The politics of denial: the use of funding penalties as an implementation device for social policy

Conclusion The standard literature on implementation offers a number of variables usually associated with successful policy-making.⁵⁰ Roughly, the variables can be sorted into three broad categories: the nature of the problem to be solved, the causal theory for problem solution embodied in the statute, and the execution of that statutory solution in practice. These categories will supply a framework helpful in highlighting the empirical similarities across the cases of oblique funding denial discussed above and also for revealing important differences. The similarities will show both the conditions which lead to the use of this particular policy device and the manner of its use; the differences will show the conditions under which it can be used most effectively. Discussion will then turn somewhat more theoretical, inquiring into the legitimacy of funding denial as a political means and the capacity of the state apparatus that employs it. First, the specific social problem addressed in each of the cases of funding denial was relatively intractable. Each involved a matter of moral purpose - how fast is it safe for one to drive? At what age is one responsible enough to drink? What is the extent of one's military obligation? What is meant by the principle of equal respect for all individuals? American government is naturally reluctant to confront such difficult moral decisions and to impose an authoritative determination upon its citizenry. Not surprisingly, therefore, each case of funding denial was the product of a perceived national emergency, accompanied by a dramatic mobilization of public opinion - the energy crisis of 1973; the campaign against drunk driving led by MADD; the sudden presumption of military inadequacy; the civil rights movement, especially the Birmingham marches. The widespread belief that something must be done gave to politicians the incentive to enact policies placing concentrated costs upon some particular population group as a prerequisite for achieving diffuse societal ends. Strong ideological justification remained essential even after initial threshold barriers were overcome. In the speed limit case, for instance, the necessary shift in rationale from energy conservation to traffic safety somewhat weakened the defense for concentrated costs and left the legislation much more vulnerable to challenge and exemption. American politics might well exhibit a general propensity toward particularistic preferences and so-called distributional policies, which award concentrated group benefits and impose diffuse social costs, but there do regularly exist circumstances that help enact policies embodying the exact opposite pattern. A further problem exists, however, when designing a feasible strategy for implementation. In each of the cases considered above, funding denial was adopted because of the perceived insufficiency of the normal, judicial means of coercive implementation - a legislated national 55 M.P.H. speed limit or a direct prohibition against interstate alcohol sales to individuals younger than 21 years old would mandate a significant federal police role and might burden the federal courts; prosecutions under the 1980 Selective Service Act and litigation under the 1954 Brown decision had been deemed incapable of forcing adequate levels of compliance. The alternative next proposed was cash incentives, making it lucrative for the designated actors to adapt their behavior. But, it was found, the political price of Southern school desegregation was not sufficiently counterbalanced by the promise of federally funded technical assistance; the prospect of increased highway aid funds was not enough to induce states to alter their drinking laws. It was then logical for lawmakers to turn to the disincentive power of financial sanctions. Oblique funding denial offered a simple and quite attractive theory of policy cause and effect: by threatening to withhold money from tangentially related concentrated benefits, the target population would be impelled to accept the entailed concentrated costs of social reform. In the two examples using highway funds, the states as intermediaries were constrained to impose policy costs upon certain of their citizens or else face penalties themselves. In the two other examples, the impulsion was applied to the targeted individuals or institutions directly. As a causal theory for solution, however, the funding denial strategy has its own inherent weakness. In all the cases considered, the population designated for enforcement was not the same as the total population whose compliance was needed in order to achieve the social end. For example, the Solomon amendment affected only non-registrant college student aid recipients, a distinct subset of draft law violators. Moreover, all college aid recipients, even if not formally eligible for the draft, were made subject to penalties if they did not sign the specified form. The provision was on one dimension too narrow and on another much too broad, leading to claims of unfair treatment. Similarly, the 21-year-old drinking age affected only a portion of adults who might drink and drive, yet it imposed sweeping limits on all members of a specific age group regardless whether they were drivers or not. The civil rights regulations were applied with inequitable narrowness, for Title VI enforcement affected only the institutions and programs supported by federal grants, and affirmative action under Executive Order 11246 was required only of federal contractors. The 55 M.P.H. speed limit, by contrast, was initially applied with inequitable breadth, uniformly restricting highway speeds irrespective of the type of terrain, the quality of the road or its safety record. Supporters of these provisions often justified them in terms of mere expediency. Chief Justice Burger's defense of the Solomon amendment, that funding denial was a rational tool to encourage compliance among a major group of lawbreakers, was basically the same as the one employed by civil rights advocates on behalf of Title VI. Expediency, nevertheless, is political as well as merely technical. Those who were targeted for the funding denial strategy not only exhibited a certain dependence upon government finance, they also tended to be politically weak. Youths, for example, have been subjected to the strategy both as students and as drivers. This political weakness was further exaggerated by the stigmatization of the victim. Teenage drivers, it was implied, were uniquely irresponsible; college students were unpatriotic; and Southern aid recipients lacked a fundamental respect for the constitution. The exception to the rule was interstate trucking, and thus it is not unexpected that truckers did win some relaxation in the speed limit when first proposed in 1973, and that the portion of the highway regulations that most affect them have recently proved susceptible to attack. Finally, turning to practical execution, it is obvious that federal administrators tend not to want to impose funding sanctions. In all the cases examined, the express legislative intent was to encourage increased voluntary compliance, and ample provision was always made to allow the violator to correct his behavior or to negotiate a compromise in good faith. Moreover, federal grant agencies see their primary function as that of giving away authorized money. Exogenous conditions placed upon the use of such money involved an uncomfortable and often unwanted conflict among agency priorities. The exercise of funding denial interferes with laudable program operations and risks jeopardizing relations with Congress and clients. Counterveiling pressures for vigorous action, from social movements or presidential initiative, have proved fleeting. Thus the actual withholding of authorized dollars has been usually considered somewhat drastic action, to be reserved for dire situations. The Transportation Department, for example, has not yet deducted the required share from state highway funds for violations of the 55 M.P.H. speed limit, despite the findings of an administrative law judge and a suit in federal court to force it to do so. The education division of HEW had a short period of remarkable enforcement activism during the late 1960s but suffered severely for it, and no other agency has been as aggressive in pursuing civil rights. Of course, program effectiveness should not be judged solely by the number of sanctions imposed. The declaration made by the law itself, supported by the threat of possible punishment, can sometimes be sufficient. On the other hand, excessively protracted negotiations and a clear reluctance to apply funding penalties can give credence to the excuses of violators and effectively undermine the incentive for recipients to obey. As V.O. Key observed regarding the funding weapon, The mere existence of the power may have considerable effect, but these indirect results are not so great if the power is not used now and then to give substance to the threats of its use. When conditions appearing to warrant discontinuance of grants are tolerated, the implied threat of federal withdrawal ceases to have potency'.⁵¹ It also should be noted that the standard for judging what constitutes satisfactory performance is not entirely fixed. Only half of the drivers must obey the maximum speed limit for a state to retain its full allocation. Draft registration compliance in the 90% range, monitored by self-certification by college aid recipients, has been considered a success. A similar standard for affirmative action by federal contractors would generate a storm of criticism. Therefore, it appears, funding denial is a potentially powerful weapon in the government arsenal that generally has been applied to relatively intractable problems but in an uneven causal manner by somewhat reluctant administrative agents. The examples discussed above, however, do permit some differentiation. The intractability of the problem addressed varied with the resolve of the target group and the extent of behavioral change required. The difficulties of practical execution varied with the leverage available to the government and the attitude of administrative superiors. On both dimensions, civil rights presented the greatest challenge. Finally, the causal construction of the statute, itself, varied in ways that affected its ability to overcome barriers to successful implementation. The funding denial instrument was sometimes linked to explicitly specified compliance standards and time horizons for their achievement. In those cases, there was least ambiguity regarding the expected behavior of the target group, and least opportunity for administrative footdragging or political veto. The drinking age and draft registration stipulations were presented as simple, dichotomous matters of yes-or-no; either the states passed the requisite law and the students signed the required form, or else they were automatically subject to penalties. The highway speed limit started as dichotomous, but when a number of states complied formally while intentionally promoting circumvention, the law was altered so as to impose partial penalties contingent upon more detailed performance criteria. With civil rights, however, the statute neither defined illegal discrimination, nor established performance standards to be met, nor dictated a timetable for acceptable progress. Thus it gave to executive agencies an enormous amount of independent discretion. The tempting conclusion is that the funding denial device should always be used with tight compliance standards and unavoidable violator consequences. This is not quite true. There can be situations in which the extent of the entailed behavioral change and the sensitivity of the issue require a more subtle approach. There can be situations in which the strictest enforcement rules will engender a legislative reaction sufficient to win repeal once popular momentum wanes, and situations in which implementation at less than full enforcement will nevertheless bring a policy response deemed adequate by the initial intention. Although the bias should be towards specificity, especially given the lamentable record for Title VI, the optimal strategy must be decided on a case-by-case basis. The critical question, however, is not whether the funding denial instrument can be used more effectively, but whether it legitimately can be used at all. There is a sense of impropriety linked to the implicit assertion that the federal government's promises can be later revised through the attachment of technically unrelated performance criteria, and of arbitrariness in the exact nature of the contingencies attached. Critics have regularly protested that funding denial rests upon the unfair strategy of ‘bait-and-switch’, and have claimed that it establishes precedent for the limitless exercise of federal power. On the other hand, it has proven a useful instrument for social policy implementation in cases where more conventional methods have failed. Critics have charged that funding denial is discriminatory in practice, applying only to the vulnerable, politically and by their strong dependence upon government aid. On the other hand, it is a potentially effective means by which at least certain groups can be induced to act in a manner appropriate for the achievement of a desirable diffuse social good, and half a loaf is often preferable to none at all. Critics have asserted that funding denial infringes upon traditional prerogatives and individual freedoms, permitting the aggrandizement of federal authority through devious means. On the other hand, it is quite normal within budget politics for the recipient of government money to aggressively seek maximum discretion over its use, and for the grantor of that money to impose constraints in the pursuit of the public interest. It would seem that support for the oblique funding technique depends largely upon one's view of the diffuse social good pursued. Liberals and conservatives alike, although for different policy ends, have found it a useful instrument in the federal repertory. The more important the end and the greater the demand to achieve it, the less American legislators appear to be deterred by the device's potential limitations. Nevertheless, something more systematic can be said. American statebuilders have always sought to construct institutional forms sufficient to the policy task yet with recognition of the abiding national fear of bureaucratic authority and the preference for private organization and community government.⁵² American liberal ideology posits a state apparatus imbued with a monopoly of legitimate force which nevertheless exists to serve private interests without dominating them. Capitalist economics and constitutional rights establish relatively protected spheres for independent behavior. The state, even when acting on behalf of a clear social good, is simultaneously committed to maintaining a balance with civil society, which inherently limits its dominion and reduces its policy-making capacity. Turning specifically to budgetary instruments, the growth in federal spending over the 20th century is usually taken as an indicator of the increase in central government power. A larger budget implies control over a greater percentage of social resources, extracting more funds from primary earners in the marketplace and reallocating them to serve publicly determined ends. That power, however, is far from absolute. The American state is dependent upon a flourishing private sector for the revenues it expends, and is dependent upon cooperative private actors for the policies implemented through the budget to have their desired effects. Government, in essence, manipulates money that it directly controls in order to influence behavior over which it lacks direct control. This is the wellspring of the ambivalence intrinsic to oblique funding denial. The device is used when lesser means are deemed insufficient, for they would not induce societal actors to bear the concentrated costs of social reform, but when stronger ones would invade traditional state government preserves or require a considerable expansion of judicial power. Coercion is the expected means when government seeks to implement policy ends over an unwilling population. However, in many policy areas, the federal government is relatively weak in its ability to apply coercion and is often averse to the very notion. The American commitment to constitutional federalism and to individual rights significantly circumscribes the power of central dictation. Self-restricted by the rules of its own political system, the federal government must, if it wishes to be effective, then turn to somewhat novel and incomplete instruments. As a policy instrument, funding denial rejects the subservience of pure incentives, placing the burden of proof on potential recipients to show that they have fulfilled stipulated requirements and thus are deserving of funds. Yet denial also suffers strict limitations, as it is constrained by the populations that are susceptible to its leverage and by the extent sanctions actually can be applied. The consequence is a policy dynamic in which the federal government seeks to exercise the greatest possible influence consistent with the structured separation of state from society and of central from local government; and in which the subject group seeks to preserve the greatest possible freedom of choice consistent with support for the federal government's diffuse social policy goal. The dynamic, which engenders intense political controversy and gives rise to dramatic rhetoric, must not be thought the product of faulty policy design. Rather, it is inherent to the logic of an implementation means founded upon the attempt to achieve a complicated philosophical straddle. Ultimately, the American public has but three basic choices. It can revise its political system to greatly expand the power of the federal government. It can abandon the effort to achieve broad social goods when societal interests and local officials maintain sufficient autonomy to resist. Or it can continue to experiment with the awkward instruments of central government leverage. With full recognition of the dangers of abuse and of discrimination, and with full awareness that the results will be less than ideal, social reformers must consciously work to expand the middle ground. Public policy is not just the product of state-and-society relationships. It also reflects the form of those relationships. Ironically, oblique funding denial, for all the appearance of imperious power, is an expression of the institutional tensions fundamental to a liberal political regime. It is a natural consequence of the distinction between central state superintendence but private and local responsibility that is so heralded in American ideology. Funding denial, a complex federal policy instrument which simultaneously leads opponents to claim arbitrary manipulation and supporters to doubt enforcement adequacy, must therefore be seen as a systematic product of the society that invented it. with the assistance of David M. Dudar     

The effects of state policy design features on take-up and crowd-out rates for the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

We evaluate the effects of state policy design features on SCHIP take-up rates and on the degree to which SCHIP benefits crowd out private benefits. The results indicate overall program take-up rates of approximately 10 percent. However, there is considerable heterogeneity across states, suggesting a potential role of inter-state variation in policy design. We find that several design mechanisms have significant and substantial positive effects on take-up. For example, eliminating asset tests, offering continuous coverage, simplifying the application and renewal processes, and extending benefits to parents all have sizable and positive effects on take-up rates. Mandatory waiting periods, on the other hand, consistently reduce take-up rates. In all, inter-state differences in outreach and anti-crowd-out efforts explain roughly one-quarter of the cross-state variation in take-up rates. Concerning the crowding out of private health insurance benefits, we find that between one-quarter and one-third of the increase in public health insurance coverage for SCHIP-eligible children is offset by a decline in private health coverage. We find little evidence that the policy-induced variation in take-up is associated with a significant degree of crowd out, and no evidence that the negative effect on private coverage caused by state policy choices is any greater than the overall crowding-out effect. This suggests that states are not augmenting take-up rates by enrolling children that are relatively more likely to have private health insurance benefits.     

The need for some innovative concepts of innovation: An examination of research on the diffusion of innovations

This paper examines research on the diffusion of innovation, the final stage in the process of technological change. The focus rests primarily on two traditions in diffusion research: that of economists and that of sociologists. Diffusion researchers in these and related disciplines have made significant contributions to the understanding of the dynamics of processes of change; yet the state of the art in diffusion research is not equal to the sum of its parts. This is due in large measure to disciplinary parochialism: scholars have concentrated on those innovations, diffusion environments, explanatory variables, and analytical methodologies which are most compatible with their particular disciplines, despite the fact that diffusion is not a discipline-specific phenomenon. Deficiencies in current understanding of diffusion are examined in the context of this and other significant problems. The paper concludes by considering the policy relevance of diffusion research and suggesting issues with which future research might productively be concerned.The following individuals have been most helpful in stimulating and directing my interest in this subject and in criticizing this paper: Richard R. Nelson of Yale University and the following members of the Faculty Seminar on Innovation and Social Change, Institute of Public Policy Studies, University of Michigan: Michael Moch, Lawrence Mohr, Everett Rogers, Herbert Schuette, Jack Walker, and Sidney Winter.     

The effects of party mobilisation strategies on the vote: The PSOE and the PP in the 1996 Spanish election

Abstract.  In this article, the author analyses the impact of parties' mobilisation strategies at the district level on their vote share in the Spanish 1996 general elections. In order to do this, the author has estimated a multilevel model to test the impact of aggregate mobilisation variables at the district level controlling for voters' individual characteristics. The efforts made by the two main Spanish parties increased their share of the vote. Moreover, their strategies seem to be more efficient for some profiles of voters than for others. The mobilisation of the PSOE especially affected those who had clear political preferences, whereas the PP's mobilisation had stronger effects on less politically aware voters.     

Friends in high places: The wealth effects of JFK's assassination on the assets of LBJ's supporters

This paper uses anecdotal evidence to identify a group of firms that had significant ties to President Lyndon Johnson and determines the effect of Johnson's unexpected rise to the Presidency on the market value of these firms. The unexpected nature of President Kennedy's death eliminates the confounding event problem typically associated with election results. We are able to identify four separate portfolios of firms that had political ties to Lyndon Johnson. Our research suggests that the market expected significant benefits to accrue to these firms as a result of Johnson's becoming President. When Catholic John Kennedy and Johnson were running together in 1960 a joke hop-scotched around the parties in Texas and Washington that Kennedy had told Johnson, “Lyndon, when we get elected I'm going to dig a tunnel to the Vatican,” and Lyndon had replied, “That's OK with me as long as Brown & Root gets the contract” (Dugger, 1982: 286).     

The effects of an employer subsidy on employment outcomes: A study of the work opportunity and welfare‐to‐work tax credits

Employer subsidies such as the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and the Welfare‐to‐Work Tax Credit (WtW) are designed to encourage employment by partially reimbursing employers for wages paid to certain welfare recipients and other disadvantaged workers. In this paper, I examine the effects of these subsidies on employment, wages, and job tenure using unique administrative data from Wisconsin. My ability to precisely identify the subsidy‐certified workers allows me to distinguish the effects of program participation from mere eligibility. Using propensity score matching estimation, I find some evidence of short‐term improvements in labor market outcomes, but little evidence of sustained benefits. © 2008 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Child protective intervention in the context of welfare reform: The effects of work and welfare on maltreatment reports

Recent changes in welfare policy have produced changes in parental work and welfare receipt. These factors are assessed in relation to investigated reports of child abuse and neglect using survey data on 1998 welfare recipients in nine Illinois counties, in conjunction with longitudinal administrative data on cash welfare benefits, employment, and child abuse and neglect reports. Trend analyses show that rates of child maltreatment reports among welfare recipients have risen since the passage of PRWORA in 1996. Findings from multivariate analyses indicate that parental employment has a protective effect on reports to child protection systems (CPS), that this effect is greatest when combined with welfare receipt, and that this effect becomes stronger over time. Those who receive welfare in the absence of employment face a significantly greater risk of CPS involvement, even compared with those who neither work nor receive welfare. © 2003 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

Testifying in an International War Crimes Tribunal: The Experience of Witnesses in the Special Court for Sierra Leone

The research described in this article investigates the extentto which witnesses who testified in the Special Court for SierraLeone (SCSL) report the experience as positive or negative.It also seeks to identify the factors that contribute to theseevaluations. It reports the results of structured interviewsconducted with 171 witnesses who testified in the SCSL. Thefinding that emerges most strongly is that the experience oftestifying was positive for the majority of witnesses. The courtroomenvironment was experienced as supportive, and witnesses ratedthe experiences of both examination-in-chief and cross-examinationas being more positive than negative, with examination-in-chiefbeing the more positive of the two. The findings suggest thata positive testimony experience can be predicted when a witnessdoes not feel worried at the prospect of testifying, feels respectedby court staff and, to a lesser extent, has a positive experienceof cross-examination.     

The Case for the Development of Public Transit in an Urban Boundary Rural Area

Individuals' preferences for automobiles are often taken for granted in our auto centric society. This study attempts to determine if commuters in a city located beyond the fringe of a metropolitan area are willing to use public transit if it is developed and what are the socioeconomic and attitudinal factors that influence individuals' decision to use such a service. Analyses of survey data reveal that preferences exist for public transit service, which can be partly attributed to individuals' concerns regarding rising gasoline prices and air pollution, and is particularly noticeable among those who are educated and/or belong to a younger age group.     

Europe in crisis and the effects on the countries of Balkan region,especially for Albania

This paper basically discusses the financial crisis that is taking place in Europe. There is a fear that this economic crisis will take hold of Europe if it is not controlled. Europe is one of the biggest economies of the world so almost all the countries over the globe are also having a threat of facing the financial crisis. This paper also looks for the opportunities that the Balkan countries will have due to this financial crisis in Europe. The fall in the economy of Europe has also affected the economic conditions of the countries of Balkan region especially Albania and the GDP values of these countries have decreased.     

The poetics of race in 1890s Ireland: an ethnography of the Aran Islands

By the end of the nineteenth century the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland had become sites of both cultural and scientific attention. Ashley examines how an ethnographical survey of the islands, based on the scientific claims of craniometry and anthropometry, engaged with and was influenced by the romantic traditions of writing about Aran. He suggests ways in which the work of the ethnographers, Haddon and Browne, should be seen as a development of the poetics of the islands, and placed alongside the literary work of Samuel Ferguson or J. M. Synge, rather than in opposition to them.     

The effects of boundary spanners on trust and performance of urban governance networks: findings from survey research on urban development projects in the Netherlands

Previous research has extensively analyzed the role, and indicated the importance, of network management for the functioning and performance of public or governance networks. In this article, we focus on the influence of boundary spanning actors in such networks—an aspect less examined in the governance network literature. Boundary spanners are considered to be important for governance network performance. Building on the literature, we expect a mediating role of trust in this relationship. To empirically test these relationships, we conducted survey research (N = 141) among project managers involved in urban governance networks: networks around complex urban projects that include the organizations involved in the governance process (the formulation of policies, decision making, and implementation) in these complex projects. We found a strong positive relationship between the presence of boundary spanners and trust and governance network performance. The results indicate a partially mediating role of trust in this relationship. Furthermore, we found that these boundary spanners originated mainly from private and societal organizations, and less from governmental organizations.     

The Use of Drones in Pakistan: an Inquiry into the Ethical and Legal Issues

It is clear the United States and other major powers see drone warfare as the wave of the future. Today more than 70 countries possess drone technology and many others are seeking to acquire it. It is expected that within 20 years, there will be swarms of drones and many autonomous fighters and bombers in use around the globe. If the trends continue as anticipated, these drones will usher in a ‘boundless and borderless war without end’. The development of technological improvements will eventually lead to a militarisation of foreign policy and unnecessary conflicts. While the circumstances in Pakistan are unique, the questions surrounding the US drone programme in non‐combat zones such as Pakistan raise important issues regarding how drone use should be governed in the future. This article is an attempt to analyse legal and ethical issues raised by the US use of drone technology in non‐combat zones such as Pakistan, and it looks into its underpinnings and also its repercussions as tool in prospective warfare.     

The effects of convergence: internationalization and the changing distribution of net value added in large German firms

The paper examines whether and how the increasing internationalization of firms impacts on the operation of a co-ordinated market economy. Following the tenets of agency theory, it assumes that an emerging market for corporate control changes the monitoring mechanisms that oversee management. Since Anglo-American forms of monitoring are usually associated with a higher return for investors compared with Continental European firms, a change in the distribution of the net value added of firms is expected. Using financial data on fifty-nine large German companies, the paper shows that the emerging convergence of German corporate governance practices to Anglo-American standards has had a weak, but significant, impact on the distribution of net value added. This is in contrast to the impact of the internationalization of firms on product markets, which does not have an effect. Since the market for corporate control is, however, still underdeveloped in Germany, the main effects remain to be seen.     

Australian Councils Unelected by the Citizens in an Indigenous Setting: The Case of Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory

Within the Australian democratic nation there are towns where the citizens are governed by administrations that have not been democratically elected by the residents. These unique residential centres are termed ‘special purpose towns’ that can be transformed to a permanent community governed by a democratic structure through a process termed normalisation. This paper examines the special purpose mining town of Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory of Australia, which is on the cusp of the normalisation process. The paper outlines the similarities and differences of local government roles and responsibilities with Australian towns or shires that have publicly elected executive members. How Indigenous people are facilitating the normalisation of Nhulunbuy, through cultural perceptions of opportunity, is discussed. A concluding focus challenges well established conventional frameworks endorsing the roles of governments and miners in the normalisation phenomenon.     

论美国殖民时期烟草大种植园主的绅士身份——以弗吉尼亚为例

本文尝试结合美国研究和文化研究的方法,利用大量事件和书信廓清美国殖民时期弗吉尼亚烟草大种植园主的绅士身份之缘起、构建的大概过程与要素以及自身经历的和所受的挑战。同时,烟草种植文化与绅士身份问千丝万缕的关系得以多角度的梳理,殖民地社会文化的冰山一角也得以再现。     

'It Wasn't Us and We Didn't Benefit': The Discourse of Opposition to an Apology by Britain for Its Role in the Slave Trade

2007 was the bicentennary of the abolition of slave trading in British ships. It was marked by renewed calls for an apology for Britain's role in the slave trade. Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed his regret for the trade but did not issue an apology.This article examines the discourse of popular opposition to an apology, as articulated in newspapers and on websites, and offers a commentary and critique on the positions adopted.'     

合理的教育分流:民族地区职业教育发展的有效途径

近年来,民族地区的职业教育获得前所未有的发展,但也存在诸多问题,需要进一步深化改革。由于供传统观念的影响,人们不愿选择职业教育,这使职业教育的发展出现生源困境,为此,我们应建立健全职业咨询体制,通过合理的教育分流来引导学生克服传统偏见,自愿选择职业教育。同时,民族地区的职业教育应立足本民族地区丰富的民族文化土壤,使职业教育与民族文化共生发展,在此基础上进一步优化配置职业教育资源,大力推进民族地区职业教育的发展。     

社会工作介入“受艾滋病影响的失依儿童”抗逆力养成——基于河南省ZMD市的循证研究

本文在社会工作视域下检视受艾滋病影响的失依儿童的抗逆力。本文发现这些儿童表现出生成的差异性、养成的向光性和实践的断裂性等特质。坚持循证实践,依据解构困境、建构意义、重构生活、整合资源的逻辑,进行社会工作专业干预,能有效地促进服务对象抗逆力的提升。