Interest Representation as a Clash of Unequal Allies

Organized interests do not have direct control over the fate of their policy agendas in Congress. They cannot introduce bills, vote on legislation, or serve on House committees. If organized interests want to achieve virtually any of their legislative goals they must rely on and work through members of Congress. As an interest group seeks to move its policy agenda forward in Congress, then, one of the most important challenges it faces is the recruitment of effective legislative allies. Legislative allies are members of Congress who “share the same policy objective as the group” and who use their limited time and resources to advocate for the group’s policy needs (Hall and Deardorff 2006, 76). For all the financial resources that a group can bring to bear as it competes with other interests to win policy outcomes, it will be ineffective without the help of members of Congress that are willing to expend their time and effort to advocate for its policy positions (Bauer, Pool, and Dexter 1965; Baumgartner and Leech 1998b; Hall and Wayman 1990; Hall and Deardorff 2006; Hojnacki and Kimball 1998, 1999). Given the importance of legislative allies to interest group success, are some organized interests better able to recruit legislative allies than others? This question has received little attention in the literature. This dissertation offers an original theoretical framework describing both when we should expect some types of interests to generate more legislative allies than others and how interests vary in their effectiveness at mobilizing these allies toward effective legislative advocacy. It then tests these theoretical expectations on variation in group representation during the stage in the legislative process that many scholars have argued is crucial to policy influence, interest representation on legislative committees. The dissertation uncovers pervasive evidence that interests with a presence across more congressional districts stand a better chance of having legislative allies on their key committees. It also reveals that interests with greater amounts of leverage over jobs and economic investment will be better positioned to win more allies on key committees. In addition, interests with a policy agenda that closely overlaps with the jurisdiction of just one committee in Congress are more likely to have legislative allies on their key committees than are interests that have a policy agenda divided across many committee jurisdictions. In short, how groups are distributed across districts, the leverage that interests have over local jobs and economic investment, and how committee jurisdictions align with their policy goals affects their influence in Congress.

La protección a las víctimas de trata de personas en Brasil

La trata de personas es una acción ilegal presente en todomundo, incluso en Brasil. El Protocolo de las Naciones Unidascontra la Trata de Personas fue ratificado por Brasil en 2004. Apesar de esto, aún la evolución normativa del país no ha sidosignificativa. Este artículo busca analizar la protección normativaexistente y futura a las víctimas, especialmente extranjeras, detrata de personas en Brasil. Así, inicialmente se presenta lo que secomprende como trata de personas, con base en el Protocolo delas Naciones Unidas para prevenir, reprimir y sancionar la trata depersonas, especialmente mujeres y niños, y son apuntadas algunasconsideraciones sobre la realidad de la trata de personas en elmundo y en Brasil. En la secuencia son presentadas las medidasde protección a las víctimas, y previstas en el Protocolo de lasNaciones Unidas. Por último, son enumeradas y analizadas lasacciones normativas existentes y los proyectos de ley que puedencambiar esta realidad. La conclusión del estudio indica que Brasilaún tiene una débil protección para las víctimas extranjeras detrata de personas, pero hay una perspectiva optimista de mejoríacon los proyectos de ley que tramitan en el Congreso Nacional.

Legislative news

The South Carolina Department of Mental Health publishes on a bi-weekly basis Legislative News, with information on bills that are introduced which may impact the agency, mental health or health care issues, and employee issues.

Les mécanismes visant à assurer la qualité et la sécurité des soins en CMS sont-ils suffisants?

Résumé : Par l’adoption des Projets de loi 33 et 34, en 2006 et 2009 respectivement, le gouvernement du Québec a créé de nouvelles organisations privées dispensatrices de soins spécialisés, soient les centres médicaux spécialisés. Il a de ce fait encadré leur pratique, notamment dans l’objectif d’assurer un niveau de qualité et de sécurité satisfaisant des soins qui y sont dispensés. L’auteure analyse les différents mécanismes existants pour assurer la qualité et la sécurité des soins offerts en centres médicaux spécialisés, afin de constater si l’objectif recherché par le législateur est rencontré. Ainsi, elle expose les mécanismes spécifiques prévus dans la Loi sur les services de santé et services sociaux applicables aux centres médicaux spécialisés qui jouent un rôle quant au maintien de la qualité et de la sécurité des services, de même que des mécanismes indirects ayant une incidence sur ce plan, tels que la motivation économique et les recours en responsabilité. Ensuite, elle s’attarde aux processus issus de la règlementation professionnelle. Elle arrive à la conclusion que deux mécanismes sont manquants pour rencontrer l’objectif visé par le législateur et propose, à ce titre, des pistes de solution.

Legislative update

Every week the General Assembly is in session the South Carolina House of Representatives, Office of Research publishes the Legislative Update, a digest of action on the floor of the House and action in full House committees.

Legislative update

Every week the General Assembly is in session the South Carolina House of Representatives, Office of Research publishes the Legislative Update, a digest of action on the floor of the House and action in full House committees.

Legislative update

Every week the General Assembly is in session the South Carolina House of Representatives, Office of Research publishes the Legislative Update, a digest of action on the floor of the House and action in full House committees.

Legislative update

Every week the General Assembly is in session the South Carolina House of Representatives, Office of Research publishes the Legislative Update, a digest of action on the floor of the House and action in full House committees.

Legislative update

Every week the General Assembly is in session the South Carolina House of Representatives, Office of Research publishes the Legislative Update, a digest of action on the floor of the House and action in full House committees.

LIST STATUS REPORT FOR ENERGY RELATED LEGISLATION

This gives the status of bills in the General Assembly dealing with energy. It gives the title, the bill itself and where it stands in the process in the Senate and House.

Auditoria Energética à Escola Secundária Padre Benjamim Salgado - Vila Nova de Famalicão

A dependência energética das grandes economias mundiais alertou o mundo para a necessidade de mudar o comportamento relativo ao consumo de energia. O aumento dos custos energéticos tem induzido ao uso racional da energia por parte das organizações, implicando uma monitorização permanente nas instalações. A eficiência energética é um tema que tem vindo a assumir grande importância nos dias de hoje na nossa sociedade, não só pelos compromissos internacionais assumidos, como também pelo combate ao desperdício energético. Esta dissertação relata o estágio curricular na Agência de Energia do Ave, que inclui uma auditoria energética à escola Padre Benjamim Salgado. O estágio visou essencialmente a contribuição para um modelo de desenvolvimento sustentável, na procura de alternativas com menor impacto ambiental, introduzindo conceitos de eficiência energética e ambiental nos processos de planeamento. Acções de sensibilização e auditorias energéticas foram os projetos que, durante o período curricular, tiveram maior intervenção por parte do autor desta dissertação, tendo em vista a mudança de hábitos de consumo energético na sociedade. A auditoria energética à escola Padre Benjamim Salgado, Joane Vila Nova de Famalicão, apresenta uma abordagem para a determinação da redução dos custos de energia, mantendo o conforto para os seus ocupantes. A escola em análise configura um Grande Edifício de Serviços (GES) à luz de uma análise térmica feita ao edifício escolar, com os valores de eferência atualizados, com entrada em vigor a 31 de dezembro de 2015, ao abrigo da nova regulamentação (decreto-lei n.º118/2013, 20 de Agosto) verificando-se o cumprimento dos requisitos mínimos definidos na Portaria n.º 349/2013 do atual decreto. Foi ainda efetuada, após um levantamento exaustivo, uma análise detalhada das faturas de energia, gás e água, e de todos os equipamentos consumidores de energia que se encontram instalados na instituição.

The Educational Imaginary in Radical Reconstruction: Congressional Public Policy Rhetoric and American Federalism, 1862-1872

Facing the exigencies of Emancipation, a South in ruins, and ongoing violence, between 1862 and 1872 the United States Congress debated the role education would play in the postbellum polity. Positing schooling as a panacea for the nation’s problems, a determiner of individual worth, and a way of ameliorating state and federal tensions, congressional leaders envisioned education as a way of reshaping American political life. In pursuit of this vision, many policymakers advocated national school agencies and assertive interventions into state educational systems. Interrogating the meaning of “education” for congressional leaders, this study examines the role of this ambiguous concept in negotiating the contradictions of federal and state identity, projecting visions of social change, evaluating civic preparedness, and enabling broader debates over the nation’s future. Examining legislative debates over the Reconstruction Acts, Freedmen’s Bureau, Bureau of Education, and two bills for national education reform in the early 1870s, this project examines how disparate educational visions of Republicans and Democrats collided and mutated amid the vicissitudes of public policy argument. Engaging rhetorical concepts of temporality, disposition, and political judgment, it examines the allure and limitations of education policy rhetoric, and how this rhetoric shifted amid the difficult process of coming to policy agreements in a tumultuous era. In a broader historical sense, this project considers the role of Reconstruction Era congressional rhetoric in shaping the long-term development of contemporary Americans’ “educational imaginary,” the tacit, often unarticulated assumptions about schooling that inflect how contemporary Americans engage in political life, civic judgment, and social reform. Treating the analysis of public policy debate as a way to gain insights into transitions in American political life, the study considers how Reconstruction Era debate converged upon certain common agreements, and obfuscated significant fault lines, that persist in contemporary arguments.

La cinématographie-attraction à Montréal à la lumière de la législation (1896-1913)

La cinématographie-attraction a longtemps été considérée comme les débuts du cinéma, jusqu’à ce qu’une controverse, en 1978, marque une rupture historiographique et la considère comme un objet d’études à part entière, distinct du cinéma institutionnel. Nous l’analysons ici dans le contexte de Montréal, entre la présentation du Cinématographe Lumière en 1896 et l’entrée en fonction du Bureau de censure des vues animées de la province du Québec en 1913. Plus précisément, nous interrogeons son institutionnalisation à la lumière de la législation ; les représentants du gouvernement canadien donnent un statut juridique aux vues animées en modifiant et en votant des textes légaux. Cette étude définit le contexte cinématographique, historique et géographique. Elle aborde ensuite trois domaines de la cinématographie-attraction qui ne sont pas les mêmes que ceux du cinéma : la fabrication (le financement, le tournage et la modification des œuvres cinématographiques), l’exhibition (les séances de projections payantes d’images animées) et la réception (les jugements portés sur les vues animées). Nous montrons comment la cinématographie-attraction est d’abord contrôlée par de nombreuses personnes (celles qui financent, celles qui tournent les vues animées, les propriétaires de lieux d’amusements, le policier ou le pompier présent au cours des projections), puis par des institutions reconnues et les représentants du gouvernement. En nous appuyant sur la presse montréalaise, les discours officiels, les discours diocésains, les textes légaux, les catalogues publiés par les compagnies de fabrication et sur les vues animées, nous montrons quels sont les enjeux de l’institutionnalisation pour les différents groupes sociaux.

Do intelligent heating controls out-smart ordinary users?

Nearly a third of UK gas and electricity is used in homes, of which 80% is for space heating and hot water provision. Rising consumer bills, concerns about climate change and the surge in personal digital technology use has provoked the development of intelligent domestic heating controls. Whilst the need for having suitable control of the home heating system is essential for reducing domestic energy use, these heating controls rely on appropriate user interaction to achieve a saving and it is unclear whether these ‘smart’ heating controls enhance the use of domestic heating or reduce energy demand. This paper describes qualitative research undertaken with a small sample of UK householders to understand how people use new heating controls installed in their homes and what the requirements are for improved smart heating control design. The paper identifies, against Nielsen’s usability heuristics, the divergence between the householder’s use, understanding and expectations of the heating system and the actual design of the system. Digital and smart heating control systems should be designed to maximise usability so that they can be effectively used for efficient heating control by all users. The research highlights the need for development of new systems to readdress the needs of users and redefine the system requirements.

La cinématographie-attraction à Montréal à la lumière de la législation (1896-1913)

La cinématographie-attraction a longtemps été considérée comme les débuts du cinéma, jusqu’à ce qu’une controverse, en 1978, marque une rupture historiographique et la considère comme un objet d’études à part entière, distinct du cinéma institutionnel. Nous l’analysons ici dans le contexte de Montréal, entre la présentation du Cinématographe Lumière en 1896 et l’entrée en fonction du Bureau de censure des vues animées de la province du Québec en 1913. Plus précisément, nous interrogeons son institutionnalisation à la lumière de la législation ; les représentants du gouvernement canadien donnent un statut juridique aux vues animées en modifiant et en votant des textes légaux. Cette étude définit le contexte cinématographique, historique et géographique. Elle aborde ensuite trois domaines de la cinématographie-attraction qui ne sont pas les mêmes que ceux du cinéma : la fabrication (le financement, le tournage et la modification des œuvres cinématographiques), l’exhibition (les séances de projections payantes d’images animées) et la réception (les jugements portés sur les vues animées). Nous montrons comment la cinématographie-attraction est d’abord contrôlée par de nombreuses personnes (celles qui financent, celles qui tournent les vues animées, les propriétaires de lieux d’amusements, le policier ou le pompier présent au cours des projections), puis par des institutions reconnues et les représentants du gouvernement. En nous appuyant sur la presse montréalaise, les discours officiels, les discours diocésains, les textes légaux, les catalogues publiés par les compagnies de fabrication et sur les vues animées, nous montrons quels sont les enjeux de l’institutionnalisation pour les différents groupes sociaux.