The Political Perils of Cold War Foreign Relations: Adlai Stevenson’s Democrats and Foreign Policy in the 1956 Presidential Election

This analysis uses the case of the 1956 American presidential election between Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower to highlight the ways that an obsession with foreign relations could prove problematic to a campaign. Focusing primarily on Stevenson’s advisors, long-standing problems in the Democrats’ strategy on foreign relations, coupled with the emotional attachments that several key advisors had to the issue, combined to ensure that the Democrats failed to develop an effective foreign policy platform—particularly when running against a president believed to be so successful in that arena. Ultimately, it argues that the Stevenson campaign’s failure to forge an effective position highlights the problematic relationship between domestic policies and foreign relations.     

British think tanks: advancing the intellectual debate?

Books reviewed in this article:
Denham, A. and Garnett, M. (1998) British Think Tanks and the Climate of Opinion.
Kandiah, M. and Seldon, A. (eds) (1996a) Ideas and Think Tanks in Contemporary Britain. Volume 1.
Kandiah, M. and Seldon, A. (eds) (1996b) Ideas and Think Tanks in Contemporary Britain. Volume 2.
Stone, D. (1996a) Capturing the Political Imagination. Think Tanks and the Policy Process.
Stone, D., Denham, A. and Garnett, M. (eds) (1998) Think Tanks across Nations. A Comparative Approach.     

Teaching collaborative problem-solving skills to law students

This article describes and critically evaluates a collaborative dispute resolution activity conducted in a mid-degree law subject at an Australian university. Australian law degrees are required to be vocational. Teaching problem-solving to law students is an effective way to impart key professional skills. However, it requires planning and preparation. It is therefore important to reflect on whether the aims of the activity have been achieved. In particular, three ideas about what constitutes good teaching are explored. The first is that good teachers do not simply deliver content – they give their students problems to solve. The second is the expectation employers have that law graduates will readily collaborate with their colleagues. Finally, giving students an opportunity to reflect on what they have learned will enable students to transfer what they have understood and articulated to legal practice. By delineating each of these three teaching aims, it is possible to assess the value and effectiveness of the problem-solving activity. This paper also reflects on the positive impact that is achieved when authentic and ethical legal processes are embedded into student-centred learning.     

Improving Housing Conditions in the Private and Social Rented Sectors: The Homes (Fit for Human Habitation) Act 2018 ‐ Fit for Habitation but Fit for Purpose?

The Homes (Fit for Human Habitation) Act 2018 became law in December 2018 and entered into force on 20 March 2019. This article examines the key provisions of this significant piece of housing legislation which has the potential to transform the lives of those renting homes in both the private and social sectors in England. The 2018 Act, through amendment to the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, introduces a new obligation on landlords to ensure their residential properties are fit for human habitation and, for the first time in this jurisdiction, endows tenants with new civil rights to directly enforce this implied covenant against failing landlords. This article identifies the key deficiencies within the current legal framework around fitness for human habitation and explores how far the 2018 Act meets these challenges; set against the febrile backdrop of an acute housing crisis and the Grenfell Tower tragedy.     

Petra Kelly: The Other Green

Petra Kelly enjoyed celebrity status as cofounder and "leader" of the German Greens from 1979 to 1990. A prominent theoretician of the Greens, she broke ranks with the party on the issue of joining the Social Democrats in a governing coalition. She proposed, instead, that the Greens remain a radical parliamentary opposition force. Defeated in the All German parliamentary election of 1990, the Greens rejected Kelly's position and ultimately, in 1998, became the governing partner of the SPD. Ostracized and devastated by the 1990 defeat, Kelly spoke of "moving beyond the Greens." In 1992 she died under tragic circumstances. Her name sank into obscurity. Within our globalized era, however, Petra Kelly's ideas have particular salience. She represents the other Green who laid the foundations for a global political theory and for global political action.     

The Localism Act 2011: The Hollow Housing Law Revolution

In November 2011, the Localism Act was passed and, on one view, reflects the widest‐ranging reforms to housing law for over a half century. Ambitious in its stated aims, the legislation was trailed as representing a broad shift in power from central Whitehall to local communities and individuals. The article critically examines the central changes introduced by the 2011 Act as they pertain specifically to housing law in England, namely the new flexible tenancy regime, the changes to homelessness duties under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996 and the reforms concerning the allocation of social housing. The article interrogates the extent to which the reforms realise the stated localist agenda and highlights areas of difficulty in interpretation and application. It concludes that rather than bestowing greater power on local communities, the reforms to housing law will instead effect a perceptible reduction of power in the hands of local people.     

Why hasn't integrated health care developed widely in the United States and not at all in England?

There have been influential advocates for financing and organizing health care in the United States and England based on the model of integrated health care delivery systems (IHCDSs). Despite good evidence that a few IHCDSs provide high-quality health care economically, such organizations are rare and localized in a few market areas in the United States and are absent in the English National Health Service (NHS). The explanation of why this is so includes various contributory factors: the way the development of the medical profession in each country pursued specialization; the division in British medicine between general practitioners and specialists; and the characteristics that we identify of established successful IHCDSs, which created formidable barriers to entry for a new IHCDS. This explains why currently the most promising organizational developments in U.S. health care are hybrids resulting from vertical integration. In England government policies of an "internal market," as adopted in the 1990s and currently, were and are based on a purchaser-provider split with the objectives that providers would compete and be funded by a system in which "money follows the patient." These policies recognize the division in British medicine, which also means that it is difficult to implement a reorganized English NHS based on high-performing IHCDSs.