“The Politics of Political Advertising” in Australia and Britain, 1970–1989

The role of advertising in the production of political campaigns deserves more consideration than it has previously received. My study examines advertising agencies associated with election campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s, investigating their decisions to accept or reject political accounts. Focusing on Britain and Australia, and using a range of primary sources including the industry press, interviews and memoirs, I demonstrate that an agency's decision to accept a political account is always complex, contested and highly contingent. Accepting a political account may alienate clients and agency staff who support another party. Campaigns are labour‐intensive and may detract from an agency's core business. Involvement in a losing campaign can damage an agency's reputation, just as association with a successful one may attract clients. Agencies are often unsure how to approach political advertising where traditional techniques may not be suitable. Such concerns about accepting a political account will likely be put aside where an agency principal has close personal ties to a party or leader.     

Women and Penal Reform: Two Steps Forwards,Three Steps Backwards?

Since publication of the Corston Report in 2007, initiatives with regard to women and criminal justice in England and Wales have been marked by positive steps on the one hand, but reversal and failure on the other. A central element to this narrative has been the enthusiastic development of community‐based services for women, only to be followed by the subsequent dissipation of government energy, a diminution of interest, and a decline in funding. In this article, some of the complexities of the reforms are considered, a detailed reading is provided of the various initiatives as an historical record, and the context(s) in which the steps forward and backward can be understood is reflected on. In light of the evidence, it is argued that if women's centres are to be successful in facilitating and supporting movements away from crime, then there is an urgent need for a consistent strategy derived from evidence‐based research and experience.     

Determinants of the probability and timing of commercial casino legalization in the United States

The adoption of lotteries by state governments has received significant attention in the economics literature, but the issue of casino adoption has been neglected by researchers. Casino gambling is a relatively new industry in the United States, outside Nevada and New Jersey. As of 2007, 11 states had established commercial casinos; several more states are considering legalization. We analyze the factors that determine a state’s decision to legalize commercial casinos, using data from 1985 to 2000, a period which covers the majority of states that have adopted commercial casinos. We use a tobit model to examine states’ fiscal conditions, political alignments, intrastate and interstate competitive environments, and demographic characteristics, which yields information on the probability and timing of adoptions. The results suggest a public choice explanation that casino legalization is due to state fiscal stress, to efforts to keep gambling revenues (and the concomitant gambling taxes) within the state, and to attract tourism or “export taxes.”     

Active ageing in employment: Its meaning and potential

This article focuses primarily on the recently emerged notion of “active ageing” and the policies necessary to turn it from a political slogan into an important mechanism in societal adjustment to population ageing. It begins by summarizing the main reasons for the growth of interest in active ageing. It goes on to describe the background to the concept of active ageing and its relationship to productive ageing. Then it outlines the basic principles on which policies on active ageing should be based and the key elements of a strategy to implement it. This is followed by a summary of the potential of active ageing to influence social protection expenditure. Finally the focus moves to the organizational level and the elements of an age management approach are presented. It is argued that a strategy of active ageing across the life course will enable ageing workers to exert a stronger influence over not only their later life careers but also their health and well-being. In addition to this personal empowerment active age management within organizations has the potential to improve efficiency and the optimum use of human capital. At the macro level active ageing can help to sustain or build up social protection systems. The main reference point for this article is Europe.     

The Global Workplace—challenging the race to the bottom

Founded in 1951, War on Want is a UK‐based NGO committed to the alleviation of poverty with strong roots in the labour movement. War on Want's programme on the Global Workplace provides trade unionists with a range of practical skills and knowledge about international development issues. Part of the programme involves a ‘Global Workers' Forum’, which takes grassroots trade union activists from the UK to a similar sector or even a plant owned by the same employer in the South. The aim is to enhance participants' understanding of the impact of globalisation on the industries in which they work, establish relationships that can act as starting points for global action, and encourage participants to spread the message within their own unions. There is also a website which raises awareness of the global economy and encourages activists to make links and undertake joint action. It is essential that now, as never before, trade unionists should work together as an international force to challenge globalisation and fight for the recognition of workers' rights. The Global Workplace suggests that showing global solidarity to workers around the world can help trade unionists rise to this challenge.     

The State in Environmental Management: The Ecological Dimension

A focus on 'modern' industrialized societies obscures both the great antiquity of the state and the powerful selective pressures that have led to the dominance of interstate competition, especially warfare. In pursuit of power, elites encouraged population growth and intensified the exploitation of the natural resource base, with progressively more severe ecological impacts. Modern technology has vastly amplified the problem. Though it makes possible sophisticated environmental management, that has been neglected for the demands of the military—industrial system. These ill-effects are reinforced by ignorance of ecology and inadequacy of traditional political thought. A major adaptive challenge faces modern states: to use their knowledge and resources for more humane, environmentally sensitive management and perhaps achieve a novel kind of steady state, or to renew emphasis on short-term competitive considerations.