'Regulating Aged Care is a significant achievement and addresses areas of personal caring which do not usually receive attention. [It] is an important book which draws attention to the central problems of providing care for large numbers of vulnerable people. . . [it] should be required reading on undergraduate and postgraduate courses relating to applied social science, health and medical sociology.' Alison M. Ball, Sociology 'This book provides an impressive evidence base for both theory development and reassessment of policy and practitioner responses in the field.' International Social Security Review 'They have given us a fascinating case study here, rich in detail, and masterfully interpreted against the backdrop of evolving regulatory strategy. It is rare indeed to find this depth of analysis made accessible, laced throughout with humanity, compassion, and humor.' Malcolm Sparrow, Harvard University, US 'This book offers an intelligent and insightful account of the development of nursing home regulation in three countries England, the USA and Australia. But, more than that, it intertwines theory and more than a decade of empirical work to provide a telling and sophisticated explanation of why and how good regulatory intentions often go awry, and what can be done to create systems of regulation which really work to produce improvement.' Kieran Walshe, University of Manchester, UK This book is a major contribution to regulatory theory from three members of the world-class regulatory research group based in Australia. It marks a new development in responsive regulatory theory in which a strengths-based pyramid complements the regulatory pyramid. The authors compare the accomplishments of nursing home regulation in the US, the UK and Australia during the last 20 years and in a longer historical perspective. They find that gaming and ritualism, rather than defiance of regulators, are the greatest challenges for improving safety and quality of life for the elderly in care homes. Regulating Aged Care shows how good regulation and caring professionalism can transcend ritualism. Better regulation is found to be as much about encouragement to expand strengths as incentives to fix problems. The book is underpinned by one of the most ambitious, sustained qualitative and quantitative data collections in both the regulatory literature and the aged care literature. This study provides an impressive evidence base for both theory development and reassessment of policy and practitioner responses in the field. The book will find its readership amongst regulatory scholars in political science, law, socio-legal studies, sociology, economics and public policy. Gerontology and health care scholars and professionals will also find much to reflect upon in the book.

An international survey of different approaches to the provision and regulation of long-term care for the elderly.

As more people live longer, the need for quality long-term care for the elderly will increase dramatically. This volume examines the current system of nursing home regulations, and proposes an overhaul to better provide for those confined to such facilities. It determines the need for regulations, and concludes that the present regulatory system is inadequate, stating that what is needed is not more regulation, but better regulation. This long-anticipated study provides a wealth of useful background information, in-depth study, and discussion for nursing home administrators, students, and teachers in the health care field; professionals involved in caring for the elderly; and geriatric specialists.

This book offers evidence and examples of useful experiences to help policy makers, providers and experts measure and improve the quality of long-term care services.

The past fifteen years have seen longterm care policies in the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) undergo substantial transformations, either through major policy reforms or through accumulated minor policy changes. This book brings together data from many OECD countries to compare key changes in national policies, examine the successes or failures of new approaches, and offer policy strategies for the future. Drawing on fifteen years of evidence and bringing together contributors from a number of perspectives throughout the OECD, it will be essential for those studying--or making--policy.

The case for a smarter “prosumer law” approach to Internet regulation that would better protect online innovation, public safety, and fundamental democratic rights. Internet use has become ubiquitous in the past two decades, but governments, legislators, and their regulatory agencies have struggled to keep up with the rapidly changing Internet technologies and uses. In this groundbreaking collaboration, regulatory lawyer Christopher Marsden and computer scientist Ian Brown analyze the regulatory shaping of “code”—the technological environment of the Internet—to achieve more economically efficient and socially just regulation. They examine five “hard cases” that illustrate the regulatory crisis: privacy and data protection; copyright and creativity incentives; censorship; social networks and user-generated content; and net neutrality. The authors describe the increasing “multistakeholderization” of Internet governance, in which user groups argue for representation in the closed business-government dialogue, seeking to bring in both rights-based and technologically expert perspectives. Brown and Marsden draw out lessons for better future regulation from the regulatory and interoperability failures illustrated by the five cases. They conclude that governments, users, and better functioning markets need a smarter “prosumer law” approach. Prosumer law would be designed to enhance the competitive production of public goods, including innovation, public safety, and fundamental democratic rights.

This work provides a thought-provoking account of how medical treatments can be tested with unbiased or 'fair' trials and explains how patients can work with doctors to achieve this vital goal. It spans the gamut of therapy from mastectomy to thalidomide and explores a vast range of case studies.