compulsory vaccination in Victorian England.

Abstract: From its origins in resistance to the 1853 Compulsory Vaccination Act, the Victorian anti-vaccination movement successfully challenged the public health policies of an increasingly interventionist state. Anti-vaccinationists were not only middle-class reformers, but were also drawn from a politically active working class. These campaigners saw compulsory vaccination as an extreme example of class legislation, for its policy and administration implicitly targeted working-class infants and inflicted multiple penalties on a public who considered themselves 'conscientious objectors'. Anti-vaccinationism was quickly absorbed into English working-class culture. Indeed, it helped to reorganize working-class identities around the site of the vulnerable body thereby absorbing many people into a working class who interpreted the violation of their bodies as a form of political tyranny. Participation in this movement was, however, also an exclusive exercise for anti-vaccinators, as respectable working-class citizens distinguished themselves from members of the 'undeserving' classes. This paper explores the class nature of the Vaccination Acts, their relationship to the New Poor Law, and the political implications of their administration. It also imbeds anti-vaccinationism firmly within working-class culture, illustrating the campaign's relationship to popular protest and entertainment, and this legislation's impact upon working-class bodies.

Welfare reform and the subject of the working mother: “Get a job, a better job, then a career”

Abstract: Until 1996, poor single mothers in the United States could claim welfare benefits for themselves and their children under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program if they had no other source of income. With the 1996 passage of the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), paid work and work-related activities became a mandatory condition for receiving aid. At the same time, the law promotes marriage as a route out of poverty. Using a feminist reinterpretation of Althusser’s concept of interpellation, I turn to Job Clubs, mandatory week-long workshops that teach job search skills, to analyze the citizen-subject generated by front-line representatives of the state in the context of this new legislation. Based on participant-observation, I conclude that while PRWORA ostensibly promotes both marriage and paid employment, Job Club trainers enforced a masculine worker-citizen subject through the deployment of three discursive strategies. These discursive strategies 1) promoted paid work over welfare-receipt as both a pragmatic and moral choice, 2) posited an individual-psychological account of women’s welfare receipt, and 3) portrayed parenting skills as marketable skills. In the conclusion, I speculate that current welfare reform efforts require the generation of a self-reproducing worker-citizen and that workshops like Job Club become a site in which the existence of this autonomous citizen is affirmed.

Competing Principals: Committees, Parties, and the Organization of Congress

Abstract: Since Woodrow Wilson, political scientists have recognized the importance of congressional committees in the policy-making process. Congressional committees often determine what legislation will reach the floor of the House or Senate and what form that legislation will take. In spite of the broad consensus on the importance of congressional committees, there is little agreement on what explains committee action. Committees are alternately viewed as agents of the chamber, the party caucuses, or constituencies outside the institution. Each theory suggests a different distribution of power in the policy-making process.Forrest Maltzman argues that none of these models fully captures the role performed by congressional committees and that committee members attempt to balance the interests of the chamber, the party caucus, and outside constituencies. Over time, and with the changing importance of a committee's agenda to these groups, the responsiveness of members of committees will vary. Maltzman argues that the responsiveness of the committee to these groups is driven by changes in procedure, the strength of the party caucus, and the salience of a committee's agenda. Maltzman tests his theory against historical data.This book will appeal to social scientists interested in the study of Congress and legislative bodies, as well as those interested in studying the impact of institutional structure on the policy-making process."This specialized study, of value to congressional scholars and partisan activists, enriches an understanding of the increasingly predictable patterns of committee variety." --"Choice"Forrest Maltzman is Assistant Professor of Political Science, George Washington University.

The Transformation of Family Law: State, Law, and Family in the United States and Western Europe

Abstract: Mary Ann Glendon offers a comparative and historical analysis of rapid and profound changes in the legal system beginning in the 1960s in England, France, West Germany, Sweden, and the United States, while bringing new and insightful interpretation and critical thought to bear on the explosion of legislation in the last decade."Glendon is generally acknowledged to be the premier comparative law scholar in the area of family law. This volume, which offers an analytical survey of the changes in family law over the past twenty-five years, will burnish that reputation. Essential reading for anyone interested in evaluating the major changes that occurred in the law of the family. . . . [And] of serious interest to those in the social sciences as well". --James B. Boskey, "Law Books in Review" "Poses important questions and supplies rich detail". --Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, "Texas Law Review" "An impressive scholarly documentation of the legal changes that comprise the development of a conjugally-centered family system". -- Debra Friedman, "Contemporary Sociology" "She has painted a portrait of the family in which we recognize not only ourselves but also unremembered ideological forefathers. . . . It sends our thoughts out into unexpected adventures". --Inga Markovits, "Michigan Law Review" Mary Ann Glendon is professor of law at Harvard University. Her many books include "Abortion and Divorce in Western Law", winner of the 1988 Scribes Book Award.