Showing papers in "Policy Studies Journal in 1998"
TL;DR: The authors argue that discovering causal relationships is the province of positivist research, while discovering causal mechanisms is the task of interpretivists. But they also argue that the combination of both makes more sense.
Abstract: The usual juxtaposition of qualitative research against quantitative research makes it easy to miss the fact that qualitative research itself encompasses at least two traditions: positivist and interpretivist. Positivist work seeks to identify qualitative data with propositions that can then be tested or identified in other cases, while interpretive work seeks to combine those data into systems of belief whose manifestations are specific to a case. In this paper, I argue that discovering causal relationships is the province of positivist research, while discovering causal mechanisms is the province of interpretivists. I explain why absolutist claims for one or the other approach are mistaken, and argue that the combination of both makes more sense. Finally, I offer suggestions for combinations of positivist and interpretive work, both at the level of thought experiment and in actual data collection and analysis. Throughout, I draw my examples from recent studies of poverty, a field in which a small but distinguished tradition of qualitative studies of the poor has been joined by a growing body of both positivist and interpretive work.
431 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a post positivist approach for policy science is proposed to address the multidimensional complexity of social reality, as a discursive orientation grounded in practical reason, the approach situates empirical inquiry in a broader interpretive framework.
Abstract: This essay contributes to the growing critique of poky science's dominant neopositivist methodologies. Not only is neopositivist policy science seen to have failed in its effort to develop a usable body of predictive generalizations, it has been unable to supply effective solutions to social problems. An important part of this failure is traced to outmoded epistemological assumptions. Drawing on developments in both science and the sociology of science, in particular the recognition that the “hard” sciences themselves no longer rest on traditional concepts of objectivity and proof, the discussion outlines a post positivist conception of policy science designed to address the multidimensional complexity of social reality. As a discursive orientation grounded in practical reason, the post positivist approach situates empirical inquiry in a broader interpretive framework. More then just an epistemological alternative, the approach is offered as a better description of what social science actually do in practice the essay closes with a brief discussion of the implications of u post positivist approach for both a socially relevant policy curriculum and a democratic practice of policy inquiry.
347 citations
TL;DR: The role of politics in the policy process has taken several different shapes over the past two decades as mentioned in this paper, and this approach can be contrasted usefully with postpositivist analyses, which emphasize the role played by policy discourses in policy process.
Abstract: Over the past two decades thinking about the role of politics in the policy process has taken several different shapes. Analysts in the “positivist” school of policy analysis have tended to use restricted notions of politics in their search for policy determinants or causes of policy change. This approach can be contrasted usefully with “postpositivist” analyses, which emphasize the role played by policy discourses in the policy process. This article discusses the manner in which policy networks and policy communities integrate ideas and interests in public policymaking and provide an opportunity to overcome the positivist/post-positivist conceptual dichotomy. It proposes a model setting out how different subsystem configurations relate to paradigmatic and intraparadigmatic processes of policy change. The paper suggests that the identification of the nature of the policy subsystem in a given policy sector reveals a great deal about its propensity to respond to changes in ideas and interests and is therefore a good indicator of the likely effect “politics,” in either the restrictive or broad sense of the term, will have on policymaking.
150 citations
TL;DR: The authors report the results of a national survey that examines the concerns of American faculty about close university industry collaboration and explores how these concerns may impinge upon their participation in industrial innovation, concluding that while academics are generally, but cautiously, in favor of close collaboration, they live with deep tension that is caused by two powerfully competing realities: the instrumental need for industry funding, and the intrinsic need to preserve intellectual freedom.
Abstract: This article reports the results of a national survey that examines the concerns of American faculty about close university industry collaboration and explores how these concerns may impinge upon their participation in industrial innovation. The data show that while academics are generally, but cautiously, in favor of close collaboration, they live with deep tension that is caused by two powerfully competing realities: the instrumental need for industry funding, and the intrinsic need to preserve intellectual freedom. A challenge to public policy is to fashion a positive-sum strategy (e.g., tax incentives) in which firms would be encouraged to increase funding for their academic collaborators, who then may fulfill their research mission better while contributing to industrial innovation.
82 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on Minnesota's unsuccessful attempt to site a hazardous waste stabilization and containment facility, but argue that this should not be seen as another siting failure due to irrational and self-interested citizens who subverted a well-conceived and essential disposal facility, and show that many of the sources of disagreement between citizens and siting officials involve value trade-offs rather than technical issues.
Abstract: In this paper, I focus on Minnesota's unsuccessful attempt to site a hazardous waste stabilization and containment facility, but argue that this should not be seen as another siting failure due to irrational and self-interested citizens who subverted a well-conceived and essential disposal facility, Through a detailed comparison of citizen and elite claims about the facility, I show that many of the sources of disagreement between citizens and siting officials involve value trade-offs rather than technical issues, and contend that state officials’ views on these matters should not take precedence. Through “partisan probing,” citizens actually contribute to effective policymaking rather than detract from it.
76 citations
TL;DR: This paper compares three lenses that explain policy choice, which include rational choice, advocacy coalitions, and multiple streams, and charts a research agenda designed to make the lenses more directly competing.
Abstract: This paper compares three lenses that explain policy choice. They include rational choice, advocacy coalitions, and multiple streams. The argument is that the three lenses generate complementary rather than competing explanations of the same event. Complementary lenses are those that are not applicable under the same conditions. Applicability of each lens is established by examining actor goals and environmental structure and by exploring predictive capability and descriptive accuracy. Finally, the paper charts a research agenda designed to make the lenses more directly competing.
60 citations
TL;DR: The authors argued that the research problem should determine the research approach, and that both the quantitative and qualitative aspects can be used in a consonant manner, rather than a favorite research approach.
Abstract: Policy researchers traditionally have adhered to the quantitative: (or positivist) approach. Recently, some policy analysts have emphasized a more qualitative (or postpositivist) approach. Little, if any, of the latter has been considered by proponents of the former as serious policy (i.e., “objective”) analysis. This tension has produced some conflicts as to which camp is more attuned to a policy version of “truth.”
This essay attempts to demonstrate the strong and weak points of both paradigms, and argues that either by itself has serious debilitations. For instance, positivists deny the subjective nature of values that denigrate the putatively “objective” orientations of their analyses, perhaps even rendering it “undemocratic.” On the other hand, postpositivists have a difficult time operationalizing their preferred research methodologies with the necessary rigor.
The essay concludes that the research problem—rather than a favorite methodology—should determine the research approach, and that both the quantitative and qualitative aspects can be used in a consonant manner.
58 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, both rational empiricist methods and discursive approaches associated with post positivism can inform usefully the craft of policy analysis, which is a fundamentally important element of cr.
Abstract: Both rational empiricist methods and discursive approaches associated with post positivism can inform usefully the craft of policy analysis. Systematically comparing policy alternatives in terms of relevant policy goals is a fundamentally important element of cr. Selecting relevant goals for policy open can be informed usefully by discourse with stakeholders. Formulating policy alternatives often can benefit from a catholic approach that includes interpretative as well as rational empiricist approaches. These two functions, which can be thought of as labeling appropriately the rows and columns of a goals/alternatives matrix, thus potentially benefit from post positivist perspectives. Yet prediction which can be thought of as filling in all the cells of the goals/alternatives matrix, is unlikely to be informed usefully by post positivist. Indeed, to the extent that post positivist goes by and reinforcing healthy skepticism about rational empiricist theories and methods to their fundamental rejection, it reduces the potential for policy analysis to contribute to the good society.
51 citations
TL;DR: In this article, women are more likely than men to understand power as social production, social fragmentation and stronger forms of democracy in cities are encouraging the use of collaborative power, and the application of collaborative powers helps communities achieve policy goals.
Abstract: “Power over” (involving social control and domination) is contrasted with “power to” (involving social production and collaboration). Three hypotheses drawn from feminist, democratic. and regime theories are developed and supported by ethnographic research: (a) women are more likely than men to understand power as social production, (b) social fragmentation and stronger forms of democracy in cities are encouraging the use of collaborative power, and (c) the application of collaborative power helps communities achieve policy goals.
39 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assess the analytical utility of the advocacy coalition framework by examining the stability of policy-producing coalitions over time in the face of implementation complexities, and reveal how coalitions protect their policy core beliefs during technical disputes through the acquiescence of secondary aspects of belief systems.
Abstract: Theories about subsystem activity typically focus on policy formulation processes. One causal model of public policymaking, the advocacy coalition framework, offers a potentially useful way to bridge the gap between policy formulation and implementation in examining subsystem activity. The purpose of this paper is to assess the analytical utility of the advocacy coalition framework by examining the stability of policy-producing coalitions over time in the face of implementation complexities. An analysis of the policy changes that occurred during the implementation of the Endangered Species Act vis-a-vis planning for the construction of the Bureau of Reclamation's Animas-La Plata water project is conducted. The analysis reveals how coalitions protect their policy core beliefs during technical disputes through the acquiescence of secondary aspects of belief systems.
39 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that not all international tax policy can be reduced to the prisoner's dilemma syndrome, and they argue that institutional entrepreneurs who decide to play their favorite option first can facilitate the emergence of international policy coordination.
Abstract: Coordination in international tax policy is extremely problematic. Economists and political scientists have explained this lack of coordination by arguing that tax competition triggers a prisoner's dilemma. In this article I argue that not all international tax policy can be reduced to the prisoner's dilemma syndrome. Transfer pricing policy, the object of this study, can be modeled as a coordination game. By drawing upon game theory and new institutional analysis, I argue that institutional entrepreneurs who decide to play their favorite option first can facilitate the emergence of international policy coordination. This idea is examined in the context of the creation of the new Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development rules on transfer pricing. The conclusion is that coordination emerges in transfer pricing policy through a process of conflictual institutionalization.
TL;DR: In this article, historical data were collected and analyzed using logistic regression in an attempt to explain why some states have adopted casino gaming and others have not, and four statistically significant predictors of state casino gaming adoptions were discovered: moderate aggregate state ideological identifications, 1990 per capita tax rankings by state, longitudinal changes in state per capita taxes, and state job growth.
Abstract: The scholarly literature has argued that state fiscal stress, interstate tax competition, political feasibility, and economic development goals were the main reasons underlying the adoption of casino gaming by several American states Archival data were collected and analyzed using logistic regression in an attempt to explain why some states have adopted casino gaming and others have not Four statistically significant predictors of state casino gaming adoptions were discovered: moderate aggregate state ideological identifications, 1990 per capita tax rankings by state, longitudinal changes in state per capita taxes, and longitudinal changes in state job growth These results suggest that motives related to political feasibility and economic development provide the best explanation of recent state casino gaming adoptions
TL;DR: The authors analyze the theoretical foundations of the rational choice perspective and its criticism of pluralist politics and conclude that the very tools of rational choice analysis and its values actually produce far more government involvement than expected.
Abstract: The dominance of rational choice-inspired models of policy development, implementation, and evaluation has grown dramatically over the years as a challenge to traditional, pluralist politics. In this article, we analyze the theoretical foundations of the rational choice perspective and its criticism of pluralist politics. We explore the values inherent in the rational choice perspective and suggest that they feed into growing public cynicism about government and lead to a conservative policy agenda of less government. We then develop an unusual argument that the very tools of rational choice analysis and its values actually produce far more government involvement than expected. by examining school voucher programs. We conclude by making a case for pluralist politics as a more appropriate means for addressing the concerns of classical liberals and others about excessive government intrusion.
TL;DR: The increasing international mobility of labor and the inability of the state to control immigration flows completely have forced labor union leaders to reconsider their attitudes toward immigration from a more global perspective.
Abstract: The increasing international mobility of labor and the inability of the state to control immigration flows completely have forced labor union leaders to reconsider their attitudes toward immigration from a more global perspective. The result is a tacit alliance between labor leaders and employers in favor of moderately open immigration policies. In Spain, this unusual alliance manifested itself in the 1996 Spanish immigration reform.
TL;DR: The combined effects of federalism and interest group pluralism pose particularly difficult problems for hazardous waste siting and cleanup decisions as discussed by the authors, while local grass-roots advocates have very different interests and sometimes are pitted against one another.
Abstract: The combined effects of federalism and interest group pluralism pose particularly difficult problems for hazardous waste siting and cleanup decisions. Most national environmental groups have only limited involvement in local hazardous waste politics, while local grass-roots advocates have very different interests and sometimes are pitted against one another. Both the Environmental protection Agency and the Department of energy recently have begun to use site-specific citizen advisory boards at cleanup sites. This approach appears to improve communications at some sites, but does not address the issues of ``not in my back yard`` politics and alleged inequitable exposure to hazardous wastes.
TL;DR: The authors discusses the major issues at the core of controversy over Superfund and the policy implications of Superfund program reform efforts and the ramifications for future hazardous waste policy are considered, including the fairness of superfund's liability provisions and the Environmental Protection Agency's record of cleanup competency.
Abstract: While there is widespread public and political support for cleaning up the nation`s hazardous waste sites, Superfund has been fraught with dissension and controversy since its inception. Some criticisms of the program focus on deriding an all-too-expensive program run amuck with litigation and federal heavy-handedness. Other critics complain of an inefficient and ineffective program that has made painfully slow and inconsistent progress. Detractors do not disagree with the fundamental goal of the program--cleaning up hazardous waste sites. Rather, they focus on the fairness of Superfund`s liability provisions and the Environmental Protection Agency`s record of cleanup competency. This paper discusses these major issues at the core of the controversy over Superfund. The policy implications of Superfund program reform efforts and the ramifications for future hazardous waste policy are considered.
TL;DR: The authors examines the uses of community as a policy instrument, considering its diverse applications us policy objective, policy means, and policy rhetoric, and proposes a schema for systematically describing deferent types of interventions.
Abstract: Over recent decades. “community” has been a powerful theme in social policy development not only in the United States but elsewhere in North America and Europe as well. Existing analyses of the concept, however, tended to approach it more from philosophical and sociological perspectives than from the standpoint of policy analysis. This article examines the uses of community as a policy instrument, considering its diverse applications us policy objective, policy means, and policy rhetoric. A cross-section of major community-oriented policies in the United States and Quebec is analyzed, providing a basis file policy-level, regime-level, and political culture comparison. Identifying the key components that community policies may incorporate, we propose a schema for systematically describing deferent types of interventions. Finally. we review the difficulties encountered in implementing policies with a community orientation and the need to avoid simplistic judgments of success and failure.
TL;DR: The problem of export promotion in these two countries are attributed to the lack of strategic export policies, the political costs of changing policy in a more effective direction, and the reliance on a few products and markets.
Abstract: Export-promotion strategies based on the success of the East Asian newly industrializing countries have been proffered in the 1990s to middle-income countries in Latin America. Africa, and Asia. This article argues that far from untried, export-promotion policies were attempted in Brazil and Tunisia in the 1960s and 1970s, with only limited long-term success. The problem of export promotion in these two countries are attributed to the lack of strategic export policies, the political costs of changing policy in a more effective direction, and the reliance on a few products and markets.
TL;DR: This paper analyzed the extent to which public support for these reforms can be explained by self interest factors, political qualification, and beliefs regarding the poor, social rights, and the welfare system.
Abstract: This article presents results of a reanalysis of data from a survey of New York residents regarding that state's welfare system and proposed welfare reform. The data danger from most previous studies of public opinion about welfare because questions were asked about a range of specific welfare reform options, such as various time limits, eligibility restrictions, and work requirements, that are key features of the new federal welfare law. Specifically, the analysis explores the extent to which public support for these reforms can be explained by self interest factors, political qualification, and beliefs regarding the poor, social rights, and the welfare system. White these variables have been found to be important in prior research, they provide a somewhat less consistent explanation of support for specific features of the new welfare system in the United States.
TL;DR: The authors argue that students of the public policy process rarely consider the courts as policymakers in the same manner as do their public law counterpart, and they seek to explain the difference in approaches between the two Subfields on the question of the court as policymakers.
Abstract: Public policy scholars and public Law scholars often study the same substantive issues and have similar theoretical interests Yet students of the public policy process rarely consider the courts as policymakers in the same manner as do their public law counterpart We seek to explain this difference in approaches between the two Subfield on the question of the courts as policymakers, and we ask. how models of the public policy process should incorporate the judiciary.
TL;DR: The authors examines the attempts between 1978 and 1998 to enact general regulatory procedural reform legislation and raises important theoretical issues for students of regulation, including the ethicalness of using procedural restraints deliberately to disrupt or impede the regulatory process and the impact of procedural controls on regulatory policy.
Abstract: This article examines the attempts between 1978 and 1998 to enact general regulatory procedural reform legislation. Two decades of off-again, off-again legislative efforts have yielded only fragments of reform. A major explanation for this, despite the official popularity of reform, seems to be the inability of putative reformers-traditionalists, populists, and restrictivists-to agree among themselves on the direction and content of general reform legislation. This experience raises a number of important theoretical issues for students of regulation, including the ethicalness of using procedural restraints deliberately to disrupt or impede the regulatory process and the impact of procedural controls on regulatory policy.
TL;DR: The authors examines experiences of five industrialized capitalist countries in using effluent charges, tradable permits, and subsidies as tools of environmental regulation and compares their programs to economists' models of the market approach.
Abstract: This paper examines experiences of five industrialized capitalist countries in using effluent charges, tradable permits, and subsidies as tools of environmental regulation and compares their programs to economists’models of the market approach. Observed disparity between theory and practice suggests that advantages of the market approach are not as significant as proponents contend. Reasons are identified, and differences in national characteristics of public administration are considered toward explaining differences in how countries have applied market instruments.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the research design for an in-progress comparative study on women's policy offices being conducted by the Research Network on Gender and the State, arguing that rather than conceptualizing the research enterprise in terms of a zero-sum game, where a decision to use either quantitative or qualitative methodology compromises potential research findings, researchers may want to combine the strength of each approach in a single project.
Abstract: This research note presents the research design for an in -progress comparative study on women's policy offices being conducted by the Research Network on Gender. Politics. and the State. The goal of this article is to examine how this project has been integrating a combined approach into its core research design. It argues that rather than conceptualizing the research design enterprise in terms of a zero-sum game, where a decision to use either quantitative or qualitative methodology compromises potential research findings, researchers may want to combine the strength of each approach in a single project.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explain the factors and processes which, in 1986 and 1987, gave rise to the decisions by the Canadian federal and provincial (Ontario and Quebec) regulatory authorities to liberalize entry into, and ownership of, the investment dealer industry in Canada.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explain the factors and processes which, in 1986–87, gave rise to the decisions by the Canadian federal and provincial (Ontario and Quebec) regulatory authorities to liberalize entry into, and ownership of, the investment dealer industry in Canada. These decisions, rather narrowly based as they were, nonetheless would be a watershed with respect to the subsequent deregulation of the traditional four-pillar structure of the Canadian financial services industry. The traditional four pillars-which were legally and functionally separated-comprised the chartered banks, the trust and mortgage loan companies, the life insurance industry, and the investment dealers. lhe liberalization decisions by the governments permitted the other elements of the four pillars, and nonresidents as well, to have equity participations in member firms of the securities industry. This represented a fundamental reversal of the beliefs, values, and ideas surrounding the low-pillars doctrine. The period of history examined extends from 1969 to 1987.
TL;DR: In this paper, the relative influence of several different intervener types was explored using data from 54 state telephone rate cases, showing that influencing outcomes depends on credible information rather than other resources, and that business interest groups cannot all be considered homogeneous.
Abstract: Much interest-group analysis assumes that producer-group pressures are especially influential Sometimes business interests conflict; in that case, which producer groups will be most influential? Using data from 54 state telephone rate cases, this paper explores the relative influence of several different intervener types Estimates indicate that influencing outcomes depends on credible information rather than other resources, and also that business interest groups cannot all be considered homogenous Some implications for the Telecommunications Act of 1996 are drawn
TL;DR: The authors compared disparate actions in the pre-Roe period (1965-72) that resulted in Pennsylvania adopting the most conservative abortion policy in the US and its neighboring state of New York the most liberal.
Abstract: This article compares disparate actions in the pre-Roe period (1965-72) that resulted in Pennsylvania adopting the most conservative abortion policy in the US and its neighboring state of New York the most liberal. The study methodology combines agenda-setting theory and a municipal reform hypothesis to propose that the nature of the discourses employed by activists as well as the permeability of the Democratic party in each state acted interdependently to produce these policy differences. After an introduction and comment on the methodology the article reviews agenda-setting theory and clarifies the abortion policy disparity by applying a slightly modified version of Dianis 1996 examination of the role of access influential allies and divided elites on social change. This analysis reveals that in the 1960s municipal reformers in Manhattan transformed the Democratic party from within and retained its organizational structure while those at work in Philadelphia altered the citys fiscal practices and left the party unchanged. The article then reviews the religious and legal discourses on abortion and uses the case studies to reveal that the ability of activists to use discourse to institutionalize change depended upon the permeability of the political system their strategies and the degree of access they obtained. The article concludes that differing degree of political party permeability and the strategies and discourses employed by activists led to the disparate policies in the two states and that the struggle to control the abortion discourse continues to this day.
TL;DR: The Politics of Garbage: A Community Perspective on Solid Waste Policy Making as mentioned in this paper is a community perspective on solid waste policy making, which is a collection of essays from the authors.
Abstract: Jeanne W. Clarke and Daniel McCool, Staking Out the Terrain: Power and Performance Among Natural Resource Agencies (2nd 4.).
Larry S. Luton, The Politics of Garbage: A Community Perspective on Solid Waste Policy Making.
Peter J. May, Raymond J. Burby, Neil J. Ericksen, John W. Handmer, Jennifer E. Dixon, Sarah Michaels, and D. Ingle Smith, Environmental Management and Governance: Intergovernmental Approaches to Hazards and Sustainability.
TL;DR: The authors argue that risks are intrinsically political things, involving aspects of power and interest in ways that also make policy decisions difficult, and that modern technological risks pose unique policy difficulties for societies steeped in the epistemological and political individualism of classical liberalism.
Abstract: This article presents a new approach to interpreting and analyzing technological risks and evaluating their impact on policymaking in liberal societies. I argue that risks must be seen first as emergent phenomena that resist reduction for either explanatory or policy purposes to the individual persons, events, or decisions that constitute them. Second, risks are intrinsically political things, involving aspects of power and interest in ways that also make policy decisions difficult. As emergent and political phenomena, then, modern technological risks pose unique policy difficulties for societies steeped in the epistemological and political individualism of classical liberalism.
TL;DR: The authors examines how Conservative governments restructured public sector in day trial relations in Britain between 1979 and 1997, and identifies the main components of trade union strategic response to change, and argues that Conservative policy is important for its impact upon trade union strategy and practice.
Abstract: This article examines how Conservative governments restructured public sector in day trial relations in Britain between 1979 and 1997, and identifies the main components of trade union strategic response to change. It argues that Conservative policy is important for its impact upon trade union strategy and practice, and that public sector unions constitute the leading edge of trade union strategic modernization in Britain.