New conditionality in Australian social security policy

The past two decades have witnessed the application of new forms of conditionality to Australian social security policy. This paper argues that a distinctive feature has been the attempt to link receipt of government benefits to parental behaviour in order to address concerns about the welfare of children. With a view to providing a framework that can help to inform debates regarding the merits of these new forms of conditionality, this paper outlines the historical antecedents and philosophical framework of new conditionality. The paper also examines three pertinent Australian social security initiatives: the Maternity Immunisation Allowance, the Improving School Enrolment and Attendance through Welfare Reform Measure, and Compulsory Income Management. The paper concludes with some consideration of the potential pitfalls of new conditionality.     

Using Critical Realism to Explain Indeterminacy in Role Behaviour Systematically

We demonstrate in this article how critical realism can be used to explain indeterminacy in role behaviour systematically. In so doing, we both rebut various criticisms of critical realism made recently by Kemp and Holmwood and attempt to illustrate the weaknesses and absences of approaches that concentrate unduly on the collection of expectations of (different groups of) actors concerning roles and the behaviour of incumbents. Within a framework that recognises that structure and agency are ontologically distinct but necessarily empirically related entities, we argue that structures should be seen as sources of indeterminacy within role behaviour for at least four reasons: the co‐determination of roles through the intersection of structures; conflicting role expectations caused by contradictions inhering within structures; asymmetries of power within social relations; and asymmetric repetition within structural reproduction/transformation. In light of this discussion of structural sources of indeterminacy, we then go on to demonstrate how critical realism is also able to analyse systematically the agential sources of indeterminacy within role behaviour and expectations through theories of psychobiography and reflexivity. We thus conclude that critical realism contains the conceptual tools required to illuminate the point(s) of intersection between structure, culture and agency which is central to understanding both role behaviour and the plurality of expectations concerning such behaviour.     

Managing behaviour in child residential group care: unique tensions

Residential group care workers are frequently required to support children with extremely challenging and aggressive behaviour. Our knowledge about the tensions that may exist for workers that manage difficult behaviour is theoretically and empirically underdeveloped. The aim of this exploratory study was to contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of behaviour management in the residential environment by identifying the worker‐reported tensions involved in the management of challenging and disruptive behaviour. Seventeen South Australian residential group care workers participated in semi‐structured interviews in which they were asked to describe their management of behaviour. These interviews were subjected to thematic analysis. The analysis revealed several dynamics that influence workers' management of challenging behaviour: the sense of parenting at a distance, the pressure for consistency, the desire for balance between control and connection, the desire for normality and the inconsistent nature of relationships. These findings contribute to our knowledge about the interpersonal context in which behaviour is addressed in the residential group home and enhance our understanding of the unique tensions that workers' experience in managing behaviour in the residential environment. The findings have implications for the development of staff training and the support of residential care workers managing challenging behaviour.     

互惠的激励作用研究：经验证据及启示

本文运用在中国文化背景下开发的互惠量表,基于对西安某合资制药企业210名员工的调查,考察了企业的三种类型互惠行为对员工的角色内绩效,组织公民行为和工作满意度的影响,结果发现广义互惠与对组织内个人有利的公民行为、工作满意度分别呈正相关关系;平衡互惠与角色内绩效、对组织内个人有利的公民行为、对组织有利的公民行为和工作满意度均呈现显著的正相关关系;而负互惠与工作满意度呈现显著的负相关关系.     

关于确立行政行为无效制度的思考

行政行为无效制度在事实上赋予公民在行政过程中对无效行政行为正当不服从的权利。表面上看 ,非常具有吸引力 ,但能否在实践中发挥功效 ,不仅需要理论上的支持 ,更需要实定法的规定及制度化的努力     

A Quantitative Investigation of the Population-Land Inequality-Land Clearance Nexus

This paper provides a quantitative investigation of the population-land inequality-land clearance nexus. Drawing on the literature on farmer optimization behaviour, the study formalizes and empirically tests a model of population-induced agricultural land clearance. The model makes several assumptions about this process: (a) The rate at which agricultural land is brought into production due to rising population pressures accelerates with the level of inequality in access to land, (b) Egalitarian systems have a greater capacity to absorb rising numbers of people per unit of land area and, thus, will have lower rates of agricultural land clearance than higher ones and (c) Irrespective of its degree of egalitarianism, the capacity of any system to hold people in one place will eventually break down once a critical population threshold is reached. Due to their lower population absorptive capacity, this level will be reached sooner under unequal systems of land distribution. Thus, the model also hypothesizes that the stimulatory impact of population growth on the demand for new land will exhibit a non-linear threshold pattern. For the farmer, the decision to clear a new plot of land will reflect these population-inequality interactions: Earnings from farming in settled areas will tend to fall as population densities and inequality in access to land increase. Time series results confirm that rural population growth is a significant factor driving agricultural land clearance in many of the 59 developing countries of our sample. Results also suggest that this rate of clearance is largest in countries with highly inegalitarian patterns of distribution. In contrast, cross-sectional regression results do not suggest any direct role for land inequality in population-agricultural land use outcomes. Contrary to the models assumption that this relationship should follow a non-linear threshold pattern, cross-sectional results also find no evidence that the absorptive capacity of highly densely populated land systems has been reached on average. However, they do provide support for an indirect linear relationship: Population induced agricultural land clearance is significantly magnified as inequality in access to land increases. Drawing on the empirics of the growth-inequality literature, the study suggests that this magnifying role may be linked to inequalitys impact on the assets of the poor. That is, by undermining the capacity of the rural poor to make productive investments in the land base, inequality in land distribution mediates population pressures in a way that affects both the quality and quantity of assets available to the poor to raise incomes, invest in skills accumulation, and spur demand in the rural economy as a whole.     

争论与建构--政府行动范围的界定

政府与市场是两种不同的运作体系 ,但驱使其正常运作的基本因素是相同的 :对成本—收益的重视 ;受利益的驱动。对政府权能进行经济分析 ,可以很好地界定政府在何层面上、何种程度上更有利于社会经济的发展。这不仅要求整个体制的适当配置 ,而且要求政府对社会生活中的基本效率给以重视     

论政党信任：内涵、结构及功能

政党信任是社会公众对政党在执政或参政、议政过程中体现的能力、素质、品性的主观评价、心理反应和价值判断,主要表现为对政党目标的信心,对政党理念的认同,对政党行为的认可。政党信任从客体结构、表现层次、区域范围和历史形态四个维度构成不同的结构体系,并具有合法性功能、秩序维护功能、政策执行功能和社会资本功能。     

《围城》中范懿行为心理分析

中国现代文学中涉及女性的婚姻问题一直被作家和读者们关注着,而对于大龄未婚女青年有关婚恋的语言、行为和心理的描述却是罕见的。独具慧眼的钱钟书先生在《围城》中有意无意地切入了这个由于众多原故产生的一个具有现代意识的新的社会问题。从《围城》中范懿和刘小姐二人可见当时大龄未婚知识女性的心理状态。     

试述行政承诺及其可诉性

行政承诺是一种新的行政管理方式和行政行为。行政承诺具有自身特征。由行政承诺引发的争议应当适用行政诉讼法来调整。为保障行政承诺兑现,行政机关应建立相应的规章制度。