Reply to Arthur Gould: "Pollution rituals in Sweden: the pursuit of a drug-free society"

Sweden's policy on psychoactive drugs has the objective of creating a society free of drug misuse in which drug misuse remains socially unacceptable and marginalized conduct. A drug-free society is a vision that expresses an optimistic and positive view of people. The spread of drugs can be stopped and drug misuers can be rehabilitated through social measures that ensure that the drug problem is not reduced to a question of individual responsibility. Since it is difficult to rehabilitate people once they have started misusing drugs, society's preventive efforts must begin as early as possible. During periods in which public opinion is more rejective of drug misuse, recruitment of new misusers declines, which is a reasonable argument for maintaining a negative societal attitude towards the use of drugs. Sweden has a well functioning drug policy with strong public support that is an integral part of Sweden's general social policies, and there is no reason to abandon this policy.     

Secular Trends in Substance Use: The Conflict and Young People in Northern Ireland

The resolution of political conflict has led some to suggest that Northern Ireland will now face a range of social problems that have been ignored or suppressed by the Troubles. One such area is adolescent drug use. In this article, a review of a range of data sources shows that drug use, with few exceptions, has increased since the emergence of the ongoing peace process. Social and political changes and enhanced paramilitary involvement in the drugs trade appear to have somehow created an environment where drug use has flourished. In reviewing current drug policy and practice, the article highlights the lack of prevention, treatment, and harm reduction services established in Northern Ireland as a cause for concern .     

Drug Education: An Abrogation of Professional Responsibility?

Findings of research (conducted mainly by outsiders of the programs) have accumulated, which showed that the dissemination of drug knowledge not only does not prevent but could actually encourage drug experimentation by juveniles. Although a new ideology, which stresses education about ‘effective living’ instead of about drugs, has been propagated for a number of years now, its presumed prophylactic effects have yet to be demonstrated by its supporters. It is argued here that a continued reliance by professionals on empirically unvalidated educational programs, based on common sense and intuitive notions, constitutes an abrogation of professional responsibility; also, that at the present state of knowledge, the cutting off of drug supplies and possibly an attenuation of drug related publicity might be the only effective measures for primary and secondary prevention of drug abuse by children and juveniles.     

Parental substance misuse and child care social work: findings from the first stage of a study of 100 families

Parental misuse of drugs or alcohol is known to be a common issue for child care social workers, yet there has been surprisingly little British research on the topic. The study reported here attempts to address this gap. All files going for long‐term allocation in four London boroughs over on average 1 year were examined (290 files). Parental substance misuse (PSM) emerged as a major feature of social work caseloads. Of the 290 cases, 100 (34%) involved concerns about parental substance misuse. The families involving substance misuse were more vulnerable on a variety of measures: the children were younger, the parents had more individual problems and the families lived in more difficult social situations. PSM cases tended to be ‘heavy end’ at the point of allocation: they accounted for 62% of all children subject to care proceedings and 40% of those placed on the child protection register. There was a fairly even spread between alcohol and drug misuse, and a number of cases involved both. Substance misuse specialists were rarely involved in working with families, primarily because parents said that they did not think that they had a problem. Suggestions for ways in which policy and practice with PSM might be improved are made in light of these findings.     

Ethnic Groups Confront a Choice

After the events in Nagorno Karabakh it is hardly necessary to persuade anyone that ethnic policy [natsional'naia politika] cannot be built up on ideological dogmas, however nice-sounding the words in which they may be phrased. But this is only the first lesson. The second lesson, which has so far been difficult to accept, is the following: one can rely on common sense only so long as those who are involved in interethnic relations are guided by it. It has been possible to affect the situation positively not so much by appeals to preserve common sense and self-restraint, but by taking extraordinary measures, even up to the highest level. What must yet happen for us finally to understand that ethnic policy is realistic and effective when it is firmly grounded in science? The purpose of the present article is to present briefly some results of sociological studies of ethnic relations and to show what may be gleaned from these results for purposes of forecasting and regulating these relations.     

毒品犯罪的社会诱因与心理动因分析

我国身处世界两大毒源地包围之中,近年来已经从毒品犯罪的"受害国"发展到"受害国与输出国兼具"的毒品犯罪重灾区。传统的制毒和贩毒犯罪尚未得到有效控制,以化学方法提炼为主导的新型毒品犯罪接踵而至。文化变迁与亚文化传播诱发演艺圈涉毒违法和涉毒犯罪频发,并且在青少年群体中形成严重的负面"模仿"和"从众"心理效应。以犯罪学和心理学的视角透视毒品犯罪的社会诱因和心理动因,可以突破传统"堵源截流"的预防方法,为控制和减少毒品犯罪提供行之有效的对策:重视新型毒品犯罪理论研究和刑事立法工作,适时排除司法环节上的障碍;继续加强国际禁毒合作,有效遏制毒源向境内渗透;全面加强毒品犯罪的社会防控,将毒品犯罪扼杀在萌生状态。     

The Troubled Families Programme: Learning about policy impact through realist case study research

This article aims to critically explore how qualitative case study research that is founded on realist principles can fundamentally enhance social policy evaluation methodologies and, in turn, provide improved learning for policy makers and practitioners. We suggest that these methodological advantages are accrued through the careful construction of theory-based explanations of “how” policy programmes work thereby addressing the limitations of quasi-experimental methods—namely, a focus on and prioritisation of outcome measures. The paper situates this key argument within wider, long-standing debates about evidence-based policy making and what constitutes “evidence” of impact in social policy. It does so through reflection on the contentious and contradictory knowledge claims that surround the Troubled Families Programme and evaluative claims regarding its efficacy. In conclusion and looking forward, we suggest that there remains much scope to combine “intensive” qualitative case studies with “extensive” quantitative measures within local and national evaluations of complex, multidimensional social policies, such as the Troubled Families Programme.     

二战时期日本的“国土计划”与殖民地台湾

日本帝国主义对台湾的殖民政策导向及活动形态,最终目的是把台湾彻底同化,并为此不断强化各项具体的殖民政策措施。在第二次世界大战期间日本策划制定的“国土计划”案中,包含:了对殖民地台湾产业及人口的分配计划等重要内容,成为针对包括本土及海外殖民地综合性开发计划的重要组成部分。1943年10月,由企画院策划制定了《中央计划草案》,其中针对台湾的计划案,继承了此前日本政府和台湾总督府制定的相关计划案。与其他殖民地地区相比,台湾的工业化构想并未受到重视,但该计划中有关工业生产目标远远高于实际状况,所以呈现了完成可能性极低的特征。虽然该计划加速了台湾对日本本土的经济性从属,但与朝鲜和中国华北地区相比,其在补充日本本土经济上的作用非常有限。     

我国药价虚高的形成机制分析及其治理途径

药价虚高是我国民生建设的一个大难题。国家多次推出降价政策措施,实行药品招标政策,但成效见微。究其成因,主要是公共卫生支出不足、政策利益冲突、药品监管不力、药价制度漏洞、委托代理扭曲,这五大层面形成了药价虚高的路径依赖。因此,从体制上彻底切断药价虚高的生存路径,才是根本的治理途径。其关键在于完善制度设计：实行医药分业,加大政府公共卫生支出,强化药品体制监督管理。     

印度积极应对世界金融风暴的挑战

本文联系印度经济近几年高速增长和国民经济结构不平衡的背景,探讨当前世界金融风暴对印度经济影响的程度,着重分析印度抵御世界金融风暴冲击的政策措施。     

Making It Happen: The Case for Compromise in the Federal Cocaine Law Debate

The US has taken an active role in formulating drugs policy for over a century, and thus much debate on how best to control drug use occurs in that country. Though most Americans support keeping drugs illegal, voices for changing the specifics of how prohibition is administered have grown louder and more effective in the past ten years—witness the recent success on the state and local level for rolling back restrictions on medical cannabis or punitive state mandatory minimum penalties (i.e. Rockefeller drug laws). Expectedly, these successful reforms have happened with the support of voters in those particular states and localities where reforms have been introduced. On the federal level, the accusation of racism has become a familiar cry among anti‐prohibitionists, who argue that cocaine laws, in particular, disproportionately affect African‐Americans and contribute to racial division. The federal government makes a great distinction in sentencing between powder cocaine, usually snorted, and crack cocaine, which is smoked. A person caught in possession of five grams of crack gets an automatic mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison. Possessing cocaine in its powder form does not carry a mandatory minimum. Additionally, these laws are the target of much debate because, for trafficking in the drug, it takes 100 times more powder cocaine than crack to trigger the same mandatory minimum penalty (the so‐called “100 to 1 quantity ratio”). I will argue that repealing the mandatory minimum sentence for crack is both justified based on the evidence and politically viable. Although the number of people affected by this law every year is minuscule, African‐Americans are undoubtedly disproportionately affected by the penalty. Eliminating the provision should not be expected to have a deleterious effect on crime or drug control efforts, and would instead have a positive effect in reinvigorating faith in the criminal justice system and in promoting positive race relations. Very importantly, it is a politically realistic reform for making prohibition work better. Erasing or dramatically changing the more controversial 100 to 1 quantity ratio—though affecting far more people than the mandatory minimum for crack possession—may or may not justify itself based on the evidence. Nonetheless, it is certainly not a politically realistic option for lawmakers.     

Are Private Interests Clouding the Peer-Review Process of the WHO Bulletin? A Case Study

Readers’ trust on the medical literature has been eroded, and journal editors and some editorial boards are taking measures to ensure that authors fully and accurately report research findings and disclose conflicts of interest. This article describes a case study in which the papers editor of the World Health Organization (WHO) Bulletin influenced the content of an article that had been approved by the external reviewers. The editor objected to the publication of the large price differentials of the new molecular entities (NMEs) across the Latin American countries where they had been tested and the limited added therapeutic value of the NMEs that had been assessed by independent drug bulletins. This article summarizes the exchanges with WHO staff and posits the hypothesis that the WHO Bulletin might be affected by the shifts in WHO financing. Several authors have raised concern about the impact of financial conflicts of interest in WHO activities in the field of nutrition, intellectual property, and in the emergency response to the flu pandemic. Moreover, it has been reported that powerful WHO contributors pressured WHO into revising its publication policy. This is the first time that authors question if these conflicts of interest are also affecting the editorial independence of the WHO Bulletin.     

Nudge or nuzzle? Improving decisions about active citizenship

In recent years ‘nudge’ has come into fashion as a form of policy intervention, under the inspiration of behavioural economics. It has encouraged policy analysts to move away from models of the ‘rational actor’ and instead to start from consumers, clients and citizens as they actually are. Nevertheless, nudge raises larger questions about public policy and the relationship between government and the citizen. This paper takes critical stock of nudge, offers an alternative in terms of ‘nuzzle’ and lays out the very different standpoint on policy to which this points. In doing so, it also puts in question the disciplinary paradigms which underpin ‘nudge’ in the scientific literature, and their underplaying of the social and institutional context of individual behaviour. It offers a perspective on public policy as providing security and supporting creativity: with government under critical scrutiny by citizens, rather than vice versa.     

The Political Construction of Elder Care Markets: Comparing Denmark,Finland and Italy

In Europe over the last two decades, marketization has become an important policy option in elder care. Comparative studies predominantly adopt an institutional perspective and analyze the politics and policies of marketization. This analysis takes a step back and examines the fundamental ideas underpinning the policies of marketization, using the ‘What's the problem?’ approach by Carol Bacchi. The central question is how the market was discursively framed as the solution to the perceived problems of three different systems of elder care, and how such processes are similar or different across the three countries. The analysis includes two extreme types of elder care systems, the Nordic public systems in Denmark and Finland, and the Southern European family‐based model in Italy. Empirically, the analysis offers interesting insights into processes of constructing and legitimating markets at the level of discourse; this occurs by defining specific problem representations, underlying assumptions and silences. In all three countries, marketization is presented as a solution which builds on rather than challenges dominant ideas of care. Conceptually, in addition to its institutions, it is crucial to understand the ideas behind the marketization of elder care. Ideas emerge as a key leverage for making policies and practices of marketization acceptable and which decision makers and other influential political/societal actors use in policy and public debates. The importance of ideas is further underlined by the fact that they do not necessarily relate to the institutions of elder care systems in a linear way.     

论侵华日军对南京的毒品毒化政策

毒品毒化政策是日本侵华期间推行的一项丑恶而阴险的殖民政策。南京地区是日本当局推行这项政策的最重要而典型的地区之一。日本推行毒品毒化政策,主要依靠三大手段:第一,通过在华中地区建立与组织严密的贩毒机构网络,将南京置于其中并成为重要的一环;第二,指使与操纵伪政权,成立鸦片管理机构,努力使鸦片贩卖与吸食公开化、法律化;第三,通过种种卑劣手段,诱使中国民众吸食毒品,并控制中国烟民。通过这些手段,日本掠夺了中国人民大量财富以满足其侵略战争的需要,并直接导致南京人民日益贫困、道德败坏、犯罪率上升等严重后果。     

论转型时期的政策利润

我国在由计划经济向市场经济转型过程中 ,改革的每一步都是靠政策推动的 ,政策利润是在不同时期对不同对象开放的 ,由此形成我国主体不同的政策利润和不同时期的富裕群体。政策利润的生成及由此形成的富裕群体是我国转型时期的必然产物。随着我国市场经济体制的建立和买方市场的形成 ,各种类型经济主体赚取不同政策利润所造成的事实上的不公平竞争和市场法则复杂化的问题日益突出 ,因此 ,我们必须清理各种政策利润 ,实现各经济主体的无差别化 ,使之在公平的环境下平等竞争     

Responses to poverty in post-apartheid South Africa: some reflections

I discuss in this article the challenge of addressing people's psychosocial needs when the causes of problems are environmental or structural. I argue that poverty can be addressed only by tackling its structural causes and removing social inequalities. In so doing, I argue that a range of antipoverty measures introduced by the government have proved ineffective, including neoliberal measures to foster economic growth, such as GEAR and ASGISA, public works programmes, social security, and poverty alleviation projects (PAPS) which, while mildly effective, were poorly administered. My strategy of choice is an 'all hands to the pumps' approach involving participatory community development, social action, policy change and joint partnership between civil society, the state and the private sector. I do not suggest particular approaches or solutions but highlight the role of social workers and community development workers in poverty alleviation.     

Response to the COVID-19: Understanding implications of government lockdown policies

The rising number of COVID-19 cases and economic implications of lockdown measures indicate the tricky balancing act policy makers face as they implement the subsequent phases of 'unlock'. We develop a model to examine how lockdown and social distancing measures have influenced the behavioral conduct of people. The current situation highlights that policy makers need to focus on bringing awareness and social restraint among people rather than going for stringent lockdown measures. We believe this work will help the policy makers gain insights into the troubled COVID-19 times ahead, and based on the estimates, they can frame policies to navigate these wild waves in the best possible way.     

Globalisation and the Politics of Persuasion and Coercion

This paper argues that an economic liberal discourse of globalisation has been pivotal to the policy‐making process in Australia over the past 15 or so years. Both Labor and Coalition Governments have aimed to restrict the electoral fall‐out from the process of restructuring by persuading Australians that the world economy has forced particular policy changes and made alternative economic policy choices unviable. Policy‐makers act to influence conceptions of the appropriate role and responsibilities of the state through persuasion – the rhetoric they speak – and coercion – the policies they make. The pervasiveness of globalisation rhetoric in the public sphere has been essential to the governing process as a complement to and buffer for the coercive impact of economic liberal policy changes. As Australia has shifted from a protectionist to an economically liberal policy structure, the effects of globalisation have become clearer. Liberalisation has intensified pressures from the world political economy and coerced changes in all areas of policy and the economy, as well as in public perceptions about the ‘limits of government’. Globalisation and economic liberalism as persuasion and coercion are the component parts of a restructured system of political and economic governance: a paradigmatic shift away from the economic protectionism of the first 80 years of Australian federalism.