OBJECTIVE In the context of the global obesity epidemic, national nutrition policies have come under scrutiny. The present paper examines whose interests - industry or public health - are served by these policies and why. DESIGN Using an exemplary case study of submissions to an inquiry into obesity, the research compared the positions of industry and public health groups with that taken by g...

BACKGROUND The power to influence many social determinants of health lies within local government sectors that are outside public health's traditional remit. We analyse the challenges of achieving health gains through local government alcohol control policies, where legal and professional practice frameworks appear to conflict with public health action. METHODS Current legislation governing l...

This paper develops a framework for thinking about the policy challenge of scaling up small scale interventions, governmental and non-governmental, that address poverty reduction successfully. The framework sees scaling up as addressing different components of market failure, government failure and civil society failure. Viewed in this way, constraints to scaling up can be analyzed using a supp...

This article studies how public opinion is associated with the introduction of renewable energy policies in Europe. While research increasingly seeks to model the link between public opinion and environmental policies, the empirical evidence is largely based on a single case: the US. This limits the generalizability of findings and we argue accordingly for a systematic, quantitative study of ho...

The legalization of gay marriage has become a contentious issue in the United States, especially for individual state governments. The variation between gay marriage policies in US states ranges from complete ban of all partnership benefits to complete marriage equality for homosexual couples. This study seeks to explain this variation by looking at the possible mechanical factors that could af...

Many state governments and federal policymakers view a new, special tax on electronic commerce to be a fresh and attractive revenue source. But whether implemented at the state or national level, this new tax would be highly undesirable, because it simply expands the shortcomings of the current revenue structure. Because of the flexibility of e-commerce, the attempt to collect such a tax would ...

In 2000, an evaluation of Iranian elementary education revealed that it did not successfully prepare students for the future. The failure was attributed to the teacher centered, content-oriented education system. In 2001, the Iranian Ministry of Education began a pilot project that introduced an alternative curriculum, known as “Global Education,” with UNICEF’s participation. Global education, ...