International Resources
Becoming more forward- and outward-looking... means.. learning lessons
from other countries; and integrating the European Union and international
dimension into our policy making' ....Modernising Government White paper.
Cabinet Office, 1999.
International examples can provide invaluable evidence of what works in
practice, and help us avoid either re-inventing the wheel or repeating others'
mistakes ....International Comparisons in Policy Making Toolkit
This area of Policy Hub provides access to:
International Evidence
Use this section to find evidence on social and economic issues for countries
around the world.
- Individual
countries - Use this section to find organisations providing research
and statistical evidence about a specific country.
- Europe
wide - Use this section for access to organisations that provide research
and statistical evidence on Europe as a whole and the constituent countries.
- Latin America - Latin American
Public Opinion Project ( LAPOP) - research efforts to date have produced
41 surveys analyzing major topics of interest to political and social
scientists, Latin Americanists, government officials, and interested citizens.
LAPOP surveys analyzing citizen views on system support, political tolerance,
citizen participation, local government, corruption, and views on authoritarianism
have been conducted and are now being archived for: Bolivia, Colombia,
Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru as well as for Madagascar.
- Worldwide
- Use this section for access to international organisations producing
research and statistical evidence on countries around the world.
International Comparisons
An outward looking approach looks at how other countries dealt with the
issue and draws on the experience in other countries.
- The
case for an EU-wide measure of poverty/T. Fahey.-Dublin:Economic and Social
Research Institute, 2005 - based on work carried out for the European
Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions under
its research programme, Monitoring
Quality of Life in Europe
- Citizenship education
at school in Europe - considers the contribution made by education
in 30 European countries to developing responsible citizens.
- Cultures and Crimes:
Policing in Four Nations - compares the policing methods of Britain,
France, Germany and the USA.
- Detention and removal
of asylum seekers - provide links to web sites and material covering
detention policy and practice in Australia, and detention and removal
policies and practices in the UK and other comparable countries.
- Gender,
time use and public policy over the life cycle (pdf) [CEPR website].
Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Australian National University,
2005 - compares gender differences in the allocation of time to market
work, domestic work, child care, and leisure over the life cycle, using
survey data for three countries: Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Discusses the extent to which gender differences and life cycle variation
in time use can be explained by public policy, focusing on the tax treatment
of the female partner and on access to high quality, affordable child
care.
- Giving by wealthy
Australians and their counterparts in other places - compares giving
between Australia and USA, Britain and Canada and found that, in general,
the wealthy in Australia are not contributing as generously as they could
and arguably as they should.
- The
International Comparisons in Policy Making Toolkit was developed by
CMPS to provide help and guidance in the use of international comparisons
in policy making.
- International
experiences of using community treatment orders.-Institute of Psychiatry,
2007 - represents the most comprehensive and thorough review of research
into international experiences of using compulsory treatment orders, summarising
evidence from 72 data-based empirical studies undertaken in six countries
over the last thirty years.
- Justice
and injustice: homelessness, crime, victimization, and the Criminal Justice
System - Toronto, Canada: John Howard Society, 2006 - suggestions
for change focus on provision of transitional and supportive housing,
improved discharge planning in provincial correctional facilities, and
specialized programs for vulnerable sub-groups. Part Two of the report
is a catalogue of more than 70 programmes and policies to reduce homelessness
among ex-prisoners and the incarceration of homeless individuals, and
ten promising practices.
- Learning with
other countries: International models of early education and care
- shows international best practice in the way in which early education
and childcare services are designed and delivered. The paper features
articles by experts in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Flanders in Belgium,
New Zealand, and the UK.
- Maternity
leave and payment for childcare, impact on the economic situation of a
married couple in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Great Britain, and
Germany -Copenhagen: Danish National Institute for Social Research,
2006 - "applies microsimulation to illustrate the impact of different
family policies on the economic situation of families in six European
countries
- National
and international trends in teacher education accreditation - ACT,
Australia: Teaching Australia and the Australian Council for Educational
Research, 2006 - review of international developments in Chapter 3 takes
the form of case studies of six accreditation systems including Scotland,
England, Ontario (Canada), New Zealand and two national accreditation
systems operated by independent agencies (non-statutory) in the USA; the
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the
Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC). The report also surveyed
recent developments in Europe, where the 1999 European Union agreement
to make higher education qualifications across European countries more
comparable (the "Bologna process") has triggered a process of restructuring
higher education degree programs.
- On synthetic indices of multidimensional well-being : health and income inequalities in France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom (PDF) - Torino: Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics, 2007 (Working papers, n° 07/2007) - examines empirical strategies to measure poverty and inequality in multiple domains, concentrating on two problems in the use of synthetic multidimensional indices: the weighting structure of different functionings and the functional form of the index. These problems are illustrated by comparing inequality and deprivation in income and health in the four largest countries of the EU.
- A
question of numbers: the potential impact of community-based treatment
orders in England and Wales, King's Fund, 2005 - examines the use
of community-based treatment orders around the world. Australia and New
Zealand tend to have the highest use at around 50 people per 100,000 population,
while Canada has the lowest use at around two people per 100,000 population.
- The
social benefits and economic costs of taxation: a comparison of high-
and low-tax countries - Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
(CCPA), 2006 - compares high-tax Nordic countries and low-tax Anglo-American
countries on 50 social and economic measures and finds the high-tax Nordic
countries score better in 42 categories.
- Trends in severe disability among elderly people (PDF) - OECD, 2007 - assesses evidence among the population aged 65 and over in 12 OECD countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. The focus is on reviewing trends in severe disability (or dependency), defined where possible as one or more limitations in basic activities of daily living. One of the principal findings from this review is that there is clear evidence of a decline in disability among elderly people in only five of the twelve countries studied.
- Vocational education and
training in Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany - NCVER report
- compares the provision of vocational education and training (VET) in
Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany.
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