'Reform' of the British national health service after the election of a labour government: Understanding the policy development process

The policy development process leading to the Labour government's white paper of December 1997—The new NHS: Modern, Dependable—is the focus of this project and the public policy development literature is used to aid in the understanding of this process. Policy makers who had been involved in the development of the white paper were interviewed in order to acquire a thorough understanding of who was involved in this process and how they produced the white paper. A theoretical framework is used that sorts policy development models into those that focus on knowledge and experience, and those which focus on politics and influence. This framework is central to understanding the evidence gathered from the individuals and associations that participated in this policy development process. The main research question to be asked in this project is to what extent do either of these sets of policy development models aid in understanding and explicating the process by which the Labour government's policies were developed. The interview evidence, along with published evidence, show that a clear pattern of policy change emerged from this policy development process, and the Knowledge-Experience and Politics-Influence policy making models both assist in understanding this process. The early stages of the policy development process were characterized as hierarchical and iterative, yet also very collaborative among those participating, with knowledge and experience being quite prevalent. At every point in the process, however, informal networks of political influence were used and noted to be quite prevalent by all of the individuals interviewed. The later stages of the process then became increasingly noninclusive, with decisions made by a select group of internal and external policy makers. These policy making models became an important tool with which to understand the policy development process. This Knowledge-Experience and Politics-Influence dichotomy of policy development models could therefore be useful in analyzing other types of policy development. ^

Das geheime Bataillon : eine Untersuchung über das kommunistische Verhalten zur Labour-Party

von Harold J. Laski

Treatment of post-partum haemorrhage with sublingual misoprostol versus oxytocin in women not exposed to oxytocin during labour: a double-blind, randomised, non-inferiority trial

Gynuity

Almanaques sí, relojes no : La prolongación de la jornada laboral en la agricultura pampeana, de la última dictadura al "boom" sojero

Este artículo analiza los mecanismos económicos y dispositivos discursivos utilizados por las patronales para imponer la prolongación e intensificación de la jornada laboral en la agricultura pampeana, y sus consecuencias sobre las condiciones de trabajo de los obreros rurales luego de la década de 1970. La metodología incluyó la consulta de material bibliográfico especializado; fuentes documentales patronales (archivos de FACMA); sindicales (archivos de la CGT y UATRE); legislación laboral; libros de actas de negociaciones obrero-patronales (CNTA y CAR); material periodístico; y fundamentalmente un acervo testimonial recabado sobre una muestra de 50 obreros rurales y 20 empleadores en una serie de partidos arquetípicos del "boom" sojero de los últimos años en las provincias de Buenos Aires, Santa Fe y Córdoba. El resultado de nuestro análisis invita a incorporar como una de las condiciones de posibilidad para la expansión agrícola reciente al aumento de la explotación del trabajo asalariado

Almanaques sí, relojes no : La prolongación de la jornada laboral en la agricultura pampeana, de la última dictadura al "boom" sojero

Este artículo analiza los mecanismos económicos y dispositivos discursivos utilizados por las patronales para imponer la prolongación e intensificación de la jornada laboral en la agricultura pampeana, y sus consecuencias sobre las condiciones de trabajo de los obreros rurales luego de la década de 1970. La metodología incluyó la consulta de material bibliográfico especializado; fuentes documentales patronales (archivos de FACMA); sindicales (archivos de la CGT y UATRE); legislación laboral; libros de actas de negociaciones obrero-patronales (CNTA y CAR); material periodístico; y fundamentalmente un acervo testimonial recabado sobre una muestra de 50 obreros rurales y 20 empleadores en una serie de partidos arquetípicos del "boom" sojero de los últimos años en las provincias de Buenos Aires, Santa Fe y Córdoba. El resultado de nuestro análisis invita a incorporar como una de las condiciones de posibilidad para la expansión agrícola reciente al aumento de la explotación del trabajo asalariado

Almanaques sí, relojes no : La prolongación de la jornada laboral en la agricultura pampeana, de la última dictadura al "boom" sojero

Este artículo analiza los mecanismos económicos y dispositivos discursivos utilizados por las patronales para imponer la prolongación e intensificación de la jornada laboral en la agricultura pampeana, y sus consecuencias sobre las condiciones de trabajo de los obreros rurales luego de la década de 1970. La metodología incluyó la consulta de material bibliográfico especializado; fuentes documentales patronales (archivos de FACMA); sindicales (archivos de la CGT y UATRE); legislación laboral; libros de actas de negociaciones obrero-patronales (CNTA y CAR); material periodístico; y fundamentalmente un acervo testimonial recabado sobre una muestra de 50 obreros rurales y 20 empleadores en una serie de partidos arquetípicos del "boom" sojero de los últimos años en las provincias de Buenos Aires, Santa Fe y Córdoba. El resultado de nuestro análisis invita a incorporar como una de las condiciones de posibilidad para la expansión agrícola reciente al aumento de la explotación del trabajo asalariado

Link between energy consumption per hour of activity and productivity of labour

The data set shows energy consumption per hour of work (in MJ/hour), and labour productivity (in USD/hour) in the PS economic sector (Energy & Mining + Industry + Construction) for the period 1970-2009 and for the following countries: Germany, Spain, USA, Canada, Italy, UK, France, Japan. The intention is to look at the relationship between energy consumption as a driver of improvements in the productivity of labour. This is of particular relevance for the discussion of reducing working time in the context of the 'degrowth' debate, as it is done in the article to which this data is a suplement.

Model simulation output data (CCSM3) related to uplift of African topography and the intensification of upwelling in the Benguela region

The Benguela Current, located off the west coast of southern Africa, is tied to a highly productive upwelling system**1. Over the past 12 million years, the current has cooled, and upwelling has intensified**2, 3, 4. These changes have been variously linked to atmospheric and oceanic changes associated with the glaciation of Antarctica and global cooling**5, the closure of the Central American Seaway**1, 6 or the further restriction of the Indonesian Seaway**3. The upwelling intensification also occurred during a period of substantial uplift of the African continent**7, 8. Here we use a coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model to test the effect of African uplift on Benguela upwelling. In our simulations, uplift in the East African Rift system and in southern and southwestern Africa induces an intensification of coastal low-level winds, which leads to increased oceanic upwelling of cool subsurface waters. We compare the effect of African uplift with the simulated impact of the Central American Seaway closure9, Indonesian Throughflow restriction10 and Antarctic glaciation**11, and find that African uplift has at least an equally strong influence as each of the three other factors. We therefore conclude that African uplift was an important factor in driving the cooling and strengthening of the Benguela Current and coastal upwelling during the late Miocene and Pliocene epochs.

Re-thinking Argentina's labour and social security reform in the 1990s : agreement on competitive corporatism

This paper will analyze the Menem administration's social policy reforms during the 1990s. Neo-liberal reforms in Argentina are well-known both in the economy and in the social arena, but in the latter we can discern the presence of tripartite negotiations. The form of such negotiations, the type of agreements reached as a result, and the background to those agreements will be discussed. We also pay attention to the concept of competitive corporatism, which was established under the increase in market competition brought about by globalization.

Revisiting labour and gender issues in Export Processing Zones : the cases of South Korea, Bangladesh and India

The establishment of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) is a strategy for economic development that was introduced almost fifty years ago and is nowadays employed in a large number of countries. While the number of EPZs including several variants such as Special Economic Zone (SEZs) has increased continuously, general interest in EPZs has declined over the years in contrast to earlier heated debates regarding the efficacy of the strategy and its welfare effects especially on women workers. This article re-evaluates the historical trajectories and outstanding labour and gender issues of EPZs on the basis of the experiences of South Korea, Bangladesh and India. The findings suggest the necessity of enlarging our analytical scope with regard to EPZs, which are inextricably connected with external employment structures, whether outside the EPZ but within the same country, or outside the EPZ and its host country altogether.

Issues Affecting the Movement of Rural Labour in Myanmar: Rakhine Case Study

This paper presents issues affecting the movement of rural labour in Myanmar, by examining the background, purpose and earned income of labourers migrating to fishing villages in southern Rakhine. A broad range of socioeconomic classes, from poor to rich, farmers to fishermen, is migrating from broader areas to specific labour-intensive fishing subsectors, such as anchovy fishing. These labourers are a mixed group of people whose motives lie either in supplementing their household income or accumulating capital for further expansion of their economic activities. The concentration of migrating labourers with different objectives in this particular unstable, unskilled employment opportunity suggests an insufficiently developed domestic labour market in rural Myanmar. There is a pressing need to create stable labour-intensive industries to meet this demand.

The informal labour market in India : transitory or permanent employment for migrants?

The informal economy is a very important sector of the Indian economy. The National Council of Applied Economic Research estimates that the informal sector - "unorganised sector" - generates about 62% of GDP and provides for about 55% of total employment (ILO 2002, p. 14). This paper studies the characteristics of the workers in the informal economy and whether internal migrants treat this sector as a temporary location before moving on to the organised or formal sector to improve their lifetime income and living conditions. We limit our study to the Indian urban (non-agricultural) sector and study the characteristics of the household heads that belong to the informal sector (self-employed and informal wage workers) and the formal sector. We find that household heads that are less educated, come from poorer households, and/or are in lower social groups (castes and religions) are more likely to be in the informal sector. In addition, our results show strong evidence that the longer a rural migrant household head has been working in the urban sector, ceteris paribus, the more likely that individual has moved out of the informal wage sector. These results support the hypothesis that, for internal migrants, the informal wage labour market is a stepping stone to a better and more certain life in the formal sector.