Showing papers on "Public policy published in 1990"

Toward a Theory of Press-State Relations in the United States

Abstract: Reflexions sur les relations entre l'Etat et la presse ou la presse d'Etat aux Etats-Unis, a partir de l'exemple du « New York Times » sur la politique au Nicaragua

Citizen Participation and Environmental Risk: A Survey of Institutional Mechanisms:

Abstract: Standard approaches to defining and evaluating environmental risk tend to reflect technocratic rather than democratic values One consequence is that institutional mechanisms for achieving citizen participation in risk decisions rarely are studied or evaluated This article presents a survey of five institutional mechanisms for allowing the lay public to influence environmental risk decisions: public hearings, initiatives, public surveys, negotiated rule making, and citizens review panels It also defines democratic process criteria for assessing these and other participatory mechanisms

Discursive Democracy: Politics, Policy, and Political Science

Abstract: Preface Part I. Introduction: 1. Democratizing rationality Part II. Political Institutions: 2. Discursive designs 3. Complexity 4. Discursive dynamics 5. International discursive designs (with Susan Hunter) Part III. Public Policy: 6. Policy sciences of democracy 7. The ambitions of policy (with Brian Ripley) Part IV. Political Science: 8. The mismeasure of political man 9. The measure of political man - and woman 10. Progress and rationality Part V. Conclusion: 11. On extending democracy Notes Bibliography Index.

How Does Public Infrastructure Affect Regional Economic Performance

Abstract: This paper offers one more brush stroke to the emerging picture of the relationship between public capital investment and private economic activity It does this by exploring the impact of public capital on output, employment growth, and private investment at the state and regional level The paper consists of four parts Since no comprehensive measures of public or private capital are available at the state level, the first section explains the construction of such data and describes the distribution of these wealth measures by state and region The second section uses these data to estimate an aggregate production function, in order to see whether the positive relationship between output and public capital, which has been documented at the national level, holds up for individual states and regions The third section moves from the steady state to the adjustment process and explores the relationship between public investment and private investment, attempting to determine the direction and magnitude of the effect Finally, the fourth section introduces the public capital data into a firm location model in order to see whether variations in public capital by state have had any impact on state-by-state employment growth The conclusion is that those states that have invested more in infrastructure tend to have greater output, more private investment, and more employment growth

Entrepreneurship: Productive, Unproductive, and Destructive

Abstract: Examines the roles that entrepreneurs can play within a society and the allocation of their entrepreneurial activities. The role that is played by an entrepreneur is dictated by the economy's set of rules. As a result, the contributions made by entrepreneurs can vary based on the activities on which these entrepreneurs choose to focus. These contributions can be productive, unproductive, and even destructive. Unproductive activities today include tax evasion and rent seeking such as litigation and takeovers. Building on the Schumpeterian model, this analysis utilizes historical evidence from ancient Rome, medieval China, Dark Age Europe, and Renaissance Europe to support the proposition that dramatic differences in entrepreneurial activity can be found between one time and place and another based on the rules of that time and place. Further, the allocation of productive and unproductive entrepreneurial activities in an economy impacts its innovativeness and the dissemination of technological advances. Consequently, a society should encourage entrepreneurs to reallocate their activities toward productive activities. This shift is more likely to be achieved by modifying the rules in the economy that determine relative rewards for entrepreneurs than by attempting to change the goals of the entrepreneurs themselves. (SRD)

Capitalism and communication : global culture and the economics of information

Abstract: Part 1 Methodology and the mass media: contribution to a political economy of mass communication film and media studies - reconstructing the subject the myths of video - a disciplinary reminder Pierre Bourdieu and the sociology of culture - an introduction politics and the mass media in the United Kingdom. Part 2 Policy and politics - public service broadcasting and the information market: the media and the public sphere public service versus the market telecommunications policy in the United Kingdom. Part 3 The political economy and the production of culture: public policy and the cultural industries the economics of the US motion picture industry.

An aging society: opportunity or challenge?

Abstract: This paper steps back from the current political debate [in the United States] over the social security trust fund and examines the more general question of how serious a macroeconomic problem aging is and how policy should respond to it. We focus primarily on issues relating to saving and capital accumulation. We do not consider the broader question of whether the current U.S. national saving rate is too high or too low but focus on the effect of demographic changes on the optimal level of national saving. In addition we consider the effects of demographic change on productivity growth and the optimal timing of tax collections. Our general conclusion is that demographic changes will improve American standards of living in the near future but lower them slightly over the very long term. Other things being equal the optimal policy response to recent and anticipated demographic changes is almost certainly a reduction rather than an increase in the national saving rate. (EXCERPT)

Closing the efficiency gap: barriers to the efficient use of energy

Abstract: Only half of the potential for improving U.S. energy efficiency over the next 20 years is likely to be achieved, given current government policies and programs. This large untapped potential to save money, improve environmental quality, and reduce the foreign trade deficit exists because of structural and market barriers that inhibit adoption of cost-effective energy-efficient practices and measures. Structural barriers include distortions in fuel prices, uncertainty about future fuel prices, limited access to capital, government fiscal and regulatory policies, codes and standards, and supply infrastructure limitations. Behavioral barriers include attitudes toward energy efficiency, perceived risk of energy-efficiency investments, information gaps, and misplaced incentives.

Government policy and citizen passion: A study of issue publics in contemporary America

Abstract: This article describes the findings of a program of research exploring the cognitive and behavioral consequences of passionate concern about government policy issues. American citizens vary a great deal in terms of the personal importance they attach to their attitudes on particular policy issues. Citizens whose policy attitudes are especially important to them are likely to think frequently about those attitudes, to perceive competing candidates as being relatively polarized on the issue, and to form presidential candidate preferences on the basis of those attitudes. Also, policy attitudes that citizens consider personally important are highly resistant to change and are therefore especially stable over long periods of time. The American public appears to be structured into many small issue publics, each composed of citizens who are passionately concerned about a single issue. Most Americans fall into very few issue publics, the particular ones being determined by each individual's unique self-interests, social identifications, and cherished values. The implications of these findings for the workings of democracies are discussed.

The Apparent Ideological Behavior of Legislators: Testing for Principal-Agent Slack in Political Institutions

Abstract: * Joseph P. Kalt is Professor of Economics, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Mark A. Zupan is Assistant Professor of Economics, Finance and Business Economics Department, University of Southern California School of Business. Helpful comments have been provided by an anonymous referee as well as by Thomas Borcherding, Dennis Carlton, Harold Demsetz, John Lott, Terry Moe, Roger Noll, Sam Peltzman, Richard Schmalensee, and workshop participants at the California Institute of Technology, Claremont Graduate School, Duke University, George Mason University, Harvard University, Indiana University, Stanford University, the University of California (Irvine, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara), the University of Chicago, the University of Delaware, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Southern California, and Yale University. The financial support of the University of Southern California School of Business and the Research Center for Managerial Economics and Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, Graduate School of Management is gratefully acknowledged. Elden Chang and Christopher Murdoch provided research assistance. See, for example: Geoffrey Brennan & James M. Buchanan, Voter Choice: Evaluating Political Alternatives, 24 Am. Behav. Scientist 185 (1984); Harold Demsetz, Amenity Potential and the Difference between Political Parties and Business Firms (working paper, Dep't Economics, Univ. California, Los Angeles, August 1988); William R. Dougan & Michael C. Munger, The Rationality of Ideology, 32 J. Law & Econ. 119 (1989); Joseph P. Kalt, The Economics and Politics of Oil Price Regulation (1981); Joseph P. Kalt & Mark A. Zupan, Capture and Ideology in the Economic Theory of Politics, 74 Am. Econ. Rev. 279 (1984); James B. Kau and Paul H. Rubin, Self-Interest, Ideology, and Logrolling in Congressional Voting, 22 J. Law & Econ. 365 (1979); Michael Levine, Revisionism Revised? Airline Regulation and the Public Interest, 44 Law & Contemp. Prob. 179 (1972); John R. Lott, Jr., Political Cheating, 52 Pub. Choice 169 (1987); John R. Lott, Jr., Ideological Shirking or Ideological Priors? Comments on Kalt-Zupan and Dougan-Munger (working paper, Dep't Economics, Rice Univ., March 1988); John R. Lott, Jr., & Robert W. Reed, Shirking and

Bureaucrats, Technocrats, Femocrats: Essays on the contemporary Australian state

Abstract: This collection of essays in political sociology and public policy contests some of the fundamental features of the contemporary State as it is manifested in Australia. It explores themes such as the development of the complex interventionist State, characterised by the proliferation of its activities to encompass virtually every feature of its subjects' daily lives and functioning as a central site of struggle over the distribution of social, economic, political and cultural resources. It also examines the impact of the so-called new social movements - the women's movement, the various multiracial and multicultural movements, and the environmental movement - which make new claims on the democratisation of the distribution of resources, and investigates the impact on the State of the pressure for economic 'restructuring' arising from the new terms of competition within a global economy in recession.In tracing the links between these themes, Bureaucrats, Technocrats, Femocrats makes a major contribution to a critical tradition of writing and analysis in public administration.

The State of the States in Developmental Disabilities

Abstract: This is the latest edition of the popular "State of the States in Developmental Disabilities" study - a thorough and the only one of its kind investigation on public spending, revenues, and programmatic trends of intellectual and developmental programs and services within the United States since 1977. Directed by leading researcher, Dr. David Braddock, the study serves as a goldmine of information on trends and analyses of developmental disability services - from comparative spending on the HCBS Waiver, ICF/MR and related Medicaid programs, to the number of participants in the supported living and personal assistance programs in each state.

Conventional and Islamic Banks: Patronage Behaviour of Jordanian Customers

Abstract: In recent years financial institutions, marketing researchers and public policy makers have recognised that behavioural analysis is vital for understanding bank customers. Most studies so far have focused on understanding the behaviour of customers of commercial banks in developed economies. Very little research has been undertaken concerning bank customers′ attitudes and behavioural characteristics in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to understand customers′ attitudes, beliefs and perceptions about the services offered by conventional and Islamic banks in Jordan. The information presented here will provide Jordanian bank executives and public policy makers, and other developing country executives, with insights into the kind of services bank customers find most appropriate to their banking needs.

Ethics and Advocacy in Forecasting for Public Policy

Abstract: Forecasting is one of the most important activities performed by professionals in support of public policymaking. In a world dominated by utilitarian thinking, policymakers regularly seek forecasts of the costs and consequences of alternative courses of action from planners, engineers, economists, and others. Many of the most interesting and complex ethical dilemmas facing these professionals arise from the complexity of the forecasting task and from the enormous political consequences of their forecasts. Forecasts are presented to the public as the results of unbiased scientific procedures, yet they are in reality often highly subjective exercises in advocacy. Professionals who must prepare forecasts are frequently confused by the mixed signals which they get. According to law, and in the eyes of the public, their forecasts are expected to provide analyses aimed at clarifying choices among courses of action. But their direct superiors and clients expect them to produce forecasts which will become part of the supporting documentation justifying a course of action which has already been chosen for political reasons. In the end, forecasts are often expected to be advocacy which at the same time can be presented to the public for political reasons as the results of unbiased analysis. For many forecasters this duplicity of purposes is deeply distressing, and for society at large it results in countless expenditures on projects and programs which are desired by politicians, but which could not be justified on the basis of utilitarian calculations. In this paper, I will demonstrate first'that there is indeed a serious ethical problem related to forecasting, which has serious political conse quences for our democracy, and immediate personal consequences for those preparing the forecasts. Secondly, I will expand upon the conditions which lead to the ethical dilemmas for forecasters in public policymaking. Finally, I will suggest some actions which might be taken to provide those making forecasts with improved ethical guideposts to help them cope with these complex situations.

Inheritance Before Choice in Public policy

Abstract: When a group of politicians enters office, there is no choice: the inherited commitments of past government must be accepted as givens. The legacy that they inherit is carried forward by institutional commitments grounded in laws, organizations and budgets that are more important than the preferences of individuals. This paper first explains why this is so. The extent to which public policies are durable, that is, persisting from one administration or one decade to another, is tested in the second section, using public expenditure data for hundreds of programmes of British government over a period of 40 years since the end of the Second World War. The third section tests whether the introduction or termination of programmes tends to reflect party differences, changes in the economic climate, or differences between social programmes integral to the individual life-cycle as against those responding to market conditions. The conclusion shows how changes can occur as the unforeseeable consequences of programm...

Implementation and the Policy Process: Opening Up the Black Box

Abstract: Introduction: The Relation of Implementation Research to Policy Outcomes by Dennis J. Palumbo and Donald J. Calista Implementation and Policy Design Opening Up the Black Box: Implementation and the Policy-Making Process by Dennis J. Palumbo and Donald J. Calista Integrating Implementation Research by Soren Winter When Failure Is Success: Implementation and Madisonian Government by Barbara Ferman Research Perspectives on the Design of Public Policy: Implementation, Formulation, and Design by Stephen H. Linder and B. Guy Peters The Japan External Trade Organization and Import Promotion: A Case Study in the Implementation of Symbolic Policy Goals by Robert T. Nakamura Implementation Politics and the Organization Context Implementation and Managerial Creativity: A Study of the Development of Client-Centered Units in Human Service Programs by Glenn W. Rainey, Jr. Implementation as Policy Politics by Evelyn Z. Brodkin Female Executives in Public and Private Universities: Differences in Implementation Styles by Bryna Sanger and Martin A. Levin Policy Implementation and the Responsible Exercise of Discretion by John P. Burke Acquisition: The Missing Link in the Implementation of Technology by Carl P. Carlucci Epistemology, Methodology, and Implementation Studying Micro- Implementation Empirically: Lessons and Dilemmas by Mary Ann Scheirer and James Griffith Studying the Dynamics of Public Policy Implementation: A Third-Generation Approach by Malcolm L. Goggin, Ann O'M. Bowman, James P. Lester, and Laurence J. O'Toole, Jr. Implementation Research: Why and How to Transcend Positivist Methodologies by Charles J. Fox Tackling the Implementation Problem: Epistemological Issues in Implementation Research by Dvora Yanow Bibliography Index

Why is infrastructure important

Abstract: This paper pointed out some of the possible gains to the economic performance and quality of life that might come from increased infrastructure investment. Numerous past infrastructure investments have been responsible for significant improvements in the overall quality of life in terms of health, safety, economic opportunity, and leisure time and activities. Similarly, recent empirical evidence suggests that infrastructure expenditures may well have been a key ingredient to the robust performance of the economy in the “golden age” of the 1950s and 1960s. The paper describes how there is still a lot to be done in the future in order to obtain a cleaner environment, with safer urban streets that increase mobility and economic opportunity for the disadvantaged, and with an economy well equipped to compete in the international arena.

ACHIEVING SOCIAL OBJECTIVES THROUGH PRIVATE TRANSFERS A Review

Abstract: Private interhousehold cash transfers are an important source of income in many developing countries. Among the countries whose experience is reviewed in the article, the proportion of all households receiving private transfers ranges from a fifth to a half. The amounts received are large, particularly when compared with the incomes of the poorest households. Understanding more about these transfers is important for designing policy because, among other things, these remittances provide social and economic benefits similar to those of public programs, such as unemployment insurance, pension support, educational credit, and health assistance. As such, private transfers may supplement or overlap with public transfers, and, if private donors give less as public transfers increase, the effect of public programs on beneficiaries will be less than originally intended. Or the transfers may alter the distribution effects of public programs for again, if private donors give less as public transfers increase, they share in some of the benefits of public programs.

Eliciting public values for complex policy decisions

Abstract: Several approaches exist to illuminate and clarify public values relevant for making public policy decisions. These include surveys, indirect and direct value elicitation, focus groups and public involvement. This paper describes a new approach, called the public value forum, which combines elements of focus groups and direct multiattribute value elicitation techniques. Two public value forums were conducted with selected members of the West German public to elicit values relevant for setting long term energy policies. The purposes of conducting the value forums were to examine the feasibility of eliciting values from laypeople and combining them with factual assessments of experts, to determine the extent to which values elicited formally conflict with values elicited informally, and to assess the advantages and disadvantages of the public value forum. The results indicate that the public value forum is feasible, that the participants felt comfortable with the procedure and that they were eager to resolve inconsistencies between their intuitive judgments and the multiattribute models. There was substantial conflict between the formally and informally elicited values. However, the participants were able to resolve those conflicts in the course of the value forum, tending towards more moderate alternatives in the process. The public value forum provided useful information for the policy process and education for the participants. However, because it is expensive and time consuming, its main application may involve small samples of opinion leaders and stakeholder representatives, rather than large representative samples of the general public.

Stable governments and the allocation of policy portfolios

Abstract: Different members of coalition governments typically have responsibility for different aspects, or dimensions, of policy. Such responsibilities are allocated as portfolios to government members. Given a distribution of such portfolios, final government policy is derived as the accumulation of individual members' decisions in regard to their respective responsibilities. We develop a portfolio allocation model of government formation and policy decision in multiparty legislatures. In particular, we focus on stable portfolio allocations, where a stable allocation is one that yields a policy that no legislative coalition is willing or able to overturn. Several notions of stability are considered and related to the usual concept of the core. Among the results are that although stable allocations are not guaranteed, such allocations can exist with minority governments; and that final policy outcomes associated with stable governments need not be “centrist.“

Policy choice and development performance in Botswana.

Abstract: Foreword - Acknowledgements - List of Tables - List of Figures - List of Abbreviations - Introduction - Economic Inheritance in 1966 - Growth and Structural Change 1966-86 - Botswana's Development Strategies - Agriculture - Mineral Policy and Mining Development - Manufacturing - Financing Development - Management of Financial Surplus - Infrastructure: Government Policy and Urban Bias - Poverty and Income Distribution - Future Prospects - Bibliography - Index

Comparative public policy: The politics of social choice in America, Europe, and Japan

Abstract: The Politics of Social Choice - Education Policy - Health Policy - Housing Policy - Economic Policy - Taxation Policy - Income Maintenance Policy - Urban Planning - Environmental Policy - Policy Contrasts in the Welfare State

Non-governmental Organizations in Africa: Can They Influence Public Policy?

Abstract: As non-governmental organizations (NGOs) accumulate experience at implementing development projects, they sometimes attempt to increase their influence by engaging in policy advocacy. This article analyses the organizational conditions under which national NGOs in Africa have been able to influence the formulation of agricultural and rural development policies. Case studies are presented of three African NGOs that have sought, with varying degrees of success, to represent the ‘voice’ of the rural poor to policy-makers. Comparative analysis of these cases leads to the conclusion that policy advocacy is most likely to be effective in organizations that have several key characteristics: an homogeneous membership, a federated structure, a focused programme, informal ties with political leaders, and a domestic funding base.

The Implications of Nonvoting for Democracy in the United States

Abstract: This paper reconsiders several of the arguments normative theorists have constructed about political participation's impact on the democratic polity. Two key arguments are addressed in the context of the United States today: (1) does nonvoting pose a threat to democracy; and (2) does nonvoting cause skewed public policies? The CPS's National Election Studies, NORC's 1985 General Social Survey, and Gallup's 1987 "The People, Press, and Politics" poll indicate the first can be answered in the negative, but there may be some skews on domestic issues, particularly those dealing with spending for welfare state programs. On the other hand, nonvoters are not more egalitarian or in favor of government ownership or control of industry. Nonetheless, it would be erroneous to discount participation's worth for democratic politics because, if it makes elites pay attention to public opinion, its value is firmly established.

Managing Diversity in Public Sector Workforces

Abstract: Public and private sector workforces in the U.S. look very different today than they did even 25 years ago. The changes are having a significant effect on how organizations manage their workforces. The old styles of managing heterogeneous workforces are proving to be ineffectual, and so management strategies aimed at embracing diversity and inclusion are essential. These strategies can have positive implications for worker satisfaction, morale and – ultimately – the delivery of public services to the American people. Managing Diversity in Public Sector Workforces, Second Edition examines demographic changes to the U.S. labor force and workplace and the ways in which government employers are managing the diverse populations that now fill public sector jobs. Addressing specific management strategies and initiatives relied on by public sector employers, as well as the implications of effectively managing variegated workforces for the overall governance of American society, this book demonstrates the importance of ensuring that programs to promote inclusiveness and diversity that appear on paper are carried through to practice through implementation. The book begins with a review of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action and the extent to which EEO and AA are still relied upon in the workplace. It then examines law and other public policy issues surrounding EEO, AA and diversity management. The remainder of the book focuses on the core of managing diversity in the public sector, exploring the initiatives, strategies, and programs that government employers either do or might rely on to ensure that the demographic mosaic embodied by their workforces is prepared to meet the needs and interests of the American citizenry of the 21st century. Data are provided on the demographics of the federal, state and local government workforces. Separate chapters address each of the following aspects of diversity: race, ethnicity, gender, LGBTQ employment, physical ability, and the intersection of these constructs. Managing Diversity in Public Sector Workforces, Second Edition will be of interest to students of public administration and public personnel management, and it is essential reading for all those involved in managing public organizations.

Stakeholding: Notes on a Theory of Welfare Based on Assets

Abstract: Most antipoverty public policy assumes that household income is an adequate indicator of household welfare. The thesis of this article is that welfare results, in part, from accumulation of household assets. It is suggested that assets yield a number of welfare effects other than deferred consumption, and these welfare effects may be quite important in reducing poverty.

Moral conflict and political consensus

Abstract: When citizens reasonably disagree about the morality of a public policy, on what principles can they agree to conduct their public life? The hope of liberal political theory, and the basis of the most common solution to the problem of moral conflict in a pluralist society, is that citizens can still agree on principles that would remove decisions about the policy from the political agenda. Liberals typically invoke higher-order principles (such as neutrality or impartiality) that are intended to transcend disagreement on specific policies: these principles purport to determine which issues are appropriate subjects for public policy and which are not. When there is no reasonable basis for resolving the moral conflict on an issue of policy, the principles preclude state action on the issue and leave each citizen free to act on the basis of his or her own morality (to the extent possible without state action). A consensus on these principles thus insulates the political process from fundamental moral conflict. We want to challenge, at least in part, this familiar liberal way of dealing with moral conflict. The consensus on these higher-order principles that liberals propose is not sufficient to eliminate moral conflict from politics, and a more robust set of principles is necessary to govern the conflict that inevitably and legitimately remains. The higher-order principles that constitute the core of the consensus, we suggest, must permit greater moral disagreement about policy and greater moral agreement on how to disagree about policy. Two kinds of higher-order principles should be distinguished, corresponding to different purposes that the consensus is supposed to serve. First, there are what may be called principles of preclusion, which serve the more familiar purpose of determining which policies deserve a place on the political agenda in the sense of being a legitimate subject for legislation. These principles preclude fundamental moral conflict by denying certain

The Voluntary Provision of Public Goods? The Turnpike Companies of Early America

Abstract: The turnpike companies of early America (roughly 1795-1840) were very unprofitable but conferred vast benefits to communities served. Purchases were necessary to complete the road and unprofitability was foreseen. Thus the turnpikes would appear to have been public goods. Yet hundreds of turnpikes were provided through voluntary association. The free rider problem was overcome by an almost vigilant impulse to participate and to see that your neighbor did likewise.