Making Rights Real

Activists, Bureaucrats, and the Creation of the Legalistic State

By: Charles R. Epp

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Paperback | 1 February 2010 | Edition Number 1

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368 Pages

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2.33 x 1.68 x 0.22

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It’s a common complaint: the United States is overrun by rules and procedures that shackle professional judgment, have no valid purpose, and serve only to appease courts and lawyers. Charles R. Epp argues, however, that few Americans would want to return to an era without these legalistic policies, which in the 1970s helped bring recalcitrant bureaucracies into line with a growing national commitment to civil rights and individual dignity.

Focusing on three disparate policy areas—workplace sexual harassment, playground safety, and police brutality in both the United States and the United Kingdom—Epp explains how activists and professionals used legal liability, lawsuit-generated publicity, and innovative managerial ideas to pursue the implementation of new rights. Together, these strategies resulted in frameworks designed to make institutions accountable through intricate rules, employee training, and managerial oversight. Explaining how these practices became ubiquitous across bureaucratic organizations, Epp casts today’s legalistic state in an entirely new light.

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"An elegant study that combines historical, comparative, and at times even ethnographic learning, Making Rights Real reveals how fervor for professionalism and fears of lawsuits together shaped police policies and practices in the United States and in Britain as well as responses to sexual harassment and the safety of playgrounds. It will be indispensable for scholars of the law." - William Haltom, coauthor of Distorting the Law"

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Politics & Government Political Control & Freedoms Human Rights Civil Rights & Citizenship Law Laws of Specific Jurisdictions Constitutional & Administrative Law Human Rights & Civil Liberties Law Public Administration Torts Miscellaneous Items

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Theory: The Fertile Fear of Liability	p. 13
The Problem with Policing	p. 31
Liability's Triumph	p. 59
Policing's Epiphany	p. 93
Spreading the Word: Variations among Police Department	p. 115
Tort Liability and Police Reform in Britain	p. 139
Sexual Harassment	p. 165
Playground Safety	p. 197
Conclusion	p. 215
Methodological Appendix	p. 233
Notes	p. 265
Bibliography	p. 321
Index	p. 34
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Making Rights Real

Activists, Bureaucrats, and the Creation of the Legalistic State

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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