Voter Engagement,Electoral Inequality and First‐Time Compulsory Voting

This paper reviews the problem of declining turnout and proposes as a solution a system whereby each elector would be legally obliged to vote in the first election for which they were eligible. Popular attitudes toward first‐time compulsory voting are measured and probed by means of UK data. The main findings of the paper are that first‐time compulsory voting is a politically and administratively feasible proposal that appears tentatively to command popular support and has the potential to help address a number of the problems associated with declining turnout, and in particular low rates of electoral participation among younger citizens.     

National styles of regulation: Child care in three countries

An analysis of child care regulations in Germany, Sweden, and the United States reveals distinctive national policy styles. A ‘social constructionist’ perspective, with its emphasis on variable problem definitions, helps to explain such differences. However, a full understanding of regulatory differences requires attention to regulatory solutions as well. By disaggregating the concept of regulation, we are able to demonstrate rather different rank-orderings of our three countries in their regulatory solutions. We attribute these differences to cultural, institutional, and political characteristics of the three countries.     

Do policies develop like scientific paradigms? On occupational safety and health legislation in Finland

Abstract. The article adds to the attempts to describe and explain legislation as an extended process. The case of Finnish labour protection policy is used as an illustration. It is argued that the labour protection policy is pursued in accordance with an established labour protection paradigm, which consists of the way of cognitively structuring the safety and health problem, of the accepted methods to deal with the problem and of the values underlying the policy. It is argued that the Finnish labour protection paradigm does not correspond with the real function of labour protection. Generally, the paper suggests that the paradigm-nature of public policies implies an inherent conservatism, allowing only partial adaption to social and political change.