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Previous research on Web accessibility policy has focused on the application of anti-discrimination policies to the Web and has yet to explore fully, the mediators to policy implementation and compliance. Policy analyses and semi-structured interviews with 34 participants in the United Kingdom and United States demonstrate that interest organizations, including non-profit and for-profit organizations, support the implementation of anti-discrimination policies by providing audit and certification services. First, performance certification demonstrates the quality of a Web site, and interest organizations have developed certification initiatives based on international performance standards developed by the private sector. Second, professional certification demonstrates the quality of an individual's knowledge and experience, yet despite the absence of educational standards, interest organizations offer professional certification. Third, procedural certification demonstrates the quality of organizational processes, yet despite the development of a national procedural standard, interest organizations do not offer procedural certification. This paper concludes by offering recommendations for enhancing the use of certification to achieve Web accessibility and provides suggestions for future research. ; This paper is in the Public Domain.

Spain's evolution from an authoritarian regime to a well established multi-governed democracy in a short period of time, has been accompanied by incredibly rapid social change and a varied (depending on the governmental period), but overall steady, consideration of gender equality as a political priority. This has also led to the rapid development and consolidation of women's and equality machineries–state feminism–and well-established policies devoted to promoting gender equality over the last three decades, both at national and regional governmental levels. This article aims to present a consolidated policy area which has enough elements to survive and to keep on developing, although in an increasingly fragmented manner, among regions, despite the ongoing economic crisis and the conservative political turn. Based on theories of state feminism and discursive politics, this article analyzes four important elements for understanding this claim and the evolution of national and regional Spanish gender policies and institutions during the last three decades: women's machinery, the relations between that machinery and women's and feminist movements, the policy discourses present in gender equality policies, and the policy instruments used by those machineries and policies.

The success of the Montreal Protocol in comparison to the stagnation seen in negotiations surrounding the Kyoto Protocol highlights the importance of a supportive industry group, pre-existing legislation and commitment by a lead nation, affordable and available substitutes, as well as acceptance of the underlying scientific explanation of the link between emissions and a key detrimental impact. The focus on these contrasting intergovernmental agreements within this paper is driven, in part, by the intention to establish that successful emission reductions tend to be associated with a concerted policy effort rather than the level of per capita income. This is in contrast to the concept of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) which contends that a significant negative relationship exists between high levels of national income and per capita emissions. While a nation's level of development and national income are likely to be linked to an ability to make structural changes and/or the implementation of environmental policy, this paper finds no evidence of an EKC consistent quadratic relationship between income and CFC emissions once key considerations, such as biased estimations and policy effort, have been accounted for.

Welfare state policy in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) was distinctly different from that in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The rationale for welfare provision in the GDR was not provision for the sick and elderly, but the political goal of regime stabilization through welfare measures. This article reconsiders the role of welfare state policy and shows how it fulfilled several different roles within the system, and how this determined the shape of the GDR's welfare state. The article begins with a brief historical overview, outlines developments from 1971 onwards, and reviews problems and successes in East German welfare policy. In the end, the shortcomings of the GDR's planned economy became the biggest obstacle preventing it from achieving its goal of regime stabilization. Most of the research findings presented here are based on archival sources; this includes petitions and complaints from citizens, known as Eingaben, correspondence from SED functionaries and confidential reports on public opinion from the Ministry of State Security. The article is based on the broader research conducted for a PhD dissertation at Aston University, Birmingham and two papers containing the general thoughts of this article.

Did Americans respond to the recent Great Recession by demanding that government provide policy solutions to rising income insecurity, an expectation of state-of-the-art theorizing on the dynamics of mass opinion? Or did the recession erode support for government activism, in line with alternative scholarship pointing to economic factors having the reverse effect? We find that public support for government social programs declined sharply between 2008 and 2010, yet both fixed-effects and repeated survey analyses suggest economic change had little impact on policy-attitude formation. What accounts for these surprising developments? We consider alternative microfoundations emphasizing the importance of prior beliefs and biases to the formation of policy attitudes. Analyzing the General Social Surveys panel, our results suggest political partisanship has been central. Gallup and Evaluations of Government and Society surveys provide further evidence against the potentially confounding scenario of government overreach, in which federal programs adopted during the recession and the Obama presidency propelled voters away from government. We note implications for theoretical models of opinion formation, as well as directions for partisanship scholarship and interdisciplinary research on the Great Recession.

Ever since the declaration of the 'war on terror' in Afghanistan in 2001, New Delhi has heavily invested in humanitarian assistance, development projects and nation-building activities in that country with a view to cultivate a mutually beneficial relationship with Kabul and thereby enhance its own regional security. However, its reliance on the 'soft power' approach made it a 'secondary player' in Afghanistan; its views and concerns were not adequately taken into account by the international community while reaching crucial decisions regarding the endgame in Afghanistan—phasing out of international forces and handing over the charge to the Afghan National Army; and the United States seemed more inclined to rely on Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to engage the Taliban leadership in the ensuing political process. This quite expectedly generated domestic resentment in India as well as calls for adoption of a more robust approach to protect its interests in Afghanistan. This article explores the new policy course New Delhi has embarked on—which included conclusion of a comprehensive security agreement with Kabul and policy coordination with Russia and Iran—and also evaluates the policy options available to India in post-2014 Afghanistan.

Abstract: This research goal is to describe and examine entrepreneur's characteristics, entrepreneurship potentials and sasirangan industries success in Kalimantan Selatan. Fuiter it also aims to identify andstudy the effort to empower the sasirangan industries enterpreneurs. So this research can give the academic contribution for developing the concept of society welfare through empowering paradigm and contributeto help the regional government to arise unique identity of South Kalimantan. The sample of this research is the enterpreneur of sasirangan industries that has fulfill the standard criteria. Data was taken by spreadingthe questionaires. The variables of enterpreneurs characteristics of sasirangan industries in South Kalimantan have positive and significant effect in success of the effort of sasirangan industries in SouthKalimantan. The variable of SME development policy has proved immoderate both the characteristic of enterpreneurship potential in succesful effort and the effect of entreprenourship potential. This research isconduct to surface that the variable of UKM developing policy will have the significant effect in success ofsasirangan industries in South Kalimantan if it is acted as the independent variable.Keywords: characteristics, potencials, sasirangan industries success, ukm developing policy

Предмет работы – информационная политика в условиях региона (субъекта РФ). Цель работы – изучение показателей информационного неравенства и эффективности информационной политики в современном российском обществе. В результате исследования обнаружены тенденции формирования информационного потенциала региона (субъекта РФ). Результаты исследования можно применять для разработки концепций дальнейших политологических исследований в области политических отношений и процессов в современном российском обществе. Сделан вывод о том, что информационная региональная политика выступает как регулятор формирования и развития информационно-политического потенциала региона. ; The subject of work is the information policy in the context of the region (subject of the Russian Federation). The purpose is to study the indicators of information inequality and effectiveness of information policy in the modern Russian society. Research results discovered the tendencies of formation of the informational potential of the region (subject of the Russian Federation). The results of the study can be used to develop concepts of further political studies in the field of political relations and processes in contemporary Russian society. It is concluded that the information regional policy acts as a regulator of the formation and development of information-political potential of the region.

В статье предпринята попытка определения ключевых черт гуманитарного измерения внешней культурной политики на основе анализа документов: Концепции внешней политики Российской Федерации и приложения к ней. Делается вывод о том, что гуманитарное содержание внешней политики России в основных документах, определяющих концептуальные подходы государства к данному направлению политической деятельности, сводится к международному культурному сотрудничеству, при этом такой показатель гуманитарной деятельности, как направленность на интересы личности и её развитие, не находит отражения в концептуальных документах. ; The author undertakes an attempt to determine the key features of the humanitarian dimension of foreign cultural policy based on the analysis of the documents: Foreign Policy Conception of the Russian Federation and its annex; and comes to the conclusion that the humanitarian content of the Russian foreign policy in the basic documents, defining the conceptual approaches of the state to this direction of political activity, is reduced to international cultural cooperation, at the same time such characteristic of humanitarian activity as the focus on the interests of an individual and his development is not reflected in the conceptual documents.

В условиях изменившегося политического строя государства, экономического кризиса и глобального реформирования, государственная политика в сфере социальной защиты населения является приоритетным направлением. Представленные исследования основаны на осмыслении реализации современной политики социальной защиты отдельных категорий населения. Аргументируется, что значительно увеличилось количество лиц, нуждающихся в социальной защите со стороны государства. В результате сформировалась новая система социальной защиты, основой которой стала адресная помощь наиболее уязвимым слоям общества. Анализируется деятельность органов власти Оренбургской области в реализации государственной политики социальной защиты населения, основная цель которой создание условий для устойчивого демографического развития. ; In the context of political system of the state, economic crisis and global reforms, state policy in the sphere of social protection of population is quite important. The presented research is based on understanding the current policy of social protection of certain population categories. It is argued that the number of persons in need for social protection from the state has significantly increased. The author analyzes the activity of bodies of Orenburg region government of implementing the state policy of social protection of population, the main purpose of which is to create conditions for sustainable demographic development.

CARIM-East: Creating an Observatory of Migration East of Europe ; This is the English version of CARIM-East RR 2012/36 in Russian. ; This report examines the issue of integration of migrants in the Republic of Belarus. In the framework of migration policy strategy of the Republic of Belarus protection of migrants' rights and their social integration represent important tasks which are set forth in the Concept of National Security of the Belarusian state, and finding solutions to them implies development of special integration mechanisms. This research explores (1) the countries are in the focus of interest of migrant integration policy, in the context of all countries from which migrants come to Belarus, (2) the basic groups of migrants and their adaptive capabilities, (3) the typical features of migration processes in Belarus that shape and define the mechanisms of migrants' integration, as stipulated in the official documents of the Republic of Belarus, and applied in practice, (4) the strengths and weaknesses of Belarusian migrant integration policy. ; CARIM-East is co-financed by the European University Institute and the European Union.

Since the reformation era in 1998, the number of Non-Governmental Organizations in Indonesia is exploding and their impact on Governance growing. Decentralization Policy has supported this trend with its goal to enhance development in the regions, requiring more active involvement of the people in formulating their interests. Organizations can play an important role in the regions as a bridge between the people and the government. In order to strengthen that role, Non-Governmental Organizations must have a solid organisational fundament and political strategies to get actively involved in the policy making process. An additional stronger legal fundament for such an active role could force the government agencies to include NGOs in the part a policy process. This paper deliversa case study on the actual performance of a local Non-Governmental Organization in the field of Gender Politics and Good Governance. Organisational set up and results of attempts to play an active role in articulating the interests of people it represents are reviewed and lead to suggestions for improvement of performance, that can work as guideline for other NGOs in Indonesia who want to contribute to local Governance.Keywords: Civil Society, Good Governance, NGOs, Rifka Annisa Women Crisis Centre

This article examines the policies of the Obama administration relevant to 'Responsibility to Protect' along four dimensions – core doctrine, as established in key foreign and national security policy statements and documents; executive branch institutional changes, focusing particularly on the 2011-12 Presidential Study Directive-10 (PSD-10) and the State Department's Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR); actual policy in key cases; and particular focus on the Libya case – to assess the progress made, problems that have arisen, and prospects going forward. I argue that the Obama administration is to be credited for shifting the US R2P debate from "if" to "how" and "which": i.e., no longer if the United States should adopt R2P as an international norm and genocide and mass atrocities prevention as a priority US policy objective but how best to do so and in which cases to do so. This by no means resolves all the issues; indeed it opens up many, domestically and internationally, that were less pressing when we still were at if. And much remains to be seen.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to comment on current evolving UK policy in public health and social housing; and especially to outline "blind spots" in conventional health research approaches that have tended to obscure the evidence and potential in collaborative working.Design/methodology/approachThe paper summarises policy developments, in the light of recent relevant research. Mental health is used as an example.FindingsPublic health policy in the UK is new and rapidly developing; but the evidence base remains scattered across different disciplines and their various disparate communication channels. Any new public health strategy focussed on health inequalities needs to recognise the role that social housing already plays in supporting concentrations of the more vulnerable. Better recognition of the everyday social and especially mental health problems that social housing staff deal with illustrates the central role of housing management as the defining factor in social housing, and the potential for partnerships with public health.Originality/valueThis paper offers a contemporary overview and comment; but it also introduces to the readership recent research findings that shed new light upon the potential in closer alignment of public health and social housing management practice.

In Bangladesh, a network of government health facilities providing maternal and child health services has been established. In rural areas, first-level fixed-facility service is provided at the union level through Health and Family Welfare Centers (HFWCs). These facilities are designed to improve maternal and child health by making services available to the people in rural areas, however a full range of reproductive health services for women is not available in those facilities. At present, no evidence exists to support whether or not HFWCs can safely and cost-effectively provide normal deliveries. There is a need for a policy research initiative that can draw upon concrete evidence to support the policy changes necessary for strengthening HFWCs so they can provide normal delivery and newborn care services. With financial support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Population Council has undertaken a policy and systems study aimed at identifying possible mechanisms for strengthening HFWCs so that they can provide normal delivery and newborn care services. A workshop was organized at the onset of this study, and findings from that workshop are presented in this report.