‘Raising Sand,Soil and Gravel’ Pardon Refusers On-Board Prison Hulks (1776–1815)

For a short period of time at the end of the eighteenth-century and the beginning of the nineteenth-century a small number of convicted felons refused the offer of a royal pardon. Drawing heavily on evidence from The National Archives this article considers the possible and actual fate of fifty convicted felons on-board prison hulks at the turn of the nineteenth-century who declined the offer of pardons on condition of serving in the army abroad. Who were these convicts and why did they refuse the offer of a pardon? What were the choices they faced and how successful a strategy was refusal in terms of survival, freedom and a return to friends and family? This article bridges the gap in literature that exists between work on discretion (King, Gatrell, Hay et al.); prison hulks (Branch-Johnson and Campbell) and transportation (Bateson, Hughes, Morgan and Rushton) while challenging and developing the understanding of the motivations of the pardon refuser, set out by Devereaux and MacKay, but within the context of the forgotten prison hulks.     

Signs of Masculinism in an 'Uneasy' Place: Advertising for 'Big Brothers'

'Big Brothers' is an international, philanthropic fraternal organisation dedicated, in its own words, 'to match boys seven to seventeen from lone-parent female families with mature male role models over eighteen … toward contributing to the healthy development of these children'. A primary objective of this 90 year-old institution is thus to instil a masculine culture and nurture a masculine identity in male children by providing an adult male presence, 3-4 hours a week, in the lives of boys without a male role model. This article asks, which kinds of masculine identities are promoted as acceptable and why? Drawing upon the geographies of feminism, masculinity, and advertising, the article presents a socio-semiotic analysis of the format, content and signs employed by 'Big Brothers' of Canada and the USA in their recruitment campaigns. Using printed promotional material spanning the institute's history, as well as an interview with the Marketing Director of a recent Big Brother recruitment campaign, the slogans, icons, and gender-myths used to represent males and same-sex friendships in the symbolic spaces of their advertisements are critiqued. Results exemplify the instability of the 'masculine gaze' and suggest that the discourse of patriarchal masculinity situates the Big Brothers institute itself in an 'uneasy' place, one where the masculine gender-myths may be collapsing but are nevertheless evoked to ensure volunteers and society at large that a 'legitimate' form of homosocial masculinity prevails, one that does not transgress 'out of bounds' and into the 'homosexual'.     

STRATEGIES OF SINGLE-ISSUE INTEREST GROUPS

Using traditional models of electoral behavior one would not expect single-issue interest groups to have the impact on the American electoral system evident in recent elections. The difficulty in understanding their success lies in the assumption that the rational voter merely maximizes utility by choosing between the positions offered by the candidates/ political parties. Single-issue interest group activity has demonstrated, to the contrary, that it is possible for an assertive rational voter to successfully force candidates/ parties to take specific positions on issues and to form winning coalitions.     

THE SOURCES OF PUBLIC POLICY: WELFARE POLICY IN THE AMERICAN STATES

The conceptualization of political and economic determinants of public policy as interactive rather than sufficient causes is subjected here to a comparative state analysis. An examination of interactive effects of culture, wealth, and gubernatorial power on AFDC grants and Medicaid benefits offers empirical illustration of Stonecash's reconceptualization of the classic politics-process-policy model. The results indicate that political dispositions become more potent in combination with increasing concentrations of wealth and executive power.     

Elections,contemporary history,policy and ideology: Current writing on Mrs Thatcher

Andrew Gamble, The Free Economy and the Strong State: The Politics of Thatcherism. Macmillan Education, Basingstoke, 1988, pp.263 + xii, $21.95 (paper).

Stuart Hall, The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left. Verso, London, 1988, pp.283 + vii, $29.95 (paper).

Martin Harrop and Andrew Shaw, Can Labour Win? The Fabian Series, Unwin Hyman, London, 1989, pp.143 + x, $16.95 (paper).

Peter Jenkins, Mrs Thatcher's Revolution: The Ending of the Socialist Era. Pan Books, London, 1988, pp.417 + xxxviii, $14.99 (paper).

Bob Jessop, Kevin Bonnett, Simon Bromley and Tom Ling, Thatcherism: A Tale of Two Nations. Polity Press in association with Basil Blackwell, Cambridge, 1988, pp.219 + viii, $25.95 (paper).

Dennis Kavanagh and Peter Morris, Consensus Politics from Attlee to Thatcher, Making Contemporary Britain. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1989, pp.137 + xvii, $23.95 (paper).

Dennis Kavanagh and Anthony Seldon (eds.), The Thatcher Effect. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1989, pp.355 + xvii, $23.95 (paper).

Kenneth Minogue and Michael Biddiss (eds.), Thatcherism: Personality and Politics. Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1987, pp.144 + xvii, $29.95 (paper).

Richard Rose and Ian McAllister, The Loyalties of Voters: A Lifetime Learning Model. Sage, London, 1990, pp.215 + xii, $22.90 (Paper).

Robert Skidelsky, Thatcherism. Chatto and Windus, London, 1988, pp.214, $29.95.

Leonard Tivey, Interpretations of British Politics: The Image and the System. Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead, 1988, pp.168 + x, $30.95 (paper).

Hugo Young, One of Us. Macmillan, London, 1989, pp.570 + ix, $39.95.