OBSTACLES TO EQUALITY: GOVERNMENT RESPONSES TO THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

Abstract: The Gay Rights movement in the United States, like other social movements, may achieve its goal of full equality before the law through actions by the legislatures or courts. Generally, action by the latter opens the door to concessions by the former. But the Gay Rights movement has not progressed as its adherents have wished for four reasons: (1) the unpopularity of homosexuals; (2) the disjointed nature of American government(s); (3) the absence of cohesiveness of the movement itself, possibly as a result of a lack of economic deprivation among homosexuals; and (4) most significant, the unwillingness of the Supreme Court to accord to homosexuals the same rights it has extended to other minority groups, thereby giving a lead to legislatures as they did in the area of civil rights for Blacks.     

RESPONSES TO GROWTH IN THE SUN-BELT STATE: PLANNING AND COORDINATING POLICY INITIATIVES IN QUEENSLAND

Abstract: Queensland's population growth phenomenon has demanded responses from the state government for greater intervention in planning land use and resources utilisation. Planning, especially regional planning, represents an area of traditional policy neglect in Queensland, explained in part by the division of powers such that local authorities, rather than the state, have the major responsibility for land-use development and physical services. Local government jurisdiction in planning poses a challenge for the state government in how best to strategically manage regional growth, while at the same time respecting local authority autonomy in planning decision-making.
Over the last three years, the Goss government has undertaken both administrative reforms and a comprehensive and innovative planning exercise to shape urban development in south-east Queensland, the area of greatest population density and growth. In particular, it has adopted a model of corporate government as a framework for the planning process. The corporate model promotes a "whole of government" approach to strategic planning, emphasising efficient and effective outcomes for clients. The model's client orientation has elevated and formalised the role of community input in decision-making, and provided a process for negotiation between the players in planning policy development. In an intergovernmental environment, consultation with local authorities is important but the managerialist aspects of corporate government are likely to encourage central control of the planning policy agenda. Both are necessary for improved urban outcomes, yet it remains to be seen how these potentially conflicting processes can be reconciled in practice.     

AN APPROACH TO THE POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY OF THE WELSH NATIONALIST MOVEMENT

Abstract The character and ideology of the Welsh nationalist movement have changed drastically since the founding of an independent party in 1925. This paper seeks to utilize a developmental typology in analyzing data obtained from interviews with nationalist activists in examining such changes. In this way, it is possible to understand how Welsh language militants, 'respectable' cultural nationalists, middle-of-the road party workers from rural Wales, and south Wales radicals coexist and cooperate within the fabric of organized nationalism. The investigation of the social dynamics of the movement renders comprehensible both the causes of internal organizational strength and the electoral difficulties facing Plaid Cymru.     

BALANCING AUTONOMY AND CAPACITY IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS: THE DILEMMA OF OFFICIAL RECOGNITION AND SUPPORT FOR NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATIONS

Community organization helps relatively powerless groups improve their political bargaining position by increasing the stability. persistence, and standing of the group… But… community organizations of relatively powerless groups remain constrained by their need to secure resources and develop incentives to attract constituents. For the most part, those may be acquired only through interactions requiring compromises of group independence and goals.     

POLICY MODELING TO SUPPORT ADMINISTRATIVE DECISIONMAKING ON THE NEW YORK STATE HIV TESTING LAW

A recent New York law requires medical providers to offer HIV tests as part of routine care. We developed a system dynamics simulation model of the HIV testing and care system to help administrators understand the law's potential epidemic impact, resource needs, strategies to improve implementation, and appropriate outcome indicators for future policy evaluations once postlaw data become available. Policy modeling allowed us to synthesize information from numerous sources including quantitative administrative data sets and practitioners’ content expertise, structure the information to be viewed both numerically and visually, and organize consensus for decisionmaking purposes. This case illustrates how policy modeling can provide an integrated framework for administrators to examine policy problems in complex systems, particularly when data time lags limit pre–post comparisons and key outcomes cannot be measured directly.     

THE MARKET FOR INDUSTRY: WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD?

This paper investigates one of the perennial mysteries in the area of state and local finance, the provision of tax and other subsidies to business by federal, state and local governments in the face of solid evidence that such incentives do little to nothing to influence business location or job creation. The paper looks at the upsurge in such governmental aid in the last decade and considers whether this upsurge has occurred because such aid is more efficacious than it used to be or whether it has occurred for political reasons unrelated to its effectiveness.     

FACING UP TO THE FUTURE: COMMUNITY IN THE WORK OF RAYMOND WILLIAMS IN THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES

They are 'the people at the top' 'the higher-ups', the people who give you your dole, call you up, tell you to go to war, fine you, make you split the family in the Thirties to avoid a reduction in the Means Test allowance, 'get yer in the end', 'aren't really to be trusted', 'talk posh', are all twisters really', 'never tell yer out'. clap yer in clink', 'will do y'down if they can', 'summons yer'…'treat y'like much (Hoggart, 1967).
Our predodccupation with 'communituy' though greeted at the time as innovatory, also led up back to a two-camp - or two-nation - view of politics.(and) legitimated a return to class politics, albeit one based not on industry, but on the solidarities of backstreet life (Samuel, 1989).