Learning and Change in 20th-Century British Economic Policy

Despite considerable interest in the means by which policy learning occurs, and in how it is that the framework of policy may be subject to radical change, the "black box" of economic policy making remains surprisingly murky. This article utilizes Peter Hall's concept of "social learning" to develop a more sophisticated model of policy learning; one in which paradigm failure does not necessarily lead to wholesale paradigm replacement, and in which an administrative battle of ideas may be just as important a determinant of paradigm change as a political struggle. It then applies this model in a survey of U.K. economic policy making since the 1930s: examining the shift to "Keynesianism" during the 1930s and 1940s; the substantial revision of this framework in the 1960s; the collapse of the "Keynesian-plus" framework in the 1970s; and the major revisions to the new "neoliberal" policy framework in the 1980s and 1990s.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">It’s Right,It Fits,We Debated,We Decided,I Agree,It’s Ours,and It Works</Emphasis>: The Gathering Confluence of Human Rights Legitimacy

How should we understand human rights and why might we respect them? The current literature – both philosophical and historical – presents a barrage of conflicting accounts, including moral, functional, deliberative, legal, consensual, communitarian and pragmatic approaches. I argue that each approach captures a unique, common-sense – and, in principle, compatible – insight into why human rights warrant respect. Acknowledging this compatibility illuminates the myriad different avenues for legitimacy human rights enjoy, and provides a historical window into explaining how human rights rose to become the international community’s ethical lingua franca. The depth and spread of convergence on human rights proved possible precisely because myriad people the world over found a wealth of disparate reasons for rallying under its banner. But even as human rights enjoy seven distinct sources of legitimacy, I argue that they are thereby opened for normative challenge on seven distinct fronts.     

Is Rule by Majorities Special?

One way of making decisions is for political associates or their representatives to vote on each issue separately in accordance with the majority principle and then take the cumulative outcomes of such majority decision making to define the collective choice for public policy. We call such a system one of majorities rule. Thought of in spatial terms, majorities rule is equivalent to the principle of making decisions according to the issue-by-issue median of voter preferences. If popular control and political equality are core democratic values, they can be rendered as requirements on a collective choice rule, involving resoluteness, anonymity, strategy-proofness and responsiveness. These requirements entail that the collective decision rule be a percentile method. If we then add a requirement of impartiality, as exhibited in a collective choice rule which would be chosen behind a veil of ignorance, then the issue-by-issue median is uniquely identified as a fair rule. Hence, majorities rule is special. Some objections to this line of reasoning are considered.     

Evidence-informed or value-based? exploring the scrutiny of legislation in the UK Parliament

This article argues that three types of factor – process, subject and political circumstance – are likely to affect the extent to which claims of evidence are made during legislative scrutiny. It draws upon case studies of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, the Academies Act 2010 and the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, utilising interviews with those involved and information from Hansard. The article concludes that these cases highlight that while there might be potential benefits from a yet more robust legislative scrutiny process, including greater use of pre-legislative scrutiny and the ability of public bill committees to take evidence from a wider range of witnesses and on all bills, subject and political factors would be likely to mean that the use of claims of evidence would continue to vary widely.     

The Iron Fist in the Latex Glove: The Intersection of Public Health and Criminal Justice

The intersection of public health and criminal justice involves reducing negative human outcomes, disease and crime, respectively. In this article, we examine the public health approach in detail and how it relates to criminal justice research and practice and how each discipline achieves legitimacy. We demonstrate the public duties of the criminal justice system and how it already performs some public health duties and how we can better integrate public health approaches at the academic, bureaucratic, and street levels.     

Lawrence of Arabia: The life,the legend. A review of the exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, 14 October 2005–17 April 2006

Biography and Autobiography

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. A memoir by his grandson, The. Earl of Lytton. Macdonald, London. Pp. 357. Index, illus. 30s.

Gertrude Bell. From her Personal Papers. 1914–26. Vol. II. By Elizabeth Bur‐goyne. Benn, 1961. Pp. 399. Illus., index. 45s.

The Yoshida Memoirs. By Shigeru Yoshida. Translated by Kenichi Yoshida. Pp. 291. Heinemann. 30s.

Kuniyoshi. By B. W. Robinson. Published by the Victoria and Albert Museum. 1961. Pp. 71. Plates 98. 27s. 6d.

Mao Tse‐tung and I Were Beggars. By Dr. Siao Yu. Hutchinson. Illus. Index. Pp. 253.

The Boss (The Story of Gamal Abdel Nasser). By Robert St. John. Arthur Barker, Ltd. London. 1961. Pp. 288. Index. 21s.

King Mongkut of Siam. By A. A. Griswold. Published by the Asia Society. New York. Pp. 60. $1.

Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian. By John Beames. Chatto and Windus, 1961. Index. 30s.

Religion and Philosophy

A Short History of Islam. By S. F. Mahmud. Pakistan branch O.U.P. i960. Pp. x + 724. Maps 24. 35s.

Studies in Islamic History and Civilisation. Ed. by Uriel Heyd. (Scripta Hierasolymitanc, vol. IX). Jerusalem, 1961. Pp. 228. 40s.

Yoga. Union with the Ultimate. The Sutras of Patanjali. By Archie J. Bahm. Published by Fredk. Ungar Publishing Co., N.Y. 1961. $3.50.

The Confucian Persuasion. Edited by Arthur Wright. Published by the Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, U.S.A. Index. 68s.

Selected Chinese Sayings. Translated and annotated by T. C. Lai, M.A. Published by University Book Store, Hong Kong. Pp. 191. U.S. $3.50 or 20s.

A New Selection from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. By John C. E. Bowen. Published by The Unicorn Press, London, 1961. Pp. xv + 136. Illustrations. 21s.

Asia (general)

Blueprints for Independence. By Dr. R. C. Winter. Djambatan (Amsterdam). Pp. 351. Bibliography and Annexes.

Far East

The Japanese Seizure of Korea, 1868–1910. By Hilary Conroy. Pennsylvania Press (London: Oxford University Press). Pp. 507. 60s.

East Asia: The Great Tradition. By Edwin O. Reischaucr and John K. Fairbank of Harvard University. Published by George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., London, i960. Pp. 690. Illus. Index and Biblio. 55s.

Contemporary China—Volume III, 1958–59. Ed. by Professor E. Stuart Kirby. Published by Hong Kong University Press. 1961. 45s.

Communist China Today. By S. Chandrasekhar, with a foreword by Frank Moraes; Asia Publishing House. 1961. No illustrations. Pp. 199. 21s.

South‐West Asia

The Emergence of Modern Turkey. By Bernard Lewis. Oxford University Press. Pp. 495. Biblio. Index and maps. 48s.

Crisis in Lebanon. By Fahim I. Qubain. The Middle East Institute, Washington D.C. 1961. Pp. 235. Map, appendices and index. I5.

A Modern History of the Sudan. By P. M. Holt. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Pp. 240. Illus., index, biblio. and maps. 27s. 6d.

South Asia

The Soul of India. By Comtc Amaury de Riencourt. Jonathan Cape. Pp. xvi + 431. 25s.

The National Culture of India. By S. Abid Husain. Asia Publishing House, London, 1961. Pp. xi + 237. Index. 32s.

Indian Economic Policy and Development. By P. T. Bauer. Allen and Unwin, 1961. Pp. 152. Index. 16s.

The Quintessence of Nehru. Selected and with an introduction by K. T. Narasimha Char. Allen and Unwin, London, 1961. Pp. 271. Index. 21s.

Pakistan, the Formative Phase. By Dr. Khalid bin Sayeed. Pakistan Publishing House, Karachi, i960. Pp. xii + 492.

A History of the Freedom Movement. Published by the Pakistan Historical Society, Karachi. 1957–1960. Volume I, 1707–1831. Pp. xiii + 630. Volume II, 1831–1905. Pp. viii + 332.

Central Asia

The Changing Map of Asia. A Political Geography. Edited by W. Gordon East and O. H. K. Spate. 4th Edition. Revised. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co. Inc.). Pp. xviii + 436. Maps, tables and index. 36s.

The Slno‐Soviet Dispute. Edited by G. F. Hudson, Richard Lowenthal and Roderick MacFarquhar. Published by The China Quarterly, London. 5s.

Between Oxus.and Jumna. By Arnold Toynbee. O.U.P. 1961. Pp. 202. Illustrated, map and index 21s.

The Snowman and Company. By Odette Tcherninc. Robert Hale. ? 1961. Pp. 174. Biblio. Index. Illus. 18s.

In the Kirghiz Steppes. By J. W. Wardell. Published by the Galley Press, 1961. Pp. 182. Illus. Maps. Indexed. 25s.

Everyman's Concise Encyclopaedia of Russia. By S. V. Utechin. London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd. New York: B. P. Dutton and Co. Inc. Pp. xxvi + 623. 30s.