The double-design dilemma: political science,parliamentary crisis and disciplinary justifications

Two separate, but inter-linked, dilemmas have highlighted the importance of design-led thinking. First, the crumbling physical fabric of the Palace of Westminster has prompted a multi-billion rebuilding project, which will require the parliamentary studies specialism to engage with questions of design, space, and architecture. Separately, political science more generally has been challenged to utilize the insights of design-thinking and design-practice: a challenge to which it is culturally and methodological ill-equipped. This article considers what a design-led approach to political science looks like in theory, and in practice, in the case study of the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster. This represents a first attempt at how such a fusion could be beneficial for both politics as theory and politics as practice. The main conclusion is that although design-orientated political science is not a panacea for the challenges of modern democratic governance – in intellectual or practical terms – it does appear to offer significant potential in terms of theoretically-informed but solution focused research.     

A case study in public child welfare: county-level practices that address racial disparity in foster care placement

Racial disproportionality has been a longstanding issue within child welfare. The continued overrepresentation of black children in the foster care system is troubling. The authors of this article conducted a case study of two counties in New York State that have steadily decreased the number of black children in foster care in an effort to identify what aspects of their child welfare practice impacted the decline. The case study employed document analysis, in-depth interviews, and focus groups with child removal decision makers. Utilizing a grounded theory approach to content organization and analysis, several themes emerged as noticeable factors. Some of the most salient themes included preventive services and resources, community collaborations, case practice development, family meetings, workforce diversity, the court system, and, the most unique, blind removal meetings. The themes found in this study present promising practices to assist in decreasing the racial disparity in child welfare removal decisions.     

PRODUCTIVITY BARGAINING IN COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS

Abstract: Despite several experiments with productivity bargaining in the Commonwealth employment sector, the rigidity of employment conditions was considered to be a limiting factor to the wider application of this technique to the public sector. Nor did it appear to be suitable for adoption within the compulsory arbitration system. However the frustrated expectations of blue collar employees in government employment during the Labor government's term of office stimulated the exploration of productivity bargaining as a way of achieving reduced working hours without contravening efforts to restrain wage inflation. The events within the Australian Post Office (later to become the Australian Postal Commission and the Australian Telecommunications Commission), the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission, the Overseas Telecommunications Commission and the Reserve Bank of Australia are described and some differences in the processes involved noted. The nature and significance of productivity bargaining as a technique for the immediate future are also discussed, particularly in the light of continuing stagflation and the interest of the government in wage restraint and national productivity growth.     

The social functions of correctional policy: A case study of the Alabama convict lease system 1845–1928

Private sector involvement in corrections is a controversial contemporary practice. This paper examines, from a historical perspective, one state’s experiment with leasing state sentenced convicts to private contractors for use on a variety of for profit labor projects. The convict lease system in Alabama was noteworthy for two reasons: first, Alabama relied on the lease system of convict labor longer than any other state, and second, the state operated one of the most profitable lease systems in the United States. Convicts in Alabama were used in agriculture, road and railway construction, manufacturing, in quarries and in the coal mines. It was in the coal mines that the lease system brought the greatest profit and controversy. Leases with the coal companies for convict labor became a major source of revenue for the state treasury while at the same time, prison reformers criticized the practice for its cruel and inhumane treatment of inmates (the death rate at some of the mining camps exceeded 40% of the inmates under custody per year). In addition, this paper examines some of the social consequences associated with the correctional policy of convict leasing.     

Prison Legitimacy and Procedural Fairness: A Multilevel Examination of Prisoners in England and Wales

The procedural justice model has been widely used as an explanation for understanding legitimacy and compliance with the law, particularly within the context of policing. Central to this model is the importance of procedural fairness—in which the treatment of citizens and offenders by criminal justice agents can play a key role in building legitimacy and influencing compliance with legal rules and values. This paper examines the relationship between procedural fairness and legitimacy within the context of corrections. Drawing on data from a longitudinal survey of more than 3,000 prisoners across England and Wales, we identify an important link between procedural fairness and prisoner perceptions of legitimacy. We further examine variations in legitimacy in terms of individual prisoner characteristics, conditions within prison, as well as differences between prisons.