Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to mapp out the impact of existing national legislative measures tackling discrimination outside the field of employment and occupation on the grounds of disability, age and sexual orientation. This paper aims to produce an overview and comparison of twenty two existing impact assessments of anti-discrimination legislation in Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.. The paper considers the enforcement, acceptance and/or compliance impacts. The paper examines factors, which enhance or impair the effectiveness and acceptance of legal measures. It also analyses how anti-discrimination law is enforced and what are the indicators on enforcement. Finally, the paper considers the economic and social impacts of anti-discrimination law. It outlines and analyses a number of specific costs and benefits as included in national impact assessments of anti-discrimination law.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: We employ the political market framework to explain differences in local government use of impact fees. This framework conceptualizes policy choices as resulting from the interplay between the aggregate policy demand by residents, developers and environmental interests and the aggregate supply by government authorities. The framework emphasizes the role of local institutions as mediators of local policy change. Intergovernmental variation in the use of impact fees is investigated at the metro and local government level with Bayesian frailty analysis of data collected in a 2003 survey of local government planners in Florida.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The Supreme Court of the United States? decision in Bush v. Gore generated widespread discussion and debate. Some aspects of the decision caused concern and consternation. However, regardless of partisan predilection, almost everyone expressed agreement with the Court when it stated, ?After the current counting [referring to the various ballot recounts in Florida], it is likely legislative bodies nationwide will examine ways to improve the mechanisms and machinery for voting.? The circumstances surrounding the presidential election of 2000, epitomized by the extraordinary series of events in the state of Florida, provided abundant evidence that a state-by-state critical analysis of the current electoral system as administered by those states was sorely needed. Surely, regardless of party affiliation, state legislators could be expected to act in response to the troubling events that occurred in Florida, and the resulting admonitions implicit in the Bush v. Gore decision. It seemed logical to assume that state legislators would move expeditiously to ferret out inadequacies in their state?s electoral structure and enact legislation mandating necessary changes to electoral systems. But have they done so or can it be reasonably anticipated that they will? Has the Court?s oblique call-to-action actually generated any meaningful electoral reform at the state level, or at least some serious and substantial movement in that direction? This paper examines what has occurred regarding state-level electoral reform in the year following Bush v. Gore, finds that little if any reform has taken place, and proffers the incentive for political elites to retain their position of power and the consequent reluctance to alter the electoral status quo as a partial explanation the paucity of electoral reform that has been implemented at the state level since the 2000 election.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: With worldwide water supplies beginning to dwindle as quickly as international commercial markets emerge to regulate this precious resource, water promises to become a key political cornerstone in the coming years. This essay explores the issue of water privatization and its often-unreported impact on human life by examining the recent water protests in Bolivia and explaining the phenomenon of water privatization as an act of global arrogance within a growing corporatist governmentality. Concluding this essay is a move toward German Idealism suggesting the need to work toward a dignity that respects our social relations. Accomplishing such a task, as suggested in this essay, demands a deep, reflexive examination of how such privatization efforts contribute to the creation of a weak democracy in favor of a strong economy: a situation that is becoming more fashionable both at home and abroad. However, hope exists in unpacking a historical moment in the development of the United States that allows people to legally bind multinational corporations to an ethic respectful of its impact on stakeholders as a first mechanism for securing such a dignity of our social relations.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The political impact of government laboratories on small towns has not been fully explored in the field of political science. This paper seeks to fill that void by exploring the political impact of the government laboratories.