Internal Agency Research Articles

Conservation on the Cusp: The Reformation of National Forest Policy in the Sierra Nevada

ABSTRACT From 1960 to 1999, a variety of laws and other public policies influenced the management of the national forests in the Sierra Nevada. Existing laws and new statutes contained directives for the planning, management, conservation and preservation of national forest lands and resources. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) forced the U.S. Forest Service to disclose information about land management plans and their impacts. The stattre also led to greater public awareness of management issues and increased public involvement in agency decision-making. As a result, efforts to increase timber production in Sierra Nevada national forests met increased public scrutiny, and with political and legal opposition. The National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA) mandated extensive planning to promote effective and efficient conservation and use of forest resources and to resolve forest management controversies. However, the conflict between the demand for increased timber and demands for increased recreation and wilderness preservation limited NFMA's effectiveness. Discord over national forest policies did not begin with NFMA, but the broad scope of land management planning generated remarkable public attention and controversy. Public opposition to increased clearcutting and other activities that potentially led to impacts on wildlife habitat and other aspects of ecosystems led to administrative and legal challenges to national forest plans. In the early 1990s, the Forest Service's reinterpretation of existing law impelled it to extensively revise both its management objectives in the Sierra Nevada and its planning for the national forests in the region. Agency planning sought to better incorporate scientific knowledge about species and habitat requirements into an ecosystem management strategy. Instead of ending the uncertainty over the conservation and management of forested lands and resources, eight years of agency planning pursuant to this new perspective engendered additional controversies. The continuing inability to resolve environmental issues strongly indicates both a need and opportunity for significant changes in the institutional structures governing the national forests of these lands. INTRODUCTION Natural resource policy and planning initiatives in the Sierra Nevada, California's spectacular mountain region, have had profound implications for the management of the area's natural resources. This study explores a range of public policies and issues associated with national forest management, and examines their impact on the administration of the national forests of the Sierra Nevada during the period from 1960 to 1999. Environmental activism, public interest litigation, internal agency decisions, and legislative initiatives of the past four decades have changed the traditional management practices of the federal resource management agencies. Environmental politics, directly or indirectly, led to many policy modifications. Evolving scientific understanding of natural resources intersected with broader social and legal developments. Reforming natural resource management led to major statutory, administrative and legal changes. As a result, national forest management policy for the national forests of the United States has been dramatically restructured during this period. Initiatives for reform have addressed two interrelated phenomena that present significant challenges in governance for the region: 1) political activism resulting from environmental and social concerns; and 2) incapacity of public institutions and private market forces to improve environmental conservation and management. This research evaluates the progress of these initiatives and offers a rethinking of the prospects for natural resource management and ecosystem conservation in the Sierra Nevada. Prior to World War II, the Forest Service had established a reputation for expert management in public administration, and for being an able player in national politics. …

Agency, theory, modern management, and financial markets: Connections and consequences

This paper intends to show how the actions taken by management teams can have an impact on shareholders' perception. Agency theory focuses on agency costs due to differences between shareholders and managers' expectations. Shareholders generally have a short-term vision which contrasts with decisions taken by managers. The cost of making bad decisions for shareholders is called external agency costs. In restructuring firms, there is a way to flatten organizations to make them more flexible. The usual way of managing firms induces internal agency costs --objectives can be misunderstood so there is need for close supervision. Restructuring firms is basically a way of reducing internal agency costs. An event study methodology is used to analyze whether or not adopting organizational restructuring has a positive impact on returns. This study begins in 1995, ends in 1996, and uses daily prices and financial data from the New York Stock Exchange. From the event study, it appears that financial markets positively react to announcements of restructuring. There is a strong increase in the standard deviation, but this rise is more than counterbalanced by an important rise in the mean return. During the event period, there are no significant abnormal returns except on Day Zero.

The state of results‐driuen customer seruice quality in Gouernment

AbstractPersistent demands for increased government productivity have prompted the establishment of federal standards for customer service. In theory, these standards can be used to evaluate the quality, reliability, and timeliness of services provided by such federal agencies as the U.S. Postal Service, Social Security Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Without political accountability and independent oversight of individual agency implementation strategies, however, the achievement of these wellintended standards may be limited by bureaucratic resistance, lack of supervision, excessive bureaucratic discretion, and the need for regulatory compliance. This article discusses recent federal government actions aimed at promoting customer service quality and changing internal agency procedures to ensure accountability for results.

The Role of Government Attorneys in Regulatory Agency Rulemaking

Every time a federal regulatory agency exercises its power to write rules to govern private conduct, it must be prepared to resolve a wide variety of technical, economic, political, and legal issues. To assist them in these efforts, the agencies have invented a variety of internal decisionmaking models to bring different kinds of expertise to bear on regulatory problems. Legal expertise is nearly always required at some stage of the internal decisionmaking process because regulatory agencies are created by statute, agency powers are vested and limited by statute, and virtually all agency rules are subject to judicial review for substantive rationality, procedural correctness, and fidelity to those statutes and the Constitution. Agency lawyers from the Office of General Counsel (sometimes called the Office of the Solicitor) therefore play important roles in internal agency decisionmaking. Not surprisingly, the roles that agency lawyers play in many ways mirror the roles that reviewing courts play in reviewing agency rules under the Constitution, agency statutes, and general statutes like the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). This essay will explore the many roles that agency lawyers can play in the internal processes of developing proposed rules and responding to public comments on those rules. After briefly describing the two predominant models of the internal decisionmaking process from the lawyer’s perspective, the essay will examine how the agency lawyer functions within those models. In virtually all rulemaking contexts, agency lawyers have the power to determine external

Public administration in Marshall Dimock's textbooks

This article examines the relationship between Marshall Dimock's positive, broad-based concept of public administration and his approach to writing undergraduate textbooks. Analysis shows that both Dimock's American government and public administration textbooks provide a different slant on public agencies than that available in most current introductory volumes. In particular, his American government textbook is more positive in tone about agencies than are its modern counterparts. The public administration textbook has comparative material that rarely appears in introductory-level textbooks. This article analyzes how Marshall Dimock's conception of public administration as an important area of study with links to policy and leadership anchored his textbook writing. In the 1950s Dimock co-authored two popular textbooks for basic undergraduate courses, one in American government and the other in public administration.(1) Scholars still debate what textbooks in either field should teach students about public agencies. Cigler and Neiswender argue that current American government textbooks portray administration in a negative light. All authors see bureaucracy as a problem of some sort, few explain the role administrators play in shaping policy and none discuss reasons to enter the public service.(2) Cigler and Neiswender suggest that American government textbooks must change to aid accurate perceptions of the administrative role. In particular, they believe the texts must add material on the public service as a profession and compare American agencies with those in other nations. Since public administration textbooks are a key way that majors in the field learn material, debate ensues on what material they should contain. Recent articles explore how textbooks define key terms such as policy and how they integrate the work of various theorists.(3) While all widely-used textbooks deal with both the political environment and internal agency functions (e.g., personnel, finance), no consensus exists on how to allocate space between political and managerial concerns nor on exactly which subtopics should be covered. No consensus exists on how much space should be devoted to policy making and policy analysis with some textbooks covering this topic and others skimming it lightly. One often cited problem with contemporary texts is the lack of a comparative focus and a concomitant need to internationalize the curriculum.(4) The thrust of current proposals is that students need a more broad-based education to prepare them for global leadership. Interestingly, Dimock's approach to public administration led him to write textbooks that in some ways surpass what is available today. While the majority of the topics he presents (and their ordering) are similar to current efforts, he offers unique emphases that deal with the above mentioned criticisms. Far from being an exercise in academic nostalgia, examining Dimock's textbooks is a useful way of giving current writers new insights. To appreciate Dimock's approach to textbook construction we first have to identify the core concepts behind his approach to public administration education. Afterwards, we can analyze the treatment of public agencies in American Government in Action, relating it to Cigler and Neiswender's critique of contemporary textbooks, and -examine how various editions of Public Administration conceptualize the field.

Use of Anthetic Dialogue In Eliciting and Challenging Dysfunctional Beliefs

The author discusses a technique for eliciting and challenging dysfunctional beliefs, based on the idea that such beliefs seem to have their source in an inferred internal agency known as the inner critic. Various conceptions of the inner critic are listed. An adaptation of the empty chair technique is described, which the clinician can use to elicit the inner critic’s voice as a phenomenological reality that issues dysfunctional messages, which, when accepted by the person, become dysfunctional beliefs. Once the messages are verbally expressed, they can be disputed and countered using cognitive-behavioral methods.

Compensatory Buffers, Depression, and Irrational Beliefs

This article proposes a new explanation of the connections between depression and irrational beliefs in the light of the concept of compensatory buffers (CBs). Significant factors in some forms of depression are negative messages coming from an internal agency called the inner critic. To avoid the impact of these messages, the individual feels driven to acquire compensatory buffers, the purpose of which is to compensate for the inner critic’s disparagement of the self. When these buffers fail, the result is a feeling of lowered self-esteem and depression. Loss is thus seen to trigger depression when it is the loss of one or more compensatory buffers. Irrational beliefs are explained as beliefs in the necessity of acquiring compensatory buffers; shoulds derive their force from the fact that they prescribe the compensatory buffers to be obtained in order to ward off the pain of depressogenic punishments associated with the inner critic.

Paranoid Phenomena and Pathological Narcissism

Paranoid phenomena can be seen to arise from pathological narcissism. As a result of certain kinds of trauma to the ego-ideal and/or losses of important self-object relationships, the self becomes dislodged from internal agencies and representations. Narcissistic cathexis of the self to these internal psychic structures loosens and hope, aspiration, affection and will become markedly diminished. Meaningful goals and choices become impossible to adopt and make. The paranoid patient is internally at "loose ends"; he is lost. Tragically, being gripped by the paranoid condition and its manifest delusional system is the only kind of security that the paranoid patient knows. No wonder it is so hard to give up. The vulnerability to paranoid phenomena may be seen to be a result of past experiences of subversion of "selfhood." In significant ways, the patient vulnerable to paranoid phenomena has not been adequately attended nor adequately "left alone." The self can be seen as arising out of crucial mother-infant exchanges that are paralleled by interactions between developing internal psychic structures. Out of these "reflections," the self is born. The narcisstic cathexis of self to the ego, superego and ego-ideal is the result of self-expression. If full self-ownership has not been possible then self-expression is vulnerable. Given these understandings of the relationship between paranoid phenomena and pathological narcissism, treatment will focus on reducing the threats to selfhood, refinding the self, and reestablishing ties to internal sources of affection, initiative and aspiration.

ME AND MY SHADOW:

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and various state tax agencies are likely to touch your life as a library administrator either directly or indirectly. “Wait a minute!” you say. “We're a not‐for‐profit library and do not have to pay income taxes!” Read on. By the end of this article, you may be surprised to find that some not‐for‐profit libraries should, and do, pay income taxes. In any case, there are many tax areas that you or others in your parent organization must consider when working with these government agencies.

The Vredefort structure: estimates of energy for some internal sources and processes

The conspicuous features of the Vredefort structure are the concentric arrangement of gneissose core, steeply dipping metasediments and metavolcanics and a peripheral rim syncline; the alkali intrusive suite and its metamorphic aureole; the indicators of fracturing and high pressure (shatter cones, coesite and stishovite, and microscopic deformation textures); and the predominance of CO 2 over H 2O in fluid inclusions in the gneissose core. The cause of the Vredefort structure lies in either external or internal agencies; possible internal agencies and sources of energy are discussed here. In reviewing possibilities, a continuum is recognized between two extremes: at one extreme the major sources of energy are taken to be the density inversion (metasediments overlying granitic gneiss) and the alkali intrusions, whereas at the other extreme the major source of energy is taken to have a deep-seated and explosive character, most of the energy being liberated in one or two short, but very great, bursts. Between the extremes lie scenarios in which violent energy releases form substantial, but not overwhelming contributions to the total. Attention is focused initially on the less explosive end of the range: the hypothesis explored is that the gneiss rose because of buoyancy, while being disturbed and accelerated by the alkali intrusions. The aspect selected for emphasis is the energy budget; quantities of energy are estimated as follows: (1) Gravitational energy available from the density inversion, —10 21 J, (2) thermal energy associated with the alkali intrusions—10 21 J, and (3) energy consumed in forming shatter cones—10 15 J. (By comparison, for Mount St. Helens in April–May 1980 the estimates are: thermal energy associated with magma—10 18 J, and energy released in four major seismic events—10 13 J.) In addition to the energy budget, aspects requiring attention are the apparent compressive stress intensities (8–10 GPa to form stishovite) and the form and distribution of the shatter cones. Possibilities are (1) for stishovite, that sufficient compressive stress developed locally at asperities on fracture surfaces, and (2) for the cones, that they formed by quasi-static Mohr-Coulomb fracture in radially symmetrical local stress fields produced by seismic pulses of magmatic origin imposed on rocks already prestressed during gravity doming. With regard to the role of compressed volatiles, they may have been important in affecting fracture behavior, preserving stishovite by quenching and promoting development of certain microdeformations at low stress levels. Their relative importance as a source of energy, in comparison with the other sources mentioned, is not brought out by the calculations. Nothing in the above is intended to exclude other possible reconstructions from consideration, the method of multiple working hypotheses being upheld.

The Vredefort structure: an introduction and a guide to recent literature

The ∼ 50 km wide Vredefort structure appears to present the eroded roots of an area affected by rapid uplift and violent rock deformation—widely regarded as shock deformation—on an immense scale. The origin of the structure is disputed: external (impact) and internal agencies have been suggested. This note introduces the Vredefort structure and its geological environment, emphasizing information published in the decade prior to the 1987 International Workshop on Cryptoexplosions and Catastrophes in the Geological Record, with a Special Focus on the Vredefort Structure. This typical cryptoexplosion structure has a central and polygonal basement uplift containing violently deformed and brecciated rocks, with the northern half surrounded by steeply-dipping and heavily faulted collar strata, and then by a rim synclinorium of less deformed strata. The gains made in research on all three sectors are noted. Traverses through the basement, from collar to centre, effectively penetrate through a ∼ 15 km thick section of crust. The Archaean history of the crustal section has been documented. The thermal and fluid inclusion evolution near the time of uplift has been studied and a deep-seated CO 2-rich gas explosion has been proposed as an alternative to the impact hypothesis for the “shock deformation”. Meticulous study of the effects of thermal metamorphism on the shock deformations in the collar strata led to a bold proposal: more than one “shock event” in the evolution of Vredefort. Analysis of the character of the faulting of the collar supports an earlier proposal regarding inward movement of blocks of collar strata. Renewed research on shatter cone orientations in the collar strata and two detailed studies of the structural history within the rim synclinorium are noted. Through the intensive mapping, geophysical exploration and drilling which have been completed within the Witwatersrand and Transvaal basins, close spatial and temporal connections between Vredefort and the Bushveld Complex have been documented. In both cases, basin centres were intruded by horizontal mafic eruptives and basin subsidence took place after these eruptives had consolidated and cooled. The Vredefort structure has long been discussed as a possible deeply eroded remnant of a major cratering event or events; the connections of this structure with the Bushveld Complex carry important implications for such discussion.

Internal Agency Relationships: Account Services and Creative Personnel

Abstract A mail survey was conducted among a sample of account and creative services personnel working in advertising agencies nationwide to determine areas of conflict in working relationships between these two groups. Additionally, respondents were asked to perform the same critical analysis of their colleagues within their own departments. Analysis of responses from 256 agency employees indicate that some disagreement between account management and creative services exists. Creative services personnel tended to be more critical of account management than account managers were of creative people. Results are explained by the differing perspectives of the generalist (i.e., account managers) and specialist (i.e., creative services) that must be brought together in an agency to produce effective advertising.

Women versus Academe: Who's Winning?

A review of more than 250 grievances brought by academic women against their employers suggests that, although few suits have been won in the courts, the efforts have not been in vain. Grievances are traced through internal reviews, state and federal agency investigations, and the courts. Obstacles women encounter at each step are described and the outcomes, for individual plaintiffs and for their institutions, are summarized.

New York State's perspective on transportation energy contingency planning

This discussion assesses the practicality of federal and state transportation energy contingency planning. The behavior of individuals in responding to energy shortfalls in 1973 and 1979 is reviewed and quantified with respect to energy saved and mobility retained. Comparative assessments by demographic groups suggest that most individuals were capable of dealing with energy shortfalls without substantial governmental assistance. Private and personal actions pertaining primarily to vehicle use and ownership accounted for most of the energy saved, leaving very little to transit ridership or carpooling. Government energy contingency plans for state and local governments are reviewed according to their ability to assist consumers in maintaining mobility. The assessment concludes that such plans have been and are likely to be generally irrelevant to consumer direction and incapable of providing significant assistance. It is suggested that the focus of contingency planning should be on internal agency actions necessary to maintain services, rather than on attempts to induce consumers to change their behavior. The recent withdrawal of mandated federal and state contingency planning efforts is therefore not a serious problem.

The Bureaucratization of the Judiciary

history of the twentieth century is largely the history of increasing bureaucratization. Almost every phase of American life has come to be dominated by large-scale, complex organizations-the corporation, the labor union, the university, the public hospital, and even our national political agencies. national executive does not simply consist of the President and a small group of trusted advisers, but is instead composed of a vast, sprawling conglomerate of administrative agencies, which are staffed by more than three million (civilian) employees.' We have come to accept this and often refer to the executive branch as The Bureaucracy,' but a similar development has occurred within the legislature. In addition to some 500 senators and representatives, Congress now consists of about 40,000 employees, more than 300 committees and subcommittees, and 8 internal agencies (like the General Accounting Office and the Congressional Budget Office).' Against this background, an account of the judiciary, such as Cardozo's,4 that focuses exclusively on the agony of a lonely, isolated judge seems somewhat dated. Today the judiciary must be seen as a large-scale, complex organization. My claim is not that the bureaucratic character of the modern judiciary is a legacy of the New Deal, the ostensible subject of this symposium. interaction between the judiciary and the distinctive forms of government power legitimated by the New Deal may have contributed to and indeed exacerbated the bureaucratization of the judiciary;5 but I do not believe that this particular interaction is the basic cause of the phenomenon. I attribute it instead to the growing size and complexity of American society. judiciary should be seen as a coordinate source of government

Establishing a Management System: The Interaction of Power Shifts and Personality under Federal MBO

Management systems in the public sector have a high mortality rate; and a strikingly large number of systems falter and die in their very first years. Yet, a few systems survive the initial establishment period and continue for well over a decade. For example, both the planning programming budgeting (PPB) system and the by objectives (MBO) system have continued for over a decade in the Department of Defense. This article examines some of the reasons why a few such systems survive by focusing on the crucial early years of another longlived system-the MBO system in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), now the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Although some public administration literature seems to speak of MBO in the past tense, its importance continues. A number of the largest federal departments and agencies have continuing, institutionalized systems and a recent study of large American cities found more than 40 percent had MBO systems (and most were pleased with them).' Thus, the problem of establishing and institutionalizing such systems has continuing importance. This article examines the ways in which MBO shifts power within an organization. The interaction of these power shifts with the secretary's personality is often the primary determinant of whether a system succeeds. In fact, this analysis will argue that power shifts and other system-produced side benefits are far more important in institutionalizing a system than any increase in efficiency or effectiveness. This article focuses on the first five years (1971-1976) of HEW's MBO a system whose continuation and influence marks it as a clear success. HEW's system was the earliest, longest-lived, and most influential federal MBO effort. This study relied primarily on internal agency documents, but also included interviews with participants in the system.2 The focus was on secretarial-level systems; three other federal departments were also examined. Although MBO is often termed a management control system, its actual impact is rarely examined. The first section of this article examines the ways in which a new system shifts power in an organization, emphasizing the use of MBO-generated information as a political weapon. The second section argues that these shifts are in fact desirable. The final section examines the impact

The Internal Agency : Linchpin of the political police in Russia

Nurit Schleifmann, The Internal Agency: linchpin of the political police in Russia. The purpose of this article is to outline several of the characteristic features of police infiltration into the revolutionary movement by means of the secret agent. These features stem largely from the underlying conception of the Police Department which viewed its cardinal objective as "liquidation": the surveillance of revolutionary groups with the aim of eliminating them at an appropriate moment. Thus the Internal Agency - as the secret agents were collectively dubbed by the Police - had pride of place in the activity of each Okhrana section; the data gathered by the agents were given top priority in appraising the situation and since this information was tendentious, this led to incongruities between the revolutionary tide and the deployment of the police to combat it. Moreover, the underlying conception dictated police concentration on the individual revolutionary act and brought about the erroneous assumption that the larger the revolutionary organization, the greater its menace. Police comprehension of reality determined also their attitude towards the various components of the revolutionary camp. However, the scope of infiltration into a given movement was affected by a combination of three factors: the degree of interest evinced by the police in the movement's activity, the movement's size and the nature of its organization.

Problems in the Development of Legal Cybernetics

The Fifth Learned Conference on Problems of Legal Cybernetics was held in November 1975 at the USSR Ministry of Justice. Its participants summarized the results of scientific research in the use of computers and mathematical methods in the work of law-enforcement agencies and scholarly institutions in the legal field. Lawyers, working together with mathematicians and technicians, have accomplished a good deal in the last few years. Research in this field has taken on a broader scope. Along with the quest for ways of solving information-search, statistical, and criminalistic problems, research has been done with the object of creating an automated control system (ACS) for the internal affairs agencies, the procuracy, and the justice ministry. A ramified system of computer centers (CC) has been established within the system of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. A computerized equipment research laboratory is functioning in the USSR Institute on the Causes and Prevention of Crime, and there is also a CC ...

Disciplinary Answerability in Organs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

Disciplinary sanctions play a considerable role in the struggle against violations of discipline by the rank and file and officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs [MVD]. (1) Disciplinary sanctions may be applied only if the required basis exists. Under the prevailing legislation a disciplinary violation constitutes such grounds. As a consequence, clarity with respect to the essence of this type of violation by personnel of the internal affairs agencies is of much importance to theory and practice.

PPB in Hew: Some Management Issues

Abstract This article addresses several issues on the operation of a planning, programming, and budgeting system that arose during the author's tenure in the Office of Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. While the perspective is that of a top level federal office, it is anticipated that the insights will prove relevant to the operation of PPB in many other agencies concerned with programs in the human resources field. Among the issues covered are those of internal agency conflicts, measurement problems, and political difficulties in introducing an innovative management technique into a very complex and often non-quantitative governmental structure. The existing linkages between PPB and the legislative process are shown to be weak, although potentially very strategic.