Word: reform
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...orderly transition from dictatorship to democracy. Madrid Correspondent Karsten Prager was struck by Spain's ability to emerge so smoothly from a political vacuum. "There are not many parallels," says Prager, "even though the political changes of the past 18 months might have gone deeper, and even though reform was not so much negotiated as conceded...
...Experience. Dukakis argues that workfare may provide the new Administration with the formula it needs to put some of President Carter's own ideas on welfare into effect. Says the Governor: "Carter is committed to a reform that distinguishes for the first time between employable and unemployable people, and only the unemployable will be eligible for welfare benefits. The employable will be offered a job."* The architect of workfare in Massachusetts is Richard Anderson, the state's assistant secretary of economic and manpower affairs. He figures the program will cost $700,000 a year but eventually will save...
...that even a good Queen like Elizabeth "cannot serve as a court of appeal against the follies of democracy." For that reason, he now feels that Britain also needs a written constitution and a bill of rights. Some critics maintain that the monarchy may be an obstacle to such reform because the existence of the ancient institution gives too much legitimacy to tradition...
...major legislative breakthrough for gay rights also seems unlikely. Whenever the matter is brought to a well-publicized popular vote, it usually is defeated. Legislative easing of sodomy statutes has invariably been camouflaged as part of overall criminal-code reform; when the topic has been discussed on its own, so-called antideviancy laws have been retained or even strengthened. Ironically, those statutes are usually worded to prohibit "deviant" acts (such as fellatio and cunnilingus) by heterosexuals as well, even though various sex surveys show that perhaps 80% of all U.S. adults have indulged in at least one of these practices...
Jeremiahs Needed. The true outrage of The Abuse of Power, however, rises not from its flaws but from its truths. If many of the specifics have been sporadically reported, if criminals have often been called to account, urban systems still manage to fend off basic reform. They will continue to do so until voters decide otherwise. For that millennium to occur, there need to be more Jeremiahs like Newfield willing to howl their grim, invaluable message over and over again. It cannot be heard by too many citizens, or heeded by too many cities...