Policy Disputes Research Articles

Differences in Perception of Extended Producer Responsibility and Product Stewardship among Stakeholders: An International Questionnaire Survey and Statistical Analysis

SummaryDifferent perceptions of the concept of extended producer responsibility and product stewardship (EPR/PS) have tended to lead to prolonged policy disputes and have likely affected the design of EPR/PS policies. We therefore surveyed stakeholders’ perceptions of the concept of EPR/PS, including its aims, application, and rationales, and analyzed 376 responses with regression analysis and cluster analysis. The results clearly demonstrated the diversity in stakeholders’ perceptions and identified/confirmed several patterns between stakeholders’ perceptions and attributes. Concerning aims, our analysis showed that stakeholders from middle‐/low‐income countries placed more importance on proper treatment and waste reduction in EPR/PS policy, while those from Europe, North America, Japan, and the rest of Asia had different perceptions on seven aims of EPR/PS, especially for increasing collection and shifting responsibility to producers, and paid varying attention to upstream and downstream improvement (e.g., better product design and recycling, respectively). Our analysis also confirmed that respondents perceiving lack of capability of local governments regarding waste management advocated EPR/PS more and respondents positive about information acquisition put more importance on physical responsibility. The largest contributing variables to the perception of EPR/PS were 14 specific EPR/PS mechanisms/issues, suggesting that discussion about specific mechanisms of EPR/PS policy is a key if common and better understandings of the EPR/PS concept are to develop. The dominant rationale of EPR/PS agreed upon by the respondents was producers’ capability, but the concept of beneficiary bears was also supported by 58% of respondents, especially by national governments and North Americans. Finally, implications of the results for EPR/PS policy development were discussed.

Understanding the U.S.-China Trade War

ABSTRACTThree major concerns drove the U.S. into initiating the trade war, and they are (a) the concern that China’s chronically large trade surplus was depressing job creation in the U.S. (b) the concern that China was using illegal and unfair methods to acquire U.S. technology at an effectively discounted price; and (c) the concern that China seeks to weaken U.S. national security and its international standing. On the dispute over China’s exchange rate and trade imbalance, the first conclusion is that it was marked by analytical confusion over the meaning of the term ‘equilibrium exchange rate’. The second conclusion is that China’s trade imbalance reflects the economic conditions in both China and U.S., and that the efficient and fair solution of the problem requires policy changes in both countries. On the industrial policy dispute, the first conclusion is that the issue of forced technology transfer is largely a dispute about China using its market power to benefit itself at the expense of its trade partners. The second conclusion is that China’s use of market power can last only until the other large countries could unite and retaliate as a group. The inevitability of retaliation means that China should replace the joint-venture (JV) mechanism for technological diffusion with other ways to strengthen its technological capability. On the U.S. concern about whether China trade weakens its national security, the first conclusion is that the notion of national security that is commonly adopted in the U.S. trade policy debate is ignorant about the primary determinants of U.S. capability in innovation. By focusing instead mainly on how to hold down China technologically, the long-run outcome will be a technologically weaker U.S. and hence, a more vulnerable U.S. The second conclusion is that the U.S. must identify a clear, short list of critical technologies and critical infrastructure for the recently reformed Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to cover, and update this list constantly. Otherwise, the broad and changing nature of notions about national security would allow the bureaucratically driven phenomenon of mission-creep to steadily expand the coverage of the CFIUS process, thereby steadily rendering CFIUS to be operationally capricious. Our principal policy suggestion to China is that, because China’s economy in 2018 is very different from that in 1978 (e.g. many parts of China now look like Singapore and China is Africa’s biggest donor), there should be more reciprocity in China’s trade and investment relations with the advanced economies despite China’s status as a developing economy under WTO rules. Our principal policy suggestion to President Trump is to stop equating strategic competition with economic competition. Strategic competition is normally a zero-sum game. While fair economic competition is usually a zero-sum game in the short run, it generally creates a win-win outcome in the long run.

Kenneth R. Hammond’s contributions to the study of judgment and decision making

AbstractKenneth R. Hammond (1917–2015) made several major contributions to the science of human judgment and decision making. As a student of Egon Brunswik, he kept Brunswik’s legacy alive – advancing his theory of probabilistic functionalism and championing his method of representative design. Hammond pioneered the use of Brunswik’s lens model as a framework for studying how individuals use information from the task environment to make clinical judgments, which was the precursor to much ‘policy capturing’ and ‘judgment analysis’ research. Hammond introduced the lens model equation to the study of judgment processes, and used this to measure the utility of different forms of feedback in multiple-cue probability learning. He extended the scope of analysis to contexts in which individuals interact with one another – introducing the interpersonal learning and interpersonal conflict paradigms. Hammond developed social judgment theory which provided a comprehensive quantitative approach for describing and improving judgment processes. He proposed cognitive continuum theory which states that quasi-rationality is an important middle-ground between intuition and analysis and that cognitive performance is dictated by the match between task properties and mode of cognition. Throughout his career, Hammond moved easily from basic laboratory work to applied settings, where he resolved policy disputes, and in doing so, he pointed to the dichotomy between theories of correspondence and coherence. In this paper, we present Hammond’s legacy to a new generation of judgment and decision making scholars.

Adopting an objective approach to criticality assessment: Learning from the past

Criticality assessment has been widely used in considering resource securement strategies. However, the selection and aggregation of the various risk factors remain a major challenge because these largely depend on subjective judgment by the evaluator. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce an objective perspective, which would develop criticality assessment as a more practical decision-making tool in combination with past subjective approaches. As a first attempt at an objective approach, this study conducted a case-based analysis of 448 supply disruption events for 22 metals. The results indicate 19 categories of causation of disruption, in which accidents, strikes, a fall in metal prices, natural disasters, and policy disputes are dominant. The analyses also reveal the differences in influential risk component between metals and supplier countries. For example, a fall in the metal price has more impact on developed supplier countries than developing countries. The knowledge gained from this case-based approach is useful in highlighting the risk components that have been overlooked in past assessments, in quantifying the integrated risk considering the relative importance of risk components, and in exploring strategies for criticality mitigation.

Competing Policy Windows in Biotechnology: The FDA, the 21st Century Cures Act, and Laboratory‐Developed Tests

AbstractIn 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed taking a more active role in the regulation of laboratory‐developed tests (LDTs). Meanwhile, the U.S. House of Representatives embarked upon the 21st Century Cures initiative to develop legislation to expedite the development of new biotechnology innovations. During that initiative and in the public comments responding to the draft guidance, there was significant disagreement as to whether the increased FDA regulation of LDTs was beneficial or detrimental to biotechnology. Both the FDA guidance document and the 21st Century Cures Act came about due to the opening of a window of opportunity created by the convergence of circumstances. The question is whether the windows of opportunity are competing and how to resolve this competition. This study will investigate these questions through a qualitative case study. It will also provide recommendations for resolving policy disputes involving wicked problems like biotechnology policy.

Bringing probability judgments into policy debates via forecasting tournaments.

Political debates often suffer from vague-verbiage predictions that make it difficult to assess accuracy and improve policy. A tournament sponsored by the U.S. intelligence community revealed ways in which forecasters can better use probability estimates to make predictions-even for seemingly "unique" events-and showed that tournaments are a useful tool for generating knowledge. Drawing on the literature about the effects of accountability, the authors suggest that tournaments may hold even greater potential as tools for depolarizing political debates and resolving policy disputes.

The Politics of Race, Administrative Appeals, and Medicaid Disenrollment in Tennessee

In 2004, Democratic Governor Philip Bredesen of Tennessee announced a plan to reform TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program. The reform package proposed to remove 323,000 adults from the program, which represented the most drastic cuts to Medicaid since its creation in 1965. The reform measure also allowed beneficiaries disenrolled from the program to appeal the decisions to the state Department of Human Services. This study examines how race and policy backlash—that is the backlash against Medicaid expansion—influenced the appellate process for beneficiaries removed from the program in Tennessee. The main argument is that race—especially the predisposition of African Americans—influenced the outcome of the appellate proceedings. The theoretical framework advanced in this study explains how procedural deliberations (legal decisions, policy disputes, administrative hearings) exacerbate disparities and produce differential outcomes that correspond with racial and other ascriptive hierarchies. The data for this research, comprising more than 60,000 former TennCare beneficiaries, were obtained through Open Records Requests in compliance with Tennessee state law. Using logistic regressions, the findings reveal a relationship between race and appellate proceedings. African Americans were treated unfairly in the early stage of the appellate process and those from racially polarized voting areas were less likely to receive fair rulings by hearing examiners. Additional findings identified age-related disparities between younger and older appellants, as well as a regional disadvantage between rural and urban beneficiaries.

Equal citizenship, neutrality, and democracy: a reply to critics of Equal Recognition

The commentators in this Special Issue raise questions about a number of aspects of the book. One group of critics questions the book’s overall normative strategy, asking whether too much weight is placed on the idea of neutrality. A second group raises doubts about the account of neutrality itself. A third zeroes in on the book’s discussion of language rights. And a fourth group is critical of the book’s assumptions about democracy, and about its relevance to public policy disputes. In this reply, I seek to address each of these clusters of concerns. In some places, I suggest, my commentators have misunderstood my position. In other places, I argue, they have not sufficiently thought through the implications of their alternatives to that position.

Let’s Just Agree to Disagree: Dispute Resolution Mechanisms in Coalition Agreements

Scholars of coalition politics have increasingly begun to focus on conflict within coalitions. Here we examine the role of coalition agreements in managing intracoalitional conflict. We argue that there is a trade-off between making policy agreements at the coalition’s formation (e.g., by making very detailed policy platforms) and postponing the issue’s resolution by creating procedures for settling policy disputes. We argue that the trade-off is increasingly likely to be resolved in favor of relying on a formal dispute resolution mechanism when coalitions are ideologically heterogeneous and the coalition parties differ in size. We test our theory using data from the German Lander between 1990 and 2013. These data allow us to isolate the effects of the bargaining situation and ideology while holding the institutional context constant. The empirical results support our main argument: When intracoalition conflict is high, parties write shorter coalition contracts but are more likely to adopt procedures for conflict resolution.

Argumentation in Educational Policy Disputes: Competing Visions of Quality and Equity

Current debates about test-based accountability policies revolve around questions of how to ensure that all students have access to high-quality schools and teachers. Whether and how one can meet this goal depend, in part, on the nature of the arguments that policy proponents and opponents mobilize in these debates. This article examines these arguments, focusing specifically on how policymakers and educators justify and critique prominent test-based accountability policies, the OECD's PISA, and enhanced teacher evaluation. Drawing on pragmatic sociology and our research on these policies, we show how policy proponents mobilize industrial, market, and civic arguments to define both quality and equity as the efficient production of standardized test scores. In contrast, educators more often employ civic and domestic arguments that expand the definition of educational quality, but do not engage issues of educational equity. We explore how educators can mobilize arguments and the news media to expand the definition of educational quality and equity to enrich both our vision of education and our debates about it.

Universities in contentious energy debates—Science, democracy and coal seam gas in Australia

Engaging with Australia’s nascent coal seam gas (CSG) industry reveals complex responsibilities and risks faced by contemporary universities. The relationship between science and society is shifting including universities’ relationships to private interests, technology and conceptualisations of knowledge as a ‘public good’ [28]. Understanding the material, political and economic forces that enable, shape or constrain knowledge is central to understanding contentious policy disputes. A more nuanced understanding of the economic and social conditions in which scientific knowledge is produced and absorbed, and a more careful examination of the institutional actors involved is sought [41,43,76,77]. Toward that end, this article explores the dynamics of a university-industry partnership established in the contentious research and policy arena of CSG. It draws upon the authors’ experiences as participant-observers in an industry-funded research centre. These experiences have helped to characterise contradictions inherent in the demands on modern universities—private funding of research within public institutions, industry-driven research agendas, problem-solving with competing disciplinary epistemologies, and safeguarding the public interest as it relates to creation of knowledge to inform public policy decision-making. Such debates are of increasing importance as research can stimulate, or inhibit, major technological transitions in the energy arena.

Health governance in a context of crisis - the perspective of efficiency and effectiveness in the Portuguese health system

<p>The financial and economic crisis from 2008 has<br />a great impact in welfare states, notably in one<br />of their fundamental pillars – health. In Portugal,<br />the total spending on health reached 10.1% of<br />GDP in 2008 and will increase in view of the<br />current panorama. The objective of this study is<br />to analyze the health policies and the Portuguese<br />health system, in a context of economic, financial<br />and social crisis, in the light of the speeches of<br />policy-makers and experts about the processes<br />of governance and contingency measures,<br />considering dimensions of analysis efficiency and<br />effectiveness. In the dimension of effectiveness,<br />measures have been pointed out for protecting<br />the most vulnerable, for the empowerment of<br />citizens, for reduction of inequalities and for the<br />protection and promotion of health. Finally, in<br />the dimension of efficiency, there are important<br />measures to cut off expenditure, of mobilization<br />of financial resources, in the rationalization of<br />resources and services and in professional and<br />organizational development. In theoretical<br />domains of risk and uncertainty, we see through<br />the speeches of policy-makers and experts, that<br />these are domains for the exercise of policies<br />on critical governance processes, determined<br />by identified sources of insecurity, processes of<br />public debate and in terms of policy dispute.</p>

Being Expert: L’Aquila and Issues of Inclusion in Science-Policy Decision Making

Responding to the call to provide guidance for incorporating diverse perspectives in science-policy debate, Collins and Evans’ normative model of expertise provides a useful starting point for deciding who gets to come to the table—expertise and experience. However, new materialist critiques highlight the epistemic challenges of such an approach. Drawing on the work of Annemarie Mol, I propose that the theory of multiple ontologies and a practise-based orientation can enrich conversations about expertise and inclusion in science-policy decision-making, particularly in matters of concern. Specifically, I reread Collins and Evans’ normative model of expertise through multiple ontologies, resulting in an expertise of doing. Such an approach both productively resolves gaps in each while leading to the creation of something new. I will explore what this expertise of doing might mean for the long-standing problem of expertise and inclusion in scientific, technical, and health policy disputes. Specifically, I present a case study of the L’Aquila controversy, an undeniable matter of concern, and ruminate on what an expertise of doing might suggest about how to reconfigure such decision-making disputes.

Trade and Conflicts: Do Preferential Trade Agreements Matter?

AbstractA long debate continues whether international trade institutions (specifically preferential trade agreements [PTAs]) affect security relations between states. Contradicting theories and empirical claims are put forward by realists and liberals. The former posit that the institutions are epiphenomenal and possess no power to constrain state behavior whereas the latter claim that the institutions are likely to promote cooperation by supplying forums for consultation, arbitration and adjudication, thus reducing the risk of war between states. This study identifies an important channel through which the legal dimension of trade agreements (hence dispute settlement mechanisms [DSMs] in PTAs) may have pacifying effects on the outbreaks of war. DSMs of PTAs do have strong implications for militarized interstate disputes (MIDs), although not directly, but through low-level of foreign policy disputes, such as economic sanctions. If economic sanctions are believed to escalate to violent conflict, PTA DSMs may reduce the probability of war by mitigating the escalation of economic sanctions. However, the level of legalism differs among DSMs in PTAs. The present study first confirms empirically that sanction disputes escalate to militarized disputes and further, addresses the selection issue by using bivariate probit model. I find a sizeable impact of medium level of legalism reducing the sanctions escalation into war whereas high level of legalism, in which the state sovereignty is limited, do reduce the probability of sanctions but have no impact on war probability. Further, the interstate political cooperation proves to be a strong determinant for highly legalistic PTAs but not in the case of medium level of legalism.

RELAÇÕES NAVAIS ENTRE BRASIL E REINO UNIDO DURANTE A GUERRA FRIA: O CASO DA AQUISIÇÃO DAS FRAGATAS VOSPER

This article aims to analyze the case of the acquisition of Vosper frigates by the Brazilian Navy, which took place in early 1970. Besides being an illustrative case of foreign policy disputes, it demonstrates how economic interests can define the foreign policy of nations. The business of frigates is considered strategic for the relationship between Brazil and the United Kingdom.

Not God’s Politics

In public policy disputes with a moral dimension—that is, every important policy dispute—democracy demands a political consensus that transcends all religions and, inevitably, runs counter to some. Equating morality with religion is one of the great mistakes—and great lies—of those who hate secular government.

Using Devising Seminars to Advance Collaborative Problem Solving in Complicated Public Policy Disputes

In many public policy situations, formal negotiations and collective problem solving are inhibited by a lack of good ideas that can get the buy‐in and support of all involved stakeholders. We suggest that devising seminars provide a promising approach for helping to overcome this barrier. A devising seminar is an off‐the‐record, facilitated workshop that brings together representatives of core stakeholding interest groups to brainstorm mutually advantageous approaches to address collective challenges. In this article, we explain what devising seminars are, how they work, and how they can help with complex public policy disputes. We illustrate through the case of the Devising Seminar on Arctic Fisheries and conclude with lessons learned from that experience.

Equal, global, local: discourses in Taiwan's international medical graduate debate.

With the globalisation of medicine, the role of international medical graduates (IMGs) has expanded. Nonetheless, the experiences of native-born IMGs remain under-researched. In Taiwan, public controversy has unfolded around IMGs educated in Poland, calling into question the meaning(s) of equality in policy and medicine. In focusing on the return of IMGs to their countries of origin, this study adds to the growing literature concerning equality and globalisation in medical education. The primary research aim was to analyse how stakeholders in the IMG debate use equality in their arguments. The authors set out to frame the dispute within the recent history of Taiwanese medical governance. An overarching objective was to contribute a critical, historical view of how discourses of globalisation and equality construct different policy approaches to international medical education. The authors performed a critical discourse analysis of a public policy dispute in Taiwan, assembling an archive from online interactions, government reports and news articles. Coding focused on stakeholders' uses of equality to generate broader discourses. International and domestic Taiwanese students conceived of equality differently, referencing both 'equality of opportunity' and 'equality of outcome' within localisation and globalisation frameworks, respectively. The dominance of localisation discourse is reflected in hostile online rhetoric towards Poland-educated IMGs. Rhetorical disagreements over equality in medical education trace shifting state policies, from earlier attempts to remove barriers for IMGs to the present-day push to regulate IMGs for acculturation and quality assurance. The global Internet had a double-sided influence, facilitating both democratic political mobilization and the spread of hate speech. The policy debate in Taiwan mirrors discourses in Canada, where IMGs are likewise conceived either as globally competent physicians or as lacking in merit and technical competence. Future research could investigate the discursive formation and evidential basis of policies regulating international medical education.

ED Law

The amount of homework teachers assign has become a frequent topic of school policy and legal dispute. Courts have tended to leave the matter to local schools and local school boards, which is the proper place for such issues to be decided.

Featured Collection Introduction: Riparian Ecosystems and Buffers II

Riparian ecosystems, the interface of terrestrial and aquatic systems, are zones of high biodiversity (Naiman et al., 1993), rapid biogeochemical activity (Vidon et al., 2010), complex hydrologic activity (Mayer et al., 2010a), and offer solace that can bestow significant mental health benefits (Alcock et al., 2014). Yet, many riparian zones also represent intersections of policy disputes, economic tradeoffs, and environmental degradation. A clearer understanding of science is necessary to establish better resource policy, identify economic values, stave off environmental impacts to riparian ecosystems, and sustain valuable ecosystem services in the face of land-use change, ever-increasing resource consumption, pollution, and climate change. The value of assembling riparian scientists at a meeting every few years is to facilitate the exchange of information that will advance our knowledge to deal with the legacy of past impacts and to meet the challenges of the present and future.