Can the welfare state replace parents? Children's cognition in the United States and Great Britain

We compare family and parental effects on child verbal facility, verbal achievement and mathematics achievement in the United States and Great Britain. We study 3,438 5–13 year-old children from the 1994 NLSY Child-Mother Data Set and 1429 same-aged children from the National Child Development Study, also known as the British Child. Multivariate analyses suggest that the processes through which families invest in child cognition are similar across societies, with factors including low birth weight, child health, maternal cognition, family size and children's home environments being consequential. We conclude that parental investments are equally important across the two societies. The more developed welfare state in Great Britain does not notably compensate for parental investments in that society, although it may play a greater role when parental resources are absent or stretched thin.     

Revisiting the effectiveness of the employment‐oriented welfare state: Considering the quality of employment achievement

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an employment‐oriented welfare state. While previous studies have focused on employment growth, this study considers the quality of employment, especially its mediating impact between public social expenditure and fiscal soundness. Three‐step mediated regression analysis was conducted on a data sample from 19 developed countries from 1991 to 2013. The results show that while public social expenditure negatively affects fiscal soundness, if it promotes total and part‐time employment, it can positively affect fiscal soundness. However, when the incidence of involuntary part‐time employment is high, public social expenditure and its impact on employment performance no longer guarantee fiscal soundness. This study addresses the importance of promoting not only employment growth but also employment quality to secure fiscal soundness.     

元代玉山雅集诗序探微

以顾瑛为核心的玉山草堂雅集是元代最具代表性的文人雅集，学界虽不乏相关研究成果，但对相关诗序文献均未给予重视。文中从诗序这一独特视角对顾瑛玉山雅集进行观照，以拓展、加深对其认知：以诗序为据，梳理历次玉山雅集活动系年、场所、人员及主要活动内容；玉山雅集诸方面超越前代，分韵赋诗是玉山雅集文学活动的核心形制；玉山雅集诗序是折射元末文人心态及时代变化的一面镜子。     

Healthy Barbs: Activism Confronts Mortality

Barbara Brenner, JD, was the Executive Director of Breast Cancer Action (BCA) from 1995–2010. Before that, she was a longtime activist in the anti-war movement and an attorney who, for most of her career, practiced public policy law. After she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993 at the age of 41, she took the helm of BCA. Under her leadership, the organization moved into a position of national advocacy—demanding research on the causes and prevention of breast cancer, including the role of industrial pollutants. Barbara started the “Think Before You Pink” campaign, encouraging people to question whether companies that display pink ribbons actually produce products that harm women's health or generate any funds to fight breast cancer. Her blog, “Healthy Barbs,” challenged readers to critique routine healthcare practices and policies. Barbara received numerous awards, including a Jefferson Award for Public Service in 2007, the Smith College Medal in 2012, and the ACLU-Northern California's Lola Hanzel Courageous Advocacy Award in 2012. Barbara had a recurrence of breast cancer in 1996. She died of complications associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, on May 10, 2013.     

Applications of quadrivariate exponential distribution to a three-unit warm standby system with dependent structure

Two-unit warm standby systems have been elaborately dealt within the literature. However, the study of standby systems with more than two units, though very relevant in state-of-the-art practical situations, has received little attention because of mathematical intricacies involved in analyzing them. Also, such systems have been studied assuming: (i) the lifetime or repair time of the units to be exponential, or (ii) the lifetime and repair time to be independent. The present contribution is an improvement in the state-of-the-art in the sense that three-unit warm standby system with dependent structure is shown to be capable of comprehensive analysis.     

The Political Economy of Social Insurance: Towards a Fiscal‐Centred Framework

This article draws attention to social insurance (SI) as a revenue raising institution, and explores the potential merits of drawing on new fiscal sociology for studying the development of SI systems. This is done by revisiting previous research conducted in Germany, the USA, Finland and Israel and by offering a new reading of their findings. The reviewed cases support two interlocking claims drawn from new fiscal sociology to the study of SI. The first is that state actors may perceive SI as an extraction instrument and employ it to advance fiscal and/or economic interests other than covering the costs of SI schemes. The second is that the design and management of contribution policies for such purposes may have substantial ramifications for the development of SI schemes. In addition, while current understandings tend to associate fiscal concerns with welfare state retrenchment, this article shows that they can also play a major role in driving welfare state expansion.     

Emergency Law in China: Its Formation,Present State and Future

中国非常法律的形成, 是为了应对紧急事件。这类法律由法律法规、应急预案和 军事法规等组成, 规定了战争状态、紧急状态和应急状态三种非常状态, 致力于建构 专业化大分工基础上的综合统一体制。在实践中, 应急预案取代了法律法规, 成为紧 急事件治理的基本规范依据; 政府和武装力量处于主导地位。中国非常法律基于必要 而形成, 其适用具有临时性, 主要内容具有授权性和预防性。非常法律未来发展的主 要目标是: 与中国特色社会主义法律体系衔接, 制定紧急状态下的基本法, 完善非常 法律的各项具体机制。

关键词: 非常状态 综合治理 执行主导 预防性法律

China’s emergency laws have emerged as a result of dealing with crises. They comprise laws and regulations, emergency plans, and military regulations, and define three exceptional or emergency states: war, emergency and emergency response, with the aim of constructing a comprehensive integrated system based on the specialized division of labor. In practice, however, emergency plans take the place of laws and regulations and provide the fundamental normative basis for tackling emergencies, with government and the military playing the dominant role. Developing out of necessity and possessing temporary applicability, China’s emergency laws are characterized by authorization and prevention. Integrating emergency law with the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, formulating basic law for emergency situations and improving the specific mechanisms of emergency law should be regarded as major steps in its future development.     

Neo‐liberalism by Decay? The Evolution of the Czech Welfare State

In this article we analyse the evolution of the Czech welfare state and we examine the factors explaining its path. We show that although the Czech welfare regime exhibits a 'mixed profile' that includes conservative and universalist elements, it is increasingly moving in a more liberal, residualist direction – not because of conscious steps but rather through decay. Governments have often zig-zagged in their policies and resorted to symbolic reforms at times rather than implementing ideologically based, consistent policies. We argue that historical and sociological institutionalism combined with a social-capital approach can explain this decay better than the more common arguments about economic pressures combined with ideological hegemony or the protest-avoidance strategy. In particular, the social capital approach adds to our institutional framework by explaining why cutbacks in welfare programmes have not met much opposition, even though public opinion surveys consistently show support for more generous welfare policies, and why policies have deviated so much from political rhetoric.     

Practicing What We Preach: Creating Groups for Ourselves

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the professional isolation faced by social group work practitioners and educators. It identifies the need for peer support and connection in an environment of limited opportunities for professional development. The paper describes and assesses long-term peer support groups initiated and developed by each of the authors, one for group work educators and the other for practitioners. It discusses the potential for expanding the development of such groups, which could benefit individual group workers as well as strengthen efforts to ensure the survival of group work.     

多弥史钩沉

多弥 ,为隋唐时期汉文文献史籍记载的西北民族之一。《新唐书·西域传下》记其为西羌 ,滨犁牛河 (今青海通天河 ) ,“役属吐蕃 ,号难磨 (Nam mo)”。本文据此 ,认为“难磨”即藏文文献中所记之“南”(Nam)国或南部族 ,源于汉代以来西羌中的“卑”等羌 (以上前人均有论述 )。南部族在古藏文文献中往往与吐蕃原始六族中的“董”(sDong)族联系在一起 ,故多弥可还原为“董弥”(sDongmi,即董人之意 )。此名可能为其他族人对其的称呼 ,“南”为吐蕃人对其的称呼。另外 ,吐蕃征服“南国” ,约在唐贞观六年至显庆元年 ( 63 2— 65 6)之间。后为吐蕃“四方面王”之一 (《贤者喜宴》)、与吐蕃赞普通婚和结盟的大家族那囊氏 (sNa nam)应为南部族首领或大家族之一。唐安史之乱后 ,吐蕃曾征调南部至西域一带防戍 ,故 2 0世纪以来新疆出土的藏文简牍中有“南茹”、“南茹巴”的记载。唐末至五代 ,汉藏文书所记之“南山”、“南波”等 ,其中杂有“南”部族 ,故其所以得名 ,除因其居地在“南山”(今祁连山 )外 ,还有其民族构成中有“南”部族的缘故。