British Systems Research Articles

Health care contracts in Britain and the United States: a case for technology transfer?

One unexpected point of convergence between the British and North American health care systems is the increased use of negotiated contracts to govern relationships between purchasers and providers. In Britain, the internal market reforms introduced a special regime of National Health Service (NHS) contracts; in the United States there has been a move from disorganization towards integration with the emergence of larger purchasing coalitions and provider organizations. While, in the past, US patients were simply billed for services or assigned claims to the provider, it is now common for payment to be made directly from purchaser to provider and for the terms of these transactions to be set out in contracts. This paper draws on the reading of contracts, interviews with contracting parties, and ongoing research on NHS contracting in Wales to compare contracting practice within the two systems. It examines how the very different environments of the public, hierarchically-regulated NHS and the private health care market of the US influence the detailed content of contract clauses. The analysis passes over similarities, different solutions to common problems, and fundamental differences of approach, before considering the possibilities for transfers of contracting 'technology'.

Community Structure in Sand Dune Annuals: Is Seed Weight a Key Quantity?

1 Patterns of community structure in relation to seed weight are described for eight British dune systems. 2 There is a highly significant negative relationship between seed weight and proportional abundance within a community, where proportional abundance is the number of individuals of a particular species divided by the total number of individuals of all species recorded at a given study area. 3 Seed weight is also negatively related to average abundance in occupied quadrats and to the proportion of quadrats occupied. 4 Comparing absolute differences in seed weight it was found that common species have more similar seed weights than rare species. 5 The relationship between a species' seed weight and its dispersal and competitive ability are briefly reviewed. Based on published experimental studies it appears that large-seeded species are generally competitively superior to small-seeded ones. The implications of these patterns for the mechanisms structuring annual dune communities are discussed.

Judges and the Law in British Industrial Relations: Towards a European Right To Strike

Compares British and European systems of industrial relations and laws regulating industrial conflict from a legal/historical perspective. It argues that judges have played an important role in Britain through mystifying rights to strike in order to impose legal liablility and justify statutroy restriction on right to strike. It argues for the creation of a right to strike based on ILO Conventions which applies throughout the EU.

The Implementation of Constitutional Reform in the United Kingdom: Principles and Problems

First, I want to express my gratitude and sense of honour in being invited to deliver the Lionel Cohen lecture for 1995. The relationship between the Israeli and the British legal systems is a close and mutually beneficial one, and we in Britain in particular owe large debts to the legal community in Israel. This is especially the case in my field, public law, where distinguished academics have enriched our academic literature, notably Justice Zamir, whose work on the declaratory judgment has been so influential. Israeli courts, too, have made major contributions to the development of the common law generally and judicial review very notably.In this lecture I want to discuss the process of constitutional reform in the United Kingdom, and to explore some of the difficulties that lie in the way of reform. Some quite radical reforms to our system of government — the introduction of executive agencies in the British civil service, for instance—have been introduced without resort to legislation. There has been a spate of reform to local government and the National Health Service.

Worker Representation and Consultation

Reviews current and proposed European Union requirements relating to workforce consultation and considers their implications for present British systems of employee representation. Attention is drawn to several areas – transfers of undertakings, collective redundancies and health and safety at work. A number of potential difficulties associated with trade union representation under proposed European legislation are also highlighted. More generally, identifies a clear tension between the philosophy of worker representation embodied in European directives and the union‐based arrangements widely used in Britain.

Environmental management and BS 7750: a pragmatic approach

Corrects the view that BS 7750 environmental management systems cannot be integrated in BS 7750 quality management systems. Explains that BS 7750 is compatible with European and British systems but that some managements may prefer not to integrate.

National research systems and change: the reaction of the British and German research systems to the discovery of High-T c superconductors

This paper deals with a comparison of the reaction of the German and British research system to the discovery of High-Temperature Superconductors (HTS). The main differences in the formation of HTS policy is that the German scientific community was far more successful in achieving its objectives in the policy process than the British scientific community. The paper analyzes this difference using general policy process concepts like pluralism, corporatism, and policy networks analysis. The thesis is that together with a general change in the national policy style the science system in Britain shifted from a pressure pluralism network with interest domination to a state-directed network. Germany on the other hand exhibits a corporatist network structure in general as in science policy where interests are smoothly brought together and participate in the policy formation. This is shown for the particular case of the superconductivity networks in the two countries.

Rights and the criminal law

According to Judith Jarvis Thomson ([11, p. If.), there are many rights that we have against others prior to the law recognizing those rights. And if the law did not recognize them we should still have them. However, she says, the law does recognize many of them. Indeed, according to Thomson, the law actually assigns these rights to us. 'For example, I have a right against you that you not break my nose. The criminal law assigns me that right against you in that it proscribes nose-breaking.' In the same way, according to Thomson, the law assigns to me a right against you that you not murder me, and, indeed, it would be defective if it did not. And she goes further: 'A legal system that does not assign to anyone governed by it a right not to be killed by others is perhaps not even an imaginable system.' ([1], p. 2; see also p. 74.) I shall suggest, on the contrary, that such a legal system is not only imaginable but actual; the American and British legal systems, for instance, are such systems. In those systems, the criminal law does not assign to citizens rights against others that they not aggress against them; nor does it even recognize in any way rights of individuals against other individuals not to be aggressed against. The civil law may do so; but not to the extent that would make Thomson's claim correct.

User Participation in Expert Systems

Suggests that, though user involvement in the design and implementation of expert systems (ES) is generally encouraged in the literature, the incidence of successful user participation continues to be low. Draws on research carried out for a large British company on four expert systems projects, to illustrate the problems, and penalties, of not involving the users. Company culture has a bearing on why participation is difficult. Penalties of not involving the users include non‐implementation and poor interfaces. Suggested advantages of involving users are that happy users are the best advertisement for future systems and that users can make useful suggestions to the designers. Concludes that the concept of participation needs a strong push so that it will become a familiar part of management.

British Standards – Bureaucracy or Benefit?

To understand better the nature of standards one must remove the bureaucratic details and focus on the benefits: improving competitiveness, protecting the consumers, and society′s interests. The process of acquiring standards need not be cumbersome or expensive. Our national lead and heritage in standards making can spread British ideas and systems throughout the world.

The protection of atypical work in the Australian, British and German social security systems

It is a common feature of Australian, British and German social security law to exclude atypical work from many normal standards of protection. Social insurance and occupational welfare law still concentrate on the standard employment relationship, as they use length and continuity of employment as the major criteria for distributing benefits, and means‐tested systems put those who depend on different sources of income, as most atypical workers do, at a disadvantage. However, equal treatment and even promotion are granted to one type of atypical work: the combination of domestic and atypical labour market work. Examples are the law of unemployment insurance in Great Britain and Germany, the family components within the social insurance schemes, the special British and Australian means‐tested benefits for the working poor family, and parental leave legislation in Germany.

The British Civil Service

The British political and legal tradition has been no less generous in the guidance it has supplied American practitioners and theoreticians since the founding as it was to the founders themselves. Although perhaps the most notable institutions to draw the attention of students of American politics have been the British parliamentary and party systems, more than a little attention has been devoted to English administrative and civil service practices. Unfortunately, the underlying political thought that informed the English civil service reform movement of the 19th century, and that is still largely responsible for the shape of the modern British administrative service, has been lost from sight. Study of the reform movement exposes a body of thought intent on legitimating the requisites of a government equal to the ends of the modern republic, that is, safety and happiness for the people, within the confines of a social and political order that was becoming increasingly democratic The teaching left by the British reformers deserves to be resurrected at this time when modern republics seek to retain competence in government without sacrificing their essential democratic qualities.

Industrial organization and accounting innovation: charcoal ironmaking in England 1690–1783

Accounting and business historians are showing a growing interest in the origin and development of cost and management accounting. Primary source studies have improved our understanding of past developments, but more original investigation is required in order to produce a sound basis for valid generalizations concerning such matters as: the nature and usefulness of management accounting systems employed by companies in the past; the relative sophistication of British and American systems; and the implications of accounting systems for British economic decline post-1870. In the absence of a sufficient ‘bedrock’ of relevant case studies, we believe that theories and proposed solutions about ‘what has gone wrong with management accounting’, for example, will be constructed on a flimsy base, possibly leading to the development of solutions which are flawed from the outset. The purposes of this paper are, therefore, to add to our knowledge of the development of accounting practice, to explore the nature of accounting change, and to examine the use of accounting systems as the basis for management decision making. The investigation is based on records relating to iron making in the region of Sheffield, England, during the period 1690–1783. The particular accounting practice to which we give attention is the development and use of an integrated system of cost and management accounting as the basis for business decision making.

The influence of sediment supply on the channel morphology of upland streams: Howgill Fells, Northwest England

AbstractPrevious work on stream channels in upland areas of Britain has demonstrated a close control over channel morphology and stability by the rate of coarse sediment supply from the hillslopes of the catchment. Streams fed by large amounts of coarse sediment develop unstable, wide, often braided channels, whereas those with limited coarse sediment supply develop stable, much narrower, often meandering channels. The sediment supply from hillslopes is controlled by thresholds of hillslope stability, storm event frequency, and the coupling between the hillslopes and the channel. Climatically‐induced changes in any of these three factors may have implications for channel morphology and stability. This paper examines these implications in British upland fluvial systems, with particular reference to the Howgill Fells, Cumbria, in the contexts of the adjustment of stream channels to sediment supply from erosional gully systems, and their response to and recovery from major flood events.

The Formation of campaign agendas: a comparative analysis of party and media roles in recent American and British elections

Contents: M. McCombs, Foreword. The Formation of Campaign Agendas in the United States and Britain: A Conceptual Introduction. The British and American Political Communication Systems and Election Campaigns: Cross-National Similarities and Differences. Key Features of the Comparative Research Design. The Election Agenda-Setting Roles of Television Journalists: Comparative Observation at the BBC and NBC. Influences on the Campaign Agenda in the 1984 American Presidential Election. Influences on the Campaign Agenda in the 1983 British General Election. The Formation of Television Agendas in British and American Campaigns. The Formation of Press Agendas in British and American Campaigns. In Conclusion: What Have We Learned?

Whither 1984?

British interlending has been dominated by the two-fold role of the British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC). This role has been first as the major supplier of items requested nu all types of libraries by providing a voucher 'currency' system. The BLDSC has undergone considerable computerisation of its activities over the past twenty years. Nineteen eighty-four, however, saw a series of dramatic developments. There were not just based on the BLDSC, but also concerned networks and management systems. The resultant changes are ongoing and have been considerable. Now, faced with financial cutbacks and increasing stock selectivity at the BLDSC, supported by changes elsewhere, British interlending systems are gradually developing the means to locate specific items rather than apply directly to the BLDSC for most requests. These latest developments have considerable repercussions nationally and also internationally.

Expert systems in the UK: From AI to KBS

Abstract The British have made substantial practical contributions in the development of expert systems. The trend has been one of building from what others, particularly Americans, have done. But the emphasis has been on small-scale and applied solutions to relatively straightforward problems. In this way the theoretical questions of artificial intelligence have been replaced by the more constrained issues of knowledge-based systems and often the most appropriate label for the concerns would be those of rule-based systems. The best known and most successful British rule-based systems solve government administrative problems.

Development of Penal Policy in British West Africa: Exploring the Colonial Dimension

This paper examines the development of penal policy in British West Africa. The primary focus is to assess the extent to which penal policies in West Africa have been influenced by external geo-political and economic factors. The study concludes that traditional pre-colonial West African society had developed a complex system of social control that used non-incarcerative and community-based sanctions and emphasized reparation over retributive justice. British colonization of West Africa changed the familial-based system of punishment with the introduction of a penal system based primarily on incarceration that was designed first, to protect the economic interests of local subsidiaries of British companies doing business in West Africa, and second, to affirm British political hegemony. The introduction of British legal systems was therefore not a direct outcome of rising crime rates in West Africa, but the expediency of trade and the protection of capital. The study noted that Western advances in prison re...

In Sickness and in Wealth: American Hospitals in the Twentieth Century

As the title shows, the author, currently chairman of the Department of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania, uses the English language well. Formerly a hospital administrator, then a policy analyst and subsequently a historian, she has studied both the British and American health care systems and has written knowledgeably about a variety of subjects relating to them. In this latest book, she describes our current hospital system, where it has come from, its characteristics, how it works, and why it does not work better. She discusses technological vs social welfare goals, characteristics of the American hospital system, and the process of change. Most physicians who work daily in hospitals fail to have this long-term broad perspective, and certainly few of us could write as well about it as Rosemary Stevens. There are chapters on charities and businesses, regulating hospitals, the case for cooperative medicine (World

Finding Audiences, Changing Beliefs: The Structure of Research Use in Canadian Health Policy

The impact of research information depends on its ability to change beliefs or policy assumptions within the relevant audiences. As a hybrid of American and British systems, Canada's chosen decision-making structure for policy-making and its legislative framework for health insurance make these audiences unclear and not readily accessible. This factor and historical characteristics of the research community which made them only partially responsive to the values of decisionmakers provide an explanation for the limited past use of research information in Canadian health policy. More recently, improved responsiveness by researchers and an emerging definition of the audiences by legislative policymakers are bringing about a gradual increase in the potential impact of research at the levels of administrative and clinical policy. Because of continuing decision-making constraints on legislative policy, however, impact at this level is predicted to remain diffuse, with only cautious acceptance of the changes in beliefs implied by research.