Policy Controversies Research Articles

Book review: Amy Koerber, Breast or Bottle? Contemporary Controversies in Infant-Feeding Policy and Practice

Book review: Amy Koerber, <i>Breast or Bottle? Contemporary Controversies in Infant-Feeding Policy and Practice</i>

'Big science' in the field: experimenting with badgers and bovine TB, 1995-2015.

Since wild badgers were first connected with outbreaks of bovine TB (bTB) in UK cattle herds in the early 1970s, the question of whether to cull them to control infections in cattle has been the subject of a protracted public and policy controversy. Following the recommendation of Prof. John Krebs that a “scientifically based experimental trial” be carried out to test the effectiveness of badger culling, the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) was commissioned by Government in 1998. One of the largest field experiments ever conducted in the UK, the RBCT sought to recreate the conditions of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) across approximately 3000 km2 of the South West of England. Despite widespread expectations that the RBCT would provide the necessary evidence to resolve the controversy, its findings have instead been widely contested and reinterpreted, while arguments over badger culling have become increasingly polarised. This paper will investigate the complexities of field experimental knowledge by following the story of the RBCT from this initial proposal, through processes of research design, implementation, analysis, interpretation and reinterpretation of the findings by multiple actors. It asks what kind of experiment the RBCT actually was, and examines how it has contributed to the protracted controversy over whether to cull badgers in order to control bTB in cattle. Finally, it will explore the wider implications of this case for contemporary debates over the contribution that RCTs can make to formulating public policy.

The US Congressional “Decade on Pain Control and Research” 2001–2011: A Review

ABSTRACTIn 2000, the United States Congress proclaimed the decade commencing January 1, 2001, as the “Decade of Pain Control and Research.” This review examines the progress, setbacks, and controversies in public policy, pain education, advocacy, ethics, and the law through this decade. Critical developments including the rise and fall of the consensus on the doctrine of balance in opioid policies, the respective roles of federal and state bodies, the surge of and response to the diversion and abuse of prescription medication, initiatives in education and advocacy, and reforms to state pain policies and laws shall be examined.

Revisiting River Management Options: Stakeholders, Levees, and the Public Policy Controversies of Degraded Infrastructure

The Army Corps of Engineers deemed the levees along the Portneuf River to be “unacceptable,” leaving the city of Pocatello, ID, liable. Experts, policymakers, and stakeholders agree that something must be done before this flood-prone city faces another catastrophe. Yet, after 5 years of debate, the levees are worse. This project explores and compares stakeholder support for three competing levee policy proposals. This project should aid river management professionals to understand the motivations behind stakeholder support for flood control policy. Stakeholder preferences are driven by risk perceptions, personal beliefs, and economic interests.

An immigrant language in a multilingual state: status and group competition (Russian in Israel)

This paper explores changes in the status and function of the Russian language in Israel since the 1989 when mass immigration from the former Soviet Union began. Due to a more tolerant attitude to multilingualism and the necessity to accommodate various needs of newcomers, Israeli establishment did not prevent the growing use of Russian in the public sphere. Relying on the monitoring of Russian–Israeli internet sites and participant observation, this paper analyses controversies in Israel's language policy and tensions accompanying the presence of the Russian language on the political arena, in education and in the workplace.

Let the Best 'One' Win: Policy Lessons from the New Economics of Platforms

Many of the leading controversies in competition policy in the last two decades, especially those surrounding the Microsoft case, reflect the challenges posed by platform industries. Unfortunately, too often economists and policymakers have drawn the wrong lessons when thinking about such industries. Central to our analysis is a more realistic view of the process of consumer coordination. Platforms often use “usage revenue later” strategies to ensure that consumers coordinate on their platform. This greatly mitigates the possibility of inefficient lock-in or excessive dominance by a leading platform, but it makes inefficient fragmentation a greater danger. Thus regulation, rather than competition policy, may be more appropriate in addressing potential market failures arising in platform industries.

A perspective on the benefit-risk assessment for new and emerging pharmaceuticals in Japan.

The universal health care system in Japan is facing a historical turning point as a result of the increasing fiscal burden, rapidly aging society, and a decreasing population. To understand the challenges and opportunities in the Japanese pharmaceutical market, which occupies one tenth of the global share, this review highlights several issues related to the benefit-risk assessment that is unique to the modern Japanese society: 1) regulatory system for new drug development; 2) health hazards related to pharmaceuticals (“Yakugai” in Japanese); 3) drug lag; 4) problems and controversies in the vaccination policy; and 5) clinical study misconduct. The regulatory process places a significant importance on Japanese data collection regardless of data accumulation from other countries. Because Yakugai has repeatedly caused tragedies and social disputes historically, the regulatory judgments generally tend to be more prudential when safety concerns are raised for new and emerging pharmaceuticals. Such a regulatory system has caused more than several years of approval delays compared to delays in other countries. The problem of drug lag still lingers on despite several regulatory system revisions, while the solution is incompatible with the elimination of Yakugai because the lag potentially reduces the risk of unpredictable adverse events. The Japanese vaccination policy has also received a lot of criticism, and needs improvements so that the decision-making process can be more transparent and scientifically based. Additionally, repeated clinical study misconduct damaged the reputation of Japanese clinical studies with unnecessary defrayment in health insurance; therefore, the medical community must change its inappropriate relationship with the industry. The problems surrounding pharmaceuticals are related to centralized, strict drug pricing control under the universal health coverage. Although the current government attempts to facilitate innovative research and development of novel therapeutics in Japan, further reforms should be explored for patients who need new and emerging pharmaceuticals.

A Commercial Republic: America’s Enduring Debate over Democratic Capitalism. By Mike O’Connor (Lawrence, University Press of Kansas, 2014) 287 pp. $34.95

O’Connor’s engaging survey of leading debates about political economy throughout American history helps to explain why many of us are oblivious to the role that the federal government necessarily plays in our market economy. Despite the enduring popular appeal of laissez-faire from the Jacksonian era to the present, the “American government cannot help but alter market outcomes, often significantly” (243). Echoing Alexis de Tocqueville’s influential analysis in Democracy in America (1835, 1840), O’Connor posits an ongoing tension between “liberty and equality,” the central concepts around which controversies over capitalism and democracy have pivoted in the history of American liberalism (244). As they “struggled to reconcile their commitment to the political sovereignty of the people with their equally fervent desire to ensure the integrity of markets and to protect private property,” Americans have perpetuated a tension that defies resolution and defines democratic capitalism.O’Connor’s study begins with a Hamiltonian tradition of “stewardship” that linked the federal state with elite investors and the promotion of manufactures. Despite resistance from reactionary Republicans, Alexander Hamilton established a central role for the state in fostering a “diverse and healthy economy” (47). Jacksonians resisted federal intervention—most notably in banking—but embraced markets. Their “laissez-faire populism” proved ill-equipped to deal with the business cycle and paved the way for a return to power by neo-Hamiltonian Whigs and their successors (61). But suspicions of state power remained the democratic default in future decades, disabling efforts to curb concentrations of private wealth and power. However significant the federal government’s role has always been in the economy, American voters have been reluctant to use their power to promote egalitarian outcomes. The collapse of the New Deal consensus and the triumph of the populist right’s anti-tax orthodoxy confirm the democratic legitimacy of supposedly free markets.O’Connor’s best chapters help to explain why Americans are reluctant to interfere in markets. Led by Justice Stephen F. Field’s influential dissent in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad (1886), the Supreme Court transformed the corporation from a grant of power to achieve a public purpose to a “sort of placeholder for individual interests,” thus providing “a Liberal, individualist justification for what was effectively an illiberal, collectivist enterprise” (110). Field’s jurisprudence showed the importance of ideas in determining the character of democratic capitalism. In contrast, modern liberals fell short on the intellectual battleground, failing to elaborate a rationale for social democracy and the welfare state before it was too late. In O’Connor’s sympathetic analysis, John Rawls’ enormously popular Theory of Justice (Cambridge, Mass., 1971) ironically served as an epilogue to liberalism’s brief and limited ascendancy. Conservative, pro-market theorists and pundits would instead carry the day, as their “antitax message” developed into an “overarching theory of government” (203).A Commercial Republic does not pretend to be a comprehensive synthesis. O’Connor could have drawn on a rich new literature in American political development that has “brought the state back in[to]” our understanding of political economy. Moreover, any one of the themes that he addresses—from trade to currency policy to taxation—could have been much more systematically developed. But O’Connor has succeeded admirably in showing how previous generations have engaged with the policy controversies that continue to define the character of political economy in America.

Using Discourse Network Analysis to Measure Discourse Coalitions: Towards a Formal Analysis of Political Discourse

AbstractSince the “argumentative turn” in policy analysis, scholars have increasingly focused on discourse as an explanatory factor for the analysis of policy processes. This has resulted in a proliferation of rich and deep qualitative discourse-analytical studies on a vast range of policy controversies. However, these studies have two important shortcomings: firstly, they offer limited opportunities for comparative research, because they lack an objectified and standardized measuring instrument. Secondly, according to some critics, these studies do not meet scientific standards. In order to respond to these shortcomings, this article presents a method based on a combination of content analysis and social network analysis, which can be complementary to qualitative approaches. It is exemplified by a limited case study on two debates within the policy domain of transport mobility in Flanders. The article concludes with a discussion of a number of possible applications of the method within the broader discipline of political science.

The role of sanitation in malnutrition--a science and policy controversy in India.

Over the past decade, India's economic growth has been remarkable - yet almost half of India's children under 5 remain stunted. The National Food Security Bill is the country's response to this critical situation. Studies reveal that Indian children are chronically undernourished, not only because of lack of food but also because of recurring gastrointestinal infections. The stunting problem revolves more around lack of sanitation than food insecurity. Despite acknowledging that malnutrition is 'complex and multidimensional', government action has consisted largely of nutritional interventions and subsidized food. Although improvements in sanitation would be the most effective way to reduce excessively high levels of chronic undernutrition and stunting, a review of policy formulation and implementation reveals deficits and disconnects with available scientific evidence. It is time to change these mistaken assumptions and focus on improving access and use of safe sanitation facilities to achieve India's nutritional goals.

Net Neutrality: Measuring the Problem, Assessing the Legal Risks

Network neutrality is a growing policy controversy. Traffic management techniques affect not only high-speed, high-money content, but by extension all other content too. Internet regulators and users may tolerate much more discrimination in the interests of innovation. For instance, in the absence of regulatory oversight, ISPs could use Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to block some content altogether, if they decide it is not to the benefit of ISPs, copyright holders, parents or the government. ISP blocking is currently widespread in controlling spam email, and in some countries in blocking sexually graphic illegal images. In 1999 this led to scrutiny of foreclosure of Instant Messaging and video and cable-telephony horizontal merger. Fourteen years later, there were in 2013 net neutrality laws implemented in Slovenia, the Netherlands, Chile and Finland, regulation in the United States and Canada, co-regulation in Norway, and self-regulation in Japan, the United Kingdom and many other European countries. Both Germany and France in mid-2013 debated new net neutrality legislation, and the European Commission announced on 11 September 2013 that it would aim to introduce legislation in early 2014. This paper analyses these legal developments, and in particular the difficulty in assessing reasonable traffic management and ‘specialized’ (i.e. unregulated) faster services in both EU and US law. It also assesses net neutrality law against the international legal norms for user privacy and freedom of expression.

Politics & technology: U.S. polices restricting unmanned aerial systems in agriculture

Many industry observers foresee that agriculture worldwide is posed to substantially benefit from the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UASs), commonly known as drones. Industry special interests predict that 80% of domestic sales of UASs in the U.S. will be for agriculture. However, some fear that the public anxiety of the UAS operating in U.S. airspace could stall their introduction, a move that would potentially place some of American farmers’ production practices at an economic disadvantage. Currently, this public policy controversy is influencing UAS integration into U.S. agriculture, with the potential of spilling over internationally.This project examines the nature of the current debate surrounding the UAS within the U.S., analyzes the impact on agriculture from the legislation considered, discusses policy options to ameliorate the controversy, and describes the factors that will likely determine UAS operations within the U.S. The information was obtained from government documents, academic research, industry studies, nonprofit organizations, and media reports. An analysis was done using these data on how UAS legislation may affect agriculture.Popularized images of the silent-kills overseas using militarized UASs, safety concerns, and a fear of privacy invasions were found to generate intense opposition to their domestic integration. Spurred by the FAA’s congressional mandate to fully integrate UASs into the nation’s airspace, a significant number of bills, particularly in state legislatures, have been introduced in an attempt to regulate UAS use. Although geared toward privacy protection and law enforcement, some laws may adversely affect agriculture because they create legal uncertainty and/or they sweepingly ban or highly curtail local UAS operations. Possible solutions have been proposed: (1) reducing the legal uncertainty regarding UASs, (2) adopting an industry Code of Conduct and Safe Practices, and (3) producing a consensus on UAS regulations among diverse groups through an open discussion of how to balance UAS operations with safeguards on privacy and property rights. The perceived economic potential of the UAS, particularly in agriculture, combined with the lobbying power of the UAS industry, strongly suggest that policy will eventually be developed that will allow the use of this technology for agriculture in U.S. airspace.

Fracking the Debate: Frame Shifts and Boundary Work in Dutch Decision Making on Shale Gas

The meaning of hydraulic fracturing for shale gas is contested worldwide: is it an energy game changer, a transition fuel, or a technology that poses severe environmental problems? In the Netherlands, a policy controversy developed in which fracturing was reframed from ‘business as usual’ to a potential environmental risk. This article theoretically and empirically describes this shift by arguing that the technology of hydraulic fracturing for shale gas is a boundary object that created a sphere of engagement for all sorts of actors. In this sphere, they negotiated a common but soft meaning of this technology. These negotiations consisted of frame contests. As part of those contests, the discursive strategies of framing and boundary work enabled opponents to create uncertainty about economic benefits and environmental impact. The shift in meaning transformed the issue from an economic one with standard governmental rules and regulations into a planning issue that needs more precaution.

Politicization and expertise: Changing research-policy dialogues on migrant integration in Europe

Department of Public Administration, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam 3000DR,The Netherlands*Corresponding author. Email p.w.a.scholten@fsw.eur.nl.Intractable policy controversies like migrant integration often involve a high level of politicization.This paper looks specifically at how and why politicization changes research–policy dialogues,involving both the structure of these dialogues and how they affect policy-making and knowledgeproduction. Migrant integration policy (in five EU countries and at EU level) is taken as a casestudy. Bringing together theories on knowledge utilization, knowledge production and the structureof research–policy relations (dialogue structures), our analysis shows that a process of ‘politiciza-tion of science’ goes hand in hand with a process of ‘scientification of politics’. Research–policydialogues continue in the context of politicization, but in a fundamentally different way. Differentsorts of institutional dialogues between research and policy emerge that do justice to politicalprimacy, knowledge utilization becomes more symbolic but not less important, and knowledgeproduction tends to become more fragmented in the context of politicization.Keywords: politicization; knowledge utilization; knowledge production; dialogue structures;policy; migrant integration.

Het meten van discourscoalities met discoursnetwerkanalyse

Since the ‘argumentative turn’ in policy analysis scholars have increasingly focused on discourse as an explanatory factor for the analysis policy processes. This has resulted in a proliferation of rich and deep qualitative discourse-analytical studies on a vast range of policy controversies. However, these studies have two important shortcomings: firstly, they offer limited possibilities for comparative research, because they lack an objectified and standardized measuring instrument. Secondly, according to some critics, these studies do not live up to scientific standards.This article presents a method based on a combination of content analysis and social network analysis which can be complementary to qualitative approaches, in order to answer to these shortcomings. It is exemplified by a limited case study on two debates within the policy domain of transport-mobility in Flanders. The article concludes with a discussion of a number of possible applications of the method within the broader discipline of political science.

Wildland fire management and air quality in the southern Sierra Nevada: Using the Lion Fire as a case study with a multi-year perspective on PM2.5 impacts and fire policy

Management of fire is an important and controversial policy issue. Active fire suppression has led to a backlog of fuels, limited the ecological benefits of fire, and reduced short-term smoke impacts likely delaying these emissions to future generations over a larger spatial extent. Smoke impacts can be expected to increase as fire size and intensity increase and the fuel backlog is consumed; whether through reintroduction of fire under desirable conditions or through stand replacing fire. Land Management Agencies would like to increase the use of naturally ignited fires to burn during favorable conditions as a way to reduce catastrophic fires. This study provides information about the levels of air quality impacts expected from these types of fires and discusses some of the policy controversies of managed fire that propagate inconsistencies between agencies and enter the public discourse. The Lion Fire, a primarily low intensity 8,370 ha fire that was extensively monitored for Particulate Matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), is used to quantify impacts to air quality. PM2.5 monitoring sites are used to assess exposure, public health impacts, and subsequently quantify annual air quality during a year with a fire that is within the historic normal fire size and intensity for this area. Ground level PM2.5 impacts were found to be localized with 99% of the hourly Air Quality Index readings in the moderate or good category for the sites impacted by the fire. PM2.5 concentrations at sites nearest the fire were below annual federal air quality standards for PM2.5 with annual 98th percentile at the most impacted sites (Johnsondale, Kernville, and Camp Nelson) of 35.0, 34.0, and 28.0 μg m–3 respectively. Smoke impacts to PM2.5 concentrations were not found to reach the populated Central Valley. The findings suggest that this type of fire can be implemented with minimal public health impacts thus allowing an opportunity for air and fire managers to alter policy to allow additional burning in an area with severe anthropogenic air pollution and where frequent widespread fire is both beneficial and inevitable. The more extensive air quality impacts documented with large high intensity fire may be averted by embracing the use of fire to prevent unwanted high intensity burns. A widespread increase in the use of fire for ecological benefit may provide the resiliency needed in Sierra Nevada forests as well as be the most beneficial to public health through the reduction of single dose exposure to smoke and limiting impacts spatially.

Trade Marks Function, Don’t They? CJEU Jurisprudence and Unfair Competition Principles

Few issues have raised as much controversy in trade mark law and policy as the case law of the Court of Justice (CJEU) on trade mark functions. Enthusiastically greeted by some, others consider it disastrous in regards of reasoning and effect. The EU Commission has stepped in, first by filing a brief with the CJEU, then by way of proposed legislation that is supposed to push the genie back in the bottle: Protection under the double identity clause shall be available only for use of a sign that affects or is likely to affect the origin function. Unsurprisingly, that proposal met with antagonistic reactions from the opposite camps; and according to the reactions so far available from the legislative bodies, it is most unlikely to succeed. This article tries to add nuance to the discussion by pinpointing the dilemma underlying the CJEU’s jurisprudence – the Court is no more to blame than the legislator who failed to articulate more clearly whether and how the protection granted in double identity cases should be limited. Furthermore it is argued that neither accepting the Commission’s proposal nor blindly continuing the current path will yield satisfactory results. More important than arguing about the contents of various trade mark functions and their place in determining the scope of protection is to observe the way in which trade mark law absorbs ways of reasoning typically found in unfair competition law. While that adds flexibility and may in the longer run lead to more substantive harmonization, the space for independent evaluation of unfair conduct under national law is narrowed accordingly. The effects of that process appear manageable where the scope of rights is concerned; however, the results are more hazardous on the level of enforcement, as was highlighted in the recent CJEU decision C-661/11 – Martin Y Paz.

Breast or bottle?: contemporary controversies in infant feeding policy and practice

Breast or bottle?: contemporary controversies in infant feeding policy and practice

Reassembling and Cutting the Social with Health Insurance

By rescuing an obscure and almost forgotten parliamentary controversy in Chile, this article shows how private property and solidarity cohabit in health insurance. To do so, it follows both pragmatist sociology, where controversies are seen as situations in which social formations are questioned and reconfigured, and recent economic sociology, studying how marketisation might help in assembling and not only destroying social bonds. Simultaneously, this work departs from these influences in three directions. It deals with two ways of assembling the social, solidarity and property, which have remained overlooked in the proximate literature. Rather than a detailed ethnographic description, it works analogically, eliciting new interpretations of the empirical material by pairing the social scientific concepts mobilised in the studied controversy with the conceptual tools developed in recent social sciences. And, by analysing a parliamentary controversy regarding insurance, it complements recent work that is starting to study how finance commodities are enacted not only in traditional market encounters but also in a varied array of collateral sites, including courts, social policy and regulation controversies.

Trademarks Function, Don't They? CJEU Jurisprudence and Unfair Competition Principles

Few issues have raised as much controversy in trade mark law and policy as the case law of the Court of Justice (CJEU) on trade mark functions. Enthusiastically greeted by some, others consider it disastrous in regards of reasoning and effect. The EU Commission has stepped in, first by filing a brief with the CJEU, then by way of proposed legislation that is supposed to push the genie back in the bottle: Protection under the double identity clause shall be available only for use of a sign that affects or is likely to affect the origin function. Unsurprisingly, that proposal met with antagonistic reactions from the opposite camps; and according to the reactions so far available from the legislative bodies, it is most unlikely to succeed. This article tries to add nuance to the discussion by pinpointing the dilemma underlying the CJEU’s jurisprudence – the Court is no more to blame than the legislator who failed to articulate more clearly whether and how the protection granted in double identity cases should be limited. Furthermore it is argued that neither accepting the Commission’s proposal nor blindly continuing the current path will yield satisfactory results. More important than arguing about the contents of various trade mark functions and their place in determining the scope of protection is to observe the way in which trade mark law absorbs ways of reasoning typically found in unfair competition law. While that adds flexibility and may in the longer run lead to more substantive harmonization, the space for independent evaluation of unfair conduct under national law is narrowed accordingly. The effects of that process appear manageable where the scope of rights is concerned; however, the results are more hazardous on the level of enforcement, as was highlighted in the recent CJEU decision C-661/11 – Martin Y Paz.