Constitutionalizing Employment Relations: Sinzheimer, Kahn-Freund, and the Role of Labour Law

Hugo Sinzheimer and his one-time student Otto Kahn-Freund are widely regarded as the founding fathers of German and British labour law respectively. While, at first glance, the two scholars might appear to have advocated rather different approaches to the regulation of employment relations, a review of their work reveals that both argued, in essence, for the 'constitutionalization' of those relations. Both argued, in other words, for the removal from the economic sphere of the otherwise inequitable consequences of the functioning of private law, so that collectivized labour might participate with capital, on a parity basis, in the autonomous regulation of the economy.     

‘Austria First’ revisited: a diachronic cross-sectional analysis of the gender and body politics of the extreme right

ABSTRACT

In this paper, Rheindorf and Wodak provide a discourse-historical analysis of extreme-right cultural politics in Austria, ranging from the blatant racism in the speeches of Vienna’s former Deputy Mayor Johann Gudenus (now MP in the Austrian parliament) to the construction of an idealized national body in the election campaigns of the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ), its programmatic agenda in handbooks and pamphlets, and the performances of far-right pop singer Andreas Gabalier. Rheindorf and Wodak argue that such cultural politics use a wide spectrum of discursive strategies both inside and outside established party politics and that the accompanying production of an ideal extreme-right subject is informed by nativist ideology. The cross-sectional analysis demonstrates that the cultural politics of the Austrian extreme right ranges from appropriated national symbols to coded National Socialist iconography. These politics pervasively construct a gendered and racialized national body, policed by a ‘strict father’ and nurtured by a ‘self-sacrificing mother’, vis-à-vis an apocalyptic threat scenario identified with migration, intellectual and political elites, cosmopolitanism and progressive gender politics.     

When Do Challengers Succeed? Nongovernmental Actors,Administrative Agencies,and Legal Change: Shifting Rules for Oregon's Private Forests

Regulatory regimes are notoriously resistant to change, so when less powerful actors manage to reshape long‐established rules and gain increased access to a natural resource the interesting question is why? This article investigates relations between different claimant groups and the state in the reshaping of the regulations governing Oregon's private forestlands, how this process was mediated by broader political opportunities and constraints, and the conditions that supported a shift in the legal regime that benefited less advantaged interests. The intent is to deepen our understanding of the circumstances under which well‐established rules of governance are altered. Analysis points to each of the following variables as significant for successful reform: (1) active challengers and their success in reframing issues to support their goals, (2) new political opportunities facilitating wider participation in the rulemaking process, and (3) concurrence between local and national aspirations supporting reform. While each condition is noteworthy, it is insufficient on its own. Rather, my study comparing two contested administrative rules suggests that a clear alignment of all three variables provides the strongest impetus for legislative and administrative rule changes at the state level benefiting less advantaged interests.     

Problem solving as reinforcement in adolescent drug use: Implications for theory and policy

The problem of adolescent drug use received a great deal of attention both in criminological theory and public policy. Predominant among theories was Akers' social learning theory which examined the role of learning through a process of imitation, modeling, and reinforcement. Public policy led to the development of programs such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) that aimed to warn youths of the dangers of drug use. In line with research findings, both theory and policy gave a central role to peers in understanding adolescent drug use. Less attention was given to another important finding in the literature, that those who used drugs often perceived the drugs as solutions to problems. Using social learning theory, the role of perceptions of drug use as an effective problem solver was examined. Results indicated that a more explicit recognition of the use of drugs to deal with problems might inform both theory and policy.