Why Foundations Flourish: A Comparative Policy Framework to Understand Policy Support for Foundations across Countries*

Abstract

Philanthropic foundations have bloomed since the 1990s, contributing to the expansion of third sectors worldwide. This research aims to contribute to the comparative analysis of the policy conditions that shape the development – size and structure – of foundation fields across countries. A framework for comparative policy analysis encompassing key dimensions of policy support – policy milestones, levers, and alternatives – is proposed and applied to five southwestern European countries. Results demonstrate that although Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal have been traditionally clustered under the same corporatist foundation model, their foundation fields vary widely in terms of size, structure and institutional embeddedness.     

A Liberal Marxism? Mutual Care,Global Humanity and Minimum Utopia

This article surveys The Norman Geras Reader: ‘What’s There is There’, a recent collection of the work of Norman Geras, edited by Eve Garrard and Ben Cohen. The article explores the relevance of Geras’s attempted reconciliation between liberalism and Marxism to some of the key issues confronting the contemporary left: foreign policy and the failures of humanitarian intervention and non-intervention; internationalism and the necessity for solidarity across borders in an age of nationalist populism; left approaches to totalitarianism and antisemitism; the possibilities and limitations of alternatives to and critiques of liberal capitalism; and the reinvigoration of utopian imaginaries and the futures they promise. It suggests that important lessons for the left can be unpicked from the contested legacy of the ‘decent leftism’ Geras represents, where reapplied in the wake of new political and diplomatic challenges.     

Pragmatic internationalism: public opinion on South Africa's role in the world

This report of a public opinion survey on South Africa’s foreign policy did not attempt to gauge South Africans’ knowledge about specific issues in international politics, but rather their underlying attitudes, specifically their foreign policy postures. After providing a brief overview of the scholarly debates about the role of public opinion in foreign policy analysis, we contextualise the nature and methodological approach of the survey. Thereafter we organise the article according to three key themes that illuminate ‘ordinary’ South Africans’ foreign policy postures and how South Africans view their country’s international identity. These themes include, first, debates about what the purpose of our foreign policy should be; second, the country’s international role; and third, who South Africans consider to be our allies and role models. Finally, we distil possible patterns emerging from the survey into a posture that we relate to two concepts: ‘pragmatic internationalism’, and a ‘middle power role’.     

International Trends in Prison Upsizing and Downsizing: In Search of Evidence of a Global Rehabilitation Revolution

Abstract

Our review of global trends in the use of incarceration reveals that both the number of people incarcerated worldwide and the global rate of incarceration continue to increase in every global region. In addition, there have been sizable global increases in the use of pretrial detention, the proportion of female prisoners, the proportion of foreign prisoners, prison privatization, and prison crowding. After reviewing these global trends, we examine the available data on correctional performance, focusing on global crime trends in the subgroup of countries (n = 20) where three-quarters of the world’s prison population is currently located. While most (17/20) of these countries continued to increase their prison population despite decreases in most crime categories, three countries—the Russian Federation, South Africa, and Pakistan—have reduced their reliance on incarceration (number and rate) while also reducing their crime rates. Compared to other countries with large prison populations, the United States’ overall increase in both the prison population (+14.4% since 2000) and incarceration rate (+2.2) can be described as modest. Our review of global trends in corrections and sentencing policy reforms revealed an emerging focus on offender rehabilitation in both prison and community corrections settings and a growing recognition of the link between community development and crime. Focusing on the potential impact of rehabilitation-rich policy reforms in the United States, we highlight the results of a recent simulation modeling study (Taxman & Pattavina, 2013 Pattavina, A., & Taxman, F. S. (2013). Using discrete-event simulation modeling to estimate the impact of RNR program implementation on recidivism levels. In F. S. Taxman & A. Pattavina (Eds.), Simulation strategies to reduce recidivism (pp. 267–281). New York, NY: Springer.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) designed to estimate the impact of expanding our institutional corrections treatment infrastructure. This study reported significant, but relatively small, long-term reductions in prison populations when treatment capacity and treatment quality are increased. These findings suggest that even major improvement in the quantity and quality of prison programming—by itself—will not fundamentally change the life course of prisoners, resulting in continued high return-to-prison rates for these offenders. We conclude that for the United States to significantly reduce its reliance on incarceration, we will need to rethink our approach to crime and punishment. Our global review of corrections and sentencing strategies identified a number of possibilities. Using the global incarceration rate and the global crime rate as benchmark performance “tipping points,” we call for the development of corrections and sentencing policies—and the hiring of corrections personnel—based on the new goal of corrections: individual and community rehabilitation.     

Equal reproduction rights? The right to found a family in United Nations’ disability policy since the 1970s

ABSTRACT

With the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2006, disability as an issue of human rights and international law can no longer be ignored. The history of this convention can be traced back to the 1970s, when disability was framed in United Nations (UN) declarations as a human-rights issue at the global level. One of the recurrent topics of debate during this trajectory was the right of people with disabilities to found a family. This right was far from self-evident and was evaluated very differently by various stakeholders.

This study follows the right to have a family in UN disability policy since the 1970s. The history of the family in relation to disability at the global level has been a neglected field of enquiry compared to other concepts such as gender and race. This study investigates how and why the right to found a family was framed in the Declarations on the Rights of Mentally Disabled Persons (1971) and Disabled Persons (1975), the International Year of Disabled Persons (1981), the International Decade of Disabled Persons (1983 ? 1992), the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (1993) and the UNCRPD in 2006.

The trajectory of the right of people with disabilities to found a family that emerges from these cases shows a change in the 1990s from a social-policy to a human-rights approach towards disability – which reflects a broader trend in global and local histories of human rights. In the case of reproductive rights of people with disabilities this change meant that the emphasis was laid more on providing a legal protection for the individual against the interference of others (so-called negative freedom) than on enhancing the opportunities for disabled people to practice their (positive) freedom.     

房地产宏观政策调整的原因及对策

本文旨在分析与研究我国房地产业宏观调控政策的效应，及公共政策对我国房地产市场运行的影响，试图为我国房地产公共政策的制定提供一些理论依据与可操作性建议。     

比较法视野下的未成年人犯罪记录消除制度--基于宽严相济的刑事政策

在宽严相济的刑事政策背景下，过分强调犯罪记录的警示作用可能阻碍未成年犯罪人积极进行改造以重新回归社会，并会对其人格重塑和思想改造带来较为严重的负面影响。对此，未成年人犯罪记录消除制度的有效运作不仅能够克服这些缺陷，而且能够切实保障未成年犯罪人受到社会的公正对待，符合现代刑事法治理念提倡的非刑罚化的价值追求和发展趋势。具体而言，通过批判继承国外的制度设计和实践方案，应当从实体内容和程序构造两个方面改造并完善我国的未成年人犯罪记录消除制度，并将裁量的立法模式纳入其规范构建之中。惟其如此，未成年人犯罪记录消除制度才能够真正贯彻宽严相济形势政策的精神实质和深刻内涵，以实现制度与政策之间的有效衔接和完美配合。     

传统的延续：习惯在现代中国法制中的地位和作用

在多元调整性文化中，习惯是一种很重要的规范类型。在法律出现空缺的情况下，习惯就成为补充法律漏洞的重要规范依据。这并不意味着习惯就变成了法律。在没有被法律吸收之前，习惯仍然是习惯。法律赋予习惯以法律地位，使得习惯成为在没有法律的前提下，人们的一种行为规范依据和法官的裁决依据。这对包括中国在内以制定法为主要规范依据和来源的国家，具有重要的法治意义。     

我国平台经济监管的理论逻辑与政策实践

理解我国平台经济监管政策和分析未来发展趋势，需要把握其内在的理论逻辑。研究认为，与 传统经济模式相比，平台经济的独特性使得原有监管制度面临巨大挑战，这是平台经济监管的经济逻辑。我国 进入构建新发展格局、努力实现经济社会高质量发展和全面提升政府治理能力的新阶段，完善平台经济监管也 有其制度逻辑。近年来我国在平台经济监管理念和政策措施创新方面都取得了积极进展，同时监管中也存在一 些亟待解决的问题。面向未来看，我国平台经济监管呈现出全链条化、法治化和常态化、多元主体协同、多种 技术手段支撑等发展趋势，加强以信用为基础的间接监管将成为我国构建长效化平台经济监管体系的重要任务。