Tiered Community Membership in Australia: The Impact of Constitutional Concepts and Contemporary Developments on Refugee Access to Citizenship

This article explores various ways in which Commonwealth legislation and government policy have shifted in recent years to increase both the legal barriers to inclusion for migrants seeking to become part of the Australian community, and the circumstances in which those already legally recognised as members of the community can become susceptible to exclusion. It examines the ways in which these shifts have produced new “tiers of membership” within the Australian community, and discusses the implications of this, both from a constitutional perspective and on affected individuals. The article illustrates that these shifts have affected some groups of migrants more than others. Relevantly, given the subject of this special issue, they have had a disproportionately detrimental effect on refugees who arrive in Australia by boat seeking asylum.     

The Emergence of Environmental Concerns: Hydroelectric Schemes in Scotland

Regulating the environmental impacts of hydroelectric schemesis of increasing importance in the light of the strong policydrive towards expanding the proportion of energy gained fromrenewable sources. Yet hydroelectric schemes are significantin another way. They provide an unusual example of a technologythat has changed little over the last 100 years and thus offersa real opportunity to judge the impact of a changing regulatoryclimate. In Scotland, three distinct phases can be detected.Earlier controls focussed on the protection of private interests,especially fishing rights, with authorisations secured throughPrivate Acts of Parliament. This was followed by a period wherepromotion of such schemes lay with public bodies; though undergeneral statutory duties, ultimately the balancing of environmentaland other interests lay with such bodies who acted with fewexternal controls. Privatisation of electricity generation in1989, coupled with the growing development of relevant EuropeanCommunity legislation, dramatically shifted the regulatory balances.Environmental Assessment requirements and now the obligationsof the Water Framework Directive have substantially alteredthe concept and scope of environmental concerns in this field.     

State of the world 2018: democracy facing global challenges*

This article analyses the state of democracy in the world in 2018, and recent developments building on the 2019 release of the V-Dem dataset. First, the trend of autocratization continues and 24 countries are now affected by what is established as a “third wave of autocratization”. Second, despite the global challenge of gradual autocratization, democratic regimes prevail in a majority of countries in the world (99 countries, 55%) in 2018. Thus, the state of the world is unmistakably more democratic compared to any point during the last century. At the same time, the number of electoral authoritarian regimes had increased to 55, or 31% of all countries. Third, the autocratization wave is disproportionally affecting democratic countries in Europe and the Americas, but also India’s large population. Fourth, freedom of expression and the media, and the rule of law are the areas under attack in most countries undergoing autocratization, but toxic polarization of the public sphere is a threat to democracy spreading across regimes. Finally, we present the first model to predict autocratization (“adverse regime transitions”) pointing to the top-10 most at-risk countries in the world.     

Mediation Verses Arrest Approaches to Domestic Assault: Policy Implications for Addressing Domestic Abuse Among Under-Educated and Jobless Offenders

Mediation as a response to domestic abuse would seem a promising direction in curbing domestic battering among offenders with a low stake in conformity. This study compares the effects of mediation verses arrest on two general types of domestic abusers; one category with a high school education or above and is presently employed, while the other category comprising individuals with less than a high school education and are currently unemployed. Pooled data from three of the original group of six Minneapolis Domestic Violence Project cities are used in this study. The findings show unemployed Blacks with less than a high school education who were mediated were significantly less likely to have re-offended within six months than unemployed non-Blacks similarly mediated with less than a high school education. Also, unemployed Blacks with less than a high school education not mediated were significantly more likely to re-offend than unemployed non-Blacks with less than a high school education and not mediated. Finally, among those in the sample unemployed with less than a high school education and mediated were significantly less likely to re-offend compared to those not mediated. The findings are consistent with seeing mediation as a viable police strategy in curbing domestic abuse among jobless and undereducated offenders.     

Microcredit and development: a multi-level examination of women’s participation in microfinance institutions

International organisations promote microcredit as a tool for socio-economic development by targeting women’s entrepreneurial capabilities. There is limited research, however, on the variation in women’s participation in microcredit in developing nations. To understand this variation, this article examines the relationship between a country’s gender equality levels and women’s microcredit participation. The results indicate that participation is higher when loans are small; however, with increases in gender equality levels, participation decreases. Women in countries with higher gender inequality are limited to very small loans and questionable economic improvements, suggesting that microcredit needs to be utilised contextually to be an effective developmental tool.     

THE IMPACT MAXIMUM BENEFIT AMOUNTS HAVE ON THE LENGTH OF TIME FAMILIES RECEIVE AFDC-BASIC BENEFITS

Analysts and program evaluators have rightly focused on the impact policies have on participants achieving programs’ goals and objectives. Yet a potentially neglected aspect of these analyses is the impact policies themselves have on who is initially eligible to participate in the programs and the impact policy parameters have on the length of time people participate in the program. This article reports the findings of a study on the length of time families receive AFDC (now TANF) benefits in two counties in a high benefit state, Wisconsin, between 1987 and 1989 and a low benefit state, Texas, from mid‐1989 through 1992 and the influence the states’ maximum benefits have on who is eligible to receive benefits and how families lose eligibility. Results of a life table analysis indicate that families in Texas receive benefits over significantly less time. However, results of a multivariate analysis indicate that when selected personal and familial attributes are held constant, the difference disappears.