This book explores the discourse of regulatory crisis in the UK and examines why, despite the increasing contestation of the principles underpinning the regulatory state, its institutions and practices continue to be firmly embedded within the governance of the British state. It considers its implications for our understanding of the contemporary nature of the British state, and to the study of regulation which is no longer confined to the domain of low politics, populated by technocrats, but is scrutinised by elected politicians, and the subject of the front pages rather than the financial pages. The author sets the British regulatory tradition in a wider context, both spatially, in terms of the challenges presented by Europeanisation, and temporally, critically analysing the process of crisis construction in the narratives of neoliberalism and participatory democracy in the contemporary era.

Approaching the problem of homelessness from a broad public policy perspective, Lang focuses on the American political economy and how it permits community development patterns based on racism and self-interest. This interdisciplinary study challenges the belief that homelessness is entirely due to the Reagan administration's cutbacks. Instead, it suggests the need for reform in our housing and employment policies. The book reviews competing socioeconomic paradigms that can explain why meaningful and effective programs are difficult to enact. "Homelessness Amid Affluence" discusses housing, community development patterns, economic segregation, and problems of the urban underclass, as well as proposed solutions. The interdisciplinary nature and historical perspective of this volume make it informative reading for sociologists, social workers, policymakers, and researchers.

This volume is divided into five sections. The first section provides a conceptual overview. Section Two deals with the urban policy context from which a solution to homelessness must emerge. Section Three covers low-cost housing while Section Four deals with specific policies and programs developed in response to the needs of the homeless. A case study based on the author's experience with the efforts of Camden County, New Jersey is included. The last section analyzes some new policy approaches and ends with an assessment of the likely policy outcomes to emerge from this continuing debate.

This book explores the human right to housing, presenting the findings of a global discourse analysis to analyse the right to housing from the perspective of theories on land policy and social citizenship. The book concludes that planners and policy makers will not be able to completely fulfil the human right to housing. For that reason, the book presents a theory of de-commodification of land use that highlights the meaning of land use rights for people affected by inadequate housing. Students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including social policy, global social policy, human rights law, discourse theory, and sociology will find this study of interest.

It is a long-held perception that America is a nation where the government typically stays out of day-to-day business activities. Yet the U.S. federal government is in many ways the biggest and most influential financial institution in the world, with $10 trillion in federal guarantees and loans going to the private sector. Even before recent implementation of massive interventions meant to stave off financial calamity, the federal government directly or indirectly provided significantly more credit than any of the country's largest private sector banks. And, of course, the government's credit activities have recently expanded far beyond this core of traditional programs in the face of economic crisis. What does the true picture of this sector look like, and how does it affect the overall economy?

"Uncle Sam in Pinstripes" is an accessible primer on U.S. federal lending, providing an instructive look at one of the most important interfaces between the U.S. government and its citizens as well as the transactions that result. Douglas Elliott's introductory chapter makes clear the critical importance of federal credit programs and hints at some of their complexities. The remainder of this book fills in the details --the how, what, why, and the ramifications --allowing readers of all stripes to understand the history, current state, and key policy issues surrounding federal credit provision. No picture of the U.S. economy is complete without a fuller understanding of this increasingly important sector.

There is considerable evidence that taxpayers are not receiving the value for money that they should. The author believes that a number of steps should be taken to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of federal credit programs. These are explained in the final chapter and include the following actions, among many others:

- Target borrowers more carefully. - Take into account more fully the relative risk of different loans. - Use the same budget rules for all federal credit programs. - Use risk-based discount rates for federal budget purposes. - Create a federal bank to administer all credit programs.

This book draws on the voices of sex workers and their clients to critically assess the criminalization of prostitution in favour of decriminalization. It does so by contrasting their voices with the claims made by prohibitionists: those advocating the prohibition of prostitution or, at least, the prohibition of the purchase of sexual services, and notes scholarly research that gives context to those accounts and claims. Each chapter is dedicated to a particular issue which is given currency in academic and public debates on sex work. The first part of each chapter reviews the state of research and publicly-aired contentions and the second part compares sex workers' voices with claims from prohibitionists. It highlights the gap between what many sex workers have to say about themselves and what theorizing prohibitionists say about all prostitution. It argues that there is often a striking contrast in attitude, perspective, interpretation and valuation. This books speaks primarily to prohibitionist thinking and sex work stereotyping and, secondarily, to the debate on decriminalization of sex work.

One of the most significant areas of activity in the George Bush administration was foreign affairs. Drawing together participants as well as foreign policy scholars and journalists, Hofstra Universtiy organized the 1997 Conference on the Presidency of George Bush. This volume covers the key foreign affairs activities of the administration.

The essays examine major areas of the Bush foreign policy record. Included are papers on international trade, the Middle East, Latin America, Somalia, Bosnia, arms control, and U.S. base closing. Scholars, students, and other researchers involved with the policies of the Bush administration will find this a useful resource.

Dr. Zachary Selden provides a detailed examination of how sanctions can and cannot be used effectively to further U.S. foreign interests. In the post-Cold War era, sanctions are becoming a frequently used tool of foreign policy, but Selden offers an important cautionary note. Sanctions are often counterproductive, and they create interest groups within the target country who have a vested interest in seeing that sanctions and the policies that brought them to bear are maintained. While sanctions aimed at capital flows can be highly effective, those aimed at trade often become the functional equivalent of a protective tariff, stimulating Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI) and creating groups of producers or suppliers who take steps in the political arena to ensure that their economic windfall is maintained. After demonstrating the ISI effects in a large sample of cases, Selden goes on to demonstrate how sanctions fueled the rise of a powerful criminal elite in Yugoslavia who sponsored extreme nationalist political figures and how sanctions were twisted to Saddam Hussein's personal benefit in Iraq. More than simply of academic interest, this study serves as a guide for the more effective use of sanctions. It will be of particular interest to scholars, researchers, and policy makers involved with American foreign and military policy.

Key to an understanding of many U.S. foreign policies, including the Open Door Policy, American extraterritoriality in China, the Stimson Doctrine, and the economic embargo against Japan, Hornbeck had more influence on policy toward Asia than any other official in the State Department from Wilson to FDR. In a book based on solid research of archival materials and the current literature in English and Chinese, Hu brings a Chinese perspective to an examination of Hornbeck's career and American policy in Asia. The book not only fills a vacuum in the study of Sino-American relations, but also corrects some traditional misperceptions and misinterpretations in the field. In Hu's view, Hornbeck has been misinterpreted by his contemporaries and by scholars. His policy was based on his perception of American interest in China, his changing views on the Chinese nationalist revolution, the relative strength of Japan, and his evaluation of the China market. Hornbeck's major weakness was a lack of understanding of the internal affairs of China. In illustrating Hornbeck's changing views on China and the East Asian situation, Hu disproves many misconceptions in current scholarship about Hornbeck being either pro-Chinese or pro-Japanese and about his consistent support for the Open Door Policy.

This book is a collection of essays advancing the discourse in well-being science, authored by key thought leaders in positive psychology and its variants, including positive education, character education, and positive organizational scholarship. The authors address topics such as the next big ideas in well-being research and practice, potential strategies , as well as current gaps and limitations of the field. This book will be of particular interest for policy makers, educators and practitioners, as well as researchers.

Crimes associated with the illegal trade in wildlife, timber and fish stocks, and pollutants and waste have become increasingly transnational, organized and serious. They warrant attention because of their environmental consequences, their human toll, their impact on the rule of law and good governance, and their links with violence, corruption and a range of cross-over crimes. This ground-breaking, multi-disciplinary Handbook examines key transnational environmental crime sectors and explores its most significant conceptual, operational and enforcement challenges. Bringing together leading scholars and practitioners, this book presents in-depth analysis based on extensive academic research and operational and enforcement expertise. The sectors covered include illegal wildlife, timber, pollutant and waste trades and crimes in the carbon market. The contextual chapters examine criminal networks and illicit chains of custody, local sociocultural, economic and political factors, the effectiveness of policy and operational responses, and international jurisdictional challenges. This Handbook will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of global environmental politics, international environmental law, and environmental criminology as well as for regulatory and enforcement practitioners working to meet the challenges of transnational environmental crime. Contributors include: J. Ayling, L. Bisschop, G. Broussard, A. Cardesa-Salzmann, M. Cassidy, D.W.S. Challender, E. Clark, M.A. Clemente Munoz, E. de Coning, R. Duffy, L. Elliott, C. Gibbs, D. Humphreys, Y. Jia, N. Liu, D.C. MacMillan, C. Middleton, R. Ogden, G. Pink, G. Rose, V. Sacre, S. Saydan, W.H. Schaedla, S. Sinha, V. Somboon, T. Terekhova, E. van Asch, T. Wyatt

This book assesses the global significance of China's decade-long campaign to reduce poverty. After showing how the country's unique approach to poverty alleviation brought about unparalleled progress toward achieving both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the authors shed light on how China's experience can help other countries around the globe as they try to permanently rid humanity of the scourge of poverty under ever more challenging social, economic and environmental conditions.

Since 1980 Richard Steier has had a unique vantage point to observe the gains, losses, and struggles of municipal labor unions in New York City. He has covered those unions and city government as a reporter and labor columnist for the "New York Post" and, since 1998, as editor and featured columnist of the "Chief-Leader," a century-old independent newspaper that covers city and state government in greater detail than today s mainstream news organizations. Drawing from his column with the "Chief-Leader," Razzle Dazzle, "Enough Blame to Go Around" describes in vivid terms how the changed economy has drastically altered the city s labor landscape, and why it has been difficult for municipal unions to adapt. There can be no doubt, he writes, that public employee unions have contributed to the problems that confront them today, including corruption and failed leadership. But at the same time and for all their flaws, he believes unions represent the best chance for ordinary people to receive fair economic treatment."

Three decades ago, conservative ideologues at The Heritage Foundation produced a primer on the Reagan Revolution entitled Mandate for Leadership, which offered an overarching philosophy against the role of government and in favor of markets. This volume, produced by the Institute for Policy Studies, which since 1963 has been the nation's leading progressive policy organization, offers a set of specific policy proposals for the incoming national administration on every major domestic and international topic, written specifically for the book by a leading thinker and activist in the field. These chapters set forth a fundamental, badly needed "mandate for change" to reinvigorate government and rethink the role of markets and civil society. Each one includes an essay supporting the proposed policies and a resource list of relevant organizations, websites, and readings. It is perfect for public policy courses at the undergraduate and graduate level.

This book provides a comprehensive overview on the long-term care systems in 12 EU member states and Norway. Focusing on the legal background and its main principles, it includes a comparative analysis which highlights the principal dissimilarities between European long term care benefits, but at the same time also a variety of features in common. It also discusses the increasingly transnational dimension of long-term as a result of migrants returning to their country of origin in old age, and the still-unsolved legal problem of entitlement to long-term care benefits in another EU-member state.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (known commonly as the NDIS) was introduced as a radical new way of funding disability services in Australia. It is a rare moment in politics and policy making that an idea as revolutionary, ambitious and expensive as the NDIS makes it into its implementation phase. Not surprising, then, that the NDIS has been described by many as the biggest social shift in Australia since Medicare. This book will be a key text for scholars and public policy professionals wishing to understand the NDIS, how it was designed, and lessons learned through its introduction and roll-out. The book addresses how the NDIS has intersected with particular cohorts and sectors, and some of the challenges that have arisen. It highlights the experiences of people with disability through a collection of personal stories from participants and families in the NDIS. The key insights from this large scale public policy experiment are relevant for anyone interested in social change in Australia, or internationally.

This book discusses the socioeconomic effects of Right-to-Work (RTW) laws on state populations. RTW laws forbid requiring union membership even at union-represented worksites. The core of the 22 long-term RTW states was the Confederacy, cultural descendants of rigidly hierarchical agrarian feudal England. RTW laws buttress hierarchy and power imbalance which unions minimize at the worksite and by encouraging higher educational attainment, social mobility, and individual empowerment through group validation. Contrary to claims of RTW proponents, RTW and non-RTW states do not differ significantly in unemployment rates. RTW states have higher poverty rates, lower median household incomes, and lower educational attainment on average and median than non-RTW states. RTW states on average and median have lower life expectancy, higher obesity prevalence, and higher rates of all-cause mortality, early mortality from chronic conditions, child mortality, and risk behaviors than non-RTW states. The higher mortality rates result in startlingly higher annual numbers of years of life lost before age 75. Stroke mortality at age 55-64 in RTW states results in nearly 10,000 years annually lost in excess of what it would be if the mortality rate were that of non-RTW states. A review of respected publications describes the physiological mechanisms and epidemiology of accelerated aging due to socioeconomic stress. Unions challenge hierarchy directly at work-sites and indirectly through encouraging college education, social mobility, and community and political engagement. How startling that feudal hierarchy lives in 21st century America, shaping vast differences between states in macro- and micro-economics, educational attainment, innovation, life expectancy, obesity prevalence, chronic disease mortality, infant and child mortality, risk behaviors, and other public health markers! Readers will gain insight about the coming clash between feudal individualism and adaptive collectivism, and, in the last chapter, on ways to win the clash by "missionary" work for collectivism.

Why aren't we investing more in disaster resilience, despite the rising costs of disaster events? This book argues that decision-makers in governments, businesses, households, and development agencies tend to focus on avoiding losses from disasters, and perceive the return on investment as uncertain - only realised if a somewhat unlikely disaster event actually happens. This book develops a new business case for investment based on the multiple dividends of resilience. This looks beyond only avoided losses (the first dividend) to the wider benefits gained independently of whether or not the disaster event occurs. These include unleashing entrepreneurial activities and productive investments by lowering the looming threat of losses from disasters and enabling businesses, farmers and homeowners to take positive risks (the second dividend); and co-benefits of resilience measures beyond just disaster risk (the third dividend), such as flood embankments in Bangladesh that double as roads, or wetlands in Colombo that reduce urban heat extremes.

In the past, the United States has focused on the military, economic, and diplomatic aspects of our foreign policy, while neglecting the area of educational and cultural affairs. Wieck considers the development of U.S. foreign educational and cultural policy from 1938 to the present, with a particular focus on the Kennedy initiative to enhance development of such a policy through the establishment in 1961 of the Office of Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. As the United States struggles to compete in the arena of international trade, the importance of educational and cultural affairs as an integral part of U.S. foreign policy continues to grow.

Wieck surveys events leading to the establishment of the Office of Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, as well as global developments calling for an increased emphasis on this aspect of foreign policy. He outlines the functions of the office and the efforts to hone its policy goals, and discusses the activities of the first incumbent, Philip Coombs. The final section explores Coombs's mysterious dismissal and the terms of subsequent Assistant Secretaries until the office was merged with U.S.I.A. Students of U.S. foreign policy and members of the international educational community will value this thorough analysis of a much-neglected area of U.S. foreign policy.

This book responds to the reality that children and youth constitute a disproportionately large percentage of displaced populations worldwide. It demonstrates how their hopes and aspirations reflect the transient nature of their age group, and often differ from those of their elders. It also examines how they face additional difficulties due to the inconsistent definition and uneven implementation of the traditional 'durable solutions' to forced migration implemented by national governments and international assistance agencies. The authors use empirical research findings and robust policy analyses of cases of child displacement across the globe to make their central argument: that the particular challenges and opportunities that displaced children and youth face must be investigated and factored into relevant policy and practice, promoting more sustainable and durable solutions in the process. This interdisciplinary edited collection will appeal to students and scholars of forced migration studies, development, conflict and peace-building and youth studies, along with policy-makers, children's rights organizations and NGOs.

This Open Access book examines the implications of welfare policy for energy poverty and engages with key conceptual debates at the forefront of energy demand research. Academic work on energy poverty has rarely been brought into conversation with practice-theory-based approaches to energy use and sustainability. This book reveals how novel insights can be made visible through combining these different ways of thinking about energy demand issues. It presents a distinctive approach to energy poverty that places inequalities at the heart of debates about the advancing energy intensity of contemporary societies.

Everyone complains about mass media, but only the FCC and Congress are expressly empowered to do something about it, and that's why America deserves better from its media policymakers. Mass Media Unleashed touches on the key issues stirring the current debate over mass media policy, such as consolidation, the steady dismantling of regulatory standards, the roles mass media must play (but increasingly fail to perform) in today's helter-skelter world, and the vastly different ways these media are now delivered to and used by busy, on-the-go Americans. Carl Ramey, a long-time Washington communications lawyer, has observed the policymaking process up close and personal for thirty years. Warning that time is running out for taking actions that will make a real difference, Ramey shines a critical light on the massive transformation of government policy that has taken place since 1980 and has lead to vast changes in today's electronic media: more consolidation, less public service, and everything ruled by the bottom line. Before the game is over, Washington policymakers must step to the plate and hit a home run for America-scrapping the old regulatory system and writing an entirely new policy script that, for the first time, is specifically designed to guarantee a broadcast service that is free, local, and dedicated to serving Americans as citizens, not just as consumers. This provocative read is a must for everyone concerned about mass media's responsibilities and the policies that shape them.

Latin America's proximity to the United States made the improvement of relations between the two regions imperative in the first two decades of the 20th century. William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State for Woodrow Wilson until 1915, was largely responsible for this task. Although Bryan had denounced as imperialistic his predecessors' political and economic intervention in Latin America, his own policies also had an imperialistic tone. Bryan resigned in June 1915, but his actions while in office served as the foundation for later intervention in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This work details Bryan's attitudes toward Latin America prior to assuming the title of secretary of state, his actions while in office, and his political stance after resignation. Six topical chapters cover Bryan's policies toward Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, the Panama Canal Tolls Controversy, and the Columbian Treaty. The work concludes with an analysis of Bryan's inconsistent attitude on imperialism.

This cutting edge collection examines Japan's population issue, exploring how declining demographic trends are affecting Japan's social structure, specifically in the context of Greater Tokyo, life infrastructure, public finance and the economy. Considering the failures of past Japanese policies from the perspective of population, national land, and politics, it argues that the inability of past administrations to develop a long-term and comprehensive policy has exacerbated the population crisis. This text identifies key negative chain reactions that have stemmed from this policy failure, notably the effect of population decline on future economic growth and public finances and the impact of shrinking municipalities on social and community infrastructure to support quality of life. It also highlights how population decline can precipitate inter-generational conflict, and impact on the strength of the state and more widely on Japan's international status. Japan is on the forefront of the population problem, which is expected to affect many of the world's advanced industrial economies in the 21st century. Based on the study of policy failures, this book makes recommendations for effective population policy - covering both 'mitigation' measures to encourage a recovery in the depopulation process as well as 'adaptation' measures to maintain and improve living standards - and provides key insights into dealing with the debilitating effects of population decline.

Young people, crime and delinquency are words that are commonly linked in public perception and young people are often blamed for social ills. Their deviancy and threat to social control has been held to be a social fact from Plato to today. This book subjects that 'fact' to critical examination through consideration of youth justice systems in six different countries, drawing on sociological and criminological analysis as well as expert practitioner opinion. This book's comparative, cultural approach allows for consideration of the impact of new and emergent systems of communication and discourse and considers how these may impact future constructions of delinquency at a local and global level. Understanding changing constructions of delinquency, the systems and responses we already have and their strengths and weaknesses enables critique about what we do and what we know, and allows us to imagine how it might be otherwise.