Children and global social policy: Exploring the impact of international governmental organisations

Axford N. Children and global social policy: exploring the impact of international governmental organisations International governmental organisations (IGOs) seek to influence child welfare policy and practice in individual sovereign states. But do they succeed and, if so, in what way? This article outlines the nature of selected IGOs' work, explores the nature of their impact and seeks to explain the pattern that emerges. It also notes areas for further research.     

Family participation in child protection practice: an observational study of family group meetings

Over the past two decades, child protection authorities internationally have begun to implement models of family participation in child protection decision‐making. Debate exists about the extent to which these models promote family involvement in decision‐making. While a significant body of research on family and professional experience and perceptions of models of family participation in decision‐making has emerged, there has been little observational research of these approaches. In this paper, we report on observational data from 11 family group meetings (FGMs) in a child protection context in Queensland, Australia. Under Queensland child protection law, these meetings are referred to as an inclusive process for child protection decision‐making and planning. We draw on observational data to analyse how family inclusion in child protection decision‐making is facilitated, or limited, by the FGM process. We consider tensions in the realization of a participatory ethos in child protection services systems and discuss what practitioners can practically do to enhance family participation in child protection decision‐making.     

Women's participation in self‐help groups as a pathway to women's empowerment: A case of Nepal

Non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) and the government of Nepal have made some effort to reduce poverty in Nepal by creating women's affiliation groups, some of which are micro‐credit organizations. Using capabilities as defined by Amartya Sen (Development as freedom, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2000), which includes employment opportunities, women's ownership in productive resources such as land and/or homes, educational opportunities, and women's participation in decision‐making in the family, this study evaluated the extent to which women's ethnic group or caste affiliation affected a woman's likelihood of being empowered by participation in these groups. We analyzed a sample of 8,973 women which was taken from the 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey. Previous research has demonstrated that participation in gender‐based groups is correlated with higher economic status. This study adds to the literature on women's affiliation groups by investigating the impact of structural factors, such as caste and ethnicity, on women's self‐help group participation (women's groups and credit groups).     

The bumpy road to ‘becoming’: capturing the stories that teenage mothers told about their journey into motherhood

Understanding the experience of women who become mothers during their teenage years is central to ensuring that the support that is offered is appropriate to meet their needs. This paper reports on a small part of a larger ethnographic study that captured the lived experience of young mothers who were between the ages of 16 and 19 years that potentially typifies and illuminates the experiences of young women who become mothers in their teenage years. By collecting data from narrative interviews as well as participant and non‐participant observations over an extended period of time it was possible to identify how the young women experienced a range of difficulties as they made their transition into motherhood. Drawing on the findings, this paper argues that this transition for teenage mothers can be significantly different from the experience of older mothers, and it identifies the importance of appropriate support to mediate the challenges that they face. Understanding the young women's journey to ‘becoming’ is critical when planning services because if their experience of support is negative, it can lead to increased levels of maternal stress and reluctance to engage with support services.     

The Roles Played by the Staff and Workers’ Representative Congress in the Formation of Work Regulations

Article 4 of the Labor Contract Law lays down the right of the Staff and Workers’ Representative Congress (SWRC) to deliberate on the formulation of (intra-enterprise) work regulations, but this has become a “soft” law in judicial practice. The judicial criteria for judging the validity of work regulations are in essence determined by the judge’s judgment on their reasonableness. As an important embodiment of Chinese politics, economics and culture, the transformation of the SWRC that accompanied the market economy has not negated its value as an indigenous traditional resource. The SWRC does not just enjoy deliberative rights in the formation of regulations, as clearly specified in constitutional law, but also has rights under the law in local legislation and practice. Hence the system of work regulations is neither a unilateral decision on the part of management nor a contract, but rather an autonomous norm developed through the SWRC mechanism. Given the mandatory nature of Article 4 of the Labor Contract Law, regulations will only be valid after they have gone through a democratic process. The further development of the theory of normative system formation should endow the SWRC with greater rights and integrate it smoothly with the collective contract system to standardize collective labor relations.     

Local Administrative Practice and AFDC Error in Maryland

Data from two Maryland AFDC quality control samples (n=2376) are joined with data from two surveys of local administrative practices to examine administrative correlates of error. Less error exists among cases processed by agencies that: 1) use checklists to simplify agency procedures, 2) use follow-up controls in conjunction with tickler files, 3) have in-house training to deal with earned income procedures, 4) provide training on reducing earned income errors, and 5) have less staff turnover. Surprisingly, the findings show client error to be more influenced by administrative practices than agency error, suggesting the distinction between the two may be misleading.     

Witnesses’ Appearance in Court and Guarantees for the Defendant's Right to Confrontation

刑事证人出庭作证的主要意义在于保障被告人的对质权。因此,刑事证人出庭问 题基本上可替换为以被告人对质权为核心的必要证人出庭问题。由于中国的刑事诉讼 法及其司法解释并未赋予被告人对质权,实践中必要证人出庭率仅为25%左右。这种 无对质权语境下的刑事审判,通常表现为积极的实体真实主义、定罪量刑的非精细化 操作和裁判正当性来源的单一化。为改变这一局面,有必要确立对质权制度及相应的 保障机制。

关键词: 证人出庭?必要证人出庭率?对质权?裁判正当性

The main significance of witnesses’ appearing in court to testify in criminal trials is that this practice guarantees the defendant's right to confrontation. The issue can thus be framed in another way, as the issue of the appearance in court of the necessary witnesses. Here, the defendant's right to confront is the key point. Since neither China's criminal procedural law nor corresponding judicial interpretations have granted the defendant the right to confront, the rate of appearance of the necessary witnesses amounts in practice to only about twenty‐ five percent. Criminal trials conducted in the absence of the right to confrontation usually conform to the doctrine of positive substantive truth and manifest a lack of care in conviction and sentencing as well as reliance on a single source of legitimacy in reaching judgments. To correct this state of affairs, it is necessary to institute the right to confront and corresponding safeguards.     

Policy Diffusion and Policy Transfer in Comparative Welfare State Research

For many years, comparative welfare state research has followed a ‘methodological nationalism’ in the sense that countries were treated as independent units. Yet the recent ‘spatial turn’ in comparative politics has also influenced welfare state research. For some years now, the field has been witnessing a growing interest in questions about interdependencies and policy diffusion between countries. In this article, we provide a structured overview of the state of the art in the policy diffusion and transfer literature that deals specifically with social policy. We present and critically evaluate existing theoretical concepts and quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches that enable the analysis of interdependencies between countries. Moreover, we summarize the empirical findings of quantitative and qualitative studies on the diffusion and transfer of social policy, from some pioneering studies to the latest findings. Against this background we point out what we believe to be promising avenues for future research. We focus on five areas: theoretical work on the mechanisms underlying diffusion and transfer; methodological approaches; the impact of domestic institutions and policy characteristics on social policy diffusion and transfer; programme‐specific dynamics; and the systematic combination of horizontal and vertical interdependencies.     

The Worker's Role in Collectivity

This paper examines the worker's role in collectivity. Modifications are required because collectivity, as an entity, does not aid the worker as effectively as does a fully-formed social work group. The worker is therefore obliged to move the worker role into the gaps created by the nature of the structure.