Direction Of National Policy Research Articles

Integrating physical, biological, social and economic sciences for dryland salinity management and policy

The earth sciences have made major contributions to the diagnosis and management of dryland salinity in Australia, and have influenced policy directions in a number of ways. However a well-balanced response to salinity requires the integration of information from a range of disciplines, including physical, biological, social and economic sciences. This paper discusses dryland salinity management and policy, bringing together key issues from each of those disciplines. At the farm level, beyond being consistent with hydrogeological knowledge, proposed responses need to be sufficiently economically attractive in the long term, and ideally should have other characteristics that promote widespread adoption among the farming community. At the policy level, the same farm-level issues are relevant to the selection of appropriate policy tools and the design of programs, and the issue is further complicated by the diversity of bio-physical and socio-economic circumstances that must be addressed, by the diversity of policy tools available, and by a number of other specific challenges that have emerged in recent years. We present a framework that has been developed to integrate the relevant information and allow improved investment decisions by catchment managers and policy makers in relation to dryland salinity. Application of the framework indicates the need for a number of important changes to Australia's national policy directions for salinity.

An Industrial Development Strategy for Indonesia: Lessons from the South Korean Experience

The most important feature of South Korea's industrial development policy during the past several decades is its integrated approach to industrial development. Trade policy, human-resource development policy, and technology policy were well coordinated and complementary to industrial policy. An integrated policy approach to industrial development appears still to be relevant today for developing countries, including Indonesia. Based on this policy concept, the paper suggests national policy directions for Indonesia's industrial development through investment, trade, technology, human-resource and SME development policies.

Urban Growth Management in Christchurch

ABSTRACTThis article provides a critique of urban planning in the Christchurch metropolitan region. It is argued that pressure from land owners and developers in the urban fringe, self interest of constituent territorial local authorities, and inadequate national policy direction based on limited interpretation of the planning scope of the Resource Management Act 1991 have constrained a strategic approach to urban growth management in Christchurch. This situation stands in contrast to the apparent success of the Regional Growth Forum in Auckland.

Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention in Mental Health: The Australian Experience

Significant progress has been made in Australia in the fields of promotion, prevention and early intervention in mental health. These initiatives have been supported through national policy directions under the National Mental Health Strategy, as well as at state and local levels. The population health model has been important in ensuring that promotion, prevention and early intervention initiatives are targeted across the lifespan, are underpinned by evidence, and occur alongside individual clinical mental health care. Initiatives under way across Australia are discussed.

Transition from School to Adult Life: Empowering Youth Through Community Ownership and Accountability

The evolution of transition services for youth with disabilities illustrates the transformation that has occurred from a systems-driven to a youth-centered support approach. This article documents how this shift has occurred. We review research that has influenced the direction of national policies and practices. A chronology of the policies that best represent the seminal foundation for current transition best practices for youth with emotional disturbance (ED) is presented. The field of special education led the way toward articulating the new vision for providing transition support by defining services as the coordination of multiple systems to address life domains (e.g., post-secondary education, employment, independent living, and community adjustment). Promising practices, within the context of the conversion to an ecological model of support that contributes to youth self-determination, include utilization of a youth-centered, strengths-based approach to transition planning, beginning in the middle school years. There remain significant barriers to adoption of the practices that may best support the successful transition of youth. These include lack of coordinated efforts across systems, socioeconomic, and community factors. Committed actions by government, the business sector, and private citizens are essential to address these challenges.

The role of nuclear energy in establishing sustainable energy paths

Nuclear energy remains a controversial issue for public policies on energy and the environment because of arguments concerning radioactive waste, reactor accidents, nuclear proliferation and economic competitiveness. The issues of climate change and supply security have provided a new rationale for its reappearance on the international political agenda. Recent national policy directions in some countries show that such a comeback is not just wishful thinking by the nuclear establishment. Energy technologies ought to be considered in terms of their potential to contribute to goals of sustainability, including climate change prevention and supply security support. This implies a balanced judgement of their environmental, economic and social risks. Considering nuclear energy in terms of sustainability goals has so far been largely avoided, because many scientists and policy makers either exclude this option by definition or consider the nuclear issue outside their domain of competence, given the dominant role of public opinion. This article attempts to fill this hiatus by reframing the question of the sustainability of nuclear energy in a dynamic way. Clearly, nuclear energy possesses risk characteristics that are very distinctive from those of fossil fuels, and are much more apparent than they are for most renewables. We point out, however, that one of the reasons for the latter is that renewables have so far not yet been applied on any major global scale. We confirm that nuclear energy does not meet some essential requirements for establishing sustainable energy paths. Still, we point out how nuclear energy can play a transitional role towards establishing sustainable energy systems. During this transitional phase, some of nuclear's more problematic aspects might be rendered significantly more sustainable, giving nuclear energy a potential role beyond this transitional period.

Power Asset Valuation

In the regulated environment, valuation of power plants was simpler. Investor-owned utilities were able to pass costs of generation projects on to end users. Today, at least two power plant valuation methodologies exist: discounted cash flow (DCF) analyses and option approaches. While the approaches or modeling techniques are rather straightforward, the inputs or assumptions put into the model are not. Valuation in the current, quasi-deregulated market depends on numerous factors between the wellhead and the wall socket including fuel prices; environmental compliance costs; the changing structure of the generation, transmission, and distribution sectors; the role of energy marketers; the direction of electricity deregulation and national energy policy; and the plant owner9s business strategy (stand-alone or portfolio of plants; baseload, mid-merit, or peaker; etc.).

Education policy and social class in England and New Zealand: an instructive comparison

This article explores the ‘middle-class pressure thesis’, the extent to which recent education policy in England under New Labour may be shaped by the need to respond to an increasingly large and anxious middle class. It discusses why the intensification of middle-class pressure on education policy in England could be expected and outlines how New Labour's education policies can be seen as a response to that pressure. In the latter part of the article the case of New Zealand is used to ‘speak back’ to the middle-class pressure thesis in England. New Zealand highlights the potent influence of England's historic and recent class context on policy by demonstrating a setting where market policies have been embraced by policy makers but where class has played a less important role. The article suggests that although the means by which social class at the local level might act back on and help shape the direction of national education policy will be difficult to investigate, it would be a rewarding direction for future policy research related to social class.

Education policy and social class in England and New Zealand: an instructive comparison

This article explores the ‘middle-class pressure thesis’, the extent to which recent education policy in England under New Labour may be shaped by the need to respond to an increasingly large and anxious middle class. It discusses why the intensification of middle-class pressure on education policy in England could be expected and outlines how New Labour's education policies can be seen as a response to that pressure. In the latter part of the article the case of New Zealand is used to ‘speak back’ to the middle-class pressure thesis in England. New Zealand highlights the potent influence of England's historic and recent class context on policy by demonstrating a setting where market policies have been embraced by policy makers but where class has played a less important role. The article suggests that although the means by which social class at the local level might act back on and help shape the direction of national education policy will be difficult to investigate, it would be a rewarding direction for future policy research related to social class.

BIO-SAFE: a method for evaluation of biodiversity values on the basis of political and legal criteria

This paper presents a Spreadsheet Application For Evaluation of BIOdiversity (BIO-SAFE) on the basis of political and legal criteria derived from national and international policy plans, laws, treaties and directives. The BIO-SAFE is developed as a management tool to optimise mutual attuning of nature conservation policies and other interests in spatial planning. Fields of application of BIO-SAFE comprise designs and evaluations of physical planning projects, environmental impact assessments and comparative landscape-ecological studies. Taxonomic groups involved in BIO-SAFE are higher plants, dragonflies and damselflies, butterflies, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The development of BIO-SAFE was based on species characteristic of rivers and their floodplains, but the principles of the method can easily be applied to other ecosystems as well. The BIO-SAFE has been applied on behalf of a combined flood risk reduction and ecological rehabilitation plan for the Rijnwaarden floodplains (River Rhine, the Netherlands). Application to flora and fauna data available for this area showed that the BIO-SAFE method enables the user to express politically and legally based biodiversity values in quantitative terms and to compare biodiversity values for various taxonomic groups, landscape-ecological units (e.g. ecotopes) and physical planning scenarios. By linking habitat preferences of the species selected to ecotopes, the method also allows the user to derive relevant information at the ecosystem level. Because of its policy-based character, BIO-SAFE yields complementary information to more established ecological biodiversity indices.

Improving clinical management for consumers with co-existing mental health and substance use disorders: an integrated approach.

Using Quality Improvement project methodology, complex organisational and clinical practice change was brought about to improve services for people with co-existing mental health and alcohol and drug misuse. The project describes local uptake and adaptation of national and state policy to achieve change that is sustainable within existing resources. Emphasis on engagement of staff and consumers and carers throughout the change was an essential component. The project has implications for the introduction of changes in response to other national policy directives.

The Role of Primary Care Group Mental Health Leads

hat is the role of a primary care group/trust mental health lead (MHL)? The simple answer is to raise the standard of mental health care for the local population and particularly for those in greatest need. Such a role, however, will need to encompass many aspects of primary care services and organisations, the full range of mental health service provision and an understanding of the current and likely future direction of national policy. If this role is to be successfully implemented MHLs will need to bring a wide range of skills, knowledge and experience to all these areas. It is against this backdrop that such a role needs to be defined and assessed.

Women and Employment in Southern Europe: The Implications of Recent Policy and Labour Market Directions

This article examines the implications of European Union and national policy directions for women's integration into the labour markets of southern European countries. First, there is a discussion of the distinctive nature of women's integration into the labour markets of Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Secondly the paper considers the implications of recent policy directions with respect to public sector employment, payment structures, small firms, flexible work, and policies to reconcile employment and family life. Despite the welcome focus on mainstreaming gender equality into EU employment policies, many of the developments discussed in this paper would seem to be contradictory to this commitment.

Improving the social responsiveness of medical schools: lessons from the Canadian experience.

The recent Canadian experience in promoting social accountability and social responsiveness of medical schools has been one of steady improvement in certain institutions, against a background lacking overall national policy direction. Canada has several distinct advantages in trying to devise means of enhancing social accountability of medical training and health services, including a strong national system of publicly supported and financed health care of high quality, a network of excellent academic medical centers, and well-established accreditation bodies. A review of the literature, complemented by a new survey of Canadian medical schools, confirms that some of the centers, conscious of the need to promote social responsiveness, are developing innovative programs to do so. Future progress toward the goal of social responsiveness of medical schools on a pan-Canadian basis will require a more cohesive approach involving systematic sharing of best practices among academic health centers, effective alliances with other health professionals to promote these objectives, and support by federal and provincial ministries of health. Canadian awareness of an international movement tending to similar objectives would support the efforts of Canadian health professionals engaged in practices of enhanced accountability.

Features of policy-making processes in Japan's Council for Science and Technology

The aim of this paper is to elucidate the features of the policy-making mechanism of Japan's Council for Science and Technology (CST) focusing on the policy-making processes of comprehensive recommendations. The CST is the highest decision-making organization in Japan's science and technology administrative process and the recommendations have a great influence on the direction of national science and technology policy. The main results are as follows: In the CST, the organizations are never static but very flexible. The dynamic creation of deliberating groups occur in accordance with the development of the policy plan. Thereupon, the incessant negotiations between internal groups of the related ministries are very essential, and the policy-making process is achieved in this interactive way among the policy-makers in participating organizations. In this process, the dual-post holdings (DPH) in the vertical direction of the hierarchy can be seen frequently within the CST. This plays an important role in communication and is a very effective method of information transfer and consensus-building in policy formation requiring a high degree of expertise such as science and technology.

Terrace Construction and Productivity on Loessal Soils in Zhongyang County, Shanxi Province, PRC

Abstract Erosion is a pressing problem throughout rural China, but the problem is most severe within the Loess Plateau of north central China. The Loess Plateau is losing an average of one centimeter of soil each year due to erosion and related environmental problems. The eroded loess clogs irrigation systems, restricts navigation on all rivers within the region, fouls urban and industrial water systems, and for agriculture represents a loss of a vital resource that this very poor area cannot afford. While land stabilization in the region has been given a very high priority by regional and national planners for economic and environmental reasons, the selection of the most appropriate measures for land stabilization remains controversial. This research, based on a survey of 330 households in Zhongyang County, Shanxi Province, PRC, estimates the increases in gross production and yields which can reasonably be expected from improvements to cultivated slopeland through land stabilization using two different types of terrace construction. The first of these involves the construction of terraces built almost entirely with human labor. The second replaces most of this human labor with earth-moving equipment used to construct broader and considerably more expensive terraces. We estimate and compare differences in yields and production costs for common crops grown on these two types of terraced land as well as two types of unstabilized land. Specifically, the types of land evaluated in the study include: 1) terraces constructed by human labor alone (rengong titian); 2) terraces constructed using earth-moving equipment (jixie titian); 3) flat unterraced land (yuandij not yet severely affected by erosion; and 4) by way of a control, un-improved slopeland (podi]. The crops evaluated are corn, millet, soybeans, sunflower, white potatoes, and sor-ghum-the main subsistence and economic crops in the region. These data are used to generate production functions for each of the six crops to determine the contribution of terrace construction to gross production. Multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) is used to determine if mean yields for these six crops are significantly different on different land types. Results of these analyses indicate that yields for all crops grown on mechanically constructed terraces are significantly higher than yields for crops grown on terraces constructed by hand, while yields of crops grown on both types of terraces remain lower than for crops grown on flat land which has not yet faced serious erosion. From the perspective of farm households living in this region, the proper management of existing flat land and the increased construction of mechanically constructed terraces are the best strategies for improving output and farm income while also helping to slow erosion. Government agencies beyond the region, however, continue to favor terraces constructed by hand owing to lower costs. The implications for local, regional, and national policy directives are discussed.

Targeting Opportunities for Change: Mental Health Promotion in Primary Care

National policy directions currently provide an environment in which mental health promotion activities can be widely supported in health and related arenas. Several recent national reports have identified the importance of primary care, especially in general practice settings, as the principal point of entry to the Australian health care system. A broad overview of the current policy climate prefaces a discussion of the opportunities for mental health promotion in the primary care sector, focusing on general practice settings and using depression as an example. Implications and consequences related to training of the mental health workforce, with special reference to roles for psychologists are discussed. Finally, recommendations are made for future directions in mental health promotion and prevention research in primary care.

Economic Development and Indian Land Rights in Modern Alaska: The 1947 Tongass Timber Act

etween 1933 and 1945, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes and Indian Commissioner John Collier attempted to extend the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the Indian New Deal, to Alaska. With other administration officials, Ickes was determined to protect native land title and help natives defend their fishing and hunting rights. He also hoped the act would provide natives with desperately needed financial help. The IRA was amended to apply to Alaska in 1936 (the Alaska Reorganization Act). This legislation enabled natives to establish village self-government and borrow money from a federal credit fund, but implementation of other provisions of the act failed in the territory, due to poor administration by the Office of Indian Affairs, inadequate funding by the Congress, and confusion and inconsistency in defining policy.' One historian has declared this attempted extension of the Indian New Deal a mistake, on the grounds that it increased tension between the territory's native and white residents, and delayed the resolution of native land title questions and the securing of social justice for Alaska's native people.2 By 1945, the attempt to establish the Indian New Deal in Alaska had ended. In the next several years, as the direction of national Indian policy began to change, Congress debated several measures dealing with Alaska Indians. These included a bill to rescind the authority of the secretary of

From the Field to the Cooking Pot: Economic Crisis and the Threat to Marketers in Peru

In recent years the Peruvian government has faced two related and pressing problems: rising food prices and a proliferation of urban marketers and street vendors. The government's solution is to blame the latter for the inflation. This paper suggests that while it has served middle class interests to hold small marketers?among whom a majority are poor women?responsible for soaring food costs, closer examination shows that both high prices and the growth of petty commerce are responses to more fundamental economic problems of dependent capitalism in Peru. The Peruvian case may be understood in the more general context of the situation confronting many third world countries in which economic underdevelopment is accompanied by an expanding informal sector. Of course, there is much that can be said for the irrationality of the present marketing system in Peru?where 99 per cent of retail activity is in the hands of small, independent2 sellers (Esculies Larrabure et al. 1977:181)?and we may imagine a situation in which economic planning might result in far smoother distribution. Certainly, many marketers would be delighted to leave their market stalls and places in the streets were there employment alternatives open to them. But to expect the state in its present form to accomplish successful reform of the system through curtailing petty trade overlooks certain critical factors. First, it ignores the role ofthe Peruvian government itself in generating and perpetuating the current economic crisis and it never considers the broader international implications for Peru's food prices. Second, this view neglects some important features of the work of marketers within the present structure of underdevelop? ment in Peru; e.g., their capacity to keep down prices, their productive contribution to the process of bringing goods to consumers, and their selfsufficiency, which acts to offset the level of unemployment. If small-scale marketers provide essential services in Peru, and if petty commerce offers employment?however marginal?to members of society who might otherwise be unemployed, why then has the Peruvian government taken actions that appear to jeopardize the livelihood of marketers? Following some brief background to the current economic crisis in Peru, I discuss the relationship of small marketers to food prices, counterposing the government policy position with my own view. Developments in 1977 in the provincial city of Huaraz are then presented to illustrate how national policy directives from Lima resulted in tightening control of commerce at the local level. Finally, how national efforts to curtail marketing activity have become an important aspect of repressive government action is considered.

National Aid and Local Autonomy in Japan

It has long been believed that local autonomy is virtually nonexistent in Japan, but few empirical studies have tested for the impact of central controls over local financing on local spending priorities. In an analysis of budgetary data for Japan's 46 prefectures it is found that national aid has a weaker direct stimulation effect in Japan than in the United States, and that national aid has been used by local Japanese governments to release revenues, derived from internal sources, from ongoing programs in favor of new local priorities. Moreover, the high-income/low-dependency prefectures are shown to have shifted their spending priorities to innovative new programs in advance of national policy directives, particularly during periods of high economic growth. In addition, the overall strength of the progressive parties in a prefecture is associated with a shift in local priorities from public works to welfare spending. Both income and party have independent effects and in the late 1960s and early 1970s furnished several urban, high-income, progressive prefectures with the capacity and motivation to implement innovative, welfare-oriented policies. These findings suggest a need to revise our model of the central/local linkages in the Japanese policy-making process from a unitary, highly centralized depiction to a more two-way interaction.