The Development of EU Case‐Law on Age Discrimination in Employment: ‘Will You Still Need Me? Will You Still Feed Me? When I'm Sixty‐Four’

This article addresses the development of age discrimination law in the Court of Justice and concludes that there is a marked difference in the level of discretion given to Member States in cases relating to mandatory retirement policies. The article will critique the approach of the Court of Justice to the legitimate objective test and the proportionality test in retirement cases. It will also argue that the decisions of the Court of Justice to date have all involved cases with very similar factual scenarios, and the article hypothesises how a different conclusion might be reached in cases with different factors. It also considers the impact of the Charter of Fundamental Rights on such cases. The article concludes by arguing that mandatory retirement policies may no longer be compatible with EU law and that there is a need to move towards more flexible retirement policies.     

Performance Budgeting in American States: A Framework of Integrating Performance with Budgeting

The past 20 years have witnessed ongoing endeavors researching the factors that influence the implementation of performance budgeting. While various factors have been identified, the effort to build frameworks is still lacking. This research proposes a framework to study the nature of relationships among various political, economic, legal, and organizational factors with performance budgeting, as evidenced in US state governments. We found that the presence and the characteristics of the legal foundation, managing for performance, shared responsibilities with the legislature, and capacity building are the most important factors. The environmental factors, however, are not statistically significant.     

Co‐production as a route to employability: Lessons from services with lone parents

Policy‐makers claim to support personalized approaches to improving the employability of disadvantaged groups. Yet, in liberal welfare states, mainstream activation programmes targeting these groups often deliver standardized, low‐quality services. Such failures may be related to a governance and management regime that uses tightly defined contracting and performance targets to incentivize (mainly for‐profit) service providers to move people into any job as quickly as possible. This article draws on evidence from third sector/public sector‐led services in Scotland to discuss an alternative approach. These services co‐produced personalized support in partnership with disadvantaged service users (in this case vulnerable lone parents). We suggest that, in this case, street‐level co‐production and personalization were facilitated by co‐governance and co‐management in the design and organization of provision. We conclude by identifying lessons for future employability services.     

Liberal Patriotism in Hong Kong

Since Hong Kong's reunification with the People's Republic of China in 1997, debates about patriotism have erupted from time to time in Hong Kong. Considering Hong Kong's socio-political background, the feelings and attachment of Hongkongers towards their motherland are unsurprisingly complex. We therefore need a multidimensional concept to capture the complexities of Hong Kong patriotism. Based on survey data, we propose that the term ‘liberal patriotism’ best describes the type of patriotism in Hong Kong society, which is that love of the homeland and the state are qualified by liberal democratic values.     

What not to wear and other stories: addressing religious diversity in schools

This article considers the position of religion in schools in England and Wales in light of the recent decision in The Queen on the application of SB v Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High School. This held that the refusal to allow a pupil to wear the jilbab was a breach of her rights under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950 and the Human Rights Act 1998. It contrasts approaches based on human rights principles with those based on discrimination law principles, highlighting overlap and inconsistency between both the definitions applicable to different forms of discrimination and the position of teachers and pupils. It concludes that the law is in urgent need of rationalisation to provide consistency.     

Childhood Behavior and Adult Criminality: Cluster Analysis in a Prospective Study of African Americans

Adult criminality has important roots in childhood. While many studies have established that multiple problem behaviors in childhood increase the likelihood of future crime and deviance, the current study extends this “established” relationship by asking three questions: (1) Do different combinations of childhood behavioral risk factors affect adult offending? (2) Do family risk factors affect adult offending above and beyond these combinations of risks?, and (3) Are there gender differences present with respect to these two questions? Gender-specific cluster analyses identified seven clusters of childhood behavioral patterns based on teacher ratings measured in first grade among an epidemiologically-defined cohort of African Americans. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were utilized to examine the relationship of cluster membership, family risks, and criminal arrests through age 32 for serious violent and property crimes. While some gender differences emerged, both males and females in the multiple problem cluster were more likely to have later arrests for serious crime. Females who were frequently punished as first graders were most likely to have later arrests for serious crimes, while males who were from mother-only families were at higher risk of having serious criminal arrests compared to those from mother–father families. Implications for prevention and intervention strategies are also discussed.