Showing papers on "Public policy published in 1992"

Climate change : the IPCC scientific assessment

Abstract: Book review of the intergovernmental panel on climate change report on global warming and the greenhouse effect. Covers the scientific basis for knowledge of the future climate. Presents chemistry of greenhouse gases and mathematical modelling of the climate system. The book is primarily for government policy makers.

Policy networks in British government

Abstract: Policy networks in Britain - a critique of existing approaches, David Marsh and R.A.W. Rhodes the agricultural policy community maintaining a closed relationship, Martin Smith the health service policy community - professionals pre-eminent or under challenge?, Gerald Wiston the civil nuclear network in Britain, Michael Saward sea defences - a professionalized network?, Caroline Cunningham policy networks and issue networks - the politics of smoking, Melvyn Read the case of food and health and the use of network analysis, Michael Mills youth employment policy 1970-1990 - towards the exclusion of the trade unions, David Marsh international monetary relations, policy networks and the Labour Government's policy of non-devaluation, 1964-1967, Rob Stones the European technology community - policy networks in a supranational setting, John Peterson policy communities and issue networks - beyond typology, David Marsh and R.A.W. Rhodes.

Economics of regulation and antitrust

Abstract: Departing from the traditional emphasis on institutions, this text emphasizes the use of economic theory and empirical analysis to understand regulatory and antitrust policies. Questions addressed include: What are the market failure rationales for, and appropriate form of, government intervention? What does theory show about competition in the presence of a market failure and the implications of government intervention to correct that failure? What do empirical analyses indicate about our regulatory experience and the direction of future intervention? The third edition addresses many issues that have recently dominated the economic and political landscape. New material reviews the government's case against Microsoft, charges of anticompetitive pricing in NASDAQ and airlines, the blocked Staples-Office Depot merger, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This edition also covers the deregulation of the California electric power industry as well as recent deregulatory efforts in bank branching and natural gas transmission. On the social regulatory scene, it covers in detail recent cigarette litigation and the contentious issue of the contingent valuation of natural resource damages, as exemplified in the Exxon Valdez oil spill. New empirical evidence appears throughout the book. Each part of the text can be used separately for a variety of courses including regulation and antitrust in undergraduate institutions, business schools, and schools of public policy, as well as background for doctoral courses. Exercises are included at the end of each chapter.

Assessing the President: The Media, Elite Opinion, and Public Support

Abstract: Part I. Introduction: 1. The American people and presidential popularity 2. The presidential honeymoon 3. The rally phenomenon in public opinion Part II. Presidential Popularity After the Honeymoon: 4. Of time and presidential popularity 5. Economic performance and presidential popularity 6. Daily news and the dynamics of support for the president 7. Daily news and public support for the president, Kennedy through Ford 8. Daily news and public support for presidents Carter and Reagan 9. Public support for the president and democratic control of public policy Index.

Popular epidemiology and toxic waste contamination : lay and professional ways of knowing

Abstract: Building on a detailed study of the Woburn, Massachusetts, childhood leukemia cluster, this paper examines lay and professional ways of knowing about environmental health risks. Of particular interest are differences between lay and professional groups' definitions of data quality, methods of analysis, traditionally accepted levels of measurement and statistical significance, and relations between scientific method and public policy. This paper conceptualizes the hazard-detection and solution-seeking activities of Love Canal, Woburn, and other communities as popular epidemiology: the process by which lay persons gather data and direct and marshal the knowledge and resources of experts in order to understand the epidemiology of disease, treat existing and prevent future disease, and remove the responsible environmental contaminants. Based on different needs, goals, and methods, laypeople and professionals have conflicting perspectives on how to investigate and interpret environmental health data.

Breaking through bureaucracy : a new vision for managing in government

Abstract: This book attacks the conventional wisdom that bureaucrats are bunglers and the system can't be changed. Michael Barzelay and Babak Armajani trace the source of much poor performance in government to the persistent influence of what they call the bureaucratic paradigm--a theory built on such notions as central control, economy and efficiency, and rigid adherence to rules. Rarely questioned, the bureaucratic paradigm leads competent and faithful public servants--as well as politicians--unwittingly to impair government's ability to serve citizens by weakening, misplacing, and misdirecting accountability. How can this system be changed? Drawing on research sponsored by the Ford Foundation/Harvard University program on Innovations in State and Local Government, this book tells the story of how public officials in one state, Minnesota, cast off the conceptual blinders of the bureaucratic paradigm and experimented with ideas such as customer service, empowering front-line employees to resolve problems, and selectively introducing market forces within government. The author highlights the arguments government executives made for the changes they proposed, traces the way these changes were implemented, and summarizes the impressive results. This approach provides would-be bureaucracy busters with a powerful method for dramatically improving the way government manages the public's business. Generalizing from the Minnesota experience and from similar efforts nationwide, the book proposes a new paradigm that will reframe the perennial debate on public management. With its carefully analyzed ideas, real-life examples, and closely reasoned practical advice, Breaking Through Bureaucracy is indispensable to public managers and students of public policy and administration.

Fatal Tradeoffs: Public and Private Responsibilities for Risk

Abstract: Ideally, it would be desirable if we could all adopt a high-minded commitment to a risk-free existence. Unfortunately, such an objective is beyond our reach--politicians who advocate higher taxes rarely get elected and economists who indicate that our resources are limited are often portrayed as purveyors of pessimism. Fatal Tradeoffs culminates and synthesizes the research of the government's expert on the value of life and risk regulation. Viscusi's work in the social regulation of risk, this volume covers topics relating to the value and empirical estimates of life, the rationality of individual responses to risk, and the role of government policy. In addition to a careful selection of his writings, Fatal Tradeoffs includes a new survey of the value-of-life literature, a review of the 1980s regulatory reforms, and guidelines for risk policy. Balanced with case studies, the more technical articles have been opened to include policy ramifications, making the text accessible to professionals and academics alike.

Party Policy and Government Coalitions

Abstract: Notes on Contributors - Introduction - Coalition Theory, Government Policy and Party Policy I.Budge & M.J.Laver - Measuring Policy Distances and Modelling Coalition Formation M.J.Laver & I.Budge - Coalition and Party Policy in Ireland M.J.Laver - Norway: Policy Pursuit and Coalition Avoidance K.Strom & J.Leipart - Sweden: Social Democratic Dominance in One Dimension K.Strom & T.Bergman - Party and Coalition Policy in Denmark T-L.Schou & D.J.Hearl - Coalition Governments in the Federal Republic of Germany: Does Policy Matter? H-D.Klingemann & A.Volkens - Party and Coalition in Luxembourg D.J.Hearl - Policy and Coalition in Belgium D.J.Hearl - The Role of Policy in Dutch Coalition Building, 1946-8 P.Tops & K.Dittrich - Party Policy and Coalition Bargaining in Italy from 1948-87. Is there Order behind the Chaos A.Mastropaolo & M.Slater - Party Policy and Coalition Bargaining in Israel J.Bara - Coaliton Bargaining in the French Fourth Republic, 1946-58 F.Petry - The Relationship between Party and Coalition Policy in Europe: an Empirical Synthesis I.Budge & M.J.Laver - Index

Policy Networks, Policy Communities and the Problems of Governance

Abstract: This article reviews and evaluates the literature on policy networks and policy communities that has emerged in the comparative public policy field. It argues that these concepts are important innovations because they suggest a renewed attempt to be both encompassing and discriminating in describing the policy process: encompassing because they refer to actors and relationships in the policy process that take us beyond political-bureaucratic relationships; discriminating because they suggest the presence of many communities and different types of networks. Yet if the concepts are going to continue to make a contribution, some problems must be resolved. The article suggests three that are particularly important: network and community concepts encounter obstacles in incorporating the influence of ma-cropolitical institutions and the power of political discourse; they have some difficulty in accommodating the internationalization of many policy domains; they have not addressed well the issues of policy innovation and policy change.

Benefit transfer studies: Myths, pragmatism, and idealism

Abstract: Benefit transfer has been an ongoing, practical analysis for years in legal proceedings and government policy analyses where timely benefit estimates are critically dependent on the use of existing data. Most benefit transfer studies to date have been conducted behind closed doors and have not been open to scholarly review, and no systematic research agenda has been established to determine whether benefit transfer estimates are valid for public policy analyses. In this paper we propose a systematic, conceptual foundation for conducting benefit transfer studies, and suggest a research agenda to identify conditions under which valid benefit transfer estimates can be derived. We conclude, however, that this research agenda must be accompanied by improved conduct and reporting of original valuation studies before benefit transfer can become a widely used tool in public policy analyses.

The Impact of Representative Bureaucracies: Educational Systems and Public Policies

Abstract: Studies of representative bureaucracies are staples of public administration research; however, because of a variety of methodological problems, too few have been able to address the basic "so what?" question. Do bureaucracies with different levels of representativeness produce different policy outputs and have different policy impacts? Our research addresses these inquiries using data from the 67 public school districts in Florida. The analysis shows that when we focus on (a) bureaucrats who exercise discretion, (b) a demographic factor with a lasting impact-race, and (c) policy measures that are clearly salient to the chosen demographic factor, we can detect the relationships between bureaucratic representation and public policy outputs and outcomes. We particularly highlight the representativeness of "street-level" bureaucrats (in this case, teachers). Thus, the issue of representation in public bureaucracies possesses more than just symbolic importance.

Environment and Economy: Property Rights and Public Policy

Abstract: (1992). Environment and Economy: Property Rights and Public Policy. Economic Geography: Vol. 68, Theme Issue: Local Labor Markets, pp. 436-439.

Crossing the Next Meridian: Land, Water, and the Future of the West

Abstract: In Crossing the Next Meridian, Charles F. Wilkinson, an expert on federal public lands, Native American issues, and the West's arcane water laws explains some of the core problems facing the American West now and in the years to come. He examines the outmoded ideas that pervade land use and resource allocation and argues that significant reform of Western law is needed to combat desertification and environmental decline, and to heal splintered communities. Interweaving legal history with examples of present-day consequences of the laws, both intended and unintended, Wilkinson traces the origins and development of the laws and regulations that govern mining, ranching, forestry, and water use. He relates stories of Westerners who face these issues on a day-to-day basis, and discusses what can and should be done to bring government policies in line with the reality of twentieth-century American life.

Understanding Cross National Policy Transfers: The Case of Britain and the US

Abstract: Policy transfer across countries is occurring with increasing frequency. Yet, despite the fact that the importance of such policy learning is often cited as one of the primary rationales for comparative policy analysis, policy transfer is an under-researched area of political science. This article examines and analyzes the actual process of policy transfer between the US and Britain and considers the relationship between policy transfer and the policymaking process.

The Manufacture of `Public Opinion' by Reporters: Informal Cues for Public Perceptions of Protest Groups:

Abstract: This study examines how conceptions of `public opinion' are embedded within news-coverage of social protests at two levels: the micro-level in terms of informal characterizations of public opinion and the macro-level in terms of general conceptions of public opinion. At the micro-level, public opinion is brought into news stories in a variety of ways, including: statements about public opinion, depictions of compliance with or violation of social norms and laws, and portrayals of bystanders as symbols for public reaction. At the macro-level, coverage may have an underlying conception of public opinion as (1) aggregated individual opinion, (2) attempts of various groups to affect public policy and (3) a mechanism of social control. This case study of mainstream and alternative media coverage of three anarchist protests reveals differences at both the micro-descriptive and macro-conceptual levels.

Telecommunications in Europe

Abstract: Noam's book is the first major attempt to address the complicated economic and public policy issues of telecommunications in Europe. He provides a thorough discussion of the evolution of central telephone networks, equipment supply, new value-added networks, and new telecommunications-related services in a detailed country-by-country analysis.

Evaluating welfare and training programs

Abstract: Almost everyone would like to see the enactment of sound, practical measures to help disadvantaged people get off welfare and find jobs at decent wages, and over the past quarter-century federal and state governments have struggled to develop just such programmes. How do we know whether these vast outlays of money are helping the people they are designed to reach? All welfare and training programmes have been subject to demonstrations designed to test new ideas. This book reviews what we have discovered from past assessments and suggests how welfare and training programmes should be planned for the 1990s. The authors of this volume, each a recognized specialist in the evaluation of social programmes, do more than summarize what we have learned so far. They clarify why the issue of the proper conduct and interpretation of evaluations has itself been a subject of continuing controversy. In part, the problem is organizational, requiring the integrated efforts of social scientists, public officials, and the professionals who execute evaluations. In addition, there is a dispute about scientific method: should evaluators try to understand the complex social processes that make programmes succeed (or fail), or should they focus on imputs and outputs, treating the programmes themselves as "black boxes" whose machinery remains hidden? This book should be important for policy researchers and evaluation professionals, social scientists concerned with evaluation methods, public officials working in social policy, and students of public policy, social work.

Beyond takeovers: politics comes to corporate control.

Abstract: In the 1990s, politics will replace takeovers as the defining tool for corporate governance challenges, and a marketplace of ideas will replace the frenzied activity that once dominated the financial marketplace in the 1980s. In the transaction-driven market of the past, corporate raiders used junk bonds and other financial tools to take control of their targets. In the new marketplace of ideas, debate will replace debt as active shareholders press specific operating policies for their target corporations in a new politicized market for corporate control. John Pound, associate professor of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, reports that investors are already using shadow management committees, independent director slates, and outside experts to influence management policy. Pound cites Carl Icahn's battle for control of USX as an example of the emerging trend. What began as a hostile takeover ended with a negotiated solution in which many constituencies ultimately played a role in the restructuring of the company. This political approach to governance gives management a chance to embrace a bargain that is in its long-term interest. By promoting politically based tactics, managers can generate political capital with their major investors. Managers in companies as diverse as Avon and Lockheed now meet regularly with investors, seeking their input on both financial and strategic decisions. In the new politicized market for corporate control, striking a bargain with long-term investors is ultimately in the best interest of the corporation.

Teaching: Making Sense Of An Uncertain Craft

Abstract: An analysis of teaching in which the author examines the classroom environment, the conceptual domains of research, the complex layers of public policy, and the language of educational discourse and polemic. He looks at what teachers do, how they learn, and how they cope.

Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth

Abstract: One view of government fiscal policy is that it stifles dynamic economic growth through the distortionary effects of taxation and inefficient government spending. Another view is that government plays a central role in economic development by providing public goods and infrastructure. This paper develops a generalized model of fiscal policy and output growth that allows for (i) a positive or negative effect of government spending on private productivity, (ii) increasing or decreasing returns to scale, (iii) a transition path away from the equilibrium growth path, and (iv) intratemporal tax distortions. Using data from 107countries during the period 1970-85,and correcting for the potentially serious problem of endogeneity in government policy, we find that a balanced-budget increase in government spending and taxation is predicted to reduce output growth rates.

The rise of popular literacy in Victorian England : the influence of private choice and public policy

Abstract: In early Victorian England, there was an intense debate about whether government involvement in the provision of popular elementary education was appropriate. Government did in the end become actively involved, first in the administration of schools and in the supervision of instruction, then in establishing and administering compulsory schooling laws. After a century of stagnation, literacy rates rose markedly. While increasing government involvement would seem to provide the most obvious explanation for this rise, David F. Mitch seeks to demonstrate that, in fact, popular demand was also an important force behind the growth in literacy. Although previous studies have looked at public policy in detail, and although a few have considered popular demand. The Rise of Popular Literacy in Victorian England is the first book to bring together a detailed examination of the two sets of factors. Mitch compares the relative importance of the rise of popular demand for literacy and the development of educational policy measures by the church and state as contributing factors that led to the rise of working class literacy during the Victorian period. He uses an economic-historical approach based on an examination of changes in the costs and benefits of acquiring literacy. Mitch considers the initial demand of the working classes for literacy and how much that demand grew. He also examines how literacy rates were influenced by the development of a national system of elementary school provision and by the establishment of compulsory schooling laws. Mitch uses quantitative methods and evidence as well as more traditional historical sources such as government reports, employment ads, and contemporary literature. An important reference is a national sample of over 8,000 marriage certificates from the mid-Victorian period that provides information on the ability of brides and grooms to sign their names. The Rise of Popular Literacy in Victorian England is a valuable text for students and scholars of British, economic, and labor history, history of literacy and education, and popular culture.

The pursuit of pleasure

Abstract: The author identifies some major forms of pleasure - sex, food, drugs, pets, plants, power and more - and explores their variations now and in the past. Pleasure, says Tiger, is not a luxury but an evolutionary entitlement that deserves to be taken seriously. He tackles a variety of complex and larger issues, such as the historic link between religion, public policy and the control of pleasure and the fact that some pleasures reflect our hunter-gatherer pasts - for example, the way we still respond to the warmth, physical and psychological, of a fire. But he also looks at the lighter side of pleasure and what it means, from a taste for barbecue to the sensual enjoyment of a kiss.

Strategic Issues Management: An Integration of Issue Life Cycle Perspectives

Abstract: This paper explores, in depth models of issues management and uses public policy, corporate strategy, process models and multiple perspectives to understand the evolution of issues management and how organizations can strategically respond to, and manage, issues. The paper concludes with empirical considerations and a research agenda for the future.

Politics and Jobs: The Boundaries of Employment Policy in the United States

Abstract: Americans claim a strong attachment to the work ethic and regularly profess support for government policies to promote employment. Why, then, have employment policies gained only a tenuous foothold in the USA? To answer this question, Margaret Weir highlights two related elements: the power of ideas in policy-making and the politics of interest formation. Rather than seeing policy as a straightforward outcome of public preferences, she shows how ideas frame problems and how interests form around possibilities created by the interplay of ideas and politics. By examining Keynesian macroeconomic policy in the 1930s and 1940s, labour market policies in the 1960s and 1970s, and efforts to develop new planning mechanisms in the late 1970s, Weir shows how early decisions restricted the scope for later initiatives. As a result, policies in the 1960s emphasized racial differences and thus drew opposition for creating special interest measures for Afro-Americans.

Female labour force participation, fertility and public policy in Sweden

Abstract: This paper analyzes the role of public policy for Sweden's combination of high female labour force participation and high levels of fertility in the late 1980s and early 1990s. We present the central elements in the tax and family policies and use a disaggregated approach to assess their impact on Swedish fertility and female labour force participation. We show that these policies stimulate both fertility and women's paid work by reducing the costs of having children while requiring parents to be employed to collect full benefits.