Editors' Notes

Abstract

As editors of the Policy Studies Journal we cannot help but marvel at the changes taking place in how we—as policy scholars—go about our research. The use of the Internet has developed well beyond a mechanism for retrieving articles to a source of data, debate, and insight. Most of us have lists of “must read” websites, archives, and blogs. But given the fluid and “caveat emptor” quality of the web, most of us probably miss sites that would be of considerable value. For that reason the PSJ will introduce a new feature: a web and blog review. Although we are still in the process of formulating the details, the new feature will include highlights of websites of particular value to policy scholars. Primary features will be printed in the Journal, and a more extended version will be posted (with blog content, of course) on the PSJ website. This issue of the Policy Studies Journal brings fresh analysis of the implications of weather disasters for policy and politics. Darrell West and Marion Orr (Brown University) analyze the manner in which race and gender affect self-assessed vulnerability to hurricane threats and the implications for how policies intended to influence evacuation decisions. Donald Haider-Markel, William Delehanty, and Matthew Beverlin (University of Kansas) analyze the implications of media portrayals of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina differentially framed the governmental response for African Americans. This pair of papers, looking at minority perspectives on pre- and post-disaster policies for managing hurricane threats, provides important theoretical insights as well as grist for improving public policies. Three papers in this issue offer theoretical advances regarding three key points in the policy process: the diffusion of policy innovations, the implications of cooperation for policy implementation, and the interaction of choice of policy instruments and politics. William Ingle (Bowling Green), Lora Cohen-Vogel, and Roxanne Hughes (Florida State University) ask why policies—in this case merit aid programs in education—diffuse in some states but not in others. What characterizes “holdout” states that do not accept the innovation? Using extensive elite interviews, this paper explores the boundaries of policy diffusion. Martin Lundin (Uppsala University) takes on what has taken on the status of an administrative truism—that interorganizational cooperation enhances policy implementation. Using quantitative data from two Swedish case studies, he explores the conditions under which such cooperation is likely to improve implementation only when the task is complex; cooperation fails to improve implementation of simpler policy tasks. Elizabeth Rigby (University of Wisconsin-Madison) focuses on the relationships between politics and the policy tools selected for implementation of early childhood education. Using hierarchical linear models based on data from the 50 U.S. states, Rigby finds politics affects the choice of tools, which in turn affects the nature of the politics. Amy Yarbrough and Robert Landry provide an important paper that focuses on the fragmented social safety net in the United States. The tendency of policymakers and analysts is to focus on specific programs rather than on the interrelationships among programs bearing on social welfare. This article examines the relationship between Medicaid and consumer bankruptcy—seemingly distal policy problems that are interrelated. Understanding these relationships provides guidance for better policymaking. This issue also contains Part 1 of a symposium on voluntary environmental programs. Edited by Peter deLeon (University of Colorado at Denver) and Jorge Rivera (George Washington University), this symposium uses multiple perspectives to evaluate the promise and performance of an array of efforts to employ voluntary, “noncoercive” agreements to achieve environmental policy objectives. The five papers in this set are, perhaps, the most definitive collection on this issue and will be invaluable for both scholars and graduate-level students. A second set of papers in the symposium will appear in the next issue of the PSJ. As always, our editorial policies are designed to bring you the best writing in public policy, covering the range of theoretical and substantive developments in the field. We continue to urge you to send your best papers to the Policy Studies Journal.