Quebec’s resilient redistribution model: Activation policies in the 2010s

Compared to the rest of Canada, Quebec has an ambitious and redistributive social model, which includes an elaborate set of Active Labour Market Policies (ALMP), with higher expenditures as a percentage of GDP, an encompassing coverage, and collaborative, multipartite governance arrangements. Since the 2008 recession, however, most OECD countries have implemented retrenchment measures, market enforcement, and individual action plans to their ALMP. Using provincial, federal, and OECD data and reports, this article maps the recent evolution of Quebec’s ALMP in light of these trends. Quebec’s model appears largely resilient, despite declining expenditures and modest concessions to conditionality in social assistance.     

Die Alpenkonvention – Inhalt und Konsequenzen für das nationale Umweltrecht

Bereits seit 1991 existiert das übereinkommen zum Schutz der Alpen (Alpenkonvention, AK). Allerdings sind erst Ende 2002 die acht Durchführungsprotokolle zur AK und ein Zusatzprotokoll über die Streitbeilegung in Kraft getreten, weil drei Vertragsstaaten, darunter Deutschland, diese ratifiziert haben. In der Rahmenkonvention verpflichten sich die Vertragsparteien, „unter Beachtung des Vorsorge-, des Verursacher- und des Kooperationsprinzips eine ganzheitliche Politik zur Erhaltung und zum Schutz der Alpen unter ausgewogener Berücksichtigung der Interessen aller Alpenstaaten, ihrer alpinen Regionen sowie der Europ?ischen Union unter umsichtiger und nachhaltiger Nutzung der Ressourcen“ sicherzustellen (Art. 2 Abs. 1 AK). Nun geht es darum, die AK und ihre Protokolle umzusetzen, d.h. auf der Ebene des V?lkerrechts, aber auch auf nationaler Ebene durch Anpassung der nationalen Rechtsvorschriften sowie durch Anwendung und Auslegung der Konvention seitens der nationalen Beh?rden und Gerichte zu verwirklichen. Der nachfolgende Beitrag liefert einen überblick über Inhalt und Bedeutung der AK und ihrer Protokolle, ordnet die Konvention in das Umweltv?lkerrecht ein und befasst sich mit den Konsequenzen für das innerstaatliche Recht.     

Modern beliefs regarding medicinal plants in Estonia

The popularity of using herbal cures in twenty-first century Estonia has several reasons. Estonians are familiar with nature, and many collect berries, mushrooms, and potherbs. Herb collecting in general is a part of the local heritage. There are private enterprises in Estonia dealing with the cultivation and sale of herbs. Herbs can be bought from grocery stores, markets, and pharmacies. Even medical doctors can recommend herbal treatments for mild illnesses.

This article reviews which herbal beliefs are held among modern Estonians and how this fits with global trends characterized by a growing strive toward the natural lifestyle also evident in health behavior and an attitude toward pharmaceutical companies as businesses who prioritize income above welfare. We will analyze how herbal beliefs reflect people’s religious views, educational background, sex and age. The empirical base of the study consists of the responses of 1,205 randomly selected subjects, of whom 650 were interviewed face to face in six different areas of Estonia and 555 replied to a survey online. The core of the questionnaire consisted of opinions on ten general herbal beliefs. In addition, respondents were asked their opinions on natural and synthetic medicines and reasons for herbal healing effects.     

Evaluation of Theft,Lying, and Fighting in Adolescence

The nature of age and gender differences in the evaluation of three everyday immoral behaviors was analyzed with a 21-item questionnaire. The items included examples of theft, lying, and fighting expressed both as omissions and commissions, commissions further specified with positive motives, negative motives, duress, or provocation. Three age groups were included in the study: pre-adolescents, midadolescents, and late adolescents (N = 2594). The most important findings were that boys accepted all immoral acts better than girls, the immoral peak in midadolescence, the low differentiation between the different types of acts in preadolescence, and the flexible usage of different rationales in middle and late adolescence.     

‘Soft’ forms of direct democracy: Explaining the occurrence of referendum motions and advisory referendums in Finnish local government

This study investigates ‘soft’ forms of direct democracy and identifies factors that explain their occurrence. Soft direct democracy refers to non‐binding referendum motions and advisory referendums, which the literature on direct democracy has largely ignored. Strategic motives have dominated previous explanations of the occurrence of initiatives and referendums, but are less useful in exploring non‐binding procedures of direct democracy. The article distinguishes four types of factors – socio‐structural, party system, political support and learning – and tests hypotheses on their effects with sub‐national data from Finland. The data enable us to compare two different types of instruments – non‐binding referendum motions and advisory referendums – while controlling for many unobserved factors. The findings show that erosion of political support, participatory traditions and policy diffusion explain the occurrence of bottom‐up referendum motions, while the last two together with small population and party system factors predict the occurrence of advisory government‐initiated referendums.     

Marriages among people with disabilities in 19th-century Sweden: marital age and spouse’s characteristics

ABSTRACT

While marrying was an expected event in 19th-century Western society and has been subject to much historical research, there are few studies on how disabilities influenced people’s marriage patterns and spouse selection. The aim of this analysis is to contribute clarification on this issue by examining with whom disabled men and women married and the marital age and socio-demographic characteristics of them and their spouses. In total, 188 disabled individuals born in the first half of the 19th century and who married in the Sundsvall region, Sweden, are studied. The results reveal that disabled men and women did not marry each other, and they entered into marriage at a slightly higher age than the average, although there was usually no marked age gap between them and their spouse. Endogamous patterns were primarily found regarding the socio-spatial background of the two spouses. This analysis is one of the few studies identifying the marriages among a comparatively large number of disabled people using demographic data. Their participation in the partner pool highlight their agency historically and emphasize that disability did not lead to distance from social life in past society.