Effects of Conservative Sociopolitical Attitudes on Public Support for Drug Rehabilitation Spending

Objective . In this article we investigate why traditionally conservative social groups show less support for spending on drug rehabilitation programs than for drug control spending in general. Methods . Using data from the 1984 through 1998 General Social Surveys, we first estimate logistic regressions of support for drug control spending across five sociopolitical cleavages. We then estimate effects of three types of sociopolitical attitudes on support for drug spending within traditionally conservative groups. Results . Resistance to rehabilitation spending among conservatives is related to their opposition to the welfare state, punitive attitudes toward criminals, and among whites, racial attitudes. Conclusions . Our findings suggest that citizens may withhold support for a social policy to the extent that it evokes negative associations with other salient sociopolitical issues or attitudes. We discuss the importance of these associations for understanding the relationships among political debate, public opinion, and policy outcomes.     

Work, welfare and the attack on the welfare state: the mixing of politics and policy

This article considers the current ideological and political attack against the floor of benefits for poor families in the United States. It examines a number of punitive approaches to the treatment of families on welfare that were developed in the United States in the late 1980s and the 1990s and contends that such policies will not effectively deter the dysfunctional behavior of some of the poor. Rather these policy developments reflect an attack on current national policies of developing an income maintenance floor that seeks to economically sustain poor families, albeit often inadequately. The article contends that current welfare proposals by conservatives and social liberals are not satisfactory for dealing with the problems of the welfare poor and offers suggestions for dealing with these deficits. It also notes that criticisms of welfare state protection for the poor raised in the United States are much more categorical than those raised in Sweden.     

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.     

Approaches to Homelessness Policy in Europe, the United States, and Australia

Workable and effective policies addressing homelessness need to be based on a clear definition of homelessness. This overview of recent policies in the European Union, the U.S., and Australia shows that, even at the very basic level of being able to define and enumerate the homeless, policy approaches are extremely variable. Research indicates the growing significance of the "new homeless," consisting of families, women, and children. Homelessness also needs to be seen as something dynamic that may involve movement into and out of housing and other supports over time. Older policies that address only limited kinds of homelessness and which do not recognize the dynamics involved are likely to be less effective. "Good practice" policy incorporates these changing understandings of homelessness by addressing the housing, psychological and social needs of the homeless, as well as integrating across programs and increasing independence through capacity building .     

Nicotine Addiction: Implications for Public Health Policy

Although the morbidity and mortality caused by cigarette smoking occur in adulthood, the initiation of tobacco use and the development of nicotine addiction typically occur during adolescence. The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of nicotine addiction, focusing on the development of addiction in youth, and to explore implications for public health policy. An understanding of the pharmacological and nonpharmacological factors that determine the course of nicotine addiction is critical in developing rational policies regarding tobacco products. The Food and Drug Administration's rule to regulate cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products is discussed. The fact that smokers typically make the transition from casual use to nicotine addiction during adolescence argues for developing and implementing effective prevention efforts and smoking cessation treatment programs that are youth-oriented.     

The Probable Impact of Proposed Legislative and Budgetary Changes on the Lives of the Elderly and Their Families

The decade of the 1980s is characterized by economic uncertainty and political ambiguity regarding the direction of American public policy for the elderly. The purpose of this paper is to: (1) review demographic trends that particularly affect older adults; (2) summarize theReagan Administration's proposed cutbacks in programs and policies for the elderly; and (3) address the effects of these cuts on older individuals as well as on family systems across generations. It is our contention that the proposed budget cuts will seriously reduce a number of federal programs which have been developed to meet the needs of older adults. The impact of these cuts will be felt by all of the elderly and to a considerable extent, their families. However, the effects will be most severe for people who have poverty or near-poverty incomes, single women, and the "frail" elderly. The discussion suggests that these proposed budget cuts seem to reflect a lack of appreciation and recognition of both needs of the older individuals and those of their families. In addition, suggestions for program and policy directions, as well as further research are addressed.     

Is Valuing Equality Enough? Equality Values, Allophilia, and Social Policy Support for Multiracial Individuals

We conducted a field study to investigate positive intergroup attitudes (i.e., allophilia) and equality values as potential antecedents of social policy support for multiracial individuals. Participants (N = 97) reported their social policy support for multiracial individuals in two ways—support for the recognition of "multiracial" as a distinct racial category (recognition) and support for multiracial individuals' access to programs and policies (assistance). Results revealed that allophilia motivated those who held equality beliefs to support social policies for multiracial individuals. Implications of these findings for theories of positive intergroup relations, as well as the processes that may underlie progress for multiracial individuals, are discussed.     

Returning to Normality: Substance Users' Work Histories and Perceptions of Work During and After Recovery

Correspondence to Andreas Cebulla, National Centre for Social Research, 35 Northampton Square, London EC1V 0AX, UK. E-mail: a.cebulla{at}natcen.ac.uk Summary New service provisions designed to improve the employment prospectsof former substance users will enhance the roles and responsibilitiesof Drug Action Teams (DATs), Jobcentre Plus offices and otherproviders and co-ordinators of support services for substanceusers. This paper discusses the findings of a study of 30 currentand former drug and alcohol users, exploring past substanceuse histories and current employment aspirations. The researchinforms new policy initiatives designed to assist substanceusers’ entry or return to work. Differences in presentperceptions of work-readiness were observed, which reflectedusers’ perceptions of the nature of their addiction. Theattribution of blame for the substance dependency to either‘the drug’ or the individual’s psychologywas a critical influence on users’ work-readiness assessments.Work was perceived to benefit recovery from substance dependency.The evidence suggests that substance users’ return towork might be helped by their staged (re-) introduction to thelabour market as well as encouraging the primary labour marketto employ (more) recovering substance users. The research highlightedthe need for joint working between employment services and DATsto help substance users into work and to support their recovery.It also highlighted the need for mutual understanding and recognitionof each collaborator’s expertise.     

Pawns or Pioneers? The Logic of User Participation in Anti‐poverty Policy‐making in Public Policy Units in Belgium

Since anti‐poverty policy‐making in Belgium is embedded in a logic of user participation, social policy has shown interest in employing users with experience of poverty as experts in public policy units in order to implement and monitor anti‐poverty policies. In this article, we discuss this recent development as a relevant case for contemporary public service delivery in the European context. In the light of the ambiguous practices of user participation in Belgium, the enacted logic of involving service users in public service delivery is discussed, and potential risks and opportunities identified: do these individuals function as pawns or as pioneers? In search of opportunities for the implementation of anti‐poverty policies, we explore different ways in which public policy units can act upon the participation of employed service users in public service delivery. On the level of public service delivery, we argue that the participation of expert users risks their use as a mere blind, de‐responsibilizing those who work in public policy units in providing high‐quality services and being responsive to all service users including those living in poverty. On the level of these individual experts, we argue that the employed service users risk becoming pawns, acquiring a tragic‐optimistic outlook on life. We conclude that enabling service users to participate as pioneers requires the joint and mutual responsibility of the employed service users and those who work in public policy units for implementing and monitoring anti‐poverty strategies rather than exclusive responsibility assigned to individual service users.     

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.     

POLICY PARADOXES: THE DISEMPOWERMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE UNDER THE LABOR GOVERNMENT, 1983–91

This paper explores the restructuring of the experience of young people's lives. It examines Federal Labor Government youth and education policy apparently developed as a response to the high levels of youth unemployment in place since 1976–77. It argues that these policies have dramatically altered the experience of being young by creating greater dependence and further disempowerment. It argues that young people have become the objects of punitive exercises that deny them their basic rights, disenfranchise them and extend the socially constructed features of adolescence into early ‘adulthood’.     

Social Policy in a Fast-growing Economy: The Case of Chile

Chile has adopted a package of free-market, neo-liberal social policies. This follows a pattern established by the country's largely successful economic policies. Neo-liberal social policy consists of a series of two-tier systems, which are not in contradiction with the economic model. On the contrary, a key function of the social policies is to supplement a dynamic style of capitalist economic development through a number of mechanisms. These include: improving the skills, education and health standards of the labour force; increasing savings in a privately-run pension system; reducing labour costs to firms; and providing a safety net to those whom the "trickle down" does not reach. The paper examines social policy in three sectors: pensions, health and education. It explores historical roots, present characteristics, and the degree of success or othewise of policy in these sectors. The discussion refers to the role played by the legacy of the Pinochet military dictatorship (1973–90), the interface between public and private spheres, the whole question of social policy in the context of fast economic growth under free-market conditions (and the possible presence of causality links), the changing balance of power between suppliers and users of social sector services in favour of the latter, the threat of market failure, and questions such as whether these policies have been successful and whether (or why) Chileans are prepared to accept this unequal two-tier system.     

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。     

Drug addiction as a lifestyle

Drug addict rehabilitation programs receive a small proportion of the funds made available through the social welfare system. Emphasis has traditionally been placed on the pathological rather than the salutogenic elements of an addicted lifestyle. A new test of a person's sense of coherence in life (Antonovsky's 9-item Sense of Coherence scale) may be of interest in rehabilitation work with drug addicts, and in focusing more attention on this aspect of addiction treatment. Thirty drug addicts in treatment and rehabilitation and 10 former drug addicts were interviewed using the 9-item Sense of Coherence scale. The results obtained were compared to a well known test of distress, the 24-item Symptom Checklist. Drug addicts in treatment facilities had significantly lower mean scores on the 9-item Sense of Coherence scale (2.3) and higher scores on the 24-item Symptom Checklist (2.3) than both drug addicts in rehabilitatively oriented institutions (3.3 and 1.6) and the long-term rehabilitated non-using former drug addicts (4.2 and 1.5 respectively). The differences between the group in rehabilitation and the former drug addicts were also statistically significant. The levels of the two psychometric tests suggested a gradual movement towards normal values and an increased sense of meaning in life among the former drug addicts, contrary to findings by other researchers. The length of time before these tests return to normal values may exceed the observation period often used in follow-up at treatment facilities. Increased social welfare may follow if a disclosure of salutogenic possibilities in drug addicts is obtained. Further prospective research is, however, necessary to confirm our findings.     

The social work services in screening process of compulsory treatment interventions in addicts in Iran: A content analysis study

Compulsory treatment has had a detrimental impact on drug abuse treatment policies and programs in Iran. Physicians are currently required to conduct initial treatment screening. Social workers are a part of the treatment team but have no authority to initiate a compulsory drug treatment plan. For this reason, the present article investigates social work service participation in the process of compulsory drug treatment. The study methodology is content analysis. Nine social workers participated in seven focus group discussions. Overall, 110 codes were extracted from the sessions and were categorized into five main themes: interview and initial assessment; referral; investigation of ineligibility criteria; report to judicial authority; and follow‐up and advocacy. The results of this research suggest amending executive bylaws based on a social work approach to the screening process for compulsory drug treatment.     

Preventive and punitive regulation in seventeenth-century social policy: Conflicts of interest and the failure to make 'stealing and transporting Children,and other Persons' a felony, 1645-73

The expansion of settlement in the English colonies in America after 1607 led to a demand for labour which was met by white indentured servitude before the growth of black chattel slavery. However, from its inception the trade in indentured servants was characterized by the abuse of servants by unscrupulous recruiters and of merchants by criminals who made false accusations against them. Two different policy solutions were introduced to address this abuse and both punitive and preventive measures were seen as appropriate methods of regulation. However, making a successful social policy was difficult despite good intention. There was no consensus about an economic activity which raised complicated economic, social and political issues and conflicts of interest; the measures were not introduced as a co-ordinated policy and were in the hands of different agencies; punitive proposals to increase the penalties for child stealing put falsely accused merchants at risk; and the extension of preventive servant registration in private hands for profit became politically unacceptable if it was to be compulsory. As a consequence, the 1671 bill 'to prevent stealing and transporting children, and other persons', despite being passed by both Houses of Parliament, was never enacted and policy to make the offence of stealing a person as serious an offence as stealing a horse was not fulfilled for a further 143 years.     

Social Exclusion, Inequality and Social Work

This paper sets out the environment of inequality in which social work and the poor have recently operated. It explores pragmatic and idealist arguments concerning whether or not the poor need social work. Finally, policy solutions developed in consultation with social service users and carers are suggested in relation to poverty and social exclusion. Social exclusion can be linked to relative poverty as exclusion from economic and social norms. However, there is a wider brief in our own government’s publications and those of Europe, of examining how people are excluded from actions and policies of agencies who are there to support them. This paper will retain the concepts of poverty as lack of material income, and inequality as the gap between the rich and the poor, while being aware of the policy implications for social service users and carers of the more comprehensive process of being shut out partially or fully from social, economic, political and cultural systems. The debates around social work, social exclusion and inequality that follow establish: that some of the poor do need social work; that the poverty of social service users is related to policies that have restructured welfare in Britain; that the reason for individuals approaching or being referred to social services are complex but are likely to include financial deprivation as a key contributory factor; that if the poor do need social work, advocacy is essential rather than social work being seen as concerned only with social control—taking children into care, mentally ill people into hospitals, and advising the DSS on the suitability of claimants for benefits. Finally, the discussion turns to new policy agendas on social exclusion instigated by the Labour government. What positive difference can such policies make for social service users, their carers and social workers?.     

Center‐Based Early Childhood Education and Care in China: Policies,Trends, and Implications

The development of early childhood education and care (ECEC) policies and programs in China has been closely intertwined with social, economic, and demographic changes. This article systematically reviews center‐based ECEC policies and programs in China and presents the major trends and implications for future research and policy. The focus of China’s ECEC policy has shifted from health and custodial care to nurturing and child‐centered education since the economic reforms and the one‐child policy were launched in the late 1970s. Empirical data show that the costs of ECEC services have been continuously increasing. Both the number of children enrolled and the overall enrolment rates have declined during the late 1990s but they have increased slightly since 2001. The ECEC programs vary substantially in every regard by urban or rural residence, type of organization, and region. The quality of center‐based ECEC programs in China is still quite low, indicated by their high child–teacher ratios and low levels of education among principals and teachers relative to developed countries. Children living in rural areas or less developed regions and those from low‐income families suffer from fewer resources and lower quality ECEC as compared to their peers. These problems must be addressed by future policy interventions.     

Willingness to Pay for Rehabilitation Versus Punishment to Reduce Adult and Juvenile Crime

Punitive penal policies are often justified on the assumption that members of the public demand punitive responses to crime. The current study employed a contingent valuation survey design to assess the extent to which this is true in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The survey investigated public willingness to pursue crime control policies that rehabilitate offenders versus those that punish. Using a quota‐based telephone survey, 1885 taxpaying residents in the state of New South Wales, Australia, were asked how much additional tax they would be willing to pay to produce a 10 per cent reduction in serious crime. A 2times2 randomised factorial design was employed, with one factor being the means offered to reduce crime (rehabilitation versus imprisonment) and the other factor being the population under study (adults versus juveniles). There were no significant differences in willingness to pay for crime reduction across any of the four resulting groups. The findings suggest that the NSW public are equally disposed to reducing crime by rehabilitating offenders as they are to imprisoning them for longer. There would therefore seem every reason to pursue rehabilitation with greater vigour, especially in light of the relative cost‐effectiveness of rehabilitation programs over incarceration.     

The Evolution of Welfare Reform: Policy Changes and Current Knowledge

Welfare reform has had dramatic repercussions for millions of adults andchildren in the country. So far, the results of the "naturalexperiment" of welfare reform have shown both benefits and problems. Although welfare reform became law in 1996, there have been legislativerevisions and other policy changes aimed at making the law moreeffective and less punitive. The latest research indicates that welfare reform has had a major impact on the number of people who are receiving welfarebenefits but not on the income of former welfare recipients. Research also suggests that there are families who are suffering as a result of welfare reform. In this article, I discuss how welfare reform has evolved and theimplications for policy changes in the future.