The existence of health inequities across racial, ethnic, gender, and class lines in the United States has been well documented. Less well understood have been the attempts of major institutions, health programs, and other public policy domains to eliminate these inequities. This issue, a collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research Program, brings together respected historians, political scientists, economists, sociologists, and legal scholars to focus on the politics and challenges of achieving health equity in the United States. Articles in this issue address the historical, legal, and political contexts of health equity in the United States. Contributors examine the role of the courts in shaping health equity; document the importance of political discourse in framing health equity and establishing agendas for action; look closely at particular policies to reveal current challenges and the potential to achieve health equity in the future; and examine policies in both health and nonhealth domains, including state Medicaid programs, the use of mobile technology, and education and immigration policies. The issue concludes with a commentary on the future of health equity under the Trump administration and an analysis of how an ACA repeal would impact health equity. Contributors. Alan B. Cohen, Keon L. Gilbert, Daniel Q. Gillion, Colleen M. Grogan, Mark A. Hall, Jedediah N. Horwitt, Tiffany D. Joseph, Alana M.W. LeBron, Julia F. Lynch, Jamila D. Michener, Vanessa Cruz Nichols, Francisco Pedraza, Isabel M. Perera, Rashawn Ray, Jennifer D. Roberts, Sara Rosenbaum, Sara Schmucker, Abigail A. Sewell, Deborah Stone, Keith Wailoo

Government interest in wellbeing as an explicit goal of public policy has increased significantly in recent years. This has led to new developments in measuring wellbeing and initiatives aimed specifically at enhancing wellbeing, that reflect new thinking on 'what matters' and challenge established notions of societal progress. The Politics and Policy of Wellbeing provides the first theoretically grounded and empirically informed account of the rise and significance of wellbeing in contemporary politics and policy. Drawing on theories of agenda-setting and policy change, Ian Bache and Louise Reardon consider whether wellbeing can be described as 'an idea whose time has come'. The book reflects on developments across the globe and provides a detailed comparative analysis of two political arenas: the UK and the EU. Offering the first reflection grounded in evidence of the potential for wellbeing to be paradigm changing, the authors identify the challenge of bringing wellbeing into policy as a 'wicked problem' that policymakers are only now beginning to grapple with. This pioneering account of wellbeing from a political science perspective is a unique and valuable contribution to the field. The authors' theoretical and empirical conclusions are of great interest to scholars of politics and wellbeing alike.

Many democratic theorists have viewed the recent innovations adopted throughout Latin America in a positive light. This evaluation has engendered the idea that all innovations are democratic and all democratic innovations are able to foster citizenship. Presenting a realistic analysis of both the positive and negative aspects of innovation, this book argues that these innovations ought to be examined at the intersection between design and the political system. The Two Faces of Institutional Innovation offers a new perspective on developments such as participatory budgeting, the National Electoral Institute (INE) and the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) in Mexico and comites de vigilancia in Bolivia, and evaluates the extent to which, in reality, citizens were involved in decision-making, distributive policies and citizen education. Further chapters also examine the expansion of innovation to the field of judicial institutions - one of the key areas in which innovation took place in Latin America, showing that the role of legal corporations in democracy cannot be compared with the role of engaged citizens. Contemporary and astute, this book will captivate students and scholars researching in the areas of innovation policy and regulatory governance. Its analysis of the positive and negative aspects of democratic innovation will also benefit democratic theorists and policy-makers alike.

Despite 15 years of reform efforts, the incarceration rate in the United States remains at an unprecedented high level. This book provides the first comprehensive survey of these reforms and explains why they have proven to be ineffective. After many decades of stability, the imprisonment rate in the United States quintupled between 1973 and 2003. Since then, nearly all states have adopted multiple reforms intended to reduce imprisonment, but the U.S. imprisonment rate has only decreased by a paltry two percent. Why are American sentencing reforms since 2000 been largely ineffective? Are tough mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders the primary reason our prisons are always full? This book offers a fascinating assessment of the wave of sentencing reforms adopted by dozens of states as well as changes at the federal level since 2000, identifying common themes among seemingly disparate changes in sentencing policy and highlighting recent reform efforts that have been more successful and may point the way forward for the nation as a whole. In The Failed Promise of Sentencing Reform, author Michael O'Hear exposes the myths that American prison sentencing reforms enacted in the 21st century have failed to have the expected effect because U.S. prisons are filled to capacity with nonviolent drug offenders as a result of the "war on drugs," and because of new laws that took away the discretion of judges and corrections officials. O'Hear then makes a convincing case for the real reason sentencing reforms have come up short: because they exclude violent and sexual offenders, and because they rely on the discretion of officials who still have every incentive to be highly risk-averse. He also highlights how overlooking the well-being of offenders and their families in our consideration of sentencing reform has undermined efforts to effect real change. Clearly identifies the real reasons that the wave of post-2000 sentencing reform has had minimal impact on reducing national imprisonment rates Explains why reforms must target the excessive sentences imposed on violent and sexual offenders, even though the members of these offender groups are considered "justifiably punished" by long prison terms in the public eye Enables readers to understand why increased consideration for the well-being of offenders and their families is likely a prerequisite to the acceptance of more fundamental changes to the U.S. sentencing system

The public space of democracies is constructed in a context that is marked by the digital transformation of the economy and society. This construction is carried out primarily through deliberation. Deliberation informs and guides both individual and collective action. To shed light on the concept of deliberation, it is important to consider the rationality of choice; but what type of rationality is this? References to economic reason are at once widespread, crucial and controversial. This book therefore deals with arguments used by individuals based on the notions of preferential choice and rational behavior, and also criticizes them. These arguments are examined in the context of the major themes of public debate that help to construct the contemporary public space: "populism", social insurance, social responsibility and environmental issues. Economic Reason and Political Reason underlines the importance of the pragmatist shift of the 2000s and revisits, through the lens of this new approach, the great utilitarian and Rawlsian normative constructs that dominated normative political economics at the end of the 20th century. Alternative approaches, based on the concept of deliberative democracy, are proposed and discussed.

The first of four volumes comprising a biographical dictionary of state house speakers from 1911 to 1994, this book covers speakers from Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Entries provide basic biographical and career information on more than 400 speakers. The book opens with an insightful analytical introduction and includes valuable statistical appendixes based on an exhaustive database.

Complementing Charles R. Ritter and Jon L. Wakelyn's book IAmerican Legislative Leaders, 1850-1910R (1989), this book covers those who have served as state speakers in the West since 1910. Forthcoming volumes will cover state house speakers in the South, the Midwest, and the Northeast.

The Dilemmas of Ethnic Policy: A Global Perspective argues that ethnic conflict increases or decreases in relation to changes in the social structure and the location and distribution of political power. Ethnic grievances derive from lack of access to valued resources, and elites play a crucial role in allocating those resources. This book examines the experiences of five countries with a history of ethnic conflict: former Yugoslavia/Bosnia-Herzegovina, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States. It finds that in many cases, solutions adopted to mitigate ethnic conflict have unintended consequences. Often, supposed solutions confuse cause and effect and in fact worsen ethnic conflict. Attempts to address identity issues by pandering to them often led to further ethnic demands. This book argues that, based on the experiences of the countries under examination, the best course is to adopt policies that encourage alliances between and among ethnic groups.

Just days after September 11, 2001, Kenneth Feinberg was appointed to administer the federal 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, a unique, unprecedented fund established by Congress to compensate families who lost a loved one on 9/11 and survivors who were physically injured in the attacks. Those who participated in the Fund were required to waive their right to sue the airlines involved in the attacks, as well as other potentially responsible entities. When the program was launched, many families criticized it as a brazen, tight-fisted attempt to protect the airlines from lawsuits. The Fund was also attacked as attempting to put insulting dollar values on the lives of lost loved ones. The families were in pain. And they were angry. Over the course of the next three years, Feinberg spent almost all of his time meeting with the families, convincing them of the generosity and compassion of the program, and calculating appropriate awards for each and every claim. The Fund proved to be a dramatic success with over 97% of eligible families participating. It also provided important lessons for Feinberg, who became the filter, the arbitrator, and the target of family suffering. Feinberg learned about the enduring power of family grief, love, fear, faith, frustration, and courage. Most importantly, he learned that no check, no matter how large, could make the families and victims of 9/11 whole again.

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