The Development of the Law of Matrimonial Property—A Historical Perspective

This article outlines briefly the development of matrimonial property law from earliest times to the present day. The issue of central concern throughout is the changing status of women and the bearing that this has had on development of the law. A historical, social and economic perspective is adopted in an effort to explain why particular developments occurred when they did. Finally, attention is drawn to the inadequacies of legal solutions to what is perceived as basically an economic issue.     

THE ETHICS AND POLITICS OF MUTUAL OBLIGATION

Welfare schemes which require recipients of benefits to ‘give something back’ are often justified in terms of ‘fairness’ or fulfilling the ‘social contract’. The Australian Government's recent and proposed changes to unemployment benefits through the Mutual Obligation Scheme appeal to both justifications. However, insufficient attention has been paid the underlying ethical and political assumptions — a serious deficiency. given their role in legitimating harsh new penalties. There are two broad reasons the current trend to tie benefits to obligations is inappropriate. First, the unemployed have little choice about their contract. And second, there is insufficient mutuality shown towards the unemployed for the Scheme to be obligation‐generating. Rather than being a means of encouraging participation or mutuality, the Scheme is essentially punitive.     

Videotaped Life Review: Its Personal and Intergenerational Impact

While the literature reports therapeutic benefits of life review in the elderly, systematic involvement of family members and extensive use of video recording are uncommon. Outcomes of videotaped life reviews with 30 individuals in the general population, conducted in collaboration with family members, are described. Mutually enhanced sense of self and self-esteem were observed. Interviewees felt less fearful of traumatic events after reviewing them in the context of their entire lives. For family members afraid to ask their parents directly about painful events, the camera created safe transitional space and opportunity for more genuine connection. Using examples from popular media and the author’s videotaped work, this paper will define life review, describe the heightened need for life review in the latter stage of life, the value of systematically involving family members, and implications for including life review methods in psychotherapy.     

Involvement of Ministries of Health in Health Service Coverage Decisions: Is England an Aberrant Case?

This article examines the involvement of ministries of health in making health service coverage decisions in Denmark, England, France and Germany. The study aims to inform debate in England about the feasibility of reducing perceived ministerial and bureaucratic ‘interference’ in decisions affecting the National Health Service, based on interviews with senior government officials and other health system stakeholders. Ministries of health differ in their involvement in health system governance and coverage decisions (‘the benefits package’), reflecting differences in institutional arrangements. In all four countries, organizations at arm's length or independent from government are either involved in providing technical advice to the ministry of health or have been mandated to take these decisions themselves. However, ministries of health occasionally intervene in the decision‐making process or ignore the advice of these organizations. The Department of Health in England is not an aberrant case, at least in relation to coverage decisions. Indeed, ministries of health in Denmark and France play a larger role in making these decisions. Public pressure, often amplified by the media, is a shared reason for ministerial and ministry involvement in all four countries. This dynamic may thus limit the feasibility of attempts to further separate the NHS from both the Department of Health and wider political pressures.     

Leader political support: Reconsidering leader political behavior

Historically, organizational politics and political leader behavior have been framed and characterized negatively, as self-serving and counter-productive. However, scholars have noted that political acts can achieve positive ends, and have called for further discussions of positive forms of political leadership. Continuing in this recent stream of research on positive perspectives on organizational politics, a framework of leader political support is proposed, suggesting that the positive features of leader political behavior, and testable propositions are developed. The leader political support construct is defined and its antecedents are explicated utilizing a social capital perspective. Additionally, social exchange theory is used to explain the consequences of leader political support. Contributions to both leadership and organizational politics literatures and directions for future research are discussed.     

Exploring Nonnormative Coresidence in Urban China: Living With Wives’ Parents

We model histories between two cohorts of urban Chinese couples (N = 1,191) of a rarely studied living arrangement—coresidence with the wife's parents—using a dynamic life history analysis in contrast to previous cross‐sectional studies of coresidence. We examine patterns of entry into and exit from coresidence with the wife's parents, comparing the predictive power of modernization theory to the effect of demographic change and the resources and needs of each generation. Given China's well‐known patrilineal family system, we find a surprisingly high number of couples ever residing nonnormatively, and significant differences between cohorts in what determines the pattern of coresidence. Resources and needs that reflect conscious choices to coreside most strongly influence nonnormative coresidence. Its importance may increase as the children of the One‐Child Family Policy grow up and marry.     

The Victim of Rape: WHAT Progress?

This article utilizes a recent statement made by a member of the judiciary, in which female 'hitch-hikers' are admonished on the basis that such behaviour is likely to provoke a sexual assault. The attitudes, recent research and genesis of sex-role stereotypes are explored in order to elucidate the rationale underlying this statement. Particular attention is drawn to the fact that such statements are addressed exclusively to females.