Perverse politics

‘Perverse Politics: Lesbian Issues’, Feminist Review No 34 Spring 1990; Monika Kehoe Lesbians Over 60 Speak for Themselves (Haworth Press) New York 1988; Esther D. Rothblum & Ellen Cole (eds) Lesbianism Affirming Nontraditional Roles (Haworth Press) New York 1989.     

The political hand: Policy implementation and youth employment programs

Outstanding studies in the past decade have illuminated the sources of ineffective implementation and thus have suggested what not to do. To learn more about what to do, we analyzed a broad range of cases of effective implementation of youth employment programs in eight cities. The goal was to build an impressionistic model of the conditions contributing to flective implementation. We found that executives in the successful programs often acted as “fixers,” repairing the implementation process and protecting and correcting their programs, especially through coalition building and constant intervention in administrative detail. Some executives created patterns of interest convergence among the relevant actors, using incentives to turn mild interests into active support. They thus provided the public sector's missing “political hand,” analogous to the market's “invisible hand.”     

Liability for the Escape of GM Seeds: Pursuing the ‘Victim’?

The widespread commercial cultivation of GM crops in the EU and the UK is getting closer. Intense concerns about the uncertain health and environmental effects of GM farming have been the subject of high profile debate. The effects of GM farming on existing forms of agriculture, raised by the prospect of cross–pollination by GM seed, provoke similarly polarised views. However, whilst regulatory developments have been strongly influenced by environmental and health concerns, the socio–economic impact of GM agriculture is relatively neglected in current regulatory approaches. The authors examine various possible legal responses to unwanted cross–pollination by GM seed, and contend that the law is likely to struggle to cope with the conflicts that may arise.     

The power to make war: Congress' search for an effective role

In the heat of Vietnam and Watergate, Congress sought to develop a more effective role in decisions about the use of the armed forces in combat or in potential combat situations. The War Powers Resolution passed in November 1973 was the solution Congress devised to this problem. But the War Powers Resolution has fallen well short of the hoped-for partnership; the most momentous issue to confront the nation-to wage war or not to wage war-still does not effectively engage Congress. Whether such a role is possible for Congress in a system that is built on checks and balances is quite uncertain. Some improvements over the present situation are proposed; but it remains evident that the power to make war will rest primarily in the office of the president.     

A comparative view of indigenous citizenship issues

Following the Wik decision it is being suggested that Australia ought now to revisit the translation of special legal norms formulated in international law with respect to the human rights of indigenous citizens. These have previously underpinned developments in both Australia and Scandinavia with respect to indigenous people. Recent Australian developments, particularly the struggle over indigenous property rights, exemplify the argument of O'Neill (1997) in the first volume of Citizenship Studies, which points to the absorption of civic autonomy by market sovereignty. O'Neill is correct to suggest that the dominance of market sovereignty reduces the political participation of those incapable of the competitive struggle for private affluence and that this has a squalid dimension. Central to this is the denial of the notion of community and dominance of the market. This dominance has obscured the significance of the Australian High Court's recognition of aboriginal land rights in Mabo. The decision put the incorrect application of terra nullius—or no man's land—to Australia to rights. It made it possible for the nation to contemplate indigenous sovereignty consequent upon the recognition of native title property rights. Australia's translation of those rights with the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) looked to international law for its rationale. The rights of the Sami people have been developed in Scandinavia largely with reference to the evolution of international law on indigenous peoples. As we approach 2000, Australia cannot continue to ignore the special legal norms in international law relating to citizenship of indigenous peoples. International law informs attempts by indigenous people in modern times to regain some of what they lost in the past.