Occupational safety and health in Poland in the 1990s: A regulatory system adapting to societal transformation

The societal transformation underway in Poland createda fundamental challenge to the occupational health and safety system, as the ideological and administrative principles on which it was founded vanished along with the communist-dominated regime. This paper examines the regulatory reform in Poland during the 1990s: its structural elements, implementation record and future prospects. Drawing on five case studies of privatized firms, a mailed questionnaire, and policy and institutional analysis, we find that Poland had considerable success in developing an effective regulatory system for managing occupational health hazards in privatized sector while also achieving considerable socioeconomic progress. The fundamental legitimacy of the regulators and regulatory process, the availability of information about firms and regulatory intents, and the capacity for case-specific decision making, are among the key explanatory factors. The case-specific implementation in Poland is consistent with models advocated by several authors in relation to other industrialized European economies (termed variously as negotiated compliance, tit-for-tat, cooperation-deterrence), despite a uniquely Polish context related to the continuing legacy of the communist era. The study also shows how in Poland a good fit between regulatory institutions and policies on the one hand, and their social context on the other hand, contributes to the effectiveness of the regulatory system.     

坚持解放思想实事求是的思想路线和作风——论学习贯彻党的十五届六中全会精神

党的十五届六中全会强调指出 :加强和改进党的作风建设 ,必须把思想作风建设摆在第一位。坚持解放思想、实事求是的思想路线和思想作风 ,是党顺应时代进步潮流、永葆先进性的根本要求。这是关于党的作风建设的一个非常重要的思想。能否认真贯彻落实这一精神 ,切实抓好思想作风建设 ,关系到党的建设的全局和党所领导的社会主义现代化建设的成败。一、把思想作风建设摆在作风建设的首位我们党历来十分重视加强思想作风建设。作为一个无产阶级政党 ,要保持自己的革命性、先进性 ,坚持全心全意为人民服务的宗旨 ,就必须首先抓好思想作风建设。这…     

Between workfare and enablement – The different paths to transformation of the welfare state: A comparative analysis of activating labour market policies

Abstract.  The concepts that address different paths to transformation of the welfare state as a 'workfare', an 'enabling' or an 'activating' state share the idea that traditional welfare policies, mostly aiming at decommodification, are more and more replaced by social policies emphasising (re-)commodification. Activating labour market policy therefore is supposed to play a central role within the paradigm shift of welfare state policies. It is understood to involve a mix of the enforcement of labour market participation, the conditioning of rights and growing obligations of the individual at one side, and an increase of services in order to promote employability and restore social equity at the other. In this article, the different perceptions of the workfare and the enabling state perspectives on the positive and negative aspects of activating policies are reconstructed as 'pure forms' in order to obtain theoretical standards against which the empirical cases of activating labour market policies in Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany are characterised and compared. The actual reform path is described by a combination of two indicators: the strength of the workfare and the strength of the enabling elements of the activating labour market policies. The evidence on activating labour market reforms confirms that in both dimensions a move in the same direction is taking place, but without producing growing convergence. Different welfare state types keep on producing different mixes of workfare and enabling policies, leading to very different levels of decommodification and (re-)commodification. Thus, an ongoing divergence of policies also exists within the new paradigm of an activating labour market policy, although single countries seem to change their alignment to a particular welfare state type.     

Internet Taxation and U.S. Intergovernmental Relations: From Quill to the Present

One of the most contentious issues involving federal, state,and local relations today is Internet taxation. Internet taxationis a significant battleground because it involves issues ofgreat import to federalism, including state and local autonomyand revenue adequacy. Since the U.S. Supreme Court's 1992 decisionin Quill v. North Dakota, the taxability of online transactionshas been governed by the court's physical presence nexus rule.This nexus rule has recently been called into question by variousorganizations, corporations, and elected officials. Proposalsto alter the nexus rule abound from various sources. This articleexamines the roles played by these various actors in the Internettaxation debate and explores the potential implications of changesto the nexus for federalism and intergovernmental relations.     

Voting when the economy goes bad,everyone is in charge,and no one is to blame: The case of the 2009 German election

The economy was a major issue in Germany’s 2009 election. The global economic crisis did not spare Germany, whose economy is tightly integrated into the global economy. So when the German economy experienced a historical shock, did voters connect their views of the economy with their vote choice? Or did they, as some research has suggested, recognize Germany’s dependence on global markets and cut the government slack, especially when the government consists of the country’s two major parties? Using pre- and post-election panel surveys from the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES), we investigate the weight that voters gave to the economy, relative to other considerations, when casting their ballot and whether governing parties were disproportionately judged based on the state of the economy.     

From apathy to obsession: the reactions of A. K. Chesterton and the British far right to imperial decline

ABSTRACT

Mulhall sets out to explain how, contrary to what one might expect, imperial decline was rarely a pressing issue for the British far right, usually falling below both the perceived threats of Communism and immigration on their list of priorities. By first explaining these unexpected findings and then placing them in an international comparative context, new evidence emerges that supports those imperial historians who subscribe to the ‘minimal impact’ orthodoxy regarding the effect of empire on the metropole. In addition, however, those aspects of the radical right that did concern themselves with imperial decline, namely A. K. Chesterton and the League of Empire Loyalists, are explored in depth, revealing a peculiarly British form of conspiratorial antisemitism that blamed imperial decline on secret Jewish power. This strand of conspiracy thinking, best articulated by Chesterton, is traced back to its origin so as to illuminate the continuity of ideas and ideologies between the interwar and post-war periods within the British far right. The result is an article that contributes to several existing historiographical debates and provides an exploration of a less well-known aspect of the work of A. K. Chesterton and conspiratorial antisemitism more generally.     

Modernization among the U.S. States: Change and Continuity from 1960 to 1990

This research updates and extends John Crittenden's effort toidentify the dimensions of modernization among the U.S. states.The objective is to determine the degree of continuity or changein the structure of modernization between 1960 and 1990. Weundertake a principal-axis factor analysis of the same thirty-threevariables Crittenden employed in his analysis of state modernization.In addition to comparing the results of factor analyses forthe two periods, we offer an index of state modernization for1990. The outcome of the 1990 factor analysis parallels thestructure identified for the earlier period. Four primary factorsemerge-metro-urbanism: Migratory Pull, Political Participation(Integrative Message Exchange for 1960), and Decentralization(new for 1990). The overall index of state modernization showsNew York, California, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Coloradoas the most developed states.