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How have regionalization processes across Europe impacted on policy convergence? This book takes as its starting point the curious fact that autonomous regional policymaking may be parallel to regional governments pursuing policy similarity. The author proposes that these observations are paradoxical only if sector-specific policy norms are disregarded and when autonomy is considered as the exclusive goal of regional governments. Focusing on common yet under-studied regional situations where a sense of cultural or historical distinctiveness is not readily apparent, if at all, the book argues that in policy sectors where norms of territorial equality have long been dominant, regional governments endorse them as a way to secure or expand their policy capacity when the central state or other policy entrepreneurs challenge it. This results in converging policies. A textured comparative account of educational policymaking in German Länder and French conseils régionaux over three decades forms the backbone of this analysis of policymaking in ordinary regions.
This volume examines tuition fees as the most prominent and most visible trend among higher education policies that embodies recent neoliberal trends in the policy area of education. Tuition fee policies and the accompanying provisions for student support illustrate the contemporary tensions between marketisation and social justice. Among the major transformations higher education systems have undergone in the last two decades, the emergence of marketisation, and in particular the introduction of tuition fees, have received a lot of attention. In Europe, these trends seemingly break with a long-dominant representation of higher education as a public good, which has been at the centre of the ...
Since 1993, crime in the United States has fallen to historic lows, seeming to legitimize the country’s mix of welfare reform and mass incarceration. The Upper Limit explains how this unusual mix came about, examining how, beginning in the 1970s, declining living standards for the poor have defined social and penal policy in the United States, making welfare more restrictive and punishment harsher. François Bonnet shows how low-wage work sets the upper limit of social and penal policy, where welfare must be less attractive than low-wage work and criminal life must be less attractive than welfare. In essence, the living standards of the lowest class of workers in a society determine the upper limit for the generosity of welfare and for the humanity of punishment in that society. The Upper Limit explores the local consequences of this punitive adjustment in East New York, a Brooklyn neighborhood where crime fell in the 1990s. Bonnet argues that no meaningful penal reform can happen unless living standards and the minimum wage rise again. Enlightening and provocative, The Upper Limit provides a comprehensive theory of the evolution of social and penal policy.
Tracing the shift from liberal to neoliberal education from the nineteenth century to the present day, this open access book provides a rich and previously underdeveloped narrative of value in higher education in England. Value and the Humanities draws upon historical, financial, and critical debates concerning educational and cultural policy. Rather than writing a singular defence of the humanities against economic rationalism, Zoe Hope Bulaitis constructs a nuanced map of the intersections of value in the humanities, encompassing an exploration of policy engagement, scientific discourses, fictional representation, and the humanities in public life. The book articulates a kaleidoscopic range of humanities practices which demonstrate that although recent policy encourages higher education to be entirely motivated by outcomes, fiscal targets, and the acquisition of employability skills, the humanities continue to inspire and aspire beyond these limits. This book is a historically-grounded and theoretically-informed analysis of the value of the humanities within the context of the market.
Staffan Kumlin and Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen bring together political scientists and sociologists from different and frequently separated research communities to examine policy feedback in European welfare states. In doing so, they offer a rich menu
This book examines similarities and differences in 31 European governments’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic hit Europe in early 2020. It spread across the continent during the Spring while anxious electorates were treated to news reports about health systems under duress and frustrated attempts by public procurement officials to obtain adequate supplies of medical and protective equipment. Over the next 15–18 months considered by this book, national responses exhibited both similarities and profound variations as the different endeavours to regulate social interactions constituted a stress test for political systems across Europe.
Despite the increased trend towards secularisation in state schooling, issues of religion and spirituality have remained important. Increased pluralism within societies through expanding migration patterns is changing the religious and cultural contours of many countries in Europe and North America, and is creating a need for a deeper understanding of religious diversity. However, the lack of religious or spiritual education within the educational curriculum leaves a moral vacuum that can become a space to be exploited by religious extremism. More recently, religiously motivated incidences of terrorism in several parts of the world have heightened prejudicial attitudes and distrust of certai...
This is an open access title available under the terms of a [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Exploring academic and policy thinking on e-participation, this book opens up the organizational and institutional 'black box' and provides new insights into how public administrations in 15 European states have facilitated its implementation.
Probation officers (POs) supervise citizens serving a sanction within the community under conditions restricting their liberty. This thesis proposes two empirical studies exploring the nature and conditions of officer-offender interactions during public service delivery in Belgium.
Understanding policy analysis in France requires first a thorough exploration of the distinction usually made in French academic and practitioner debates between policy studies and policy analysis--essentially the difference between studies of policy and studies designed for the use of policy. This book begins there, then delves into questions of how and by whom knowledge of policies is produced within and outside the French state, showing that while the tension between the two types of study is real, the continued exchange of ideas between them has led to an enrichment of both spheres. The book thus lays the foundation for a more systematic understanding of policy analysis in France.