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The development of tribunals as alternatives to the court system for relatively minor disputes has been accompanied by disagreement about their desirability. This has led to moves to reform the Magistrates Court system so that the need for Tribunals will disappear. These reforms involve adopting many of the forms and procedures of the tribunals and abandoning others. At the same time there have been calls for the establishment of new tribunals. No evaluation has been made of how effectively these tribunals have fulfilled their original aims yet changes to them are proposed and the current tribunals are being used as models for further reforms. This paper reports results from a survey of 1670 people who used the Victorian Small Claims Tribunal and helps highlight some of the Tribunal's strengths and weaknesses. As such it is relevant to proposals for reforms which will affect people's access to the law to solve minor disputes.

Abstract. Although there has been considerable research on the changing politics of women in advanced industrial societies, there has been little consistent, cross‐national research to identify the sources of these changes. This paper uses closely comparable data collected in 11 countries in the early 1980s to examine gender differences in political alignments. The results show that in 10 of the 11 countries, women are more conservative than men, by differing degrees. The exception is Australia, where women are more leftwing than men. The sources of these gender differences are shown to be differential levels of workforce participation and religiosity between men and women. Once these and other factors are taken into account through multivariate analysis, women follow the Australian pattern and emerge as more leftwing than men in six of the 10 countries. In the remaining four countries, greater female conservatism is substantially reduced once these factors are taken into account. Various explanations to account for these patterns are discussed.

Closely comparable survey data collected in 11 countries in the early 1980s are used to examine gender differences in political alignments. The results show that in 10 of the 11 countries, women are more conservative than men, by differing degrees. The exception is Australia, where women are more left-wing than men. The sources of these gender differences are shown to be differential levels of workforce participation & religiosity. Once these & other factors are taken into account through multivariate analysis, women follow the Australian pattern & emerge as more left-wing than men in 6 of the 10 countries; in the remaining 4 countries, greater female conservatism is substantially reduced. Various explanations to account for these patterns are discussed. 3 Tables, 2 Figures, 50 References. Modified HA