Political choice and the child labor statute of 1938: Public interest or interest group legislation?

Federal regulation of child labor (unlike that passed in early nineteenth century England) did not materialize until the New Deal of the 1930s. The present paper examines, using anecdotal and empirical evidence, the motives underlying the passage of depression-based child labor legislation embodied in the Senate vote on the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Our study, which utilizes both dichotomous and trichotomous probit models of the vote, finds evidence that there were critical and dominantprivate as opposed to public interests behind the restrictions that the FLSA placed on child labor and the exemptions that it established.     

Fast Tracking Persistent Young Offenders: To What Effect?

The last few years have seen much emphasis being placed on the speed of justice. In particular there has been an emphasis on speeding up youth justice, and this has resulted in quite a few Youth Courts establishing fast tracking schemes for persistent and spree offenders. One of the first of these started two years ago at Sheffield Youth Court. Its progress has been closely monitored by both the court staff and by research carried out at the University of Sheffield. The paper presents some of the results of this research, considering the purpose of fast tracking, what effect it has had on the court process, and the consequences for young offenders themselves. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Irish Potatoes and British Politics: Interests, Ideology, Heresthetic and the Repeal of the Corn Laws

The Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 remains one of the most fascinating events in the history of political economy. A parliament securely controlled by the party of agriculture, which was the main beneficiary of protection, abolished protection. Explanations have included the hegemony of Manchester School economics; class conflict; the effectiveness of the Anti-Corn Law League; the personality of Sir Robert Peel; and evangelical religion. We aim to see why the standard ideas from political economy (Chicago and/or Virginia) seem to fit our case so poorly. We use the Aydelotte dataset on rollcalls in the Parliament of 1841–7, augmented from primary sources, and the letters and memoranda of the principal actors.