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This study analyses state and civil society organizations’ (CSOs) perspectives on the contemporary situation of human rights defenders (HRD) in South Asia using submissions to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the United Nations five-yearly monitoring process. The governments’ UPR discourse shows how their engagement is characterized by performativity and legitimation. They appear to embrace the promotion of HRDs’ rights in a way that advances governments’ political legitimacy on the international stage. Instead, analysis of CSOs’ UPR discourse reveals that HRDs face a raft of rights violations, including threats, violence and murder. Their work is being curtailed by increasing state restrictions on freedom of association and expression. The malaise is compounded by impunity for offenders, corrupt practices and governments’ failure to respond to earlier UPR recommendations. The analysis shows a strong gendered dimension to HRD oppression with women HRDs particularly vulnerable to all types of violation. These findings underline the extension to South Asia of what international analysis elsewhere has dubbed a ‘counter-associational revolution’, or the rise, spread and contagion of restrictive legislation. This threat to democracy in the region shows that key reforms are urgently required, including measures to ensure the justiciability of the UN Declaration on HRD.

“This study analyses civil society organisations’ (cso s’) discourse on children’s rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (opt). This is a troubled context, for Israel – the ‘State Party’ to the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (crc), disputes that its obligations extend to the opt. In consequence, there has been a dearth of official data and scholarly attention to the situation. Discourse analysis of cso s’ reports to the UN’s monitoring mechanism, the Universal Periodic Review (upr), shows children are affected by a raft of violations including: sexual abuse, violence and inadequate access to health and education. The Israeli state’s engagement with the upr, whilst denying responsibility for the opt, raises questions about legitimation and performativity. The pathologies are compounded by state repression of civil society meaning that the upr is a singular means of highlighting children’s rights abuses in the Occupied Territories.

This study examines Cambodia’s implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Corpus analysis of civil society organisations’ submissions to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review reveals a raft of CRC violations, including sexual abuse, trafficking and child labour. This is due to political and bureaucratic failings. The wider significance of this lies in underlining how the disjuncture between state and civil society underpins ongoing violations. Future progress depends on strengthened mobilisation yet increasing repression of civil society makes this unlikely. Accordingly, the prospects are bleak with children in Cambodia continuing to suffer widespread rights violations.

This chapter explores emerging evidence as to whether, in contrast to statist and market-based ‘for profit’ service delivery, civil society is the answer to meeting modern welfare needs. It examines one of the most pressing welfare challenges of the twenty-first century: adult social care (ASC). Underlining this volume’s central theme of the uncertainties of the age, it examines the evidence on ASC delivery in the UK before and during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–21. It uses a comparative case study approach focusing on policy and practice in the four nations of the UK. The dataset comprises over one hundred interviews with civil society policy actors and other stakeholders, complemented by analysis of parliamentary proceeding, policy documents and the ‘grey’ literature of civil society organisations. The core research questions are: according to the views of key stakeholders, how do the different territorial welfare mixes on ASC in the four nations of the UK compare in their effectiveness? Did the four mixed economy models provide an effective response to ASC delivery in the pandemic? Does the evidence presented in the chapter exacerbate civil inequalities and social stratification? Last, can non-governmental organisations beneficially replace or complement the work of state ASC providers?

This first pan-regional analysis of civil society organizations’ perspectives on the contemporary situation of human rights defenders (HRDs) in the Commonwealth of Independent States uses United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) data and reveals a shrinking civil space as HRDs face a raft of rights pathologies, including threats, violence and murder. Their work is curtailed by increasing state restrictions on freedom of association and expression. The analysis reveals how women HRDs are particularly subject to discrimination and gender-based oppression. The malaise is compounded by impunity for offenders, corruption and government inaction following earlier UPR recommendations. The findings are theorized with reference to Weissbrodt’s causal typology and Hollyer and Rosendorf’s model of authoritarian government treaty accession.

This article analyses the development of the Council of Social Service for Wales during what is often called the Golden Age of the Welfare State. Recovering the neglected history of the peak organisation for voluntary social service in Wales adds to our understanding of the histories of social policy and postwar Wales. The article addresses social policy from a doubly peripheral perspective – it attends to a territorial periphery of the UK State while voluntary action can be left at the margins of Welfare State analysis. From this perspective we hope to cast new light on the historiography of the ‘British Welfare State’

This study is concerned with the substantive representation of non-human species in parliamentary business. It applies Leston-Bandeira’s legislative functions perspective (LFP) to a data set of 2500 public petitions on animal welfare, submitted over three terms of the UK parliament. The wider significance of this work lies in: (i) underlining the utility of the LFP to petitions analysis; (ii) showing that, while few directly secure policy change, e-petitions perform valuable legislative functions including campaigning, scrutiny and policy-influencing roles, foremost of which is linkage and fostering citizen engagement in parliamentary business. And (iii) Showing how, over the past decade, public petitions have significantly contributed to the increasing salience of animal welfare in UK politics.

In the face of a global demographic shift, an aging population and a ‘crisis’ in adult social care (ASC), this study analyses over 3000 pledges on ASC in political parties’ manifesto discourse following the United Kingdom’s move to a multi-level electoral politics in 1998/1999. Although often overlooked, attention to this formative phase of social policy-making reveals the discursive political antecedents of welfare interventions. The analysis shows a major increase in issue-salience and party politicisation of ASC policy. The discourse reveals political cleavages on welfare mixes and policy framing, and sub-state resistance to central government policies. Against the backdrop of the international rise of devolved governance, the present case is of wider international significance because it illustrates how the transition from state-wide to (quasi-)federal electoral practices gives rise to new territorial dynamics in the electoral discourse of welfare provision; in turn, promoting territorialisation, pressure for welfare state expansion and the rise of ‘sub-state’ welfare regimes.

In response to international concerns about ongoing rights violations, this study presents comparative analysis of state and civil society organisations’ discourse on the early-phase implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (PWD) in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The findings show that PWD continue to experience rights-denial, and barriers to shaping policy and accessing social welfare. There is a ‘disconnect’ between state and civil spheres that hampers effective implementation and explains the endurance of the Medical Model of Disability across the post-soviet space.

This study addresses a key lacuna by analyzing political parties’ formative policy record on refugees’ and asylum seekers’ welfare in party manifestos for state-wide and meso-elections in the UK, 1964–2019. The findings confirm relational contrasts in issue-prioritization and the framing of pledges – between parties and across polities. The wider significance of this lies in underlining the need to examine the formative, electoral phase of refugee and asylum-seeker policy-making; and showing how the move to a multi-level electoral system combines with regional party politics to drive the territorialization of RAS welfare in federal and union states.

The international trend of state restructuring and the rise of decentralized welfare systems means a key challenge for social research is to systematically explore the breadth of factors shaping the territorialization of third sector welfare delivery at the meso level in federal and union states. We address this lacuna by synthesizing historical-institutionalism and critical realism with Salamon and Anheier’s classic framework on civic infrastructure development to produce an inductive analytical model for wider empirical testing. Its application here to the longitudinal case study data covering Wales shows it to be effective in providing a holistic understanding of the temporal and spatial processes underpinning decentralization. The wider significance of the case study lies in underlining the iterative, reciprocal relationship between governance reforms and territorialization – and showing how territorialization can originate in response to national crises and welfare demand caused by state and market failure in the delivery of public goods.

Against the international backdrop of rising religious tensions, this article explores contemporary civil society views on religious freedom in Bangladesh. It uses critical frame analysis of the corpus of civil society organisations’ (CSOs) submissions to the United Nations’ third cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR), 2013-18. It provides a timely assessment of Bangladesh’s fulfilment of international obligations on religious freedom, and shows how the politicisation of religion and the resultant conflict between ‘secularism’ and ‘extremism’ have been fuelling inter-communal tensions and religious intolerance. In particular, CSOs’ UPR submissions present powerful accounts of the principal human rights pathology affecting the country today, religious-based violence. This is accompanied by a narrative of police malpractice/ judicial failings, discrimination, oppression and incitement. A further key finding is ‘situated knowledge’ or first-hand accounts of legal restrictions and government repression of civil society organisations. Consonant with the classical work of liberal theorists, we argue that unprecedented importance now attaches to safeguarding civil society criticality in order to defend religious freedom and uphold human rights in the Republic.

This study explores the party politicization of animal welfare in the context of multi-level governance in the UK. It examines over 1300 pledges in party manifestos for Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish elections 1998–2017. It reveals the nature of party competition, including increasing salience over electoral cycles. This is complemented by examination of the party dynamics in two sub-fields: wildlife protection and farm animal welfare. The wider significance of this study lies in showing how the move to multi-level electoral politics provides new political spaces to advance animal welfare and how meso-ballots are increasingly attuned to the symbiosis of humans and animals. These factors are driving the territorialization of policy and leading to distinctive animal welfare regimes in the different countries of the UK. In addition, partisan theory reveals how the electoral politics of animal welfare varies between sub-fields and is shaped by parties’ relationships with different policy communities.

This study is the first pan-regional analysis of civil society organisations’ perspectives on the human rights situation of LGBT+ people in Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries. Paradoxically, whilst UN treaties extend anti-discrimination rights to LGBT+ people in most member countries, simultaneously, colonial-era legislation makes intimate same sex relations unlawful. Analysis of the corpus of civil society organisations’ (CSO) submissions to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR), reveals how governments’ failure to reform the law is often based on public opposition grounded in religious conservatism. Moreover, the endurance of anti-LGBT+ colonial era legislation is shown to underpin a raft of rights pathologies and reinforce prejudice and negative social attitudes. The principal rights breaches stem from systemic institutional discrimination, and include violence, hate crimes and harassment; police malpractice and denial of justice; as well as failings in healthcare and social protection. Analysis of framing in the civil society UPR corpus reveals the personal impacts of on LGBT+ people, including criminalisation, victimisation, stigma, fear and lack of self-worth.

Since the move to quasi-federalism in the 1990s, different territorial welfare mixes on adult social care (ASC) have emerged in the four nations of the UK. This study explores policy actors’ views on their effectiveness in the pandemic with reference to the role of institutions, trust and transparency. The analysis is based on extensive secondary data analysis and primary interviews with key individuals involved in the delivery and regulation of ASC. The findings highlight how the pandemic exposed existing pathologies and the need for reform in all four systems. Notably, the analysis shows how the present market-based tendering systems for allocating ASC contracts undermine inter-personal and institutional trust and compromise care quality. The wider significance of this lies in showing the pivotal role of trust during the emergency and that post-pandemic welfare reform needs to embed trust-building measures to deliver effective care.

In order to provide a timely assessment of India’s fulfilment of international obligations on religious freedom this article explores the nature and ‘issue-salience’ of different human rights ‘pathologies’. It uses critical frame analysis of the corpus of civil society organisations’ (CSOs) submissions to the third cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The findings reveal CSOs’ concerns over the weakening of rule of law institutions and restrictions on civil society during the period under study. This has impacted upon the ability of individual actors to protect religious freedom. The civil society discourse also highlights a broad range of failings; including communal violence, police malpractice/ judicial shortcomings, discrimination, oppression and incitement. In contrast, the Government’s UPR submission fails to acknowledge these issues. In conceptual terms, this disconnect suggests performativity and legitimation are a feature of the post-2014 NDA administration’s framing of human rights. It appears to embrace civil society engagement and the promotion of religious freedom in a way that advances political legitimacy, whereas civil society accounts suggest otherwise and point to ‘legitimation’ - or a disjuncture between rhetoric and reality.

This study uses discourse analysis of the critical views expressed in the corpus of United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) submissions by civil society organisations (CSOs), in order to explore how the UK, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland governments are responding to their international human rights treaty obligations in the formulation and delivery of social policy. Developed from Hogwood and Peters’ work on the pathology of public policy, the analytical framework investigates CSOs’ critical framings of the disorders, progress and challenges related to social policy-making in the UK. The findings show a raft of shortcomings including a poor monitoring and enforcement, gaps in social protection and discrimination. The original contribution this study is threefold: 1. revealing the nature of prevailing rights violations in the UK; 2. outlining the territorial narratives and contrasts between jurisdictions in the wake of devolution; and 3. showing how the systemic nature of rights violations can be conceptualised using Hogwood and Peters’ theory of public policy making pathologies.

In response to international concerns about ongoing rights violations, this benchmark study analyses the situated knowledge of civil society organizations and examines their discourse on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in India. The findings show that Persons with Disabilities continue to experience rights-denial, and institutional ableism resulting in barriers to shaping policy and accessing social welfare. These are real challenges owing to their systemic nature. Crucially, they relate to the public policy-making process itself and stem from a failure on the part of successive post-2007 governments to put in place a comprehensive strategy for implementing the CRPD. In turn, this is indicative of an ongoing disconnect between state and civil spheres that hampers effective implementation and explains the endurance of the Medical Model of Disability across the country.

This article explores civil society organizations’ (CSOs) views on the contemporary situation of LGBT+people in Bangladesh. It is a lacuna requiring attention because of the country’s poor and deteriorating equality and human rights record. Here we analyse the level of attention to prevailing human rights violations and apply critical frame analysis to the corpus of CSOs’ submissions to the United Nations third cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR), 2013–2018. These reveal how a series of key pathologies—including, violence, intimidation and discrimination—affect the lives of LGBT+people. The wider significance of this study lies in highlighting that, while not a replacement for justiciable rights, the discursive processes offered by the UPR are of key significance in seeking to advance LGBT+rights in countries like Bangladesh where oppression combines with extremism and political elites’ refusal to embrace equality in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation.

We examine the impact of national culture on earnings. Specifically, we examine managers’ likelihood of using accrual or real earnings management and the role of culture on various attributes of earnings (accruals quality, persistence, smoothing, and predictability). We measure national culture using Hofstede’s six dimensions of culture (1984, 2001, and 2010). Using data from 36 countries during 1997-2018, we find that managers are likely to use both accruals and real earnings management in high power distance countries. In long-term oriented countries, managers are more likely to use real earnings management. In uncertainty avoidance countries, in high individualist countries, and in higher indulgent versus restraint countries, managers are less likely to use either type of earnings management. In masculine countries, managers tend to use lower accruals management rather and rely on production cost real earnings management. We also find the use of accruals management and the use of real earnings management are substitutes for each other.\ud In addition, we are able to classify countries into four earnings quality groups based on the culture impact on the earnings attributes (primarily driven by accruals quality, predictability, and smoothing). Persistence is generally not significant in classifying countries by earnings attributes.\ud Our findings indicate that a universal set of accounting standards is a challenging goal to achieve given the cultural diversity across countries. To improve the existing corporate governance framework and to ensure high quality and uniform financial statements, the enforcement of standards should be tailored to specific cultures, or at a minimum, corporate boards need to be more culturally diversified.

In the face of continuing children’s rights abuses across North Africa, the need for governments to engage non-state actors in human rights implementation is explicit in the United Nations’ convention on the rights of the child (UNCRC). Hitherto, this has largely escaped scholarly attention. It is a lacuna addressed in this paper, which presents a theoretically informed analysis of the role of civil society as a political space for promoting children’s rights in six countries with particular reference to Egyptian and Sudanese policy and practice. Critical discourse analysis of state and civil society submissions to the second-cycle United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review provides insight into UNCRC implementation. The findings show key contrasts in the salience and framing of a range of issues including: violence against children, education, health, forced marriage and discrimination. The wider significance of this is manifold: it offers an original transferable methodology, highlights the formative role of discourse and underlines a pronounced asymmetry in the power of government and civil society. Furthermore, the Egyptian and Sudanese case studies reveal key implementation pathologies applying to authoritarian and (post-)conflict states.

This study analyses the position of Roma people in the former Yugoslavia using state and civil society discourse on human rights implementation. It reveals that states are failing to give sufficient prioritisation to tackling longstanding discrimination and oppression. Instead of positive the effects predicted by complementarity theory, the findings reveal ‘frame dis-alignment’ between political elites and NGOs. This raises questions of legitimation and performativity in human rights practice. States’ failure to fully engage with NGOs’ policy claims effectively renders Roma people ‘semi-citizens’. Systemic reform by government is required in order to promote equal citizenship through civil society engagement in rights

To better understand why Middle Eastern states continue to languish at the bottom of world rankings on gender equality, this study presents critical discourse analysis of state and civil society organizations’ implementation of the Participative Democratic Model of gender mainstreaming. A requirement of the 1995 United Nations Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the Participative Democratic Model entails state–civil society engagement to embed gender equality concerns in every stage of the policy process. It is in this context that the original contribution of the article is twofold. In methodological terms, it is argued that contemporary analysis of mainstreaming needs to examine the formative phase of policy implementation and the discourse between state elites and civil society organizations. This is integral to effective agenda-setting and coordinated action—and thus to securing successful gender-equality outcomes. In empirical terms, the study findings show how presently, across the Middle East, there are marked contrasts in state and civil society policy framing and issue prioritization. The resulting disjuncture is a hitherto under-examined pathology preventing the realization of the normative vision of gender equality in the region.

The accounting standards related to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have changed drastically in the past twenty years. In spite of significant debate and arguments that the proposed accounting changes might hinder optimal decision-making, the use of business combinations as a means of growth by international companies has escalated. In this paper, we review the extant academic literature on the subject, as well as the changes in the standards on accounting for M&A. We also express some concerns about the ways the standard changes impact accounting data, and the need for extra care in addressing these changes in academic research. The changes addressed include the accounting for goodwill and bargain purchases, contingent consideration (such as earnouts), step acquisitions, and in-process R&D. We present pros and cons for many of these changes, and offer some alternatives and recommendations for improvement as we move forward. In addition, we provide an analysis of the number of M&A transactions relevant in various accounting standard-setting periods and by M&A topic (consideration used, earnouts, step acquisitions, and non-controlling interests).

The present analysis heeds recent calls for a refocusing and reconceptualising of the substantive representation of women (SRW). It examines the parliamentary scrutiny of Westminster governments' legislative programmes. The findings show that whilst the proportion of SRW legislative proposals remains small (< 1%), there has been a substantial increase in the amount of attention/visibility given to the SRW. Interventions are made by male and female parliamentarians (numerically more men; proportionately more women). Whilst the number of actors making such interventions has increased over time, the more striking finding is the increase in the substance and detail of interventions. This suggests: (a) the extent, quality and focus of SRW interventions are shaped by the interplay of ‘critical actors’ and overall presence of women parliamentarians; and (b) ‘critical actors’ need to be seen more in terms of the key role of particular individuals rather than all who act to bring about women-friendly policy change.

This study is concerned with welfare state development and the intersection between the twin global phenomena of sub-state nationalism and ‘governance transitions’. Specifically, how minority nationalist parties (MNPs) use discourse to exert pressure for welfare change. Accordingly, here, we explore their discourse in Scottish and Welsh elections, and the UK ‘Brexit’ referendum on European Union membership. The findings reveal how pressure for welfare change is framed using key tropes including nation-building, extending social protection and resistance to central government programmes. The wider significance to understanding global social policy lies in the following: (1) revealing the discursive processes associated with multi-level welfare state dynamics, (2) demonstrating how MNPs and governance transitions combine to pressure for welfare state change, and (3) showing how the resultant territorialisation of policy discourse advances ‘sub-state’ models of social citizenship.

This article examines religious freedom in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) using critical frame analysis of state and civil society organisations’ (CSOs) policy discourse associated with the United Nations (UN) Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The findings show how indigenous Chinese CSOs’ input to the UPR is limited. Their voice is muted, some merely mirror the rhetoric of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In contrast, international CSOs are highly critical of what they see as state failure to uphold religious freedom. The analysis reveals a significant disjuncture between the policy discourse of international CSOs and the CCP. The former’s discourse is framed in terms of: denial of rights, imprisonment, legal failings, (re-)education, torture, and persecution. In the absence of enforcement mechanisms, CCP input to the UPR can be seen as part of a process of legitimation and performativity; allowing the ruling elite to afford primacy to what it dubs ‘a framework of socialism with Chinese characteristics’ at the expense of religious freedoms.

Against the backdrop of continuing rights violations in Bangladesh, this article analyses issue-salience and framing in the policy discourse of civil society organizations (CSOs) and state elites on the implementation of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Data from the reports submitted to the second-cycle United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the official monitoring mechanism associated with UN rights treaties, show how state discourse is framed in instrumental, administrative terms. In contrast, civil society discourse is critically framed and highlights poor implementation and enforcement of the CRC, poverty and corruption. This helps to explain on-going rights violations in an increasingly hostile political context wherein government is unresponsive to civil society claims, mobilization is suppressed and CSOs are forced to focus on service delivery and advocacy functions.

Over the next quarter century it is likely that South East Asian countries will experience high levels of growth in the number of disabled people. It is therefore significant that over the past decade, the region’s governments have at last ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons (CRPD). At this critical juncture, and in the face of ongoing human rights issues in several territories, this study presents comparative analysis of state and civil society organisations’ (CSOs) discourse on CRDP implementation. The findings show that whilst governments have espoused a participatory approach to fulfilling their CRPD obligations, contemporary practice falls short. Disabled people currently experience barriers to shaping policy and accessing social welfare. There is a ‘disconnect’ between state and civil spheres that hampers effective implementation based on partnership working and knowledge exchange. In turn, this raises issues of legitimation, performativity and the endurance of the Medical Model of Disability across the region.

This study addresses a key knowledge-gap by exploring the role of electoral politics in shaping public policy on the arts. Analysis of the prioritisation and use of language in party manifestos in state-wide and regional elections in the UK reveals that over recent decades there has been a sharp increase in the attention parties give to arts policy as they compete for the political centre-ground. It also shows how the framing of arts policy has broadened from an initial concern with social policy objectives to emphasise economic benefits and boosting international standing. However, parties have generally failed to advance comprehensive arts strategies raising accountability issues in relation to future government policy. Against the backdrop of a global trend of state restructuring, the analysis reveals how devolution is leading to the territorialisation of policy – as framing is contingent on ‘regional’ party politics, including nation-building by civic nationalist parties.

Mandate and accountability theory state that governments should implement the policies that they promised voters. Accordingly, this study addresses a key lacuna by exploring the role of electoral politics in shaping public policy on sport. Attention centres on issue-salience and policy framing in party manifestos in post-war UK elections. In an era of multi-level governance, the analysis also explores the impact of devolution in the UK where, since 1998, sport policy is mandated in four electoral systems in place of earlier, single state-wide ballots. The findings reveal that there has been a sharp increase in issue-salience over recent decades – thereby confirming the party politicization of sport as part of the wider rise of ‘valence politics’. They also show how parties increasingly frame sport proposals to achieve non-sport aims such as promoting social welfare and boosting international standing. Notably, the data underline the territorialization of sport policy following the UK’s move to quasi-federalism – as policy framing is now contingent on ‘regional’ socio-historical factors and party politics, including nation – building by civic nationalist parties.

Traditionally, minority nationalist parties (MNPs) have employed the notion of Europe in order to advance an alternative to centralized administration within the unitary state. This study examines whether earlier claims of MNPs' repositioning on the European Union (EU) are supported by a discourse analysis of manifestos in UK meso-elections. The findings confirm a significant shift in MNPs' framing of EU policy at the regional level; no longer advanced as a principal route to autonomy, voters are latterly invited to view the EU more as a fiscal-support mechanism. The wider significance of the findings is in pointing to post-devolution instrumentalism and an ideologically fluid phase in MNP attitudes to the European project. In the wake of state restructuring, meso-elections present new discursive opportunities for MNPs to seek a mandate to build on the degree of self-government already attained through the (re)creation of regional polities without principal reliance on the goal of ‘independence in Europe’.

Using mixed methods this paper explores issue salience and the policy framing associated with the substantive representation of ethnic minorities. Its focus is party programmes in Westminster (1964–2010) and Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish elections (1998–2011). The analysis reveals a significant increase in issue salience driven by parties of the Left. This applies to both state-wide and meso-elections, thereby providing evidence of political reprioritisation in the wake of ethnic minority activism in the 1970s and 1980s. At the meso-level new political opportunity structures are shown to be leading to the territorialisation of policy. However, the analysis also reveals significant shortcomings, including parties' failure to adopt a systematic approach consistent with the post-1997 discourse on mainstreaming.