Madame de Sade and Other Problems

Margaret Crosland argues that it was the Marquis de Sade, infamous for dominating women, who was in fact dominated by women. The important people in his life, those with whom he had direct contact, and who gave him friendship and support, were women; he knew the men important to him mostly indirectly, through their books. Crosland makes the case that de Sade's writing is often discounted due to an overly literal reading of his work, and that his writings remain an important place to see the principles of materialism worked out to one kind of logical extreme. Crosland's essay additionally serves as a brief overview of the changes in de Sade's writing over the course of his life

Parent-Teacher Conferences in the Elementary School

This paper is a review of the parent-teacher conference on a group and individual basis. It outlines difficulties, resources and preparation, and the benefits of conducting these conferences

Living with childhood asthma: parental perceptions of risk in the household environment and strategies for coping

Aim To explore parents’ perceptions of environmental household risks to their child’s asthma and to identify the strategies they adopt in relation to these perceived risks. Background The prevalence of childhood asthma is increasing worldwide and especially in the UK. Asthma is more common in areas of socio-economic disadvantage. Household environmental factors have been implicated in some of this increase. A number of factors in the home environment have been found to act as triggers to asthma symptoms, including high humidity levels, poor ventilation, mould, second-hand tobacco smoke and pet allergens. Little is known about how parents, as the main care-givers and decision makers in the home, perceive and cope with the risks posed by these triggers. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of parents of 32 children with asthma aged 4 to 16 years and living in a socio-economically disadvantaged urban community in the North East of England. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim and analysed using constant comparison techniques. Findings All parents were aware of some of the risks their children faced at home. Some appeared to know more than others and coping styles varied. A typology of three groups of parents was identified: those who actively seek advice and adopt clear preventative strategies (preventers); those who minimize the risks and only react when things go wrong (reactors); and those who engage in compensatory activities in an attempt to trade-off between harms and benefits (compensators). The unifying themes underpinning these different styles are that all parents are motivated to maintain normal family life but that they adopt different strategies to achieve this

‘Off With Their Heads’: British Prime Ministers and the Power to Dismiss

The British prime minister’s power to appoint and dismiss ministers is probably his most important single power. This article explores how prime ministers from Macmillan to Blair have used that power. The article considers the criteria that prime ministers use when choosing to appoint or dismiss individuals from office before examining the calculations and miscalculations that prime ministers have made in practice. Finally, the article analyses the way that prime ministers have exercised, in particular, their power to dismiss and finds that Thatcher was far more likely than others to sack cabinet colleagues on ideological or policy grounds. The article emphasizes that prime ministers’ relationships with especially powerful ministers – ‘big beasts of the jungle’ – are crucial to an understanding of British government at the top.</jats:p

Emil und die Detektive: Early German sound cinema aesthetic

In 1931 Gerhard Lamprecht directed the film version of Erich Kaestner's popular novel Emil und die Detektive. A hugely successful fil

Party control, party competition and public service performance

publication-status: Acceptedtypes: ArticleThis article assesses party effects on the performance of public services. A policy-seeking model, hypothesizing that left and right party control affects performance, and an instrumental model, where all parties strive to raise performance, are presented. The framework also suggests a mixed model in which party effects are contingent on party competition, with parties raising performance as increasing party competition places their control of government at increasing risk. These models are tested against panel data on English local governments’ party control and public service performance. The results question the traditional account of left and right parties, showing a positive relationship between rightwing party control and performance that is contingent on a sufficiently high level of party competition. The findings suggest left–right models should be reframed for the contemporary context