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PubMed2001

'This very difficult debate about Wik': stake, voice and the management of category memberships in race politics.

The issue of 'race' has assumed an extraordinarily salient position in Australian politics since the election of the conservative Howard government in 1996. Central to debate in the Australian policy has been the nature of the relationship between indigenous, or Aboriginal, Australians and the rest of the population, in particular over the issue of the land rights of indigenous people. Land rights, or 'native title', assumed a pre-eminent position in national political life in 1996/97 with the handing down by the High Court of the so-called 'Wik judgment'. The discursive management of the ensuing debate by Australia's political leaders is illuminative of key sites of interest in the analysis of political rhetoric and the construction of 'racially sensitive' issues. Taking the texts of 'addresses to the nation' on Wik by the leaders of the two major political parties as analytic materials, we examine two features of the talk. First, examine how the speakers manage their stake in the position they advance, with an extension of previous work on reported speech into the area of set-piece political rhetoric. Second, in contrast to approaches which treat social categories as routine, mundane and unproblematic objects, we demonstrate the local construction of category memberships and their predicates as strategic moves in political talk. Specifically, we demonstrate how the categories of 'Aborigines' and 'farmers', groups central to the dispute, are strategically constructed to normatively bind certain entitlements to activity to category membership. Furthermore, inasmuch as such categories do not, in use, reflect readily perceived 'objective' group entities in the 'real' world, so too 'standard' discursive devices and rhetorical structures are themselves shown to be contingently shaped and strategically deployed for contrasting local, ideological and rhetorical ends.

Australia↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The political economy of Medicare.

Medicare spends more than $200 billion a year; the politics surrounding the Medicare program cannot be fully understood without an adequate appreciation of that fact. An understanding of the political economy of Medicare is perhaps best achieved by thinking along three dimensions: (1) Medicare as redistributive politics; (2) Medicare as special-interest politics; and (3) Medicare as distributive politics. Seeing the extent to which Medicare policies flow from these political processes makes clear that Medicare reform and broader political reform are, at some level, inseparable and indistinguishable.

Health Care Reform↗

PubMed1980

The motivation and political alienation of older Americans.

Utilizing a sample of older Americans this paper focused on the relationship between their personal motivation (whether internally or externally oriented) and their feeling of political incapability, political discontentment and anomie. The individual was defined as internally oriented to the degree that he felt there was a direct causal chain between his actions and given social outcomes, and externally oriented to the degree that he thought that luck, chance or fate determined these outcomes. Following Olsen's example, political incapability was defined as a feeling that the social system is preventing one from reaching desired goals, political discontentment was defined in terms of the political world not being worth one's participation, and anomies was defined as estrangement from one's social world [1]. External orientation was found to be significantly related to feelings of political incapability, political discontentment, and anomies among older Americans. The data tended to indicate that early personal orientation toward problem solving led to generalized expectations which provide long range motivational and behavioral patterns for individuals which follow them throughout life.

Aged↗

PubMed1978

The economic and political determinants of human (including health) rights.

This paper presents an analysis and critique of the U.S. government's current emphasis on human rights; and (a) its limited focus on only some civil and political components of the original U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, and (b) its disregard for economic and social rights such as the rights to work, fair wages, health, education, and social security. The paper discusses the reasons for that limited focus and argues that, contrary to what is widely presented in the media and academe: (1) civil and political rights are highly restricted in the U.S.; (2) those rights are further restricted in the U.S. when analyzed in their social and economic dimensions; (3) civil and political rights are not independent of but rather intrinsically related to and dependent on the existence of socioeconomic rights; (4) the definition of the nature and extension of human rights in their civil, political, social, and economic dimensions is not universal, but rather depends on the pattern of economic and political power relations particular to each society; and (5) the pattern of power relations in the U.S. society and the western system of power, based on the right to individual property and its concomitant class structure and relations, is incompatible with the full realization of human rights in their economic, social, political, and civil dimensions. This paper further indicates that U.S. financial and corporate capital, through its overwhelming influence over the organs of political power in the U.S. and over international bodies and agencies, is primarily responsible for the denial of the human rights of the U.S. population and many populations throughout the world as well.

Civil Rights↗

PubMed1990

Playing politics fair and square.

Political action, like leadership behavior, may or may not be beneficial to the success of organizations and their personnel. At one end of the scale, political behavior is selfish. Some outliers are even unethical or illegal. In the upper registers, politically astute behavior supplements professional competency. It is beneficial not only to the practitioner, but also to his or her subordinates, superiors, peers, and employer. Negative political behavior is self-serving, manipulative, and violates the spirit of honest communication. It produces resentment and destroys morale. Often what is perceived as politics is merely poor communication. The remedy for this is better use of formal and informal channels of information. Incompetent employees often rationalize their failures by using politics as a scapegoat. To encourage positive political strategies, employers should institute training programs. Such programs should promote teamwork and teach positive interpersonal skills. Seminars on ethical decision making must be supplemented by model behavior on the part of upper managers.

Behavior↗

PubMed1992

Teaching health policy and politics in U.S. schools of public health.

Because most public health endeavors in the United States are funded by the public sector, public health practitioners need to be adept at working within the political system. However, the 1988 Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Public Health, found that many public health professionals are ignorant or disdainful of political processes and will not participate in activities that they perceive to be political. Our study examined the health policy and politics curricula of the 24 accredited schools of public health in the U.S., finding that most public health students are not exposed to these areas during their graduate coursework. Moreover, those students who do take health policy and politics courses study these areas within the context of health care delivery; the politics of public health and prevention are ignored by most schools of public health. Recommendations for improving public health curricula in health policy and politics are presented, including linkages with prevention activities.

Curriculum↗

PubMed1987

[Constraints imposed by political factors upon government intervention and health promotion].

In this article, Michel O'Neill, Ph. D., discusses the necessity of taking political factors into consideration when embarking on preventive programmes, regardless of the level in the community in which the intervention is to take place. When using the term, "political factors", the author is referring to the powers of influence which certain individuals or groups inevitably have over members of a community, regardless of its size. The influence is thus not necessarily linked to partisan politics but potentially has extensive implications for health promotion activities. After an introduction to the history of the development of a community health oriented system in Quebec, O'Neill presents four examples (at the local, regional, provincial, and federal levels) to introduce his analysis of political influence in community health and its implications in health promotion programmes. The marketing genius and tremendous budget of a multinational, American-based fast food corporation represents the political influence contrary of health promotion interests in two of the examples: competing with nutrition education efforts at a local level and "philanthropically" supporting curative efforts at a regional level. At a provincial level, the perpetual problem of tobacco corporations influencing elected officials in their social policies is presented while the aberration between rhetoric vis à vis policy and the reality of non-action is cited as political influence at a federal level. The examples cited are only four among "dozens and dozens" and serve as a reminder that health promotion professionals must take political influences into account if they wish to implement effective policies and programmes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Community Health Services↗

PubMed1996

Face and politeness in pharmacist-physician interaction.

This study used Brown and Levinson's theory of politeness to gain a better understanding of the factors that influence pharmacists' messages to physicians. Specifically, perceived differences in power and social distance between pharmacist and physician were expected to influence the amount of politeness observed in pharmacists' messages. The effects of age, sex and practice context were also examined. Written messages were gathered from 210 community pharmacists and 112 hospital pharmacists in response to a hypothetical drug allergy scenario. Messages were segmented into independent clauses, and independent clauses were classified according to the politeness strategy used to make allergy reports and alternative drug recommendations respectively. Content analysis of the messages in relation to demographic variables revealed that age and practice context were significantly associated with the overall level of politeness of alternative drug recommendations, but not with overall politeness of allergy reports. Demographic factors were significantly related to perceptions of power and social distance, but, contrary to Brown and Levinson's prediction, these perceptions were not associated with variation in politeness. Regardless of other factors, recommendations were made more politely than reports. Implications for pharmacists' professional roles and identities are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Political disempowerment among older people in Hong Kong.

The democratic elections that took place in Hong Kong before and after 1997 presented a unique opportunity for older people, politicians and government officials to take action to promote the participation of older people. There were, however, few significant projects undertaken to this end. This paper reports on recent research on political participation of older people in Hong Kong which found that they were active in voting but they were passive in other forms of participation. Factors affecting participation are more significantly related to politicians' mobilization than to civic education or work done by centres for the elderly. In the field, there is little awareness of using more effective strategies to address older people's political powerlessness. Strategies identified include: educational talks in local elderly centres, mock election games and meeting with candidates from different political parties. All these activities were locally based and not well articulated, and there were few concerted efforts to promote the political power and influence of older people at the central level. The present situation of older people in Hong Kong remains one of political powerlessness and the piecemeal strategies used to address the issue have so far had little impact. This paper suggests that political powerlessness is not a natural result of old age. It is a problem which is socially constructed. An analysis of the factors shaping this situation is presented. It also presents some suggested strategies for gerontological practice in promoting political empowerment among older people in Hong Kong.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1982

Development in the use and understanding of polite forms in children.

In two experiments, children's use and understanding of polite forms and the relationship these abilities share with an ability to adopt the perspective of another were examined. Development in the understanding of polite forms seemed best characterized as sensitivity to the function of these forms in an increasing number of sentence types. Development in the use of polite forms could be viewed as an increasing tendency to produce more than one polite form in the same utterance and to use a wider variety of interrogative types when expressing politeness. Emergence of the use and understanding of politeness in speech at age 3 seemed related to an emerging ability to adopt the perspective of another. However, development of politeness beyond this age seemed related only to a form of perspective taking in which knowledge of social roles plays a part.

Child↗

PubMed1999

The psychological underpinnings of democracy: A selective review of research on political tolerance, interpersonal trust, and social capital.

This chapter explores two psychological orientations that support democratic governance. First, robust democracies require citizens to tolerate others' efforts to participate in politics, even if they promote unpopular views. Research shows that citizens' political tolerance is influenced strongly by the depth of their commitment to democratic values, by their personality, and by the degree to which they perceive others as threatening. Cross-national research generalizes many of these findings to other countries. Second, robust democracies need citizens who will participate in politics. Almond and Verba's cross-national research shows that interpersonal trust and other features of political culture enhance citizen involvement in politics. Inglehart expanded the political culture framework in his work on post-materialism, interpersonal trust, life satisfaction, and cognitive mobilization. Recent theories of social capital also emphasize the role of generalized interpersonal trust, membership in voluntary associations, and norms of reciprocity in enhancing political participation and democracy.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1995

[Scientific change in times of political upheaval: Germany in the 20th century].

Until recently, the development of the modern sciences has usually been described as a continuous unfolding of constantly expanding and differentiating research institutions on the one hand, and the accumulation of more and better knowledge on the other. The changes that have occurred both in scientific institutions and in the direction and content of research in the course of revolutions or comparable political changes pose significant challenges to such accounts. I would like to propose an interactive approach to this issue. Instead of accepting a linear, deterministic model of scientific change as a result of political upheaval, I suggest that such political changes present an array of challenges to and possibilities for the interruption, redirection, reconstruction or effortful continuation of research. The central claim is that scientific development in times of political upheaval has proceeded in Germany primarily by means of increasing cooperation of scientists with the state, involving a process that I call the technologization of basic research. But this is not always a one-sided affair involving the subordination of science to practical politics or to ideology. Rather, I argue, what occurs is the mobilization or reconstruction of physical, institutional, financial cognitive and/or rhetorical resources. Such mobilizations can proceed in various directions: the state or agencies within it can mobilize scientists as resources in the interest of achieving certain political aims; scientists can convert themselves into such resources (or claim that they are doing so); or both things can happen at once. The approach is exemplified by examining continuities and changes in the situations of the sciences following the major turning points of 20th century German history, symbolized by the dates 1918, 1933, 1945 and 1990. Considered in particular are: scientific changes in Germany following the Nazi takeover and creative innovations by émigré scientists working in different cultural settings; the massive transfer of scientific resources after Nazi Germany's defeat and attempts to carry on and reconstruct science in the two postwar German states; and the massive reorganization of scientific institutions in eastern Germany after unification. The examples come primarily from biology and experimental psychology, but physical sciences and particular branches of technology are considered as well.

Germany↗

PubMed2005

Decolonization and the movement for institutionalization of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong: a political process perspective.

This paper focuses on the question of why the social and political acceptance of Chinese medicine has grown in the former British colony of Hong Kong since the late 1980s. To supplement the conventional explanations for the institutionalization of alternative medicines, we propose a political process perspective that highlights the effects of political changes amidst the decolonization process in Hong Kong. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the weakening of the political position of the established elite, the opening up of political space for previously excluded groups, and the competition for support among the new political elite, all stimulated the indigenous Chinese medicine organizations to mobilize for the institutionalization of Chinese medicine. By the mid-1990s academics from leading tertiary institutions began to take over the leadership of the movement and in doing so carried it to a higher level. In the conclusion, we briefly consider the implications of this movement for the future development of alternative medicine in Hong Kong and other societies.

History, 20th Century↗

PubMed2006

Politics and health outcomes.

The aim of this study was to examine the complex interactions between political traditions, policies, and public health outcomes, and to find out whether different political traditions have been associated with systematic patterns in population health over time. We analysed a number of political, economic, social, and health variables over a 50-year period, in a set of wealthy countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Our findings support the hypothesis that the political ideologies of governing parties affect some indicators of population health. Our analysis makes an empirical link between politics and policy, by showing that political parties with egalitarian ideologies tend to implement redistributive policies. An important finding of our research is that policies aimed at reducing social inequalities, such as welfare state and labour market policies, do seem to have a salutary effect on the selected health indicators, infant mortality and life expectancy at birth.

Canada↗

PubMed1999

The political economy of the welfare state in developed capitalist countries.

The article analyzes the social, economic, and political changes taking place in developed capitalist countries that are affecting their welfare states, in particular the changes in the family, in people's life cycles, in economic and social structures, and, most importantly, in the political contexts. The author shows how these changes take place and how the ways in which various countries respond to them depend mainly on the correlation of forces (of which class forces continue to be of great importance) and their expression in the political space. The dominant theoretical frame (promoted by international agencies and many governments) assumes that all governments, regardless of their political coloration, are forced to follow the same policies because of the need to be competitive in the globalized economy, where international markets (whether financial or commercial) determine what governments can and must do. Questioning this economic determinism, the article recovers the importance of politics, putting politics at the center of the explanation of what is happening in the welfare states of the developed capitalist countries, including the neoliberal aggression against them.

Developed Countries↗

PubMed1995

Modes of immigration politics in liberal democratic states.

"The politics of immigration in liberal democracies exhibits strong similarities that are, contrary to the scholarly consensus, broadly expansionist and inclusive. Nevertheless, three groups of states display distinct modes of immigration politics. Divergent immigration histories mold popular attitudes toward migration and ethnic heterogeneity and affect the institutionalization of migration policy and politics....I begin by discussing those characteristics of immigration politics found in all liberal democracies. I then investigate the distinctive modes of immigration politics in the three subsets of Western democratic states with distinctive immigration histories. I conclude by considering whether these three patterns will persist or how they might change as a result of future migration pressures and the further institutionalization of immigration politics and policies in Europe." Comments by Rogers Brubaker (pp. 903-8) and a rejoinder by the author (pp. 909-13) are included.

Attitude↗

PubMed1989

Towards an epidemiology of political violence in the Third World.

Political violence is distressingly widespread in many parts of the world. This paper reviews the forms and effects of political violence and devotes particular attention to experiences from Central America and Southern Africa. The forms of violence vary from those which are extensive such as civil unrest and war, to those which are intensive, such as assassinations, disappearances and torture. The effects of violence on health may be direct, such as deaths, disabilities, psychological stress and the destruction of health services, or indirect such as the erosion of innovative health policies in favour of increased military expenditure. Health workers have a role to play in opposing political violence, providing care for those affected by violence, and documenting and analysing its impact on health. Research needs include documenting the impact of different forms of violence on health, and analysing the social and political factors which promote and support political violence. It is hoped that increasing recognition of political violence and man-made violence as being of major public health concern will play a part in promoting a more peaceful world.

Developing Countries↗

PubMed2006

Correlation between national income, HIV/AIDS and political status and mortalities in African countries.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate associations between mortalities in African countries and problems that emerged in Africa in the 1990s (reduction of national income, HIV/AIDS and political instability) by adjusting for the influences of development, sanitation and education. METHODS: We compiled country-level indicators of mortalities, national net income (the reduction of national income by the debt), infection rate of HIV/AIDS, political instability, demography, education, sanitation and infrastructure, from 1990 to 2000 of all African countries (n=53). To extract major factors from indicators of the latter four categories, we carried out principal component analysis. We used multiple regression analysis to examine the associations between mortality indicators and national net income per capita, infection rate of HIV/AIDS, and political instability by adjusting the influence of other possible mortality determinants. RESULTS: Mean of infant mortality per 1000 live births (IMR); maternal mortality per 100,000 live birth (MMR); adult female mortality per 1000 population (AMRF); adult male mortality per 1000 population (AMRM); and life expectancy at birth (LE) in 2000 were 83, 733, 381, 435, and 51, respectively. Three factors were identified as major influences on development: education, sanitation and infrastructure. National net income per capita showed independent negative associations with MMR and AMRF, and a positive association with LE. Infection rate of HIV/AIDS was independently positively associated with AMRM and AMRF, and negatively associated with LE in 2000. Political instability score was independently positively associated with MMR. CONCLUSIONS: National net income per capita, HIV/AIDS and political status were predictors of mortality indicators in African countries. This study provided evidence for supporting health policies that take economic and political stability into account.

Africa↗