History Of Policy Research Articles

Historical policy of communist Romania in the opinions of PPR diplomacy

The article proposes to look at the phenomenon of the historical politics of the authorities of communist Romania through the prism of opinions on this subject from the diplomacy, also communist, of the Polish People's Republic. It is about opinions of representatives of a state whose citizens during the communist period were not subjected to and did not succumb to such strong political indoctrination as in other satellite states of the Kremlin on the subject of a state which, from the 1960s onwards, conducted the most independent and distanced foreign politics from the Kremlin among these satellites and which went furthest among these states in instrumentally using historical politics and the often accompanying nationalism for political purposes. As the Polish observers have argued, the Romanian authorities saw in the image of Romanians and Romanian history created by them a valuable tool to shape for themselves the favor of society, its views and public sentiment depending on the political demand of the moment. It was most controversial among Poles, but supported by the Romanian public, that the Romanian authorities used history to more or less openly attack the Soviet Union in the name of defending their sovereignty. The Polish authorities also viewed with distance the theory deriving modern Romanians from the ancient Dacians and generally considered Romanian historiography to be biased and unreliable. In spite of the fall of communism, unlike in Poland, the picture of Romanian history shaped earlier, with a strong nationalist accent, is still readily accepted by Romanians.

Britain’s Policy of Socio-Cultural Influence: the Current State and Recent Developments

The paper deals with the latest developments in Britain’s socio-cultural influence on the world stage, including changes in institutional design of governance as well as sources and volume of financing. Primary funding source as well as official conceptual framework for the development of British foreign policy influence programs is provided by the development assistance policy. The author looks into the structure and dynamics of expenditures and draws a comparison with other leading Western powers. The research shows no significant transformations of approaches over the last decade as far as general logic and influence mechanisms are concerned. However, the paper identifies trends towards growing politicisation and weaponisation of sociocultural influence. The conclusion is made that Britain’s foreign influence policies are in the process of the biggest upheaval over the last 25 years amidst funding cuts and more strict subordination to short-term national interests and political priorities. These changes are not unprecedented in terms of British foreign policy history, including the Thatcher era. Socio-cultural influence remains significant, and frequently essential London’s foreign policy tool. The British establishment makes attempts to readjust and sharpen the existing influence toolkit according to the logic of interstate rivalry. London effectively tries to return to previous historical epochs in the new international setting and altered global balance of power. These decisions appear to a great extent opportunistic and do not promise consistence and soundness to the chosen political course although they contribute to its growing unpredictability.

The “Illusion” of Childcare Reform: The Child Care Expense Deduction, Tax Expenditures, and Social Policy

In most historical work on Canadian childcare policy, the tax system is treated as an afterthought. This article does the opposite by considering the introduction and operation of the Child Care Expense Deduction (cced), introduced in 1971, as part of the history of childcare policy and politics. The cced had a significant impact on how childcare policy unfolded in the decades following its introduction. By offering cash transfers to some working parents, and disproportionately to higher-income families, the cced helped both to reinforce the idea that childcare was a private responsibility and to subsidize the private and for-profit childcare market. Over time, supported by a growing constituency of interests who benefited from tax breaks, the tax-based approach to childcare support became entrenched. The cced was among the combination of factors that helped forestall the possibility of a universal childcare program in Canada.

Farmland to sea: the contemporary policy history of night soil management in Tokyo

Farmland to sea: the contemporary policy history of night soil management in Tokyo

AGRICULTURAL POLICIES IN TÜRKIYE: A STUDY ON KARABÜK EFLANI DISTRICT

Agriculture is one of the most significant issues of a society. It is among the leading points such as for nutrition, industry and employment. In Türkiye, the phenomenon of agriculture has been handled carefully since the first years of the republic. The necessary institutions and legislation have been established and the state has always continued its pioneering role in agriculture. In this study, the agricultural policies put forward by the state in Türkiye have been examined specifically in the Eflani district of Karabük. First, the history of agricultural policies in Türkiye has been explained. Then, the reflections of the agricultural policies upon the Eflani district have been compiled. Finally, the functionality of agricultural policies in Eflani district has been discussed and some suggestions that are expected to be useful throughout the country have been presented.

Creating thresholds for success and ‘underachievement’: a critical policy history of public examinations in England

ABSTRACT In England, thresholds for success in public examinations taken by 15/16 year-olds play a major role in the education system. Definitions of what constitutes ‘success’ change over time and have an important impact on young people’s progression to further education, training, and employment. By taking a historical view of examination thresholds at 15/16 in England, we show that thresholds are not a mere reflection of societal or economic norms, nor are changes to them simply gradual adjustments or technical modifications. Using ideas from ‘critical policy sociology’ (see Savage, Gerard, Gale and Molla, 2021), we argue that thresholds can be understood as ‘temporary settlements’ (Gale 1999, p. 401) that are the product of four separate but interlocking policy contests around educational purposes, the importance of specific subjects, the role of education in the economy, and educational governance. Analysing and decoding the production of changing thresholds over long periods through these policy contests allows us to more clearly understand the contemporary situation (where thresholds have become very prescriptive) and to challenge the foundations of thresholds: creating space for different conceptions of success and failure.

Unveiling China's Fertility Dilemma: Analyzing Risk Factors and Their Global Implications

Abstract: The National Bureau of Statistics of China has announced in 2021 that the country has formally entered the stage of low fertility rate, reaching a historically low of 1.3. Such low birth is far below the replacement level of 2.1 which is needed for maintaining a sustainable population, implying the possibility for China to start a significant demographic shift. Several key factors have contributed to this decline. Factors behind the problem includes Chinas historical policy implementation, socioeconomic factors including the rise of housing price and cost of upbringing and social factors including waning of social norms and ascent of gender equity. Such phenomenon serves as also valuable insights for analyzing global fertility intention for countries like Switzerland, the United States and South Korea. As all global policymakers seek to address the problem of unstable and declining fertility rates and waning fertility intention, the Chinese case could provide intriguing example as supportive evidence.

What Should Psychometricians Know about the History of Testing and Testing Policy?

AbstractIn 2023, a National Council on Measurement in Education Presidential Task Force developed a consensus framework for foundational competencies in educational measurement to guide graduate programs and subsequent professional development. This article elaborates on the social, cultural, historical, and political context subdomain from that framework. A graduate course on the history of testing and testing policy in the United States is proposed to help measurement professionals develop an understanding of historic belief systems and theories of action that affect every aspect of testing applications—definition of constructs, instrument design, respondents’ interactions, interpretations and use of results, and both intended and unintended consequences. Two, accessible, key readings are proposed for each of 14 weeks addressing the following topics: IQ testing and deficit perspectives; special education placements, disproportionality, and accommodations; grade retention and tracking; college admissions testing; standards‐based reforms; 1990s performance assessment innovations; NCLB and school accountability; achievement gaps and opportunity to learn; NAEP and international assessments; standard setting and NAEP achievement levels; Common Core State Standards and ESSA; formative assessment and research on learning; culturally responsive assessment.

Supply Skepticism or Supply Realism?

While Been et al. makes a strong case that new market‑rate supply can affect rents and prices, what is missing from the piece is sufficient context on who benefits, to what extent and whether market reforms and high‑end rental housing can adequately move the housing affordability needle for low‑income renters. At best, current research suggests new market‑rate rental supply slightly lowers the rate of rent increases for all, at worst it may also increase rents in the short‑run in lower quality housing occupied by lower‑income renters. While the authors critique “supply skepticism,” I call for a middle path of supply realism. Supply realism acknowledges the racist history of exclusionary housing policies, embraces zoning reforms while also being clear eyed about the limitations of zoning and other market reforms alone to achieve universal housing affordability.

Public policy: at the forefront of training a new generation of political experts.

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of public policy as a scientific and academic category. Public policy is one of the fastest growing scientific and educational areas in the 21st century. This trend should not be considered solely as a tribute to fashion; with the right approach, public policy can become the cornerstone in the study of the political process and in training a new generation of experts in the field of political management and decision-making. Moscow University is one of the leaders in the development of this area, introducing public policy at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The article examines the history of public policy, shows the main theoretical and methodological prerequisites for its study, and the reasons for its institutionalization in different countries of the world. It is shown that public policy is a multifaceted category, the understanding of which varies depending on theoretical, managerial and ideological perspectives. At the same time, it is the most important educational and research area, which is associated with the fundamental principles of the functioning of the state, issues of increasing the efficiency of public administration, and harmonizing the interests of the state and society. The author proves the point of view that universities involved in organizing the training of public policy experts are today at the forefront of the processes of modernization and increasing the efficiency of the entire political and administrative apparatus. Public policy experts trained by Russian universities in general and Moscow University in particular are future multidisciplinary professionals capable of managing complex socio-political processes, increasing the efficiency of the state apparatus, and building a competent balance between state and public interests.

A short history of careers education policy in England

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Neutral Paradoxes. Switzerland and the Allies at the Beginning of the Second World War

ABSTRACT The article offers a new perspective on the history of Swiss foreign policy between 1938 and 1940 by focusing on Switzerland’s relations with the Allies. It argues that the Allies were well-disposed towards Swiss foreign policy between 1938 and 1940. France and Britain respected Switzerland’s wish to appear completely neutral in international relations until the eve of the war, and when the Swiss Confederation adapted to the new international situation from the summer of 1940, the British rulers tended to welcome the preservation of Swiss democracy in the midst of an authoritarian Europe. It should not be forgotten, however, that in between these two moments, relations went through a period of tension during the Phoney War, as the Allies tried to use economic ties with Switzerland to bring the Confederation closer to them. By providing a nuanced analysis of the often-paradoxical interaction between economic and diplomatic relations, the article contributes to a new understanding of Swiss neutrality at the beginning of the Second World War and the way it was appreciated by the foreign powers.

Historian Ilya Evgenyevich Zelenin as shown through his scientific library

The article analyses the scientific biography of Ilya Evgenyevich Zelenin – an outstanding agrarian historian, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, leading researcher of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The main source used are copies of books presented to Zelenin, devoted to the agrarian and political history of Russia in the twentieth century. On their basis, a conclusion is made about the key elements of the historian's research credo, namely: painstakingness in working out the historiography of the issue, a wide archival search, accuracy of scientific terminology and understanding of the formality of ideological stamps. There are two stages in the author's scientific work, connected with the study of the history of state farm construction in the USSR and the history of agrarian policy of I. V. Stalin and N. S. Khrushchev, in each of which the historian achieved serious successes.

Dreams of mass repatriation: government and far-right expansions of deportability in Sweden

ABSTRACT Far-right parties present increased deportations and repatriations of ‘racial aliens’ as a central policy goal. The mainstreaming of the far-right contributes to making such ideas enter mainstream politics and become legitimized. This article investigates what expansions of deportability can be discerned in relation to membership categories viewed as secure – notably, permanent residency and citizenship – in government policy and far-right policy proposals in Sweden. Based on an analysis of Swedish government policy documents from 1885 to 2022 and far-right party programs and policy proposals from 1989 to 2022, the article shows how government and far-right ideas have converged in recent years in part through the rekindling of historical policy. The article concludes that the mainstreaming of the far-right has contributed to a shift towards a conception of citizenship that aims to render a significant part of the Swedish population deportable.

Looking to the past: Investigating 10-year place histories as a determinant of home food environments in the Healthy Communities Study

Emerging research suggests there is a need to consider the importance of place histories in studying neighborhood effects. Guided by a life course of place framework, the objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between two place history exposures and three contemporary home food environment outcomes. Exposures included 10-year neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) histories and multi-year nutrition community programming and policy (CPP) histories. Outcomes included the availability of healthy foods in the home, the availability of unhealthy foods in the home, and household food insecurity. Associations are investigated using cross-sectional and retrospective data on 4210 US families in the national, observational Healthy Communities Study (2013–2015). Multilevel regression models, adjusted for household income and other factors, were fit for each exposure and outcome. Households residing in neighborhoods with intermittently low, consistently moderate, intermittently high, and consistently high SES histories had greater availability of healthy foods in the home than households in neighborhoods with consistently low SES histories (adjusted βs: 0.11 [95% CI: 0.02, 0.20], 0.13 [95% CI: 0.06, 0.21], 0.23 [95% CI: 0.13, 0.34], and 0.24 [95% CI: 0.15, 0.33], respectively). Households in consistently high SES neighborhoods also had a lower likelihood of household food insecurity than those in consistently low SES neighborhoods (adjusted OR: 0.54 [95% CI: 0.42, 0.71]). Neighborhood SES histories were not significantly associated with the availability of unhealthy foods in the home. Nutrition CPP histories were not significantly associated with food insecurity or the availability of unhealthy foods in the home. However, more intense nutrition CPP histories were significantly associated with greater availability of healthy foods in the home. Moreover, effect estimates increased with more long-term historical accounts of CPPs (adjusted βs: 1-year CPP histories, 0.21 [95% CI: 0.03, 0.39]; 3-year CPP histories, 0.22 [95% CI: 0.03, 0.41]; 6-year CPP histories, 0.25 [95% CI: 0.04, 0.46]; 10-year CPP histories, 0.28 [95% CI: 0.05, 0.50]). To curb food insecurity and promote the availability of healthy foods, the findings suggest considering how neighborhoods develop and evolve over time with respect to SES and nutrition CPP implementation.

Racism and Redlining in the History of Psychiatric Policy and Practice in Atlanta: Implications for Nursing.

Recently, the Georgia state House of Representatives passed House Bill 1013, also called The Mental Health Parity Act. The bill sought to address access to and insurance coverage for mental health services, first identified in a report in 2020. The budget for mental health services was reduced by $8 m in 2020, despite an all-time high demand due to the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. There is an increasing inability to secure mental health care in the state. Georgia is ranked 37th in the country for access to quality mental health care (Reinert, Fritze, and Nguyen, 2022) and half the counties in the state have no psychiatrist; the projected mental health workforce will be able to meet only 12% of consumer demand by 2025. Problems with mental health care in Georgia have a long history which intersects with the history of racism, geographical segregation, and policing. HB1013 does not consider any of this history in its recommendations, which barely include nursing. At the same time, policy and practice in Georgia continues to entangle nurses and other professionals with a carceral and punitive system which not only threatens the safety of patients, but also nurses themselves. Nurses need to understand this history if they hope to develop policy that will intervene in the mental health care crisis.

Writing the history of cultural heritage policies since Rwandan independence

Writing the history of cultural heritage policies since Rwandan independence

Oscillating US Department of Defense policies and medical record documentation of gender dysphoria in service members: an observational time-series analysis

BackgroundUnited States military policies regarding service by transgender service members have shifted several times within the past decade. The relationships between policy changes and electronic health record documentation of gender dysphoria, a current and historic policy requisite for gender affirming care receipt, in active duty service members remain unknown.MethodsBayesian estimator of abrupt change, seasonality, and trend models identified changepoints in the proportion of service members who had new and then historical medical record documentation consistent with gender dysphoria from January 2015 to August 2022. Changepoints were evaluated as they related to salient military policy-related events.ResultsApproximately 3,853 active duty and activated National Guard or Reserve service members received a documented diagnosis corresponding to gender dysphoria from January 2015 to August 2022. Four significant changepoints were identified across both time series. Salient historical events that occurred during the changepoint periods were identified for contextualization.ConclusionsClinical documentation of gender dysphoria oscillated with changes to policies and public statements by government leaders, which may in turn, impact military recruitment and retention. This study highlights the need for equitable policies that optimize the strength of a diverse military force. Equity-oriented monitoring is needed to continually examine the impact of military service policies on readiness and retention to support actionable, data-driven improvements to policies and their implementation.

History Politics in Kosovo: Elites’ Memory and Victims’ Counter-Memory in Public Spaces of the De Facto State (Contradictions of Collective Memory and Memorial Culture)

The article examines the development of collective historical memory in Kosovo, a region with contested international political status. The study aims to analyze the memorial policies pursued by Kosovo’s regional political elites, which contribute to the consolidation of the region’s political identity. Additionally, the role and significance of history and perceptions of the past in the discourse shaped by the elites of modern Pristina are explored. Methodologically, the article draws on the interdisciplinary contributions of historiography, particularly the memorial turn, as well as studies that analyze nationalism as a factor in the evolution and transformation of memorial cultures. The novelty of the study lies in its examination of the current stage of historical policy development in Kosovo, a region that is striving for institutionalization and recognition as a nationstate. The article demonstrates that: 1) Kosovo's political elites actively leverage both the real and symbolic potential of collective memory, 2) the region’s historical policy and memorial culture are marked by a high degree of ideologization, and 3) nationalism plays a pivotal role in shaping the main vectors and trajectories of historical policy and memorial culture. The study suggests that the memory policies enacted by the elites tend to blend ethnic and civic Albanian nationalism, characterized by a high level of politicization and ideologization of history. This active use and instrumentalization of historical narratives in public and social spaces transforms collective memory into a tool for memorial confrontation and memory wars.

Adoption of Life Cycle Thinking: Impact-driven comparative assessment of Japanese construction corporations’ trends in practices

Although life cycle thinking offers a well-founded set of concepts, methods, and tools for organizational contexts, only little is known about its relevance in the construction sector. In this sector, construction corporations are key players. In this work, a novel impact-driven method to assess the adoption of life cycle thinking by construction corporations is introduced. Japan, as a high-income country with a relatively long history of environmental policies informed by material flow analysis, is chosen as the context. Five Japanese construction corporations and respective reporting are used as case studies. Trends in environmental impacts over time of the case study corporations are assessed using two indicators: resource and carbon productivity. In comparison, an automated text corpus analysis workflow is presented to explore the corporate report’s life cycle thinking-related content in a meaningful way. Comparing the period of 2014–2018 and 2019–2023, an overall relative increase in framework adoptions (77%) and their integration in corporate categories (85%) in corporate reports indicates its increased procedural relevance among Japanese construction contractors. Findings show how the carbon indicator is embedded in various frameworks and, for instance, reveal an increased relevance of Scope 3 emissions as a framework on a low level. However, Scope 3 is also utilized as a performance indicator. To this end, considerable temporal differences in adoption practices are observed. Finally, a potentially effective corporate adoption model is identified through the comparative research design. The proposed method can be applied to other construction corporations and regional contexts.