Family Planning and Abortion Policies in the American States
In this groundbreaking work on American public policy and human fertility control, policies and practices of the 70s, 80s, and 90s are reviewed and analyzed in each of the fifty states. Arguing that morality politics have helped make fertility policies contentious and complex, McFarlane and Meier conclude that current policies are inadequate for addressing unintended pregnancy and even contribute to high abortion rates. The authors offer alternative public policy designed to be more effective in the future.
Provides a comprehensive foundation for understanding restorative justice and its application to social issues. It describes core restorative justice practices, including victim-offender mediation, family group conferencing, and peacemaking circles, as well as cultural considerations, emerging variations in a wide variety of settings, and the ......
Since the late 1980s the quality of public services has become a major focus of attention for politicians, managers and citizens, but most of the material available on how to achieve quality is either set in private sector contexts or confined to a single country. This book is a pioneer in addressing the need for a focus on issues common to the public services which underpin Westem European societies. Quality improvement is portrayed in this book as part of a broader managerial and political strategy, not a narrow technical issue. Success in improving quality in the public sphere requires a close relationship between quality improvement strategies and citizen involvement This text, firstly, provides an overview of the concepts and methodologies involved in the management of quality improvements and, secondly, offers a set of case studies to illustrate how quality improvements have been achieved, drawing lessons from a spectrum of services in a range of countries. Part One establishes a theoretical framework which helps the reader make sense of the detail contained in the case studies. It places quality improvement in the special political and organisational context of the public sector. Various concepts of quality are reviewed, showing how the choice of a particular concept has significant political and organisational consequences. Part One also discusses how quality may be measured and the importance of measurement in developing plans for improvement. Part Two provides seven case studies built around a set of common questions derived from the analysis of Part One. These case studies illuminate many of the detailed operational issues in quality improvement by drawing on the experience of a range of different types of public services from a number of different European backgrounds. Part Three reviews the general lessons of the case studies in terms of fitting strategies for improvement to the purposes and circumstances of the organisation in question, and reflects on the nature of service quality and the range of approaches to its improvement This book forms a stimulating introduction to, and exploration of, quality improvement in public services for managers, administrators and professionals in public services, as well as for academics, consultants and students of public management, organisation and administration.
The question of whether dogs should be allowed off the leash in public places has become a major political issue in cities and suburbs across the United States. In the last two decades, 'leash-law disputes' have burst upon the political scene and have been debated with an intensity usually reserved for such hot-button issues as abortion and gun ......
'Social movements' refer to purposeful undertakings by people who do not hold positions of authority or wealth, but who wish to redirect their society towards new goals and values by bypassing or defying those in power. Scholarly opinions about such movements vary tremendously. Some - especially those with painful first-hand experiences of fascist regimes - fear movements, cite their extra-constitutional features, and predict authoritarian consequences if unauthorized collective actions become more common. Others - for instance those who sympathize with recent peace, environmental, or women's movements - admire and applaud social movements, viewing them as schools for healthy citizenship. This collection contains more than 55 writings by academics and public intellectuals. The essays are drawn from different decades of the 20th and 21st centuries, and from across the globe, presenting different and sometimes divergent lines of thinking about social movements. Volume One: Theorizing about Movements after World War II Volume Two: Emergence and Evolution of Political-Process Theory Volume Three: Cultural Approaches Volume Four: Components, Contradictions and Contexts
In recent times there has been growing interest in positive psychology as evidenced by the swell in positive psychology graduate programs, undergraduate courses, journals related to the topic, popular book titles on the topic and scholarly publications.
The Law and Order Committee of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and Its War Against the Left, 1916 - 1919
Steven Levi discusses and analyzes the rise and fall of the last of the old western vigilance committees - and the rise of the first modern American committee devoted to ferreting out 'Un- American activities' among the laboring poor, union leaders, progressive politicians and social activists. The Preparedness Day bombing of 1916 was the catalyst ......
`John Clarke brings a fresh, critical, "idiosyncratic" eye to the task of thinking about the ways in which states do welfare. He paints a rich and broad canvas, using a palette that blends social, cultural, political and economic perspectives. Changing Welfare, Changing States is an important addition to the welfare state literature' - Ruth ......
Drawing on recent perspectives from social constructionism, discourse analysis, feminism and the sociology of social problems, this volume reviews a range of policy problems relating to women''s inequality.'
