Word: draconianism
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...everyone in the press, including Malcolm supporters, was happy with a decision that seemed to condone outright inventions -- between quotation marks -- in works of nonfiction. But the possibility threatened by Masson's appeal to the Supreme Court -- a draconian definition from the bench of how journalists should write their stories -- seemed even worse. A number of news organizations, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors and Time Warner, filed amicus briefs in support of the New Yorker...
Once it became apparent that some smokers were breaking the rules, intermediate steps could and should have been taken to reduce complaints. First among these, of course, could have been posting signs. If the draconian penalties instituted by Viggiani (the third instance of smoking in a no-smoking area merits a trip to the Ad Board) had been implemented before, the number of smokers in no-smoking sections would probably have been reduced to nil. As it was, no attempt was made to reduce abuses of house rules between unclear regulations and a complete...
...over the years, government has moved in to pick up the rejects: first the elderly, then the extremely poor. Since the rejects are of course the most expensive to insure, government is soon faced with a budget nightmare. Draconian cost-control measures follow. But because government can only attempt to control the costs of its own programs, the providers of care simply shift their costs onto the bills of privately insured patients. Faced with ever rising costs, the private insurers become more determined to shed the poorest and the sickest . . . and so the cycle goes...
Fear of an economic recession and painful cuts in services dissuaded voters from approving draconian cuts in present tax levels. In California, Montana, Nebraska, Colorado and Utah, they rejected initiatives that would limit spending or roll back taxes. A similar measure in Massachusetts would have cut the state budget by 8% by reducing fees to 1988 levels. The proposal was supported by the Republican candidate, William Weld, and opposed by Democrat John Silber, who warned of a "meltdown" of the state economy. In the end voters accepted Weld -- and rejected his tax rollback...
...change all that in 1949 by freeing women from the household, putting them to work in fields and factories and giving them the right to inherit property. Suddenly a girl could have positive economic value. Still, feudal tradition has resisted change in many regions, and the government's draconian one-child-per-couple population policy, begun in 1979, has inflamed age-old prejudices against females. Rural and minority families routinely lie, cheat or pay fines in order to try a second pregnancy in the hope of having a son. And female infanticide -- plus its modern variation, the misuse of amniocentesis...