State Feminism and Women's Movements

This article offers a brief reflection on the emergence of the study of gender and politics over the past 30 years and its influence on European political science. It goes on to discuss the early results of a recently completed comparative project, the RNGS project (Research Network on Gender and the State) on the influence of women's movements on public policy decisions. The RNGS project reflects both developments in the sub-field of gender and politics and the influences of changes in approaches to the study of politics of the last 30 years or so.     

Defining Feminism

Feminism is sometimes seen either as multiple or singular as though we have to make a choice along ideological as well as philosophical lines. Feminism, I shall argue, is both multiple and singular, since 'liberal', 'socialist' and 'radical' feminisms are distinctive feminisms that can and should be assessed according to the extent to which they contribute positively to the development of a post-patriarchal society. The same holds for the philosophically differentiated varieties of 'feminist empiricism', standpoint and post-modern theory. Each represent differing feminisms within a single body of argument unified by its commitment to the emancipation of women. It is important to distinguish here between the way in which particular theorists regard their endeavours, and the practical implications of the positions taken.     

A Changing UK in a Changing Europe: The UK State between European Union and Devolution

Two issues currently dominate the UK's constitutional landscape: the UK's membership of the European Union (EU) on the one hand; and the unsettled constitutional settlements between the UK and the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on the other. This article considers these two issues in concert. It stresses the distinct relationships between the EU and the devolved territories within the UK—concerning both devolved and non‐devolved policy areas—highlighting the salience of a devolved perspective in any consideration of UK–EU relations. Despite its importance, sensitivity to this has been lacking. The article explores the implications of a ‘Leave’ or ‘Remain’ outcome on the future of the internal territorial dynamics within the UK. While there are too many unknowns to be certain of anything, that there will be knock‐on effects is, however, beyond doubt.     

Introduction: Changing Public Sector Industrial Relations in the Australian State

During the last two decades, governments have restructured their public services. Public administration has been largely replaced by public management, reflecting a more market oriented approach. In line with this pattern of change, the Australia public services at both state and Commonwealth levels, since the early 1980s, have undergone significant change. The aim of this symposium is to explore the dimensions, detail and impact of these developments, tracing the implications of public service reorganisation and operations for public sector industrial relations. The contributions therefore focus on government policies, management and industrial relations and implications for collective organisation and action. Changes in five states and one territory are considered as well as those at the Commonwealth level.     

Feminism in films

He is author most recently of Roots of Radicalism; The Media Elite; The IQ Controversy: The Media and Public Policy;and Watching America.     

Private Actors and the State: Internationalization and Changing Patterns of Governance

This article investigates the implications of political and economic internationalization on patterns of governance from a statecentric perspective. The actual patterns of governance in internationalized environments can be related to the respective governance capacity of public and private actors, which hinges in turn on the strategic constellation underlying the provision of a public good. The specific strategic constellation varies in three dimensions: the congruence between the scope of the underlying problem and the organizational structures of the related actors, the type of problem, and the institutional context, all of which involve a number of factors. With this concept in mind, we identify four ideal-typed patterns of governance, enabled by different configurations of public and private capacities to formally or factually influence in various ways the social, economic, and political processes by which certain goods are provided.     

Feminism and Political Analysis

Though not a united body of thought, feminism insists on the importance of women and the need to combat their oppression. This agenda has underlain feminists'attempts to identify an appropriate research method and their criticisms of traditional social science methodology. In some cases it has led to the repudiation of'male'science and epistemology altogether. Feminist political scientists to date have shown less interest in methodological issues. Instead they have concentrated on questioning their discipline's understanding of the nature, behavioural forms and location of politics. While not amounting to a'revolution', taken together these feminist criticisms do expose both the frequent scientistic pretensions and the conceptual narrowness of traditional political science.     

The Changing Property Tax in the West: State Centralization of Local Finances

Diminished local government autonomy and increased fiscal centralization in the hands of state government are the consequences of the restrictions on the local property tax imposed in the western states in the past twenty years. While the trend is a national one, it is more evident in the West than in other regions. Statewide voter initiatives account for some of the restrictions, particularly the more severe ones, but legislatures and governors also impose these limitations. In tracing the recent course of the centralization of local finance, this article details the property tax restrictions adopted in individual western states, examines the initiative and conventional legislative sources of these actions, and provides quantitative and qualitative evidence for the centralization thesis. In many western states the property tax has lost much of its local character, becoming in large part a fiscal and political tool for state policymakers.     

Feminism in a global era

Feminism is being re-shaped by its articulation through a global discourse of human rights and an increased focus on state interventions. This is partly a result of the transition in the gender regime changing the economic and political resources and opportunities open to women and partly due to globalization. Globalization has not only created difficulties for democratic governance, but it has also facilitated the development of new spaces, institutions and rhetoric where universal human rights is a powerful justificatory principle.     

Feminism and the political: introduction

The paper compares and confronts the work of two of the most distinguished living Marxist philosophers: G. A. Cohen from the English-speaking world, and Louis Althusser from France. It develops a critique of certain of Cohen's theses from the standpoint of ideas present in the work of Althusser. But it also problematizes certain presuppositions common to the work of both – in particular, the notion that historical development (transition or revolution) should be explained in terms of some general theory of non-correspondence between productive forces and production relations: the difference being simply that, within this scheme, Althusser accords explanatory primacy to the latter, Cohen to the former. Cohen's and Althusser's accounts of technological innovation and development are also compared, in connexion with the contrasting place which they attribute to the notice of human rationality on the one side and class struggle on the other.     

Populism and Feminism: Odd Bedfellows

In this era of populist insurgency breaking the mold of democratic politics, two movements clashed.They represented opposite sides of the political spectrum, one emancipatory, the other exclusionary. One may be identified as feminism, the other as populism. This essay analyzes both concepts and explores their connection.     

Thirty Years of Changing Federal, State, and Local Relationships in Employment and Training Programs

There have been three major training programs in the UnitedStates in the past thirty years: the Manpower Development andTraining Act (MDTA)from 1962 to 1973, the Comprehensive Employmentand Training Act (CETA)from 1973 to 1982, and the Job TrainingPartnership Act (JTPA)from 1982 to the present. MDTA was a categoricalprogram, with service providers funded directly by the federalgovernment. CETA was a hybrid block grant program that gavelocal units of government substantial autonomy in administeringthe basic training component, but CETA also includedcategoricalprogramsfor specific target groups and for public service employment.Over time, CETA was increasingly regulated. JTPA is regulatedmore by the states and the private sector, and in 1992 amendmentstargeted the program more sharply and restricted activitiesthat could be undertaken. Federalism in employment and trainingprograms has followed a course similar to other areas, withcooperative federalism ending in 1978 being replaced by coercivefederalism. In recent years, stales have started a number ofinnovative programs.     

Pathways to the Enabling State: Changing Modes of Social Provision in Western Australian Community Services

This investigation of reform of Western Australian community services problematises assumptions about the enabling state. The investigation is distinctive by virtue of its attention to the departure points as well as the destinations in pathways of policy change and its unpacking of three modes of public provision into their three constituent policy elements (funder-provider mix; the nature of agreements between policy actors; and the type of funding relationships). We find first that government had long adopted some aspects of the model of governance associated with the enabling state. Second, we find some path dependency in policy change towards marketisation. Third, we find highly nuanced policy outcomes combining government exploitation of its authority, market innovations and the maintenance of basic network features of the programs.     

Changing State Fiscal Capacity and Tax Effort in an Era of Devolving Government, 1981 2003

The American system of fiscal federalism requires that stateand local governments finance the bulk of their budgets fromown-source revenues, not transfers. This article analyzes statetotal taxable resources from 1981 to 2003 to evaluate how statefiscal capacity has changed in that time and how it has beenaffected by national recessions, to examine the extent to whichfiscal capacity differs among states and whether capacity hasconverged, and to consider whether states have responded toservice demands by changing tax effort and whether tax efforthas converged in the face of interstate competition and otherharmonizing forces. Because the capacity measure employed herecan be compared across years, something impossible with majoralternative indices, the analysis provides insights importantto the analysis of fiscal federalism and of the implicationsof revenue devolution not previously possible.     

The State and International Development Management: Shifting Tides,Changing Boundaries,and Future Directions

Today’s global concerns with poverty, instability, and terrorism link international development and security in unprecedented ways and assemble new actors in the foreign policy arena. The lessons of past experience need to better inform current policy and practice. The evolution of thinking on the role of the state, the citizen, and international development management provides clues regarding what works and what research questions remain to be answered. Institutional barriers to cooperation and shared learning need to be overcome, along with tendencies to revert to earlier, simplistic management approaches to solving international development problems.