Unintended Consequences in Public Policy: Persons with Psychiatric Disabilities and the Americans with Disabilities Act

This essay explores the occurrence of unintended consequences of public policy, particularly those embodied in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) towards people diagnosed with mental illness. Rights to equal opportunity under the ADA are not inalienable. Two key provisions of the ADA allow employers to abridge those rights. While these provisions sound reasonable on the surface, this paper points out how they disproportionately affect people with psychiatric disabilities. The first provision is the direct threat exclusion, which exempts employers from the requirement to provide reasonable accommodation to a person with disabilities if that person poses a significant risk to the safety of others. Employers can exclude or fire qualified applicants or employees who potentially may pose a direct threat to the health or safety of other individuals in the workplace. The second provision is that employers must only accommodate the known disabilities of an employee or applicant. While these provisions address legitimate concerns, they may be abused and they may distract employers and policymakers from other underlying problems.     

Hobbes et le Républicanisme

Hobbes criticizes the theory of mixed government without presenting this mixed government as republican. For him criticizing republicanism means criticizing the definition of freedom as the participation of citizens in the debate on matters concerning them all. We can find the main points of this criticism in theElements of law natural and politic and in theDe cive. InLeviathan Hobbes summarizes this criticism and makes it more dogmatic, while developing in a new way the idea that in all regimes there is an identity of essence in sovereignty. This idea is at variance with the republican thesis stating a difference of nature between free regimes and those that are not and makes it possible to take the Roman republic or the Athenian democracy as models.     

Strengthening Minds and Bodies Within the French School System. Physical Education for Boys and Girls Between 1936 and 1950

Physical education has been compulsory in France since 1880. Between 1936 and 1950, expansion intensified and extensive changes were made to course content. This article assesses the ramifications of these choices through an in-depth study of four variables that defined its instruction. Even if priority was given to generalisation and equal access to knowledge, research revealed an upsurge in the fight against real or presumed student vulnerability. At the time, a strong consensus emerged with the commitment to fight frailty. This was all the more the case for young girls as they belonged to a specific group with respect to their physical make-up. The school system stressed the relevance of instruction adapted to girls even if emphasis was placed on the cultural aspect of sport content. The pedagogical programmes put into effect for youths based on these guidelines confirmed this trend. This situation raised concerns as to the role of the school system in the development of social stereotypes through a discipline that would become the focus of the French education system.     

Book reviews‐Comptes rendus

Peter CRAMER, Baptism and Change in the Early Middle Ages, c.200—c.1150, Cambridge, 1993, xx + 356 p., ISBN 0–521–35163–4.

Olivier GUYOTJEANNIN, Jacques PYCKE et Benoît‐Michel TOCK, Diplomatique médiévale, 442 p. ; Jacques BERLIOZ et collaborateurs, Identifier sources et citations, 336 p., (volumes 1 et 2 de la collection “L'atelier du médiéviste"), Turnhout, Brepols, 1993 et 1994.

Jean‐Claude SCHMITT, Les revenants. Les vivants et les morts dans la société médiévale, Paris, Gallimard, 1994, 306 p.

Guy LOBRICHON, La religion des laïcs en Occident (XIe‐XVe siècles), Paris, Hachette, collection “La vie quotidienne/Civilisation et société”, 1994, 242 p.

Emilio OLMOS HERGUEDAS, La Comunidad de Villa y Tierra de Cuellar a partir de las ordenanzas de 1546, suivi de Apuntes para la historia local de Lastras de Cuellar, Diputacion Provincial de Segovia, Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Segovia, Ayuntamiento de Lastras de Cuellar, Valladolid, 1994.

Claudine FABRE‐VASSAS, La bête singulière. Les juifs, les chrétiens et le cochon, Paris, Gallimard (Bibliothèque des Histoires), 1994, 423 p., ISBN 2–07–073448‐X, 165 FF.

Christine LANGE, La inmigracion francesa en Aragon (siglos XVI y primera mitad del XVII), Saragosse, Institucion Fernando el Catolico, 1993, 189 p.

Francesco MAIELLO, Storia del calendario. La misurazione del tempo, 1450–1800, Turin, Einaudi, Biblioteca di cultura storica 203, 1994, VIII‐235 p., 8 illustrations hors texte. ISBN 88–06–13228–8. 55 000 L.

Exposition L'âme au corps—Arts et sciences, 1793–1993, Paris, Grand Palais, automne 1993.

Olga Semyonova TIAN‐SHANSKAIA, Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia, ed. by David L. RANSEL, translated by David L. Ransel with Michael Levine. Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 1993, xxx + 175 p.

Alain CORBIN, Les cloches de la terre. Paysage sonore et culture sensible dans les campagnes au XIXe siècle, Paris, Albin Michel, 1994, ISBN 2–226–06752–3, 150 FF.

Feminisms of The Belle Epoque: A Historical and Literary Anthology, edited by Jennifer WAELTI‐WALTERS and Steven C. HAUSE, translated by Jette Kjaer, Lydia Willis, and Jennifer Waelti‐Walters, Lincoln‐London, University of Nebraska Press, 1994, x + 337pp., Pb $ 16.95.

Colloque international “Il regime fascista italiano. Bilancio e prospettive di studio” (Bologna, 24–26 novembre 1993).

Hugh MIALL, Shaping the New Europe, Londres, Pinter Publishers, 1993, 118 p., ISBN 1–85567–119–0, £ 9.95.

Christopher HARVIE, The Rise of Regional Europe, Londres et New York, Routledge, 1994, 92 p., ISBN (M15–09523–9, £ 6.99.

Fragments d'Europe, sous la direction de Michel FOUCHER, Paris, Fayard, 1993.

Pierre CABANES, L'Albanie, le pays des aigles, Aix‐en‐Provence, Edisud, 1994, 160 FF. (Photographies de Paul Lutz).

David LE BRETON, La chair à vif. Usages médicaux et mondains du corps humain, Paris, Métailié, 1993, 336 p.

Peter DINZELB ACHER, ed., Europäische Mentalitätsgeschichte. Hauptthemen in Einzeldarstellungen, Stuttgart, Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1993, xxxvii + 663 p., ISBN 3–520–46901–4, DM 48.     

Un ‘ghost-God’ dans la tradition zoroastrienne

Sans résumé     

Federalism: Money and politics

J. S. H. Hunter, Revenue Sharing in the Federal Republic of Germany, Centre for Research on Federal Financial Relations, Research Monograph No. 2, ANU, 1973, pp. 116 + xi, $3.00.