Access to Justice and Social Inclusion: The Policy Challenges in Wales

Enhancing access to legal and advice services is a central pillar of the Access to Justice Act 1999. Within the new welfare framework, employment rights come increasingly into focus as the UK government seeks to forge a link between welfare and work. Access to the labour market, and being sustained within it, are seen as major mechanisms for combating social exclusion. Discrimination at work can only thwart these ambitions. The Access to Justice reforms imply an assessment of need and a review of the ways in which individuals are negotiating the available system of redress. This article reports on a study of advice provision in employment discrimination cases in Wales, funded by the Legal Services Commission and the Equality Commissions in Wales. Drawing on the accounts of key providers, individual experiences of advice seeking and available statistical evidence, it explores the opportunities and constraints of the Welsh context and profiles many of the policy challenges posed for the devolved administration. It demonstrates that, despite advances in equalities legislation and policy directives aimed at strengthening people's employment rights, a number of critical obstacles remain for the most disadvantaged groups.     

单亲案的亲权概率的计算及认定标准

确定单亲案的亲权概率计算方法和认定标准。用多基因座DNA分析方法和计算多基因座累积平均非父排除率计算公式。检测8个以上的DNA多态性基因座,在等位基因的遗传不违反孟德尔规律的前提下,父权概率都可达到或超过0.9990的标准;对不存在亲生关系的案例,在用本方法时,都有3个或更多的基因座的等位基因遗传违反孟德尔规律。对单亲案的亲权鉴定,检测的多态性基因座要在8个以上。在肯定亲生关系时,父权概率要达到或超过0.9990;在否定亲生关系时,必须有3个以上或更多的基因座违反孟德尔遗传规律。     

Horizontalföderalismus und Schweizer Demokratie

Der Beitrag analysiert den zunehmenden Horizontalföderalismus im politischen Mehrebenensystem der Schweiz und fragt nach den Gefahren und Chancen für die Weiterentwicklung der Schweizer Demokratie. Die Evaluierung erfolgt auf der Basis der komplexen Demokratietheorie von Fritz Scharpf, ergänzt um die konstitutiven Perspektiven einer reflexiven Demokratietheorie. Insgesamt wird deutlich, dass der Horizontalföderalismus vor allem aus einer liberalen Position innerhalb einer Output‐ orientierten Demokratietheorie als problematisch angesehen werden muss, da die kantonale Exekutive gegenüber der Legislative gestärkt wird. Der Aufsatz betont aber die Chancen für die schweizerische Demokratie, da der Horizontalföderalismus grosse Ähnlichkeiten mit den Entscheidungsfindungsprozessen auf internationaler Ebene besitzt. Er liefert damit der Schweiz ein Übungsfeld, um ihr traditionell sehr introvertiertes Verständnis von demokratischer Selbstbestimmung zu überwinden und anzuerkennen, dass in einer interdependenten und mobilen Welt die “Einbeziehung des (externen) Anderen” ein Bestandteil einer legitimen demokratischen Ordnung darstellt.     

学校类型对农民工子女价值观与行为模式的影响——基于上海的实证研究

农民工子弟学校和公办学校是农民工子女在城市接受义务教育的两种主要渠道。本文在政治社会化的理论框架下,讨论学校类型对于农民工子女价值观和行为模式的影响。实证研究发现:(1)公办学校的农民工子女更接近主流价值观,农民工子弟学校的学生与主流价值观表现出一定的疏离;(2)就读于公办学校的农民工子女更为强烈地感受到城市主流社会的歧视;(3)公办学校的农民工子女对于个人前景的预期低于农民工子弟学校的学生,具有更强的挫败感。可见,单纯的教育吸纳对于促进农民工子女社会融合的作用极其有限。     

Detention under the Mental Health Act: balancing rights,risks and needs for services

Mental health law has to balance considerations of both justice, and health and welfare. In the political climate of the 1990s mental health services have become targeted on those with serious mental illness, to address the objectives of containing risks and limiting service expenditure. This paper identifies that increasing rates of detention under the Mental Health Act through the 1990s in a particular region, disproportionately involve longer-term detentions (under section 3), men, and people with serious mental illnesses. Those detained are likely to experience social difficulties. Changes in legislation are imminent, and the paper concludes that thought should be given to the amount of statutory intervention in the lives of seriously mentally ill people, and to the principle of reciprocity in relation to those coerced for lesser periods. Services should seek to address the issues of social exclusion which are reflected in the circumstances of those detained.     

Opportunity,responsibility and the market: interrogating liberal equality

This article scrutinizes the claim that liberal egalitarians are now the last real torchbearers for the principles of egalitarian reform. This claim might appear eccentric on the surface, but is increasingly common in leftist circles following the recent abandonment of such principles by formerly socialist parties. Programmes of 'social inclusion', for instance, are now widely criticized for substituting a desire to tackle economic inequalities with an incitement for us to become obedient, productive citizens. Focusing here on the claim that liberal egalitarians pose a radical alternative to this kind of discourse, I show that the real deficiencies of much liberal egalitarianism not only resemble but in many ways actually provide the sort of discourse within which parties like New Labour operate.     

Aspects of Inclusion and Peoples’ Empowerment Related to National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, launched in the year 2006, is dubbed as one of the major flagship strategies of the Government of India, in coherence with the objective of removing poverty and unemployment. While scope of employment in rural asset creation protects environment, the earning opportunities address the issue of financial and social inclusion. Principal Component Analysis has been applied to calculate Financial, Social, Environmental, and finally Overall Inclusion Index as well as Empowerment Index. The results reveal significant association between Overall Inclusion and Empowerment index. Using multiple regression, Overall Inclusion is explained by certain significant variables.     

Sustaining Peace One Day at a Time: Inclusion,Transition Crises,and the Resilience of Social Contracts

ABSTRACT

This article argues that inclusion is a key driver of resilient social contracts and a foundation for sustaining peace. Drawing on case studies conducted under the Forging Resilient Social Contracts project and building on the literature on transitions from war to peace and authoritarianism to democracy, the theoretical framework links inclusion to peace sustainability. Interrogating how and why processes of inclusion matter, we argue that resilient social contracting is driven by elite inclusion, societal inclusion and their interactions. Four case-studies illustrate the arguments. Resilient social contracting, findings suggest, allows countries to weather crises and survive to ‘transition another day’.     

中国城市中农民工群体的社会排斥问题

社会排斥是指一定的社会成员或者社会群体在一定程度上被排斥在社会主流关系网络之外,不能获取正当的经济、政治、公共服务等资源的过程或者状态。中国农民工在城市中遭受着经济、政治、公共服务和社会关系等多层面的社会排斥问题。应从战略高度认识解决这一问题的必要性,并采取切实可行的措施加以解决。