Shift In Public Policy Research Articles

Review: Deliberative Environmental Politics: Democracy and Ecological Rationality by Walter F. Baber and Robert V. Bartlett

Review: Deliberative Environmental Politics: Democracy and Ecological Rationality By Walter F. Baber and Robert V. Bartlett Reviewed by Govind Gopakumar Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, USA Walter F.Baberand Robert V. Bartlett. Deliberative Environmental Politics - Democracy & Ecological Rationality. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 2005, 276 pp. ISBN: 0-262-52444-9. US $ 24.00 paperback, alkali paper. Deliberative democracy has with unusual alacrity become a popular shibboleth within such diverse fields as science and technology assessment, international development practice and, crucially, global environmental protection efforts. Multilateral aid donors, national governments, and public agencies who frame public policies in science, technology and the environment, have all sought to incorporate deliberation within their programs with the hope that it translates into better democratic implementation than characterized by business as usual liberal democracy. This frame shift in public policies, according to the authors, is matched within the theory of democracy ..... [by] a strong deliberative turn in recent decades (p. 6). This book successfully brings a strong analytical focus to bear on the potential of deliberative democratic instances to foster the development of an ecological reasoning. The authors categorize the disparate participants within this theoretical dance into at least three significant models - one anchored in the theory of justice of John Rawls; a second derived from the critical theory of Jurgen Habermas; and a third advanced by Bohman, Gutmann and Thompson ... that embraces and seeks to realize the traditional tenets of liberal constitutionalism (p. 6-7). The book is divided into two sections, each of which maps the threefold classification of deliberative democracy the authors have assumed. The first section, composed of chapters 3-6, launches an intense theoretical inquiry by subjecting each typology of deliberative environmental democracy to a menu of analytical queries: what are the prerequisites? What counts as success in deliberation? What is the style of reasoning for public deliberation? What are the roles of experts? (p 33). The second section, consisting

Surviving at the Margins? Deindustrialisation, the Creative Industries, and Upgrading in London's Garment Sector

In this paper we examine trajectories of change in London's garment industry set within the contexts of deindustrialisation, increasing competitive pressures, and discursive shifts in public policy towards the ‘creative industries’. We emphasise the diversity of firm-level strategies that have been implemented to cope with increasing competitive pressures, liberalisation, and outsourcing in the industry. We identify a dominant trajectory of factory closure, job loss, and deindustrialisation as firms are unable to compete on the basis of the kinds of contracting requirements of buyers and retailers in a high-cost location such as London. We also identify a range of strategies that firms continuing to operate in London have adopted, including the development of new functions in the supply chain, repositioning in relation to specific market niches, coordinating the relocation of production offshore, upgrading towards more design-intensive, small-batch production, and spreading risk across a range of activities. While some of these strategies connect to wider public policy discourses concerning the creative industries in London, they also suggest the need for a broader framing of firm-level trajectories set within the context of the power of major buyers and retailers. Consequently, in the paper we raise concerns over the extent to which creative industries can contribute to enhancing social inclusion and economic development.

Harnessing the hidden enterprise culture of advanced economies

PurposeIn the majority (third) world, informal employment has been long viewed as an asset to be harnessed rather than a hindrance to development. The purpose of this paper is to show how a similar perspective is starting to be embraced in advanced economies and investigates the implications for public policy of this re‐reading.Design/methodology/approachDocuments the shifts in how informal employment in western economies is conceptualised in both the academic literature and public policy.FindingsThis paper reveals that the representation of informal employment as an exploitative, low‐paid sweatshop realm is being replaced with a depiction of such work as a hidden enterprise culture that needs to be harnessed. Evaluating how this might be achieved, the need for a shift in public policy away from a deterrence approach and towards an approach that combines deterrents with enabling initiatives to pull this hidden enterprise culture into the formal economy is identified. Specific enabling measures to achieve this in the context of advanced economies are then discussed.Practical implicationsThis paper displays how western governments can harness the hidden enterprise culture by setting out specific initiatives to enable its transfer into the formal economy.Originality/valueThis paper provides one of the first attempts to re‐read informal employment as a hidden enterprise culture and to evaluate its implications for public policy.

A Typology of Socio-Economic Advantage and Disadvantage in Australia's Large Non-Metropolitan Cities, Towns and Regions

Australia's large regional cities and towns display a wide variation in their adjustment to the socio-economic transitions that have occurred over the past decade. In terms of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage, these changes, often associated with globalisation, wider economic and technological restructuring, the changing demographics of the population and shifts in public policy, are not evenly dispersed across non-metropolitan regions. Such outcomes have been discussed across a variety of academic disciplines using a variety of data and methods, and the research undertaken has provided a useful grounding for contemporary studies both theoretically and methodologically. Analysis of new data provides an opportunity to extend and update our understanding. This paper presents an analysis of secondary data aimed at analysing non-metropolitan cities, towns and regions based on differential levels of socio-economic performance. Using an alternative clustering method, this paper groups non-metropolitan cities, towns and regions according to the degree to which they share similar socio-economic and demographic outcomes. These clusters form the basis of a typology representing the range of socio-economic and demographic outcomes at the non-metropolitan level.

An Idea Whose Time Keeps Coming

IN 1976 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) turned its sights on Canada's education system. The short version of their long report on our national education policies was that we didn't have any. (1) While even then provinces, school boards, and multiple education organizations were drowning in policies that addressed every imaginable education-related topic, the OECD correctly noted void at the national level. Among the OECD's member states, Canada stood alone. Every other nation, including those which, like Canada, are structured as federations, had devised vehicle for articulating, debating, and adopting national policies and for coordinating educational research and its exchange. Under Canada's Constitution, responsibility for education, with the exception of schooling for Aboriginal students living on reserves, is the exclusive purview of the provinces and territories. This 1867 division of powers had more to do with religion and language than with education and statecraft. Francophone, Catholic Quebec and Anglophone, Protestant Ontario (and, to lesser extent, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) vigorously sought complete jurisdiction over educational matters as condition of entry into confederation. The churches and their officials controlled education systems in the 19th century. Protecting religious control over schools overshadowed any drawback that might be associated with leaving the national government without voice on education. It is unlikely that the Fathers of Confederation gave much thought to what today might be called this unanticipated consequence of the British North America Act. After all, at that time education was the smallest expenditure line within provincial budgets. (2) When basic literacy, numeracy, and religious instruction dominated educational objectives, matters such as shaping and sequencing curriculum or certifying teachers were largely irrelevant. The 1976 OECD report implied that however logical--or politically expedient --the education deal was in 1867, Canada risked compromising its future by failing to harmonize its educational efforts. The report preceded the now-ubiquitous language of vision, productivity, globalization, strategic advantage, knowledge economy, lifelong learning, etc., but it nonetheless got its point across. The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) seemed bit miffed that its leadership role apparently had not impressed the OECD inspectorate. Since 1967 CMEC and its small secretariat had provided quasi-national home for education discussions and initiatives that were national in scope. However, critics argued that club of education ministers was no substitute for the transparency that ought to accompany policy discussions at the national level. While individual ministers might be held accountable in their own jurisdictions, there was no collective political accountability because there was no constituency to hold CMEC to account. The OECD's report fueled this criticism, and the movement to devise legitimate role in education policy for the federal government began to gather steam. Participants attending 1981 symposium held at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University enthusiastically predicted a significant public policy shift. . . . [The] forces compelling Canadian governments to forego the facade of unaccountable interprovincial 'cooperation' via the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) [are] now poised to cause structural and political change. (3) This turned out to be partly true, and quite problematic. The federal government, led by Conservative Brian Mulroney, would soon take more active role in education, although not in the way that the Vancouver conference attendees anticipated. No national office of education would be created, no ministry or department of education established, no explicit national policies put forward, no research agenda funded, no legislation introduced or debated. …

Typologies of Advantage and Disadvantage: Socio‐economic Outcomes in Australian Metropolitan Cities

AbstractAustralia's metropolitan cities have undergone significant social, economic and demographic change over the past several decades. In terms of socio‐economic advantage and disadvantage these changes, which are often associated with globalisation, wider economic and technological restructuring, the changing demographics of the population and shifts in public policy are not evenly dispersed across cities, but represent a range of often contrasting outcomes. The current paper develops a typology of socio‐economic advantage and disadvantage for locations across Australian metropolitan cities. More specifically, the paper takes a range of Australian Bureau of Statistics data and uses a model‐based approach with clustering of data represented by a parameterised Gaussian mixture model and discriminant analysis utilised to consider the differences between the clusters. These clusters form the basis of a typology representing the range of socio‐economic and demographic outcomes at the local community level.

Blood Lead Screening

To evaluate local procedures for and barriers to testing Medicaid patients for lead toxicity, a retrospective review of 675 charts of Medicaid patients' age 12 to 36 months form the 7 practices who serve the vast majority of Medicaid children in Kalamazoo, Michigan was undertaken. We identified and tested a model for barriers to patients and physicians obtaining blood lead levels. Only 27.6% had blood lead levels substantially lower than the universal testing mandated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Physicians overestimated the number of children having blood lead tests, even with adjusting for patient non-compliance. Practices varied sharply in their approach to screening. Of 489 patients without findable lead test results, 139 (28.4%) were attributable to previous screening, 98 (20.0%) to patient failure, 181 (37.0%) to physician failure, 52 (10.6%) to patient + physician failure and 19 (3.9%) were indeterminate. There is need for improvement, standardization and unification of lead screening guidelines. Understanding barriers to blood lead testing is also necessary to develop credible data to promote shifts in public policy regarding lead abatement. Further studies should be done, such as interviews and questionnaires to determine why physicians fail to order blood lead tests, and patients fail to appear for a test that has been ordered.

The patterns and determinants of longevity in Russia's regions: Evidence from panel data

In this paper we examine whether regions of Russia have been converging or diverging in their longevity levels during the 1990s and evaluate the divergence effect of the 1998 financial crisis. We also estimate the impact of changes in poverty and public health spending on inter-temporal variations in longevity using regional-level panel data for 77 Russian regions from 1994 to 2000. Finally, we investigate the extent to which the gradual recovery in longevity observed after 1994 was derailed by the 1998 financial crisis and the public policy shifts required for regions to regain their Soviet-era levels of longevity. We find a significant negative effect of the 1998 crisis on longevity independently of the factors related directly to poverty and public health spending. In addition, a permanent negative shock to the incidence of poverty and the amount of publicly-provided health care in a region has enduring consequences on the population's health. Finally, the effect of increases in public health spending on longevity is related positively to the incidence of poverty. Journal of Comparative Economics 33 (4) (2005) 788–813.

Bringing Bourdieu to policy sociology: codification, misrecognition and exchange value in the UK context

The task of social scientists is to find ways of investigating and understanding the social, political and economic world, in order to offer insights into everyday and public life in the past, present and future. Bourdieu’s tool kit offers a particular way of theorizing the rules, narratives and self‐held truths of social phenomena and of educational policy as a specific object of analysis. In this article I develop a series of propositions about the ways in which field theory might be applied to explain the abrupt public policy shift effected by the Thatcher government and the adjustments made to it by the Blair government. I suggest that a Bourdieuian approach shows policy working as a means of codification, as a doxa of misrecognition and as currency exchange within and across fields. I conclude with some thoughts about the difficulties of explicating interactions between fields.

The Cross-Cutting Review of the Voluntary Sector: Where Next for Local Government–Voluntary Sector Relationships?

Osborne S. P. and McLaughlin K. (2004) The cross-cutting review of the voluntary sector: where next for local government–voluntary sector relationships?, Reg. Studies 38, 573–582. This paper evaluates the impact of the recent ‘cross-cutting review of the voluntary sector’ by HM Treasury in the UK upon that sector and places it within the context of evolving relationships between government and voluntary and community organizations (VCOs) over the past 30 years. It argues that this review represents a shift away from the recent policy paradigm of community governance, and the co-governance of local services, and back towards one of co-production, with the role of VCOs being that of service agents. It discusses the import of this paradigmatic shift in public policy upon the CVO sector. It argues that this new paradigm is predicated upon an attempt to modernize the CVO sector and to develop neo-corporatist relationships by it with government that threatens both the distinctive competencies of the sector and its distinctive contribution to local public services.

The changing determinants of inter‐racial home ownership disparities: New York City in the 1990s

The 1990s witnessed significant changes in home ownership policy that were designed to reduce disparities in home ownership rates between whites and non‐whites. The study finds evidence that the policies were, indeed, effective in reducing home ownership disparities between whites and non‐whites. In this study data from the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey (NYCHVS) are used to examine ethnic/racial home ownership rate disparities. Decompositions are performed to determine the component of home ownership rate differentials due to ethnic/racial group characteristics versus ability to translate those characteristics into home ownership. Presumably, a shift in public policy to be more ethnically and racially inclusive should reflect a change in home ownership rate disparities and, more particularly, a change in the component of those disparities attributed to differential ability to translate group characteristics into home ownership rates. Hence, this study addresses the success of recent policies to foster the opportunity of achieving the ‘American dream’ for non‐white families.

Gay Marriage

This theoretical discussion centers on the evolving nature of marriage and its underlying function over the course of human history. The author pulls from the constructs of Evolutionary Psychology, Sociobiology, genetics and General Systems Theory to formulate some hypotheses about the changing configuration of the American family. The discussion also identifies various factors which have contributed to the rather rapid shift in social attitudes and public policy about gay marriage in the past decade.

Uncle Sam and US: Globalization, Neoconservatism, and the Canadian State

UNCLE SAM AND US Globalization, Neoconservatism, and Canadian State Stephen Clarkson Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. viii, 534pp, $75.00 cloth (ISBN 0-8020-3758-5), $37.50 paper (ISBN 0-8020-8539-3)For over 35 years, Stephen Clarkson has been one of Canada's leading scholars and thinkers in field of Canadian foreign policy. As an ardent liberal and nationalist, his writings have always been original and critical, and often iconoclastic. For all this time his thinking has been strongly supportive of building an authentic Canadian culture and national identity, and of preserving and where possible enhancing national economic welfare and foreign policy autonomy. His longstanding skepticism about Chicago-school economics and its subversive role in fostering of anti-nationalism as core operating doctrine of Canadian political elite has evolved over years into a full-blown rejection of neoconservative policy package that came to dominate international political economy in post-Cold War era. Uncle Sam and Us is product of his systematic and quite profound reflections on damage done to Canadian state and Canadian national dream by forces of neoconservative globalist doctrine.Clarkson begins his analysis with confident assertion that Canada and Canadian state will survive indefinitely because American conservatives would never condone or endorse annexation of Canada's left-leaning population (11). The only real issue, then, is what structural form and range of capabilities Canadian future will take. But within a year of his book's publication, voices were being raised on behalf of political union with United States as a desirable goal for all English-speaking Canadians (Mark Lovewell and Anthony Westell, Union-but what kind? Globe and Mail, 14 October 2003). Clarkson's optimism about American right saving Canadians from themselves seems excessive. The history of economic and political accommodation of, and concessions to, American economic and geostrategic imperatives by successive Canadian elites since 1930s does not bode well for long-term survival of Canadian national experiment.The core of book reviews massive shift in public policies that have resulted from abandonment of principles of Keynesian state under Fordist economics in favour of core policies of neoconservative globalist paradigm. It is very much a must read for both students of political economy and Canadian foreign policy. Canadian accession to both CUFTA and NAFTA set stage for systemic retrenchment in economy by both federal and provincial governments. Clarkson examines two decades of policy reforms in banking, monetary policy, tax policy, and deregulation of financial services and telecommunications. He persuasively suggests that it was both neoconservative policy at work as well as rapid technological change and popular Canadian pressures for competitively priced products and most up-to-date services, as well as popular neglect of any serious attention to the national interest, that led to a tidal wave of deregulatery change (183). Neoconservative and neoliberal orthodoxies certainly played a dominant role in process, but so too did popular ignorance, apathy, venality, and narrow-mindedness. …

Articulating Race—Asian American Neoconservative Renditions of Equality An Analysis of the Brian Ho Lawsuit

The Brian Ho, Patrick Wong, & Hilary Chen v. San Francisco Unified School District case was waged by a group of Chinese Americans that effectively ended race-based school integration in the San Francisco Unified School District (Ho v. SFUSD). The Chinese American plaintiffs were not only suing the San Francisco public school district but also contested the legal decision awarded to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was the NAACP's original suit that resulted in the desegregation policy established in 1983, known as the San Francisco Unified School District's Consent Decree. The plaintiffs specifically targeted the differential entrance requirements to Lowell High School, the premier academic secondary school in the district, for different racial and ethnic groups. The aftermath of the Ho lawsuit resulted in the end of racial considerations in the school district-thus, providing evidence of political and public policy shifts away from an overt focus on race in educa...

A Shock to the System? The Impact of HRM on Academic IR in Australia in Comparison with USA and UK, 1980-95

Taking a theme of the transmission of ideas within disciplines, this paper investigates the impact of academic human resource management on academic industrial relations, comparing the impact in Australia between 1980 and 1995 with the earlier responses in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is shown that while HRM had a significant effect on academic industrial relations, the extent of that impact is not wholly clear because other events, such as public policy shifts and the changing role of universities, also affected academic industrial relations.

An empirical analysis of imprisoning drug offenders

The number of prisoners incarcerated on drug-related offenses rose 15-fold between 1980 and 2000. This paper provides the first systematic empirical analysis of the implications of that dramatic shift in public policy. We estimate that cocaine prices are 5–15% higher today as a consequence of increases in drug punishment since 1985, presumably leading to reduced drug consumption. Incarcerating drug offenders is found to be almost as effective in reducing violent and property crime as locking up other types of offenders. Thus, although we demonstrate that the increase in drug prisoners led to reductions in expected time served for other crimes (especially for less serious offenses), the overall impact of increased drug incarceration has likely been a small (1–3%) reduction in violent and property crime. Back-of-the envelope estimates suggest that it is unlikely that the dramatic increase in drug imprisonment was cost-effective.

Diversity in graduate nursing education: an experience in collaboration.

The recent shift in public policy away from the use of affirmative action programs in the admissions process of institutes of higher learning has motivated colleges and universities to explore alternative means for achieving their goal to increase the diversity of their student bodies. The imperative to promote diversity is particularly relevant in nursing education because there is an emphasis on preparing students to enter a profession that is committed to providing health care to all regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic background. In 1997, the nursing programs at 2 Florida schools-Bethune-Cookman College (B-CC), a historic African-American college, and the University of Florida (UF), a land-grant university-initiated a collaborative relationship with the goals of improving access to graduate education for B-CC graduates and increasing the diversity of the graduate student body at UF. A central component of the collaboration is the Gator-Cats Mentoring Program in which students are recruited through career counseling and financial planning, mentored through the application process and the program, and offered continuing support in the skills required in graduate studies. This collaboration can serve as a model for other institutions seeking effective ways of increasing the diversity of their student populations.

The Governance of Museums: a Study of Admission Charges Policy in the UK

In December 2001, the ‘New Labour’ Government completed an incremental policy shift across the devolved polity of the UK that saw a significant increase in public investment committed to national museums and galleries in return for the provision of free access to their general collections. In response to this financial incentive, the vast majority of national museums and galleries that levied charges for general admission acted to remove these charges. The removal of general admission charges had been an important Labour Party policy commitment in Opposition, and senior Labour politicians pointed to the 2001 removal of charges as a major achievement in relation to the Labour Government's public policy agenda. This article examines the Labour Government's 2001 policy drive toward the removal of general admission charges at the national museums and galleries, and reports on research conducted during 2002 into the early implementation of this public policy shift.

Children in Clinical Research: A Conflict of Moral Values

This paper examines the culture, the dynamics and the financial underpinnings that determine how medical research is being conducted on children in the United States. Children have increasingly become the subject of experiments that offer them no potential direct benefit but expose them to risks of harm and pain. A wide range of such experiments will be examined, including a lethal heartburn drug test, the experimental insertion of a pacemaker, an invasive insulin infusion experiment, and a fenfluramine "violence prediction" experiment. Emphasis, however, is given to psychoactive drug tests because of the inherent ethical and diagnostic problems involved in the absence of any objective, verifiable diagnostic tool. Effort is made to provide readers comprehensive reference sources to evidence-based reports about the serious risks these drugs pose for adults and children so that the reader may judge whether the benefits (if any) outweigh the risks for children. The first ethical issue raised by these experiments is: did the severity of illness in these children justify their exposure to short and long-term risks? The ethics of the experiments will be evaluated by referring to existing codes of medical research ethics-the Nuremberg Code, the Declaration of Helsinki, and the federal Code of Regulations. The thirteen cases presented will demonstrate that children are being used in ever more speculative experiments, often in the absence of a therapeutic intent, but a significant chance for causing harm and / or discomfort. Some of the experiments were designed to explore the mechanisms of pathology and pharmacological interventions, or the response of neurological brain receptors to chemical provocation ("challenge"). Others were designed to test the safety or efficacy of new drugs, even to test these drugs on healthy children who were hypothesized to be "at risk." Children and adolescents have been subjected to "forced dose titration" experiments that induced a spectrum of severe adverse effects, including insomnia, extreme restlessness, agitation, (akathisia) and self-injurious behavior. FDA reports show that suicide is a significant issue in psychotropic drug trials-in pediatric trials the problem is even greater. The paper aims to demonstrate how the enactment of the Better Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (incorporated into the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act, FDAMA), set in motion a radical shift in public policy by providing huge financial incentives to pharmaceutical companies to test new or patented drugs in children. Federal policy shifted from one aimed at protecting children by setting limits on permissible research risks, to a policy aimed at broadening the inclusion of children as test subjects. It will be shown how the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services lifted regulatory restrictions to permit research involving greater than minimal risk to be conducted on healthy children, claiming that all children are potentially "at risk" of a future condition. Children were in this way deprived of regulatory protections. An argument will be made that the approval of nontherapeutic, harmful experiments-such as exposure of toddlers to lead poison-under the current gate keeping system raises serious doubts about the sustainability of institutional review boards (IRBs) as protectors of human research subjects. Children, who are precluded from exercising the adult human's right to informed consent, are being exploited as commodities for commercial ends. It is the position of the author that nothing less than the enactment of a federal law mandating a radical overhaul of the current research review system, with independent checks and balances, will provide children the legal protections they need. Ten specific recommendations are offered to protect children from harmful experiments.

The `Neo-Bureaucratic' State: Professionals, Managers and Professional Managers in Schools, General Practices and Social Work

The major shifts in public policy during the past two decades have led to equally momentous changes in policy provision and its supporting structures. This has been characterized as `post-bureaucracy' or `beyond bureaucracy'. This article argues that while new governance forms have emerged, they do not fit the post-bureaucratic model in that while they may have reduced hierarchy, paradoxically, the changes have increased bureaucratic tendencies. The new governance structures also have implications for public-sector workers, and specifically for managers and professionals. The article explores the impact of the new governance of these groups of public-sector professionals, teachers, and social workers and doctors (general practitioners).