The compleat advocate

Recognizing and analyzing a public policy problem is an important first step in impacting on its resolution. However, the more crucial and subtle steps are the subsequent ones of selection of means, implementation, evaluation and termination addressing the multi-phased policy decision process. The translation of knowledge created during the estimation phase of possible policy alternatives is a not very well appreciated activity, and this article sheds clear light on the essentials of how one might go about making this translation. Considered are some practical, hard-won lessons learned about becoming and being a public policy advocate. While the specific focus is on children's legislation, the principles invoked have more widespread applicability.     

Redefining Corporate Social Responsibility in an Era of Globalization and Regulatory Hardening

Globalization and the growth of multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been accompanied by an increasing call for corporations to take responsibility for their environmental and social impacts, and for greater corporate disclosure and transparency with regard to nonfinancial risks (collectively known as corporate social responsibility or CSR). At the same time, governments have increasingly turned to mandatory obligations for formerly voluntary CSR engagement, a trend we call the legalization of CSR. This article analyzes the “hardening” and legalization of CSR, and considers what this process tells us about norms and assumptions regarding the social responsibility of firms in the United States and around the world. Through our analysis of corporate trends, regulations, and case law from the United States, European Union, China, and India, we argue that the process of legalization and redefinition of CSR through a shareholder primacy lens may, troublingly, undermine the very notion of CSR. In the face of these trends, this article concludes with a redefinition of CSR that includes an express commitment to corporations’ social and ethical responsibility to society.     

Public Sector Labour Relations in Western Australia – An Overview

The election of a LiberalNational Coalition government in 1993 heralded a period of significant and sustained change in Western Australian public sector labour relations. As legislator, the Coalition government embarked upon a program to decentralise and deregulate the Western Australian industrial relations system; as an employer, the government has had to respond to the economic imperatives which have faced most employers in recent years. The result has been a period of major change in the public sector – employment levels have declined as services have been privatised or contracted out; the proportion of non-permanent and part-time employees has risen significantly. Individual workplace agreements have been introduced; individualised performance-related management and reward systems have increased; and the scope for union involvement has diminished, as has the level and density of union membership. The experience of the public sector therefore reflects many of the workplace changes that are also found in the private sector. It also brings the government's industrial relations policies into sharper focus.     

(Un)Worthy: Latina battered immigrants under VAWA and the construction of neoliberal subjects

In the United States recognition as a battered immigrant can lead to legalization and citizenship for abused women when provisions in the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) are applied. To successfully utilize VAWA towards these ends, however, a battered immigrant woman also receives a lesson in cultural restructuring required of citizenship; VAWA establishes the regulations and standards necessary to remake abused immigrants into neoliberal subjects. This essay examines the experiences of undocumented Latina immigrants within the VAWA legal paradigm and explores the ways in which the process artfully crafts the good neoliberal citizen.     

Civilians Versus Police: Mediation Can Help to Bridge the Divide

The increasing frequency of notorious cases of conflicts between police officers and members of the general public (which in New York City has led to incidents of death, battery, and sexual assault) is cause for alarm. At the root of many police-community conflicts are an incomplete understanding of the work of the police, poor communication on the part of the police and the public, or simple misunderstanding. A number of communities, including New York City, are turning to mediation to provide a forum for the potential resolution of complaints made against police by citizens. After a brief survey of the work of such programs nationally, the author focuses on three New York cases in which she served as a mediator, using them to illustrate the pitfalls and special rewards of mediating in this context. The author believes that the mediation process itself can work in a transformative way, improving strained relations between police and the general population.     

Justice Sensitivity and Cooperation Dynamics in Repeated Public Good Games

It is frequently observed that despite individual incentives to free ride, humans decide to cooperate with each other to increase social payoffs. In the current research, we address the effects of individual differences in justice sensitivity on cooperation. Using incentivized repeated public good games, we find that individual differences in justice sensitivity—the ease of perceiving, remembering, and reacting to injustice from the perspectives of an observer, beneficiary, or perpetrator, but not victim—substantially predicts cooperation in the absence of a punishment option. In contrast, when costly punishment is allowed for, cooperation becomes strategic as it also aims at avoiding subsequent punishment. If such a sanctioning mechanism is in place, justice sensitivity no longer predicts cooperation. The results regarding the degree of cooperation as reaction to initial non-cooperation of one’s counterparts highlight the role of justice-concerning personality traits for the sufficient provision of public goods, as sanctioning institutions are not always possible, effective, or suitable.