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Bringing together research and statistics from the fields of demography, political science, economics, sociology, women's studies, and social policy, this rich, multidisciplinary study provides a unique resource for anyone interested in Canadian family policy

With poverty, unemployment, and one-parent families on the rise in most Western democracies, government assistance presents an increasingly urgent and complex problem. This is the first study to explore Canada's family policies in an international context. Maureen Baker looks at the successes and failures of social programs in other countries in search of solutions that might work in Canada. Baker has chosen seven industrialized countries for her comparative study: Australia, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries experience social and economic strains similar to those felt in Canada, and though they share certain policy solutions, major differences in policy remain. Baker considers which of the policies in these countries are most effective in reducing poverty, enhancing family life, and improving the status of women, then applies her findings to the Canadian situation. Bringing together research and statistics from the fields of demography, political science, economics, sociology, women's studies, and social policy, this rich, multidisciplinary study provides a unique resource for anyone interested in Canadian family policy.

The University of Kansas has long historical connections with Central America and the many Central Americans who have earned graduate degrees at KU. This work is part of the Central American Theses and Dissertations collection in KU ScholarWorks and is being made freely available with permission of the author through the efforts of Professor Emeritus Charles Stansifer of the History department and the staff of the Scholarly Communications program at the University of Kansas Libraries' Center for Digital Scholarship.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the concept of audience development, analysing differences between a number of countries and identifying common elements that underlie the concept regardless of the context.


Design/methodology/approach
In addition to the literature review, fieldwork has been conducted in the UK, Denmark, Italy, and Spain applying qualitative methodology. The study has been structured in two phases. The first phase comprised 26 in-depth interviews with European experts in audience development while the second phase consisted of six focus groups with European experts.


Findings
The paper reveals differences between countries, ranging from the definition of the term audience development to the approach undertaken. Despite this, a number of aspects, independent of the context and considered key to a successful audience development, are identified. These aspects are related to the consideration of the development of audiences as a transversal long-term strategy supported by the top management of the organisation.


Originality/value
The value provided is twofold. First, thanks to the empirical data used, the paper analyses the socio-cultural aspects that affect the emergence of country-specific approaches to audience development and it individuates general features and ideas that contribute to the better understanding of the concept itself. Second, it is one of the few academic works carried out in Spain on this issue.

Two groups of children are described, some adopted out of their country of origin and some adopted in their own country. Utilizing a family systems model adaptable across countries, the impact of institutionalization on later child behavior is examined. Results will assist practitioners to develop a protocol to assess the family and the child at various ages, regardless of country of origin.

Is ethnic separatism the inevitable consequence of pursuing policies that allow for a reflowering of subnational ethnic identities, as in Quebec, or are there ways of having both a strong sense of attachment to one's own group while still fostering loyalty to the larger state, as some variants of pluralist theory would have it? This is the central research question guiding our comparative study of the relationship between attachment to the individual ethnic group & loyalty to the larger country. Research on the relationship between strength of ethnic attachments & loyalty to the country as a whole impinges on the political wisdom of choosing public policies from affirmative action, to bilingual education, to political autonomy for subregional groups. The comparative politics literature is fraught with assumptions about the nature of this relationship, but few studies have tried to empirically estimate it. Drawing on research by de la Garza et al (1996) & Sidanius et al (1997), we test pluralist, melting pot, & ethnic dominance models of ethnic attachment & overall levels of patriotism in the US & four other polyethnic states. Our data are derived from a 1995 ISSP National Identity Survey & the 1990-93 World Values Survey. We find mixed support for the alternative models when we replicate Sidanius & de la Garza & call for greater focus in cross-national surveys on assuring adequate samples of minority groups so that extant theories can be tested more fully. 5 Tables, 9 References. Adapted from the source document.

This article explains variations in levels of institutionalization across legislatures of the world. It construes institutionalization as an equilibrium outcome that emerges from beliefs and investments made by political actors. Drawing insights from work on US congressional institutionalization and congressional organization, and on comparative party system institutionalization, it provides an index to measure congressional institutionalization. Using this index, it explores the constitutional factors that affect levels of congressional institutionalization. The empirical results raise a warning with respect to building comparative implications from an excessive focus on one particular case.