Mechanisms of influence: alcohol industry submissions to the inquiry into fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Industry groups with vested interests in policy regularly work to protect their profits via the endorsement of ineffective voluntary regulation and interventions, extensive lobbying activity and minimising the health impact of consumption behaviours. This study aims to examine all alcohol industry submissions to the Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs into Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), to assist in understanding how those with vested interests contribute to policy development. The analysis aims to document the strategies and arguments used by alcohol industry bodies in their submissions and to compare these with known strategies of vested-interest groups. DESIGN AND METHODS: All 92 submissions to the Inquiry were screened to include only those submitted by alcohol industry bodies (five submissions). Content domains were derived based on the major themes emerging from the industry submissions and on common vested-interest behaviours identified in previous literature. RESULTS: The following content categories were identified: Concerns about FASD; Current industry activities and FASD prevention; Value of mandatory warning labels; and Credibility of independent public health researchers and organisations. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol industry submissions sought to undermine community concern, debate the evidence, promote ineffective measure which are no threat to the profit margins and attack independent health professionals and researchers. In doing so, their behaviour is entirely consistent with their responses to other issues, such as violence and chronic health, and copies the tactics employed by the tobacco industry.

When Catholics turn right: the effects of the Islamic terrorism threat on the fragmented Catholic Italian voters

Italy, as well as most European countries, has been hit by a wave of anxiety arising from groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda, whose effects on political attitudes are still under-examined. This article investigates the effect of the perceived threat of Islamic terrorism as a potential driver for a ‘right turn’ in the Catholic Italian electorate with open-ended interviews and an Internet-based experiment in which voters were randomly assigned to a terrorism threat manipulation and to a control condition (N = 138). The results show that the Islamic terroristic threat significantly increased the support for centre-right leaders who promoted in-group identity and out-group hostility towards Muslims. Implications for the debate about the effects of perceived threat on political opinions and the relevance of the findings beyond the Italian case are discussed at the end of the article.

In the name of humanity: the government of threat and care

In this volume, editors Ilana Feldman and Miriam Ticktin have drawn together an outstanding collection of essays exploring the concept of ‘humanity’ in a range of contexts and from a rich variety of perspectives. Tracing the categorisation of humanity throughout history in their introductory chapter, Feldman and Ticktin highlight the perennial tension inherent in its definition and use. The ever-shifting boundaries of humanity serve to include and protect even as they reject and threaten those identified as ‘other’. Each of the eleven chapters engages with the fundamental question of what it means to be human, and the implications of possible responses to this for the practice of governance. However, despite the pervasive theme of government— which is explored explicitly in the context of humanitarian law (Richard Ashby Wilson) and aid (Didier Fassin), healthcare (Joao Biehl; S. Lochlann Jain; Adriana Petryna), and the regulation of human interactions with nature (Arun Agrawal; Charles Zerner)—it is the more personal aspect of the human experience that takes centre stage in most chapters, and which offers the deepest insights into that elusive concept: ‘humanity’. It offers readers a multifaceted and open-ended account of humanity, which will inform better governance and more effective research in this field.

The threat of autocracy diffusion in consolidated democracies? The case of China, Singapore and Australia

The majority of today’s authoritarian regimes have little hope of promoting autocracy beyond their own borders, let alone to consolidated democratic countries. However, China and Singapore are two prominent examples of non-democratic countries whose soft power arsenals have given them some global appeal beyond that enjoyed by most authoritarian regimes. But to what extent has China’s and Singapore’s power of example influenced consolidated democracies in terms that the latter wanting to replicate some political practices or even norms in these non-democratic regimes? In this article, we engage recent works to examine this question in relation to how Australians perceive the political example offered by China and Singapore. Focusing our analysis on several prominent polls conducted recently by the Lowy Institute for International Policy, we suggest that at present there is little evidence of a causal impact of the rise of authoritarian powerhouses such as China and Singapore on how Australians view democracy at home. Through these case studies, this article sheds some light on the theoretical as well as practical questions about the inherent impediments of authoritarian diffusion in consolidated democracies.

Purposeful exploratory learning with video using analysis categories

There is still much to be learnt about best practices in leveraging digital resources for learning in higher education. Research on student interactions with online video indicates such practices are as minimal as setting passive-receptive viewing through to teacher-structured purposeful engagement. This position paper focuses on teacher-set analysis categories to guide student exploration of digital video content and to help novices to scaffold their thinking. Various uses of analysis categories within one Australian university in conjunction with a video annotation tool are reviewed. Then practice examples from other universities are reviewed to demonstrate the use of analysis categories in higher education settings without an annotation tool. The literature indicates that the use of categories to inform the design of digital video analysis needs to ensure that the learning challenge is retained. Analysis guided by teacher-set categories tends to be beneficial for performance evaluation in particular. Further research on university teacher practices with digital video is required.