The legitimization and institutionalization of ‘parental alienation’ in the Province of Quebec

ABSTRACT

This article examines the legitimization and institutionalization of ‘parental alienation’ discourse in the Province of Quebec, Canada. It draws upon an analysis of 31 documents (legislation, research reports and articles, training documents, professional documents and media articles) and interviews with 13 key informants, who were selected based on their knowledge of ‘parental alienation’ in research, policies or practices. The research findings reveal that the legitimization and institutionalization of ‘parental alienation’ discourse is a more recent process than in other provinces and countries, but that it has now permeated child custody as well as child protection proceedings. Academic researchers and media have been instrumental in this legitimization and institutionalization process, while the role played by changes to child protection policies is more ambiguous. The findings reveal researchers’ and experts’ tendency to distance themselves from Gardner’s controversial work on ‘parental alienation syndrome’ and to address the critiques by proposing new approaches and new concepts. However, the terms ‘parental alienation syndrome’, ‘parental alienation’ and ‘alienating behaviours’ are often used interchangeably, and assessment practices tend to rely on similar indicators.     

Political Conflict over Time

We study a model of electoral competition in which politicians must decide whether to initiate the provision of some public good and, afterward, how much of the public good to supply. The model illuminates how a project's implementation affects elections and, conversely, how electoral considerations influence decisions about implementation. Under well-defined conditions, politicians will either implement projects that they do not like or delay projects that, absent electoral concerns, they would support. The model further reveals how the perceived benefits of holding office can impede the production of public goods about which there is broad consensus. And depending on facts about the program's structure and the electoral landscape, a policy's implementation can either mitigate or exacerbate political conflict.     

The impact of parental homosexuality in child custody cases: a review of the literature

As a result of the relatively high rate of divorce in this country and the increasing awareness that many parents (an estimated 1.5 million) are homosexual, the courts, as well as divorce mediators, have become actively involved in child custody placement decisions involving homosexual parents. While custody decisions have tended to reflect stereotyped beliefs or fears concerning the detrimental effects of homosexual parenting practices on child development, a review of the research consistently fails to document any evidence substantiating these fears. A number of specific custody issues are discussed as well as social factors relevant to lesbian motherhood. In conclusion, several authors call for increased awareness of the facts of homosexual parenting by lawyers, judges, and other professionals involved in homosexual parent-child custody cases.     

Insolvency and employment protection: the mixed effects of the Acquired Rights Directive

The statutory protection provided by European Community law to employees during transfers of undertakings and other restructurings has been criticised on the grounds that it undermines insolvency procedures and interferes with the ‘rescue’ process. We present an analysis which suggests that granting employees rights of this kind may be an efficient means of recognising their firm-specific human capital. Case-study evidence is then presented to show that while in some situations employment rights may obstruct reorganisations, in others they allow employee interests to be factored into the bargaining process in such a way as to enhance the survival chances of enterprises undergoing restructuring. The law functions best when effective mechanisms of employee representation are in place and when the conditions under which employees’ acquired rights can be waived in the interests of preserving employment are clearly specified.     

Prospects for NGOs in China

This article explores the prospects for indigenous and foreign NGOs in post-Mao China. The structural complexity of the emerging NGO sector is illustrated by a typology of the new social organisations which have flourished in the last ten years. The author considers the factors favouring the expansion of this intermediary sector of quasi- and non-governmental activity, but also analyses the factors constraining the emergence in the near future of a vibrant NGO sector. Foreign NGOs eager to develop links at the forthcoming UN International Conference on Women should be prepared to work in conjunction with the Party/State and semi-official social organisations.     

“A Projected New Trusteeship”? American Internationalism, British Imperialism, and the Reconstruction of Iran, 1938-1947

Diplomatic histories identify an early cold war “paradigm shift” as restoring the troubled Anglo-American “special relationship.” However, an integrated analysis of Second World War and post-war Iran suggests continuity in ideologically based Anglo-American differences on the reconstruction of the postwar world economic periphery, and that this was the defining context for crucially elusive relations during successive crises to come. The Americans had embraced Iran as an exemplar of “new deal internationalism,” being as much opposed to competing British neo-imperialist political and economic models there as to Soviet encroachments. They continued to identify autonomous British policies and interests antipathetically during the early cold war period and beyond, not merely out of economic self-interest, but at crucial moments disavowing geopolitical realpolitik. This perplex also determined during future crises of British power, in Iran and throughout the Middle East, that US interests would shift to new relationships, whenever having to decide, with indigenous peripheral actors rather than neo-imperialist European allies, precluding institutionalized, comprehensive Anglo-American partnership, which Britain had hoped would preserve and extend its role as a regional power.