scholarly journals Of Goats, Theorems, and Laws

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-86
Author(s):  
raúl rodríguez freire ◽  
Paco Brito Núñez

Abstract Joseph Townsend’s Dissertation on the Poor Laws (1786) advances the thesis that aid to the poor generates more poverty. It is a work that twists and traduces a number of bibliographic sources in order to produce its famous theorem about goats and dogs, an idea that would have tremendous influence on public policy on overpopulation. The sources of Townsend's Dissertation are based on the figure of Alexander Selkirk, who lived as a castaway on an island of the Juan Fernández Archipelago. This essay analyzes Townsend's sources and takes note of the spread of his proposals, the Robinsonades, and their validation by ostensibly scientific discourses which have asserted their truth value over and above that of literary fictions. In closing, it demonstrates Townsend's own grounding in fiction, and considers the role the shaping power of literature might play in the reimagination of a world out of joint.

Author(s):  
Samantha A. Shave

The first half of this chapter examines the implications of these findings for our understandings of several areas of the poor laws: local ideas and policy transfer, national legislation and policy-making. The second half of the conclusion focuses on the influences upon the development of the poor laws. It examines the role of stakeholders and key actors, each with distinct roles in the policy process across both the old and New Poor Law eras. The chapter finishes by discussing more broadly how the policy process approach can be applied to understand reform and innovation in the broader field of social and public policy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Katarina Pitasse Fragoso

Over the last few years, there has been an increase in discussions advocating in-cash programmes as a way to alleviate poverty. Indeed, this represents a leap forward in comparison to in-kind programmes. However, little progress, at least in developing countries, has been achieved in answering the question of how the state should transfer the means of redressing deprivation to those who are living in poverty. This article addresses this issue by challenging anti-poverty programmes through a social-egalitarian framework. My main argument starts from the perspective that in-cash transfers are a necessary but not sufficient mechanism for poverty alleviation. I acknowledge that cash alone does not guarantee the poor an equally active role in influencing the public-policy decisions that affect their lives. I then suggest a participatory device to complement the cash-transfer proposal in order to give institutional opportunities to the poor to decide, together with practitioners, what should be done at the level of local public services.


1944 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-91
Author(s):  
Howell V. Williams
Keyword(s):  

1964 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen J. Heasman

Sidney and Beatrice Webb, in their book The State and the Doctor, which was submitted in the first instance as a memorandum to the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws in 1909, dismiss the work of the free dispensaries and medical missions in one short paragraph.


1929 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-160
Author(s):  
J. G. Kyd ◽  
G. H. Maddex

Judged by the amount of space devoted to the subject in the Journal of the Institute, Unemployment Insurance has received but little attention from actuaries in the past Public interest in the problem of relieving distress due to unemployment became pronounced in the early years of the present century and led to the appointment in 1904 of a Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and, eventually, to the passing in 1911 of the first Unemployment Insurance Act. These important events found a somewhat pallid reflection in our proceedings in the form of reprints of extracts from Sir H. Llewellyn Smith's address on Insurance against Unemployment to the British Association in 1910 (J.I.A., vol. xliv, p. 511) and of Mr. Ackland's report on Part II of the National Insurance Bill (J.I.A., vol. xlv, p. 456). At a later date, when the scope of the national scheme was very greatly widened, the Government Actuary's report on the relevant measure—the Unemployment Insurance Bill 1919—was reprinted in the Journal (J.I.A., vol. lii, page 72).


BMJ ◽  
1909 ◽  
Vol 1 (2518) ◽  
pp. 855-856
Author(s):  
J. C. McVail
Keyword(s):  

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