Equality of opportunity is a contested concept. It evokes strong emotions from proponents and opponents alike. Enduring issues of inequality and discrimination mean that it remains at the forefront of political priorities in the twenty-first century. Traditional analyses tend to focus on developments at the level of the unitary state or European Union. In contrast, this book underlines the salience of multi-level governance and offers the first detailed comparative analysis of contemporary efforts to promote equality of opportunity in the wake of constitutional reform in the UK. It presents a summary of social theory on equalities in relation to gender, and a full range of social groups and identities - such as disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation and age. It outlines the contemporary evidence base relating to patterns and processes of inequality in the 'devolved' nations. A 'governance perspective' is also advanced; one that details how constitutional law establishing the devolved legislatures contains equality clauses that enable and empower government to promote equality in public policy and law. Analysis reveals the development of distinctive regulatory structures and equalities policy lobbies in each territory. Overall, this volume charts the development of divergent legal rights and public policy on the promotion of equality in the wake of constitutional reform in the UK. Notwithstanding ongoing challenges, it is argued that the move to quasi-federalism is significant for it marks a shift from the predominant, centralised administration of social policy witnessed throughout the twentieth century, to divergent approaches designed to address contrasting socio-economic patterns and processes in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Drawing on the author's unrivalled experience and expertise in both research and policy-making, this important new book provides a systematic assessment of the changing nature of local governance in Britain and a conceptual framework for understanding the new governance of localities. The author analyzes in detail what New Labour has been trying to do to local governance and management and assesses how and why it has achieved only a mixed record of change. The book concludes by providing a vision of good local governance and an assessment of future challenges for research and reform.

After-school programs, scout groups, community service activities, religious youth groups, and other community-based activities have long been thought to play a key role in the lives of adolescents. But what do we know about the role of such programs for today's adolescents? How can we ensure that programs are designed to successfully meet young people's developmental needs and help them become healthy, happy, and productive adults? Community Programs to Promote Youth Development explores these questions, focusing on essential elements of adolescent well-being and healthy development. It offers recommendations for policy, practice, and research to ensure that programs are well designed to meet young people's developmental needs. The book also discusses the features of programs that can contribute to a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood. It examines what we know about the current landscape of youth development programs for America's youth, as well as how these programs are meeting their diverse needs. Recognizing the importance of adolescence as a period of transition to adulthood, Community Programs to Promote Youth Development offers authoritative guidance to policy makers, practitioners, researchers, and other key stakeholders on the role of youth development programs to promote the healthy development and well-being of the nation's youth. Table of Contents Front Matter Executive Summary 1 Setting the Stage 2 Adolescent Development 3 Personal and Social Assets that Promote Well-Being 4 Features of Positive Developmental Settings 5 The Landscape of Community Programs for Youth 6 Lessons from Experimental Evaluations 7 Generating New Information 8 Data and Technical Assistance Resources 9 Funding and Support for Programs 10 Conclusions and Recommendations Appendix A Fundamental Principles of Human Development Appendix B Theoretical Frameworks for Conceptualizing Positive Developmental Processes Appendix C Biographical Sketches Appendix D Related Reports from the National Academies References Index

When Nebraskans voted to trade in their bicameral, partisan legislature for a one-house, nonpartisan body in 1934, it was a revolutionary decision. George Norris, a U.S. senator from Nebraska, argued that the new institution would be more open, efficient, responsible, and responsive to the people it was meant to serve. An ardent progressive, Norris convinced his fellow Nebraskans that a nonpartisan, unicameral legislature would take power from the elites and return it to the people. One House examines the forces at work behind the unicameral's creation and chronicles the lawmakers' struggles to remain true to the populist, progressive vision of its founders and the people of Nebraska. Using historical research, surveys of Nebraskans, and in-depth interviews with senators and legislative observers, Charlyne Berens examines whether the promises that Norris and his fellow unicameral promoters made have held up over the years. The one-house legislature remains a unique experiment in American democracy as well as a powerful symbol of Nebraskans' identity. In a new introduction for this second edition, Berens discusses the recent addition of term limits.

An internationally renowned scholar of law and economics, Michael J. Trebilcock has spent over fifty years teaching and researching at the intersection between ideas, interests, and institutions. In Public Inquiries, Trebilcock reflects on his extensive experiences and sheds light on the role of scholars in engaging with the Canadian public policy-making process. Drawing on a number of case studies, Public Inquiries gives an informed overview of the role of ideas and interests in shaping the policy-making process. Trebilcock takes readers through his personal experiences and what he has learned throughout his career. He puts forward general lessons about the public policy-making process and reform in areas including consumer protection, competition policy, trade policy, electricity reform, and legal aid. By showing that not all experiences have been triumphant, and that disappointments can be as revealing as successes, Trebilcock draws out personal lessons and insights with a view to improving the structure and effectiveness of public inquiries.

There is growing interest in Israel's political system from all parts of the world. This Handbook provides a unique comprehensive presentation of political life in Israel from the formative pre-state period to the present. The themes covered include: political heritage and the unresolved issues that have been left to fester; the institutional framework (the Knesset, government, judiciary, presidency, the state comptroller and commissions of inquiry); citizens' political participation (elections, political parties, civil society and the media); the four issues that have bedevilled Israeli democracy since its establishment (security, state and religion, the status of Israel's Arab citizens and economic inequities with concomitant social gaps); and the contours of the political culture and its impact on Israel's democracy. The authors skilfully integrate detailed basic data with an analysis of structures and processes, making the Handbook accessible to both experts and those with a general interest in Israel.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, security became the paramount concern of virtually everyone involved in governing the United States. While the public's most enduring memories of that time involved the actions of the Bush administration or Congress, the day-to-day reality of homeland security was worked out at the local level. Kerry B. Fosher, having begun an anthropological study of counterterrorism in Boston a few months prior to the attacks, thus found herself in a unique position to observe the formation of an immensely important area of government practice. "Under Construction" goes behind the headlines and beyond official policy to describe the human activities, emotions, relationships, and decisions that shaped the way most Americans experienced homeland security. Fosher's two years of fieldwork focused on how responders and planners actually worked, illuminating the unofficial strategies that allowed them to resolve conflicts and get things done in the absence of a functioning bureaucracy. Given her unprecedented access, Fosher's account is an exceptional opportunity to see how seemingly monolithic institutions are constructed, maintained, and potentially transformed by a community of people.

Canada's federal system, composed of ten provincial governments and three territories, all with varying economies and political cultures, is often blamed for the country's failure to develop coordinated policy responses to key issues. But in other federal and multi-level governance systems, the ability of multiple governments to test a variety of policy responses has been lauded as an effective way to build local and national policy. Despite high-profile examples of policy diffusion in Canada, there has been surprisingly little academic study of policy learning and diffusion among provinces. Featuring cutting-edge research, Provincial Policy Laboratories explores the cross-jurisdictional movement of policies among governments in Canada's federal system. The book comprises case studies from a range of emerging policy areas, including parentage rights, hydraulic fracturing regulations, species at risk legislation, sales and aviation taxation, and marijuana regulation. Throughout, the contributors aim to increase knowledge about this understudied aspect of Canadian federalism and contribute to the practice of intergovernmental policymaking across the country.

Scholars widely agree that a federal system cannot work effectively without democracy. As a result of the division or sharing of powers between levels of government, there remains considerable uncertainty about how rules or patterns of politics between the executive and legislative branches interact. Combining theoretical analyses and selected case studies, Federal Democracies at Work contributes to our understanding of the complex relations between federalism and democracy. Throughout the volume, contributing authors elaborate and apply an innovative analytical framework to provide greater clarity on the complex relations between federalism and democracy. As a whole, the volume explores how different institutional configurations of federal democracies alleviate or intensify inherent tensions; how actors grapple and cope with the challenge of these complexities; and how structures evolve as a result of rising conflicts and institutional reforms or adjustments. In doing so, Federal Democracies at Work advances research on comparative federalism and works toward a better understanding of how these compound systems work.

The recent socio-political changes in Nepal have brought assimilationist notions of Nepali nationalism under a tight scrutiny and drawn attention to more plural, inclusive, and diverse notions of Nepaliness. However, both assimilationist and pluralist visions continue to remain normative in their approach, and often posit ethnic and national identity in opposition to each other. Drawing on the everyday practices in the two schools, this book illustrates that social actors in minority language education did not necessarily select between minority identity and national identity, but instead made simultaneous claims to more than one social identity by discursively positioning 'ethnic identity' as 'national identity'. It builds on the notion of 'simultaneity' to illustrate that it is through the 'unresolved co-presences' of apparently contradictory ways that people maintain their multi-layered identities. By arguing for an analytical necessity to adopt relational approach, it aims to complicate the neat compartmentalisation of identities.

Winner of The Alexander Nove Prize 2018 The nomads of Central Asia were already well accustomed to life under the power of a distant capital when the Bolsheviks fomented revolution on the streets of Petrograd. Yet after the fall of the Tsar, the nature, ambition and potency of that power would change dramatically, ultimately resulting in the near eradication of Central Asian nomadism. Based on extensive primary source work in Almaty, Bishkek and Moscow, Nomads and Soviet Rule charts the development of this volatile and brutal relationship and challenges the often repeated view that events followed a linear path of gradually escalating violence. Rather than the sedentarisation campaign being an inevitability born of deep-rooted Marxist hatred of the nomadic lifestyle, Thomas demonstrates the Soviet state's treatment of nomads to be far more complex and pragmatic. He shows how Soviet policy was informed by both an anti-colonial spirit and an imperialist impulse, by nationalism as well as communism, and above all by a lethal self-confidence in the Communist Party's ability to transform the lives of nomads and harness the agricultural potential of their landscape. This is the first book to look closely at the period between the revolution and the collectivisation drive, and offers fresh insight into a little-known aspect of early Soviet history. In doing so, the book offers a path to refining conceptions of the broader history and dynamics of the Soviet project in this key period.

This is the first book that focuses on the entrenched, fundamental divergence between the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal and Macau's Tribunal de Ultima Instancia over their constitutional jurisprudence, with the former repeatedly invalidating unconstitutional legislation with finality and the latter having never challenged the constitutionality of legislation at all. This divergence is all the more remarkable when considered in the light of the fact that the two Regions, commonly subject to oversight by China's authoritarian Party-state, possess constitutional frameworks that are nearly identical; feature similar hybrid regimes; and share a lot in history, ethnicity, culture, and language. Informed by political science and economics, this book breaks new ground by locating the cause of this anomaly, studied within the universe of authoritarian constitutionalism, not in the common law-civil law differences between these two former European dependencies, but the disparate levels of political transaction costs therein.

Based on extensive empirical work by a cross-European group of researchers, this book assesses the impact of the creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS) on the national foreign policy-making processes and institutions of the EU member states. As such, the contributions cover both the involvement of the national diplomatic and foreign policy actors in shaping the outlook of the EEAS and its mission, as well as the changes (or not) it has produced for those actors of the member states. The analysis draws in theoretical frameworks from Europeanization and socialization, but also from intergovernmental frameworks of policy-making within the European Union. An introduction by the editors outlines the issues and trends examined in the book and establishes the theoretical and methodological framework. Split into 2 sections, Part I: EEAS and national diplomacies as part of global and European structures has contributions by Richard Whitman, Rosa Balfour, Christian Lequesne, Caterina Carta and Simon Duke. Part II: National diplomacies shaping and being shaped by the EEAS is covered by Daniel Fiott, Fabien Terpan, Cornelius Adebahr, Andrea Frontini, Ignacio Molina and Alicia Sorroza, Laura C. Ferreira-Pereira, Alena Vysotskaya G. Vieira and Louise van Schaik, Grzegorz Gromadzki, Mark Rhinard, Jakob Lewander and Sara Norrevik, Sabina Kajnc Lange, Ruby Gropas and George Tzogopoulos, Vit Benes and Kristi Raik. This book is much needed, especially in an era when the EU is trying to pull its weight in the international sphere (e.g. Syria, Iran, the Arab Spring, Chinese relations and emerging powers) but also at a time when the EU is trying to recalibrate its institutional structure in light of the current financial predicaments and questions on the democratic legitimacy of the European project.

This accessible book is about local democracy, civic engagement, political participation, and community in Britain. It rejects the many pessimistic accounts that seek to dominate our political discourse with their talk of political apathy, community breakdown and selfish individualism The book focuses on local democratic politics in Britain over the last decade and a half, from the election of the New Labour government right up to the current Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government. It includes an analysis of local democracy, civic engagement, and participation across a range of policy areas and in the context of debates around accountability, legitimacy, sustainability, localism, and the "big society." Drawing on a wide range of examples, it argues that local democracy is a vibrant terrain of innovation, civic engagement and participation, and dynamic community activity, with a wide variety of informal and formal activity taking place.

Mayoral takeovers of big city public education systems are desperation measures. After decades of decline in school quality, something must be done to make sure city children learn enough to function as adults in American society. But how can city leaders make a real difference?

This book, a sequel to Fixing Urban Schools (Brookings, 1998), is a practical guide for mayors, civic leaders, school board members, and involved citizens. Based on case studies of city reform initiatives in Boston, Memphis, New York City District #2, San Antonio, San Francisco, and Seattle, the book provides practical guidance on how to formulate a plan bold enough to work and how to deal with political opposition to change. It concludes that mayors and private sector leaders must stay engaged in education reform by creating new public-private institutions to support high quality schools.

The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) is the principle regional human rights treaty for the African continent. Adopted in 1981, there is now a significant body of jurisprudence and interpretation by its African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the recently established African Court. This volume provides a comprehensive article-by-article legal analysis of the provisions of the Charter as it draws upon the documents adopted by the African Commission, including resolutions, case law, and concluding observations. Where relevant, case law adopted by the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, and that of other sub-regional courts and tribunals and domestic courts in Africa, are also incorporated. The book examines not only the substantive rights in the African Charter but also the work of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and provides a full examination of its mandate. A critical analysis of each of the provisions of the ACHPR is led principally by the jurisprudence and documentation of the African Commission and African Court. The text also identifies the overall development of the ACHPR within the broader regional and international human rights legal arena.

Towards Sustainable Well-Being examines existing efforts and emerging possibilities to improve upon gross domestic product as the dominant indicator of economic and social performance. Contributions from leading international and Canadian researchers in the field of beyond-GDP measurement offer a rich range of perspectives on alternative ways to measure well-being and sustainability, along with lessons from around the world on how to bring those metrics into the policy process. Key topics include the policy and political impacts of major beyond-GDP measurement initiatives; the most promising possibilities and policy applications for beyond-GDP measurement; key barriers to introducing beyond-GDP metrics; and complementary measures to ensure new measurements are not merely calculated but taken into account in policymaking. The book highlights a distinction between a reformist beyond-GDP vision, which seeks to improve policymaking and quality of life within existing political and economic institutions, and a transformative vision aiming for more fundamental change including a move beyond economic growth. Illustrating the many advances that have occurred in Canada and internationally, Towards Sustainable Well-Being proposes next steps for both the reformist and transformative visions, as well as possible common ground between them in the pursuit of sustainable well-being.

A new perspective on policy responsiveness in American government. Scholars of American politics have long been skeptical of ordinary citizens' capacity to influence, let alone control, their governments. Drawing on over eight decades of state-level evidence on public opinion, elections, and policymaking, Devin Caughey and Christopher Warshaw pose a powerful challenge to this pessimistic view. Their research reveals that although American democracy cannot be taken for granted, state policymaking is far more responsive to citizens' demands than skeptics claim. Although governments respond sluggishly in the short term, over the long term, electoral incentives induce state parties and politicians-and ultimately policymaking-to adapt to voters' preferences. The authors take an empirical and theoretical approach that allows them to assess democracy as a dynamic process. Their evidence across states and over time gives them new leverage to assess relevant outcomes and trends, including the evolution of mass partisanship, mass ideology, and the relationship between partisanship and ideology since the mid-twentieth century; the nationalization of state-level politics; the mechanisms through which voters hold incumbents accountable; the performance of moderate candidates relative to extreme candidates; and the quality of state-level democracy today relative to state-level democracy in other periods.

There is plenty of controversy surrounding pharmaceuticals, but it cannot be denied that the pharmaceutical industry is both socially beneficial and profitable. Regulators are expected to ensure that the economic success of the industry does not come at the expense of public safety, yet they have also assumed a cooperative role by providing advice on regulation and by targeting unmet medical needs. Concerns over regulatory standards, conflicts of interest, and the manipulation of information on drug safety and effectiveness have led to public mistrust and a greater need for transparency between the pharmaceutical industry and government regulators. Transparency, Power, and Influence in the Pharmaceutical Industry evaluates the progress made in holding the pharmaceutical industry responsible for creating transparency in the industry, from development to market. The contributors to this volume examine the various mechanisms introduced to make the regulatory process more informative and situate these efforts within the larger project of enhancing the safety of drugs, vaccines, and other products.

Celebrated as a beacon of democracy and reconciliation, many people in South Africa continue to live in severe poverty, particularly in the Eastern Cape Province. Backed by the United Nations Development Programme, the Eastern Cape's provincial government consequently launched an historically ambitious programme - the Provincial Growth and Development Plan - aimed at tackling the province's poverty, unemployment and inequality over a ten-year period in a radical policy overhaul. Drawing on the author's first-hand engagement with the planning process, Development Planning in South Africa is an empirically rich study that utilises a strategic-relational approach to explore the ways in which this unprecedented challenge was negotiated and eventually undermined by the South African state. The first work of its kind, the book provides an indispensable micro-level study with profound implications for how state power is understood to be organised and expressed in state policy. Relevant beyond South Africa to policy implementation in both developing and developed states globally, the book is essential reading for students and scholars of government studies, political economy, development, policy studies and social movements.

A major new introduction to the UK planning system. It outlines the evolution and use of the new spatial planning approach which is increasingly adopted at all levels of the UK planning system from European through to the national, regional, sub-regional and local level.

Finance departments have often been portrayed as guardians of the public purse. In The Guardian, a multidisciplinary group of contributors examines the Ministry of Finance of Ontario since the Second World War. During the last sixty years the Ministry was transformed from a relatively small 'Treasury' to a sophisticated policy machine. What started as a modest bookkeeping operation evolved into a key bureaucratic and policy agency as the government of Ontario assumed a leadership position in developing the province. These essays reveal Ontario's 'finance' as a dynamic policy issue shaped by the personalities of premiers and ministers, the energies of public servants at all levels, and a critical dialogue between political and administrative worlds. Drawing on different methodologies, this collection profiles a ministry as policy entrepreneur, spender, revenue generator, capacity builder, budget director, program manager, and intergovernmental agent. The Guardian fills a significant gap in public administration literature and in so doing describes how Ontario's Ministry of Finance defined its role as 'guardian.'

From the growth of a multi-billion-dollar high-technology corridor in Malaysia to conflict over housing development in Chicago, the practice of regional and local economic development around the world is both dynamic and diverse. Regional and Local Economic Development introduces the theory behind economic development and provides examples of successful, and less successful, practice. This broad-ranging new text shows how government, private industry and individuals combine to achieve economic development. It examines the development of policies and practices in recent decades - such as eco-industrial parks, place marketing and social enterprises - and analyzes the ways in which contemporary regional economies are changing. It also summarizes the key academic debates and reviews the main concepts which inform policy-making. Truly global in scope, with case studies from over 30 countries, this book will be welcomed by students and practitioners alike.