Hollow Promise Research Articles

Private Equity, Value-Based Payments, and Hollow Promises

As private equity (PE) investors have moved into nearly every sector of the health care system, there is growing debate about the financial industry’s role and its impact. In recent years, a number of media stories have exposed seriously concerning behavior of PE-owned health care facilities and companies (O’Grady, 2022; Pomorski, 2021; Sanger-Katz et al., 2019). Critics also point to recent empirical studies documenting rising prices and reductions in quality under PE-backed healthcare companies. For example, a 2021 report documents how PE-backed mergers and acquisitions have contributed to the stark rise in consolidation and increasing prices, especially in the last decade (Scheffler et al., 2021). Evidence documenting reductions in quality-of-care point to PE-backed nursing homes (Gupta et al., 2021), physician management firms related to surprise billing (Cooper et al., 2018), and PE-backed hospitals (Bruch et al., 2021). This is likely because PE began investing in the nursing home and hospital systems in the early 2000s, allowing for sufficient data to now rigorously study the effect of PE ownership.

Vulnerable groups and the hollow promise of benefit from human gene editing.

Mainstream academic debate on the ethics of human gene editing is currently not as inclusive as it should be. For example, it currently does not give due consideration to Indigenous groups and cultures, such as those living in rural and remote areas of Canada. Once such people are given due consideration, then several important points emerge, which have so far gone unnoticed or under-emphasized in the debate. This article focuses on two of those points: (a) Some vulnerable people who are currently being ignored in the debate may not desire to use gene editing, even if it is safe, effective and affordable, and they will have compelling reasons for making this decision; and (b) even if such people do decide to use the technology, the gene editing enterprise itself is unlikely to do much good for them (and may even be harmful to them), as it alarmingly misses the point regarding the underlying contributing causes of the most pressing problems that those people are facing. Therefore, the promise of the gene editing enterprise is a hollow one for some groups of vulnerable people. These considerations should be used more prominently to guide debate on the ethics of human gene editing.

Letter from the Editors

Letter from the Editors Robert Chiles, Devin R. Lander, Jennifer Lemak, and Aaron Noble New York State has always played a central role in American history. The pages of this journal are filled with New Yorkers whose creations and concepts, innovations, activism—and at times, errors—have changed the world. In fact, it was here in the Empire State that the women's rights movement was born in Seneca Falls in 1848. This year marks the centennial anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which states, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." Historians recognize that this proved a hollow promise, as many African American women (and men) would not have the real opportunity to vote until passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. However, the Nineteenth Amendment was a fundamental step in the right direction, and it would not have happened without New York. Voter approval of the New York State women's suffrage referendum in 1917 was the national movement's first electoral win east of the Mississippi River. At a moment when the Empire State's political influence was approaching its zenith—including forty-three seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and forty-five electoral college votes—the New York suffrage victory semaphored the approaching national triumph; and beginning in August 1920, women's suffrage was constitutionally guaranteed. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the planned celebrations in honor of the suffrage centennial have been curtailed or cancelled. However, by the time you receive this issue there will be a new statue in Central Park honoring women's rights pioneers Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth—New Yorkers all. This is the first statue in the park to depict real women. Other statues are in the works elsewhere in the state memorializing Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (Brooklyn), as well as one in Seneca Falls depicting Sojourner Truth, Quaker and early activist Marth Coffin Wright, a Seneca Woman (Laura Cornelius Kellogg), and the abolitionist and women's rights activist Harriet Tubman. At a moment of intense public debate about statues and historical memory, the unveiling of these monuments is a crucial step toward a more realistic presentation of our state's past, for even in 2020, women's representation in history still lags far behind that of men. [End Page vi] In honor of the suffrage centennial, this issue of New York History celebrates new historical research about the women's movement produced by women historians. Susan Goodier's article chronicles the African American activist Louisa Jacobs and the challenge of racism within the women's movement. Karen Pastorello's article discusses the variety of ways religion was used in the New York women's suffrage movement. Shellie Clark's article investigates gender and marriage roles in the nineteenth century through the lives of New Yorkers William Henry and Frances Seward. Lastly, our features (Artifact NY, Community NY, and Teach NY) all reveal dynamic ways the suffrage movement's history is being presented to the public throughout the Empire State. As we celebrate the long struggle of women's suffrage in New York State and across the nation, let us not forget the most important gift these women and men bestowed upon us—the right to vote. Be sure to exercise this right in November. Excelsior! The Editors [End Page vii] Copyright © 2020–2021 New York History

Hollow Promises in the Face of Slaughter: The Yazidi Genocide and the Path Toward Justice

This paper gives a background on genocide as a concept, breaks down the Genocide Convention and how the treaty came into existence, provides insight into the duality of the definition of genocide, as both a legal and political concept, gives understanding as to how this duality has played out in the case of Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and compares those cases to the case of the Yazidis in Iraq. Finally, it focuses on both the murder and actual killing of the Yazidis and also the use of sexual violence against the Yazidi women and girls as a tactic of war and delves into why the enslavement of women and girls is a form of genocide. It does this in part by using the story and the case of Nadia Murad, a survivor who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for her efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict. Further, it gives potential counterarguments, while establishing that they are based on political and policy reasoning and not on the application of the law to this set of facts, which in this case is the application of the Genocide Convention to the events that took place in August 2014 in the Sinjar region of Iraq and all that has happened since. Lastly, it breaks down how members of ISIS who perpetrated these horrific crimes can be brought to justice by the creation of an international tribunal and the need to create a space for this in order to prevent such crimes in the future. One critical component of labeling an atrocity genocide is deterrence, a part of the crime that is failing in its application today, and, yet, deterrence is a major component of what labeling an atrocity a genocide is meant to accomplish. This paper aims to show what lack of deterrence has meant for the Yazidi community in Iraq, and what it means for other groups around the globe right now and moving forward.

Team learning potential in TESOL practice

The proliferation of “teacher‐proof” scripts for lessons reveals a deep distrust of teachers' intuition and blatant ignorance of the essential humanistic elements underlying education. This model of standardization positions teachers as mere delivery agents of centrally planned curricula based on a hollow promise of effectiveness. We agree that “a good language teacher knows and does but most essentially is” (Arnold & Brown, 1999, p. 4). It follows that a second language teacher who is able to maximize her professional potential in the classroom is, foremost, a learner. This philosophical foundation supports our refinement of the concept of team learning, first proposed by Tajino and Tajino (2000). Our updated model of team learning clarifies the concept by extending discussions of approaches like reflective pedagogy, learner autonomy, and learner‐centered teaching. Team learning opens opportunities for practitioners to expand their role from being exclusively that of a teacher to realizing their learner potential in their own classrooms. The concept of team learning invites teachers to see themselves as team members in learning events. When team learning is achieved, optimal conditions for learning occur that can result in the experience of flow. These conditions, considered as emergent properties, are discussed in this theoretical article.

The Right to Representation by Criminal Defense Counsel in Ethiopia: A Critical Analysis

This paper explores and critically reflects on the legal foundations and the practice of criminal defense in Ethiopia within the overall due process framework of a fair criminal trial. A brief review of Ethiopian constitutional history shows that the right to representation by legal counsel has been one of the fundamental due process rights granted to accused persons in criminal proceedings. The constitutional right to counsel is, however, not specified by detailed legal provisions. A logical consequence of this is that the enjoyment of this right is fraught with legal and practical problems. While the legal problems, among other things, include obscurity regarding the scope and content of the right, the practical problems include absence of public defense offices at district levels where the vast majority of criminal proceedings take place. Consequently, accused persons appear during trials without the aid of legal counsel; they are in fact deprived of their due process rights and marginalized. This has a number of legal ramifications both to the accused and the criminal justice system. In sum, the constitutional provision of the right to criminal defense counsel is undelivered and remains a hollow promise. It is therefore difficult to uphold the constitutional norms which underlie criminal trial process such as procedural justice, as well as the legitimacy of the government. The justice sectors are responsible to ensuring due process and equal protection. Substantial justice reforms are needed at all levels.

Stem cell therapy in spinal cord injury: Hollow promise or promising science?

Spinal cord injury (SCI) remains one of the most physically, psychologically and socially debilitating conditions worldwide. While rehabilitation measures may help limit disability to some extent, there is no effective primary treatment yet available. The efficacy of stem cells as a primary therapeutic option in spinal cord injury is currently an area under much scrutiny and debate. Several laboratory and some primary clinical studies into the use of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells or embryonic stem cell-derived oligodentrocyte precursor cells have shown some promising results in terms of remyelination and regeneration of damaged spinal nerve tracts. More recently,laboratory and early clinical experiments into the use of Olfactory Ensheathing Cells, a type of glial cell derived from olfactory bulb and mucosa have provided some phenomenal preliminary evidence as to their neuroregenerative and neural bridging capacity. This report compares and evaluates some current research into selected forms of embryonic and mesenchymal stem cell therapy as well as olfactory ensheathing cell therapy in SCI, and also highlights some legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. While early results shows promise, more rigorous large scaleclinical trials are needed to shed light on the safety, efficacy and long term viability of stem cell and cellular transplant techniques in SCI.

Expanding Public Coverage for Dental Services: Pathway to Improvements or Hollow Promise?

Growth in public sector dental benefits following passage of the are Affordable Care Act extends a national trend of expanding publicly funded benefits program. This paper contrasts the performance of California's Medicaid dental program with progress in other states, outlines major reasons for performance gaps, raises concerns about recent policymakers' decisions and questions whether expanding coverage without addressing long-standing shortcomings represents a step forward or a catalyst deterioration and untoward consequences for millions.

Rereading New York Times v. Sullivan: The Importance of Procedure in Libel Cases

The Supreme Court’s landmark decision in New York Times v. Sullivan is notable because it imposed an “actual malice” test that makes it difficult for public figures to recover damages for defamation claims. The intent of this essay is not to minimize the significance of Sullivan , but rather to suggest that most accounts of the case miss one crucial aspect of the Court’s decision. To obtain the desired result—to overturn the jury verdict in Sullivan’s favor—Justice Brennan’s majority opinion created both a substantive standard and a series of procedural safeguards. The actual malice test has been praised as a bulwark of First Amendment freedoms, but absent the accompanying protections laid out by Justice Brennan, it would be a hollow promise as it is the procedural safeguards that guarantees “debate on public issues is uninhibited, robust and wide open.”

State Constitutional Rights and Federal Criminal Trials: The Hollow Promise of the New Judicial Federalism

This article explores the intersection between the New Judicial Federalism movement, where state courts interpret their states’ constitutions to provide more expansive protections of individual rights and civil liberties than the federal Constitution requires, and federal criminal law. At least as a general proposition, the United States Supreme Court has significantly narrowed the scope of criminal defendants’ federal constitutional rights in recent years, e.g., interpreting the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments in a restrictive fashion in many recent decisions. To counter that trend - Justice Brennan called “the [Supreme] Court’s contraction of federal rights and remedies” - many state courts have “step[ped] into the breach” and held “that the constitutional minimums set by the United States Supreme Court were insufficient to satisfy the more stringent requirements of state constitutional law.” State courts, for example, are increasingly declining to interpret provisions of their state constitutions in pari materia with analogous provisions in the federal constitution, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court. Many state constitutions, moreover, contain provisions that explicitly afford citizens specific rights that have no analogue in the federal constitution, creating further opportunities for the development of a rich, independent body of state constitutional law.The promise of judicial federalism, however, rings hollow in federal criminal trials, to the detriment of not only criminal defendants but our system of federalism. This article highlights a well-established, judicially blessed loophole that not only permits state and local law enforcement to ignore inconvenient state constitutional constraints but creates perverse incentives for them to do so: federal courts routinely admit evidence in federal criminal trials that has been obtained by state and local law enforcement in violation of state law, so long as that evidence is obtained consistent with federal minimum standards. As a practical matter, two salient features of federal law make this possible: the supremacy of federal law and the incredibly broad concurrent jurisdictional authority enjoyed by federal prosecutors. As Judge Richard Posner has observed, then, “State law enforcement officers who violate state law without at the same time violating federal law will often be able to turn over the fruits of their violations to federal law enforcement officers who will as it were do the state officer’s prosecuting, only in federal court.” This article posits that although federal courts do not have any constitutional or statutory obligation to enforce state constitutional rights in federal criminal trials, they have the authority to do so. And this article maintains that myriad normative and policy considerations, including principles of federalism and comity as well as rule-of-law values and the imperative of judicial integrity, militate toward the conclusion that federal courts should honor defendants’ state constitutional rights in federal criminal trials under certain circumstances.

Public Goods, Public Utilities, and the Public's Health

The battle over dismantling health reform dominates today s health policy agenda. Some opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148)--now typically referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA)--comes from those on the political left who see health care as public good similar to the military, the fire department, and the court system (Physicians for National Health Program, 2010). Only government can fund and deliver public goods, because the private market cannot be relied on to do so with the equity and efficiency required for critical services needed by everyone. Many on the political right fear a government takeover of the health care system that will lead to the loss of the very market-driven, creative solutions that are so desperately needed to reign in the cost escalations that threaten to make health care unaffordable. I see the ACA as politically shrewd compromise that captures the principal benefits of both camps and creates the least disruptive path to workable framework that can ultimately lead to universal health insurance coverage at sustainable prices. This middle ground is achieved through the ACA'S requirements shifting the health care system from lightly regulated market commodity to heavily regulated public utility. Public utilities are privately owned firms that provide necessities in monopoly or near-monopoly situations. Because unfettered monopolies can price gouge, they are required to accept extensive government regulation to ensure that they do not abuse their market power. Some public utilities are complete monopolies (for example, regional electric, water, and gas companies), and others (for example, cable television, telecommunications) have some modest competition. However, all public utilities are profit-driven, privately owned businesses, which distinguishes them from public goods that are funded and operated by the public sector. Public utility regulation has two fundamental characteristics. First, all utilities are legally obligated to serve virtually everyone, despite the known unprofitability of certain customers and customer groups. All customers are allowed to use as much of utility's services as they like, with occasional exceptions such as temporary limits on lawn watering during droughts. Second, the prices that are charged to consumers are determined by public commissions rather than private corporations. Public utility commissions have essentially unrestricted access to firm's books. This provides them with far greater insight into company's financing than is required of publicly held companies, let alone privately owned businesses and other proprietorships. Contrast that environment with how health insurers operated up till now. Insurers could select their customers and set their own prices, like any other seller of goods and services in private market. Insurers do contend with some government regulation handled primarily at the state level, but these regulations are limited to issues such as fiscal solvency requirements, state-mandated benefits, patient protection laws for managed care plans, and truth-in-advertising and other marketing practices. However, state regulation does not address consumer accessibility or pricing. In 1996, enactment of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) (EL. 104191) created federal-level regulation for insurers in the large-group and self-insured employer markets. HIPAA requires insurers to cover all group members, regardless of preexisting conditions, and to renew all insurance plans, regardless of claims experience. However, HIPAA's impact is limited in that it does not address pricing. This makes guaranteed issue and guaranteed renewability hollow promise, because annual premiums can be hiked at the whim of the insurance company. Undesirable clients can simply be priced out of the market. And HIPAA does not apply to the individual and small-group markets, the areas where consumer rights are most constrained. …

Hollow Promises for Pregnant Students: How the Regulations Governing Title IX Fail to Prevent Pregnancy Discrimination in School

Hollow Promises for Pregnant Students: How the Regulations Governing Title IX Fail to Prevent Pregnancy Discrimination in School

Assia Djebar's qalam: the poetics of the trace in postcolonial Algeria

ABSTRACT Postcolonial francophone writers have in common a denunciation of the French colonial policy of assimilation. Although assimilation was a hollow promise to the majority, it nevertheless entailed enduring political and cultural damages to the colonized. These writers recognize that assimilation was pre-eminently enforced through the compulsory use of the French language, which racialized the Other in direct ratio to their mastery of French. In their writings, they delineate specific processes of disalienation that vary depending on the location and time of the diagnosed acculturation. In this article Weltman-Aron concentrates on the work of the Algerian writer Assia Djebar and her interrogation of the possibility of idiomaticity in a postcolonial context, specifically Algeria. Idiomaticity (to the extent that it can ever happen) has an impact on the possibility of justice, reparation and representation. Djebar's writings can be productively linked to Jean-François Lyotard's notion of the differend, and to Jacques Derrida's reflection on the trace and on language as ex-appropriation. Weltman-Aron also examines Djebar's position regarding idiomaticity in connection with other Maghrebian writers, such as Abdelkebir Khatibi, who write on bilingualism and diglossia. With the use of transliterated Arabic words like qalam in her French text, Djebar contributes to the assessment of Algeria as a multilingual space by Algerian writers. In addition, Djebar's aim of ‘writing for the trace’ is a way of inscribing a dual resistance: to colonial appropriations, but also to claims of authentic self-recovery after independence. By focusing on scenes of ‘vanishing inscriptions’ or ‘writing under erasure’, Djebar presents an Algerian site that is haunted by a past that is produced poetically or in fragments.

A Note on Mosley, the ‘Jewish War’ and Conscientious Objection

Of the many myths which Sir Oswald Mosley later fostered about his activities before and during the second world war, none is more widespread than the belief that he ‘urged his members to fight once war was declared’. Two key quotations from his own publications were used by him, and by later apologists, for this purpose: one, from September 1939, to prove his patriotic credentials at the outbreak of war, and another, from May 1940, to prove that, at that stage, he was calling his followers to arms in face of the threat in France and the Low Countries. Close examination of both these quotations shows that, by a process of truncation, distortion and (in the latter case) misdating, a completely different message has been produced from the one to be found in the originals. Moreover, an examination of his movement’s actual activities and of its advice to young men who were about to be called up, show a determination not to ‘offer to fight in the quarrel of Jewish finance’, but to impede the war effort in various ways, above all by British Union members registering as conscientious objectors. The cause for such ‘political’ conscientious objection was to be clearly indicated to the authorities, not as an objection to war, but as an objection to this war against Nazi Germany. A great many young British Union members did register in this way and the examination of one such case shows how closely it followed the instructions from the leaders of the movement. Finally, Mosley’s insistence that, despite his opposition to the war, he would call on his followers to fight ‘if the life of Britain were threatened’, is shown to have been a hollow promise; throughout the period of the German invasion of the Low Countries and France he still failed to produce any call to arms (in fact, his much-quoted May statement did the opposite). Such a call was only finally produced on 1 July, the day before his appearance before the Advisory Committee, on the advice of his solicitors and at a time when his rereading of his original statements, and his consequent rewriting of history, was already taking place.

Book Section: Essay and Review: Hollow Promises: Employment Discrimination against People with Mental Disabilities

Book Section: Essay and Review: Hollow Promises: Employment Discrimination against People with Mental Disabilities

Unequal Rights: Discrimination Against People With Mental Disabilities and the Americans With Disabilities Act • Hollow Promises: Employment Discrimination Against People With Mental Disabilities

Unequal Rights: Discrimination Against People With Mental Disabilities and the Americans With Disabilities Act • Hollow Promises: Employment Discrimination Against People With Mental Disabilities

The Hollow Promise of Tribal Power to Control the Flow of Alcohol into Indian Country

The Hollow Promise of Tribal Power to Control the Flow of Alcohol into Indian Country

The Professional Is Political

I understood from teachers in those segregated schools that work of any teacher committed to full self realization of students was necessarily and fundamentally radical, that ideas were not neutral, that to teach in a way that liberates, that expands consciousness, that awakens, is to challenge domination at its very core. bell hooks, 1989, p. 50 For almost two decades, has been enthusiastically embraced as a highly valued goal of social work practice. Sparked by publication of Barbara Solomon's (1976) Black Empowerment: Work in Oppressed Communities, empowerment became primary stated objective in practice with disadvantaged and oppressed groups. social work literature was replete with articles extolling of clients through social work practice. In fact, has been assumed to be a part of most practice. As we have embraced this ideal, it may be that we have not really examined dilemmas that emerge and choices to be made when a profession adopts as a mission. It may be that exists more in our professional discourse than in actual practice. There are many forces--institutional, economic, political, ideological, and historical--that continue to be obstacles to achievement of a truly empowering practice. dilemmas implicit in a profession's commitment to client are not new. These dilemmas have challenged profession, although perhaps in different words, since we attempted to separate ourselves from our early beginnings rooted in moral superiority, noblesse oblige, and social control. profession attempted that separation by adopting value of client self-determination, precursor to empowerment. Self-determination was defined as clients' right to make their own choices, to define their own destiny. But for many, self-determination was a hollow promise sharply limited by lack of access to resources, to opportunity, to power. Self-determination, colored by American individualism, was too often simply right to be left alone. Social workers' ability to put principle of self-determination into practice ... is affected and determined by level of exploitation, oppression, and lack of available opportunities that clients confront (Freedberg, 1989, p. 34). These limitations challenged social workers to turn to social action, to advocacy, and eventually to client so that inequalities could be addressed, opportunities made available, and client self-determination realized. language of has added new dimensions to self-determination. It envisions a more vigorous, more active stance. It implies that people have not only right to self-determination, but also right to power, ability, and authority to achieve self-determination. The ability to act in behalf of oneself is a function of factors such as critical consciousness, sense of entitlement, knowledge, resources, competency, skills, and self respect (Staples, 1990, p. 33). In discourse on empowerment, we have primarily focused on oppression, marginalization, deprivation, and disempowerment of clients by large social forces, by society, by the system. We have rarely examined power dynamics as they exist in worker-client relationship (Pinderhughes, 1989). We have been less ready to own that we, as professionals, are part of the system and to examine implications of our position of power. We have been reluctant to speculate that perhaps if our clients are to truly become empowered, we must learn to shed some power (Hoffman, 1985). Sources of Power Perhaps average social worker, constrained by resource limitations, policies, time, knowledge, and skill deficits, does not experience herself or himself as powerful, but in worker-client relationship, in our accustomed models of professional practice, power belongs to us. …

Hollow Promises?: Rhetoric and Reality in the Inner City

Hollow Promises?: Rhetoric and Reality in the Inner City

Hollow Promises: Rhetoric and Reality in the Inner City

Part 1 Policies: rhetoric and reality hollow promises? issues and agendas in the inner city Merseyside development corporation, 1981-1989 physical regeneration, accountability and economic challenge London docklands development corporation re-investment in residential neighbourhoods the theory and practice of inner city programmes. Part 2 Misconceptions: urban social change, salvation and gentrification gentrification and regeneration women, gender relations and the inner city skills do not equal jobs current misconceptions in tackling unemployment. Part 3 Alternative realities: towards an alternative politics of the inner city the financial explosion and the community control of capital in Baltimore black working clas entrepreneurship in Jamaica and the United Kingdom those French inner cities comparative comments on the urban crisis in Britain and France.