Legislative Attitudes Research Articles

О некоторых вопросах государственной политики Итальянской Республики в сфере налогообложения

The article considers certain imposition issues of Republic of Italy’s state policy, particularly the taxing authorities’ individual counseling of taxpayers (ruling) carried out on the basis of the Consumer Charter that’s systematized and codified the principles that existed earlier in the legislation. Common European approaches have been studied that addresses optimization issues of taxation and it’s distinction from tax evasion, as well as the attitude of the Italian legislators on this issue, based both on courts’ decisions of various judicial instances, and on civil and the tax legislations’ special rules. This attitude is that taxpayer’s simple execution of multi-move financial and business operations, not aimed at any direct economic outcome, can be considered as a suspicion of tax evasion by means of tax optimization. In addition, there is the detailed analysis of the powers, the structure and the performance of the Financial Guard which is a law enforcement body providing economic and fiscal security of the Italian state, where the whole cycle of identification, suppression and investigation of tax crimes are concentrated.

Unpacking Party Unity: The Combined Effects of Electoral Systems and Candidate Selection Methods on Legislative Attitudes and Behavioural Norms

This article analyses the effect of electoral systems, candidate selection methods and the interplay between them on individual legislative attitudes and behavioural norms, specifically on two facets of party unity: party agreement and party loyalty. Our main argument is that one must take into account the effect of inter- as well as intra-party competition, and the interaction between the two, in order to explain individual legislative attitudes and norms. Using data from 34 European parties across 10 countries, we show that under exclusive candidate selection methods, there are large differences between proportional representation and single-member district electoral systems in their effect on party agreement and party loyalty. Under inclusive candidate selection methods, however, such differences are much less apparent. In other words, the candidate selection method conditions the influence of the electoral system on legislative attitudes and behavioural norms.

Examining the Path Taken and the Road Ahead.

Much has changed in the world of addictions and mental health in the last decade. As we reflect on the changes to legislation and public attitudes of recovery, we must focus on what matters to continue the momentum to improve outcomes for people with mental illness and addictions into the next 10 years.

The Criminal Liability of Parent Corporations for Acts of Its Subsidiaries under Criminal Law in Jordan: A Comparative Study

The present study deals with many legal aspects of criminal liability of legal entities, as well tries to explain the legislative and judicial attitude towards this sort of liability. The current research examines laws on criminal liability of parent companies for illegal acts of the subsidiary under criminal legislation in Jordan, and discerns legal norms and applicable aspects related to the doctrine of corporate criminal liability and the legal relationship of the parent company with the subsidiary. This study will first conduct a comprehensive analysis of the provisions of the Jordanian Company Law on the relationship between the parent company and the subsidiary. Issues of corporate criminal liability under the Jordanian legal and other selective comparative legal systems, several aspects of legal systems of common law and civil law about the criminal liability of parent corporations for conduct of parties outside of organization, or for offences of dissolved corporations, or for offences of predecessor’s corporations will be discussed. On the light of secrecy of studies in the direct theme of the present study and ambiguity of regulatory and legal framework in this topic, the researcher will carry out the analysis of the related legislation, including criminal laws merely with respect to the criminal liability of corporation for offences committed by its subsidiaries in order to revamp the legal framework of this issue. An attempt will take into consideration both national and international legal attitudes towards the theme of this research at national and international levels. Finally, this study is a bold step for the detection of weaknesses in the Jordanian legislation in regulating this matter, which is necessary for the interest of the national economy and to protect companies, corporation, economic units and their shareholders, and to create an attractive investment environment for investors.

Comparison of establishing SBAS approaches at uncontrolled airports (USA/Europe)

This article focuses on comparing USA’s and Europe’s legislative attitude to establishing instrument approaches at uncontrolled airports. It tries to indicate the differences and the reasons which lead to these differences. The purpose is to identify things which are done correctly and should be followed as an example and, on the other hand, to recognize procedures which should not be followed and repeated.

Influencing Policy Decisions: Impact of Legislator Attitudes and Demographics on Public Relations Practice

This study sought to identify strategies to improve public relations efforts to influence policy by discovering U.S. legislators‘ attitudes toward healthcare policy and the impact of legislator characteristics on such attitudes. Analysis of results from an Internet/mail survey indicated statistically significant differences among respondents‘ attitudes based on gender, ethnicity, and political party affiliation (ANOVA). Such differences, however, did not skew in expected directions based on popular wisdom and previous studies. While Hispanic, Native American and mixed-ethnicity legislators were more likely than nonHispanic white legislators to agree that healthcare issues such as access and affordability should be state priorities, not left to the private sector, female legislators were more likely than their male counterparts to downplay the importance of such issues and to indicate they should not be the state‘s responsibility. Democratic Party legislators were more likely than Republican legislators both to see healthcare as an important priority and to relegate it to the the private sector. These attitudes and differences may be used to inform public relations practice with regard to influencing legislators‘ policymaking decisions, although future research should focus on the impact of intersectionality of gender, ethnicity, and party affiliation in mitigating effects of legislator characteristics on issue attitudes.

E-parliament services as tools for anti-corruption and transparency

Literature is rife on the dissatisfaction of the Nigerian public on the poor performance of political institutions such as the National Assembly of Nigeria (NASS). However, e-parliaments mostly in countries of America and Europe show legislators have considerably used Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to form new relationships and engagement of the public to participate in the performance of legislative functions, fight corruption, and strengthen representative democracy. However, this does not appear to be the case in the NASS. This study explores the main factors of e-parliament adoption for anti-corruption and finds out the perceptions and attitude of legislators and citizens of the phenomenon. The theoretical lens is a modified Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) by

“Everyone does it to everyone”

This article scrutinizes the emergence and transformation of school bullying as a novel form of legally cognizable transgression in twenty-first century America, with the goal of highlighting an incipient shift away from the logic of individual intent that dominated twentieth-century criminological thinking. Through a survey of bullying definitions employed in various state statutes and an intensive examination of the genealogy of a seminal 2010 Massachusetts law, the article explores the shifting relationship between competing modes of carving out a determinate legal offense from the formerly colloquial concept of bullying. Specifically, it demonstrates that bullying legislation may be divided into laws focused on the culpability of individual offenders and those structured around broader, but less personal, social and institutional conditions. Massachusetts’ anti-bullying legislation in turn serves as an illustration of a broad trend marking the ascendency of this second, depersonalized, mode of defining transgression. The article concludes by considering the larger implications for criminal law of this new legislative attitude, which displaces the subjective individual as the central figure of morally salient transgression and legal intervention.

Assessing the effectiveness of ethics legislation in influencing parliamentary attitudes toward corruption: a cross national comparison between the UK and Ireland

The 1990s saw political corruption emerge as a priority for political parties in Ireland. The scandals that emerged from a succession of tribunals created the impetus for change. New legislation was introduced by the Rainbow Coalition (1994–1997) in an effort to prevent corruption, creating clearly defined rules concerning funding of politicians and political expenditure during elections. The legislation also facilitated increased transparency surrounding political and bureaucratic decision making, which limits the scope for corrupt activity. There is currently a call from several political parties, from the Public Relations Institute of Ireland, and from others, to introduce legislation concerning the position of lobbyists in the Irish policy‐making process. Some see a register of lobbyists as a means to increase transparency and improve the public perception of lobbyists. To assess whether legislation can have an effect on the interplay of politicians and lobbyists, it is helpful to examine whether the ethics legislation that was introduced in the 1990s has had any effect on legislative attitudes to corruption. This effect of the ethics legislation was assessed by surveying legislators' attitudes to corrupt scenarios and comparing them to UK legislators' attitudes. This was carried out by creating a typology of Oireachtas Members similar to previous UK studies. A cross national comparison of legislative attitudes suggests that Irish legislators' attitudes are shaped by their constituency role. This has a stronger influence on them than the ethics legislation. The ethics legislation has not been very effective and it has not created a political culture that is intolerant of corruption. Similarly it may take more than legislation to alter the perceptions of lobbyists. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Elite support for constitutional reform in the Netherlands

Explaining endogenous institutional change is not the strongest point of neo-institutionalist theory, and various strands of new institutionalism offer different explanations. This paper contributes to this literature by focusing on the attitudes of (Dutch) legislators to political reform: they are able to bring about endogenous institutional change, and by learning more about their attitudes we can better understand when and why institutional change occurs. Using the Dutch Parliamentary Study of 1990 and, primarily, of 2006, it is shown that ideology has substantial explanatory power, as predicted by sociological institutionalism. However, overall explanatory power increases substantially when variables such as party size, which fit better in a rational-choice institutionalist model, are added. Furthermore, the greater support for reforms in 2006 compared to 1990 could be the result of a critical juncture (the end of the Cold War) as predicted by historical institutionalism. These findings support those scholars who argue that these three instituionalist approaches are complementary rather than competing.

Challenges of successful reform: an international perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review a collection of research papers concerned with challenges commonly faced when initiating, implementing and evaluating the results of reform in an international context.Design/methodology/approachA review of the literature on reform, mainly in the public sector, was undertaken.FindingsReform, in particular within the public sector, has been undertaken in many countries and has proved to be challenging and difficult to manage. The challenges involved in managing reform, as experienced by Western as well as developing economies, have many aspects in common. These include the need to pay attention to appropriate structure, relevant skills and competencies, legislative support, appropriate behaviour and attitudes, and most importantly a visionary leadership.Originality/valueThe reform experiences and concepts documented and reviewed in these papers are original in nature and offer value to scholars, researchers and students of public administration, government, as well as reform policy makers and practitioners.

The Rights of Illegal Workers Injured at Work: a Study of the Judicial Dilemma in the United States

The engagement of ‘non-citizens’, ‘aliens’, and ‘undocumented workers’ for work raises a number of delicate employment law and policy issues. This paper considers the attitude of the courts in the United States (US) to the question of the rights of workers who work contrary to immigration laws (illegal workers)1 and will focus on the recent case law in relation to workers’ compensation entitlements. In the US the case law on the rights of illegal workers to workers’ compensation is unclear and heavily dependent upon local State legislation and judicial attitudes. It has also been heavily influenced by the Supreme Court decision of Hoffman Plastic Compounds v National Labor Relations Board, which dealt with the rights of undocumented workers to make claims for wages consequent upon unfair termination of the employment contract. This paper explores the different judicial and legislative approaches to the rights of illegal workers to workers’ compensation, and proposes a possible humanitarian response to the difficult problem of the injured illegal worker.

State Legislative Activities Related to Elimination of Health Disparities

How have state legislatures acted to address racial and ethnic disparities in health care? This article examines trends over time in state legislation related to disparities in care and access, proposed legislation during one biennial session, and contemporary legislative attitudes and awareness of the issue. The mix of strategies adopted across the states reflects the differing ways that states understand gaps in minority health and changing strategies over time. Historically, California, Florida, and Louisiana (all states with substantial minority populations) have been the most active in dealing with minority health issues through statutes. In the eighteen months of the 2001-2002 legislative session that we studied, the most common bills called for studies of disparities and appropriations for identifiable minority health initiatives. Measures that successfully cleared the legislature include measures related to cultural competence and minority health awareness month. Finally, the article discusses issues and limitations in using legislative action to measure the level of state policy activity with regard to health disparities. To ground the description of trends in disparity legislation, the authors integrated comments by state legislators with a discussion of problems in interpreting legislative activity.

Managerial Perceptions of Privatization: Evidence from a State Department of Transportation

ARGUMENTS IN favor of privatization pose what are referred to here as Rainey’s conundrum (2003). Rainey notes that one of the key rationales offered for privatization is that the public sector is poorly managed. Ironically, however, successful privatization requires outstanding publicsector management. In particular, the move from a centralized command-and-control style bureaucratic structure to contract-based program delivery demands a sophisticated set of managerial skills and structural changes that would challenge the most effi cient and effective organization regardless of sector affi liation (Cooper 2003). The managerial requirements of privatization for midlevel managers—the focus of this article—are particularly signifi cant. With respect to contracting out, managers can be involved in preparing requests for proposals, reviewing submitted proposals, providing input into contracting decisions, crafting contract language, and ushering contracts through internal approval processes (Seidenstat 1999, 240; Rusten 1999, 190). Once contracts have been signed, midlevel managers may be the primary overseers of contractors, providing direction, monitoring contractual tasks, and ensuring compliance with contract terms (Seidenstat 1999, 240). While not a technical step in contracting out, building relationships with contractors is a necessary step toward facilitating effective alternative service delivery (Cooper 2003, 101). Despite their signifi cant contribution to privatization processes, midlevel managers have largely been ignored in studies of privatization’s stakeholders. Rather, more attention has been devoted to the privatization responses of citizens, political leaders, city managers, and state agency directors. Studies examining citizen attitudes toward privatization have argued the importance of public opinion to political support for privatization and the strategic value of such information (Durant and Legge 2002; Thompson and Elling 2000). The attitudes of state legislators toward contracting out have been justifi ed by the importance of legislative support to administrators in designing alternative service-delivery systems (Becker and Mackelprang 1990). Studies of city managers have focused on the relationship between their government reform values and the level of reform activity in their cities (Moon and deLeon 2001), as well as the number of reform recommendations they make to city councils (Kearney, Feldman, and Scavo 2000; Kearney and Scavo 2001). Finally, state-level reinvention efforts have been studied as a function of Managerial Perceptions of Privatization: Evidence from a State Department of Transportation

Reappraising Corporate Failure in Britain: Labor Management in the Tobacco Industry before 1939

To what extent did the search for solutions to problems of labor management mold the development of large-scale business? The history of the Imperial Tobacco Company (ITC) is instructive, because its managerial structures have been heavily criticized. Yet many of the organizational improvements that were implemented after the company's founding in 1901 have been overlooked, particularly in the realm of labor management, which emerged as an important component of the company's increasing capabilities and growth. In contrast to U.S. tobacco firms, ITC implemented labor policies that responded to arising difficulties in size, legislation, trade unionism, and social attitudes. Its development reveals how the variety of factors influencing the management of labor stretch beyond the narrow concern for models of internal administrative structures.

Knowledge and attitudes about abortion legislation and abortion methods among abortion clients in Latvia

Objective To assess knowledge of abortion legislation and knowledge and attitudes about medical and surgical abortion among women seeking a legal abortion in Latvia.Methods Data are drawn from a survey of 371 abortion clients from 16 purposively selected abortion clinics in Latvia. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic data and information on women's knowledge of and attitudes toward abortion law and abortion methods.Results Most women knew that abortion is legal either under any (53%) or certain (37%) circumstances. Almost one third (31%) of women interviewed were aware of medical abortion. After hearing a description of medical abortion, respondents felt the method as described would be advantageous because it could avoid a surgical intervention (33%) or found it simple, easy, convenient, or natural (12%). Women were concerned that the method might not be completely effective (38%) or be associated with side-effects (22%).Conclusions Respondents were interested in medical abortion as a less invasive option to surgical abortion. Efforts should be undertaken to inform women about the safety and efficacy of the method.

Reproductive freedom and the State

This brief paper describes the experiences and attitudes of a UK Member of Parliament to the politics of reproductive biomedicine. It provides insights into how problems in this field strike politicians and governments, and their interactions with the press and the public. It takes examples of four topics which help to decide the attitudes of legislators in such complex ethical matters. It also reveals how they can change their opinions as they became familiar with the ethical issues raised under various situations.

Congressional Constitutional Interpretation and the Courts: A Preliminary Inquiry into Legislative Attitudes, 1959-2001

Congressional Constitutional Interpretation and the Courts: A Preliminary Inquiry into Legislative Attitudes, 1959-2001

Congressional Constitutional Interpretation and the Courts: A Preliminary Inquiry into Legislative Attitudes, 1959–2001

Through theoretically informed inquiry into congressional attitudes toward the Constitution and the courts as well as survey research of two modem Congresses, this study considers the prospects and implications of a more salient legislative role in constitutional affairs. By analyzing survey responses from the 86th (1959–61) and 106th (1999–2001) Congresses, and the political context in which these views were formed, this essay explores the legislature's evolving conception of its role and capacities as a constitutional interpreter. Among other findings, Congress demonstrates a persistent and somewhat surprising interest in asserting an independent, distinctive constitutional voice, although it has somewhat conflicted and underdeveloped views about how to achieve this objective. While this essay points to significant barriers to fostering a coherent and forceful congressional presence in constitutional decision making, it also suggests institutional organizations and strategies that may be promising bases for promoting this goal.

Support for Tobacco Control Policies

To examine the congruence in perceptions and attitudes of legislators and the public regarding tobacco and tobacco control policies. Two cross-sectional surveys were used, one of elected federal and provincial legislators and one of adult residents in Ontario, Canada. Perceptions and attitudes were analyzed as dependent variables using multiple logistic regression, and adjusted for age, sex, educational attainment, and smoking status. Congruence was found in most instances, however, some differences were found. Legislators were more likely than the public to agree that most smokers are addicted and were more supportive of a smoking ban in workplaces, but these differences disappeared after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics. Legislators were also more aware than the public of the magnitude of deaths due to tobacco compared to alcohol, whereas the public was more supportive of strong penalties against stores that sell cigarettes to minors. Our findings provide considerable evidence for congruence in the "real-world" (unadjusted) perceptions and attitudes of Ontario legislators and the Ontario public toward tobacco control policies. Such findings are positive for tobacco control advocates and should be leveraged to bring forward strong tobacco policies in the political arena.